Last First Kiss (39 page)

Jackson clapped his hands loudly. “Okay! I’m ready to get out of this heat. How about ya’ll?”

A round of affirmatives answered.

“
Well, let’s score some points so we can go home,” he growled. “Just go out there and hit the crap out of the ball!”

It worked, because they nearly made it through two complete rounds of their batting line up. They were up by nine points, with two outs and the bases loaded, when a highly motivated Jackson hit a homerun, closing the game out with a satisfying, but draining 20 – 7 victory over the all star team.

He walked off the field and caught up with Carrie, who was talking to Sam at the faucet as he wiped his face with a wet handkerchief. “Hey, Giselle didn’t leave yet, did she?”

Carrie grinned at him. “I don’t think so. Wait, let me see that swing again,” she commented as he walked past her.

“
Your ass!” he threw over his shoulder.

“
No, I believe it was
your
ass this time!” she yelled back.

His stomach made an anxious flip when he saw Giselle standing at his truck as she waited for the girls to pick out drinks from the ice chests.

“
You did good Jackson!” Lexie told him, as she jumped from the bed of his truck into his arms.

He threw her up in the air, gave her a kiss then put her down. “Thanks, baby girl.”

Mackenzie ran up to him. “Great game, Jackson!”

“
Thanks Mac, that means a lot coming from you,” he said, pulling her close to kiss the top of her head. He grabbed a bottle of water from the ice chest in front of him, twisted the cap off and gulped half of it down. “Man, that’s good.” He pulled a bandana out of his pocket and wet it with some of the cold water, then wiped his own face with it. “Days like this make me miss wintertime.”

“
That was a good game. Congratulations,” Giselle said.

“
Thanks. How’s the headache? Are you feeling better?”

“
Some. It’s still there, but not as bad. Ready, girls?”

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Where are ya’ll headed?”

“
Actually, I’m about to bring the girls over to Bill’s to spend the night with Alyssa.”

“
Can you meet me at my house afterwards?” he asked her. “I’d like to talk to you about something.”

“
Yeah, I guess I could do that. I want to catch up a little with Gwen and Bill, but I’ll be there within the hour.”

“
Good, that’ll give me a chance to get cleaned up. Thanks,” he said, pulling his shirt away from his sweat drenched torso.

Red joined them, and Giselle stared at the two of them. “I see both your shirts have dried,” she grumbled.

“
Hey, sometimes you do what you have to do to stay cool,” Jackson said. Giselle’s casual comeback was like a needle jab.

“
Remind me to wear my swimsuit to this thing next year.”

Red sucked in his breath loudly. “Well, I’ve got a club to run, so I need to pack up. Giselle, it was good to see you again. Little ladies, it was lovely to meet you,” he said, as he kissed Mac and Lexie’s hands, making them giggle.

“
Good to see you Red,” Giselle said, as she hugged him.

Jackson watched her walk off with the two girls as he helped Red load everything back into his truck.

“
I think she may be pissed at you for the shirt incident,” Red told him with a grimace.

“
You took your shirt off too, but she doesn’t seem pissed at you,” Jackson said, defensively.

“
Could be because she’s not in love with me,” Red told him. He slammed his truck’s tailgate, and climbed inside the cab.

“
You think so?” Jackson asked.

“
Yep, and it couldn’t happen to two nicer people. Later, buddy.” Red threw his truck into drive and left.

Giselle pulled into Jackson’s driveway in just under an hour. She entered the door he held open for her, still feeling a little miffed, though she’d tried to tell herself she was being silly.

“
Did your headache go away?”

“
Yes, finally” she replied, tersely.

“
That’s good. Listen, Giselle—” he said, wagging his fingers back and forth between the two of them, “—this little arrangement of ours isn’t working for me.”

Her eyes widened as she tried to control the pounding of her heart.

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean I can’t be friends with you anymore,” he said.

Giselle felt an iciness creeping in around her heart. “If that’s how you feel, I guess you can’t help it,” she said, sounding calmer than she felt. She wanted to scream, to cry, and beg him to reconsider. Instead, she walked to the door and put her hand on the knob.

He placed his hand gently on her arm and turned her to face him. “I want to be with you, Giselle. I can’t be around you and pretend that I don’t.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I know what you’re afraid of, but I’m begging you to reconsider. I only want you. So, what do you think?”

“
Oh...” she said, her breath rushing out in relief. “I think maybe...We could try,” she stammered.

“
What does that mean?” he asked.

“
Look Jackson,” she said, pulling away to pace back and forth in front of him. “I spent all day at that park, first having to watch Lisa throw herself at you, and then later with all those women gawking and making comments.” She stopped to face him. “God, it made me crazy!” She picked up the pacing again. “I had to keep my jaw clenched to keep from saying anything.
That’s
how I got my headache. And
you
!” She turned and poked a finger in his solid chest. “You didn’t help matters
by
taking off your shirt like that. What were you thinking, Jackson?”

She shook her head at him, and continued her ranting. “Like things weren’t bad enough, once you put the wet shirt back on, there was steam coming off of your body. Honestly, it was like watching porn
!
It made me realize that I...I want you...All to myself,” she finished, standing before him.

Jackson had stood silently during her tirade. Now he stepped forward to place both hands on her shoulders, and lowered his head to look into her eyes. “Steam? Are you sure?”

She twisted her mouth in a crooked grin and nodded slowly. “God, it was awful! You should have heard them.” She put her forehead down on his chest, and he placed his hand on the back of her neck to pull her closer.

“
So, does this mean we’re a couple?” he asked.

She nodded and wrapped her arms around him. “If that tramp Lisa puts her hands on you again, you tell her you’re taken.”

He held her close and rocked her gently in his arms. “I’ll tell her I already have the most beautiful girl in the world, and she’s all I’ll ever need. I thought it would take forever for you to come to me like this.”

“
Jackson, I care about you so much. I just don’t know about anything else yet.”

“
I know, but we have time for all that...Nothing but time,” he said, before giving her one of those toe-curling kisses she liked so much.

CHAPTER 23

Two weeks later, Giselle dropped the girls off at school and drove to Toby’s office. She knocked on Grant’s door then walked in when his secretary said he was free.

“
It’s so good to see you!” Grant hugged her tightly.

“
You too. I’m sorry this took so long,” she said. “I brought two big boxes; do you think that’ll be enough?”

“
Probably—our boy didn’t keep anything unless it was important to him. If you find anything you’re willing to part with, do you think maybe I could have something of his?”

“
Sure. By the way, I brought these for you.”

He looked inside the bag she handed him, and grinned as he pulled out the caps. “Thanks Giselle; he did love those Tigers. I’ll cherish them.”

“
Don’t cherish them too much. He’d want you to wear them.” She walked into Toby’s office with the boxes and closed the door softly behind her. Giselle turned slowly to study the office her husband had spent so much time inside. She’d helped him to decorate his spacious home away from home. Every where she looked, she saw signs of Toby, her, and their girls. She allowed herself a few minutes to get misty-eyed, but then she got down to the business of packing his personal things. She began with the desk then worked her way around the room, as she methodically removed every trace of him from the walls, surfaces, and floors. The last set of plans she pulled from the rack turned out to be their proposed house plans. She unrolled them to study them. There were details in the floor plan that proved he listened to her; rooms labeled
Giselle’s craft/sewing room,
Giselle’s potting bench
, etc. She smiled when she saw the notations in her husband’s neat handwriting. Everything they had discussed was here.

“
You did good, baby,” she said, teary eyed. She rolled it up, placed it carefully back into the tube, and placed it in a box.
That’s it.

She loaded the two boxes into her truck and pulled out a picture she had taken of Toby and Grant together when they’d all gone fishing in the gulf last summer. It was in a beautiful mahogany frame with a fishing theme, and she thought it would be just the thing to leave with Grant. There was no one in his office, or at the secretaries’ desk, so she went in and sat down to wait for him. She heard both secretaries return to their desks on the other side of the partition. The door was open, but they were unaware that she was in Grant’s office.

“
Poor Giselle, do you think she knew?” she heard one ask.

“
There’s no way. What was her name, anyway?”

“
Chloe somebody, from Lake Coburn, I think.”

“
I remember him talking about a Chloe once. She was the crazy wife of a friend of his from the gym—a Broussard, maybe? Toby always called her ‘Crazy Chloe’.”

“
That’s it...Chloe Broussard! Her husband’s a big, tall, good looking man. Honestly, some women are never satisfied.”

“
Some men either. Look at how gorgeous Giselle is. She and Toby always seemed so close. Are you sure about the affair?”

“
I saw them together with my own eyes about a month before he died, she was wrapped around him like a stripe on a barber pole. She asked him why he hadn’t answered her email. A skinny little blonde thing...Model skinny...No curves, just all hard and angular. Giselle is much prettier. Toby must have gone temporarily insane is all I can see.”

One of their phones rang and they both left to bring something to the meeting in progress. Feeling suddenly weak and trembling, Giselle rose slowly from the chair. She stood for a few moments and tried to steady herself. As soon as she could manage it, she left the office, trying to avoid seeing anyone.

She climbed inside her truck and sat there, dazed and sick at heart. Toby and Chloe were having an affair? It couldn’t be! He wouldn’t do that to her, would he? She broke out into a cold sweat and fought back a wave of nausea as she lowered her head onto her steering wheel until it passed. As soon as she was able, she started her truck and drove sedately to the cemetery. Once there, she walked to his grave and fell on her knees in front of the new granite slab and headstone.

“
Oh God! How could you
do
that to me...To Jackson?” She cried bitter, devastated tears for about five minutes before she remembered the comment about the email. She had packed a small, leather bound pad that had his passwords to his email accounts. Desperate to find information to disprove the accusation, she sped home and dug the book out of the box. She sat down at the computer and logged on typing his password with trembling fingers, waiting impatiently for his personal browser page to come up. She hit the check mail button, and suddenly the mailbox opened up. Giselle scanned the email and finally found what she was looking for.
Chloe3856
– she took a deep breath, and began to read.

Hello Lover!

Why haven’t you emailed me? You know how I long to hear from you. Jackson still doesn’t suspect a thing. That fool is absolutely clueless when it comes to my little indiscretions.

It was such luck running into you at the hotel. It made for a hell of an afternoon. I can’t wait to do it again.