Texas Christmas Bride: The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs Book 6 (3 page)

Penelope was following in their footsteps, best he could tell.

He had a plan or two in mind, however. Not for him Ian’s patience, damn sure not Arnie Howard’s willingness to ask Ruby and be refused again and again…for eighteen long years.

He wanted his woman hogtied and bound before year’s end. If that made him a Neanderthal, well…

Shark Girl could just deal with it.

Jackson and Bridger glanced around the old building, one of the many vacant ones on the square. “I think it’s basically sound. A lot of elbow grease needed, but once it’s cleaned up, we can surely divide it into studio spaces, don’t you think?”

“Still a lot of work,” Bridger observed. “And you don’t even know if any of your employees will agree to relocate.”

“True. But I’d like to lure them here. If only there was a hotel or motel within fifty miles,” Jackson sighed. “Hmm…you suppose we could get this set up for some sort of dormitory living right off, then modify later?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Scarlett’s offered to cater a company event, but housing is an issue. If they stay in Austin or San Antonio, they’ll never get what’s great about Sweetgrass.”

“They probably won’t, anyway,” Bridger cautioned.

“That very well may be, but Austin’s full of game professionals I can hire, if not.” He smirked. “Won’t mind a bit taking some designers and programmers out of Dynamo or Magstar’s stables. I’ve already got my eye on a couple.”

“Sweetgrass isn’t Austin. What’s in it for them here? Not everyone will appreciate what we love about it. Especially not the young guys.”

“True. But much of the work can be done remotely, now that the cell tower is going up. I just—” Jackson exhaled. “I’d like to have some of them around. There’s something about the synergy that results when creative people get together. Things happen that you can’t plan for or predict. Humans are still hardwired to relate on levels no teleconference can replicate. We’re at our best when we can see minute changes in facial features.”

“Yeah. But you can get past that once you’re a solid team. We had to operate on hand signals in the SEAL Teams, and that was with lives on the line.”

Jackson studied him. “Ever think about teaching team building?”

“What? No. Me?”

“Penny’s not the only one I had designs on, you know. I’d hire you in a heartbeat.”

“I barely even play video games.”

“It’s your people skills I could use, Bridger. You’re a leader, but one who makes people want to follow, not a dictator. You have an air of command about you, but you’re not a hardass.”

“I can be.” Bridger scowled. “Anyway, I’m building a fire department right now. And playing medic every blasted time I turn around.”

“You’re a healer, through and through. A protector. People feel safe with you around.”

Bridger was shaking his head.

Jackson made the kind of snap decision that had made him wealthy. “Give me two weeks of your time, whenever you can spare it.”

“To do what? I don’t want to work for anybody. I’ve taken all the orders I plan to.”

Jackson snickered. “And you’re marrying my twin? Hello? Have you met Penny?”

Bridger grinned. “I have Shark Girl right where I want her.”

Jackson resisted rolling his eyes. Bridger was on his own there.

But he did think about the position he’d be putting Bridger in. Penny, as his second in command, would have authority over everyone but Jackson. Bridger was a strong personality, too, but that dynamic wasn’t what their relationship needed. “Let me hire you as a consultant.”

“I’m not traveling. I’ve done too much of that.”

“You don’t have to. I’ll bring the people here. You just spend time with all of us, and I want to hear your observations. A blank slate. A fresh set of eyes.”

“On what? I told you I don’t know much about games.”

Jackson snorted. “You know everything about gaming. You did strategic planning in life-or-death situations. You’ve lived the stakes that other people only try to emulate in cyberspace. I want that brain. I want your insights and reactions. Your strategic thinking plus your people skills…total win/win for me.”

“I don’t have that much spare time, not with building our house.”

“I’ll hire laborers for you.”

“Nope. Non-negotiable. I’m building our house with my own hands as much as possible. I know you’re crazy rich and you want the best for your sister, but…” Bridger’s jaw clenched. “My children are going to live under a roof I constructed. Sleep inside a place I made safe for them.”

He wasn’t going to win this one, Jackson could tell. He could buy a lot of things, but not this one. “Okay, how about this? I’ll trade you, labor for labor.”

“What kind of labor?”

“Your choice. For every hour you spend in my world, I’ll buckle on a tool belt and give you an hour on your house.”

“Maybe I’d rather have your money for the fire department. There’s next to no equipment.”

“I was already going to do that. I have my own family to keep safe, and whatever I can do to help you build up either healthcare or fire safety, it’s yours.”

“You really do have an obscene amount of money, don’t you?”

“I can’t think of a better use for it. I don’t need that much, now that I have Veronica and my children.” The twins, Abby and Beth, might not be his biological issue, but they were his, regardless, just as much as Ben, the son he’d only recently come to know, the child he and Veronica had created, unbeknownst to him, before he’d disappeared.

And missed so damn much.

Bridger studied him. “Well, it’s your money and your time, though I can’t see that you’re exactly spilling over with extra time.”

“I’d like to bring Ben with me to help, if I could,” Jackson made his own admission. “We’re okay in Veronica’s house for now, but I’d like to build us a new place once we’re a little more settled in. I’d want him to help, and he’s already a good hand. Hell, Bridger, the whole community would pitch in, you know they would. That’s how Sweetgrass rolls. You didn’t just find yourself a woman…you found a family. A whole town, related or not.”

Bridger shook his head in amazement. “I never thought it could happen for me, however much I wished it would.” Then he rescued them both from the uncomfortable level of emotion, wheeling to point to the far wall. “So I’m thinking we could make four studios up here, and if you wanted to drain that wallet a little more and buy the building next door, I’m pretty sure we could open that wall to connect them. Then you could have your headquarters downstairs, along with a commissary of sorts.”

“I don’t think Aunt Ruby would appreciate the competition.”

“But Ruby’s not open all night, and your geeks work all hours, right?”

“They do. Okay, I get your point. Maybe we could stock it with food from the diner, if they want the business. Scarlett’s talked about catering year-round, not just this one event.”

“Scarlett’s taken too much on those slender shoulders, don’t you think?”

“Ian sure does.” Jackson sighed. “I finally got them to let me invest in Ruby’s Dream and the events center, but I wish she’d let me hire her some help.”

“This town is just chock full of stubborn women.” Bridger grinned. “But I have to admit that any woman who can get Legs cooking while she’s conference-calling to China is a force to reckon with.”

They exchanged grins.

“I think I have enough to draw this up. Let’s go get our women.” He clapped Bridger on the shoulder, and they started down the old wooden stairs.

The second Jackson parked in the driveway, Abby burst out the door.

“Prince Daddy! I thought you’d never get home!” She raced toward his open arms and leaped in perfect trust.

He caught her, still amazed and grateful.

Home
. He had only existed for too long, however many residences he owned, whatever his personal fortune. Wherever Veronica was, wherever these children were, that was now home.

A more powerful word he could not imagine.

Abby pressed her small hands on either side of his face. “What took you so long? You were gone forever!”

He couldn’t help smiling. “I got back from Seattle last night, but your mom let me sleep in. I looked in on you, though. Gave you a prince kiss.”

The pint-sized blonde princess had declared that he, known by her initially as Prince because she said he resembled a fairytale one, was giving her a prince kiss when he touched his lips to her forehead. She insisted on one every night before she would go to sleep.

Along with a glass of water, another story, a trip to the bathroom where she could dawdle forever doing God knows, then a second straightening of sheets and blankets and a smoothing of her pillow.

“I didn’t feel it.”

“Must have been because you were dreaming of…?” He cocked an eyebrow and waited. Abby’s dreams were vivid and generally involved some sort of adventure. She loved detailing every second.

She screwed up her forehead. “I think…” Her brown eyes popped wide. “I know! It was about Santa! We went to Hogwarts and we had a comm—commooty Christmas with Dumbledore and Professor McGonagle and—”

“Commooty Christmas?” he asked as he carried her toward the side door.

“Uh-huh. For everybody in the whole town. And Grant and Lilah Rose and everybody!”

He stifled a laugh and started to ask more, but as he pulled the screen open, inside stood Beth, her more reserved twin. Jackson dropped to a crouch, still holding Abby. “Hey, pretty girl. How was your day?” He reached for Beth’s hand but as always, left the choice to her about how to respond. Beth took her time, thought about things where Abby flung herself headlong into any given situation.

Generally chattering a mile a minute.

Beth’s small hand slid into his, and her fingers curled around his far bigger ones.

Jackson’s heart tumbled at her feet.

“It was fine.”

“It was great, Prince Daddy!” Abby spoke over her. “Aaron Coleman threw up on the bus!”

Jackson grinned at Beth. “Did you think that was great?”

Beth’s eyes sparkled, and she shook her head. “It was yuck.”

“I didn’t mean the throw-up was great, but then everybody started squealing and trying to get out of their seats and the bus driver yelled that we had to sit down and then he had to—”

“Abby, take a breath, honey.” The love of his life appeared before him. “Hi, Jackson.”

He took the opportunity to scan Veronica’s slender frame from the beautiful legs he knew were hiding beneath those jeans, up over the trim waist and the sweet, soft breasts he would so like to—

“Stop that.” Her cheeks were pink as he rose to his full height, a foot above hers.

“Excuse me, girls, but I need to kiss your mama now.” He set Abby on her feet with a kiss to the cheek and stroked Beth’s hair before he reached for the woman he’d loved since he was sixteen.

The woman he’d left behind for more years than that. “Hey, gorgeous.” He reeled her in, loving the way she came to him so willingly at last.

Too much had come between them, not the least his own stupid choices. He’d never forgotten her, but he’d long ago given up on being the recipient of her love.

Then he’d seen her again and known that though everything had changed for both of them, including her marriage and widowhood and his rocky start and determined climb—

Nothing had changed, not about his feelings for her. He’d never loved another woman and never would.

“You’re my everything, you know that?” he murmured before taking her lips in a slow, delicious kiss.

She sighed and softened against him. “I might have heard something about that.”

“Run away with me to South America.” He pressed his lips to the spot just beneath her ear that never failed to make her shiver. “We’ll make love day and night.”

Her sigh was soft and sweet, her body warm and welcoming to his. “Too bad supper’s nearly ready.”

He chuckled and rested his head against hers, eyes closed. “You’re all I think about. You’re—”

“Get a room, you two,” snickered their sixteen-year-old Ben. “Sheesh. There are children present.”

Jackson groaned, squeezed her once more, then turned to face the son he hadn’t known existed until recently. Ben looked so much like him, it was like looking in a mirror at that age. His hair was Jackson’s black, though he had Veronica’s hazel eyes, and he possessed the same rangy build, the promise of reaching Jackson’s six foot five. Jackson had no idea how people in Sweetgrass hadn’t realized Ben was his son and not his buddy David’s, who had married Veronica and fathered the twins. “Deal-breaker, dude. I’m gonna kiss your mom every time she needs it.”