The Truth About Fairy Tales (19 page)

             
I managed to nod and then I was in his arms and he was holding me so tight that I couldn’t believe I was foolish enough to think he’d ever wanted me to go.

             
“Oh, thank God, Maggie. Thank God. Because as much as I might have wanted to be supportive of all your dreams, I wasn’t going to let you leave me. I couldn’t do that. I would have locked you away if I had to.”

             
I laughed at just how wonderful his words sounded to me.

             
“I have to call Lee and tell him the bad news.”

             
“Something tells me, he’s not going to be one bit surprised by the news.”

             
“I have to see if I can re-lease my apartment.” I went on ticking off all the little things I was only too happy to have to deal with.

             
“I was hoping that you’d come stay with me instead?” he asked me so sweetly, with so much uncertainty, that I could almost imagine he was afraid to hear my answer.

             
“You want me to rent a room from you?”

             
Again he laughed. I loved the sound of it. “Well not exactly, love. I want you to come live with me. I want you to come share my home…my bed. I don’t want you to rent anything from me.”

             
He held me close and I was so happy. More than I’d ever believed possible in such a long time. “I’ll have to find a job soon. I don’t plan to live off you. I want to contribute as well. I want to pay my own way.”

             
“Maggie, I own the house. I don’t want your money.”

             
“I’m not doing this unless you agree to let me help.”

             
He held up his hands, giving in. I think he would have agreed to just about any demand I might have tossed out that night. “All right, we’ll work out a compromise somehow. Just as long as you don’t leave. We’ll figure the rest of it out, Maggie. It’s just details.”

             
“I know, but are you sure this is what you want, Jackson? I mean…” I couldn’t finish those words because he was kissing me and showing me in all the ways that I needed to know just how much he wanted me to stay.

             
“Why don’t we take your things over to the house tonight before you have a chance to change your mind?”

             
I was only too willing to move in with Jackson that very night.

             
After all of my little possessions, including Sidney, were safely in place Jackson handed me his phone, told me to call my grandmother and Lee and left me alone in his living room to do so.

             
Much to the old Maggie’s surprise, neither of them was in any way shocked to hear this news from me. They’d all but settled that matter between themselves a long time ago.

             
“Now you two are still coming home for Christmas, aren’t you?”

             
I smiled at how my grandmother knew me better than I wanted to admit. She knew I was in love even if I couldn’t say the words out loud to the man that I loved.

             
“Yes, I promise we’ll be there. But tomorrow I’m going to start looking for a job.”

             
“You always were a stubborn little thing, Maggie. You do what you feel you have to do, honey, but don’t ignore that man of yours. You tell him how you feel, Maggie. That’s important.”

             
“I can’t. At least not yet.”

             
“Don’t wait too long, baby. I think he needs to hear it from you.”

             
For a long time after I’d said goodbye to my grandmother, I couldn’t bring myself to face Jackson again. My grandmother’s words had shocked me and left me feeling a little off balance. Did Jackson really need to hear that I loved him? I’d never believed someone as sophisticated and worldly as Jackson could need anything from anyone, especially from me, but now I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t the only one who had changed since our meeting. Jackson had changed as well. Hadn’t we both become a little softer, or was that just what the new Maggie wanted to believe. If it was so, did that mean Jackson was capable of caring more about me than I believed?

             
“Is everything okay?” Jackson asked from where he stood in the doorway watching me. I knew he was there; I’d seen his reflection in the windows I was staring out. But I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know if everything was okay.

I nodded when he came a little closer to me, but not all the way. I think he wasn’t sure of me anymore.

              “You’re not regretting your decision to stay here with me are you?”

             
How could I possibly answer that? I’d never once doubted that decision. I’d wanted to be with him even before he’d even asked me to move in with him, but I just wasn’t sure I was strong enough to see this relationship through to the end—whatever that may be.

             
Again, that little uncertain shake of my head and he took another step closer to me.

             
“You know, I think this room needs a tree, don’t you? There’s this place off 620 that sells Christmas trees and they happen to stay open all night.”

             
Jackson stood close behind me watching my expression in the window. He knew the second I let go of all my lingering doubts.

             
I turned to smile at him, even though I was trying hard not to show the softer Maggie again tonight. I’d cried too much in front of this guy today.

             
Another nod, another step and then I was in his arms. Decision final, fate set. Future uncertain.

             
“Well, maybe we can wait to get the tree until tomorrow…” he whispered against my lips before he carried me up to our bedroom in my favorite caveman fashion.

             
That night I just had to ask him the one question that had been bugging me since he’d found me.

             
“How did you know where to look for me?” I moved out of his arms looking up at him lying there next to me in bed.

             
“I told you, your grandma told me.”

             
“No, no I don’t mean that, I mean how did you know
exactly
where to find me. I never told Gran about that place, or anyone else for that matter.”

             
I saw that smile of his. The one that always drove me crazy. “She didn’t know exactly where it would be, but she told me that you’d definitely have one in Austin. Your grandmother told me you’d been doing that little disappearing act of yours since you were a child. Sarah told me about your little spot back home. She said you always seem to gravitate toward the rooftop. She said you’d told her once that it reminded you of a lighthouse. It wasn’t too hard to figure out from there.”

             
I don’t remember telling Gran that, but I’m sure that after one of those nightmares that woke me as a child and still haunted me at twenty-five I’d been vulnerable enough to reveal much more than I normally would. And then of course, she’d found me in my hiding place back home enough times.

             
But I could never bring myself to share with Gran how that little bizarre habit of mine had gotten started on any of those times. I think somehow she’d guessed the truth. It was easy to figure out, really. I’d found that first hiding place on top of my mother’s tiny apartment in a rundown section of Houston.

             
My mother had always promised that one day she would take me to Galveston, which was only a short distance from Houston, to see the ocean. That had never happened, but I’d dreamed about the ocean since seeing pictures of it. It had become my anchor when my life threatened to spin out of control. The thought of seeing the ocean for real had kept me going through all the times when Rachel would come so close to losing her life. Always, even after we’d been kicked out of so many places and were on the streets I’d gone to that hiding spot. My mother never knew about it. But my grandmother had.

             
And me being the frightened little girl I’d been had thought I’d kept that little bit of myself a secret. I’d been wrong. I wondered what else my grandmother knew about me that I hadn’t guessed.

             
“So you like the ocean?” The man that now knew me quite possibly better than my grandmother asked me in that tentative voice he’d adopted with me as of late.

             
“I don’t know. I’ve never been to the ocean. But I’ve read about it and dreamed about it so yes, I definitely like the ocean.” I could see my answer surprised him. Poor guy—I couldn’t tell him that until Paris, I hadn’t been any further from Santa Anna, Texas and my small town roots than Austin…and of course Houston.

             
“You’re kidding, right?” When I shook my head he said, “Okay, we’ll just have to fix that, won’t we? After the holidays we’re going to the beach.” He kissed me on my nose and I went easily into his open arms.

             
“I can’t do that because I’ll be working, hopefully, by then. I have to find a job.”

             
“Maggie, I know you’re anxious to find a job and I know how much you need to feel that you’re pulling your own weight, but will you please do me a favor and wait until after the first of the year to start the job search. Just listen for a second,” he told me when I threatened to pull out of his arms and argue that I couldn’t do that.

             
“You’ve spent the past six or more years in school, not to mention working like crazy. Take the holidays and just relax. You can start seriously looking after the first of the year. It’s only a few weeks. Besides you know this town is pretty much dead at this time of year. And I just happen to know someone has a birthday coming up in January.”

             
Okay, that surprised me. I’d never told him when my birthday was so someone had been talking. It took me a few minutes to figure it out. Gran. I’d have to have a serious talk with her.

             
“Just how much have you and my grandmother been talking?” I heard his laugh at the less than pleased sound in my own voice.

             
“Oh, quite a lot, little bit. You see you don’t exactly come with an instruction manual and you’re definitely not like any other woman I’ve ever met so I’ve had no idea how to handle you.”

             
That should have infuriated me. The old Maggie would have been furious, but this newer more improved version was finding all of his caring attention overwhelming, not to mention I was eating it up.

             
“I see. What else has she told you about me?”

             
“Uh-uh…I’m not going to tell you that, because then all my secrets would be out. Nope, you’ll just have to wonder. I will tell you we’ve become pretty good friends over the past few months. I like your grandmother and Lee, too, for that matter, an awful lot.”

             
That pleased me to no end. To cover my happiness I asked the one question I’d sworn I would never ask Jackson. The one that I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know the answer to. I asked him how many other women there had been before me.

             
“I’ll tell you that when you tell me how many other men.” He knew he had me. I think Jackson would have been only too happy to tell me everything, but I was not. I think he knew that by my revealing that to him I’d be giving up truths that I didn’t want Jackson to ever know. There was no way I was falling into that trap. He could keep his number a secret.

             
“Well, considering how old you are I’m sure there have been plenty,” I said, only half kidding. I still didn’t know his exact age. Oh, not that he was keeping it a secret from me. It’s just that I’d never been able to bring myself to ask him personal questions. I knew he’d tell me. Jackson didn’t believe in secrets. He didn’t want to keep any part of himself from me. But I was going to have to work hard to get comfortable with sharing things with him.

             
Secretly, I think I was glad I didn’t have to hear how many other women he’d been with. As long as they were out of sight and just a vague image, they didn’t seem real to me. I didn’t want to know who my competition might be.

             
“Well, now you’re just being mean. For your information, little bit, I’m only thirty-eight. Not exactly old and certainly not decrepit.”

             
I wondered as I drifted off to sleep, happy to be in his arms, if he’d ever let me forget those words.

Chapter Eleven

              The following morning Jackson and I slept in before we went Christmas tree shopping.

             
Jackson told me as we worked together putting ornaments on what had to be the biggest tree I’d ever seen, that normally he had someone decorate his house for him each year. I stopped what I was doing and stared at him as if he’d just said something terrible.