Falling For You - January Cove Book 3 (3 page)

"She's inside stirring the pot of chili I made," Adele said.

"Chili for Thanksgiving?" Jackson said with a laugh.

"No, silly, I'm freezing it for after Thanksgiving," Adele said. "It's turkey and all the fixings for Thanksgiving."

Aaron and Kyle grabbed Jackson's bags and headed inside while Adele took her time strolling with her oldest son. He felt guilty that she was so excited to see him. It meant that he'd failed her by not coming home more often. She was getting older, and he didn't want to have regrets about not seeing her enough.

"So, where's Addison?" Jackson asked as they made it inside. He immediately took in the sights and sounds of home. He could smell his mother's famous peach cobbler mixed with her even more famous stuffing.

Adele shook her head and sighed. "She and Jim are on a trip to Greece right now. You know that girl never stays home. I miss her so..."

"I'll have a talk with her," Jackson said under his breath. His duties as head of the family always stuck with him even though he lived hours away.

"No, honey, don't. I have a feeling something isn't right with her and Jim right now. No need to rock the boat. She'll come home when she feels the time is right. I talked to her just this morning, and she texts me all the time, but I sure would like to put my arms around all of my babies for Thanksgiving."

"You must be Jackson." He turned to see a new face standing in the living room. "I'm Tessa Reeves," she said with a smile. "And this is my son, Tyler." The adorable little boy grinned and ran into Aaron's arms. It was so strange to see his youngest brother, the boy he'd helped raise himself, holding a child that was basically his own now.

"Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Jackson said with a wink toward his little brother. "Glad you've decided to put up with this guy." He squeezed Aaron's shoulder.

"Oh, he's not so bad," she said, almost gushing with love. Jackson wondered for a moment what that might feel like to have a woman, a real woman, love him for who he was.

The next few hours were filled with laughter as everyone talked about what had been going on in their lives recently. For Jackson, it was bittersweet. He loved the interaction with his family and the women who were now going to become family, but he wished that he had something new about his life to share.

All of his stories were work related, and he was tired of that being the only topic of conversation he could contribute. He heard about Aaron learning to be a father to Tyler and Kyle, taking Kaitlyn on her first fishing trip. All of these were memories that should be his as the oldest child in the family, but he had nothing to say.

It wasn't their fault, of course.  He was so happy for all of them, but he wanted something more for himself. Maybe he had been shortsighted by spending all this time at work. In essence, he was putting his head in the sand. Now in his late thirties, he feared that the woman of his dreams had already found someone else. If he believed in the idea of soul mates, maybe his soul mate had already moved on because he had taken so long to come to his senses.

"So are you still dating that hot Italian model?" his brother Brad asked him. Brad had arrived late to the party, but that was customary for his younger brother. He was never on time for anything which was probably why he was a contractor. Weren't they always behind on something?

"No, that ended recently. I couldn't stand her whining anymore." Jackson was aware that the room got quieter as the women glared at him. "Seriously, ladies, she whined about something all the time. She was a model, and not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer." Finally, the women started to laugh and he felt redeemed.

"Still, I wish you would settle down with someone. I worry about you being all alone up there in Atlanta," Adele said. He could tell that she was worried about him, and that was why he loved his mother so much. She truly cared about the happiness of all of her children.

"I'm fine, mother. I'm busy with my work most of the time anyway, so I don't really have a lot of time for a serious relationship right now." Jackson patted his mother's leg, but he knew she could see right through him. Yes, he was busy with work but only by choice. He had a staff of people who could do a lot of what he did every day, but it was his outlet. His escape from a life that he didn't think he would be living at this stage.

At this time of his life, he expected to be where a lot of his friends were; married, kids, family vacations, and tossing the football in the front yard with their sons. Instead, he was up to his elbows in real estate contracts most of the time with the occasional date with a woman of no real substance.

The crazy thing was that he knew a lot of men would be happy with his life. He had a great company, plenty of money and good looks. He could get women any time he wanted, but that wasn't enough for him anymore. Coming home had only driven that point even harder into his brain. He wanted to be in love like his brothers were, and the fact made him irritated with himself. He wished that he could just block it all out and not care about falling in love with some woman who was going to likely tear his world apart.

Rebecca Evans opened her coffee shop the morning before Thanksgiving just like any other day. A lot of businesses in town had already closed for the holiday, but she couldn't afford to do that. Every penny counted when it came to raising her son and keeping them afloat in their tiny apartment above the coffee shop.

She was surprised when the doorbell dinged letting her know that her first customer of the day had arrived. It was her new friend, Kyle Parker, and she was happy to see him. He had given her hope that maybe living in January Cove would be the thing that turned her and her son's lives around.

"Good morning, Rebecca!" he said.

"Good morning. I'm surprised to see you here on the day before Thanksgiving. It seems like January Cove is a ghost town today," she said walking up to the cash register.

"Yeah, people tend to close down early during the week of Thanksgiving. That's why I was glad to see you open because I definitely need a cup of coffee this morning."

"Late night last night?" she asked cocking an eyebrow upward.

"Yes, but not for the reasons you think. My girlfriend and I were at my mother's house with most of my siblings, and we tend to stay up until the wee hours of the morning laughing and talking." Rebecca felt sad inside for a moment that she didn't have a family like that to lean on. All she had was her son and her elderly aunt Mary who lived up north.

"That sounds like a lot of fun. I don't have any siblings or any family really, so I can't imagine what that must be like. How many brothers and sisters do you have?"

"One sister and three brothers. It can get pretty rowdy pretty fast," he said with a laugh. "My sister wasn't there, but my girlfriend and my brother's girlfriend were there, so that more than made up for it."

"So what can I get for you? Black coffee?" He nodded and she started making moves to get his beverage. Kyle stared at her for moment, and she turned around to find him looking at her intently. "What?" she asked with a slight smile on her face.

"What are you and your son doing for Thanksgiving?"

"Well, we are going to make some sandwiches and maybe sit on the beach." She tried not to make eye contact with him because she didn't want anyone taking pity on her and her son.

"Oh no you're not."

"Excuse me?" she said as she rang in his drink order and took his money.

"The Parker family is not about to allow our newest January Cove resident and her son to miss out on a huge family Thanksgiving."

"Listen, Kyle, I appreciate it but
…
"

"I won't take no for an answer. Just ask my girlfriend. I always end up getting what I want, so it's better that you don't argue with me. Besides, my mother always makes way more food than she needs to. It's like she's feeding an army."

"I don't want to impose
…
"

Kyle leaned into the counter and stared into her eyes. "Rebecca, this is your new start. You're going to need support in this community, so please accept my invitation. Lunch is at noon tomorrow. Here's the address," he said writing it down on a Jolt napkin.

"Thank you. We will gladly accept your invitation." She smiled at him and put the address in the pocket of her apron. "Is there anything I can bring?"

"Nope. Everything is taken care of. Consider it a nice vacation from working for a day."

With that, Kyle waved and headed back out onto the sidewalk leaving Rebecca standing there wondering how her son would react to going to Thanksgiving dinner with a huge family he'd never met before. She could only pray that he behaved himself and didn't make her look like the world's worst mother.

***

While the women were busy preparing the rest of Thanksgiving dinner for the next day, Jackson decided to take a walk around his old stomping grounds. He'd already been to the pier, but then he remembered that there was that new coffee shop in town. If there was one thing Jackson loved, it was a good cup of coffee.

He figured the place would probably be closed as it was the day before Thanksgiving, but he decided to give it a try. Maybe they had sandwiches or something he could eat for lunch as he was starting to get very hungry. He would have gone back home to eat, but the women had made it very clear to stay out of the kitchen or risk death by spatula.

Kyle had taken Kaitlyn out to fly her kite, and although he invited Jackson to come along, he just didn't feel like it today. He wanted to be alone and with his thoughts, which was probably a big mistake in the first place. Aaron was at the campground finishing up some last minute business before heading back over to their mother's house for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Of course, Jenna and Tessa were busy helping his mother get the food prepared. And who knew what Brad was up to.

Left on his own, Jackson strolled up Main Street looking in the windows of all of the businesses he had seen since he was a child. The hardware store was still there and looked much like it did thirty years ago. The ice cream shop had changed names, but it didn't look any different inside. They still had a real soda fountain which was something you just didn't see anymore.

The ringing of his cell phone stopped him in his tracks as he strolled down memory lane, literally.

"Hello?"

"Jackson?"

"This is he. Who am I speaking with?"

"This is John Marshall. I'm the attorney in charge of the shopping center development over on Riverside."

"Oh, yes. How can I help you Mr. Marshall? I would think that you wouldn't be working as it's the day before Thanksgiving."

"Well, sometimes business matters take precedence, as I'm sure you know. I'm just calling to let you know that this deal is falling apart. Some of the permits aren't in order, and we're having zoning issues."

Jackson took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair, a sign of stress in the Parker family. "What? I thought everything was in order when I left town. I spoke to Susan, and she said that we were all clear on the zoning issues."

"Well, Susan isn't an attorney, now is she? She was wrong. We have some outstanding zoning issues, the appraisal still hasn't been completed, and we are having all kinds of issues with neighbors complaining to the City Council."

"So what do you want me to do?" Jackson asked exasperated.

"There's nothing we can do during the holiday, but come Monday morning we either need to tie up these issues or the client is planning on walking away. I just wanted to let you know so that you could be mulling over any ideas."

Jackson hung up from his call with stress seeping from his pores. He felt like the wind had been sucked out of him because the Riverside deal was huge. The commission alone on the deal would carry him for months, if not pay for a full year of living expenses. He was counting on that, and the stress was getting to him. It wasn't like he didn't have other deals in the works that would support him, but he didn't want to lose the biggest one.