“Jax?”
“Yes, she’s a horticulturist. She moved here a few weeks ago.”
I frowned. “Does she work on the farm?”
My mother laughed. “Oh no. She works for the state, and she’s doing some work over at the state park and around the area. Something about a beetle and the trees and some flowers being impacted by it.”
“A beetle? How weird.”
She simply went, “Mmmhmm.”
“And her name is Jax?”
“Short for Jacqueline.”
“Oh, cute.”
Looking nervous for some reason, my mother nodded. “Yep, cute. Come on in, let’s get you settled. I made up your bed with fresh linens.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
She waved her hand as if to dismiss me. “I did. I don’t even remember the last time you slept in that bed. At least ten or eleven months ago.”
“You didn’t, um, tell anyone I was coming home, did you?”
“No, of course not. You asked us not to, so we’ve kept it on the down low.”
Laughing, I asked, “On the down low?”
“Jax has a little girl, Ashley. She’s ten. She says that all the time.”
I walked into the house and took in a deep breath. Home.
God, I loved how it smelled in my folks’ house. It was like a fresh bouquet of spring flowers. The smell hit you instantly. I glanced around the living room and smiled when I saw flowers in a vase. My mother always had fresh flowers somewhere in the house. It was something I’d picked up from her. “Is her husband with her as well?”
My mother turned and looked at me. “Husband?”
“This Jax woman. You said she had a little girl. Is her husband staying here while she’s working in the area?”
“No, she lost her husband a few years back in an accident. He was a firefighter. I think a building fell on him or something horrible like that.”
I brought my hand up to my mouth. “That’s terrible. Poor thing.”
With a nod, my mother said, “Yes. But she’s done an amazing job with her daughter.”
She started toward the kitchen and called back, “I made your favorite potato soup! It’s going to snow tonight, so I knew you’d want it!”
And just like that, I felt a sense of warmth surround me.
I was back in Boggy Creek.
Finally, I was home.
Bishop
I walked into The Coffee Pot and smiled when I saw her. I headed toward the booth and stopped. I pulled out the small bouquet of flowers I had behind my back and held them in front of me.
Her little, round blue eyes looked up at me and widened. A smile grew across her face and Ashley shrieked in delight. “Mommy, it’s Bishop!”
Jax pulled Ashley back down into the booth and covered her mouth with her hand while she laughed. “Goodness, Ashley, alert the whole town, will you?”
I winked at Ashley, then slid into the booth across from Jax and her daughter. “These are for you,” I said and handed the flowers to Ashley.
“I love them!” Ashley exclaimed, burying her face in the small bouquet I had picked up at Schmick’s Market.
Never in my wildest imagination did I think I’d date a woman with a kid. Not in a million years. But when Jax showed up nearly a month ago at my door and asked if she could walk around the tree farm, I was interested. We hit it off immediately, and she even laughed at my sad attempts at flirting.
The second time she showed up, I decided it was time to move on from my past. As hard as it was to admit that things were over with me and Abby, I knew I needed to. I had thought about calling her right after I came back from Boston. Even had her name pulled up on my phone…but then I stopped myself. A part of me was afraid a guy would answer, or that Abby would be upset that I’d ignored her all those times she’d tried to call or text.
I was positive she had moved on, and it was time I did the same.
So, I’d taken a deep breath and asked Jax out. She’d informed me right away that she was a single mom with a ten-year-old daughter. Apparently, that was something she always did right off the bat. She’d learned it was easier to have a guy make up his mind about dating her sooner rather than later after he found out she had a kid.
Strangely enough, it didn’t scare me off. If anything, Jax appealed to me even more now. We had gone out on three dates so far, all dinner dates and all with Ashley.
Tonight was going to be our first night out alone. I wasn’t going to lie; part of me wanted to have Ashley come along. Why, I wasn’t sure, and I really didn’t want to think too hard on it.
“Are you excited about your date with Mommy tonight? She said you were going to dinner, then watching a movie,” Ashley said.