Love Me: The Complete Series (54 page)

“You two are engaged?” Abby said.

“We’re here to discuss a wedding, aren’t we?” The two broke their confrontational stance and Jackson shifted to look at the floor. “So, do you make a habit of sending hate flowers to ex-girlfriends, or pouring water on their boyfriends? Or did Carter just sweet talk you into it? Hmmm?”

“Of course not. He didn’t talk me into anything. It was my idea. I met him at a restaurant and we had too much to drink, then we started talking about all sorts of things and he told me about you and how you ditched him for another guy then we started—I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then I delivered the flowers and you started crying and saying what a great guy he was and you seemed like you
missed him
and I thought, wow, maybe she wants him back or regrets it. I didn’t know. So, I didn’t tell him what you said because—well—that’s
your story
and I don’t want anything to do with it. But he keeps texting and Jackson—i.e. me—keeps answering.”

Jackson popped his head up. “I’m not answering anything. I haven’t heard a word from him since they broke up. I was afraid to talk to him. I went by there and tried, but you doused me.”

Caroline and Samantha’s jaws dropped. Jackson knew the feeling. Abby kept going. “I had to shut you up. You were telling him about our relationship and I was afraid he’d find out—”

Amanda’s face went white and she spun around. Slamming a hand on her hip, she swung her head side to side. “Did she just say
our relationship?
As in you and her?” Her hair swayed as she pointed her perfectly manicured finger between Abby and Jackson.

Jackson raised both hands and stepped back. “I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about. She’s crazy, if you ask me. I’d never seen her before I stopped by Carter’s office.”

Abby stepped forward and punched a finger at him. “He thinks I’m you, dumbass.” She swung to Amanda and moved the finger her way. “He thinks I’m you, too.”

Caroline popped up onto the nearby counter and swung her legs as she grinned. “This is getting gooood.”

Abby growled. “You’re no help. You’re the one who started all this lunacy. Why don’t
you
tell them?”

Caroline grinned. “Oh, I think you’re doing great, partner. You’re on a roll. Don’t stop now. Just take a breath and keep going. Samantha, what do you think?”

Samantha sidled up to Jackson and hitched a thumb his way. “I’m with him on this. I think she’s crazy.”

“I’m
not
crazy. Gullible, maybe, but not crazy.”

Amanda sighed. “So Carter thinks you’re Jackson, or me, or—what was it you said?”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Check. Check. Check. You win the prize. He thought I was Jackson and he kept texting me. Only it wasn’t you—” Abby pointed to Jackson and he felt like crawling into a closet or under the flower pots. “It was me. Then Caroline grabbed the phone and answered for me. Thanks for that, by the way. Remind me not to ever call you when I
really
have a problem. Then he thought I was you, Jackson, and kept texting. I answered again because
she
had just dumped him and I felt bad for him.” Her accusatory finger moved to Amanda.

Abby stopped for air. “Can you believe that? He sees me running at the park for what, five minutes, and now they all want to talk about the status of my breasts
?”

Jackson shot Amanda a crazy-woman-talking glance. She returned an equally astonished expression. They were on the same page, thank God.

Caroline snickered. “Well, they are good ones—as far as breasts go. I mean, from what I can tell and all.”

“How juvenile. So, I just texted them back that they weren’t fake. Only technically, it wasn’t me texting
.
”

Jackson put two fingers in his mouth and whistled twice, then made the time out sign. “Whoa. You mean you’re the running chick from the park that he talked about?”

“Oh, great! So, I say fake boobs and running in the park and you automatically know who I am? What the hell else has he said? Yes! I’m running chick. So, I answered his text. Only it wasn’t me answering because he thought I was you, and when I told him they weren’t fake—well, he put two and two together and figured I’d slept with you.”

Amanda’s face shriveled up and she squealed. “
You slept with her
?” She threw her purse over her shoulder and marched toward the door.

Two steps away, Jackson grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “Hell, no! I didn’t sleep with her. I don’t even
know
her.”

Abby followed. “He’s right. He didn’t. Carter just thinks he did because your intended went down to his office and marched in and confessed.”

Both of them turned. “Confessed to what?”

“To being with me before Carter was, only—”

Amanda thundered, “
So you were with her
?”

“No!”

Abby continued, “Holy crap, you’re dense. Listen up, girl. He confessed—only it wasn’t me he was confessing about—it was
you.
Get it? When he said he’d met
her
before Carter, he was talking about you. Carter and I had been sort of seeing each other so Carter thought it was me—because of the texts. He hasn’t got a clue it was you, because I never had the heart to tell him. Apparently, neither has lover-boy here. When you cried over the flowers, I just—chickened out.”

Jackson cringed. She did
not
just call Amanda dense, did she? He could feel the steam coming off Amanda from two feet away.

The sound of Abby’s cell broke the seconds of silence that followed and he took the opportunity to yank Amanda’s hand. “Let’s get out of here before she does something else crazy like throw a potted plant our way or use those ribbon snips on us. Okay?”

Amanda blinked but let him lead her.

They were almost to the door and safety when Abby pointed at him. “
Stop
.” She held up a finger, daring them to step out. What would she do if they tried to go? He swallowed.

“Hi, Carter,” she said into the phone.
“Hang on a second.” Abby clamped a hand over the phone. She glared at Jackson. “You need to tell him
.
Straighten it out. It’s not my place to air your shit.”

What the hell is she talking about? Me? Amanda? My shit or—
ours
?

He heard Carter make a loud noise on the phone.

Abby spoke to the receiver. “Technically, it’s not Jackson’s.”

Abby held the phone Jackson’s way and wagged it. When Jackson didn’t move she shoved it against his breastplate.
Ow.
She gestured for him to speak. He hesitated, then lifted the phone.

“Hey, Carter. What’s up?”

A loud gasp burned Jackson’s ear. “You son of a bitch.” The phone went dead
.

Jackson’s stride was fast and long. Amanda clipped quickly in an attempt to keep pace. Her head was reeling. What the hell just happened? He whirled around and the dark cloud over his face was threatening. “If you ever decide to play charades again, don’t put me in the middle of it, you hear?”

What?
“Me? What in the world are you talking about? I had nothing to do with that crazy woman’s ranting. Besides
I’m
not the one who’s apparently boinking the dark damsel in dementia.”

Jackson rolled his eyes and returned to his race down the sidewalk. If she lost him, she also lost her ride and judging by his mood, he wouldn’t wait. Why was this
her
problem?

“Oh,
please
,” he said
.
“Stop acting like some jealous housewife. Your acting job was hysterical—maybe you should have majored in theatre instead of law. You’d have won a Grammy.”

“Tony. The Grammy award is for music.” Amanda tried to run a couple of steps as the stretch between them increased.

“Whatever. Look, I’ve wasted an entire day from work hanging out with you researching a girl named Caroline who we spoke to for less than twenty minutes. What we know about her is nothing more than when we walked in there.
But
—” He whirled and poked a finger in her face. “And this is a big but … you gave some random woman the third degree.”

“She wasn’t random, Jax.”

“Ah hah! You admit it, then. Of course she wasn’t random. Because she’s Carter’s girlfriend. The one he’s been seeing since
you
kicked him to the curb. What the hell were you trying to achieve by prancing me down there in front of her?”

Amanda stopped running. She stopped walking too because her bottom lip had hit the pavement. What was he talking about? “You think I did that because of Carter?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care.” Jackson kept walking and waved a hand in dismissal.

Amanda ran after Jackson, grabbed his arm, and yanked him to face her. “I do.”

“Then tell me what the
hell
all of that was about back there? Because if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I’d have thought you were—”

“Jealous. I was jealous.”

“That makes zero sense. You dumped him, remember?”

“
No.
Not about Carter, idiot. About you.”

Jackson unknitted his eyebrows for the first time since they’d left the shop. “Oh.”

“You seriously thought I was pretending?” Amanda had skills but controlling her temper wasn’t one of them. Her mother had always warned people growing up,
Amanda has a very long fuse but when she reaches the end of it, you’d better run. Something’s gonna blow.

Jackson shrugged. “I’ve never seen you act like that. You were—out of control.”

Yeah, she was.

She shrugged.
No way am I going to apologize either.
She blinked and focused on his eyes. After a couple of seconds, he cocked his head. Then laughed.

“I like it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, just do me a favor and warn me next time. I had no idea whether that was real or just part of the show for Caroline.” He stepped closer to her, clearly not upset anymore. “Listen, I have an idea. The sun will go down in a couple of hours, but want to go on a quick hike out to the property first?”

“What if we get stranded out there after dark? How will we get back?”

Jackson’s devilish grin implied he hoped that would happen. He shrugged and laced his fingers through hers. “I don’t know, leave some breadcrumbs?”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and draw the raccoons, coyotes, and whatever else is out there straight to us. No thanks.”

“Relax, I’ll take a lantern and a pellet gun.” Jackson pulled on her arms and she thudded against his chest.

Amanda tilted her head back to look into his eyes. He was serious. “You really want to do that?”

“Yeah, I do. Shouldn’t we see it from their perspective?”

“Would that happen to be a horizontal and naked one, because I’m warning you … I am soooo not the outdoorsy-in-the-woods type. The thought of limestone and clay dust on my silkies just sounds gross.”

Jackson darted a brow up. “Silkies?”

Amanda shoved him back. “Back up, hot stuff. Okay, I’ll go, but can we stop and get some bug spray and a blanket at my house?”

He grinned, a look that started to melt Amanda’s reserve. “Sure, and you can take off the power suit and stilettos and put on some shorts with hiking boots. In fact, why don’t I drop you off to change while I go get the gear?”

“You realize I don’t
own
hiking boots, don’t you?”

He laughed. “I would have been shocked if you did.”

Forty-five minutes later, Amanda peeked out the window at the sound of a car door. She hated that Jackson was punctual. It was one of her strong suits also but this time she needed him to be late. He wasn’t. She kicked the slip and heels into the closet, followed by the blue suit. That would have to go to the cleaners but she’d worry about that later. She pulled her hair back and knotted a band around it, then grabbed her sneakers and a beach bag she’d filled with essentials. She was at the door the second he tapped, and followed him to the car barefoot. She’d slip the socks and shoes on as they drove.

The shadows under the trees were long and dark. Amanda peered through as light filtered between the limbs, fighting for its last chance to glisten on the day. Had she really volunteered for this outing? “They don’t really have bears in those woods, do they? I heard once that someone saw a huge mountain lion close to here.”

Jackson shrugged. “Beats me. I’ve never seen any. Skunks, raccoons, and bobcats are all—”

“Bobcats? Seriously?”

“They stay far away from humans. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them. Raccoons, too.”

Amanda darted a glance up and down the road as they pulled over to park. “So that leaves skunks. Woohoo.” She lifted her palms above her head to do a raise-the-roof dance.

“I’d be more concerned about ticks myself.”

She rolled her eyes. “Thanks. Bloodsucking insects that bury their head in your skin. Even better.”

She stepped out of Jackson’s Jeep and was blasted with the scent of pine and earth. Okay,
that
part was nice. It was like a step into a candle or potpourri shop.

Jackson watched for a second, then grabbed the gear from his vehicle and tossed ropes and packs over his shoulder. “You’ll need to carry this, please.”

He held out a cardboard box. Amanda peeked over the edge. “What is it?”

A loaf of bread sat on top of some bags and foil packets. “Breadcrumbs in case we need them. No, just kidding. It’s dinner.”

Amanda took the box and dug around to see the contents, which were completely wrapped in foil. Bummer. How were they going to get that up the side of a rock wall? Surely he’d thought that through?

Jackson strode off toward the trees, burdened like a pack-horse. Amanda shuffled the box to her hip and followed. Dinner above the trees as the sun went down? It sounded almost—romantic. And scary, if she dwelled on the climb. Three steps into the trees, Jackson veered right.

“This is no time to explore, Jax.” Amanda stopped walking.

“I noticed this path from the ledge last time we were here. I think they intersect. This is the shortest of the two.”

“Oh, in that case …” Amanda stepped after him. She was all for the shortest walk. Jackson trudged quickly along and she worked to keep pace.