Smooth Irish (Book 2 of the Weldon Series) (30 page)

She laughed harder, gasping as she spoke. "It's one
of my plants…it has gray mold…I had to amputate five of its leaves
this afternoon."

Jackson's jaw went slack. "A freaking plant! You had
me wondering all afternoon about a plant?" There's a price to pay
for that." He started tickling her until the tickling turned
sensual. Then he kissed her, tenderly, loving her more with every
passing moment. "Seriously." He caught her gaze with his, rubbing
his hand over her stomach. "Everything is okay? You went to see a
doctor, right?"

"Yeah. I'm going to have to make an appointment with
Dr. Schwartz ASAP, though. I'm a little anemic and I'm going to
have to pay special attention to my diet."

Jackson frowned. "You haven't had dinner yet have
you?"

"No, but I'm not--"

"Up and at 'em," he said smacking her bottom.

"Jeez." Nan rolled over. "Where are we going?"

"Out for liver and onions."

"YUCK."
"You're going to love them. I promise."
"You're promising a lot these days."

"That I am." He leaned over and kissed her. "I most
certainly am."

* * *

Nan’s alarm clock rang at five in the morning and
she rolled over with a groan. God help her but she didn’t know what
day it was and whether or not she had to work.

“Morning, Sugar.” Jackson rolled over and snuggled
up to her back. His morning erection pressed enticingly against her
bottom.

“What day is it?” Her voice was still scratchy, and
she felt as if tears still clogged her throat. But his arms about
her were heaven.

He pressed himself against her and slid his hand to
cup her breast. “Thursday.”

“Jack, we can’t. I've got to go to work.” She
stilled his hand by placing hers over his. She had a heavy weight
in the center of her heart and she didn’t know how to make him
understand. "Last night. Everything. I can't seem to be able to
take it all in yet. My head is spinning, but then I was still
reeling from our weekend together, the hospital, and then you
saying everything was a mistake."

He sighed. “Look at me, sugar.”

Nan turned in his embrace so that she faced him.
Unshaven, with his hair ruffled by making love and his eyes made
bluer by an early morning haze, he looked rough and so damn sexy
she wanted to cry.

Staring deeply into her eyes, he spoke. “I told you
to leave, and you did. Only I couldn’t forget you. I kept wanting
to see your smile, kept aching to feel your touch, kept wanting to
love you one more time. I picked up the house plans weeks ago
because they reminded me of you. I didn’t know it, but it all meant
one thing. I love you, Nan. I didn’t think there was enough left
inside me to ever love, but I do. I want to marry you.” He slid the
heat of his hand to cover her stomach. “And I love this little one
growing inside you, too.”

Tears filled Nan’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
She loved him and her heart was breaking with both joy and pain. “I
love you too, Jack. I’ve missed you so much, ached for you, worried
about you. But you have to understand, I learned a long time ago
that not even loving is enough. You couldn’t answer me last night.
Have you forgiven yourself? Forgiven God? Are you free from the
past? Anger and guilt are deadly poisons to love. I can’t do what
my mother did. I just can’t.” Her tears turned to sobs.

He pulled her tighter in his arms, his muscles
trembling as he held her. She could feel the rapid beat of his
heart and the catch of deep emotion in his voice. “Nan, damn,
sugar. Don’t cry. It’s going to be okay. We’ll work it out. All I
can promise is a step at a time. A day at a time.”

She cried harder. “Don’t you see? That isn’t enough
for me. I can’t marry you until I know for sure. I have to know in
my heart that you’re free.” She buried her face against him,
hurting. She didn’t want to be this honest with him. She wanted to
take his love, marry him, and hope for a happily ever after, but
she couldn’t.

He cupped her head in his hands and turned her up to
his kisses. The tears in his eyes ripped the bottom out of her
world. “It’s okay. You don’t have to marry me now. Just let me love
you, sugar. Give us a little time. We both have to be at work this
morning. Let’s take a shower, go to work, and tonight we’ll sit
down and make out a plan. We’ll set some goals about our
relationship, about the baby, about what kind of life you want to
live and what kind of life I want to live. Doing that isn’t going
to fix everything, but I think it will make you feel better, be a
little more sure about what we’re doing. Won’t it?”

“Yes.” She sniffled, feeling like laughing and
crying. Had Jackson really just suggested that they set goals and
make a plan? Did he just say he had to be at work?

He exhaled and she could feel the relief escaping
him. “Good.” He rolled over, taking her with him so she ended on
top. “Now about the sex. We're going to conserve water and time.
Ever made love in the shower, Nan?" He played with her breasts as
he spoke. "I'll be behind you, inside you. The warm water will
spray your breasts, teasing them, and my finger will stroke your
little hot spot until you melt with pleasure and I explode in
you."

Jackson drove and Nan tried to collect herself. She
had no doubt that as soon as she walked into work everybody would
take one look at her and know what she'd been doing that morning.
For the first time in her employment history, Nan was going to be
late for work. Well, she might be right on time, but late for her.
She'd always arrived ten to fifteen minutes early.

She glanced at her watch then at Jackson and had to
smile. He wasn't the same man she'd left in Salty's Bar on New
Year's Eve. Then she wasn't the same woman either.

He reached over and turned the radio up. "Did you
hear that?"

She blinked. She'd been back in the shower. She had
a feeling they were going to be taking many showers. When Jackson
discovered her showerhead was moveable…hell, she shivered again
just remembering how he'd made her come.

"Nan?"

She shook her head. "What?"

"Did you hear the radio announcement?"

"No. What was it?"

"They're predicting storms today. Heavy
thunderstorms."

Nan glanced out at the sky. Now that Jackson called
her attention to it, the air felt hot and thick, as if a weight
pressed upon them from the heavens and compressed everything around
them. "It's unusually hot for this time of year."

"I don't like it." Jackson studied the horizon.
"There's a greenish cast to the sky."

"But not a cloud around. Don't worry. We survived
the gale the night of the banquet. It can't be any worse. Before
you found me, I thought I was a goner on my way to Oz."

Jackson laughed. "I enjoyed whatever ill wind blew
your skirt up and planted you face down on my truck."

She leaned over and smacked his arm. "I'm trying to
thank you for saving me and all you can think about is sex."

He pulled up in front of the hospital and stopped
the truck. "Nope sugar, it's not just sex. But keep that in mind if
you're thinking about thanking me for something."

"I'll keep it in mind."

"And while you're at it, think about letting me read
that little black book under your pillow. I want to make all of
your fantasies come true."

Nan just smiled. She had a few things she was going
to add to her book before she let him read it. She opened her door
to get out.

"Nan." Jackson leaned over and kissed her. "I meant
what I said. I'll be right by your side. Take all the time you
need."

She hugged him and got out. Maybe things were going
to be all right. Still as she walked to the hospital entrance and
glanced up again at the oddly green-gray sky, she felt a heaviness
in her heart. How many times had she heard her mother hope that
maybe this time things were going to be okay and they never
were?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Jackson slid the steel bar into position and drilled
a hole through it. Then he popped the screw gun into place and
anchored the bar. Everything that had happened between him and Nan
over the past twenty-four hours chased around in his mind. He had a
chance, a chance to change his life and he couldn't mess it up.

He might make other mistakes in life, but he
wouldn't make the same ones. Nan and the baby would come first, no
matter what. With her at the center of his life, he couldn't lose.
And their child, he added. He still felt shocked, but a good
feeling.

The only dark cloud hanging was that he couldn’t
tell her he was free of the past, because he didn’t think he’d ever
really be free from it. A part of him would always wish he’d made
different decisions. And that same part of him would always feel
some responsibility in Amy’s death.

Only time and his future decisions would prove to
Nan that she could trust him. More and more his father's words gave
him a stronger foothold on life. Fixing things one day at a time.
He could handle that job.

“Hey, Weldon. You better come look at this.”

“What’s up, Bo?” Jackson walked out from the covered
area and immediately sensed the change in the air around him. Heavy
black clouds churned in an angry mass directly above and the green
edge to the sky had sharpened, deepened.

The air had heated, like a desert beneath a noon
sun, but instead of feeling dry, moisture hung like a thick and
ominous beast surrounding him. Even as he and Bo stood watching,
the wind whipped viciously toward them, picking up little pieces of
plastic and debris as it spun.

Luckily, most of the men had gone to lunch. He could
see one heavy equipment operator already securing the job site. A
quick glance showed him that the thirty-foot high scaffolds were
empty.

“Where’s Jared?” Jackson was sure that his brother
would want to give the order for the few men still around to secure
the job site.

“He and the foreman went back to the office to iron
out a problem with the electricians.”

“Tell whoever is left on site to double tie
everything they can and if it starts lightning to get to shelter in
the hospital.” Bo nodded and moved off to spread the word. In the
short time they’d spoken, the storm had doubled its intensity.

The fury unleashing from the sky seemed to come
straight from hell itself. Lightning fractured the heavens like a
broken strobe light, and golf-ball-sized hail thundered down.
Jackson slid beneath the open steel beams of the building’s
structure to protect himself as he struggled to dump cement bags on
a pile of loose boards that were beginning to dangerously blow.

A loud roar filled the air and Jackson looked up
with his heart in his throat. A wide black funnel cloud plundered
right toward the hospital and the construction site. He blinked,
swearing he saw cars, telephone poles, and rooftops spewing about
as the tornado whipped and twisted in an ugly dance of death. Nan
was inside! He had to warn the hospital!

Snatching up a board to shield himself from the
hail, he ran toward the nearest hospital door. He never made it.
The force of the wind picked him up and slung him through the air
as the tornado hit.

* * *

When the effects of her shower with Jackson wore
off, which turned out to be about lunch time, Nan ran down to the
pharmacy to fill the prescriptions the doctor had given her. Then,
she immediately went to the cafeteria, skipped over the salads and
sandwiches and went directly to the meat and vegetable selections.
It wasn’t gourmet fare, but the nutritional value more than made up
for the lack.

As she ate, she considered what her hesitations were
about a relationship with Jackson. Her problem centered on trust.
Trust that he wouldn’t desert her and their child when they needed
him most. But the more she thought, the harsher the light she saw
herself in.

How much reassurance did any person have what the
future brought? Or how any one person would deal with the problems
of life?

She swallowed the naked truth like a bitter pill. It
wasn’t Jackson who had a problem with commitment now. It was
herself. It wasn’t only his past harming their life at this point.
It was hers, too. Her own insecurities were demanding that Jackson
be flawless. He’d offered her his heart and she’d left it hanging
in the air, demanding more.

She had to see him. She had to
tell him that she’d marry him, now this minute, tomorrow,
whenever.
She loved him
and that love swelled inside her, filling her
needs.

Rushing from the cafeteria, she heard a thundering
roar. The windows along the hallway she was in shattered into tiny
pieces. Wind splattered chunks of ice through the openings. The
building around her groaned, and she saw it physically shake. The
lights went out and then the hospital’s emergency generator kicked
in. A hushed silence fell for a brief second before people started
to scream and run.

* * *

Jackson felt himself flying and spinning. Oddly, he
still held the board, and hurled end over end with it until he
slammed into a pile of sand. Dirt filled his mouth, his nose, stung
his eyes. And then suddenly, everything stopped.

The roar moved into the distance and a horrific
quiet settled like a silent dirge. Rubbing the sand from his face,
he struggled to his feet and opened his blurry eyes to utter
devastation. The new wing they were building had been leveled and
everything from the heavy equipment to the port-a-potties looked as
if they had been dumped in a blender and minced. He limped across
the field toward the hospital, aware that his leg and shoulder
throbbed, but were curiously numb, too. As he neared the hospital,
he saw the damage and staggered beneath the fear bulleting through
him. The roof was mangled on part of the building, the windows were
blown, and cars were piled up against the walls like debris caught
in a dam.