and her son flew in the day before last.”
“That so?” Garrett said as he peeled off his work gloves, shoving them into the back pocket of his jeans. “You never made any mention of it.”
“I couldn’t,” Jackson replied. “I gave my word to Justin to keep it to myself until Lainie could get out to visit with her parents. She came home sooner than expected and wanted to surprise them, which she did yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Tucker repeated. “So it’s no longer a secret that she’s home, yet you still kept it to yourself? You know Mom would want to know Lainie’s back. Especially now that it’s for good. They always get together when she comes home.”
Yes, they did find time to meet up when Lainie came home. His mother would always give them the rundown of what was new with Lainie after every visit, since Jackson and his brothers were usually out of town when she came to Bent Creek to see her family. It was him Lainie clearly didn’t want anything to do with, strategically planning her visits around his not being there. Her determination to avoid him because of the hurt he’d caused her was something he prayed he would be able to set to rights—even though he knew there was no chance of anything more than friendship between them. Not only because Lainie had moved on a long time ago, but because he was no longer the man she had been starry-eyed over. He was a has-been rodeo champ with a lame leg. But if she was going to be putting down roots again in Bent Creek with her son, they needed to find some way to coexist without the past coming between them.
“Never mind that,” Tucker said, drawing Jackson from his thoughts. “Are you really going over to Jackson’s to check up on Lainie and her son?”
He nodded.
“To make amends with her?” Garrett pressed.
His brother’s words caught Jackson off guard. “Amends for what?” he heard himself say.
“Maybe it’s time you tell us,” Garrett said. “You and Lainie used to be so close. And then she went off to school and everything changed. It was as if she had shut you out of her life. And she only came home to visit when you weren’t here. And if you were, she deliberately steered clear of you.”
“Garrett’s right,” Tucker said with a nod of agreement. “There was no missing the divide that had fallen between the two of you more than a decade ago. Only we never understood why.”
“What happened between the two of you?” Garrett asked. “Lainie was the sister we all longed to have after losing ours, but she was even closer to you considering all the time you spent over at the Dawsons’ with Justin when we were growing up.”
“She wasn’t like a sister to me,” he countered with a growl of frustration. He’d given up so much when he’d let her go. Something that had only really set in the day she’d called to tell him she was getting married. “At least, not as we grew older.”
His brothers exchanged glances before turning their focus back to Jackson.
“Care to explain?” Garrett said, his request tendered without the usual teasing that went on between the three of them.
Jackson looked down at the thin coating of snow that covered the ground around his booted feet. He’d never lied to his family when directly asked a question and he wasn’t about to start now.
“I don’t know how it happened,” he began honestly, lifting his gaze to meet theirs. “Lainie was Justin’s little sister. But as time went on and we got older, I started noticing her as the pretty, kindhearted young woman she was growing up to be. But I forced myself to think of her as Justin’s baby sister, not as just Lainie. That all changed when she kissed me,” he said, telling them what he hadn’t told anyone, not even his best friend, for all those years.
“Lainie kissed you?” Tucker exclaimed in surprise.
Garrett elbowed him in the ribs. “Let him finish.”
“Sorry,” he apologized. “Go on.”
“It might have started out that way, but then I found myself kissing her back,” Jackson admitted. “It was at the Old West Festival Dance after she graduated from high school. Before she went off to college and I went off to ride the rodeo circuit.”
“And you were such a bad kisser that she’s spent the years since trying to avoid you?” Tucker said, only to receive chastising scowls from both Garrett and Jackson.
Tucker shrugged. “Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. I can tell what happened back then still weighs pretty heavy on your heart.”
“It does,” he said. They had no idea just how heavy. “Lainie wanted to see where things might go between us. Even going so far as to tell me she was willing to turn down her full ride to college in California to remain in Bent Creek near me. Said she would find a job that would allow her to switch up her work schedule to travel to the rodeos I would be competing in.” Jackson’s pained frown deepened. “I couldn’t let her do that, sacrifice all the hard work she had put into getting that academic scholarship for me. So I told her that I only thought of her as a little sister. Nothing more. That the rodeo was where my heart lay. Or something to that effect.”
“Ouch,” Tucker said. “No wonder she has been avoiding you.”
“You did the right thing,” Garrett said with a nod.
Had he? Jackson wondered. Because letting Lainie go had been the biggest regret of his life.
Jackson caught sight of Lainie’s son slipping into the fort at the edge of the tree line as he drove up to Justin’s place. He couldn’t help but wonder if Lucas and his mother had gotten into another argument like the one he’d happened upon the day she’d arrived in Bent Creek. He prayed not. It had hurt his heart to see the emotional divide between the two of them.
He thanked the Lord, as he was sure Lainie had, that her parents hadn’t seemed to notice the rift between mother and son when Jackson had taken them there to visit. But then the Dawsons were overcome with joy to have them both back in Wyoming for good. Lucas had chatted away with his grandparents as if nothing was amiss, had feasted on the cookies his grandmother had baked for him, had even smiled, but every time Lainie had attempted to be a part of her son’s conversation with his grandparents he’d either clammed up or responded with his tiny brows knitted tightly together in an angry scowl.
Shutting off the engine, Jackson stepped down from his truck and made his way around to the back of the house. Sure enough, Lucas was exactly where Jackson had expected him to be, seated inside the fort on the rough-hewn wooden bench that ran along one side of the small space. Leaning back against the rows of treated boards that made up the walls, Lucas sat with his arms crossed, bottom lip trembling, tears spilling from his closed eyes.
Jackson knocked at the entrance where Lucas had left the door partially open in his haste to get inside.
The boy jumped, his head snapping up. “M-Mr. Wade,” he choked out.
Removing his cowboy hat, Jackson ducked and stepped inside. “Seems like I’m not the only one who thought this looked like a good place to slip away to and do some thinking,” he said matter-of-factly as he settled his much-larger frame onto the bench next to Lucas.
“I’m
