counter.
“I did, and the coffee is ready.” She dried her hands and watched as he shook two pills into his hand, popped them into his mouth and washed them down with water.
“Are you eating?” He pushed a plate in her direction.
“I had a granola bar.” She pushed it back. “You need something in your stomach.”
“Right.” He glanced at the girl that she’d delivered to his front door. “There’s cinnamon and sugar in the cabinet if you want it for your toast. After we eat we’ll figure this mess out.”
Jade carried her plate to the table and sat down. “I don’t know what you need to figure out. Fourteen years ago, you messed up.” She shot him a look and flapped her arms like wings. “Your roosters have come home to roost.”
“Great, she’s a smart-mouth to boot,” he grumbled as he picked up a slice of toast.
He took a bite and glanced out the window. He didn’t sit down. Instead he stood next to Madeline, his hip against the counter. His arm brushed hers. Of course he would be comfortable in his own skin. He wouldn’t feel the need for space.
She stepped away from him, picking up a pan that had been next to the sink. Not her pan. Not her mess. She grabbed a scrubber and turned on hot water. Jackson rinsed his plate and opened the dishwasher.
“You don’t have to wash that.” He touched her arm.
“I don’t mind washing it.” She rinsed the pan and stuck it in the dish drainer. She glanced out the window again. The land here rolled gently and was dotted with trees. Cattle grazed and a few horses were chasing each other in a circle, bucking and kicking as wind picked up leaves.
“Can she stay with you?”
“Excuse me?” Madeline glanced in Jade’s direction and turned her attention back to Jackson.
“Look, Maddie…”
She lifted a hand to stop him. “My name is Madeline.”
“Sure, okay, Madeline. I need to work this out and you can’t leave a kid here with a single man, not when you aren’t sure if that single man is her father. And I don’t really want my family to know about this, not yet.”
“So you want to hide her at my house?” She tapped her foot on the light pine floor and fought the urge to slug him.
“Not hide her. She needs to stay somewhere and she can’t really stay here, not until we know exactly what’s going on.”
As much as she didn’t want to, she got it. She also kind of admired him for thinking about the girl. They could call the police or family services, but then she’d end up in state custody. Jade definitely couldn’t stay alone with him, a single man. What if she wasn’t his? Even if she was, there were things to consider.
She glanced across the room at Jade and she remembered that first night, fourteen and alone in the Montana town she’d rarely visited as a kid. Frightened because she had fifty dollars and no one to turn to, she remembered flashing lights at a convenience store and being driven to a group home.
Fear knotted in her stomach, the way it had then, half a lifetime ago.
“Yes, she can stay with me for a little while.”
Jackson watched her, his eyes narrowing. “You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“I’ll pay you.” His mouth shifted into a smile, revealing a dimple in his chin.
“Pay me?”
“For letting her stay with you. I can write you a check or pay you cash.”
Madeline glanced at her watch. “I really have to go, and I don’t want your money.”
“There will be the expense of feeding her. She probably needs clothes. I need to pay you something.”
Jade stood, the quick movement catching Madeline’s attention, and from the jerk of his head in that direction, Jackson’s also. The girl held her plate, trembling a little.
“Stop, okay? I’m a kid, not something you trade off or try to get rid of. I thought it would be different…” Jade bit down on her bottom lip and looked from Madeline to Jackson. “You were supposed to be different.”
His smile dissolved. Madeline watched as he approached the girl who might possibly be his daughter. He sat down at the table and pointed for her to sit back down. He was used to girls, used to kids. He had been raised in a house with eleven other children. Now he had nieces and nephews.
“Different than what?” he asked.
“Different, that’s all.”
“From?”
“From my mom. I thought it would be—” she looked away “—better here.”
Jackson whistled. “So far we haven’t made much of an impression, huh?”
Madeline wanted to correct him, to tell him he hadn’t made a good impression. The girl claimed to be his. Madeline was just the unsuspecting stranger who had ended up with Jade on her doorstep. And she’d gotten tangled up in this.
“No, you haven’t made a great impression.” Jade rubbed her eyes hard. Madeline pulled tissues out of a box on the counter and handed them to her. Jade took them with a watery smile and rubbed her nose and then her eyes.
“Okay, let’s start over. Jade, I’m Jackson Cooper and I don’t know squat about raising teenage girls. Today one landed on my front porch and I’m trying like crazy to figure out what to do and to keep that from being a problem for both of us.” He glanced at Madeline. “And this isn’t her problem at all.”
“I don’t like being called a problem,” the girl cried again.
“Right, okay, you’re not a problem. But you are a situation that I need to figure out. And I need a little time to do that.”
“Okay.”
“So for now, you’ll go with Ms. Patton because that’s the best thing for us to do. And I’ll work at figuring something out.”
“She can’t go with me yet,” Madeline interrupted. “I have to be at work. Now!”
“Okay, so we’ll work this out. She stays with me for now while you go to work and later we figure something out.”
“Jade, I’ll see you later.” Madeline leaned in to hug the girl.
Jackson stood, probably to walk her to the door. She didn’t need that. She didn’t need any of this.
“I’ll see myself out.”
Jackson walked with her anyway. “You’ll be back?”
“Yes, Jackson, I’ll be back.”
