Her Unexpected Hero Read online

  As she drew closer, he let out his breath and felt his stomach knot up. For just a brief moment, he’d thought the woman was Alyssa. It had taken only a second for him to realize his mistake, but just thinking she was in the room with him had made his blood run hot.

  It had been two months since he’d woken up to find her gone. Instead of the normal relief he should have felt, he’d had the urge to chase after her, demand she come back. He wasn’t finished yet.

  But after the initial urge, Jackson had told himself it was better this way. She was just a woman he’d met on a plane. They were never going to have more than a night together. That’s what he wanted, what he needed.

  So why was the sight of a redhead walking down a runway sending pangs of longing through him two months later? Obviously, their night had been a good one. That didn’t mean he should still be thinking about her, though.

  Jackson shook his head in frustration and focused on the man to his right. What was he saying? When Jackson realized where the conversation had gone, fury rushed through him. It seemed he wasn’t the only person who’d noticed the model had looked like Alyssa.

  “It was quite tragic, really. Alyssa Gerard was going places,” the man said as he lifted his glass and sipped his wine.

  “Oh, come on, now,” a woman piped in. “Aren’t all models doing what she did? I mean, they all sleep their way to the top. They don’t care if the man—or woman, for that matter—is married. They just care about their careers.”

  “She did a show for my company last year. I was impressed with her poise and attitude. She seemed different,” another woman said.

  “Ha! That’s all an act,” the first woman stated, making Jackson’s temper rise a few degrees.

  “I don’t think I remember an Alyssa Gerard,” Lucas said.

  “She was nearing the end of her career,” another person remarked.

  “Except she did have that cosmetics contract.”

  “Well, she must not have slept with the right people if it took her so long to land that one.”

  And Jackson was done. When he stood up so quickly that his chair scooted back several feet behind him, the people at his table went silent, obviously wondering what had antagonized him. Let them wonder.

  “Excuse me,” he almost growled, then turned and walked away.

  He nearly turned around to at least tell Lucas and Amy good-bye, but he couldn’t even do that. Not with the black mood that he was in. It was better for all of them if he left without delay.

  He hadn’t wanted to come, hadn’t wanted to socialize with anyone. And now he wasn’t even in the mood to meet with the congressman. It could wait. Jackson didn’t know why he couldn’t get Alyssa from his mind, and didn’t know why he’d become so upset when others had spoken ill of her, but he was damned upset.

  Once outside the building, he immediately reached into his inside pocket and pulled out one of the cigars he carried, just in case he felt the urge to have a taste of the sweet tobacco when attending one of these events.

  “Trying to skip out early?”

  Turning, Jackson found himself standing with Joseph Anderson. His father had been friends with Joseph for as long as Jackson could remember. There were times they didn’t see Joseph much, and times he was around more often, but Jackson had always liked and respected the man.

  The years Jackson had spent in foster care had taught him early not to trust people. His father, Martin, had helped heal him, and Joseph had shown him that there were more people in this world he could trust. Money hadn’t corrupted Jackson’s father, and it hadn’t corrupted Joseph Anderson. They both did great things for many people.

  “I’m starting to get a headache,” Jackson said as he reached for his lighter.

  “Are you going to be rude, boy, and smoke that alone?” Joseph asked with a scowl.

  “I wouldn’t think of doing that, Joseph,” Jackson said with a smile as he reached into his pocket, pulled out another cigar, and handed it over. He was glad he’d run into Joseph, or vice versa—it was hard to remain in a black mood with this man around.

  “Mmm, good quality,” Joseph said after he accepted Jackson’s lighter and took his first puff.

  “I don’t smoke one very often, so I only get the best,” Jackson said.

  “What caused that angry look on your face?”

  Busted, Jackson thought. There was no way he was telling Joseph anything about Alyssa Gerard. He’d spoken to Joseph’s sons, and they were pretty sure their father had quite a bit to do with their sudden desire to marry.

  Jackson in no way wanted to be shot by Cupid’s arrow. Sure, he was thinking of Alyssa Gerard a little more than he was comfortable with, but that was just a slight infatuation. It would pass.

  He ignored the fact that his feelings for the woman hadn’t diminished in two months. He knew he was lying to himself—he was desperate to find her, but for that very reason, he knew he couldn’t. If he’d really wanted to find the woman, no problem—money had its advantages. So he obviously didn’t want to find her, right?

  “I’m fine, Joseph. Just can’t stand this black-tie atmosphere,” Jackson finally said when he realized he hadn’t answered Joseph’s question.

  “Ah, Jackson, it’s nothing more than a song and dance. All the players move in perfect sync together and then they go on their merry way. When you get as old as me, you learn to care about what matters, and just let the other stuff go.”

  “That’s some good advice, Joseph. I’ll remember that for next time,” Jackson said as he looked out at the busy New York street.

  “Are you heading back home?” Joseph asked.

  “Yes. I’ve never liked being in the city for long. I enjoy the fresh air, where I can work for days without seeing another soul. Of course, if I’m in hiding too long, my brothers will hunt me down,” Jackson said with a laugh.

  “Ha! As well as they should. Family is everything, boy. Don’t you be such a hermit that you forget the value of a fine family. I know that there are times I drive my brood crazy, but let me tell you, I would die for any one of them, as they would for me. My Katherine had to stay home this trip and I’m anxious to get back to her,” Joseph said in his typical lecturing voice.

  “You’ve been lucky in your marriage, Joseph. Not everyone can say the same,” Jackson said almost bitterly.

  “Oh, Jackson, don’t let one bad experience dictate the rest of your life. You’ll find the woman you are meant to be with for eternity, and when you do, you will never let her go.”

  “I think I’ll leave matrimonial bliss to you, Joseph.”

  “That’s what my boys thought, too,” Joseph told him with a wink.

  The look in Joseph’s eyes made Jackson squirm. He didn’t want to be on this man’s radar. “I had best get going. I’ve already called my pilot,” Jackson lied, feeling a need to flee.

  “Hitting a bit too close to home, boy?” Joseph said.

  “Of course not,” Jackson said, and he stuck out his hand to shake Joseph’s. “I look forward to seeing you the next time you visit.”

  “It won’t be long. I’ve promised your father I’ll be there soon.” Joseph’s words almost sounded like a threat, and Jackson wasn’t so sure they weren’t.

  With a final good-bye, Jackson walked to the sidewalk and hailed a cab. Leaning back, he tried to push thoughts of Alyssa from his mind. By the time he reached the airport, he still hadn’t succeeded.

  This was utter nonsense. He would forget about the woman, one way or another.

  MAY

  “It’s been a long time, my old friend.”

  “I apologize for that,” Joseph Anderson replied. “I should have been here sooner.” Joseph sat back and enjoyed the view from Martin Whitman’s front porch. With spring just beginning to reshape the meadows, the scenery in Sterling was spectacular.

  “Yes, you should definitely get out here more often. We can’t let so many years escape us again.”

  “I don’t know how the time pa
sses so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that I was proposing to my Katherine, and now my kids are grown and have families of their own. It keeps me very busy,” Joseph said with a laugh that erased years from his aging face.

  “That’s why I asked you to come all this way,” Martin said. “I’ve noticed how your family is flourishing, while my own sons have given me a lot of grief. I thought our family was going to expand when Jackson married and his wife got pregnant. But after Jackson lost Katy and Olivia, he hasn’t been the same. I still grieve the loss of my granddaughter, but I want him to be happy again. I want all my boys to have as full a life as I’ve been blessed with.”

  “I agree with you. It’s time for your boy to live again. His daughter would want that for him. When I saw him a couple of months ago, he seemed very unhappy. We need to change that.”

  “He still holds on to the past. I haven’t seen a whole lot of happiness in him in a long time. We need to focus on the future,” Martin said, a sparkle lighting his eyes. “I need your help in putting the pieces of our quilt back together again.”

  Joseph perked up instantly. “What can I do?”

  Before Martin could speak, a female voice broke in. “My, my, my, if it isn’t the infamous Joseph Anderson. Are you slumming it with peasant folk like us, coming all the way out to the backwoods of Montana?” Martin’s ten-thousand-square-foot ranch house and his prosperous oil fields wouldn’t be considered slumming it in any circles, but he was used to Bethel’s dry wit.

  Joseph turned toward her with a delighted smile. “You know I’ve been sporting a broken heart for you all these years, Bethel. That’s why I’ve stayed away.”

  Bethel Banks chortled as she stepped onto the porch along with her best friends, Eileen Gagnon and Maggie Winchester. The meddling women were lifelong friends of Martin Whitman and Joseph Anderson. “If I thought there was a lick of truth in that statement, I might have to fight Katherine for you, Joseph, but since I know you’re over-the-moon in love with your wife, I’ll just take the compliment and replay it in my head a few thousand times.”

  “It’s good to see you, Bethel,” Joseph said, getting up and giving her a hug. “And it’s been years, Eileen and Maggie. You are both still shining beauties.” He embraced the women.

  “What did we interrupt?” Bethel always got right to the point.

  “We were discussing how ornery my boys are,” Martin told her. This was a topic he and Bethel had been discussing often.

  “Your boys aren’t nearly as much of a pain as my granddaughter,” Bethel said with a disgusted sigh.

  “Now, Bethel, little Sage can’t be no trouble at all,” Joseph said, remembering a mischievous little redheaded girl in pigtails, with mud on her cheeks and a continually scraped knee.

  “That girl isn’t so little anymore. She’s nearing twenty-five and happy as can be down in California. She’s got one year of medical school left, and then I’m hoping to persuade her to take her residency here. It’s a mighty fine hospital. I’m enormously proud of her, but it’s time for her to come home. I want to live long enough to see my great-grandkids,” Bethel grumbled.

  “Ha, woman. That tone may work on your granddaughter, but we know you a lot better than that,” Joseph said. “I do agree, however, that it’s nice to have little ones filling the halls of an otherwise empty home. Each of my boys has married a fine woman, and I have a large gathering during the holidays now and at any other time I can get them all to the house at once.”

  Martin leaned forward in his chair. “Then you really must share your secrets, Joseph.”

  “Well, my old friends, we just have to bring the kids together, and then love does the rest,” Joseph said with a twinkle in his eyes. Joseph was growing a little too confident in his matchmaking skills, since he’d yet to have a miss.

  “We can give little Sage a bit more time,” Martin remarked, “but I think I’ve spotted a mighty fine match for Jackson. This girl is full of sunshine. For a while I was hoping some sparks would fly between her and Camden, but Camden has his heart set on another woman. He just won’t admit it yet.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Eileen asked.

  “For which boy?” Maggie said at the same time.

  “For Jackson. He’s who we’re focused on, right?” Joseph was getting a bit confused.

  “Yes. Sorry. First Jackson, then one of the others,” Martin said with a chuckle. “Do you know the Gerards?” Martin asked.

  “Yes, of course,” Bethel replied. “Real nice family, moved in a few miles down the road about six months ago. Texans, I think.”

  “The father works for me and he’s a real good man. Four months ago their daughter joined them here. For a while there, it looked like she was needing someone to mend a hurt heart, but over the last month she’s started to get her feet on more solid ground, and she’s a real pleasure to speak to. She works down at the Country Saloon.”

  “Oh, yes, I’ve met her. Quite a delightful girl,” Eileen said. She leaned forward to join in with their plans.

  “I just need to get her and Jackson together and I know the fireworks will start. He keeps himself so busy with work that he rarely experiences the joys of life anymore,” Martin said.

  “How do we get him there to see her?” Joseph asked. He loved matchmaking, but he knew a fundamental rule—you had to get the kids together if you wanted to make fireworks start.

  “That part’s easy, if I may say so myself. I bought the Country Saloon,” Martin said. “And I put it in Jackson’s name. It’s his birthday present.” He sat back and lit a cigar, mighty proud of himself.

  “Well, my old friend, you didn’t need me at all,” Joseph said, chuckling. “You’re doing just fine on your own as a matchmaker.”

  “I can get them in a room together, but I don’t know what to do next,” Martin said.

  Joseph beamed. “Now, that’s where I can help you out . . .”

  The five friends spent the better part of the afternoon plotting away. By the time their children knew what hit them, it would be too late for them to fight. Jackson Whitman and Alyssa Gerard were about to be struck with Cupid’s arrow. Well, if Cupid came in the form of five meddling elders.

  Jackson sat outside the Country Saloon, gritting his teeth. What in the hell had his father been thinking? Sure, Martin’s intentions might have been noble, but Jackson didn’t want to run some out-of-the-way bar. He was too busy to mess with something so . . . simple and yet time-consuming.

  When he’d tried to give the business back to his father, the old man had gotten all choked up, as if his feelings were badly hurt, and Jackson, of course, had backed down immediately. He was only kidding, he told his dad. Oh, yes, he absolutely loved the gift.

  So now he was stuck with ownership of a bar and grill he wanted no part of. He’d promised to meet his family there half an hour ago, or he wouldn’t have even bothered coming tonight. All he was going to do was hire a manager or two and tell them to do whatever they wanted with the place. Hell, for all he cared, someone could light a match and have a big bonfire. He’d even provide the hot dogs and marshmallows.

  Since that was unlikely to happen—and as former fire chief, he was rarely amused by the idea of arson—Jackson would make an appearance every once in a while so his father knew he appreciated the ridiculous gift, but other than that, he couldn’t possibly care any less about the place.

  Still, when he saw a full parking lot and a group of people laughing as they moved arm in arm toward the entrance, he couldn’t help but be a little impressed. When he opened the front door, he was blasted with music and ear-shattering laughter. A familiar-looking band was onstage, but he couldn’t quite place them. Impressive, he thought; the local talent must have improved greatly.

  Though the old log cabin wasn’t much to look at from the outside, it had atmosphere and a surprising amount of space. It housed a bar, some dining tables, and a ridiculously large dance floor. That made no business sense. How could a bar and grill so
far out in the boonies attract enough people to fill it?

  Come to think of it, though, his brothers had mentioned going in quite often. If Jackson hadn’t been filled with grief for so long, he might have joined them occasionally. Maybe it was time for him to get out more than just when he was searching for his next one-night stand.

  “There you are, Jackson. Took you long enough,” Camden said as he grabbed his brother’s arm and guided him through the large crowd.

  “I think the building has exceeded its limit of allowed occupants,” Jackson said. He had to raise his voice to be heard.

  “Ahh, the fire chief is sitting over at table nine with the guys. If he ain’t saying anything, we’ll just let them have some fun,” Camden replied.

  Jackson walked over to a table full of firefighters. “What are you doing down here when you have a beautiful wife at home?” he asked Hawk Winchester.

  “We just finished with a wreck down on Market Lane. Besides, Natalie is out with the girls tonight.”

  “You let her out of your sight? From what I heard, the two of you are disgustingly clingy.”

  “Ha! How could you hear anything when you never get out?”

  Jackson almost flinched. As if knowing he’d hit a sore spot, Hawk smiled before adding with a wink, “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

  “Yeah, right. There’s no way I’m taking that walk down the aisle ever again.”

  “Don’t give up, Jackson. I thought the same thing until I met Natalie. Now I can’t imagine life without her.”

  This was getting too serious, so Jackson shook Hawk’s hand companionably before walking away with Camden.

  “There’d better not be another fire alarm tonight,” Jackson told his brother.

  “I hope not, ’cause half the department’s here,” Camden said as they reached their overcrowded table. “Of course, it’s not every day that Little Big Town comes through.”