“I don’t like it.”
“Tough.” That was the end for him on this subject.
Once again Jackson thought he could win the argument. Well, she’d find a time when he didn’t win. But, as of now, she couldn’t think of a more valid reason that he should keep his distance from her parents. Even thinking it in her own head made her see that she sounded unreasonable.
“I need to call and check in with my mom, then we can go. Does Poppy get to come?”
Poppy knew they were talking about her, because she scooted out from beneath the table, still licking her lips from the bacon grease, and looked up imploringly at Jackson.
“You are such a faker,” Jackson said as he bent down and scratched the dog’s head.
Alyssa’s heart beat an extra few times when Poppy leaned her head into his hand, showing how very much she trusted him. If you really wanted to know a man’s character, a good way to find out was by watching the way he treated animals. He obviously loved Poppy and Poppy loved him. Dang it. This was just one more thing that stacked the deck against her.
“Yes, Poppy can come. She usually goes everywhere with me,” he said, not giving Alyssa any clues.
“All right, then, I’ll come. Let me get my boots.”
Alyssa took her time getting ready for the outing. He’d only told her they would be outdoors. So she dressed in layers—that way she could discard clothes depending on if this early summer day decided to be warm or cool.
On her way back down the stairs, Alyssa paused. Jackson and Poppy were waiting at the bottom, their eyes shining, both of them eager for their outing. When Jackson smiled, his whole face lighting up, she knew he wasn’t the same man she’d met a little over five months earlier on that plane ride from Paris.
She also knew she no longer had a valid reason for keeping the pregnancy from him. What she didn’t know was how she was going to tell him. Their truce would surely end, and she was finding that she enjoyed his friendship. What if telling him made him hate her?
She was in real trouble, because whether she wanted to believe in him or not, she now did, and she didn’t want him to suddenly start looking at her like she was a liar. Pasting on a smile, she descended the stairs.
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but when his arm easily moved behind her back, and his hand brushed her skin, she shuddered. She couldn’t say anything now, or their day would be ruined.
Soon. She swore to herself she would tell him soon. Preferably once she was moved in nice and safe to her new apartment where she would be able to escape his wrath if he was furious with her.
“Um, Jackson . . .”
Alyssa felt like the classic impatient kid who kept asking, “Are we there yet?” And she didn’t even know where “there” was. She’d already asked him at least three times now where they were headed, and he was remaining tight-lipped.
“Not much longer,” he said with a grin.
She hoped not. They were bumping along a gravel road, and it wasn’t her idea of fun.
“Seriously, I’m starting to get a little carsick,” she said, not wanting to put a damper on anything, but this wasn’t the best of roads.
“Here we are.”
They turned a corner, and Alyssa looked straight ahead to find a giant cliff and about a dozen trucks all parked with people milling about. And a lot of them were toting guns.
“What is this?”
She wasn’t worried he’d brought her here to shove her over the side, but even the most trusting soul would have felt a bit of paranoia when confronted with a scene like this.
“We’re going to do some skeet shooting,” he told her as he opened his door. Poppy was the first one out of the truck. She jumped down and ran gleefully toward the crowd of people.
“I didn’t think you were going to make it.”
Alyssa’s door opened and Camden was standing there with a Cheshire cat grin on his face.
“I didn’t know we were coming,” she said as she accepted his hand and climbed down.
“What? Jackson didn’t fill you in?”
“Nope.” She was now walking between Camden and Jackson as they strolled over to a giant contraption that was set up on the bumper of one of the large blue trucks.
Michael appeared and told her, “You’re just in time to give it a whirl,” and a shotgun was thrust into her arms.
She was given a quick safety lesson, and she didn’t have the heart to tell them she’d been shooting targets from the time she was a little girl. No real Texas woman was raised without knowing how to fire a weapon. But she now understood Jackson’s secrecy about their destination. He probably thought she’d squeal, “Ewwww, guns!” and head for the hills—running like a girl, of course.
She was boiling over with excitement as a disk of clay was launched into the air. Taking aim, Alyssa shattered the disk, and she felt immense pride as a cheer went up. Another disk was launched and she knocked it from the sky, too. After a few more rounds, it was time to hand the gun over. Setting the safety, she then gave it to Camden.
“Hmm, another thing I didn’t know about you,” Jackson said with a laugh as he opened a can of Diet Coke and took a large swallow.
“You never asked,” she pointed out.
“That was impressive. I wouldn’t think a former model would know how to handle a gun.”
Alyssa glared at him as she tapped her foot. “Jackson Whitman, just when I think you are growing as a person, you make an asinine statement like that.”
“Okay, okay, I admit, I can be an ass,” he said with a laugh. “But I have to say that I like a woman holding a gun.”
“I like a man who knows it’s not wise to approach a woman holding a gun, especially when he’s being an ass.”
“Ooh, I like her, Jackson. She’s a keeper.”
Alyssa turned to find Spence standing beside her. Of all Jackson’s brothers, she was least familiar with Jackson’s oldest sibling.
“Damn straight she is,” Jackson said, and he flung his arm around her shoulders.
Alyssa was having too much fun to correct him or shrug off his hold. He’d brought her out here to be with his entire family. That meant he had to be changing, didn’t it? She’d already concluded that he was a different man from the one she’d met on that plane, and now she was getting to know him more. Was it time she stopped fighting this? Did she give them a real chance?
There was the secret of their baby between them, but this wasn’t news she could just blurt out. She had to figure out a way to tell him, and as she stood there with him, his face beaming, his family accepting her with no questions, she felt tremendous guilt for holding on to her secret.