Page 29 of Wed to You

“Yes. It’s in an important place.”

“Prestigious.” Jagger’s deep, mellow voice sounded behind her, causing a shiver over her nerve endings.

“Yes. A great feat like this should be honored.”

Kaden grinned at her. “My friend Matthew is here too. We’re having a sleepover.”

“Wonderful.” Chelsea couldn’t stop wondering if Jagger ever had sleepovers.

“We’re out back.” Jagger nodded his head toward the hall.

“Come on.” Kaden took her hand and led her out to the back terrace, where she’d had water with Jagger several nights before. During the day, she could better see the layout of the Talbot estate. It took her breath away. May in Virginia was always spectacular. The brown, cold deadness of winter was replaced by lush green trees with pops of colors from the blossoms. Flowers bloomed all around the patio. The trees surrounding the area gave it an intimate feel, as well as shade, but she could see the large grassy area she imagined Kaden ran in. To one side, a tire swing swayed gently in the breeze. A path led to the right, where a pool and a tennis court sat. The path wandered along farther, where she imagined the horses’ pastures blanketed the next hundreds of acres. Over to the left, a quaint one-and-a-half-story Cape Cod-style house stood. It looked kept up. Did the farm’s foreman live there or was it just a guesthouse?

“If you want, we can go for a walk and I’ll show you the estate.”

Chelsea shivered as Jagger’s breath heated her neck. He was standing too close. She turned her head, looking straight into mischievous, deep blue eyes. He must have known his effect on her. That was annoying. She took a step away, telling herself it wasn’t in retreat but in fact a bold statement. He grinned.

“But first, lunch.” He motioned with his hand toward the table where a stout, older woman was putting down a platter of hotdogs. “I hope you don’t mind hotdogs. It’s Kaden’s school celebration and he chose the menu.”

“I like hotdogs. Oh, I brought you something.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a jar of canned barbecue sauce.

Jagger took the jar and read the label. “Beau Beemer BBQ.” He looked at Chelsea and grinned. “This is yours?”

She nodded. “It’s my granddaddy’s recipe, but I made it.”

Jagger smiled, and his pleasure at the gift made her grin back at him. “Thank you.” He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, sending all her nerve endings into a hot flurry. She resisted fanning herself.

“Look at this, Kaden. Real honest-to-goodness barbecue sauce. Do you think it would go with hot dogs?”

Chelsea scrunched her nose. “It’s made for shredded or ribbed pork.”

“Then we’ll save it.”

The meal was filled with small talk and the boys’ silliness. She’d had Matthew in her class too, and they were as silly at home as they’d been in her class. Chelsea really wanted to ask Jagger about the situation with Kaden’s mother. It was clear Kaden was a happy, well-adjusted child. As much as Chelsea thought mothers should have their children, she couldn’t help but feel sad that Jagger might lose custody and that Kaden’s life might be turned upside down.

While Jagger might have still felt distant from the Charlotte Tavern community, he had settled into the slower pace of life. The lunch lingered, and she even had a second helping. Jagger appeared relaxed as he asked her questions about growing up in a small Southern town and how she liked teaching. Sure, her heart rate sped up whenever he grinned at her, but the afternoon was pleasant and she determined she needed to do more to help both him and Kaden assimilate into the community more fully.

“Shall we show Miss Beemer the horses?” Jagger called out to the boys, who had left the table and were wrestling on the lawn.

“Yeah!” Kaden jumped up and ran to Chelsea. “Come see the horses.”

She smiled at Kaden, enjoying his exuberance. It was too bad that life lost that sort of joy as one got older.

Kaden and Matthew ran ahead up the path while Jagger walked beside her.

“Did you always plan to reopen the horse farm?” Chelsea took in the lush, rolling countryside, imagining that it probably hadn’t changed much since the estate was built in the nineteenth century.

“I wasn’t sure what I’d do. With Kaden in school, I had to do something to occupy my time, but I knew I didn’t want to deal with race horses, as my grandfather had.”

“You take in rescue horses, right?”

“Yes and retired race horses. Some are pretty old and feeble, but a few are still ride-worthy as long as you don’t push them too much.”

“I used to ride.”

Jagger slanted a look at her. “I know.”

She smiled. “Oh yeah, I exercised horses for your family the summer before they closed the farm.” She’d been only sixteen, but she was athletic and daring. That had been one of her favorite summers. She often told herself it was because getting paid to ride was the perfect summer job, but a little voice inside reminded her it had also allowed her to see Jagger nearly every day. “That was the last summer you came here, wasn’t it?”

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