Wild Irish by Jennifer Saints

Author:Jennifer Saints
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: jennifer st. giles, southern, Contemporary, Romance, Suspense, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯), sexy, jennifer saints
ISBN: 9780982486320
Publisher: Between Your Sheets Publishing
Published: 2009-12-08T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Relax,” Jesse said, urging her past the concealing shadow of the storage shed.

“Aren’t you mortified?” Alexi whispered, wishing for the first time that his bolstering presence wasn’t behind her. “Your mother sent James to get us. She knows what we were doing. That doesn’t bother you?”

“Since she wasn’t with us watching, she can only guess.”

She elbowed him in the stomach. “Will you be serious?”

“I am,” he said, laughing as he turned her to face him. “I’m thirty and my mother is a smart woman. She’s also been married to a Weldon for thirty-five years. Odds are she knows more about sex than either of us.”

Alexi fanned her cheeks. “This is not helping.”

“You’ve got guilty written all over your face. Remind me to teach you the art of subterfuge, though why people are obsessed about hiding what everybody does is beyond me. ”

“That’s it. I’m going to go bury myself in the pasture.” The notes of “Happy Birthday” being played on a fiddle twanged.

“Time’s up.” He scooped her into his arms and ran.

She had no choice but to hang on for dear life as he dashed to the people gathered by the picnic tables. She thought she’d die the minute he set her down, but all the loving chaos reigning over the Weldon’s gathering swallowed up their arrival. The fiddler playing “Happy Birthday” wasn’t singing happy birthday. He crooned lyrics that compared Jackson to an old shoe. Two kids begged Jesse’s mother to light the candles, and Jackson stood, looking really uncomfortable at being the center of attention. She touched Jesse’s shoulder and whispered. “Your brother isn’t happy.”

“I know.” Jesse sighed. In that second, she saw layer upon layer of tough bad-boy skin fall from Jesse’s persona, giving her a glimpse of the man inside—a man who cared deeply. “I’m worried about him. His wife died a couple of years ago in a car accident and he hasn’t rejoined the living yet.”

“Oh.” The air rushed from her lungs and she caught hold of Jesse’s hand. “I know,” she said softly. “I know some of how he feels, and I know how you feel, too. After I lost my mother, it was years before I could have fun when I went to a party. The happiness in the people around me hurt for a long time. And my father, I don’t think he’s actually rejoined the living, yet. Twenty-two years and he’s still withdrawn.” She blinked away the gathering moisture in her eyes.

She’d give anything to have a big loving family, had thought often that her and her father’s pain would have been less if they’d had a large family. Seeing Jackson said otherwise. Maybe there were some hurts that only time could heal. And in her father’s case, maybe even time wasn’t enough.

Looking serious, Jesse squeezed her hand.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. I—”

A real rendition of “Happy Birthday” started, calling their attention. Once Jackson blew out the candles, James and Jared decided that Jackson needed to have a birthday spanking before he could have his cake.

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