23. Jaxon
Jaxon
All week, I’ve worked twelve-hour days, just to prove Hank wrong.
I’ve been all over this farm—nearly all five hundred acres—on Scout, trying to figure out a way to cut costs.
I’ve walked the fence line every night like Dad did, hoping that somehow, I’ll find an answer that will save this farm.
So far, all I’ve found are questions I don’t have answers for and a bad case of dread.
It doesn’t help that I haven’t really seen much of Summer since our argument. The other day, she left her denim jacket in the farm office, and I held it to my nose and breathed in her scent longer than any self-respecting man should.
I know I’m down bad for her. But it doesn’t change the fact that we’re business partners about to launch a wedding venue together. We can look like we’re together online, but real life is a different story, and knowing all of that doesn’t make me want her any less.
Ada Mae brings my dinner out to the farm office at six thirty while I’m staring at a list of best- and worst-case scenarios with the Keeneland yearling sale predictions. Even her homemade chili and warm cornbread aren’t enough tonight to cheer me up.
She sets it in front of me, then gives me a pointed look. “You’re overdoing it again.”
“I was coming inside,” I mutter. “As soon as I finished looking at these numbers.”
“That’s what you said last night too. What time did you come in?”
“Ten.” I pause. “Okay, eleven.”
She shakes her head. “You’re not doing yourself any favors by working late every night. I was trying to get you out of here a little earlier.” She smooths the front of her dress, and that’s when I notice she’s wearing an actual dress.
I haven’t seen Ada Mae dressed up since…well, ever.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Don’t look so shocked. I go out sometimes,” she says, setting a fist on her hip. “I’m heading into town for the Friday-night concert.”
I look at the calendar on the wall. How could it possibly be Friday already?
I run a hand over my forehead. “I forgot.”
“Any of your brothers coming to visit this weekend?” she asks.
I shake my head while practically inhaling dinner. I know this is what I agreed to—that I would manage the farm and they’d come home when they could. But it doesn’t make it any easier. They get to live their lives while I’m stuck here with a bunch of horses.
“Maybe you should ask for help, Jaxon,” she says. “I know they have busy careers but…”
“I can’t ask them to come home now.” I pause mid-bite of cornbread. “September is one of the busiest sports months of the year. Rhett’s in preseason camp, Wyatt’s already in the thick of his season, and Grady’s in the final stretch.”
It sounds like freedom until you realize a farm ties you down more than any sport would. And you can’t leave, ever, unless you have adequate help.
“Jaxon.” She lays a hand on my shoulder. “You should take a night off. Maybe join us at the concert?” She wrinkles her nose slightly. “Just take a shower first.”
“Why?” I lift my arm and take a sniff. “Is it that bad?”
“Trust me, you’ll thank me later.” She pats my shoulder on her way out, then stops and turns back. “By the way, Summer will be there.”
I stare at the spreadsheet. “Why would that matter?”
“Just thought you’d want to know.”
Summer probably said yes to a date with Blaine. She’s stubborn enough to do it just because I told her not to.
I push back my chair. “It’s none of my business,” I mutter to myself. “I don’t even care.” Then I head inside to shower.
I’ve never seen Golden Springs all lit up on a Friday night like this.
It used to be a ghost town most nights, all the shops darkened and the sidewalks empty by eight.
But now, string lights crisscross the street, a line snakes around a pulled-pork booth, and the Coosawhatchie band is setting up on stage, with a section cleared for dancing, right in the middle of Main Street.
Apparently, folks in this town do have a life after seven that doesn’t include falling asleep to the TV.
I’m barely out of the truck before Colleen asks me when I’m coming to the farmers market again, and Leroy from the feed store wonders whether the youth hockey team will win this year.
Then Remi’s mom stops me to thank me for taking over the youth league, telling me that her daughter thinks I’m “the best coach ever.”
Considering she’s only had one other coach, that’s not a very high bar.
As I’m scanning the crowd for Summer, I almost walk right into Wanda Roy from the gas station, who’s holding a pork sandwich drenched in barbecue sauce.
“Well, hello, Jaxon,” she drawls. “I just ran into Summer. I assumed you weren’t here tonight.”
“You saw Summer?” I say, glancing around for her. “Where?”
“Somewhere close to the front,” she says, motioning with her sandwich toward the stage. “Ada Mae was talking to Summer about her mom. The entire situation is heartbreaking.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
She stares at me blankly. “She’s at Golden Haven.”
“The memory care facility?”
She looks at me with surprise. “You didn’t know?”
I shake my head.
“Summer had to move her there about a year ago after her mom wandered off when Summer was working. She couldn’t find her for hours. Summer was beside herself.”
I should’ve known this sooner. She probably thinks I’m an insensitive jerk for not asking.
“She visits her every Saturday after she drops off the extra bouquets at the hospital. Always saves one for her mom, even though she doesn’t recognize her own daughter.” She shakes her head slowly. “Can you imagine? Your own mother looking at you like a stranger?”
“No,” I say. “I can’t.”
“Miriam Chance was a godsend to that girl. Closest thing to family she had.” Wanda pats my arm. “Be good to her, Jaxon. She needs someone watching out for her.”
She disappears into the crowd as the music begins, and I’m left standing there, gut-punched by this news. Every time she’s argued with me or refused to budge on something, I thought it was because she was stubborn. But she was just fighting to hold on to the things remaining.
Which means I need to find her now.
I push through the mass of people, searching for every blonde head in the crowd until I find her on the dance floor.
Her long hair is curling in soft waves down her back, and she’s wearing a light pink sundress that shows off her sun-kissed shoulders—completely changed from the woman who shows up at the barn every morning in worn denim.
This version of Summer is stop-you-in-your-tracks beautiful.
I freeze far enough away that she doesn’t notice me, thinking about what it would be like to hold her in my arms and sway to the lush twang of the steel guitar.
But another man beats me to her side before I can even get the courage to ask.
Blaine. He sets his hands on her waist, and my vision goes fire-engine red.
Five seconds pass before I start pacing the edge of the dance floor like an unhinged animal, watching Paralegal Boy touch the woman I want to be mine.
Finally, I can’t take it anymore. I stride across the dance floor, almost knocking over another man to get to her.
When I stop behind her, Blaine does a quick sweep of me before his lips flatten. “What are you doing here?”
I narrow my gaze. “I’m here to cut in.”
Summer whirls around. “Jaxon?” I thought she was pretty from across the dance floor, but up close, she’s absolutely stunning. Her sundress sets off her sky-blue eyes and soft pink lips so well that I can’t stop staring at her. She has no right to look this good after working on the farm all day.
I take one step toward her. “Would you like to dance?”
“I’m dancing with her!” Blaine protests.
“Were dancing,” I correct him. “Around these parts, when a man asks to cut in, you step aside. Unless the lady says no.” I glance her way, desperately hoping she agrees, or else I’m the one who’ll look like a fool. “What do you say, Summer?”
That’s when Blaine steps between Summer and me. “I only got like, half a dance. How is that fair?”
“You want fair?” I say in a low voice. “I’ll show you fair, Blaine.”
“Guys!” Summer finally yells. “I’m not a horse to be fought over.”
Blaine and I both stare at her.
“I get to choose who I want to dance with next.” She swallows. “And I choose…Jaxon.”
I want to fist-pump the air, rubbing it in Blaine’s face. But I go full-on country gentleman instead, holding out my hand to her. “Will you have this dance, Miss Daniels?”
She bites back a smile. “It would be my pleasure, Mr. Chance.” She steps around Blaine to take my hand as the smell of lavender and jasmine wafts through the air—the same scent as her denim jacket—and it drives me wild.
Blaine’s jaw drops. “For the record, I get the next dance.”
“Buddy, that’s not happening in any universe she’s in,” I growl out.
Summer stifles a laugh as Blaine turns on his heel to storm away.
I slide one hand to the small of her back, the thrill of touching her driving my pulse into a frenzy.
As her body folds into mine, my world tunnels down to her.
The soft curve of her waist, the way her eyes shine like blue waters, and how her bare shoulders taunt me.
I think of how I’d like to leave a line of kisses at the curve of her neck.
Along her collarbone. Down the inside of her wrist. My heart bucks against my ribs, and I wonder how I’m going to keep it together during this dance.
I clear my throat. “Sorry for making a scene.”
“Are you actually sorry, Jaxon?” she asks, tightening one hand around my shoulder, sending a thunderbolt down my spine. “Because I’m guessing you’re thrilled to cut in on Blaine.”
I lift an amused brow. “Now why would you think that?”
“Oh, maybe it was the smug look on your face,” she says with a dry laugh.
“You’re right. I’m feeling obnoxiously smug about cutting in on Blaine.”
She laughs, then bites her lip. “Just for the record, I said no to a date with him.”
“You said no?” I ask.
She nods. “I didn’t want to give him false hope. Even if I thought about saying yes just to spite you.”