Chapter 17 Shyanne #3
Jackson spoke with no hubris or conceit. It was nothing but a simple question that he obviously wanted a direct answer to.
Mikey looked at Jackson’s clothes, styled hair, and clean-shaven face. I wasn’t sure if he knew how expensive Jackson’s watch was, but his eyes flicked across it as well. Finally, Mikey nodded reluctantly.
“Why?” Jackson asked, still looking at the boy with a calm gentleness that made me wonder where he’d learned to deal with children.
“You’re cool, uh, and you…I don’t know, you look rich, I guess,” Mikey said.
Mariposa snorted a laugh and clamped her hands to her mouth. Jackson smiled sadly.
“Money doesn’t make a man,” Jackson said.
“It’s what he does to help people with it.
Knowledge doesn’t make a man, it’s how he uses it to help others.
I hate to say it, but school is the easiest part of your life.
I know that’s hard to hear at your age. Right now, school probably looks like the worst and most stressful thing you can do, but it also teaches you how to be a grownup.
If you let it, it will help you become a man.
” Jackson tapped the boy on the chest. “You can be a man, but you can’t quit.
Not the money part, that’s silly, and it’s something that can be taken away in a second, but what’s in here”—he tapped his own chest—“can never be taken away. You build that? Then you’re someone the world will respect, someone women want to be around, and someone men want to emulate, and children will trust. That is what being a man is, and that starts now—with school, with grades, with being on time, sticking it out, and not giving up. Can you do that?”
Mikey gazed at Jackson with an almost dumbfounded expression on his face, as if the man had given him the keys to the universe, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready for it.
“Well?” Jackson prodded after a few seconds.
“Uh, yeah,” Mikey said, nodding slowly.
“Yeah, what?” Jackson said, a real smile returning to his lips.
“Yeah, I want to be a man like that.”
“Good,” Jackson said as he ruffled the kid’s hair. “Now get your ass to school for the rest of the day. You can make your last couple of classes if you hurry.”
“Yes, sir,” Mikey said. He hopped to his feet and ran for the door. “See you later, Shyanne.”
I watched him go, blinking rapidly, trying to figure out what had happened. Finally, I turned back to Jackson, who was still on the floor helping Mariposa with her math homework.
“Yup,” he said, pointing at her paper. “If this part is right, then what does X equal?”
Warmth surged through my chest as I watched him with her.
I’d never seen or met a man like this before.
One so at ease with both hard and burly men, rich and powerful men, women of all types, and children.
He was like a dream. Literally, like he’d walked straight out of my dreams and into the real world.
Oh, and he was a magical shapeshifting dragon man. That was pretty important.
He glanced up at me with those striking eyes—the one pupil forever dilated into a large black pool that I could almost fall into. He grinned at me, then turned to Mariposa.
“You got the rest of this?” he asked.
She nodded. “I think so. You helped a lot. Thanks.”
He rose from the floor and dusted off his pants.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “I came by to see you, but you weren’t back yet. They were clowning around in here, so I got them onto homework.”
“Thanks,” I said, then swept a hand to the door where Mikey had exited. “You were great with him. He really needs that. His parents are…” I trailed off and shrugged sadly. “Well, you heard what they told him.”
“I did,” Jackson said. “Hopefully what I said will sink in.”
“I think it might.” I laughed. “Did you see his freaking face? He was looking at you like you were Thor or Hercules walking down from the clouds to give him the meaning of life.”
“Oh, fuck off.” Jackson laughed and nudged me playfully. “No way. I just told him what I believe.”
“It’s true,” I said, pushing him back.
We walked through the shop, checking in on the guys as they worked. At one point, while Brent was replacing a cooling system on a Suburban, we asked if he needed any help.
“Yeah, why don’t we get Mister Boulder Shoulders there to hold this radiator in place for me,” Brent said, gesturing to Jackson.
“Sure.” Jackson glanced around. “Uh…what’s the radiator look like?”
I laughed and stepped into his place to help.
“You’re better at this than me anyway,” Jackson said as Brent finished a few minutes later. “Better if you do it.”
I loved hearing that. Invariably, the guys I’d dated in the past had all found it both interesting and somewhat confusing that I owned a car shop.
The most frustrating thing about it was that, no matter what their background, they always tried or attempted to act like they knew as much as or more than I did about cars.
Something about cars activated some weird prideful streak in a lot of men, as if it somehow degraded their masculinity to have a woman who was able to do more than they could under the hood.
Jackson had none of that. In the few days he’d spent hanging around here, he was the first to say he had no clue what he was doing. Not only that, but he said it in such a way that was more self-deprecating and unconcerned rather than being ashamed or embarrassed. It was a nice change of pace.
We spent the rest of the afternoon milling about the shop, helping out here and there, waiting for a call about some of the supplies I needed for our plan.
Jackson had set himself up at a table with his laptop and was working on something.
Probably to do with his family’s businesses or perhaps some alpha things?
The stuff he dealt with was as incomprehensible to me as timing belts and rev limiters were to him.
I was staring at him when Reggie nudged me with his elbow.
“I see that look, little missy,” he whispered.
Tearing my gaze from Jackson, I faced Reggie.
“What look?” I hissed.
He gave me a self-satisfied and knowing smirk. “The look of a lady who is”—he put his hands to his chest and fluttered his eyelashes, turning his voice into a terrible falsetto—“falling for the one.”
“Get back to work before I fire your ass,” I hissed.
Reggie burst into a fit of laughter that nearly had him bent over and wheezing.
Thankfully, the noise of the shop was too loud for anyone to hear what we’d said or his outburst. My face grew hot as he shuffled away and went back to work.
Even after what he’d said, my eyes traveled back to Jackson, who continued.
Was that true? Was I falling for him? Outwardly, he seemed…
perfect? No, not perfect—no one was—but damn, there was something about him that had hooked me.
He was gentle, funny, strong, smart, kind—all the things I’d always looked for in a partner.
He was also amazing in bed and looked like a Greek god with his clothes off, which was a nice little cherry on top.
I tried to shove the thoughts aside. This wasn’t some goofy rom-com movie where the girl got the guy after a bunch of silly hijinks and misunderstandings.
This was real life. The poor car shop owner covered in grease didn’t end up with the hot magical millionaire.
We’d been thrown together due to circumstances beyond our control, and I was helping him save a child—no, two children now.
When this was all over, he’d probably drift back to his life, and I to mine.
The people who’d taken his sister, and were threatening Christian’s, had to be dealt with. A timer was counting down, and we needed to focus on saving the kids. As badly as I wanted to truly explore what might or might not be between Jackson and me, that was the main focus.
Jackson glanced up from his computer and scanned the shop until his eyes met mine. He grinned and winked before going back to work.
That look, those eyes, the way his lips quirked as he smiled at me…
it sent every other thought I’d had tumbling into space.
My stomach gave a pleasant flutter, and a surge of heat flooded through me, settling between my legs.
My knees went weak, and I imagined a hundred quick moments with him—kissing, holding hands, having dinners, laughing at a movie, hard fucking and soft lovemaking.
All of it blasted through my imagination like a bomb. All brought about by a grin and a wink.
“Shit,” I muttered.