Chapter Thirteen
On Thursday morning, Jackson woke me up just before noon by kissing me on the forehead.
“It’s time for you to wake up, Cinderella.
The party is over, and we have to go back to reality now.
Henry is bringing the biggest tractor we have at the site to get us.
We’ll take you home, and then he and I will go back to the office.
Even if we can’t work at the rig, we have lots of paperwork to do. ”
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “What about having lunch with Ada Lou?”
“We have time to do that, but we can’t have another game of Scrabble,” he said.
I groaned and fell back on my pillow.
“If you like that game so much, I’ll buy one and we can play whenever you want,” he offered.
“I enjoy the company more than Scrabble, and mostly I just play to make Ada Lou happy. I just now remembered that Rosie said we have to clean if we can’t open the café.” I didn’t go into detail about Paula’s rules for cleaning.
“If you don’t like cleaning, we will simply have to hire a housekeeper,” he chuckled. “Maybe one that wears a tight, short outfit?”
“If we ever hire a housekeeper—and I’m not saying that we will—she will be as round as a basketball and have gray hair.” I pointed at him. “And she will boss you around.”
Jackson’s smile turned into another chuckle. “I wish we could spend more time snowed in.”
“With that much time together, we would have more than one argument.” I got to my feet and headed for the bathroom to brush my teeth.
He wiggled his dark brows. I didn’t have to ask what he was thinking, but keeping the silly grin from my face was not easy.
I got the pink toothbrush that I had claimed from a drawer, squirted toothpaste on it, and stuck it in my mouth.
My reflection in the mirror had changed a little from the day before.
I could see a couple of frown lines, especially across my forehead.
After only knowing him for a short while, Jackson had mentioned hiring a housekeeper and children.
He might not realize it yet, but he was ready to put down roots.
Even after that horrid nightmare, seeing him standing over me and weeping, I wasn’t totally sure what kind of future I wanted.