Chapter 6
Jackson was on his feet and halfway across the room as soon as that last word came out of Cricket’s mouth.
He didn’t know what the hell she was on, but she was wrong.
He knew that down to his soul.
He had a sister. He knew what that felt like.
This did not feel brotherly at all. Not in the least. Absolutely nothing about what he felt for Cricket could fall under the heading of familial.
She was a beguiling little minx who had essentially been a source of irritation for him for the last several years, and then had turned into a wholly irritating, and far too attractive, woman.
Then she’d kissed him. And now she was telling him that she thought she was his sister.
“You better explain yourself, and quick.”
“I just... I found out something about our parents. My mother and your father... They used to be... Did you ever wonder why your father hated mine so much? I mean, beyond the fact that James is a real piece of work, there had to be something else. And I knew there had to be. Well, my mother started talking about it more. And since she and my father got divorced... Well, she told us. She told us that she used to be with your father. She was in love with him, but he was poor, and she chose to marry James instead. Why am I so much younger than my sisters? It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t fit with them. I fit with you.”
“Cricket,” he said. “You are not my sister.”
“I pretty much have to be,” she said.
“You pretty much don’t,” he said. “There is no way, no way in hell, that you could possibly be my sister.”
“Why not? I think it makes plenty of sense. Seems to me that it’s reasonable enough.”
“There is nothing reasonable about any of this.”
“I have always...thought that I didn’t fit. And I think this is why.”
“So why did you psychotically decide to kiss me?”
“To prove it would be gross!”
The way his blood was burning through his veins made a mockery of that statement. He just stared at her.
“Hey,” she groused. “You almost kissed me earlier. Why do you think I ran away? It’s wrong, Jackson. And I was just trying to make it right and now I messed it all up!”
“Get in the truck.”
“What?” she squeaked.
“Get in the truck. There’s one person who can settle this.”
“I mean,” she said, using that same arch, certain tone she’d used many times she’d been certain, but wrong, in the time he’d known her, “there are DNA tests that can settle it. Many men in labs could settle it...”
“We’re talking to my father.”
“Oh...”
“I’m going to have him tell you, once and for all, you couldn’t be his daughter.”
“I...”
“Did you talk to your mother?” he asked.
“I... No. I didn’t ask her directly. But you have to understand that she...
It took her so long to tell me any of the specifics about her life.
About her relationship with your dad. We’re not really all that close.
And I just didn’t... Talking to her won’t mean a lot to me. I won’t believe that it’s true.”
“I’m sure that if you told her you were considering jumping my bones, she might give you the straight answer.”
“Don’t say that. Anyway, I never said I wanted to do that. I just kissed you.”
“You’re not in high school, Cricket, when does it end with just a kiss?”
“Well.” She didn’t know what to say to that, and it was clear. And he was being mean, but he...
Hell. His father had cheated on his mother...
Would it really surprise you?
He didn’t think Cricket was his sister. End of story. He knew too much about women and chemistry to think it, even for a moment.
His certainty in his libido was sound.
His certainty in his father? Less so. And even though he knew Cricket had the wrong end of the stick here, he was worried that one piece of it might be true.
He had enough of a hard time with his old man without having to believe he’d been unfaithful to his mother.
“Get in the truck,” he said. “I’m not repeating myself again.”
They marched out to the truck, and he jerked the passenger side door open for her.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“No problem.”
He started the truck and pulled out of the driveway much faster than necessary. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me right away when you had a suspicion?”
“Because. Because I knew that... It doesn’t bother me to think about my mom cheating on my dad.
I wouldn’t blame her. I think she loved your dad, and she made a terrible mistake.
And I can see how... When someone gets under your skin, Jackson, it’s not that easy to get rid of them. I can understand that.”
“Can you?”
“Yes,” she said, filled with fury. “I can. I don’t judge my mom.
Except... Except on behalf of yours. Because I know how much you love your mom.
And she was a lovely woman from what I remember.
And she’s gone, and I just didn’t want to...
I wanted to get to know you better first. I wanted to figure out the whole situation. ”
“Why didn’t you just ask Creed?”
“I’m not even that close with Wren and Emerson.
I’d like to be closer. But... That’s the thing.
We’re not a normal family, and we never have been.
They’re close with each other because they’re close in age.
Because they had more in common in their upbringing.
I’m different. I always have been. So I’m not just magically close with Creed because he married my sister.
I’m not even magically close to my sister. ”
“What? You thought you’d become magically close to me?”
She made a sputtering sound. “I’ve always... I... I don’t know. Forget it.”
He thought back to how she’d trailed after him. Like a damn puppy when she’d been young. Had she thought he was her brother even then? No, she’d said that it only occurred to her recently. And all his thoughts, all his intentions toward buying her ranch, everything...just kind of faded away.
Because handling this was what mattered.
Settling it was what mattered.
He pulled up to the winery and saw that there was still a light on in the tasting room. He was sure that his dad was still in there.
“Come on.”
“Okay,” she said, clearly filled with trepidation.
He gripped her arm, and propelled her forward.
“Can you not touch me?” she said, jerking her arm out of his hold. She was as disgusted by the whole thing as he was.
Except.
Except, the problem was his body wasn’t all that disgusted.
His blood was on fire from that kiss. And while there had been a momentary dampening caused by the shock of what she’d said, it had not created in him an instant disgust.
They needed to get this settled.
He needed her to be as sure as he was that there wasn’t any truth to her suspicions at all.
Fact was, he was sure he had more experience than Cricket when it came to sex. So maybe she was naive enough to think they could be related, but he was not confused about connections, chemistry and attraction.
And he knew what was happening here.
None of it was familial.
He opened the door to the tasting room and walked in. Cash Cooper was standing at the back of the room, examining the stock.
“Dad,” he said. “We need to talk.”
His father turned, shock registering on his face when he saw Cricket standing there. “What can I do for you?”
“Oh...” Cricket started to fidget. “I just had a question to ask.”
“What’s that, young lady?”
“Well, I kind of need to know if I’m... If I’m your daughter.”
It had happened. It had happened.
She was standing there in front of Cash Cooper, and she was asking him if she was his daughter. Except now... She hoped that it wasn’t true.
Because Jackson was in her blood. And she...
she wanted him. And she had been so sure she could overcome that.
That she could put all these feelings in their proper place, but she hadn’t managed to do it.
She didn’t know if she ever could. She just didn’t know.
She had tried. She had tried, and it had ended with her kissing him on the floor of her kitchen.
Everything was a disaster. It was an absolute and total disaster. But then it had been from moment one, hadn’t it? Because there were only two scenarios here.
One, she was hopelessly and utterly attracted to Jackson Cooper who was unobtainable in every way, who would never want her, and who would never keep her even if he enjoyed kissing her, and she was just out of place in her family because she was.
Or the second one, which was that she was unforgivably, irrevocably attracted to her half brother.
No, she couldn’t win.
“What made you think that, young lady?” Cash asked.
And he was so kind, it made her heart ache. It made her chest feel like it was being cracked in two, because James certainly wouldn’t have been this nice. She wanted Cash to be her father, but she did not want Jackson to be her brother, and she didn’t think that there was...
There was just nothing.
“My mother told me. She told me she was in love with you. She told me that she married James Maxfield and it was the wrong choice. And I’ve just never felt like I belonged.
I’ve never felt like I fit. When she said that it all made a lot of sense.
That... That maybe I’m not a Maxfield, and that’s why I don’t fit.
That maybe I was supposed to be here the whole time.
Because I want to be a rancher. I don’t want to spend my life in a stuffy winery.
Because I want different things and I look different and I act different and I... I just thought maybe that was why.”
“Cricket,” Cash said, and his voice was so kind and gentle she thought she might break apart. “I’m not your father.”
She wanted to cry. In despair, with relief.
Jackson wasn’t her brother.
He wasn’t her brother. So that was... There was that.