Matt Jackson cursed himself for every kind of fool as he traipsed through the field from his grandfather's huge modern house to the small wooden frame house that had once been the original settlement on the family ranch. The way his luck was going lately he would step in a cow pie or worse yet a gopher hole. Ruined boots or a broken ankle seemed just recompense for the nasty dreams he had been having about little Miss Melissa Guthrie.
It was worse than the summer he had come home on leave from the Rangers. It was the year that she graduated from high school, she had been just eighteen, but what he bothered him most was how much Little Missy had changed. Gone was the skinny, freckled, red-head. In her stead was a curvy strawberry blond that seemed oblivious to the havoc she reeked on male hormones, his especially. Almost a decade older than Melissa, it had seemed sacrilegious somehow to have those kinds of thoughts about her.
But this was worse, so much worse. For the past week, his brain could not focus on much other than the unusual proposal that Missy had made. Her twenty-eight birthday was just a couple of days after the New Year. Living in a small town like Tornado, Texas, her dating options had not improved since high school. So she found herself a virgin. A fucking virgin, he cursed.
Now this. They had all known that it was coming. Nana Guthrie was dead. After a two year battle with breast cancer the once formidable woman that had practically raised Matt and his six brothers and sisters as well as her own granddaughter was gone. He felt the pain like a punch to his gut, but he knew it was nothing compared to what Missy must be feeling. She was alone in the world now. Totally alone just as she had feared she would be when she pleaded with him to take her virginity and give her his baby.
And he was walking across the deserted field between the big house and hers with just that in mind. What was wrong with him? This was Little Missy, his baby sister Rahab's best friend. She was practically another Jackson. So what was he going to say and do when he got there? The thought was prophetic as he saw the porch lights glistening against the dark Texas skies.
***
Melissa wondered aimlessly about the tiny two bedroom house that had been the only home she had ever known. She had been just a baby when her parents were killed in a car accident. She had come to live with Nana then. And Tornado, Texas had become her home.
But would it be for much longer? Although she knew Thaddeus Jackson thought of her almost like another of his grandchildren, this house was one of the perks that went with the housekeeper position that her grandmother had held for over thirty years. Surely he would want her to vacate the premises for her grandmother's replacement.
She shook her head. So who or what would replace her Nana in her life? A couple of weeks ago when her Nana told her that Matt was coming home for the holidays she had thought she had it all planned out.
She had had a crush on her best friend's big brother for as long as she could remember. And while she recognized that the plain Jane librarian from Tornado, Texas had no real chance of attracting the attention of the former Army Ranger officer, police officer and now private detective. With his dark almost black hair and deep grey eyes, he had the looks of a Hollywood star to go with his intelligence and physical prowess. In short, he had all the best genes.
All right, so maybe she should have tried just getting the man drunk and taking advantage of him, rather than spouting her crazy plan like she had diarrhea of the mouth as Nana called it. But she had, just spilled everything. How alone she felt in the world. How she did not want to be the cliché old maid librarian, reading romance novels in her little house with two dozen cats. How she was tired of being the only twenty-eight ear old virgin on the planet.
She looked at Nana's grandfather clock on the mantle. It would be midnight in less than five minutes. And in she two days she would no longer be a twenty-eight year old virgin, she would be a twenty-nine year old one. Maybe it was best if she left Tornado. She could start over fresh somewhere else. Maybe with a new hair style and some makeup she could even manage to find a boyfriend. But of course, he would not be Matt. No one would ever be Matthias Jackson.
The knock on the door startled her. Who could that be? The women from town would not begin to bring in the food for the wake until at least eight tomorrow morning, probably later given that it was a holiday. Of course, perhaps Missus Martha had forgotten something when they spoke at the hospital. She sighed, certainly Mister Thad would not come by this late wanting to discuss the house?
But he was the last person she expected to see as she threw open the door. She felt the red spread from ear to ear and down her throat beneath the sweater that Nana had knitted for her last year. "What do you want, Matt?"
***
Did the woman really have no idea how beautiful she was? Hell, what was wrong with the men of Tornado? How could this sexy creature still be a virgin? He felt his cock thicken inside of his jeans. Would she still be after his free fall into complete madness.
"It's cold out here. Would you mind if I came in, Missy?" he smiled.
She shook head, but stepped back and let him enter. "Matt, if you don't mind, I'd just like to be alone for the next few hours. Once the ladies from church start to arrive this place is going to be completely mad until after Nana's funeral."
He nodded as he stuffed his hands deep into his pockets, just as he always did when the woman had caught him up to some mischief. "I just wanted to stop by. See how you are doing. Mama said you seemed too quiet at the hospital. She's worried about you, Missy," he stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm worried about you."
***
"Look, Matt, I know I made a mistake last week. I mean telling you all that stuff," she stammered as she stared at the buttons on his flannel shirt. Would it be as soft as it looked? She wanted nothing more than to lay her head against it and let all the tears that she had kept bottled inside of her just flow out. And that is exactly what she would have done, if she had not ruined everything between them with her crazy plan.
He sighed and drew her into his arms anyway. The shirt was soft but the muscles beneath it were solid steel. She brought her hand up to cover his heart. She could actually feel it pounding beneath her fingers. "I'm sorry, Matt," she blubbered as the tears began to flow.
"No, Missy, I'm the one that's sorry. Sorry, I haven't been here for you and Nana the way I should have been. Sorry, I let you down," he whispered as he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. She continued to cry for several minutes until the wetness spread across the front of his shirt. Then her world tilted on its axis as he lifted her in his strong arms and carried her down the hall to her bedroom.
