“I don’t know what it means to be a good parent. I never had one.”
“Yeah you did.” Jackson looked him in the eye. “They might not have been related to you by blood, but you had my dad, as well as Lucas’s parents taking care of you. If you use them as your guide, you won’t go wrong.”
Griff gave him the briefest of smiles and kissed his daughter’s downy head. “I’m sorry I’ve been an asshole to you this week.”
“You were just practicing for when Skyler dates.” Jackson shrugged. “And I’ve been an asshole to you before. It’s what friends do. If you can’t take your worries out on them, what’s the point?”
“I appreciate you, man. You know that, right? Choosing you to be Skyler’s godfather wasn’t something we did lightly.”
“I’m not taking it lightly,” Jackson told him, meeting his gaze with a confident stare. “I’m going to be there for her, the same way all our folks were there for you. Except she won’t need me to be a surrogate parent, because she already has the best parents in the world.”
Eddie ambled out of the kitchen and onto the deck, drunk with all the food he’d just eaten. Taking an interested look at Griff, he curled up in front of Jackson’s feet, resting his chin on them the same way he always did.
“You look good with a dog,” Griff said. “How’s it going with him?”
“Pretty well. He’s been here for a week and it’s like I’ve always had him.” Jackson petted Eddie’s head. “It’s nice having someone else in the house.”
“And now you have two somebody elses.” Griff glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen door. “So, you and Lydia, huh?”
Jackson swallowed, thinking about her all warm and soft in his bed. “Yeah. That’s happening.”
“Autumn thinks you two like each other.”
“We do.”
“As in really like each other.” Griff lifted an eyebrow.
A shaft of sunlight moved across the grass. “She’s special,” Jackson said softly. “We’re good together.”
Griff nodded, as though he could read the subtext in Jackson’s words. “What are you gonna do when she leaves?”
Jackson drank the last of his coffee, letting the bitter liquid play on his tongue. “I’m going to let her go.”
Griff gave him a strange look. “You are? Why?”
Exhaling heavily, Jackson put his cup on the table. “People like me and Lydia… we don’t do relationships. We don’t settle down. She’s got a life and so do I. This is like a vacation romance, except it happened in my home town, and I’m good with that. I don’t want a long distance relationship. Heck, I’m bad enough at short distance ones. I’d rather let her go and remember the good times.”
“That’s really sad, man.”
Jackson shrugged. “It is what it is.” He leaned forward to gather the cups from the table, and Eddie fussed at the interruption of his nap. “You want another coffee?”
“Nah, we should get going. Lots to do before the party begins.”
“I could give you a ride?”
Griff str
oked Skyler’s head. “You haven’t got a car seat. And I parked at the bottom of the hill. It’s only a mile and the walk will do me good.” He smiled at Jackson. “Thanks for talking, I feel a little better.”
That was good, because Jackson felt worse. The things he’d thought but hadn’t vocalized were now out there, reminding him that this thing he had with Lydia was on a time limit.
Less than a week and she’d be gone.
“I’ll see you at the pier,” Jackson said, as Griff started walking toward the gate.
“Yep, I’ll see you there.”
Lydia softly closed the kitchen door and padded back up the stairs, not wanting Jackson to come in and see her listening to his conversation. She’d woken suddenly and looked around for him, checking in the bathroom and the guest room before walking down to see him sitting in the backyard with Griff.