She prodded the pizza on her plate, trying not to let her excitement slip into her voice. Maybe this was his way of getting closer to her? A thrill went through her at the idea of an evening out with him.
“Good. Although I have to warn you, they’re probably not what you’re expecting. It’s a lot of self-important people trying to impress each other and a lot of old guys showing off their trophy wives. But hopefully the music will be worth it.”
“It’ll just be nice to get out of the house. I’m starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. Oh, speaking of getting out of the house, I met one of your neighbors today. Katie Mason. Married to a guy named Donald?”
Jackson’s brow crinkled. “Yeah, the Masons. Chris plays with their son, Matthew, sometimes. They tend to keep to themselves. I think he’s some kind of surgeon.”
“Well, Katie was outside when Miss Bessie came running out of the house. We spent some time talking and she said something that made me think about your situation.”
“My situation?” he repeated.
“Looking for a nanny. From what you’ve told me, it sounds like what you want is so simple, but yet you haven’t been able to find anyone.”
“I’ve found people. Just not the right ones.” He shook his head ruefully.
“Exactly. Well, Katie has been looking for a job and hasn’t been able to find one because, according to her, she’s only qualified to be a wife and mother and there isn’t much demand for that these days. Well, that made me think of you. That’s basically what you need. You can just hire a wife and mom.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.”
“Jackson!” She swatted his arm. “You know what I mean. Katie has two boys of her own, so she clearly has experience with children, and the boys are already friendly with her kids. She wants to do a summer camp for them.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She was great with the kids today and I had a good time, too. Jase was beside himself when we dug up spots for the flowers I want to plant.”
Jackson glanced behind them where Chris was playing Skee-Ball and Jase was jumping into a vat of colorful balls.
“So, what do you think?”
“I think it’s a great idea. I’ve known the Masons for a while, practically since I moved in. They were one of the few families that actually came over to welcome me to the neighborhood. She baked this apple turnover thing that was amazing. I had no idea she would be interested in watching other children. Why don’t you invite her over tomorrow?”
Ridley clapped her hands. “Great. This is so exciting! I can’t wait to tell Katie. We talked a lot today and she’s a lot of fun. She gave me some great ideas for my column, too.”
“Your column?”
Ridley hugged herself, so overcome with excitement she could almost burst. “I’ve decided to do a column about gardening on the “Legs” blog. It was really rewarding to teach the kids about plants and their life cycles. They get so excited about things.”
It was something that Raina had been trying to convince her to do for years. She’d always said no because she didn’t want people thinking she was using her sister’s success. But Jackson had given her a new perspective on things. A column would give her a chance to try out some of her new design ideas and reach more people than she could on her own.
“That’s great, Ridley!”
“What you said about accepting help really changed my way of thinking. It doesn’t matter if people only read my column in the beginning because of the fashion side. They’ll keep reading it because they like it.”
Jackson leaned across the booth and tugged on a lock of her hair. Warmth arrowed straight down to her core. What would it be like to have him look at her like that all the time? To have the right to lean across the table and kiss him right now? She looked down at the table and clenched her fists in her lap.
“Speaking of news, I have some for you, too. About your friend David.”
Ridley looked up, her earlier excitement draining away. “About David? What about him?”
“Remember I told you I was going to ask my brother Eli to look into things?” At her nod, he continued, “Well, he got copies of part of David’s FBI file. He didn’t get the whole thing, so he’s still going to do his own background check, but he got some of the surveillance photos of him meeting with the Morenos. They go back for more than a year.”
“Oh my god.” Ridley suddenly felt sick.
“No, this is a good thing.” Jackson grabbed her hands.
“How is it good? I thought he was nice and just got caught up in something by accident. If he’s been meeting up with them for that long, then that means he was some kind of criminal!”
“It also means whatever he was doing with the Morenos had nothing to do with you. You didn’t know him that long, right?”
Ridley let out a slow breath. “You’re right. I didn’t even think about that. I only met him a few months ago. So, that means he didn’t suspect Moreno of being my father. He probably never had any leads at all. It was just a lie so he could keep charging me.”
“Probably. But either way, you can relax a little now. It’s too bad that you can’t get your money back, but at least it’s over with.”
“You’re right. And hopefully my column will do well. It’s something I can do anywhere, you know? It’ll be easy for me to keep it up even after I go back.”
The thought didn’t sound nearly as appealing as it had just a week ago. Technically, she didn’t really even need to be in hiding anymore. She could just enjoy a little vacation time with her sister and then go back to her life. She was surprised to find that the idea didn’t make her as happy as it should, as happy as it would have just a few days ago.
“Go back?”
“Yeah. When I go back to Florida.”
“Right.” A flash of something crossed his face as he looked at her. “We should probably go. I have a lot of stuff I need to work on tonight.” He nodded curtly and left the booth, calling out to the kids.
Ridley folded her arms around herself again, this time to stop herself from trembling.
She’d always thought it was a nice change when she moved on. It was like wiping the slate clean of all her screw-ups and starting over. But this time she didn’t think she’d be moving on to something better.
This time, walking away seemed more like a cop-out than a fresh start.