The Truth About Fairy Tales (21 page)

             
“There’s no place I’d rather be right now. You know that, don’t you? I want to be here with you and with your grandmother and Lee. For me, this is probably the first year that’s felt like Christmas in longer than I can remember. So don’t ever think that I’m missing out on something, because I have everything I want right here in you.”

             
I had to look away from the sincerity in those blue eyes. I wasn’t fooling him one little bit. He knew he’d shaken my belief system to the core. Men weren’t supposed to be this nice. They used you and left you alone. Wasn’t that what I’d learned from early age? Jackson was an anomaly to me. He was the one in a million. I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to find him or to have him choose me. I prayed that I didn’t do anything to screw this up. I knew I was difficult to deal with. I came with some very heavy baggage for any man to overcome. How much longer would he be willing to look beyond my flaws and insecurities and see something worth keeping? How much longer would he be willing to put up with me and all my little idiosyncrasies? I could only hope forever.

             
After Lee left and my grandmother went to bed, Jackson and I sat in her living room watching the Christmas tree lights, talking.

             
“So, where did you and Lee disappear to tonight?” I asked from my spot in front of the tree on the floor. I was an on the floor, no shoes kind of gal.

             
For a minute, he was silent and I was just beginning to wonder if he was going to tell me when he came and joined me on the floor. “You promise not to say anything to your Grandmother?” he asked as he took me in his arms.

             
That had my full attention. Something was up and I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what it was.

             
“Lee’s going to ask your grandmother to marry him. He’s been walking her by that same jeweler’s shop for weeks now, and apparently, each time she stops to eye one particular ring. He's going to pop the question to her on Christmas Eve, little bit, so we have to make ourselves scarce then. What do you think about that?” I knew he’d guessed it already—after all, this man was good. He knew what I felt even if I couldn’t tell him.

             
“She’ll never say yes…he’s going to get hurt.” even as I said those words, I wasn't so sure. My grandmother was different. I’d seen it, just as Jackson. She was softer, like a woman in love and I should certainly know a woman in love when I spotted one because I was one of them.

             
“Maggie, she’s crazy about him and you know it. Whatever reasons Sarah might have had in the past for refusing him aren’t there anymore and you know it. I think she’s ready. The question is, are you ready to accept it?”

             
What did he think? That I was some jealous monster. That thought had me pulling away from him. Was I jealous? Of my sweet grandmother, for at last finding happiness in love. She certainly deserved it. After all, she’d been so busy working two jobs trying to raise me right that she’d all but given up on any private life of her own. She always told me that she would never love another man other than my grandfather, but now I wondered if maybe she was just using that excuse to keep me from questioning why she never remarried. Maybe she didn’t want me to know the depth of her sacrifices for me.

             
“Of course I can accept it, if that’s what Gran wants. I only want her to be happy, Jackson.”

             
I don’t think he believed me. Not that I blamed him, because I wasn’t sure
I
believed me. He stood and picked me up in his arms, carrying me up the creaky stairs of my grandmother’s house while I tried not to laugh when he almost dropped me on the narrow stairwell.

             
Something was different about him tonight as well. It was there in his touch, in the way he took his time with me, driving me crazy. I don’t know if it was just the house or the season, but I could almost believe Jackson cared about me in almost the same way that I cared about him.

             
When I woke the following morning, Jackson had beaten me up. I found him with my grandmother, sitting together in her kitchen drinking coffee.

             
His eyes went over me, slowly reminding me of the way he’d loved me the night before and it was all that I could do not to blush. If my grandmother suspected any of this, she didn’t say a word. She smiled at me and watched while Jackson kissed me good morning and I tried not to show her how much he affected my concentration.

             
“I was telling Jackson here that there’s a candlelight service at the church on Christmas Eve. I hope you both will come.” I poured myself some coffee and sat down next to her, patting her hand.

             
“Sounds nice. So what’s on the agenda today? Do you still have lots of baking left to do?”

             
Baking was another one of my grandmother’s traditions. She started with cookies and candy about a month before the season actually kicked off and spent just about every single week in the kitchen making something. She baked something for her friends, usually cookies, and then there were her children, as she called the kids at the Christian school where she still taught. Then there were people at her church and the pastor and the other folks around town that she knew and loved. My grandmother was a friend to just about everyone around the area.

             
“I’m almost done, but there are still the pies and of course you know how much Lee likes my fudge. Are you going to help me bake this year?”

             
The image of me baking anything and having it turn out right had Jackson just about rolling on the floor and me glaring at him. Even my grandmother had to smile.

             
“Don’t I know it? She never really got the hang of it, although I did try.”

             
“Tell me about it. I think I gave up the first week and decided if we were ever eating again I was either going to have to cook or we were going out.”

             
“Oh, very funny.” I turned to my grandmother in an attempt to ignore him completely. “I’m not that bad, so don’t let him kid you. All of your training didn’t go to waste. I can cook—a little.”

             
Again that laughter that told me I was only kidding myself. “Well, okay, so maybe I’m not very good at it. I’m sorry, Gran, I guess I failed you there.”

             
“Never you mind, child. You have someone who can cook in the family, so I know you won’t starve. Jackson, you want to help me make my pies?”

             
At that innocent comment from my grandmother, Jackson laughed so hard that he almost spilled the coffee he was drinking.              

T
hat was how it went for the rest of the week. Jackson and my grandmother were co-conspirators. Buddies enjoying their time together, and I was almost the outsider. Not that I really minded. I wanted them to be friends.

             
The day before Christmas Eve, Lee came to collect me for a little drive, as he put it, which left Jackson and his new buddy Gran alone to gossip. I’m sure I was to be the main topic of their conversation.

             
Lee took me to his office, the one that I’d spent so many happy hours working alongside him, and I sat across from him tidying his messy desk. That was one thing that Lee and I were worlds apart on. He was messy. I’d finally managed, over the course of an entire summer, to get his office organized for him only to find that it was right back to the way it had been and the way he apparently liked it to be the following week.

             
It was just a habit for me. The second I walked in, I was trying to find order.

             
“Maggie, would you stop that. You know I like it messy.”

“I know.” I sat down in the chair I’d watched him solve so many of others’ problems.

              In fact, it was in that very chair that I’d sat the first time that I met him as a frightened girl of thirteen and told him all the terrible things about my life with my mom. “But I don’t see how you get anything done in here, Lee.”

             
“Kiddo, I told you a long time ago: it’s not what you have to work with, its how you work with what you have. Now, tell me about you. Don’t give me the Sarah version. I want the truth, young lady.”

             
“What do you want to know? That I’m living with Jackson. Well, that much is true. That I’m sleeping with him. Also true, by the way. That’s certainly not the version I would be telling my grandmother right now.”

             
I saw that little smile of his that told me he knew the crap I was trying to play on him and he wasn’t buying my tough girl act. “You think she doesn’t know that already?” Lee countered with a little hardball of his own. “You think your grandmother is that out of touch? Sorry, honey—but she knows. So, you can skip the good girl act. What I meant was, are you happy? I know you love him; I can see that. Does he make you happy? Do you think he loves you, too?”

             
I couldn’t sit still across from those blue eyes of Lee’s that at this moment were reminding me far too much of Jackson’s. “No, no I don’t think he loves me, Lee. I’m not so sure Jackson's geared that way. But you’re right about one thing. I’m crazy about him.”

             
“I know…it shows. You’ve changed so much since meeting him.”

             
Lee watched me pace around his tiny little office, more nervous than I could ever remember being with him.

             
“Did I just make the biggest mistake of my life by staying in Austin with Jackson, Lee? Should I have ignored my heart and came back home to work? I could be happy here.”

             
“Oh, Maggie…the only one who can answer that fully is you, and maybe Jackson. If you’re asking me what my opinion of him is, I have to tell you, honey, I’m impressed. He's done more than you can imagine with his life and he still gives back to the community. Did you know that? Jackson Riley’s been involved for a long time fighting for better housing for the poor, not to mention help for the homeless. You should be proud of him.”

             
I turned back to look at the man that so many times I’d wished was my father. I didn’t know any of those things about the man I loved. Jackson never talked much about his work. I realized then that he’d been so busy getting my story out of me that there was so little that I really knew about him. I desperately wanted to know all about Jackson Riley. Every little thing—both the good and the bad. I wanted to know everything about his life. I only knew his parents were gone and his only brother had died in a plane crash years ago. Not much to know about someone you loved.

             
Now I desperately wanted to know all the little things that made him happy—all the things that made him sad. I was determined to find out everything about Jackson Riley.

             
For now, I decided I needed to know what
this
guy’s intentions were with my grandmother.

             
“So what’s up with you and Gran? You two have been making goo-goo eyes at each other all week long and frankly it’s disgusting.” I was joking—well mostly, but I could tell Lee notice my small amount of reluctance.

             
“I plan on asking her to marry me and, yes, Miss Monroe, I do believe she will accept. So what’s your take on that?”

             
He knew it—he just wanted to hear me say it. “Lee, I love you and I love Gran and if you two want to get married then go ahead and do it with my blessing.”

             
“You’re just a little put off about it, am I right? Its okay, Maggie, I understand. You’ve had her to yourself for such a long time and I know how much you hate change. Baby girl, you’re going to have to get over that because like it or not, I’m going to marry my girl. I love her and I want to be her husband and it’s time for you to accept that.”

             
With Lee thoroughly putting me in my place, what else could I do but grin and bear it.

****

              Christmas Eve at our house always starts out with a big breakfast. Imagine my surprise when I found my boyfriend busily making pancakes for my sweet grandmother and Lee.

             
“Oh, I wish I had a camera!” I stood grinning at him from the door of our kitchen. “I could so blackmail you with that shot.”

             
Jackson kissed my cheek and gave my butt a little pat then showed me his hands, which were covered in flour, as was my backside.

             
The four of us spent the day entertaining all of my grandmother’s friends that dropped by.

             
All day long, there was a certain amount of surprise in the air. Of course, I knew what it was as did Jackson, but Gran didn’t and that had a certain amount of Christmas magic in it.

             
The candlelight service at church was small and very moving. When we returned to the house, Jackson and I got the wink from Lee, which told us it was time to scatter. I took my guy up to my hiding spot to watch the stars.