Natural Attraction (9 page)

Sitting by the elderly ladies’ side in the front passenger seat is a very attractive young woman who looks to be about my age.  She has shiny black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and big gorgeous dark brown eyes that give her an almost Native American look.   

Her complete lack of make-up, yet capacity to look like a super model without it confirms her as a true beauty who requires no product assistance to look stunning.  Do gorgeous people sprout out of the ground around here?

Clearly I live in the wrong area code.

The rear seat of the car is occupied by another attractive, middle-aged woman with spotlessly presented honey blonde hair.  It is cut short to sit just above her shoulders.  She is sporting a splash of make-up around her light brown eyes and a big friendly smile that makes you want to walk over and strike up a cheerful conversation with her.

I swing my gaze back to Jax to see him looking at his feet, still shaking his head.  He looks anything but happy. 

What could be so bad about his mum visiting?

I see him blow out a huge breath and still looking at the ground he reaches up to his eyes and t
akes his sunglasses off.  He does this with one hand while he starts scrubbing over his eyes and forehead with the other, stress emanating from his every movement. 

It is then that he tilts his head sideways to peek at me from under his brows and the next shock of the day hits me. 

Another set of crystal blue eyes framed by the longest, softest looking eyelashes I’ve ever seen on a man.

Jesus, could this guy be any better looking?   Those eyes are almost illegal they are so beautiful.   At least I can confirm that that is his mum driving the car.  I blink, mesmerized, unable to take my eyes off his. 

I vaguely hear the big engine rumble to silence and two car doors squeaking open.  With a surge of willpower I didn’t know I had, I drag my eyes away from Jax’s and swing back to the beautiful car.  I see the three women, all dressed in tracksuit pants, t-shirts and running shoes exiting the car. 

Without a word, they all silently bend back down to the car and
reemerge loaded to the hilt with shopping bags packed with groceries and cleaning buckets full of cleaning products. 

Is this Jax’s personal cleaning and grocery delivery team?

I then hear the deep rumble of Jax’ss voice saying, “Hello Ma,” as he strides towards the elderly woman and bends to give her a peck on the cheek.  “How long you had
this
one?”

“We picked it up yesterday, what d
o you think?  It's gorgeous isn’t it?” His mum announces cheerfully. 

“Your father saw it on some website somewhere and bought it for me to try to heal the loss of writing off the Camaro in Melbourne last week.”

I hear Jax muttering, “Jesus, Ma.  A Gran Torino.  Could you have found anything less powerful and overstated?”

I process the information that this short, elderly,
gray haired woman has a
perm.
She has a perm
and
wrote a Camaro off last week.  She then bought a Gran Torino this week.  This can mean only one thing. 

She is the coolest mum,
ever!

I wish she was
my
mum! 

I can’t help myself, my feet unfreeze from the ground and I semi-jog over to get a closer look at the Gran Torino’s interior.

“This has to be the coolest car I have ever seen,” I announce to no one in particular.   I then continue to cast my eyes lovingly over the car.

Not even hesitating, Jax’s mum turns towards me with her gorgeous blue eyes flashing mischief and her dimples popping. 

She throws her hand towards me and announces loudly, “Now that’s more like the greeting I would have expected from my son on seeing my fantabulous new car.  My name is Rowena Walker but you can call me Ro.  Who my pretty little dear, are you?”

I reach out to gently shake her offered hand. 

“Ashleigh Thompson, it’s nice to meet you and your
fantabulous
car.  I’ve never seen one of these in real life.  I am impressed, almost beyond belief.”

“Why hello Ashleigh.
  What a lovely name and thank you for your appreciation of my new car.  But once again, I ask,
who are you?
”

“Um.”
 

What did she expect me to say to that?
 

I just told her my name, what else did she need to know?  Perhaps she wants my date of birth and place of employment?

“She’s a friend o’ mine Ma and she’s here to get some help with her horse.” Jax interjects piercing me with his crystal blue eyes.

He gives me the distinct feeling I should stop talking.

“Mmmmm, I’m sure she is,” his mother muses glancing between Jax and me suspiciously. 

“
Anyhoooow,” she continues, “Onwards and upwards.  We need to get your house sorted up and get back at my place by three this afternoon. We have some friends coming over for drinks and a Gran Torino tour.  Ashleigh, since Jax hasn’t bothered to introduce you to them, let me do the honors.  This is Rebecca and Teagan, Jax’s sisters-in-law.”

She points first to the middle-aged woman and then to the younger woman.   Both of them smile warmly at me and give me a little nod of acknowledgment.

“We descend every second Saturday morning to restock Jax’s cupboards with real food.  We also try to restore some likeness of order to his poor abused home.  This is sadly a labor of love for us all as my boy Jax here does not have a domestic bone in his body.  He’s always far too busy playing with his horses to bother picking up after himself.  Lucky for him, he has three woman in his life who love him dearly enough that we continue to perform these tasks on his behalf.  We do this while daydreaming that a miracle will occur and he will bother to find himself a lovely new wife who can take over our job.” 

This last piece of information is said with a wink clearly directed towards me.

“Have you had lunch my dear?”

“Um, not yet,” I hesitate to respond glancing at Jax wondering if I am allowed to speak. 

“Good!  You’ll be having lunch with us then,” she announces firmly.

She then starts striding towards Jax’s back door with her bags of goodies and the other two women in tow.  “Give us about half an hour to get organised.  I would recommend you do not even consider coming inside his house until we’ve had at least thirty minutes to repair the main damage to his kitchen and dining area.  I’d also recommend you use the toilet in the barn until after we’ve cleaned the one in his house as his bathroom is not to be tackled by anyone faint of heart.”

I hear Jax groan and look over to see him now looking towards the sky, a faint glow of red smearing across his cheek bones.

“I like her.”  I announce giggling at the honest picture she has painted of Jax’s domestic skills. 

“Most people do.” He mutters under his breath and then swings his eyes back to me. Piercing me with his clear blue gaze, he makes my insides melt while the words ‘
God he’s gorgeous’,
fly through my brain.

“That’s why I try to keep her away from
my friends.  If I don’t, they end up spending more time with her than with me.   She has a way of dragging you into her life and her activities.  As you can see, she even manages to drag my two sisters-in-law over here every fortnight.  I’m sure they have better things to do, their own lives to lead.  They follow her around and do her bidding like she’s Queen Lizzie or something.  I had forgotten it was the second Saturday.  If I had have remembered it was their day to come I would have put you off till tomorrow.  Sorry.”

He sounds genuinely sorry.  For what, I am not exactly sure.  I was the one who should have been sorry.  If I hadn’t have barged up to look at her car, she probably wouldn’t have invited me to lunch.  Not that I care.  The idea of having lunch today, as well as every other lunch in my entire future with Jax feels
like the right thing to do. 

“I can skip lunch with you guys and just go eat mine in my car if that makes it any easier on you?” I offer, secretly hoping that he won’t allow it.

“Shit no.  That’s not an option now.  If you even think about trying to avoid lunch with my Ma she’ll be out here dragging you inside by your ear to sit you at my dining table.  Be prepared be to be overfed.  She thinks I don’t eat enough and she makes it her personal mission to make my seams pop with food every time she visits.  I’ve fallen into a food induced coma more times than I can count after a meal made by my Ma.  Again, I’m sorry, all I can do is apologize in advance.”

“Oh.  Well that sort of settles that then doesn’t it?  What are we goi
ng to do for the next half hour? Do you need to be in there coordinating the disaster recovery mission or something?” I ask feeling happier than I should. 

I look at him expectantly wondering if he is going to abandon me out here alon
e.  As I do this, a weird feeling of being watched overcomes me.  I look towards his house thinking I see a curtain move in the front window.

“Hell no!”
He almost shouts. “If I even try to step foot in there they’ll beat with me a broom or something.  It's safer to stay out here.  Let’s go talk to Maverick and see what sort of a mood he’s in shall we?” 

He grabs my hand gently, sending an electric shock through my body at the intimacy of him holding my hand and starts guiding me towards the day yards. 

“Okay,” I say quietly as I let him drag me along.  I’m sure that if he asks me to jump off a cliff with him I will. 

I turn back one more time to look at the front
of his house and realize I was not imagining that movement before.  There, standing in direct view, are three heads nodding knowingly to one another as they watch us walk away. 

*****

Maverick is very pleased to see us and I can see why as we approach.  I have clearly lost track of time because he has not only finished his hay net, but he has also managed to tip over his water bucket.

“Sorry big boy,” I croon to him as we approach.  “I abandoned you didn’t I?”

He nickers and approaches the gate looking at me keenly.

“Well that’s a good start.”  Jax looks at me nodding.  “He likes you, and he wants to spend some time with you.  You’ve been
working on your relationship.”

“We have!  I listened to your suggestions and I’ve been doing all the things you told me to do.  There’s been an amazing change in him since we got to know each other better.”

I tell him this with just a hint of ‘proud mummy’ in my voice.

“Good, tell me exactly what you can do with him and then give me a demonstration in his yard can you?”

“No worries!” I chirp as I head into Mavericks yard, pausing briefly at the gate while he stretches his nose out and makes first contact with me. “I’ve got heaps to tell you.”

The next fifteen minutes see me giving Jax a blow-by-blow of all that Maverick and I had been through over the past six weeks. 

Jax stops me now and then to ask questions like, “Can you pick his off hind foot up from the near hind side?” Or, “Can you touch his ears?”

I either answer a yes or a no and give him a demonstration if it is a yes, or give it a go with varying levels of success and failure if it is a no.  

The time flies and we both slide into easy conversation while we focus on Maverick.

“Have you put a rug on him before?” Jax asks looking at Maverick thoughtfully.

“No, not yet.  I was told he was rugged regularly to be shown but it’s been too hot for me to bother with one yet.  I don’t do summer rugs, only winter rugs when the weather turns foul.”

“Mmmm, wait here a second and I’ll grub a summer sheet and be right back.”

Jax saunters off towards the barn.

I pass the time while he is away scratching all of Maverick’s itchy spots.

“Here, do you think you’ll need to tie him up?” Jax asks as he re-appears and hands me a neatly folded, black and white check cotton summer rug.

“I don’t know.  What do you suggest?” I ask.

“Give it a go without tying him up and we’ll see what happens hey?  If he’s fine for you to put it on, it shouldn’t matter whether he’s tied up or not.”

I nod my understanding and set about unfolding the rug.  I am about halfway through the process of folding it out straight when I hear what sounds like a drain gurgling noise coming from Maverick. 

Before I can even look up, I hear Jax say quietly.  “Stop Ash.”

“Wh…” I start to ask why as I look towards Maverick and realize why.  He is standing dead still, head in the air, staring at me with what can only be
described as dead eyes.  Lifeless, black eyes that hold no reflection.

“Um, what the hell is he doing?” I ask.

“He’s catatonic Ash.”

“What’s catatonic?”

“Not good.  You just need to stop what you’re doing and let him relax.  Clearly he’s not so rapt at the idea of having a rug put on him.”