Somebody's Lover: The Jackson Brothers, Book 1

leather skirt and spandex shirt at the back of her underwear drawer in case Connie wanted to borrow some clothes. They often swapped outfits instead of buying something new, especially when Connie claimed Mitch was being tight, as he was recently.
    Jace arrived at noon, hair still wet from his shower, and got the barbecue going, because that was man’s work. Taylor hadn’t been able to meet his eye, so she didn’t know if he’d even looked at her. She crossed her fingers, hoped and prayed he wouldn’t say anything to anyone about having seen her last night.
    It would have been a lot easier to forget if he didn’t look so good in jeans. His chestnut hair was starting to wave as it dried in the sun. He looked so hot, her heart did a little rat-a-tat-tat against her breast.
    She’d always thought he was good-looking. She’d never felt guilty about admiring his butt in jeans before, because she’d always stopped herself right there. Well, almost right there.
    Evelyn wouldn’t understand about last night. As much as Taylor told herself she wouldn’t be tossed out of the family if she one day invited a boyfriend to the Sunday barbecue, her heart told her otherwise. She was Lou’s wife, and widowed or not, she always would be.
    The family never talked about Lou’s death. They never even said the word dead . Sometimes it was as if Evelyn and Arthur pretended their eldest son was away on a trip. She couldn’t hurt them by dating a new man. She didn’t want to. She got all she needed from being a part of the Jackson family.
    Almost all she needed. Now Jace knew her dark secret. She prayed he’d keep it to himself.
    “Since our men and the kids are all busy,” Evelyn said with a nod at the horseshoe game well under way, “I’ll finish up this potato salad.” She scooped the last glob of potato goo onto her plate. “Connie, you eat the rest of the coleslaw.” She skipped Taylor because her plate was still half full.
    Connie plopped two spoons of slaw onto her plate before waving fondly at her kids. She and Mitch had been married nine years, with Pete coming along just shy of the first year and Rina a couple of years later.
    “Go, Rina,” Evelyn yelled when the little girl’s horseshoe came within two feet of the spike.
    Her mother-in-law’s short cap of gray hair bounced in her excitement, and laugh lines crinkled the corners of her eyes. Her smile took five years off her age of fifty-seven. Terrified of crow’s feet, Taylor’s own mother hadn’t laughed extensively. Not like Evelyn did when a grandkid spouted something outrageous or one of her boys jokingly gave her a hard time. Her sons would always be boys to her, though they ranged in age from David’s thirty-four years to Mitch at thirty-two and Jace at thirty.
    Lou would have been thirty-six. Taylor knew that Evelyn missed him every hour of every day. Truth be told, there hadn’t been as much laughter or joking since Lou died. Most times, any gaiety centered around the children.
    Lou had left a hole none of them had been able to fill. But Evelyn tried, insisting on the barbecues every Sunday and sharing all the holidays together.
    “Arthur, have you got your sunscreen on?” Evelyn called, before popping the last fork of potato salad in her mouth.
    Arthur patted his bald head. “Dear, we’re in the shade.”
    “The sun’s moving round. You don’t want to look like a pink Easter egg.” Then she lowered her voice, “Actually, he’s cute when he has a little pink on top, don’t you think, girls?”
    “He’s adorable no matter what, Mom.” Taylor loved the way Evelyn talked about her husband. Never a snide remark or a cutting glance. Unlike Taylor’s parents.
    “He’s an old fart,” Evelyn scoffed and smiled at the same time. “But he’s my old fart.”
    This is what she’d dreamed of having for herself someday, but she’d put those dreams aside after Lou died. Instead, she had his family. They were everything to her. When Taylor’s parents died in a car accident at the end of her second year in college, Evelyn had taken her under her wing like a chick kicked out of the nest. Or like the mom her own mother had never been. Trundled off to boarding schools or put to bed by au pairs when her parents were traveling, Taylor had been a lonely child, an only child. But not once she met Lou’s family. First daughter-in-law, mother of the first grandchild, Taylor also liked to think of herself as the daughter Evelyn never had.