Both of Travis’s eyebrows lifted. “You broke it off?”
“No,” Jackson told him. “I didn’t want to dump it all on her at once,” he admitted. “I told her I needed six months. Told her about Mia and Casey and I figure I’ll let Marian be the one to call it off. I owe her that much, anyway. But either way, the marriage isn’t going to happen.”
“Thank God,” Travis said, a half smile on his face as he took another drink of wine.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jackson looked at him and waited.
“Nothing. Just,” Travis shot a glance at Adam as if for support, then looking back at Jackson, he grumbled a little and said, “But man, I never could see why you wanted to entangle yourself up with her.”
Stunned, Jackson looked at both of his brothers in turn. Adam shrugged as if to say he agreed with Travis. “That what you think, too?”
“Hell, yes,” Adam said and got up to pour himself another splash of brandy. At the wet bar, he turned his head, looked at his youngest brother and said, “Jackson, the woman’s about as warm and loving as a rabid polar bear.”
Jackson hunched deeper into his chair, stretched out his legs and crossed one booted foot over the other. “Notice neither one of you said anything when I first suggested marrying her for the merger.”
“You’re a grown-up,” Travis said, leaping out of his chair to join Adam at the bar. He poured more of the ruby-colored wine into his glass, chugged a healthy dollop of it then said, “If you want to make an ass of yourself, who’re we to speak up and stop you?”
“My brothers?”Jackson stood up too and glared at both men. “Hell, you two had marriages of convenience and they worked out fine. You’re happy aren’t you?”
Both of them shrugged and nodded.
“So why shouldn’t I figure the same thing would work for me?”
“Might have if you’d picked someone more…” Travis stopped short of a description of Marian.
“Or someone less…” Adam’s voice trailed off and he shut up too.
Shaking his head, Jackson looked at the two men who had been the one constant in his life. His family. The Kings stood together, everybody knew that. They supported each other. Protected each other.
They always had, anyway. And now the two of them were standing there admitting that they’d been willing to let him walk into a marriage they both thought was wrong?
“This is great,” Jackson said, crossing the room in a few long strides. He stepped around the bar and grabbed up the Irish whiskey. One more splash was all he could afford if he was going to drive home in an hour. “Thanks for nothing.”
“You wouldn’t have listened to us anyway,” Travis said.
“Always did have a head like a rock,” Adam added.
“My own family doesn’t say anything when they think I’m making a mistake.”
Adam looked at Travis. They both turned to Jackson, but Adam spoke first.
“You want an opinion?” he asked. “Fine. Here’s one. If you’re looking for a marriage of convenience that has a shot in hell of working out, why not marry Casey?”
“Huh?”Jackson set his untouched drink down on the bar and stared at the oldest King brother. “The last time I looked Casey doesn’t own any airfields.”
“You’re either the most stubborn of us or the dumbest,” Travis said with a pitiful look in his eyes. “No, she doesn’t have airfields, you moron. But shedoes have your daughter.”
Jackson took a breath and held it. He’d only just slipped out of a marriage that would have been, he could see now, a disaster. And his brothers wanted him to slip his head into another noose? What the hell kind of family support was this, anyway?
“You’re crazy. Both of you,” he said, with a look at each of them in turn.
“We’re crazy?” Adam countered. “You’re the one who seems willing to settle for six months with your kid. You’re the one who’s willing to let Mia and Casey stroll out of your life when there’s something you could do to stop it.”
Jackson’s chest tightened. He wasn’t sure why. He only knew that it was suddenly hard to breathe. Yes, he cared about Casey. And he loved Mia. But marrying the mother of his child just to get his child didn’t sound like the right thing to do either.
“You know,” he said, “you guys sound like you’ve got all the answers. You’re standing there giving me advice like you’re experts on this stuff.”
“Weare married,” Travis pointed out. “To women we love.”
“Uh-huh,” Jackson countered, forgetting about the damned whiskey and shoving both hands into his jeans pockets. “And let’s just think a minute about how smoothly you guys handled things with your women.”
“Just a damn minute,” Adam told him.
“No you wait,” Jackson said, turning on his oldest brother. “Think back, huh? Didn’t you make Gina so damn miserable she ran all the way to Colorado? Wasn’t going to come back, was she? Not until you groveled and begged your way back into her heart.”
“I didn’t grovel,” Adam muttered, a muscle in his jaw ticking.
“You sure as hell did,” Travis said, laughing now and shaking his head.
“Just like you,” Jackson told him, his gaze fixing on the middle King brother.
“Excuse me?” Travis’s eyes narrowed and his laughter fell away.
“You heard me. You didn’t have the guts to admit you wanted Julie until she damn near died when that elevator fell.”
Travis shoved him. “You don’t know a thing about what happened between me and Julie.”
Jackson didn’t budge. His temper jumped inside, boiling and frothing as he looked at his older brothers. Sure their lives were good now, but it hadn’t always been so and damned if he’d let them forget it.
“Yeah I do. And you know what, neither one of you is qualified for the job of advice god. So back off.”
In the thundering silence that followed his short speech, all three of them glared at each other. Finally though, Adam spoke up. “He’s got a point.”
“Don’t tell him that,” Travis muttered, taking another sip of wine.
Jackson laughed, temper gone as fast as it had come and reached for his glass of Irish. He took a swallow, letting the heat slide down his throat and spread through his system. Looking at his now just a bit sheepish brothers, he shrugged, point made and enjoyed the renewed sense of camaraderie. “Damn, when did life get so complicated?”