Read Online A Plain Love Song by Kelly Irvin - Free Book Online Page A

going to ask how I’m doing?”
    Her first time back at the house after the accident, Adah had learned from Mrs. Hart that Jackson had suffered a broken ankle. The cut on his chest had required nine stitches, he had half a dozen broken ribs, and the bruises had been many and colorful, but he would live, as his mother put it. “From the looks of you, you’re doing fine.”
    “Nice.”
    She did sound sharper than she intended. “I mean, you seem to be mending quickly.”
    “It’s irritating my dad that I’m not helping out more.” He waved his hand over the cast. “But truthfully, it’s been good. It’s giving me time to work on my music and finish some songs I started while I was at school. I figure things happen for a reason. Anyway, I thought I’d sit here and work on a song I just started.”
    He wrote songs. Not just the lyrics like she did, but the notes too.The melody. It took every ounce of her willpower not to ask questions. How did he make the words match the music? Did the words come first or the music? Did the words whirl around in his head the way they did in hers?
    Daed’s words beat a rhythm in her head. She wasn’t to be alone with Jackson. She breathed and tried to smooth her expression. Maid, house cleaner, nothing more. “Where’s your mother?”
    “I think she went for a ride. She likes to exercise her horse herself.” He pulled a nub of a pencil sporting an oversized pink eraser from behind his ears. His skin reddened under the dark stubble on his chin but his gaze stayed on the paper in front of him. “She told me what your dad said.”
    Heat blistered Adah’s skin. She felt as if she’d been dipped in boiling water. Why would Mrs. Hart share this conversation with Jackson? She’d looked surprised at Adah’s explanation that she would have to come back another time if Mrs. Hart wasn’t there when she came to clean. “She did?”
    “You helped me out when I was in a fix. I appreciated it. I thought we got off to a good start. Now your father thinks I’m dangerous or something?” Jackson seemed to have a great interest in the notebook in front of him. “What did you tell him about me? All I did was get kicked around by a horse. That may make me an idiot, but it don’t make me dangerous.”
    “It’s not that. It’s we’re…he’s…we…we’re traditional.” Was that the right word? She searched her vocabulary for a word an Englisch man would understand. “You’re not married. I’m not married. It’s not considered…proper.”
    “I may have some rough edges, but I don’t take advantage of women.” Now his gaze met hers. Some emotion she couldn’t pinpoint danced in his eyes. He leaned back and tugged a pick from his jeans pocket, then picked up the guitar and began to pluck one note at a time, slowly and carefully. Each note sounded hopeful. Hopeful that another might follow. “My parents brought me up right. I try real hard to be a gentleman when it comes to the ladies.”
    He did seem to have good manners. Still, she’d promised Daed.“Then why are you sitting here if you know I’m not supposed to be alone in the house with you?”
    “Good point.” A red the color of beets seeped across his face and crept up to his hairline under hair so tousled it looked as if he’d forgotten to comb it. “Sorry. I was stuck on a verse that isn’t coming out right. I thought a change of scenery would help.” He plucked another single note. “Back at school, I found that really helped. I’d drive to a park or just drive around and the words would come. Now I can’t drive so I’m stuck here.”
    “I’m supposed to feel sorry for you?” Adah slapped her hand to her mouth. The man was the son of her employer. No call for her to be rude. “I mean, I’m sorry you’re stuck, but I have to clean the house, not babysit.”
    “Do I look like I need a babysitter? I just thought…you’re good company. You’re cleaning, I’m writing, what does it hurt?”
    He’d