Jax watched as Chad Stanton, hands shoved leisurely in his pockets, continued to stroll along, glancing about as if looking for someone. All of a sudden Jax noticed that Chad was not alone, walking a bit behind him was Jessa Williston. This just got stranger and stranger.

Chad continued his looking around, all but ignoring the young woman trailing at his heels, as he was intent upon seeking someone out. In his scanning of the people down at the River Walk, Chad’s eyes touched upon Jax, who was staring at him coolly. Chad stiffened at first but then relaxed and just gave Jax a bland smile and resumed his gazing about. If Jax were near, Brenda would be, too, Chad knew.

“Is everything all right?” Aunt Violet asked Jax.

“I don’t know yet,” Jax murmured, never taking his eyes off of Chad. He instinctively knew that it was Brenda that the desperate doc was seeking out. And if the man tried to get within ten feet of her Jax was very likely going to toss him into the river.

“Do you know that man?” Aunt Violet queried, curious as to Jax’s glower.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Jax muttered.

Brenda, Jerry and Joanna were making their way over to where Jax and Aunt Violet awaited them, oblivious to Chad’s presence. Jax knew the precise moment that Stanton spotted Brenda, because the man lit up like a Christmas tree and a stark longing leapt into his eyes.

Jax wanted to shove him into the river just for looking at Brenda like that, but really there were no laws to prevent a man from gaping at a woman so beautiful. Still, should he try to approach her, he was going to be swimming for his life in the next breath, Jax vowed.

But Chad did not try to approach her - perhaps he knew better. He merely followed her every movement with his eyes as she headed towards Jax. From the corner of his eye he kept an eye upon Jax as well, knowing that Jax had his eyes upon him in return.

“Can you swim?” Chad asked Jessa matter-of-factly, his gaze still upon Brenda, a feast to the eyes.

“No,” Jess responded, looking upon him in confusion.

“Good,” he responded. “How would you like your white knight to rescue you?”

“What?” she asked in further confusion, her brow wrinkling like a thinking child.

Instead of answering her, Chad merely turned his body more and more as he watched Brenda, knowing all the while Jax was watching him. He turned and turned as if oblivious to Jessa being behind him and precariously close to the rail, and then with a sharp turn he allowed his elbow to jab sharply enough into the woman’s chest to set her off-balance and send her careening over the rail and into the muddy, churning waters of the Mississippi below.

As Chad knew he would, Jax reacted immediately, his lifeguard and deep-sea diver skills kicking into autopilot, and he leaped into the water after the screaming, terrified Jessa. Chad made some pretense himself of being about to jump in to rescue her, but then the color drained from his face as he saw Brenda running screaming over to where all the commotion was.

Brenda would have seen Jax go into the water, he realized. Would she have realized he’d jumped in of his own volition, or would she assume he had fallen in somehow and in a panic run in herself to help him? It would be illogical of her to do that, of course, for she was married to the man and knew he swam like he was part fish, but a panicked woman never thought rationally.

“Brenda!” Chad called out, appalled at the thought of anything happening to her. “Brenda, no don’t!”

But he could do nothing but watch as the reckless, young beauty raced to the rail, yelling out her husband’s name and heeding neither Chad’s call, nor that of Jerry, Joanna or the old woman.

Just before Brenda impulsively leapt into the Mississippi, Jax saw what she was about to do and added his voice to the chorus of protests.

“Brenda, no!” he yelled, attempting to dissuade her from her very much unneeded ‘rescue’ while at the same time he struggled with the thrashing woman in his arms, who did not yet seem to realize she was quite safe from drowning now and could calm herself.

With a splash Brenda was in the water, sinking below it upon her entry and then surfacing to the top and making a face at the murky water she found herself in. Ick! She blinked the water from her eyes and searched around frantically for Jax and upon spotting him, was bewildered to see him with a thrashing woman in his arms. Had Jax not fallen in as a result of some injury to himself, but had in fact jumped in of his own volition to help someone else?

“Brenda!” Jax was growling at her.

Oops, she guessed he had not needed her help after all. And really, what could she have done if he’d been hurt? He was six feet, two inches of lean, solid muscle, and she would have been hard pressed to get him out of the water on her own.

She swam her way over to him and the damsel he had rescued and was shocked to see that it was Jessa Williston, who had finally seemed to calm down and stop her thrashing. But only because she had fainted.

“Okay, you can stop glaring at me now,” Brenda said, as she reached him and began heading back to shore with him and his fainted burden. “I thought you were in trouble, Jax. And I know how to swim…”

“That is not the point,” he said, and she realized he was truly angry with her.

She frowned and waited until they were to a section shallow enough that both were able to walk the rest of the way in to the pier in the water before she spoke again. “Wait a minute - so you’re angry with me?” she voiced her thoughts out loud, making a face again as a small swell from the muddy waters went over her head. Of course Jax was so much taller it merely lapped at his chest.

“Yes, I am angry with you, damn it. I told you not to jump in here,” he said, placing the still passed out Jessa over his shoulder, a scowl on his handsome face. “You could have broken your bloody neck if you’d fallen onto the pier below instead of hitting the river!”

“I was already jumping over the rail when I heard you,” she said defensively.

“You’re too impulsive,” Jax murmured, grabbing her hand to keep her with him as another small swell came upon them.

“Look who’s talking!” she countered, gesturing to him and the woman slung over his shoulder.

Jax rolled his eyes. “You cannot possibly compare the two. Brenda, I am trained for this, and I know this river. You may be an excellent swimmer, love, but that means very little in a river such as this one. There are dangerous swells and unpredictable undercurrents in this river which have taken many a life of an unsuspecting swimmer, and . . .”

As if in a nightmarish parody of his words, a large swell came just then accompanied by an undercurrent, pushing him forward and toppling Brenda backward as it pulled her hand from his with stunning force and carried her back out into the river in a whoosh.

“Brenda!” he yelled, seeing her go under. She resurfaced, sputtering and tried to swim back to him. For every few strokes she took forward, the swell carried her out further. “No, Brenda! Swim to the side, not straight towards me! To the side!” Jax called out frantically to her, unsure if she could even hear him if she were panicking at how all her efforts to swim back to the relative more shallow water and safety of the pier were getting her nowhere but father out into the river. He knew he could not go to her without dropping Jessa, and he didn’t want to waste time running the rest of the way to pier in the water to drop Jessa off. Frustrated Jax yelled: “Jerry!” And like an answer to a prayer, Jerry was there, having leapt in at the first sight of the swell carrying his sister-in-law back out into the river.

“Give her to me,” Jerry said briskly, but Jax was already dumping Jessa into his brother’s chest and then swimming like a fish to get to his wife, who was even further out now.

Taking in this entire scene was Chad, whose heart was racing with worry at seeing Brenda drift further and further out. “Swim, you bastard, swim!” he said to Jax’s form, as it sliced through the water as if he were part man, part aquatic wonder. He had a ways to go to reach her now, she’d been taken so far out. “Nothing must happen to her!” Chad groaned and was itching to leap into the Mississippi himself to save her. But if Jax couldn’t do it, no one could - for there was no better-trained diver than he. And no stronger swimmer. “For godsakes, go and help them!” Chad shouted furiously to the captain of one of the riverboats.

“If I move near them in a riverboat of this size, it’s only going to make the swell worse, you damned fool!” the caption shouted back. “I already called 9-1-1!”

Quite a crowd had gathered by this time and emergency services had been called by several others besides the riverboat captain, as it was clear to everyone looking on that the girl was growing weary in her effort to reach the pier, obviously bewildered at how all of her strong swimming was still not bringing her any closer, but in fact carrying her farther out. And they had no idea if the man, who might himself be wearied from rescuing the first gal who’d fallen in, had the strength in him to rescue the second so soon considering how far out she had been carried.

Had they known, as Jerry and Chad both did, that the young woman in question meant everything in the world to Jax, they would never have doubted his ability to snatch her from the river’s swells that seemed determined to swallow her up and take her away from him on this post-Christmas day in New Orleans.

Jax felt a wild sense of panic, as he could no longer locate Brenda. He gazed wildly about while treading the water. Where had she gone?

“Brenda!” he yelled her name, once again glancing about wildly, trying not to let the panic cloud his logic or make him make a mistake. He was about to dive under the murky surface when he saw her dark hair bobbing to the surface a few feet away. God, he knew she had to be exhausted, unable to swim another stoke. She would sink! “Brenda! Sweetheart, I’m right here. Just tread water or float. Stop trying to swim - I’m coming to get you!”

She did not respond to him and a panic like he had never known in his life cut through his body like ice, even though it was a relatively warm, 62-degree December’s day. He was next to her with a few more powerful strokes and had her securely with one arm, while he maneuvered the two of them sideways through the swells until they were close enough to the pier where the water was shallow enough for him to run through the water to reach it. At that point he hauled Brenda up into his arms and broke for the pier. He placed her upon it and then climbed out of the water and leaned above her, eyes wild and heart rate frantic and barely able to catch his breath after his two rescues.

He bent towards his wife seeking a pulse, and a whoosh of relief ran through him when it was easily found. She had not drowned nor taken in much water into her lungs; was merely too exhausted from her efforts to fight against being taken out to sea by the swell. Too exhausted to open her eyes, but her pulse was beating and her heart was pounding, and as he leaned close to her he could even feel the soft warmth of her breath against his cheek.

“You’re all right now,” he assured her, kissing her forehead. “I would never let anything happen to you.”

“So tired,” she whispered so softly that he could barely hear her. “Can’t move.”

“It’s all right, I’ve got you. I’m here,” Jax said, lifting her into his arms and holding her to his heart as she stood with her. “Can you at least open your eyes for me?”

Slowly and with great effort she did so just as they were all at once surrounded by Jerry, Joanna, Aunt Violet and a crowd of concerned people along with some paramedics rushing up to them. And Chad. There he was rushing up to them, too.

“Out of my way, I’m a doctor! Let me see her!” he roared, desperate to see with his own eyes if Brenda was all right.

“Stay the hell away from her,” Jax said; his eyes a glacial blue; his slowly enunciated words brooking no argument. Those eyes then went to Jerry questioningly. “Where’s Jessa?”

“She’s right here,” Jerry said. “She’s fine. Is Brenda all right?”

Jax nodded. “She just completely exhausted herself trying to fight the swells.”

“Jax, you’re exhausted, too,” Jerry said noting his brother’s still ragged breathing and slight unsteadiness. “Let me hold Brenda,” Jerry offered.

“No,” Jax said, not about to relinquish her to anyone, not even his brother. Yes, his arms ached from his desperate swim to get to her and his legs too felt strangely unsteady and his lungs burned and he was having the damndest time getting his breath back into them, but he would not let her go. And when they got home he was going to read her the bloody riot act!

“Would you like us to examine your wife, Mr. Jacks?” one of the paramedic asked, recognizing who Jax and Jerry were immediately.

Jax nodded and followed the man towards the ambulance. Then he turned back to Jerry. “Jerry, take Jessa home to our house. I’m sure her grandmother will have a change of heart about whose care she left her granddaughter in once she hears about what happened here today,” he said, looking pointedly at Chad.

Chad stiffened. “It was an accident!”

“You’re an accident, Stanton,” Jax said, “And I’m not leaving her with you,” Jax said coldly, and then turned his back on him and continued to head towards the ambulance.

Chad watched them leaving and a pleased smile touched his lips as this part of his plan at least had worked like clockwork. Endangering Brenda had been an atrocity that would never happen again, but the rest of it had worked like a charm. For now Jessa would be installed in the Jacks mansion and be Chad’s spy as well as his means of starting problems for Jax and Brenda. It could not have worked out more perfectly. Of course, he would have to get a moment alone with the daft girl and explain to her why he’d shoved her into the Mississippi. Her feeble brain, so love-struck on Jax, would accept his explanation with gullible ease.

Brenda awoke feeling tired. But not as if she’d slept too little, but rather too much. Her shoulders ached and so did her legs, and with a soft groan she made herself get up and slipped her legs over the side of the bed. She was alone in the bedroom, she noticed. She blinked her eyes. It was clearly daylight, and so Jax must be out jogging along the bayou. But then she noticed the clock in the room and her eyes widened. It was well past morning. It was a quarter past noon!

“Holy cow,” she murmured, walking slowly into the bathroom. She showered and changed and then ventured downstairs, her stomach grumbling for sustenance. She left the wing of the house that belonged to her and Jax and walked downstairs and along the hallway that led to the kitchen, but stopped when she heard voices in the dining room. She walked in there and saw Jax and Justin seated at the table and was surprised to find Jessa Williston there as well.

“Well, welcome back to the land of the living,” Justin teased her. But Jax’s level gaze at his brother let it be known he found no humor in the statement.

“Sorry, I had no idea it was so late,” Brenda apologized, and then grimaced when her stomach growled.

Justin grinned, while even Jax could not suppress the hint of a smile that touched his sensual mouth.

“You’re just in time for lunch,” Jax said to her, rising to pull out a chair for her next to him.

She looked at him warily, feeling off-kilter by his unreadable mood, and slipped into the offered chair. He bent and brushed his lips warmly against her own and from the corner of her eye she thought she saw Jessa stab at her chicken salad with an odd fury. What was Jessa doing here anyway?

“Where is everybody?” Brenda queried.

“Dad and Jerry had to fly to London for a meeting,” Justin supplied. “Mum went to luncheon with the mayor’s wife and took a reluctant Aunt Violet with her. Joanna is attempting to grow vegetables in that little patch of dirt she calls a garden, and she dragged Juliet along with her to the nursery to pick up all the necessary items for her gardening experiment. Since neither of them know a thing about gardening, they shall probably never return.”

Brenda laughed.

“Did you sleep well?” Jax asked her, gazing at her with blue eyes so unreadable that it was frustrating the heck out of her.

“Ummm…yes. I think so. I feel sort of achy though,” she confessed, wincing a bit as she rolled her shoulders.

“That is to be expected,” her husband responded, as he poured a glass of iced tea for her and then reached one hand over to massage the back of her neck. “Swimming for one’s life often results in such.”

She shifted her eyes away from him to glance at the lunch selection on the table. Hmmm, so he was still upset with her then, she realized. Probably because he hadn’t gotten a chance to yell at her about it all yesterday. At least she could not recollect any yelling. Actually, she didn’t recollect much after Jax had pulled her out of that disgusting, muddy river.

“Was I given something . . .to make me sleep so long?” she inquired.

“Yes,” Jax told her. “Dr. Winters said it was mandatory that you sleep. You had quite a case of exhaustion. You couldn’t move a muscle.”

“Oh,” she murmured. “I don’t really remember that.”

“Mmm hmmm,” Jax said, looking at her.

She wanted to groan out loud. What did he want from her? She was sorry, she really was. He was right, she was too impulsive. She could have died. He could have died trying to keep her from dying. She never should have jumped into that river; it only made him have to rescue two people instead of one when all was said and done.

And recalling that other person he’d saved, Brenda turned to Jessa, mortified at being so rude as to not even have acknowledged her.

“Hi, Jessa,” she said. “It’s nice to have you here for lunch today.”

“She was here for breakfast, too,” Justin informed his sister-in-law. “And will be here for dinner.”

“Excuse me?” Brenda said, confused.

“Jessa will be staying here until her grandmother and sister return from their trip,” Jax supplied.

“Oh. I thought she was staying with . . .”

“Those arrangements have been changed,” Jax cut her off, not even wanting to hear the Stanton name mentioned.

Brenda smiled over at Jessa. “Well, good. I think its much better that you’re here, anyway,” she said.

Jessa smiled at her. “So do I,” she said, and then proceeded to blow bubbles in her iced tea. “I feel safe with Jax,” she added. “He saved me yesterday.” She beamed a brilliant smile over at Jax.

“Yeah. He saved me, too,” Brenda said, flashing her husband a quick look to see if his mood was still weird. His eyes were upon her, gorgeous and unreadable. She wanted to kick him.

“He saved me first,” Jessa muttered.

Brenda turned her attention back to their guest. “I’m sorry, Jessa, what did you say?”

“Nothing,” Jessa responded. “I’m older than you are, you know, Brenda.”

“I know,” Brenda said, giving her an indulgent smile.

“And I’m taller than you.”

Brenda laughed. “Yes, you are.”

“I think maybe I’m prettier than you, too,” she said.

Brenda was about to indulge her with another ‘yes, you are’, but Jax spoke first.

“You are very lovely, Jessa. But there has not been a female born who is more beautiful than my wife,” he said. “And no one is more stubborn, nor reckless, nor impetuous . . .”

“Jax,” Brenda said, standing up abruptly, her cheeks a quite lovely shade of rose. “Can I speak with you privately please?”

He rose as well. “By all means, love. After you,” he said, tossing down his napkin and gesturing that she should precede him out into the gardens.

She stalked outside, while Jax sauntered casually after her. And Justin, watching them both, laughed and shook his head.

Once they were alone in the gardens Brenda swiveled around to face Jax. “I am sorry, all right?” she blurted out. “I’m sorry for jumping in after you. I’m sorry that for some ridiculous reason I always want to protect you at all costs. I’m sorry that there are swells and undercurrents in that river and that I didn’t know about that. I’m sorry that I’m impulsive, I’m sorry that . . .”

Jax cupped his hand over her mouth and shook his head slowly. “Hush,” he said softly.

She removed his hand. “Jax, I’m sorry that what I did made you have to turn around and rescue me. I… I know I could have died yesterday. I know that I placed you in danger as well . . .”

His hand was back over her mouth. “This is not about me or what could have happened to me,” he said to her. “You are my life and well worth dying for. This is about you, Brenda. It’s about you endangering you, which is something I have discovered is utterly unacceptable to me.”

She moved his hand once more. “I’m sorry . . .”

He silenced her with a fiercely passionate kiss that stunned her into the mode of silence he wanted.

“I do not want your apologies, my love, I want you to promise me you will cease doing reckless things like what you did yesterday, ever again. Do you know what I did all day yesterday after we got you home? I sat there right by our bed and stared at you. For hours. My mind was filled with those ‘what ifs’ - what could have happened to you. I wanted to shake you awake then and there to demand that you swear to me that you would never do anything like that ever again. I was ready to call my attorney and have you put it in bloody writing!” He raked a hand through his hair and paced a small path along the grass. “You know me, Brenda. You know that I’m not a person who is accustomed to feeling . . . feeling helpless.”

This time it was her hand that came up to cover his mouth. “Call your lawyer. I’ll put it in writing.”

He removed her hand slowly. A faint smile touched his lips. “Do you understand what I’m saying to you, sweetheart? I know you are an impulsive person. I quite adore that aspect of you. But I just want you to think before you act. You know I swim like a fish; you know I am also a licensed deep-sea diver. You know there was no need to jump into that river. All you had to do was ask Aunt Violet what had happened, or asked any one of the bystanders or even just looked over the rail yourself and you would have seen I was fine.”

She nodded contritely. “I know. I just… I didn’t stop to think.”

“ I know.”

She stamped her foot suddenly, “It’s… it’s this being in love thing, Jax! It makes your emotions go haywire!” she insisted.

He nodded slowly. “I know that, too.” He drew her to him, his hands caressing her beautiful face.

She gazed up at him. “When do you think it calms down? When do you think we reach that point of that mellow happiness without all the heart-palpitating reactions to everything?” she asked.

Jax shook his head. “I don’t know. This being in love is as new to me as it is to you, and I don’t know what to expect any more than you do. Although, I have this feeling that you and I will never reach that stage of calm, mellow happiness,” he said truthfully. “I think the heart-palpitating stage won’t ever go away. At least, that is how it feels to me each time I look at you.”

“I feel the same way,” she told him, chewing on her lip. “But surely one day we’ll be like your parents or like Jerry and Joanna. And love won’t be like this tumultuous waterfall that makes our hearts race all the time and makes our emotions go all over the place, but will instead be like a placid, beautiful stream.”

He grinned at her. Kissed her lips softly. “I fear we will always be the waterfall, my love,” he said candidly, for he truly believed that. He could not ever envision the day when his heart wouldn’t race when she was near him or his emotions would be content to simply be clam and peaceful in her presence.

And she was dead wrong about his parents. Their love was no placid lake. They, too, were the waterfalls. And if they were the waterfalls, Jax thought, he and Brenda surely were the white water rapids, then.

Chad was annoyed at how long he had to wait until he saw Jessa alone. But at last, three days after she had moved into the Jacks mansion, he spotted her playing gaily in the front of the house with those menacing mongrels the Jacks family owned.

Quickly Chad crossed the street and raced up the long driveway of the Jacks estate to the gated entrance.

“Jessa!” he called out to her, gazing about to make sure no member of the family were nearby. “Jessa come here quickly!”

Jessa heard his sharp whisper and saw him standing by the gate motioning impatiently for her to come to him. She looked about and then raced to the gate, the dogs at her heels.

“Open the gate and come out here,” Chad ordered. “And don’t allow those dogs to follow you,” he said, looking warily at the animals, who were growling unwelcomingly at him.

Jessa obeyed him, and he led her behind a massive oak tree for privacy.

“Why did you push me in the water, Dr. Chad?” she asked accusingly.

“To get Jax to rescue you, of course. And to get him to arrange for you to live in his house. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To live here with Jax?”

Jessa nodded. “But Brenda still lives here, too. She lives on Jax’s side of the house with him. They put me on the other side with his mother and father and Juliet,” she whined.

“Well, we will take care of rescuing Brenda from this insane family next. Now look, I got you in here for a reason. You’re going to help me get Brenda out of here, do you understand?”

She nodded and skipped around the tree. With an impatient oath Chad grabbed her arm. “Stay still! We don’t want anyone to see you out here and catch us together. No one can know we are working on this together, all right? Or you will never get Jax.”

Well, that certainly got her wandering attentions. For as simpleminded as the woman was, she knew what she wanted all right: Jasper Jacks.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

Chad leaned towards her and whispered his instructions. “Do you understand me?” he asked when he was done.

She nodded.

“And we need to meet once a week. We’ll meet on this day at this time and by this tree, all right? I want a weekly report as to how things are going so that I can further instruct you.”

“Okay,” she said.

Chad glanced at his watch. “I’m going to be late for my rounds,” he muttered. “I have to leave. Now you go on back inside and remember everything I’ve told you.” And then he gave her a gentle shove in the direction of the gates.

She went back inside; once again playing with the dogs, not caring that they leapt upon her, their paws dirtying her simple, white dress.

Chad shook his head as he watched her. The simpleminded idiot really thought she would win Jax in this little game of theirs. Well, there was no chance in hell of that, but none of that mattered to Chad. As long as he got Brenda, that was all that mattered.

As he walked out of the Jacks driveway and crossed the street to this own family’s property, he saw his mother in the open door of the garage staring unhappily at him.

“Chadwick,” she said accusingly, “what were you doing over there? You know the Jackses don’t want you there.”

Chad shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure Jessa was doing all right,” he said.

His mother glared at him. “Do you take me for a fool, Chad? You don’t give two hoots about that woman. You went there to try to catch a glimpse of that girl, Brenda. Ever since the Jacks family put up that water fountain with that reflective bottom, you can’t see her with your telescope anymore, so now you’ve taken to sneaking over there to catch a glance!” she accused.

Chad waved her off. “You are delusional, Mama. And I am late for rounds.”

“You are always late for rounds!” she shouted at him. “Heaven help us all, you have become obsessed with that girl, Chad, and it is going to destroy you!” his mother warned. “Please come with me to the Archer’s dinner party tomorrow. Becky Albert will be there, and she’s been asking about you . . .”

“For the love of god, I have no interest in that cloying, simpering dimwit!” Chad roared, his eyes livid. There was only one woman he wanted. Only one! And he was sick and tired of his mother trying to set him up with others and ridiculing his one heart’s desire. “Now, excuse me, Mama, as I said, I am late for my rounds.” And without another word, he hopped into his car and drove off to the hospital, leaving his mother gazing after him, a look of worry clouding her eyes and a fervent wish that Brenda Barrett Jacks did not exist filling her heart.

Brenda sat out on the back patio perusing the song sheets in her hands excitedly and then flinging herself into Jax’s arms.

“Jax, thank you!” she squealed. “How did you ever get your hands on these?” she asked, once again gazing at the music sheets.

“A friend of Justin’s,” he said with a smile. “You had mentioned to me before we left for Colorado how you intended to try out for the lead role, and Justin mentioned to me that in order to give you a fighting chance I should try to procure the music in advance for you since many of the other candidates will undoubtedly have gotten their hands on it as well and thus have the advantage over you at the tryouts this spring. Justin said he would be happy to help you with this. I supposed that means he’ll practice with you - sing the male parts, give you constructive criticism, and all that.”

She laughed and leapt up into his arms, straddling her legs about his hips. “You are the best!” she declared, kissing him. “Do you know that?”

“The best at making you happy, I hope. That’s all I want to be.”

The smile she gave him was bedazzling. “You are the very best at that,” she assured him.

Jax looked at her, his eyes drinking her in, his heart racing. He shook his head, a faint smile gracing his lips. “We will always be the waterfall,” he murmured, as his mouth sought hers for a most delicious, deep and lengthy kiss. It went on and on, neither one of them wanting to stop the hot, melting pleasure that so deeply stirred their senses.

But then Jax slowly parted his mouth from hers, not wanting to allow the wildness she so easily ignited in his blood free rein now, when he and Justin were off to a most important meeting concerning taking over the hospital. It was no time to allow his utter besottedness with his wife to detain him.

“I have to go,” he whispered, kissing the tip of her nose.

The previous kiss had left Brenda divinely dizzy, and she wanted another one. “Just one more kiss. You’ll be gone all day,” she said quickly.

And he obliged her, his head dipping down as he took hungry possession of her sweet lips with his mouth. And he kissed her and kissed her, his tongue dancing erotically and delectably with her own until she could barely breathe from the pleasure of his mouth.

She moaned softly into his mouth, and he returned it with a deep, stirring moan of his own and then ended the kiss abruptly, knowing damn well he wouldn’t be able to if they indulged in this heated passion for a single moment more.

“I really have to go, sweetie,” he said, sliding her down his body until her feet touched the grass. His lips brushed her temple. “I’ll see you later.”

“Okay. I love you,” she said, impulsively stepping up on her toes to brush yet another kiss across his wonderful mouth.

“And I love you,” he said, giving her a wink, and then he was off, dashing back into the house to cool himself down, grab Justin and head out to their big meeting.

With a sigh of utter happiness, Brenda sat down in one of the lounge chairs, wrapping her sweater about her shoulders, as it was an overcast and nippy day today. She picked up on of the sheets of music and began to hum the song for several minutes to get a feel for it, and then attempted to sing the first chorus.

I wish I was in the land of Erin
Where the castles look out to sea
I would swim over the deepest ocean
For my love to be with me
But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over
Nor have I the wings to fly
I wish I had a handsome boatman
To ferry me over, my love and I

“Well, good morning, my dear!” Aunt Violet interrupted Brenda’s soft singing with her greeting. The woman had been being shockingly civil to Brenda ever since the day she had panicked and jumped into the river after Jax. Actually, more than civil. At times she even seemed to be trying to be friendly.

“Good morning,” Brenda responded, ever wary that Aunt Violet might just be up to something with her sudden niceness.

“A bit nippy out here today,” Aunt Violet mentioned, drawing her wrap about her. “So I suppose it really is not always so dreadfully hot and humid in this town.”

“No, we get a lot of nasty, rainy and even cold days in the winter,” Brenda said. “But we get a lot of days warm enough to go to the beach in winter, too.”

“Such a puzzling place, this New Orleans,” Aunt Violet said with a shake of her head. Then she looked at the sheet music in Brenda’s hand. “What a lovely voice you do have, Brenda. Jax certainly did not exaggerate your talents.”

Brenda raised a finely shaped, dark brow. “I’m sorry, Aunt Violet, you’ll have to excuse me for being stunned that you would ever compliment me about anything.”

The older woman chuckled. “Yes, I suppose I deserved that. Well, I’ll be blunt with you, my dear. My godson took me quite to task about what he perceived to be my unfair treatment of you. It was the very day after Christmas.”

Brenda gasped. Jax had spoken to aunt Violet about her? So then that meant he had known that Aunt Violet did not exactly like Brenda. Did that mean he somehow knew that Brenda did not like his aunt in return? Oh, no, she thought with an internal groan. She had never wanted Jax to know that!

“I did promise Jax that you and I would do much better at getting on with one another,” Aunt Violet was saying. “And I was sincere in my compliments about your voice. It is quite lovely. However, you do not seriously intend to limit yourself to a career in the field of those tawdry musicals, do you?” she asked with an expression of utter distaste. “It simply will not do, my dear. You’ve the talent for much more with the proper training, and as the wife of Jasper Jacks much more will be expected of you than to headline in those tacky New York theaters. No, what you must aspire to do, dear girl, is the opera!”

“The opera?!” Brenda choked. “No, no, I do not…”

“Oh, no need to thank me, my dear,” Aunt Violet said with a dismissive wave. “It is no less than Jax deserves. I’ve taken the liberty of contacting Madame Hilgenborn - surely you’ve heard of her? She is a world-famous soprano, who has retired and now trains others. She is ridiculously costly, but I’ve the money and this is a worthy cause, in my opinion. I have hired her to train you, Brenda dear, and your first lesson is tomorrow afternoon. Consider it my Christmas gift to you. Do see that you are here in the house at 3 p.m., will you? She is terribly famous for her foul temperament and impatience.”

She gazed at Brenda’s attire. Typical of the young, she supposed, but not at all appropriate for the wife of Jasper Jacks. They would tackle the girl’s clothing next, Violet decided and without another word, went back into the house leaving the gape mouthed Brenda staring and sputtering after her.

“Wait!!” Brenda finally yelled. But Aunt Violet was already gone. With a loud groan, Brenda flopped back into the lounge chair, thinking mutinously that she would have much preferred to remain enemies with the woman!

Jessa peeked out from the open window of her room watching Brenda and smiling. It would seem that Brenda did not like Jax’s godmother too much. And that Jax’s godmother was not very accepting of Brenda in her current state and wanted to change her. Chad had told her that she must try and do as much as possible to make Brenda unhappy enough to not want to spend another minute living in the Jacks house, and maybe befriending and aiding Jax’s godmother was a way to do this?

Jessa closed her window and reached into her pocket to pull out the pretty ring she had taken out of Brenda’s jewelry box earlier. It had been both thrilling and scary to sneak into Jax’s wing of the house and into their very bedroom and take the ring. But she’d seen Brenda wear it before and had loved it. She slid it onto her finger and it was a bit tight, but it was so pretty! She sighed and swirled it beneath the light of the lamp in her room. She remembered Jax mentioning that he had won it for Brenda from some very rich man in Saudi Arabia on their honeymoon. But Brenda had so many pretty things in that fancy carousel jewel box she would never miss this one.

“And it’s going to be mine anyway,” Jessa spoke to her reflection in the mirror, as she flashed the ring boastfully. “Once Brenda leaves, Jax is going to give to me everything of hers!”

She spun around gleefully in mad circles until she was sorely dizzy and fell onto the floor laughing and hugging herself in anticipation of all that was to come.

(Song Credit: “Carrickfergus” a traditional Celtic song, writer unknown)