Poor kid. Hormones could be a bitch.
CHAPTER NINE
JACKSON LENGTHENED HIS stride to reach Alex as he was walking ahead on the trail. DeeDee and Morgan had lagged behind with Kayla to study a clump of wildflowers. DeeDee had made up another word to describe them—pholothimbody, or something of the sort. Alex seemed oblivious to their absence, though he’d slowed and was looking down at his hands.
“Hold up,” Jackson told him. “No going out alone, remember?” He and Kayla had made it a safety rule. Ironically, he wouldn’t have complied himself as a teenager, but he would never admit that to his son or daughter.
Alex glanced back at his mother and sisters. They weren’t more than a hundred feet away.
“I’m not going out alone,” he muttered. “I was texting a friend.”
“Okay, just... That’s all right. Yellowstone is an amazing place, isn’t it?” Jackson thought it was a stupidly obvious thing to say, but he didn’t know what to talk about with Alex.
“Yeah.”
“Say, your face is getting a little red. I’ve got an extra hat, or we can get one for you at the store.”
“No, thanks.” Alex looked back down the trail again. “I’m going to see what everyone is doing.”
Damn.
Jackson also reversed direction and strode back to the rest of the group behind his son. Okay, so there were a few hitches along the road—that was no reason to sit on his ass about it.
* * *
KAYLA DIDN’T MIND waiting while the three kids pored over the books at the souvenir shop, and she said yes to the ones DeeDee and Alex wanted. As far as she was concerned, books were wholesome luxuries. But when she pulled out her credit card, the woman at the cash register smiled and explained “the gentleman” had already arranged for payment.
Swinging around, Kayla glared at Jackson. “I can pay for any books my kids want.”
“So can I,” he answered blandly.
Suddenly she saw Alex was nearby, so she swallowed her irritation. “That’s very nice of you,” she said evenly. But when her son was out of earshot, she muttered, “You may think paying for things is the manly thing to do, but one-upmanship doesn’t help your case.”
Jackson had the grace to look apologetic.
DeeDee came running over, pulling Morgan along with her. “Can we get ice cream for Grandpa?” she asked. “He loves ice cream.”
“So do you,” Kayla countered.
Her daughter grinned. “Uh-huh. Grandpa says I take after him.”
A shadow crossed Morgan’s face so quickly Kayla wondered if it had been her imagination.
“I’m sure everyone would enjoy it,” Kayla said.
They went to the little grocery store, chose three flavors and took the cartons out to the SUV.
“Would you like to drive?” Jackson asked, holding out the key to the Suburban.
It was an odd way of apologizing for trying to take control in the store. Or at least Kayla thought it was an apology, so she nodded and took the key ring.
* * *
ALEX OPENED HIS eyes wide as his mom got into the driver’s seat. He hadn’t expected to see her driving the SUV. Morgan seemed surprised, too, so it probably wasn’t the way Jackson usually did things.
Five minutes later they were back at camp.
DeeDee jumped out of the car. “Grandpa, we got ice cream.” Almost immediately she saw the picnic table and shrieked, “A cake!”
It was a chocolate cake decorated with “Happy Birthday DeeDee.”
“If we’re going to have ice cream with that cake,” Grandma said, “we either eat it now or try fitting it into the RV freezer. But I don’t think there’s room.”
“Can we save the cake for after dinner and have ice cream now?” DeeDee asked. “That way we spread dessert out.”
“Good idea, kiddo.”
They sat at the picnic table while Grandma served the ice cream. Grandpa ate his blissfully.
“It’s good to see a man enjoying his vices,” Jackson told him as they were finishing.
“Yep, I’m an ice cream lush.”
“People always said that when you were mayor, most of the town’s business got done at the Schuyler Soda Saloon.”
“Naturally. After all, how can you argue with a man when he’s eating his ice cream?”
Jackson laughed and Alex looked down at his bowl. The guy wasn’t that awful, even if he bugged Mom sometimes, like when she got mad at him for paying their bill at the store. Mom was prickly about taking care of things on her own and she didn’t like it when guys acted as if they needed to take care of her.
Even so, the camping trip had been fun so far, and it was great hanging out with Morgan. The problem with Jackson was that he sometimes tried to act like his father. Alex wished he’d stop. He remembered terrific times with his dad; then his folks had split up, and after that, Dad was kind of on and off—mostly off. Mom tried to pretend nothing had changed that much, but DeeDee and he knew better.