Page 127 of The Lucky Heart (Jamison Valley 3)
Well, I could try.
By the time Paxon and I arrived at the first showing on my list, I’d managed to shove my personal problems aside and concentrate on doing my job. I focused on finding Paxon a home, rattling off detail after detail as I walked him through the small, two-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
“What do you think?” I asked as I locked up the door.
“It’s nice, but I was hoping for something with more space. Maybe a little more privacy. I don’t know if I want to share a wall with my neighbors.”
“Okay. Then let’s skip the next one since it’s a duplex too and go to the third.” It was the one I’d told him was my favorite.
The house was on the edge of town close to the cemetery. It was in a quiet and peaceful neighborhood with a big yard to separate Paxon from his neighbors. The home itself needed some work, but Pax might like little projects here and there to keep him busy when he wasn’t on the ranch. He seemed happier when he wasn’t idle.
“How are you doing?” I asked as we drove. “We haven’t had the chance to visit much lately.”
“Ha! Me? You’re asking how I’m doing? I think you’re the one with problems today.”
“There’s nothing I can do about my problems until I talk to Silas, so let’s talk about you instead. How have you been feeling?”
He shrugged. “Okay. It’s helped, working at the ranch. I’m usually so tired when I finally make it to bed that I don’t have nightmares as much. The flashbacks are coming less and less during the day too.”
I turned and smiled at him in the passenger seat. “I’m glad.”
He smiled back. “Me too.”
“Here we are.” I pulled up next to a small, two-story beige house. The siding was an old shingle style that could use a fresh coat of paint, the trim around the windows was peeling and needed to be redone, and yellow dandelions were starting to dominate the spring-green yard.
“Don’t judge from the outside,” I said before Paxon could get out. “This place has a lot of potential. It’s not as nice as the duplex we just visited but I think it could be really great with a little work.”
He took a long breath. “Okay. Show me what you’ve got.”
An hour later, Paxon walked out the door as excited as I’d ever seen him.
“I think I could knock out that wall between those two bedrooms upstairs and make it more of a master suite. Maybe plumb in a bathroom.”
“That would certainly increase its resale value.” I opened the back door. “Come on, let’s go check out the yard.”
The lawn around the house was wide open and backed up to the cemetery. Large trees separated the two, but we stood close enough to see American flags sticking out of the ground and a group of people congregating for the Memorial Day ceremony.
“If I put up a fence, I could get a dog,” Paxon said. “I’ve been wanting to get a collie like Dolly.”
“She’s the best dog I’ve—”
Gunshots silenced me. I winced and covered my ears as a twenty-one-gun salute in the cemetery blasted through the air.
I turned to Paxon, ready to explain that he may have to deal with this kind of noise on occasion, but instead found myself flying through the air. In a swift dive, he had tackled me to the ground.
My back landed with a hard jolt and all of the wind rushed out of my lungs. My mouth gulped for air, but with Paxon’s big body on top of mine, I couldn’t get my breath back. Swatting at his sides, my legs writhing beneath his, I tried to get loose but he stayed frozen. His hands were wrapped around the back of his head, and his elbows trapped my head against his chest.
Adrenaline fueled my panic and I bucked my hips as hard as I could, hoping to rock him off my chest. Just an inch or two and I’d be able to breathe again, but the harder I struggled, the more pressure he put on my sternum.
The gunshots continued to echo loudly and my vision started to blur.
This was bad.
By my fourth attempt to buck him off, my energy was drained. I’d never passed out before but I knew it was coming next. My limbs were weak and my head fuzzy. My eyes drifted shut without my permission as my body forced me to sleep.
“Felicity?” Paxon’s frantic voice filled my ears. “Felicity! Wake up!”
The weight on my chest was gone and a loud rasping noise came from my throat as air rushed back in. My lungs burned in protest as I rolled to my side and started coughing. Slowly, I propped myself up on all fours despite the protest in my ribs. Hanging my head, I shifted back into child’s pose. The fresh smell of the lawn filled my nostrils as I forced rough but steady breaths.
