Home is Where the Heart is (20 page)

A
n hour went by, but to Cassie and Jordan, it felt like an eternity. Brielle had gone off almost twenty minutes ago to try and find them all some decent coffee.

When Brielle returned with the coffees, she spotted Cassie leaning in toward Jordan with her head resting on his strong shoulder, while Jordan had an arm slung around her shoulders and his own head near hers as they dozed together.

She was beginning to see things very clearly now. She understood why Jordan couldn’t see a relationship in his future; he was obviously still very much in love with Cassie, and she wondered why they weren’t together already. She hoped it wasn’t because of her. Although she wanted to be more than just friends with benefits with Jordan, she also didn’t want to be the one to stand between two people getting back together if they had a chance to be a proper family. She was a believer in finding your one true love and living happily ever after, and she dreamed of one day walking down the aisle in a pretty white dress where the man of her dreams would be waiting for her, but now she realized Jordan wasn’t him. His true love wasn’t her. He didn’t belong with her. She could see that now, especially when it was blatantly staring her in the face.

Brielle hated to disturb them from what looked like a peaceful slumber, but she wanted to talk to Jordan and it couldn’t wait another day. She had coffee in her hands, which she knew wouldn’t matter if they went cold or not—hospital coffee, or any kind of coffee in Yellow Valley, wouldn’t be as good as the kind you would find in Miami.

Brielle stepped forward, standing in front of the chairs where Jordan and Cassie were sitting. She cleared her throat quietly, which startled Jordan, his eyes opening wide as he looked up and noticed Brielle. In a split second, he remembered where he was as his whole body straightened carefully so he wouldn’t wake up Cassie. He placed his hands gently on either side of her face, and slowly tilted her head back against the wall they were sitting along.

Jordan took the tray of coffee from Brielle and set them down on the chair next to him.

“Can we talk for a moment?” she asked him in a low tone.

Jordan ran a hand through his short black hair, looking back at a sleeping Cassie and then back to Brielle. “Yeah, sure,” he mumbled.

They walked to a cozy little spot outside the hospital, which was probably used for moments like these when loved ones of patients were awaiting the results of a surgery. Jordan didn’t know how much longer he could possibly last before he would burst. He didn’t know how some people could do this all the time, and he thanked his lucky stars that his son didn’t have some other life-threatening shit that would make him a constant visitor to hospital.

They stood together for a moment in silence so both could recollect their individual thoughts. Jordan swayed back and forth on his feet, tucking his hands into the front pockets of his dress pants.

Brielle knew he was making this harder than it needed to be. He was damn sexy, and she hated to tell him they couldn’t do what they used to anymore, that it needed to stop right away because her feelings were growing stronger for him, and despite what he thought he felt for her, she knew deep down he really couldn’t care about her as much as she wanted him to. His heart already chose someone else to love unconditionally, and it wasn’t her.

“So, um…” she began, running a hand through her hair, which was still in a perfect up-do, “…I guess what I wanted to tell you is I don’t think it’s going to work out between you and me.”

Jordan’s eyes grew wide, almost as if he was shocked by her outright honesty.

“It isn’t? But I thought this was what you wanted to happen. Look, I know that our date didn’t exactly go as planned tonight, but I couldn’t just not show up to the hospital when my son’s not well. He’s my kid. I had to be here for him, as well as Cassie. They needed me.”

Brielle’s eyes showed empathy. “I know. I wasn’t expecting you to not come here. Of course you need to be here for your little boy and Cassie. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s why I think I need to go back to Miami.”

Jordan showed her a half-dazed look. He really didn’t understand her. She needed to explain faster.

She took his hand in hers, her fingers gently gliding over his. Anyone would think they were a perfect match, their hands fitting perfectly with each other, but Brielle knew he was meant for someone else entirely. Jordan wasn’t made for her.

“You’re going back to Miami?”

Brielle nodded her head. “I am. I can’t stay here. I’m not cut out for the small town life. It isn’t really for me. You only have to look at my clothes to see that. People here dress differently than me; even you dress differently than you do in Miami.” She giggled.

Well, at least she could laugh about it now.

“And besides,” she continued, “you’re meant to be here with your family. Cassie and Jake need you more than I do. I think tonight, I finally realized something.”

“What’s that?” Jordan was half-afraid of the answer.

“I realized you’ll never truly see yourself in a relationship with anybody else unless it’s with Cassie, because I think—no, I
know
—you’re still in love with her. And maybe I don’t have the right to make you admit you still have strong feelings for your ex-girlfriend, but deep down, I do want a happily ever after relationship with the man of my dreams. I used to think there could be more to us than friends with benefits, but now I understand you and I will never be what I had hoped we would be. I don’t want to be the one to stand in the way of two people being together as much as I think you truly belong with Cassie, if there is still a chance of the two of you making it work.”

Jordan never realized how profound and frank Brielle could really be, but for her, it felt good to get it off her chest. She didn’t want to be with Jordan if he didn’t completely believe in the relationship, or if he knew his heart lay with someone else.

“When are you leaving?”

“I thought I might go back to the motel and pack my things to leave tonight. There’s really nothing keeping me here.”

“Do you need a lift back to the motel?”

“No, thanks,” Brielle said, shaking her head. “I’ve already called for a taxi to come and get me, which should be here soon. You should be here for your son; he needs you right now. It was really nice to share a part of your world with you for the short time that I have known you. You’re a good man, Jordan. You’re one of the best men that I know, because you always try to do the right thing by people and see the best in everyone.”

Brielle leaned up and kissed Jordan softly and sweetly on his cheek one last time, whispering final words to him. “For the record, I am rooting for you and Cassie to be together; otherwise, I wouldn’t be walking away from any chance we might have at being a couple. I hope you both realize just how much you should be together again.”

As she walked away from Jordan, she briefly craned her head around to give him one last smile and wave in his direction. Then just like that, she was gone, leaving Jordan to wonder and question whether she really was right or not—were he and Cassie really destined to be together forever and always?

J
ordan aimlessly roamed the grounds of the hospital, randomly searching for a solution to his dilemma and praying to the man upstairs that he would help lead him in the right direction of where his life was supposed to be. By the time he returned to the waiting area where Cassie was, Nick and Gabby had since come back to the hospital with an overnight bag containing some of Jake’s belongings he would need once he was out of surgery.

Cassie was now awake and looking at Jordan as he walked toward them. After she had woken up from her light slumber to find that she was sitting all alone with coffee beside her, she began to wonder where he and Brielle went. Now she saw him, but Brielle wasn’t with him.

“Hey, man! Where did you get to?” Nick gave Jordan a friendly slap on the back.

“Just out for a walk. This hospital and the whole waiting thing were doing my head in.”

“Yeah, I hear that,” Nick agreed with his friend, looking around for his date and noticing she was absent. “Where’s Brielle?”

At the mention of the surprise visitor, Cassie and Gabby stayed firmly seated on their chairs as Cassie continued to finish the last few mouthfuls of her coffee. She didn’t want to seem eager to know the same thing Nick asked Jordan, but at the same time, she was also curious of the response he’d give Nick.

“Uh, it’s not going to work out between Brielle and me. She’s on her way back to Miami.”

Jordan looked in Cassie’s direction, and at the same time, Cassie chose to look up at him, their eyes meeting. Jordan’s piercing dark brown eyes seemed almost able to see right through her. He cleared his throat and started to roll up his sleeves around his elbows in an effort to seem casual and be more comfortable.

Nick stood back from the two of them, carefully surveying the awkward glances they were giving each other. If only they could really see how their smoldering looks toward each other could be seen as searing sexual tension between them. He wondered whether or not feelings had been rekindled between his best friends. He figured it couldn’t happen to nicer of people, but after everything had happened between Jordan and Cassie, he also wondered if it was going to be the right move or not. What if it was something that shouldn’t happen and should stay hidden in the past, instead of risking his friends’ feelings being hurt or betrayed?

“So do you want to go for a walk, man?” Nick queried. “I could probably do with something to eat, even from the cafeteria or a vending machine. I’m that hungry.”

Gabby rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, you’re always thinking of your stomach in times of crisis.”

“It’s not a crisis, and I was going to offer to get you something too.”

“Oh, you were?” Gabby tried to rehash her previous comment by making nice, sending him a sly smile and twirling a strand of her hair she had not straightened around one finger. Only Gabby could make curls look so damn good, though Nick knew not to say that to her face. She didn’t like her curly hair, especially when they had a mind of their own and was shocked to see she hadn’t used a hair straightener, wondering if she’d used it as a ruse to scare away the date he knew she went on tonight.