Megan almost bounced up the stairs to Jordan’s place. She couldn’t sleep, so she had crept out after leaving a note for Lisa. It was still early, but she had to tell Jordan how she felt about him and find out if last night meant the same to him. Waiting until Monday, and maybe then only being able to steal a few minutes, wasn’t an option. Neither was pretending to be patient.
She knocked on the door and Jordan opened it looking as handsome in his casual shirt and pants as he had last night in his suit.
“I thought I might check out your tattoo. Having a black fern on your arm almost makes you a New Zealander,” she teased.
“Come in, beautiful,” he said quietly.
He gave her his delicious smile, but didn’t kiss her the way she’d been looking forward to, and when she walked inside she could see why. Through the open bi-fold doors, she could see Loretta sitting on his deck nursing a coffee. The woman gave a small wave, the remnants of a shared breakfast littered the table beside her.
“I didn’t realize you had a guest. I can come back later.” She was already backing out the door, feeling a little sick.
“Don’t be silly. Loretta’s staying on for a few days and needs a room. Unfortunately, we’re fully booked, so she’ll be staying here.”
“I see.”
To her surprise, Loretta began to laugh. “If you could only see the look on your pretty face. Your boyfriend’s doing me a kind favor, and that’s the extent of it. I promise you.”
Megan stiffened. “I wasn’t implying…”
“That he was being inappropriate? My dear girl, I’m nearly old enough to be his mother, and while I envy your taste in men, Jordan is an honorable man. Let me tell you, in this day and age, he’s a keeper if I ever saw one.”
She laughed again and Megan relaxed, wondering whether it was the money or the age of a person that gave them the ability to tell you what they thought, and to hell with niceties. Still, Loretta was right, Jordan was a keeper. Something that she’d decided when she’d woken up this morning alone and frustrated as hell.
Jordan had watched the exchange, looking anxious as the comprehension finally hit him that it might have looked like Loretta had spent the night. With him. It was very cute when he blushed.
They went out on the deck where Jordan pulled out a chair for Megan. Jordan sat on her other side, sharing a secretive smile with Loretta.
There was something going on here even if it wasn’t about sex.
“You tell her,” he said to Loretta.
“No, it’s your news.”
Megan looked from one grinning face to the other. “For goodness sake, someone tell me.”
Jordan took one of her hands between both of his. “It’s all supposition, but your answer will make a difference to my decision.”
He was positively beaming and he was squeezing her hand as if willing her to agree to whatever he was about to propose.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Jordan,” Loretta admonished.
“Stop talking in riddles. What’s going on?”
Jordan took a deep breath. “Loretta just told me that it’s her father who owns Global Plastics, not Sainsbury. A fact her husband forgot to mention and he may regret since as of Monday he will be handing the title over to Loretta.”
“I’ve been in the shadows too long and my father and I don’t want his sort of publicity any more. It’s time for a change, maybe for all of us,” Loretta added.
Megan was glad for their company but what did this have to do with her? “I don’t understand where you’re going with this?”
“Loretta would like to invest in Haven for her father’s company. She’d like me to manage it and train more managers like Chelsea. Then I’d look around for another place to do the same thing. Potentially in other countries.”
“Like a franchise?”
“Exactly. What do you think?”
What did she think? Jordan was excited but all Megan understood was that he would be leaving the resort and probably New Zealand.
“I think if that’s what you want, then you should do it. It certainly sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really must get home.”
She stood, but Jordan was on his feet blocking her exit.
“Wait. Don’t you get it? You and the girls can come with me. We could travel all around the world. It would be an adventure.”
She wanted to do it; he made it sound so easy. To give up her life in Prossers Bay to travel with him when it suited him, dragging the girl’s from place to place, just like that. And then, when it got too hard with two children to cart around, would he move on? With Loretta sitting here, she couldn’t tell him what she thought, but she was incapable of hiding her anger or of putting her thoughts into a coherent sentence.
“No.”
Her heart racing and the blood pounding in her ears, Megan pushed past him and ran across the deck and down the path to her car.
Chapter 13
“Megan! Don’t run away from me.”
Jordan’s hand grasped hers as she tried to put the key in the lock. Her hands shook so violently that the keys dropped to the ground and she rounded on him in frustration, furious that she could feel the tears about to spill.
“Don’t tell me what to do. I can’t believe you thought that you could dangle some money in front of me and I’d follow you around the world. I thought you finally understood me, but you’re like every other rich guy – you think you can have whatever and whoever you want.”
Jordan reeled like she’d slapped him. “How could you throw me into an overused cliché? What we’ve had lately, and what we had last night, should show you what you mean to me, and what I’d hoped to mean to you. Clearly, I was wrong. Just like everything I’ve tried to do for you, you have to fight me at every damn step.”
“I don’t need anyone to help me. I can manage on my own. I managed for years without you to prop me up.”
“Managing? Is that what you call it? That house you live in needs everything doing to it, your bills were crippling you, and you had no life.”
“How dare you! You know nothing about me.”
“Don’t I? I know how different you’ve been, working in a job that satisfies you. Happier. I know how you feel in my arms. The way your body fits so perfectly with mine. The way you smell – like summer and roses. The sounds you make when we make love.”
“Stop it! If you’re talking about sex, you could be talking about any woman. Go and find yourself someone who wants to be ordered around and is happy to take your money, because I am not that woman.”
Jordan stepped back, the passion and excitement drained, and he looked at her coolly.
“You’ve made that clear. So many bloody times I’ve lost count, but I thought you would see me for who I am, if I just hung in there. I saw glimpses of the woman I wanted to share my life with, and yes, I’m terribly sorry, but I do have money. How incredibly crass of me to think that giving because I can might mean something to someone I love. I was stupid to think that it would be received in the same light. But then how could it, when your bias and insecurity, however justified in the past, blinds you to a happiness and a future we could have had.”
Megan was rooted to the spot as Jordan stormed off. Had he said loved? He loved her? Her mind twisted and turned, and she had to sit down because for the first time in her life she thought she might faint.
She sat under the large pohutukawas, aware of, but not registering the fall of the vivid red flowers, as summer slowly left Prossers Bay. Watching his straight and strong back disappear up the hill, she wondered if this was the last time she’d see him. Walking away – from her. She shook her head, trying to think clearly, but her heart was pounding and she realized that she was crying. Great drops ran down her cheeks, and try as she might to stem them they continued to pour. Her nose started to run and she sniffed indelicately as she searched her pockets for a tissue.
Someone moaned as she gave a pathetic blow into the c
rumpled tissue, and damned if it wasn’t her. Jordan’s words were harsh, but were they true? She hadn’t trusted a man for so long that she’d never really given him a chance. What sort of person was she? Judgmental and unforgiving. Certainly not who she’d been before getting pregnant.
Meeting the girls’ father at nineteen, she’d thought that she was in love but Callum had turned out to be selfish and a liar. Jordan wasn’t either of those things. What she felt for him surpassed any feelings she’d had for Callum. So, was this love? This pain in her chest? This sense of loss so profound that she felt naked? Stripped of all her reasons to keep him at a distance, to not like him. To not love him.
Realization dawned. She was an intelligent woman – usually, but damned if she hadn’t been as slow as a snail on a hot day. She did. She loved bloody Jordan Lambert. Against all her protests and her plans to keep her heart safe, she’d fallen in love. With a rich man. And what the hell did it matter if he was rich, if that same man was kind and thoughtful? If he cared about her daughters with the same generosity of spirit as he did her? If he made her laugh? If he made her crazy with a knee-weakening desire?
Maybe she would follow him around resorts, and maybe she wouldn’t. Uprooting the girls would be difficult and leaving Prossers Bay would be harder still. But if she didn’t tell him how she felt, then it was all moot.
She jumped to her feet and ran up the path to his house hiccupping and sobbing like an idiot. She stopped at the closed door and mopped at her face with the now ruined tissue, then rang the doorbell. She wouldn’t use the deck in case Loretta was there. As nice as she was, this was between the two of them.
Jordan yanked it open looking ready to do battle with whomever was there, but when he saw her his eyes widened.
“What the hell? Megan, you’re crying. Did something happen to the girls?”
She hiccupped several times. Thankfully, they appeared to be alone. “T-t-to me.”
He looked down the path, his fists clenched. “Who did this?”
“Y-y-you.”
“What? I made you cry? You never cry.” Looking shocked, he pulled her into the house and closed the door. “I was angry and hurt, but I shouldn’t have lashed out. I shouldn’t have said…”
“You were right. About all of it. I was scared of how you made me feel,” she interrupted, and hiccupped a few more times for good measure.
Jordan slumped on the couch, seemingly at a loss for words.
“Do you have more tissues?”
He pointed to the kitchen, but remained sitting, a deep frown marring his perfect face.
Megan blew her nose several times, and then helped herself to a tall glass of water while they watched each other.
Jordan suddenly stood and came towards her. “Let me get this straight. You were wrong, and I was right? What does that mean with regards to this weird relationship we have?”
She might once have wanted to kick him for being so obtuse, but now she spotted the telltale dimple at the side of his mouth. Not a big one, but nonetheless it liked to flash when he was teasing her.
“You said you loved me.”
The dimple deepened. “Did I?”
“Yes. Do you want to take it back?”
“Maybe.”
She blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Oh. I see.”
“Do you love me?” he asked, suddenly serious.
“Yes, I do.”
“And you’re sure about that? You won’t change your mind if I buy you something or try to make your life easier?”
There was that dimple again.
“I don’t know how this is going to work, and I’m not sure that I want to travel around with the girls, but if you’re okay with compromises, and if you really love me, then I will spend the time we have together trying to curb every instinct I have to be totally independent. But, Jordan, to be honest the only promise I can truly give you is that I will make your perseverance worth it. I will love you and help you to be the best hotelier in the world.”
Jordan snorted and then laughed, a belly laugh that made her do the same.
“Megan, I love you so much, and I didn’t know how the hell I was going to stay away from you and your sassy mouth. Whatever we have is so damn good that I think we can manage things however we like. Maybe I’ll help set up the resorts a few weeks at a time, but we could make this our home. What do you think?”
“It’s already sounding better.”
Jordan grinned at her. “I know this was sprung on you suddenly, but while we’re making life-changing decisions…” He got down on one knee. “I don’t have a ring, but would you consider marrying me?”
Megan’s ears buzzed with the shock of it, and ‘no’ was on the tip of her tongue. Until she looked into his eyes. Then she was lost.
“Don’t you think we might be rushing things?”
“You and I don’t conform. We do things at our own pace, yet who we are together feels right to me.”
He held a hand out to her, but waited patiently while her heart battled her demons. Her heart won and proceeded to do a little happy dance inside her chest that made her legs feel weak.
She sat down on his knee and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t know what kind of magic spell you’ve put on me, but I feel truly alive when I’m with you. I’d like to marry you very much, even though this feels like a dream.” She sighed and kissed him gently. “I thought love was for other people. People who deserved it. You make me want to be a better person.”
“You couldn’t be a better person. You’re an amazing woman, a fantastic mother and the best damn manager I know. But best of all, you’re my person.”
They smirked at the sloppiness; that wasn’t really them.
Megan grabbed his collar. “I think that’s enough for one day. How about you kiss me?”
“Frankly, my dear – I thought you’d never ask.”
Jordan pulled her into his arms and gently touched her lips with his, but Megan didn’t want gentle. She pulled him closer and pushed her tongue into his mouth, kissing him greedily. Jordan hesitated only fractionally before taking all she had until they had to stop or take it somewhere else. Not that Megan would have minded, but she had to get home.
Poor Lisa was going to be very late for work, but Megan had a feeling Abby would be okay with it when she found out why. How quickly her life had changed! A happiness she’d never expected filled her heart to overflowing.
Jordan stood in the doorway of his living room watching Mia and Cody as they peered over the deck railing, surveying the resort and the beautiful white-sanded beach. Megan, looking young and carefree in a halter neck sundress, gave him a breathtaking smile. They’d spent quite a bit of time deciding on a plan of action that would be best suited to the four of them and yet he still felt nervous.
If the girls hated the idea of them living together, what then? Megan kept saying it would be fine, and he really wanted to be as sure as she was in her newfound serenity, but still…
“You’re so lucky, Jordan. You can swim in a pool or at the beach anytime you like, and you get to use the playground and everything,” Cody told him enviously.
“What about my house? Do you like it?”
“I love it. You do too, don’t you, Mia?” She nudged her sister, who nodded shyly, her long-lashed eyes replicas of her mother’s and her sister’s.
“But I think it’s silly to have so many bedrooms. You need someone to live with you. Mommy and us could come stay if you like.”
“Okay.”
Cody tipped her head to the side. In a classic ‘Are you tricking me?’ look, and then she grinned and called his bluff. “How about we stay tonight?”
“If you like. But I was thinking you could stay for longer than one night.”
Megan came to stand beside him, putting her hand in his and addressing the girls. “Cody, Mia, Jordan would like us to move in and live with him.”
“Why?” Mia looked worried.
“Because he wants to marry me and help look after you. He wants us to be a family. Do you think we could do that?”
Cody began to bounce up and down. “I do. And, you do, too, Mia, don’t you? You said you really like Jordan, even after he kissed Mom, and you got cross.”
Mia blushed at her sister’s accusation. “What about our house and all our things?”
Jordan saw that Mia was the only one left to convince, and he bent down to her. “Stephanie thinks she’d like to live there, and she’d look after it just fine. We would bring all your things here and you can have a room all to yourself. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
Cody stopped bouncing and looked at him seriously. “I don’t think we’d like a bedroom each. Mia doesn’t like to sleep by herself. We have to share so that I can look after her.”
Mia looked very surprised by this outburst but didn’t comment, so he didn’t push it, since Megan had already informed him that Cody often ended up in her sister’s bed.
“Then by all means you two can share. How about we go choose which room?”
The girls ran ahead with Jordan and Megan following behind. She was looking tearful again, but he could see that they were happy tears, and he didn’t feel awkward like he had with other women.
Megan wasn’t capable of emotional blackmail. She was tough, and honest. She was the one woman who fit him – his life and his heart. Watching the girls bouncing on the beds of the room they’d chosen, he thought he might burst with happiness. A life he had never imagined had hit him squarely between his eyes, and his blurred vision – as far as settling down with kids was concerned – had gone. He was left with a clarity that made him want to laugh at anything and everything.
Life didn’t get any better than this. Prossers Bay had been the catalyst that would make them into a family, and he would be forever grateful to the little town with the big heart, and for whatever whimsy of fate had brought him here.
Book 3
Prossers Bay Series Page 20