by Alley Ciz
Taking in the elaborate spread Jordan was impressed. “Wow, Mom, you really went all out.”
Mrs. D turned to face her daughter and her face glowed with pride. “Oh, honey, you haven’t seen anything yet, this is just the beginning.” She hugged and kissed everyone on the cheek as they made their way into the kitchen.
“Yeah, but, you didn’t have to go all out like this.”
Mrs. D gestured with her hand. “Pish posh. I haven’t had my girls… and guy,” she gestured to Sammy, “over in forever, I figured tonight was cause for celebration.” She returned to taking things out for dinner. “So how was the game?”
“It was great. Ryan has gotten even better, I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Yes he most certainly has. Your godfather thinks he has what it takes to go pro when he graduates.”
“I was just telling Jordan that at the game, too.” Maddey said with a smile.
“Well I’m glad you had a good time today,” Mrs. D said.
Skye went over to the counter, took a tortilla chip, dipped it into the salsa and popped it into her mouth. “Yum, Mama D you make the best salsa.”
She smiled. “Thanks honey, but come on sit, sit.”
Sammy and Maddey took a seat on the stools surrounding the breakfast bar and also started to dig in. “Now all I need is a margarita.” Sammy said around a mouthful of chips.
Skye placed the bottles of tequila on the counter. “Coming right up.”
“Perfect.” Sammy pulled his MacBook Pro out of his bag. “Let me hook this up. I made a special playlist for tonight.”
“Let’s go out back and I’ll start grilling the chicken for dinner,” Mrs. D suggested.
“Margaritas,” Skye announced.
Maddey went about making the margaritas and passed them out once they were done.
Margaritas in hand, everyone settled into the lounge chairs surrounding the fire pit on the patio while Mrs. D cooked.
“So when I was getting out of my car Jake arrived home… when he saw me he came over to talk to me.” She paused. “About Jordan.”
Jordan’s back instantly straightened, and everything in her went on high alert. Normally Jake talking to Skye wouldn’t cause nervousness but by the way Skye was acting their conversation couldn’t have been a good one. “What about me?”
“Well he told me he likes you and that he wanted my help in… umm... hooking you guys up.”
“Oh my god that’s awesome!” Maddey said.
“See I told you he was into you.” Sammy said as he cheered his glass with Maddey.
Skye looked at her over the rim of her glass. “Why didn’t you tell me you told him about Tommy?”
“You did?” Sammy asked surprised.
Jordan nodded. “Was that all you guys talked about?” She directed the question to Skye.
“No.” Skye took a gulp of her margarita for courage. Quickly she rambled off the rest of their conversation. “I may have let it slip that you like him as much as he seems to like you.”
She sat completely still. “Damn, maybe I should have just continued to avoid him.” Things with Jake were complicated enough he didn’t need any encouragement. She wasn’t sure her resolve to keep her promise could take much more. After a few tense moments of Skye looking at her for a response she reached out and placed a hand over Skye’s. “It’s okay, Skye, it’s not your fault, we’ll figure it out.”
“Well I think we should all look on the bright side,” Sammy stated. “Jake admitted that he likes you, that’s major.”
Jordan got up and made her way into the kitchen to pour herself another margarita, downing half of it in one gulp. Jake likes me. Like openly admitting he likes me to my best friend. And not just likes me, he wants to be with me. She threw her arms up in the air. “Arggh this is so not fair,” she complained as she plopped back down onto a lounge chair.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Skye asked.
“No… yes… I don’t know. This whole situation is so frustrating.”
“Chicken is ready,” Mrs. D called.
Mrs. D and Maddey set the patio table for dinner. They placed placemats, plates, salad, chips and salsa, and other pickings around the table. “Okay why don’t we start with what has happened recently that you haven’t been able to tell us about yet,” Maddey suggested with a pointed look in Jordan’s direction.
“Yeah, maybe like where you were sleeping the other night instead of here.” Her mom’s statement was like throwing blood in a pool full of piranhas, creating a frenzy between her three friends.
“What?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why haven’t we heard about this?”
All at once Jordan was bombarded by questions from her three besties. When she looked at her mom she caught her laughing. Why I oughta. She shook her head and walked over to take her place at the table when Sammy carried over the chicken and vegetables for the fajitas.
Everyone else sat down and started to dig in. “So are you going to tell us where you were sleeping the other night or are we going to have to torture it out of you?” Sammy asked.
Swallowing a bite of fajita, Jordan decided to let her friends in on her night in the hammock. “Jake’s.”
“WHAT?” The three of them shouted in unison. Their jaws were practically on the table.
“Come again?” Skye asked.
She took pity on her friends. “I said I was sleeping at Jake’s.” She took another sip of her margarita. With how crazy, and possibly disastrous this situation was, it was kind of funny to see the look on their faces when she told them where she was.
Skye was still trying to decipher Jordan’s comment a few moments later. “Wait so if you’re sleeping at his house why is it he’s asking me to help hook you guys up? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Sammy paused in making another fajita. “Wait… are you guys together and you just haven’t told anyone because of your brothers?”
The comment almost made Jordan spit out her bite of fajita. She looked Sammy square in the eyes. “Come on. Do you honestly think I would date someone in secret and not even tell my three besties?”
Disappointment washed over the group and Skye’s shoulders slumped. “Well that sucks but a girl can dream, can’t she?”
Everyone laughed as they finished off their meal.
It was closing in on midnight when Mrs. Donnelly headed up to bed. They had already eaten dinner, done facials, played some games, and were now well into the movie marathon stage of the evening. They had already watched Clueless and Pretty Woman as their classic favorites and were on the last few minutes of Twilight.
Maddey was sitting in front of Jordan on the floor while she let her wrap her hair into twists, her position allowed her to hear Jordan when she sighed. “What’s on your mind, Jor?”
“Sometimes I just wish life was like a movie or a book.” She continued to wrap Maddey’s hair in twists.
“How so?”
“Oh you know where there’s always a happy ending no matter what, and the girl always gets the guy.” She paused. “Like take Bella and Edward for example, she’s human and he’s a vampire but they don’t let that keep them apart. And look at the books, how many dilemmas and obstacles do they face throughout the whole series and yet they still end up together? I don’t have to worry about Jake being a different species, or vampires trying to kill me, or any of the other problems they had to face. I just have to deal with two overprotective, overbearing brothers, and yet I still can’t be with Jake.”
“Yeah I know what you mean.”
Jordan felt guilty for the carelessness of her comment. Being in love with your older brothers’ best friend who was a SEAL had to be rough on her friend. “Oh, Madz, I’m so sorry I completely forgot you know exactly how I feel, I didn’t even think.”
Maddey turned around and placed a hand on her arm. “It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I know it sucks and I hate that you have to deal with it, too.”
“So what do you do to cope?”
Maddey got up from her spot on the floor and made her way into the kitchen. Once there she pulled four bowls out of the cabinets, four spoons out of a drawer, and two gallons of ice cream from the freezer. “First, I veg-out if I get down on myself and then I talk to you guys. But my situation is a little different than yours. I have to deal with not only my brothers but the fact that Dex doesn’t reciprocate my feelings and that he’s constantly traveling to all parts of the world with his team, it kind of makes things extra difficult.” She paused to scoop some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream into her bowl. “But you on the other hand know that Jake feels the same way about you that you do about him, you just have to figure out a way around this deal you made with your brothers.”
While Maddey talked, Jordan scooped a bunch of mint chocolate chip ice cream into her bowl. “Yeah I just wish it was that easy.”
The two laughed but the sound wasn’t filled with much joy. “So what movie are we watching next?”
Sammy held up a DVD. “I figured a little Die Hard action would do you good Maddey, seeing as it’s one of your favorites.”
Jordan and Maddey made it back over to sit on the couch with their bowls filled to the top with ice cream. “Oh it most certainly is. I love Bruce Willis, he’s so badass. Plus he plays a McClane, sure it’s spelled different than mine but come on, it’s awesome.”
“Yeah it’s cool,” Sammy said as he got up to put the movie on. “So come on Jordan, are you ever going to tell us what happened on your slumber party with Jake? Your mom went to bed a while ago. It’s time to spill.” He laughed at himself.
“Fine if you guys must know.” She feigned annoyance but deep down she knew she would have told them about that night in the hammock eventually.
“Okay, so Saturday night after I got home from helping with the VIP party at Rookies, I went to let Navy out in the backyard.”
Hearing his name, Navy got up from his spot on the floor and climbed up on the couch to sit between Jordan and Maddey. “Hey there buddy.” Maddey said with a kiss on his nose.
Jordan laughed at the dog. “Anyway… when I opened the backdoor he just took off. Sean must have left the gate open and he got out of the yard and then let himself into Jake’s backyard.”
“See Jordan, you two have to be fated or something… even your dog tries to get the two of you together.” Skye helped point out with her own spin on the situation.
“Yeah I could just see the wedding announcement now, ‘Jake and Jordan started their relationship with a meet-cute arranged by her dog.’ It would be priceless.”
“Oh Sammy shut up!” She moved to get more comfortable on the couch as she finished the rest of her story, including the abridged version of the Tommy situation.
“I don’t know how long we talked, the conversation just flowed, ya know. And next thing I know we were being woken up by Sean and Carlee.”
“Oh my god!”
“Are you serious?”
“They didn’t?”
The reactions she got from her friends were what she expected. Jordan started laughing and once she started, she couldn’t stop. The laughter continued to grow inside her and became contagious around the group. “My thoughts exactly.”
“So if Sean and Carlee caught you guys sleeping together in the hammock, how is it that Ry and Jase don’t know about it?” Skye asked.
“Because I swore them to secrecy. When they woke us up, they were spying on us from behind the pool shed and I think they were just so happy not to be in trouble that they would have agreed to almost anything.”
Jordan got lost in thought. “I think he thinks he’s able to convince my brothers that what happened would never happen with him and we could be together.”
“Well maybe he’s right.” Skye tried to offer support. “Your brothers like him and they are closer to him than they ever were with Tommy.”
“I think Skye has a point,” Sammy supplied. “Like when you started dating Tommy your brothers were getting to know him at the same time you were, but with Jake they have already known him for two years before he even met you, so they know the type of guy he is… maybe they’ll have a change of heart.”
“I’m not gonna hold my breath.” Even though she didn’t let her friends know, deep down inside she hoped that they were right. There was something about Jake, she couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was this connection between them that made it so she couldn’t give up on him.
Jake picked Tucker up and drove them to Rookies to watch the Yankees play the Orioles. They sat at a table which faced the big screen that showed the game. When the waitress came by, they each ordered a beer and decided to split the sampler to start them off.
“So did you guys end up hanging out for a while after the game?” Jake asked Tucker.
“Yeah some of the alumni came back to the house so they were reminiscing about old times with the seniors and telling us stories from way back when.”
Jake took a sip of his beer. “Oh yeah? Any good stories about Ryan as a freshman?”
Tucker snorted. “More than you would even believe.” He turned to face Jake more fully. “A lot of them were about tricks Jordan and Skye used to pull on the guys.”
The waitress dropped off their sampler and when she asked if she could get them anything else, Tucker seized the opportunity to ask her for her phone number in his classic style. He shook his head at his friend, Tucker was constantly on the prowl and watching him in action, he had to admit it was highly entertaining.
Watching Tucker’s interaction with the waitress made Jake think of the night when they first met Jordan and he smiled. She saw right through Tucker’s cocky charm and was one of the only girls Jake had ever seen turn him down, unlike their waitress who was falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
The happy memory of Jordan turned sour for him when it brought to mind the other obstacles standing in the way of asking her out. He focused his attention back on the game as the Yankees hitter hit a line drive down the third base line to drive in two runs.
After the waitress left they dug into their food. “Something on your mind, bro?” Tucker asked.
He blew out a puff of air, debating how much he should say to his friend. Screw it. This is why I texted him. “Yeah… I can’t get my mind off Jordan.”
“She is hot.”
“It’s more than that.” He went on to tell Tucker about staying up all night and falling asleep with her in the hammock, followed by joining the Donnelly’s for dinner the next night.
“So, what, you think Ry and Jase would have a problem with you dating their sister? I mean I know they joke and say she’s off limits but you’re a good guy. You don’t really sleep around or anything, you’re more of a relationship guy, they’ve gotta respect that.”
“From what Jordan has mentioned, it’s more complicated than that. She said when she told them she was transferring here they made her promise not to date another guy on the hockey team.”
“You mean because of what happened with her and Tommy Bradford?”
“Yeah.” Jake took a swig of his beer.
“Damn man. Tommy Bradford. Dude was almost as much of a star for the Titans as Ryan.”
“I know.”
“I’m glad coach kicked him off the team though. Any guy that puts his hands on a woman doesn’t deserve to call himself a man.”
Jake would never lay a hand on Jordan and the thought of another guy harming even one hair on her head brought out the alpha in him. “I couldn’t agree more.” The two cheered their glasses.
“So what’s our plan?”
Jake smiled. One of the things he loved most about Tucker was he always had his back no matter what. If one of them had a problem, the other instantly considered it their own and was there to tackle the issue.
“Not sure yet. I know I have to get her to want to give us a shot, so that’s got to be the first step.”
“We got this.”
The rest of the evening was uneventful. The Yankees beat the Orioles 4-3 and Tucker went home with the waitress.
Jake was glad to have his best friend on his side. He made a promise to himself that he would talk to Jordan at the party and that they didn’t have to let her past, or promise to her brothers, keep them from being together.
Chapter Seventeen
Maddey and Jordan sat on the bed while Maddey finished applying Jordan’s make-up. The girls decided to get all dolled up for the night at the hockey house like they would when they went out back at school.
“So are you nervous about seeing Jake tonight?” Maddey asked.
She waited for Maddey to finish applying her eyeliner before she answered. “No… yes… I don’t know. I don’t think he would say anything to me in front of my brothers, so I’m thinking if I stay around everyone, I should be safe.”
To be honest, just the thought of being in close proximity of Jake made her palms sweat. The effect he had on her mind, body, and soul was a little unnerving. Even Tommy hadn’t had such an instant and intense effect on her.
Maddey put down the eyeliner and looked at her pointedly. “What are you so afraid of?”
Jordan sighed. “The truth?”
“No, Jor, lie to me… come on now.” Exasperated, she placed her hands on her hips.
“I’m afraid he’ll ask me just that.” She thought back on the night she met Jake at Rookies.
She remembered immediately thinking how attractive he was but it was his confidence and how he was standing calm and collected as he eyed her with appreciation while his friend hit on her that really caught her attention.
If only it was that simple.
Now after spending time with him and getting to know each other, the initial attraction she felt only grew stronger.