Home is Where the Heart is

by Mack, Christie

  That she did. He was his usual lovable self—the Jordan she had fallen in love with all those years ago.

  But she didn’t tell him. She would keep that little tidbit to herself.

  Cassie pulled down on the hem of Jordan’s shirt she was wearing, covering up more of her thighs. She had to admit that knowing she was wearing his shirt made her feel good inside, like she’d gotten a little piece of Jordan back all to herself.

  Cassie knew at this moment though, however content she may be to just simply lay in her ex-boyfriend’s arms, it wouldn’t and couldn’t last forever, because life had a funny way of slapping her in the face.

  Their mouths collided together in a fiery kiss as Jordan slowly got to his feet, hooking Cassie’s legs around his waist again, and he began making their way out of the kitchen toward her bedroom.

  As if on-cue, Cassie felt something vibrate from within Jordan’s jeans pocket.

  "I think your phone’s ringing,” she said into his mouth.

  “No, it’s okay. They can leave a message. I want to be here with you,” Jordan said, planting another luscious kiss on her lips, “and do some more of this.” His tongue sought entry inside her mouth.

  As good as it was to be kissing him, Cassie couldn’t ignore the phone in his pocket. Whoever was calling him could be important.

  “It’s okay. You should answer your phone,” she told him, setting her bare feet down onto the floor so that Jordan could take his phone call.

  He kissed her quickly before lacing his hand through hers, and then slid his phone out of his pocket. Cassie couldn’t help but glance at his screen, and saw someone by the name of Brielle was calling him.

  Cassie could have gagged. How could she be so stupid to actually have sex with Jordan? Of course he was seeing someone else. She should have seen it coming. He was in the NFL and was devastatingly handsome. He probably had a million women wrapped around his little finger, and now she was one of them, which she never wanted to be. She should never have let the situation go as far as it did. Now she would be the one paying for the consequences of their actions.

  She was quick to pull away from him, still wearing his shirt as she went back to the kitchen to locate her clothes strewn on the floor while she let him take the phone call.

  She couldn’t hear what this person was saying, but from what she could make out when she came back into her room, Brielle obviously missed Jordan enough to call and ask where he was, and how long he was going to be away for, giving Cassie the impression that maybe she was his girlfriend. If that was the case, then why hadn’t Jordan told her he had a girlfriend, instead of allowing things to go as far as sleeping with each other?

  Cassie didn’t like being used. She tried carefully to keep her mind off of Jordan and what just happened between the two of them. She couldn’t help but overhear Jordan’s response when he was obviously asked how much longer he was here for. Apparently, he didn’t know yet, but Cassie didn’t see him gaze at her when he said it.

  When he ended the call, he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist in an attempt to be affectionate.

  “Sorry about that. Now where were we?” he murmured softly, his breath hot against her ear. Cassie couldn't let herself slip back into his warm embrace. She pulled his hands away from her and turned around to face him directly.

  “Who is Brielle?” she asked him, getting straight to the point and then went on to elaborate. “I saw her name on your phone. Is she your girlfriend?”

  Jordan shook his head. “No. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  “But you are seeing her, right?”

  Jordan nodded his head. He couldn’t lie to Cassie; she meant everything to him.

  "On a casual basis. It’s just physical between us. I can’t see myself committing to an actual relationship with her like I can with you. You’re truly the only one I can imagine sharing my life with.”

  He took a couple of steps toward her, but with each step he took, she stepped farther away from him moving closer to the kitchen.

  “I’m sorry. I just can’t be with you when you’re with somebody else. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, or whether you love her or not; the fact remains you are still hooking up with some other girl. You feel a physical attraction to her. That has to count for something or you wouldn’t be doing it.”

  Cassie left him standing all alone in her kitchen, pondering over the decisions he had made in his life. After a few minutes, she returned wearing her own clothes and handed him his shirt back, their fingers grazing as Jordan took it from her. She still felt that same desire to be with him, but knew she couldn’t risk another broken heart.

  “I think you should go,” she told him.

  “Well, what about the cookies?” he asked her. He wasn’t going to even bother asking about his offer to have his way with her in her bedroom. Obviously, it was a no-go zone now.

  “It’s okay. We got most of them done already, so I can handle the remaining ones by myself,” Cassie assured him.

  Jordan followed her to the door.

  “Cassie—” he started, but she cut him off with a shake of her head, holding the door open for him.

  “There’s nothing to say. What happened was a one-time thing that will never happen again. It was just sex between two people who used to mean something to each other. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less,” Cassie insisted, using words Jordan recited earlier. “I have nothing more to say to you. Please, just go home.”

  And just like that, Jordan brushed past Cassie, his face portraying all he wanted to do was sweep her up in his arms and tell her how much he loved her.

  When Cassie closed the door without a second glance at her ex-boyfriend, she slowly slid to the floor with her back against it, holding her knees tight to her chest and shedding a tear or two. She wished she hadn’t taken Gabby’s advice, knowing it would ultimately lead to more heartbreak. It was very obvious that she and Jordan were simply not cut out to be together forever.

  The following morning, it was a beautiful spring day despite the previous night’s events. Cassie was working behind the counter at Patty-Cake Bakery while Gabby served as a customer, happily chatting to her best friend as she worked. Gabby, didn’t have to start work until midday, and she was making the most of her late start as she perched at the front counter with one leg crossed over the other and sipped on a chai latte and ate a banana muffin that came fresh from Cassie’s oven this morning.

  “So, you took my suggestion seriously, huh? I’m glad to see I’m slowly rubbing off on you after all these years,” Gabby said. “Now he’s finally out of your system and you don’t feel anything for him, right?

  “As long as he’s seeing someone else in Miami, I won’t be with him,” Cassie said, fixing the hairnet wrapped around her bun. “You know me—I don’t do casual flings. I don’t even know why I would let you put the idea into my head. It was so stupid to think it might actually work.”

  “In most circumstances, it probably would have worked,” Gabby twirled a strand of her straight black hair around her index finger, “but you’re not like most people. You don’t really know the meaning of something insignificant or off-the-cuff, especially with Jordan, whom you’ve got a complicated history with. Just keep telling yourself how much better you are by not being with him. And okay, so you don’t want to have a random, hot, sweaty night with a total stranger, but what about a date? I know of plenty eligible men who would love to go out on a proper date with you. Besides, when was the last time you actually went out on one?”

  “I date,” Cassie protested.

  Gabby pointed a finger at her while picking at a piece of muffin and stuffing it into her mouth. “Nick, Jake, and I don’t count.”

  “For your information, Jake and I happen to love our mother-son dates to the movies. I’m making the most of them before he realizes how uncool I really am and chooses not to hang out with me.”

  “That’s unfortunate for you. For me, I will always
be cool. But you at least need to consider going out on an actual date at some point. Maybe not right now, but later. You can do it for me; make it my birthday present. I will be eternally appreciative.” Gabby flashed a wink in her direction. “And speaking of dates, I saw Nick having a great time last night.”

  Gabby’s spoken words made Cassie stop what she was mixing in a bowl and turn to her best friend.

  “Do I sense some envy there, Gabby?”

  Gabby was ultimately perplexed by Cassie’s question.

  “Why would I be jealous? I was the one who turned Nick down. I just assumed he would take a little longer than a couple of days to actually get over me. I am irresistible, after all.”

  Gabby struck a pose that made Cassie laugh, and then she turned serious, giving Gabby a straight face. “Are you sure you’re not a little bit jealous at the fact Nick has seemingly moved on from you so quickly?” Cassie asked her.

  Gabby shook her head, her black hair swaying about. “I can honestly say I’m not jealous over Nick at all. He’s one of my best friends, which is part of the reason why I rejected him in the first place. I don’t want to risk the strong friendship we have for something that might not even go anywhere. Besides, I doubt anything will even happen between him and the woman. I’m sure she will want something to happen, but he won’t let it. He’s not a relationship kind of guy.” Gabby frowned. “I’m sad because our male counterparts are seeing more action than we are, and that’s not right. We’re two incredibly gorgeous women. We should be able to score a date as often as we like. More than Nick and Jordan for sure.”

  “You can. I don’t date, remember?” Cassie corrected Gabby.

  “You could if you wanted to,” Gabby pointed out. “By choice, you don’t date. It doesn’t have to be this way. I happen to know that Jesse—the builder guy who works for Nick’s company—likes you. He’s got a thing for you, and you know it. Lord knows, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s asked you out on a date.”

  “I know, I know. I actually feel bad that he’s asked me out so many times and I keep turning him down.”

  “Well, if you feel bad for him, maybe you should just say yes and go out on one date with the guy. It wouldn’t be a bad thing; he’s an incredibly good-looking man. And you never know, you might end up enjoying yourself, and he might help you get over your uncontrollable feelings for Jordan.”

  “You would think he would have gotten the message loud and clear the first time I told him no. I have no idea why he insists on asking me out repetitively.”

  “I guess he really likes you and won’t take no for an answer. I think you really should consider taking him up on his offer and just go out with the guy.”

  Cassie didn’t say anything other than, “We’ll see.”

  The bell above the door of the bakery jingled, indicating someone was coming inside.

  Both Cassie and Gabby turned their attention toward the door when a sultry woman with medium-length, dark brown hair and caramel-colored skin entered the shop, and they could instantly see she wasn’t from town. No one from Yellow Valley wore three-inch stilettos during the day, or on any given night out either. This town just wasn’t made for women to wear those kinds of shoes, unless you were going to a wedding.

  She approached the front counter looking dignified and smiled, revealing her pearly white teeth.

  “Hi, I was wondering if you could help me.” She certainly wasn’t a Texas native; the long southern drawl people had around here was absent from her accent. She was obviously more city-chic than country girl, and she knew it too. She wouldn’t be caught dead in this town unless it were necessary.

  Gabby folded her arms together. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

  “Is it really that obvious?” she asked with a fake laugh.

  “Afraid so, honey,” Gabby said while looking her up and down, the stilettos becoming noticeably the prime focus of her attention. “You would be the only one to ever come in here wearing those shoes. It’s a dead giveaway.” The woman looked down at her shoes, and then her eyes wandered over Gabby and her attire like she thought she looked way better than she did.

  Cassie approached the counter from her previous position at the espresso machine, placing her hands on the edge of the countertop.

  “What can I help you with?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

  “Well, you are right. I’ve never been here before, and I’m trying to find someone. Can you help me?” She searched through her oversized Chanel handbag and pulled out a slip of swanky notepaper with an address scrawled across it, showing it to Cassie.

  “Do you know where this is?”

  Cassie showed little countenance on her face the moment she was shown the paper. Of all the coincidences, she just happened to breeze into town, strutting into the very shop where Cassie worked. Could she really be the same gal Jordan was casually seeing in Miami? Cassie doubted Nick knew any women who wore three-inch stilettos passing through town. She knew him too well to know his busy workload had kept him in town throughout the past couple of years with little time to venture outside of Texas to meet pretty women. However, Cassie didn’t press her for information, or substantiate she knew whom she was meeting up with in Yellow Valley. Obviously, she didn’t even know who Cassie was.

  When Cassie rattled off directions to the address written on the paper, and the woman left with a home-baked cream pie, Cassie turned to Gabby, whose facial expression appeared almost identical to Cassie’s at that moment. For the first in a very long time, both women were speechless over what just happened.

  Gabby was the first one to speak. “Do you think that was her?”

  Cassie shrugged her shoulder. “I really don’t know. It has to be her, right?”

  “Well, she is looking for Nick’s address, which is where Jordan is currently residing right now. If she doesn’t know Jordan, then Nick has certainly been holding out on us about the women in his life.” Gabby drummed her fingernails against the countertop. “So what are you going to do?” she asked her best friend. “Do you think Jordan was telling you the truth when he said he wasn’t in a serious relationship with anyone?”

  “Honestly, I don’t think he had any reason to lie to me. I don’t think they’re that serious right now, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to be something more than what they already are. But I’m not worried about how his current relationship status is going to affect Jake. Jordan wouldn’t do anything to threaten his growing union with our son anyway.”

  Jake was her biggest priority in her life, and although Cassie didn’t think she had anything to worry about with Jordan and his relationships, she also didn’t want to let on to her best friend that buried deep down inside, there was a tiny bit of her worrying about how it might affect her own relationship with her son. She was Jake’s mother, and no woman would come into Jordan’s life and worm her way into Jake’s world in an attempt to build something he’s already got.

  Cassie would simply free it from her mind, refusing to struggle over the concept that Brielle might mean something more to Jordan than he was letting on, and hoped Jake meant more to her ex-boyfriend than his sexual frustrations.

  Repetitive knocks on the door startled Jordan out of his power-nap on the plush sofa in the middle of Nick’s living area, making him jump up from his position and rush to the door, where he was surprised by the visitor standing on the other side.

  He was shell-shocked and speechless. He didn’t know what to say, prompting his visitor to say something first.

  “Is that any way to greet someone who’s travelled as far as I have to see you?” Brielle struck a pose with one hand on her hip as if she was slightly offended by his lack of words. “It’s good to see you too, babe,” she prompted, looking him up and down with a seductive grin on her face; the distance between them had made her eager to see him again.

  Jordan wrapped his arms around her in an affectionate encirclement. “I’m surprised to see you. I wasn’t expec
ting you to visit me here.”

  Brielle and Jordan pulled apart from each other. She peered past him, glancing around at the apartment she was standing in. “I know. I wasn’t expecting to visit you either, but I thought it would be a nice surprise, and I missed you. Now, is your roommate home?” More importantly, her body missed him and the way he did things to her that no other man had come close to doing to her.

  Jordan shook his head. “No, he’s working. Why? What did you have in mind?” Jordan was still stunned by her spontaneous visit to Yellow Valley. She certainly hadn’t said anything about visiting him when they spoke on the phone, nor were they an exclusive couple. He did, however, appreciate what they had in the form of being friends with benefits. She had definite sex appeal, and it was very easy to focus his attention on her.

  Brielle brought her gaze back to Jordan, giving him a wink as her slender, caramel-colored arms snaked their way around his neck.

  “I don’t know. I’m sure we can think of something. We always do when we’re alone together.” She licked her lips and hinted at something almost too dirty for words. She knew how to get what she wanted, and usually Jordan was eager for a quick rendezvous with Brielle, except he wasn’t today. People could call him crazy to turn down the advances of an incredibly sexy woman most men would kill to be with. He just wasn’t feeling the same way he usually was when he received a visit from her.

  Brielle tried desperately to entice Jordan into a little bit of fun with her. After all, she had taken time out of her busy schedule as a model to hop a flight out of Miami to come see him in Yellow Valley, the town that looked like the tiniest speck on the map, and he couldn’t even greet her properly. Had she known how much of an unwelcome feeling she would receive, she would have never come in the first place.

  Jordan pulled her arms from around his neck, and he knew he wasn’t fooling her. She could probably see right through him. He didn’t want her here—that much was obvious—and for Brielle, it was a strange feeling to know Jordan didn’t want her right now. In the six months she had known Jordan, she had never known him to turn her down for sex. She was hot and she knew it; men practically threw themselves at her, hitting on her every chance they got. Of course, she was flattered by the attention she received, and in most cases, there was no harm in a little casual sex and a date or two with the opposite sex when she was single and unattached, but there was also a tiny piece of her that itched to be closer to Jordan in more ways than just sex. She wanted to know he felt as strongly about her as she did for him. Was that too much to ask for?