Page 10 of Jordan

Sitting next to her, he pried her fingers loose and took her hands in his. "You were pregnant?"

She nodded, blue eyes filling. "I cannot tell mother. She will be so disappointed." The tears started to course down her cheeks again.

Biting off an impatient sigh, he gathered her against him. Burying her face on his chest, she sobbed brokenly. Rubbing his hands up and down her back, he waited until the tears were spent.

"You're going to make yourself ill." Easing her away, he plucked at some tissues on the bedside table and handed them to her. "Does your husband know?"

She nodded. Mopping her pale face with the tissues, she started to shred the damp paper.

"And?"

"He blames me."

"What the hell for?" Jordan started to rise, when she stopped him by gripping his hand, fingers digging into skin.

"Please."

"He's an asshole."

"He's under a lot of pressure." She tailed off at the ominous look on his face. "You don't understand. You've always been so self-sufficient, not caring what they say to you. I am not like that; we're not like that." She bit her lip. "I want to be brave, but I never was. It's easier to just agree to everything they say. I wish things were different." She looked so lost and disconsolate that he felt his heart going out to her.

Prying her hand off his arm, he lifted her chin. "Do you love him?" he asked her quietly. He never expected an honest answer and wasn't surprised when her gaze slid from his.

"It doesn't matter." She started to rise, but he held her there.

"Life's too short for you to be trapped in a marriage from hell. Think about it," he advised softly. When the tears started again, he just held her, a grim expression on his face.

*****

"When are you coming home?"

She had sat at the counter, until the cold reminded her that she had yet to turn on the heat. Her stomach was hollow, but her appetite was non-existent. It had taken a lot for her to answer the phone and appear neutral. She could not very well tell her brother about the crazy proposal from Jordan Wainwright and the fact that she was actually thinking about it.

She had decided against staying in her old room and was inside the room that had been her mother's. Julesa could have sworn that she could still smell the lilac perfume she always wore.

"Soon. I have some things to tie up first." She plucked at the quilt restlessly. She had locked the place up tight, but the tree limbs knocking against the windowpane was making her feel jumpy. Or perhaps it was the marriage proposal. "The Wainwrights want to purchase the property."

She waited as silence followed her announcement.

"They approached you?"

She told him about the lawyer who had cornered her at the grave side.

"Vulture," he muttered furiously. "They couldn't give you time to grieve, could they. How much property can they use? What did you say to him?"

"I told him to go to hell."

He laughed in approval. "Be prepared for them to bombard you. If they start harassing you, give me a call. I would love to give them a piece of my mind. How are you really?"

She felt the tears again clogging her throat. "I miss mama, Caleb. And everything that she went through, the sacrifices she made, working for those people makes me so angry. I thought I was over it."

"You never really get over something like that. I wish you would come back home. Let the lawyer handle the property. You don't need that toxic environment."

"I'm fine." She drew in a breath. "Besides, I want to base a part of the story in Winter's Peak."

"What the hell are you saying?" he demanded. "Does that mean you're planning on staying longer?"

"Maybe." She hated lying to him and it occurred to her that not being straight with him was doing exactly that. "I don't know yet. I'll let you know."

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