Page 37 of Dreaming About Forever

She handed over the small bag without thinking. It weighed an eighth of a pound, and she could carry it herself, but her head was still spinning.

“It was in your file,” Jordan said.

“Oh.” Of course, he’d read her “file.”

“I take your diet seriously. Even if you just chose not to eat sugar, I respect that. As long as you’re okay with it and someone else isn’t forcing you.”

Alicia wrapped her coat around her middle, huddling against the chilly breeze. Jordan was turning out to be sweeter than she’d expected, she hadn’t thought about her family problems or recent breakup, and the people of the town were inviting her to events left and right.

They treated her like a normal person.

Vicci talked the whole way back to the ranch, pointing out where her friends lived and sharing about their families. She’d known these people her whole life. Jordan had too. It was oddly comforting knowing she was being hosted by a family who lived outside of the town business district but still had their hands and hearts in everything that was going on.

The house was quiet when they returned, and Vicci said a quick good night before slipping off to her room.

Left alone with Jordan in the entryway, she clutched the paper angels in her coat pocket, desperate for anything to curb the bubbling in her middle.

Jordan held up the bag containing the cupcake. “You want me to put this in the kitchen, or are you going to eat this before bed tonight?”

Alicia tried to hold back her grin as she reached for the bag. “I’ll just take that.”

Jordan looked up the stairs, then jerked his head that way. “After you.”

She ascended the stairs slowly. It hadn’t been an exceptionally demanding day, but the emotional rain cloud hanging over her was silently heavy. Dim moonlight shone through the window at the end of the hallway, and she paused at the guest bedroom.

“Thanks for everything today,” she whispered in the quiet house.

“You’re welcome.” His deep voice slid through the darkness, wrapping itself around her bones.

Alicia glanced at his bedroom door. The hallway was so small they could barely fit in it together, and she didn’t want an escape from Jordan. Not yet. He held her attention in large rooms, but his wide shoulders held full sway over her attention in the dark corridor.

“Your sister is sweet. I really like her.”

“She’s a good person. You won’t meet anyone else like her.”

Alicia grinned, wishing she could see his expression when he talked about Caroline. “I bet no one ever gave her trouble in school with you and Clint around.”

Jordan huffed. “They wouldn’t dare.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall, somehow making his frame even larger. “She had a hard time after Dom got put away, but I think she came out of it.”

Dom. The other Taylors were so close. Dom’s absence seemed like a hole in a carefully smoothed concrete foundation. “What happened?”

Jordan rubbed the scruff on his jaw and looked at the floor. Conversation had danced around the missing brother earlier, and her curiosity was at its peak.

After a sigh, Jordan looked up. “He killed someone.”

Alicia had feared the worst, but her gasp couldn’t be contained.

“You’re not in any danger. He’s been in prison for years, and he’s not getting out anytime soon.”

“What? How?” Alicia asked.

Jordan shrugged. “He pled guilty. It didn’t add up for me at the time. It still doesn’t. Dom was a troublemaker, but he wasn’t a bad guy. I wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t pleaded guilty.”

“I’m sorry.” Shewassorry. Sorry for the anguish the Taylor family must have gone through. They were still going through it.

“Mom doesn’t talk about it because she gets tired of defending him. Well, not necessarily defending him–she’d do that till her dying day. She gets tired of not being believed. She doesn’t think he did it. She’s not the kind of mom who thinks her kids can do no wrong, but she doesn’t think he had it in him.”

Alicia rubbed the zipper of her coat between her fingers. “I know what it’s like to watch your family do something you didn’t think they were capable of.”

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