Date Night (Wish Come True Book 1) (9 page)

“Goodnight, Jordan.”

“Goodnight, JT.”

Jordan

I ran my hand along the smooth black
vinyl arm rest and felt a twinge of jealousy. Grannie had been right—Derek’s
Camaro was beautiful and the previous owner had treated it with loving care.
Someday soon, after I got a job and saved enough money, I was going to buy
myself a Camaro. Although blue was my favorite color, after seeing the stunning
burgundy of Derek’s car, I might have to reconsider my color choice.

“This car is sick, Derek,” I said
with a wide grin. “Your friends must be insanely jealous.”

“Epic, right?” He smiled over at me.
“Let me show you what this thing can do.”

“Should I have brought my helmet?” I
giggled.

“Nah,” he laughed. “Grannie would be
pissed if I got into an accident. And then JT would beat my ass. I’m not an
idiot. This right here is my freedom.”

He pulled out of my driveway and made
his way onto I-696 where he could let loose on our way to Somerset Mall. I
cranked up the music and rolled down my window to get the full effect of the
wind blowing through my hair. I could ride like this forever, lost in my own thoughts.

“Hey,” Derek said as he pulled into
the parking lot. “Thanks for coming with me to pick out a gift for JT’s
birthday. I finally have a little cash and I want to get him something special.
It’s not every day you turn the big two five.”

“That’s your graduation money,” I
said, getting out of the car and resting my purse strap over my shoulder. “He
wouldn’t want you to spend it on him. You know that, right?”

“Too bad.” Derek opened the door to
the mall entrance. “It’s my money and I can do what I want with it. Our dad had
a saying:
‘If you can’t pay cash, then you can’t afford it.’
Well I have
cash now. I’m working too, you know. JT has to learn to let others love and
appreciate him. He’s done so much for me in the last five years and now I
finally get to give some back.”

“You’re right,” I acknowledged. JT
struggled terribly with accepting gifts from others. “But go easy on him. I
think he’s struggling with the fact that you’ve grown up and maybe don’t need
him as much anymore.”

“True dat,” he said. “I need to have
another talk with him and convince him to pay off some of his debt with my
college fund. Why can’t he see that I got this football scholarship because he
sacrificed and wouldn’t let me work? He would’ve been done with school a long
time ago if it wasn’t for me.”

I snorted, recalling the push back JT
had given Grannie about her generous check. “Good luck with that one.”

Derek gave me a sideways glance and
scrunched up his nose. “Actually, I was hoping you might want in on that
conversation. JT cares about you and you’re a woman. He gave into Grannie’s
demands. Maybe with both of us there we can finally talk some sense into him.”

“I don’t know,” I paused and bit my
lip in thought.

JT would be pissed having us gang up
on him like that. He was fiercely protective of Derek and would not allow
anything to screw up Derek’s chances for a bright future. But Derek had a valid
viewpoint as well. The football scholarship covered a large portion of the
tuition and living costs so there would be funds left over in the end. Why not
look at the college fund as one big pool that both children could benefit from?

It was logical—yet I knew JT wouldn’t
see it that way. He harbored strong feelings about right and wrong. And if the
will said that an equal amount was left to each child for college tuition, then
by God he was going to follow what his parents had laid out in the will. His
words the other night invaded my thoughts:
‘If you didn’t earn it, you don’t
deserve it.’
JT
had
earned this by working while going to school so
his brother could pursue football. If we could get JT to see the wisdom of
using the money to pay down his debt, it would relieve the financial pressure
he was feeling in the coming year even more. And remove another barrier to our
pursuit of happiness.

“If we do this, it has to be in a
public forum,” I said. “It’ll reduce the chance of him blowing up or storming
out on us. And you have to get the ball rolling. I’ll show up and swoop in to
have your back. I don’t want him knowing I was in on this from the start.”

“Deal. We meet every Tuesday for
lunch at Panera. Can you be there shortly after noon?”

“Actually, that’s perfect,” I said.
“I have an interview late morning and I’ll drop by as if by coincidence.”

“Thanks, Jordan.”

“No problem. Now let’s go find that
gift.”

Derek dropped me back off at home and
agreed we’d all meet at Tequila Blue on Saturday night at eight o’clock for
dinner to celebrate JT’s twenty-fifth birthday. It was a late dinner but ideal,
because by the time we finished eating the night club would be filling up. I
couldn’t wait. My whole family was going to be there for dinner, including my
cousin Tyler, and Leah was meeting us afterward in the dance club.

JT would be surprised…and pissed that
Derek and I had planned a surprise party behind his back. But like Derek said—too
bad. JT deserved a night on the town and I had every intention of dancing with
him. A little bump and grind would definitely help the cause. I would have to
make sure Leah kept Jared occupied on the dance floor so he wouldn’t catch onto
me and JT.

I rushed back to my bedroom. I had
just enough time to get changed for my Friday night ‘flavor of the week’ date.
It was so wrong of JT to name my dates after food but it was hilarious
none-the-less. Please, please, please let it finally be chocolate fudge sundae
date night. There had to be
one
decent guy who’d signed up at this
dating service. That’s all I needed; just one to make JT nervous and force him
into a decision.

I was certain he loved me. The way he
had gazed into my eyes the other night at the bank, and then kissed me ever so
softly on the lips, was raw emotion not hot desire. But he needed a tiny bit of
encouragement to admit it so we could start our happily-ever-after. With that
in mind, I searched through my closet for just the right outfit.

***

J.T.

I sensed her presence before my eyes made
contact with hers. It was her fragrance that gave her away; seductive with its
undertones of vanilla and some flowery scent that lured instead of overpowered.
Breathing in deeply as she sashayed past me with her latest date, I closed my
eyes for a moment to savor the feeling of having her wrapped around me. Even if
it was just her scent.

When I opened my eyes again, my jaw
fell open and likely scraped against the restaurant floor but I was too
distracted to know for sure. What did she think she was doing wearing that
outfit? On a first date. Well on any date for that matter. Did she think she
was fooling anyone with the tiny innocent flowers sprinkled throughout the material
of the flowing pale yellow skirt that stopped a few inches above her knee and
then swept down at an angle to rest softly against her calves? I didn’t usually
equate flowers with sexy, but combined with the brown leather cowboy boots, she
was as hot as chocolate fudge on a sundae.

My eyes were glued to her as she took
her seat. In fact, to my dismay, every eye in the place was glued to her. And
then I finally saw how the strapless dress clung to her body from the waist up
and framed her voluptuous chest, with a hint of soft roundness pushing up over
the edge. Hadn’t she brought a sweater for Christ’s sake? It was still chilly
in the evenings. I’d have a talk with Grannie and Mrs. Billette about this.
Seriously. Letting her leave the house dressed that way.

I cleared my throat and took a
calming breath, trying to remind myself I wasn’t her father, and didn’t have a
right to tell her how to dress; though I felt just as protective of her. Damn
it. Where was Jared when I needed him? He wouldn’t have let her go on a date
dressed like that. I walked to the table and put on my best welcoming smile,
but I felt the corners of my mouth turn down as I laid eyes on the flavor of
the week.

“Hi Jordan,” I said and then acknowledged
her date. “Good to see you again, Steve.”

“You two know each other?” Jordan
asked with a cocked brow.

“Hey, JT,” her date said, reaching
out his hand to shake with me. “Great to see you, man. It’s been a while. I
didn’t know you worked here.”

“Yeah,” I said, lightly folding my
arms over my chest. “I have one more year to wrap up my Master’s degree and
then I’ll be starting a full-time public accounting gig. How’s your cousin Erik
doing these days?”

“Good, good,” Steve said, nodding his
head lightly. “He moved to the Houston area last month. Got a great offer there
he couldn’t refuse.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that,” I said,
shrugging my shoulders. “I guess it’s been a while since we talked.”

“How do you know Jordan?” Steve asked
casually but I could see the flicker of curiosity in his eyes. Did he think I
was the competition? Damn right I was.

“She’s Jared’s kid sister,” I said
and then nearly winced at the daggers shooting towards me from Jordan’s eyes.
What? It was the truth. If she didn’t want to be treated like a kid, then she
needed to stop acting like one. That dress was meant to make me jealous. And
damn it all if I wasn’t. Steve would be ogling her breasts all night, which
really irked me.

“Oh right,” Steve said, relaxing
against the back of the bench seat. “I remember your best friend. Small world.”

“Yep,” I smiled and shook my head at
the irony of it all. “So what can I get you two started with?”

I pounded the order into the kiosk
and cursed under my breath. Steve was a good guy. I had met him on several
occasions hanging out with my high school buddy Erik. If I recalled correctly,
Steve had gone to Grand Valley State but I struggled to remember what his
degree was in. Crap. Jordan and Steve were going to have a lot to talk about.
Not to mention that Steve was smooth with the ladies and had always scored a
date whenever the guys went out clubbing together.

Well I’d asked for it. This was it. A
fair test of the budding feelings that we had for each other. A trickle of
sweat rolled slowly down my back. If it came right down to it, Jordan was going
to have to kiss Steve to truly assess her feelings one way or the other. I
shoved my hand through my thick mat of unruly hair. Damn it. Why couldn’t she
just give me some time? I just needed time to get my life in order. This was
ridiculous. Even if she did hit it off with Steve, there was no way he was
proposing to her in a matter of a few weeks and marrying her within two months.
That would be insane. She shouldn’t be dating anyone else if she cared about
me; even if I had pushed her to do it. Jordan was a headstrong girl with a mind
of her own. In this instance I wished she had used it.

I tried my best to ignore their table
as much as humanly possible after I witnessed the way Steve’s eyes dropped down
to Jordan’s chest while she was focused on the menu. I could hardly blame the
guy when I found my own eyes repeatedly drawn to the expanse of bare flesh
above her bodice. Just one more hour and it would all be over—unless she
actually liked him and Grannie gave the go ahead.

***

Grannie

Grannie struggled to keep a straight
face while Jordan and JT bickered back and forth about the qualities of the
chocolate fudge sundae, Jordan’s chosen name for her flavor of the week date,
which clearly didn’t sit well with JT. It had been his idea to name the dates, he
argued, so he should be the one to pick the name. She should jump in and break
it up before either one of them said something they were going to later regret.
But she couldn’t resist observing their obvious attraction to each other for a
while longer. Why did they resist each other so hard?

“I can’t understand either one of you
two when you talk over each other like that so everyone calm down.” Grannie
finally bellowed.

JT turned to stare at Grannie with
clenched jaw. He wasn’t done having his say but there would be time for that.
She first wanted to hear Jordan’s perspective. Then she would know how to
react.

“Well, Jordan?” Grannie asked and
clasped her hands lightly in her lap. “By the way, you look lovely tonight,
dear. How did the date go?”

Jordan cocked her brow at JT with an
‘I-told-you-so’ expression written all over her face, which only earned her the
rolling of his eyes. Grannie was all smiles on the inside but maintained what
she hoped was a schooled, bland expression on the outside. Apparently the dress
and boots had gotten exactly the reaction Grannie had expected when she
encouraged Jordan to wear it tonight. The poor boy didn’t stand a chance. He
should just give in immediately and be done with it.

“It was the first decent date I’ve
had since this whole thing started.”

“Ouch. That stings. I seem to recall
you enjoying yourself at Canterbury Castle,” JT said, resting his arm on the
counter and leaning in closer to Jordan. “Especially the part where we posed
for pictures.”