Finding Forever (16 page)

“The woman impersonating Jake’s fiancée,” Jordan said. “I’ll treat you to a facial and explain everything once I know for sure she’s gone.”

***

“What exactly is this?” Beth wanted to know.

Jordan glanced over out of the corner of her eye, happy that Beth seemed to be relaxed and enjoying herself. A hefty spa bill was a small price to pay for having Macy Hayes out of Grande Valley. “Seawater pearl hydrating facial.”

“Mmm. I think I like it. Do you do this often?”

“Often enough.”

“Is that why your skin looks so flawless?”

“It doesn’t hurt.” Jordan shrugged and leaned back. They had another twenty minutes in the mask. Might as well relax. “Tell me something. Why are you still friends with me after what I did to you?”

“What?” Beth whipped her head around to face Jordan. “Are we really going through that again? Fine. Because you do things like this for me, okay? And you’re fun.”

“But Matt...”

“Was an asshole, and I’m thankful I found out before I married him. And it took both of you to betray me, Jordan. You don’t bear the whole blame,” Beth said. “And why are we talking about this again? I thought we settled it years ago.”

“I thought so, too,” Jordan agreed. “Then I showed up here last night, hoping to rescind my ‘Dear Jake’ letter and try again, and Macy was wearing his shirt and claiming to be the future Mrs. Jacob Morrison. It made me think about you and me and Matt.” She closed her eyes, hoping that block out the image. “I took a drink of wine last night, Beth,” Jordan said quietly. “Seven years, and I took a drink of wine.” She let out a laugh. “Crappy wine, too. Sarah would never approve.”

“No, she wouldn’t. And not because the wine was bad,” Beth said. “Jesus. Are you okay, Jordan?”

“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked that today, but yeah. I’ll be fine.” She believed that now. “Thanks again for helping me flush Macy out.”

“Anytime. It was fun.”

“Way too easy, though.” Jordan might have been wearing a facial mask, but it was hard to keep from smirking. “Talk about falling right into a trap.”

“It should have been obvious he wasn’t interested in her. He loves you, Jordan.”

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around that.”

“It doesn’t have to be so unbelievable,” Beth said. “You have a lot to offer.”

Coming from someone she’d hurt deeply, it was a major compliment. “This whole being happy thing isn’t easy for me. It doesn’t come naturally.” Whenever Jordan got close, she found a way to sabotage it. “I’m not like you,” she said. “Or Sarah.”

“I won’t speak for Sarah,” Beth said. “But being happy hasn’t come naturally to me, either. I’m the one that almost destroyed a marriage to a wonderful man because I couldn’t let go of the past.” Beth grew quiet before continuing, “I think the best answer I can give you about why I’m friends with you is because forgiving you finally freed me of that and allowed me to focus on the present and the future. Maybe when you forgive yourself, you’ll be able to do the same.”

While the sting operation had essentially established Macy as the liar Jake insisted she was, Jordan believed in thorough investigations, so she placed a call to Val Fraser. Fortunately, the publicist remembered her fondly, providing further evidence that Jordan’s time in California was perhaps more successful than she usually acknowledged.

“I’m calling about Jake Morrison,” she said once they’d exchanged pleasantries.

“Ah, yes. I knew he planned on looking you up. I’m actually the one that got your address for him,” Val said, “so I hope he’s not bothering you.”

“Not at all. It’s been nice to see him again.” Really nice.

“Good. I’m trying to keep him out of the tabloids, unlike his last PR firm.” Val laughed humorlessly. “Have you heard about that one?”

The publicist’s reaction all but validated Jake’s story. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Jordan said. “Macy Hayes showed up here yesterday.”

“Oh, no.” Val groaned. “I had a feeling she might try something like that after she rejected Jake’s last settlement offer.”

“Settlement offer?” Jordan frowned. Jake hadn’t mentioned anything about that. Was there more to the story?

“Maybe that’s not really the right term, since nothing ever got filed in court, but Macy wasn’t happy about all the money she missed out on when Jake wouldn’t go along with the reality wedding show,” Val explained. “Jake offered a cash payment. I didn’t agree with it, but he’s been pretty determined to move on from this.”

“He should be able to now,” Jordan said. “I don’t expect Macy to cause any more trouble.” For one thing, she would no longer find a captive audience for her lies.

“So what’s your role in all this?” Val wanted to know. “Are you and Jake officially an item?”

“Off the record or on the record?”

Val chuckled. “Off, for now.”

“In that case, we’re working on it,” Jordan said.

“I had a hunch, based on what Jake said about you.”

“Oh?” Jordan’s curiosity was officially piqued. “What’s that?”

“He referred to you as the one that got away,” Val said. “I got the impression he was trying to change that.”

***

After talking with Val, Jordan decided to pull a page out of Macy’s playbook and wait for Jake in his room, only she did so fully dressed. In the event he’d decided she was more trouble than she was worth—and after the drama of the past few days, who would blame him?—Jordan wanted to be able to leave with some amount of dignity left. There were things they needed to talk about, though. She wished now that she would have attempted to discuss them with him before trying to end their relationship. It might have spared a lot of chaos, as well as a relapse. Then again, when had Jordan ever done things the easy way?

She heard the door open and Jake called out, “Anyone here? You better be gone, Macy.”

Jordan flipped on the lamp beside the chair she sat in. “She is. You’re stuck with me tonight.”

“Amen to that.” A look of relief washed over his face. “I didn’t really want to have to call the D.A. in.”

“I already took care of that.” Jordan laughed. “It was way too easy, by the way. Your former girlfriend is not particularly bright. I hope your taste has improved.”

“I thought that was obvious,” Jake said. “I’m with you now.” He paused. “At least I want to be, assuming it’s still an option.”

His uncertainty flattered her, and Jordan hoped her friends were right and that if they wanted something badly enough, they could make it work. “It’s definitely an option,” she said. “I did some investigation, including talking to Val. Your story checks out. You did, however, fail to mention the part about trying to pay her off.”

“I didn’t get a chance. You ran out of the restaurant so fast earlier.”

Jordan didn’t know if he really would have told her, but since she had left abruptly, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Next time, discuss that kind of thing with your legal team first, okay?”

“There won’t be a next time,” Jake vowed. “I’m done with dumb publicity stunts.”

“I should hope so. You’ve always had the talent to make it on your own, Jake. Why would you doubt that?”

“I don’t know. Things got rough for a while,” he said. “And I didn’t have you believing in me.”

“You flatter me.” She liked it, though. “You’re also wrong. I never stopped believing in you. I have one of five copies of the zombie DVD, remember?”

“That’s true, yeah. But you weren’t around to encourage me.” Jake shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I’ve always liked my life better, and believed in myself more, with you around.”

It might have been the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her, Jordan decided. Sure, the ‘I love you’ had been nice, even if the timing called the sincerity into question, but this was better and there was no doubt at all that Jake meant it. “I can’t say ‘always’ because of the circumstances before. I hope you can understand that,” Jordan said quietly. “But right now, in this place and time, I feel the same way. I like things much better with you around.”

“I can live with that,” Jake said. “So what do we do? Where do we go now?”

“We try to figure things out.” In the past, figuring things out would have involved vodka and sex. Now Jordan was confident they both had something different in mind, with the latter remaining a strong option once things were, in fact, figured out. “After I got Macy out of here, I took a look around.” Her class reunion had been held at the same hotel, but she hadn’t seen much of it then. “I noticed an outdoor bar by the pool,” she said. “If I can interest you in a drink?”

“Jordan...”

She saw the flicker of doubt flash in his eyes and the concern form on his face and wondered how much damage last night’s setback did to their budding relationship. Maybe he had, indeed, decided she wasn’t worth the trouble. “I meant club soda or lemonade. Perhaps iced tea. But if you’re not up for it...”

“No, it sounds great,” Jake said. “Just give me a minute to change, okay?”

Calm down, Jordan, and try not to be so paranoid. Are you going to try to make things work or not?
“Okay.”

***

She opted for iced tea. Jake ordered lemonade and they sat at one of the tables by the pool. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or defensive,” he said. “I worry about you, though.”

Jordan nodded. “I know, and that’s exactly the problem. I don’t want to be your worry. Your career is taking off. You can’t be worrying about me and you can’t afford bad press,” she said. “If you didn’t like your stint in the tabloids with Macy, how are you going to like headlines that Jake Morrison’s wife is a lush?”

Jake tried not to get caught up on the word ‘wife’ because he knew Jordan was only talking in hypotheticals. He couldn’t deny it sounded good to him, though. Five minutes with Macy had made him appreciate everything about Jordan even more. “I’ll punch anyone in the face who calls you that.”

“Oh, good, because that’ll really help your cause with the press.” Her tone was sarcastic, but Jake noticed her lips curled up slightly.

“Okay, maybe punching them is a bad idea,” Jake admitted. “I’m not going to let people take shots at you, though.”

“You may not be able to stop them.” Jordan looked past him, out at the pool. “I did my treatment in California, Jake. If people dig hard enough, they’ll find out my history. Then you know someone will try to catch me with a drink in my hand.”

“Fine. They’ll try,” Jake said. “What makes you think they’ll succeed?”

“Well, you caught me with one in my hand last night.”

In an instant, Jake realized the root of the problem, and it had nothing to do with Jordan’s worry about what the press in Hollywood would do. The issue was Jordan’s worry about what he thought. That was what they needed to address, if only Jake knew how. “Yes, and it scared me. I won’t deny that.  I know how hard you’ve worked at staying sober, so when I saw you with that bottle, I was scared for you. But that didn’t last long.”

“Why?” Jordan forgot her fascination with the pool and looked at him, though it was hard to see her eyes through her sunglasses.

Jake wanted to reach over and pull them off, but he respected her need to stay guarded, at least for now. “Because when I took the bottle from you, you didn’t fight me. You let me take it and pour it out and you even asked me to pour the rest of the glass out, too. You didn’t want to get drunk, Jordan.”

“No, I didn’t,” Jordan said after a second. “Hell, my hand shook when I poured the wine and it didn’t even taste good.” She let out a humorless chuckle. “Apparently, I’m not very good at relapsing.”

“I’d say that’s probably a good thing.” Jake reached over and took her hand. “I love you, Jordan. That means I’m not going to be scared away easily. So if you’re trying to get rid of me, that was a bad way to go about it.”

“Oh, Jake, I don’t want to get rid of you. I never wanted to get rid of you.”

They were the words he needed to hear. “Then don’t.”

“You say the right things and make it sound easy, but I can’t promise something like that will never happen again,” Jordan said. “I can’t guarantee I’ll never slip up again.”

“I know you can’t, and I don’t expect you to. There’ll always be challenges. I’m not going to run at the first sign of one,” Jake vowed. “I think you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for, and I expect you to be just fine, but if something happens, I’m not going to desert you. I’m going to do whatever I can to help you.”

“You say that now, but—”

“But what?” Jake tried to keep his frustrations under control. “Why do you keep searching for reasons to doubt me? To doubt us? Why can’t you just take a chance?”

“I want to,” Jordan said.

“So what’s stopping you?”

“Nothing, really. I don’t know.” Jordan sighed. “It’s just that Carl—”

“What about Carl?” Jake demanded, clenching his fist. He was so damn sick of Carl. “Who is this guy to you, Jordan? Because I’m starting to think maybe he’s the real issue we need to be discussing.”