Home is Where the Heart is (17 page)

F
ive days had passed since Cassie’s impromptu fling with Jordan, and despite knowing she shouldn’t be harboring clandestine feelings for her ex-boyfriend—obvious reason being he was already involved with someone else—she couldn’t seem to get the thought of him out of her head. She still envisioned the two of them together in her kitchen, and the way his touch sent shivers throughout her entire body like he was electrified. She knew she couldn’t keep thinking about Jordan this way anymore, because despite what happened between the two of them, they would not be getting back together. That was made seamlessly clear the second Cassie realized he was seeing someone from Miami. Instead, they would remain civil toward each other while they continued to co-parent Jake together, which is exactly what Cassie was going to have to learn to deal with, even if it killed her. She couldn’t go on thinking about someone she couldn’t physically be with. It wasn’t healthy to constantly be reminded of how she really felt for her son’s father.

Cassie began to think there was only one logical answer to overcoming her little problem. Maybe she needed to reconsider Gabby’s idea to go out on a date with someone new. If there was a way she could stop herself from fixating on her ex-boyfriend, then she had to at least give it a go. She couldn’t keep going on the way she was.

She thought if she could just keep busy by working and raising Jake in a normal upbringing, then all her thoughts about Jordan would simply disappear like they never existed in the first place. Unfortunately, her head and her heart had other ideas, and one wasn’t communicating with the other.

Cassie only saw one possible outcome to resolve her little dilemma. She didn’t want to continue obsessing over something that was never going to happen on her day off work, when she only got a few of them. She should be making the most of her time spent away from the bakery.

As she paced the tiled floors of her kitchen, contemplating over her impossible choices and what she should do—before she chewed through all her fingernails and had nothing to paint and make pretty, or before she paced around her kitchen enough to wear a hole in the middle of the floor—she slipped her iPhone out of her skinny-leg jeans pocket, unlocked the screen, and dialed a number she’d saved a while ago.

Waiting for an answer felt like torture. She hoped she hadn’t her bridges by saying no so many times he’d finally taken the hint and realized it just wasn’t meant to be.

Then, she was taken by surprise when a deep voice answered the phone call with a simple, “Hello?”

Cassie breathed out a sigh into the phone, giving herself a little pep talk. She could do this. She had to. She saw no other choice if she insisted on moving on with life without Jordan.

“Jesse?” Cassie asked.

“Yes? It’s Cassie, right? I have caller I.D,” he responded. His voice sounded almost happy to hear it was her calling him since it was usually Jesse calling Cassie.

“I—um—” Cassie stuttered. She didn’t have a whole lot of practice in dating, when she had only ever been out with one guy in her entire twenty-five years of life.

You can do this,
she told herself.
It’s not rocket science or anything, Cassie. You’re just asking him out. He’s asked you out plenty of times. It can’t be too damn hard to do. He might even say yes.

But the yes part was probably what scared Cassie the most. Although she knew she needed to escape her comfort zone, she wasn’t sure she would ever truly be ready to leave the past where it belonged—in the past.

“I was calling to ask if your offer to go out on a date was still open,” Cassie said all in breath, as if she had to get it out before she changed her mind or realized it was an abominable mistake.

“So, you mean to tell me you’ve actually reconsidered and changed your mind about going out with me?”

“Wow, you make it sound like I find you repugnant or something,” Cassie joked, and she heard Jesse join in with a chuckle.

“Sorry. I don’t mean to, but I have asked you out on a number of occasions, and each time, you’ve turned me down. I was beginning to think you didn’t like me very much.”

“No hard feelings or anything, I do like you. You’re an incredible friend to me, and I wanted to say yes to go out with you the first time you asked me out. I just didn’t know if the time was right to be going out with you, and if by doing so, how much of an impact it would have on Jake.”

“How do you feel now?” Jesse asked her, his tone of voice changing to a serious one.

“I wouldn’t be calling you if I didn’t want to go out with you, if that’s anything to go by.” If only that were the actual truth. Cassie didn’t like lying to those she cared about, but she also didn’t have much of a choice. She didn’t want Jesse finding out the real reason she was changing her mind about a date with him. He didn’t deserve to know the only reason she was changing her mind was because she needed to get her mind off of someone else, kind of like a rebound thing, even though she didn’t plan to sleep with Jesse—or with anybody—on the first date. Unlike Gabby, Nick, or even Jordan, it wasn’t her style.

Nobody deserved to be a rebound. Sometimes, it just happened that way.

“Okay, so I will pick you up at seven tonight.” Jesse’s voice changed once more, and Cassie felt bad again that she didn’t feel as good as he obviously did about their plans.

“It’s a date.”

Once Cassie ended the phone call, there was a tiny part of her deep down inside that felt all giddy. She finally had something to look forward to, and she’d finally have a chance to wear the little black dress she’d bought a couple of months ago, but hadn’t worn yet. Maybe a date with Jesse was exactly what she needed to really get over Jordan after all.

Later that evening, Cassie’s impending date with Jesse was fast approaching. Cassie was busily getting ready and keeping Jake occupied until Nick arrived. He kindly agreed to babysit Jake tonight since he said he had nothing better to do than look after his favorite godson while his mother enjoyed a rare night out with—Gabby’s words—a good looking man. Cassie had to agree with her friend. Jesse was most definitely blessed with ravishing good looks, devastatingly gorgeous with shiny golden-brown hair, piercing blue-green eyes, and a chiseled jaw to die for. To say he was the complete opposite of Jordan was the understatement of the century, despite both men being handsome and muscular. Cassie felt blessed that men so very easy on the eyes were drawn to her. You could call it a curse because of the troubles it would sometimes cause in her life, but most times, it was nice to have the male attention she received when she wanted it. She was always flattered by the attention, even if she didn’t always ask for it.

Cassie had put on
Cars 2
for Jake so she could apply a little bit of make-up to her face in peace. She wasn’t the type to wear a whole lot of make-up caked on her face, but when she did get to go out, she liked to put a little bit on to make her eyes pop.

“Mooommy!” Jake wailed, almost like he was being tortured.

Cassie rushed out to him where he was resting his head on the sofa in the living room.

Her hand pressed to his forehead, and she realized he was hot to the touch.

“Oh, baby, are you not feeling well?” she asked him softly.

“No, Mommy,” he said, shaking his head, making his tiny curls bounce around, “I feel sick.”

Cassie didn’t know if this was his way of telling her he didn’t want her to date like she’d often seen children in movies do when their parents were going out, but she knew this wasn’t one of those times she could easily brush it off, sit Jake down, and tell him everything would be okay. She couldn’t take that chance if he really was sick, which she assumed he was, because he definitely couldn’t fake this fever. Cassie wasn’t going to go out while her child was sick, despite the fact Nick would be here looking after him and could easily call her if Jake got any worse. She wasn’t the type of mother to do that. She wasn’t the type of mother to even go out, leaving her kid to be looked after by someone else. She liked to look after him herself. Jake was her responsibility; therefore, she knew what she had to do, even if he wasn’t going to like it.

“I will be right back. Mommy’s going to get you some medicine to make you feel better,” she told her little boy, rising to stand and heading toward the kitchen to retrieve the medicine for him, and to also send a quick text message to Jesse explaining how she would need to postpone their date, because Jake was sick. Before she even made it back into the living room, she got a reply from Jesse saying he understood and would be there whenever she wanted to reschedule their date. Cassie realized at that point Jesse was one of the good guys in this world. He wasn’t a jerk like most men turned out to be, and he was actually willing to wait around until she was ready to go out with him. She didn’t think most men would be willing to wait for her.

She then sent a quick text to Nick saying he wasn’t needed tonight. She was happy to be staying home to take care of Jake, because she was a mother first and foremost, no matter how good looking a date was.

Standing outside Brielle’s motel room, Jordan tapped on the door, hoping she wouldn’t leave him standing outside for too long. He was nervous as hell and wasn’t sure how much more he could take before the butterflies in the pit of his stomach did too many flutters and made him want to hurl. He felt this way the first time he saw Cassie again after years of her absence in his life, and then again when Jake was introduced to him as his son. But this time wasn’t like any of those moments. This time felt a little different, almost like he was making some kind of mistake or didn’t really want to be here. Was the universe trying to tell him something?

He knew he couldn’t back away now; he had already knocked on her door. She would open it any minute now and see him standing there all handsome in a plain burgundy shirt that covered his tattoos but allowed a subtle amount of muscle to show, along with tailor-made pants. If he simply walked away, which he didn’t have the heart to do to her anyway, Jordan knew Brielle would be as devastated as Cassie probably was the night he ended things with her all those years ago. Despite the way he was feeling, and how he just couldn’t turn on the strong feelings for her like he felt for Cassie, he didn’t want to bring heartbreak into Brielle’s life. She didn’t deserve that kind of pain. He supposed a date with Brielle was easy enough. After all, their little trysts they enjoyed time and time again were a lot of fun. How hard could one date be?

And then the door opened, revealing Brielle in a figure-hugging little red and black V-neck dress that made her long, slender legs look as if they went on and on.

Damn! She looked so sexy in this dress. Jordan would have liked to see her out of it even more than in it. It was too damn bad they were heading out instead of staying in like they usually did.

“Wow!” It was the only word Jordan could manage to speak.

Brielle grinned widely, placing a hand on her left hip as she struck a pose, bending her leg slightly as she modelled for him.

“Do you really think I look good?” she asked him, wanting to know his honest opinion while flashing him a big smile and tossing her wavy almost-black hair over her shoulder in seductively.

“I do.”

“Thank you,” Brielle graciously accepted. “I didn’t want to stand out too much, but I also didn’t bring a whole lot of clothes women who live here wear. I thought this dress was a little more casual than the other ones I brought with me.”

Jordan knew no matter how hard she tried not to stand out in a crowd, she would still be the only one wearing that kind of dress, but at least she looked sexy wearing it.

“No, you look absolutely fine. You’re stunning! Are you ready?”

Brielle nodded her head. “Yep, let me just grab my purse and then we can go,” she said while slipping back into her motel room. She retrieved her Chanel purse and slipped on the pair of red shoes she owned which didn’t have a tall heel on them. She figured they would be the most likely to make her fit into Yellow Valley, rather than stand out like she had when she first arrived.

“So where are we going?” she asked as she pulled the door shut behind her.