Something Magical (Witches of Hawthorne Grove Book 1) (11 page)

J
ordan thought
he should have felt something when he saw Stacy again for the first time since their breakup, but other than an eagerness to see the last of her once he found out why she had come, there was nothing.

“Hello, Jordan. It's been a while,” she said, a hesitant smile touching her lips. “How have you been?”

Jordan motioned for Sarge to jump down then closed the truck door and, crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back against the fender and eyed her suspiciously. “Better than when I left the city. How about yourself? What are you doing here, Stacy? Sam said you arrived with luggage.”

His words seemed to spark a reminder. “Oh, that! Yes, I did. Was that him in the black Durango? I thought it was you, that I'd just missed you.”

Walking to her car, she opened the back and reached inside. “I was digging in my bags for this.”

The door closed again and she walked up to him, holding out a package with wrinkled wrapping paper on the outside. “It's a little worse for wear, but—this is for you. Open it.”

Warily, he did. Inside was a letter box. He lifted the lid. There was a folded note lying in the bottom. He flicked it open with one finger. A single word was written on the paper inside. It said, “Sorry.”

“Okay. What does this mean, Stacy? You know I don't like games.”

“No game.” She was shaking her head. “It's a sincere apology. One I needed to make before I said thank you—for throwing me out of your life and making me see the light.”

“I'm seeing someone,” he said quickly, before she could launch into some spiel about how she missed him and wanted to be with him again, but she surprised him by laughing instead.

“Me, too! His name is Weston McKinley, and we are getting married.” Leaning close, she whispered, “I'm marrying
someone else
, Jordan, so you can relax.”

His expression must have revealed just how stunned he was by her announcement because she laughed. “That's why I came—to invite you to the wedding. Well, firstly to apologize, and then to issue the invitation, but—you will come, won't you?”

“Married.” Jordan dropped the word like a rock and shook his head to clear it, totally ignoring the half-hopeful, half-doubtful look in her eyes for the moment. Stacy Blaut was getting married. “Do you love him? Does he love you?”

He didn't know why he was asking, but he felt like he should.

This time when she smiled, her eyes lit in a way he had not seen them do in a long, long time. “Yes! Yes, I do.
We
do! Isn't it crazy?”

Spinning about on her toes, she raised her hands to the sky and declared, “He loves me! Weston Jade McKinley loves me, and he wants me to be his bride!”

Settling down somewhat though the smile curving her ever-glossed lips stayed firmly in place, she said, “And that's why I want you to be there, Jordan. I—I want you to give me away. Will you? Please?”

If he thought he'd been shocked before, now even stunned wouldn't cover his reaction. “Me? I can't give you away, Stacy. Your family...”

“Father is the only member of my family I would have wanted to do the honors, Jordan, but he isn't with us anymore. He would have liked Wes. Don't you think he would have? Oh, wait, you haven't met him yet!”

Her quick, short burst of a laugh was his only indication the subject of who would give her away at her impending wedding was a touchy one for her. “I haven't, true, so I couldn't say, Stace, but what about Nathaniel and Eric? Won't your brothers expect to be the ones to...”

“Eric is standing with Wes as his best man. And you know Nate. He's rarely home and when he is, he doesn't much care what the rest of us are up to.”

Her gaze fell. She studied her nails and Jordan fought back the teensiest twinge of guilt for denying her. But, damn it, she was the one who had made things impossible between the two of them. Not that he regretted their split. If anything, seeing her today made him even more grateful that he'd ended things when he had. But even he wasn't so callous he couldn't see this whole wedding thing was important to her. That, in itself, was a revelation to how much she'd changed.

“What about Stanley? I'm sure he'd—”

“Didn't you hear? Uncle Stanley had a heart attack, Jordan. A month after you sent me packing, I got the call. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.”

Now he really felt like a douche. “I'm sorry. I hadn't heard.”

“Say you'll do it, Jordan. I know you still—still have bad feelings toward me because of our past, but—I really need you to do this. Not because of how we were or what we hoped we might become, but because you're the only person who's ever really made a difference in my life since Father died.”

Jordan snorted at her skewed sense of logic. “I kicked you out of our apartment. How is that classified as making a difference?”

“I don't know how to explain it, Jordan, but it did.” She shrugged. “Really.”

She cocked her head to the side and stood staring up at the big Hawthorne tree in his yard in silence for a moment. “It was like, until the day you asked me to leave, I was blind, you know? Maybe it sounds silly, but even though I knew we were together, that I was as much an adult as you and just as responsible and capable of doing my part to make things work between us, I couldn't really
see
that I wasn't.

“Your decision to end things between us was a gift, Jordan. Like sight to a blind man. For the first time in my life, I realized it was time I stopped relying on others for my happiness and to go out and make my own.”

Her eyes, when she looked at him again, were shiny with a fine misting of tears. “And I did it. I took responsibility for my own life, for my own happiness, and that is when I found Wes. Or, more accurately, that is when Wes found me.”

Two steps put her squarely in front of him. She looked up with a smile and said, “I'm happy now, Jordan. Really, truly happy for the first time in my life, and I have you to thank for it.”

Jordan knew when he was beaten, and now was a perfect example of it. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “Fine, I'll do it. Unless Nate steps up, and he might, Stacy.”

“You will? Oh, thank you!” Squealing her happiness, Stacy stood on her toes and hugged him. “This is wonderful, Jordan! You're the best!”

“Unless Nate decides to do the right thing, as your oldest brother. And you have to promise me if he does, you will let him. Deal?”

She grinned and reached out a hand to shake on it. “Deal.”

* * *

A
cross town
, Kaylee grabbed a spoon for her yogurt from the kitchen and headed to the small, afghan covered sofa that nestled beneath the one big window in her living room. Tucking her feet beneath her, she ducked her head over the yogurt cup and dug in, ignoring the piercing look her sister slanted her way.

“Did you even bother to ask him?” Jo asked. “I think if things had gone far enough between Michael and I for me to agree to go away for the weekend with him, I'd have asked if he was married the minute he mentioned an ex.”

“Of course I didn't, Jo. Why would I? He said she was
waiting
for him. He said she was going to
stay
. I didn't see any reason to ask questions, since the answers were obviously none of my business.”

Jo shot a glance heavenward and rolled her eyes. “No, there you're wrong. You've spent the past several weeks with him under the impression he was available. If he gave the wrong impression, you have a right to know. Call him. I know he's been calling you.”

“How do you know that?” Kaylee asked around the tip of her spoon.

Jo snorted. “You look at your phone every time it vibrates. If it were Mom, or Min, or any one of a dozen other people you'd have answered it by now, if only to avoid talking to me. So it's Jordan. Six times now, if my count isn't off. See what he wants, Kaylee. Return his call.”

She held Kaylee's phone out to her but Kaylee shook her head, ignoring the offering. “I can't.”

“Why not? Look, either something happened between you and Jordan today or something should have. Which is it?”

“He asked me to go away with him for the weekend.”

“We've already established that, Kaylee. And you told him you would go. But now you're here, sucking down yogurt as if there won't be any tomorrow and I can tell you've been crying. So his ex showed up. So she planned to stay. That doesn't mean Jordan is going to let her.”

“Maybe,” Kaylee mumbled around another mouthful of yogurt. “But maybe I just don't care, okay?”

Jo's eyes widened. “Don't care? Oh, don't even try to go there with me, Kaylee Dean. I know better. And I think you've assessed the situation wrongly this time. Jordan likes you. A lot. He may even love you. In fact, I am pretty darn sure he does love you. And I don't think he's going to let this ex, whoever she is, spoil the good thing he's had going with you now that she's here.”

Still holding Kaylee's cell phone, she stepped across her sister's feet and plopped down on the sofa beside her. “Have a little faith, won't you? Sometime or another you've got to realize every man in the world is not Daniel and it might as well be now.”

The peal of her doorbell roused Jo from her seat. Making a face at Kaylee as she passed, she pulled open the door without bothering to ask who was on the other side—and turned back to her sister with a snarky expression and a teasing little smile twisting her lips. “Well, speak of the devil and the devil appears. Kaylee, it's Jordan. Should I let him in?”

Kaylee nodded and Jo stepped aside to allow her unexpected visitor access to the apartment. “Mr. Parker. What are you doing here? I thought you had company.”

“I came to see you, Miss Dean, and I thought we were well past the formal use of last names only.”

Jo snorted. “She just wants to know if you're married—or if you've been married. Are you? Have you? Nosy older sisters want to know.”

“No, and no, but why would you think I was married?”

“Your company.”

“That's enough, Jo. I think I can speak for myself.”

“Now that I've broken the ice anyway.” She shrugged. “Michael is expecting me. He texted me at Huntingdon's and I told him I'd come to check on Kaylee but that I'd be home soon. Y'all have fun now, ya hear?”

Kaylee glared while she shouldered her purse and let herself out, then turned to Jordan. “She's such a pest.”

Jordan cocked a brow. “If you were curious about my visitor, Kaylee, why didn't you just ask me?”

“I didn't think I had a right to dig into your personal life.”

Both brows rose. “My—I don't have a personal life, Kaylee. Not yet. No, at the moment, my one relationship is very, very public.”

Kaylee's narrowed eyes held his. “Are you talking about me, Jordan? About us? Because that's really what I need to know. If there even is an us...”

Jordan held up a hand, then dug into his coat pocket to extract three cases. Movie rentals. All romantic comedy—one specifically the movie she had seen with him when they'd first met. “I hope there is an us, because watching these movies certainly won't be done by me if I have to do it alone. I tried to call, but when you didn't answer, I decided to take a chance and just drop by.” His gaze roamed around her combination living/dining/kitchen and he nodded. “Nice. You decorate this yourself?”

“Yes, but I don't understand. You came here to watch a movie?”

“You aren't that dense, Kaylee Dean, so stop trying to break this down and over-analyze it. I had to cancel our trip, but I still want to be with you. So, after my visitor left—and yes, she is gone—I came into town and stopped off at the video rental store for these. I was hoping you'd be here, that you'd be alone, so I could ask you to come home with me instead of flying to New York with me. There won't be a visit to the Metropolitan Opera House, but I can promise dinner and a movie.”

“Who is she, Jordan?”

“Stacy? The ex-girlfriend I think I mentioned before. If not, you may assume it was because she isn't that important to me and you will have assumed correctly.”

“Why did she come here?”

“Surprisingly enough, to invite me to her wedding. She is getting married next month, and she has asked me to give her away.”

“Wow.”

“That was my thought, as well, given how things were when I ended it between us, but she's genuinely happy and since her father is gone and her brother is kind of an ass...” He shrugged. “I agreed to do the deed—like any good friend would.”

He stepped close and tilted up her chin. “That's all she is, Kaylee. A friend. I'm hoping her brother, Nate, comes around and does the right thing by giving her away himself, but if he doesn't, I didn't think walking her down the aisle to be married to another man would be a problem.”

“I suppose it isn't.” She could feel a blush burning her cheeks. “Seems kind of silly now.”

“What, that you were jealous?” he teased and she flushed hotter.

“I am not jealous. I'd have to care an awful lot to be jealous.”

“There is one sure-fire way to make sure I'm not spending my time with another woman, you know. For this weekend, anyway.”

“Oh, and that is?”