Chapter 13 Going Home
Going Home
Jordan arrived at work, bright and early. She had spent the entire weekend with Tyler. After talking until eleven o’ clock on Saturday night, he’d ruled out the possibility of her leaving again and she’d only went home on Sunday afternoon, just in time to say goodbye to Gemma and Neil.
Somehow in the last few days, their relationship had evolved to something less than professional, but more than friendly.
This she liked. This she could work with.
It was a state of limbo. On one side, they could slip into being friendly colleagues and the other side held the promise of a little more than fling.
She was comfortable with either outcome, but the side that included the body of Tyler Evans was obviously the more appealing option.
She had just completed her first month-end recon when her phone rang and seeing her mother’s number flash on the screen caused trepidation to flood through her. Her mother only called during working hours for two reasons:
1) Shane had ratted out about something; or
2) Bad news
Last Christmas she’d broken two plates from her mother’s favorite dinner set. Shane had caught her disposing of the evidence and used his usual act of bribery in exchange for keeping quiet.
“Please say he told. Please say he told,” she whispered desperately as she lifted the phone to her ear. “Hi, Momma.”
“Jo-jo…”
She shut her eyes, hoping, praying that the sniffles she heard was just because her mom loved those plates so much. “Everything okay, Ma?” She knew it wasn’t, but she wanted to delude herself for a little while longer.
“No,” her mother responded despairingly. “It’s…it’s Perry…They were in an accident last night.”
“Is he—” The rest of the question died on her lips when her mother confirmed her worst fears.
“He didn’t make it…You need to come home, baby.”
She hung up, not really knowing if her mother had said anything more. She sat there for a long while as her brain tried to absorb the information. Perry was gone. The shock was slowly wearing off, clearing a path for utter distress to come to the fore. Oh, dear Lord. Perry was gone.
With shaky hands, she pulled up a flight plan on her computer.
Her mind went on autopilot as she booked the next available flight to Montana.
She felt her heart beat in her throat, her pulse thrumming just beneath the surface of her skin.
It wasn’t panic. It wasn’t fear. Those things were felt when the outcome wasn’t known.
No, this was pain, plain and simple, the type of pain one only feels when life takes a screeching turn around a hair-pin bend and everything changes irreversibly.
She grabbed her phone and with numb fingers, she texted her brother.
Jordan: Did you hear?
Max: Just got off the phone with mom
Max: Leaving ASAP
Jordan: I could only get a flight on Thursday night
Max: It doesn’t matter when you get there. Just get there
Her legs seemed to wobble as she stood up and walked to Tyler’s office. She tapped lightly on the door to get his attention and he must have noticed the anguish on her face because he immediately stood up and approached her.
“Tyler, I know it’s month-end,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady, “but I need to take a few days off.”
“Of course.”
He took her hand and led her into his office to sit down.
He sat on the chair beside her and took her hands in his.
This was unfortunately Tyler’s nature. He cared too much about the well-being of his employees.
If someone had a bad day or was going through a rough time, he just had to find a way to make it better.
But nothing he could do would make her feel better today.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked.
She chewed on the inside of her lip, trying to pull herself together before she responded. “Perry was in an accident last night. My mom…my mom said he didn’t make it.”
“Perry? Your other brother Perry?”
She tried, she really tried to stop the tears, but that simple question was like a knife to the heart. And answering it only reaffirmed the fact that she had lost a brother. Blood didn’t matter. Race didn’t matter. Perry was her brother and now he was gone.
She quickly wiped the tears off her cheek and nodded.
“Jordan, I’m so sorry.”
“He was so young, only twenty-one. I thought I would see him at Christmas and now I’m flying to Montana for his funeral. How does that happen?”
He leaned forward and she dropped her head onto his shoulder.
He just held her, rubbing his hands up and down her back as she blubbered all over his expensive suit.
It felt good. That small comfort. It felt good to be swallowed by the strength that was Tyler Evans.
She wanted to stay there forever, absorbing the soothing sound of his breathing, but eventually she pulled away and wiped her eyes.
“I’m gonna go,” she whispered.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Yeah.” And then the most illogical, nonsensical thing she could think to say burst out of her mouth. “You can come with me.”
* * * * *
“This is crazy,” Matthew said. “You know this is crazy, Ty.” He shifted as Tyler dropped a small suitcase on the bed beside him.
“I know.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
He let out a frustrated breath. “Because she asked me to. Matthew, you of all people know that a woman’s tears is probably my biggest weakness. I couldn’t say no. Besides, it’s just for two or three days and you’re more than capable of running things while I’m gone.”
Walking to his closet, he began chucking random items of clothing into his suitcase. This was still feeling very surreal. He was packing his bags to fly to Montana with Jordan. He was going to meet her family, be with her through this difficult time. It was all so…personal.
“You do know she has four brothers, right?” Matthew said. “Four brothers, Ty. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. If you look at the size of Jordan…her brothers are only gonna be bigger. It’s suicide! They’re gonna think you’re dating her and why wouldn’t they? She is taking you home to her family.”
He knew Matthew was right. No one brought their boss home for a funeral, but there wasn’t really anything he could do about it now.
He’d agreed and he wasn’t going to back out.
Jordan wasn’t the type to wear her heart on her sleeve.
She hid her feelings beneath witty remarks, but now he’d seen a completely different side of her.
Hurt and vulnerable. It was impossible to say no to her, but Matt just didn’t seem to get that.
“Why did she even ask you?” Matthew asked after some time. “I mean, you kissed her once and she feels cozy enough for you to meet her family.”
Tyler shut his eyes and released another weighted breath. “It may have been more than one kiss.”
His friend went silent, not even breathing for a few beats.
Oh, crap. This is gonna get ugly.
“What?! That wasn’t part of the plan!” He shook his head and sneered. “Okay…okay, you’ve had your fun and now it’s over. There’s nothing more going on between you and Jordan.”
It was supposed to be a statement of fact, but the doubt in Matt’s voice made it sound like a question. Tyler remained quiet and continued packing.
Matthew looked up and fixed livid brown eyes on him.
“Ty, this is going overboard. You know…you know for a fact that I would never have sent Trisha over here if I thought for one second…No. No, I know you. I know that if Jordan spent the night, you would’ve given her the bed and you would’ve slept on the couch. ”
Tyler ignored him, walked to his chest of drawers and took out a few T-shirts.
“You slept on the couch, right? You had to have slept on the couch. Please tell me you slept on the couch.”
Matthew was officially ticking and he decided to embrace the inevitable explosion. “I didn’t sleep on the couch.”
“Tyler, what are you doing?!” The shout echoed through the small space. Matthew rarely lost his temper and that was even more confirmation that this whole situation was snowballing.
“I don’t know,” he responded softly. “But I promise you, figuring it out is on my to-do list as soon as I get back.”
“You’re gonna end up hurting her.”
“You know I would never do that.”
Matthew threw his hands up, fed up and annoyed.
“It’s bound to happen. You want to get back together with your ex-girlfriend and you’re using Jordan to do it.
Fake dates and a little jealousy, that’s all fun and games, but this is real.
You are going to meet her family. I want you to think about what that means to her.
You gotta end this. You can’t string her along if she’s not the person you want to be with. So before things get—”
“I like her,” Tyler cut in. He generally didn’t open up about his feelings and that sort of shocked Matthew into silence.
It shocked him too, because it made him realize the real reason why he was about to hop on a plane to Montana.
“There. I said it. Okay? I like her. I like her eyes. I like her laugh. I like her silliness and her sarcasm. I like her foul mouth. I pretty much like everything about her…enough for me to question whether I should continue pursuing the relationship I was in for three years, enough to push me to a point where I don’t know what I want anymore.
I can’t justify my actions to you because I don’t understand them either.
That’s a discussion for another day. Right now…
” He shut his suitcase and clicked the lid shut on both sides. “…she asked me to go and I’m going.”
Matthew exhaled a deep sigh. There might have been a slight flicker of a smile but it didn’t get past his annoyance. “Alright,” he relented. “You do what you need to do.”
Tyler picked up his suitcase and headed down the stairs.
“But, Ty…”
He stopped halfway to the door and turned back to his friend. “Yeah.”
“Four brothers?”
“I know. What the hell was I thinking?”
* * * * *