Page 32 of The Jilted Lovers Club
“I’m feeling stupid,” she says with a soft laugh, trying to pull away. But I keep my arm around her, just enough pressure to keep her there, but not too much. She relaxes, leaning into me. “I’d like to think I’ve been a better daughter than Sasha ever was.”
“Fair,” I say, “I don’t doubt that’s true.”
When she pulls away this time, it’s only to wipe at her eyes. She gives me a watery smile, her face still beautiful despite the tear stains.
“I want to tell you that you have no idea what you’re talking about,” she says softly, her voice breaking, her smile fading. “I want to tell you that she’s too young for you to know how you’ll act when she comes home drunk for the first time, or starts dating a guy you don’t approve of, or when she decides to quit acting and try something else—like designing shops and office buildings.”
I stay silent, watching her, learning more about Jordy in these few moments than I have in all the time we’ve spent together.
“But I know it’s not true,” she whispers, her sobs becoming more frantic. “I did everything right, and it still wasn’t enough.”
I want to pull her back into my arms and take away the pain, but I let her speak.
“I did the acting classes, even though the other girls were better than me. I starved myself to a size 0, but my mom still pointed out all my body flaws.” Her voice cracks. “And after I—”
She breaks into a sob, and this time I reach for her but she steps back.
“I kept it secret from the rest of the family when I got pregnant,” she says, and my chest clenches. “My parents knew, and of course, Brayden and his parents. But no one else.” She scoffs. “I had to keep up appearances, you know?” She looks down at her hands, twisting them in front of her as if they can undo the emotional knot in her chest. “I accepted Brayden’s proposal, even though I barely knew him. My mom said I’d be a disgrace if I had a baby outside of marriage.”
She pauses, eyes glassy as she fights to get the words out.
“And when I lost the baby,” she whispers, “I didn’t say a word. I held my head high, pretended everything was fine. But I was falling apart.”
My heart shatters.
“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”
Lottie’s fussing pulls my attention away, and I feel torn. Jordy is breaking in front of me, but my daughter needs me. As I pick Lottie up from her highchair, Jordy smiles through her tears.
“Lottie is lucky to have a parent like you,” she says softly. “You know how to put her first.”
And then she walks away.
Floating Down the River
Jordy
It only takes a few days to order everything I need for Timeless. I knew this would be the quick part. Now comes the waiting part. I have workers lined up for the next few weeks to build the partitioned back-office space, paint the walls, install the lighting fixtures, and add in raised flooring. Originally, I balked whenAlexander suggested I stay on site while all this work happened. There really wasn’t much for me to do except to observe the work, which hardly required my every day presence.
Now, I’m glad.
It’s not hard to settle into the easy living lifestyle Lahoma Springs seems to generate. Ashton and I always start our day at Bec and Bob’s house for breakfast at way too early o’clock. He drops Lottie off at the Felixes’ house before I even wake up, and then we all eat together once I pull myself out of bed and head to their house. I’m aware that the logical thing would be for me to bring Lottie with me later so that Ashton doesn’t have to drag her out of the house so early. I mean, it’d be the least I could do. But I can’t bring myself to offer, and he never asks. So it just remains this unspoken burden I let mull around my mind.
But on Day Three of no work and nothing to do, I’m going stir crazy.
“I think I’ll do a little exploring today,” I muse to Ashton while we clean up the dishes. Bec is in the other room playing with Lottie, and Bob headed into town to pick up some feed. Washing dishes with Ashton—him rinsing the plates and me drying them and putting them away—offers a feeling of belonging I can’t quite explain. Like this is my home too. Even if it’s just for a few more weeks.
“You should see what Michael or Grace are doing,” he mentions, and I wrinkle my nose. He tilts his head at me. “What? I thought you liked them.”
“I do,” I say. We ran into each other a few times over the last couple days, but only in passing. Even though I’d felt a brief connection with them that first day, it never extends beyond that. Just the thought of approaching them makes me want to crawl inside myself and hide. “I just don’t think we’ve reached the point in our friendship where we invite each other to do things together.”
“It has to start somewhere,” he points out. I breathe in deeply, unspeaking, and he laughs. “Okay, fine. Still, exploring this town alone hardly sounds fun.”
He’s right. This is so much different than exploring Europe. Back then, I was completely anonymous. Plus, I had all these lists of places I wanted to see and experiences I wanted to try.
I don’t know Lahoma at all, other than the Felix farm and the short drive into town. Plus, thanks to my first day appearance, I’m kind of a celebrity here—hardly anonymous. The people in this town no longer shun me, but they don’t offer warm welcomes either. Instead, I feel kind of like a tiger pacing its cage. The town watches my every move, but no one speaks to me beyond vague pleasantries.
“I have an idea,” Ashton says, rinsing the last plate before handing it to me. “How about I take the rest of the day off and give you the full Lahoma Springs experience?”
