Page 37 of Then Came Love
Jordan’s chest constricted. She didn’t want to think about how much she’d miss them when she moved away, much less how she couldn’t even think about starting a new family when she was still missing pieces of her old one.
“There you are,” Kelly said as she hurried into the room. “Hello, ladies. I’m sorry, but I need to steal Jordan away.”
“Fun sucker,” Ruth teased.
“I guess I won’t be invited to join the Knotty Hookers anytime soon,” Kelly said.
“You got any pull with this one?” Ruth motioned to Jordan. “We want our new name on the board.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Jordan said. “Thank you again for the lovely gift. I look forward to wearing the gloves. Have a great day, ladies.” She winced as she pushed to her feet.
“The only way to get over the pain is to go running again,” Kelly said.
“I can barely walk,” Jordan said as they headed back toward her office.
“No pain, no gain. Mrs. Nicholas Braden is holding on the phone for you.”
“Trixie?”
“Yes, but she said you must now address her as Mrs. Nicholas Braden.”
“She’s so funny.” Trixie was a funny, sharp businesswoman, and from the few times they’d gone out to dinner together, Jordan knew she took no guff and hid behind nothing. As Jordan walked into her office, she thought about how Jax had called her real. She’d had only fleeting moments of feeling real these last few years, and most of them had been with him. But the rest of the time, she always felt like she was hiding behind a cloak of secrets.
She picked up the phone. “Hello, Mrs. Nicholas Braden. Aren’t you supposed to be honeymooning?”
“Oh, we are. We’re honeymooning in the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom, the barn—”
“Okay, okay. I’m thrilled for you, but don’t rub it in. I only get to see Todd once a month, and this weekend makes seven weeks since I’ve seen him because he’s been so busy lately.” Trixie’s sex life sounded exciting. Jordan could only imagine the horror on Todd’s face if she ever suggested having sex in a barn. Todd wasn’t a particularly creative lover, and that hadn’t bothered her in college. She’d only been with two other guys, and sexual fantasies hadn’t been high on her priority list. She’d heard other girls talking about having to fake it with their boyfriends, and she assumed that was normal. But after college, when they saw each other less often and she had more time on her hands alone in the evenings, she realized she could make herself orgasm multiple times. She’d tried to spice things up and seduce him into fooling around at his office once, but he hadn’t been into it, and she hadn’t tried again. But the way she practically turned inside out around Jax had her mind wandering down darker paths, piquing new, thrilling curiosities, and she was having a heck of a time trying to ignore them.
“Sorry, that is a long time. But he’s coming this afternoon, right?” Trixie asked.
“Yes. He should be here around five. I can’t wait to see him. It feels like it’s been six months.” She was secretly hoping that seeing him might silence her loneliness and temper the attraction she had to Jax.
“Good! I will definitely not call you tonight. But Todd is the reason I’m calling. I thought we could all go out to dinner Saturday night. I’d love to meet him, and Nick is so protective of all my friends, he said he needs to check out your man.”
“What do you mean, check him out?”
“It’s a guy thing. My brothers would do it if you lived in Oak Falls. They protect people in their circle, and you’re in ours.”
“I am?” She couldn’t hide her surprise.
“Of course you are. We thought we’d meet Todd at our wedding, and since he wasn’t able to come, we don’t want to miss our chance to get to know him. Unless you want that time alone with him, which I’d understand.”
Trixie couldn’t know how much that meant to her. Or how it made her feel guilty for keeping certain parts of her life a secret. But then another thought crept in. Jax was so thoughtful, she wondered if he was trying to facilitate a deeper friendship between them. “Did Jax ask you to invite us to dinner?”
“No. Why would he? I haven’t even seen him since the wedding.”
“We were talking about friendships the other night, and…never mind. It’s not important. We’d love to have dinner with you and Nick.” She’d have to clear it with Todd, but he was social, and she was sure he wouldn’t mind.
“Great!” They made plans to meet for dinner tomorrow night, and then Trixie said, “Now, for the other reason I called. At our reception, Jax told Nick he was designing your wedding gown. How’s that going?”
“Better than I ever imagined. Jax is incredible, and he asked me to design it with him.”
“I think that’s pretty standard, right? Don’t all brides give input on what they want?”
“Yes, but he asked me to actually design the gown with him. I sit beside him at the drawing table, both of us sketching our ideas as we discuss them, and then we blend the parts of each of our drawings that we like into one. I never mentioned this to you, but before going into hospital administration, I studied fashion design.”
“Holy cow, woman. That’s big. I’ve never heard of him co-designing a gown. You must be really good. Why did you change fields?”
“Job security, mostly.” She felt a pang of guilt glossing over her answer, but explaining was a whole other conversation. “You can imagine how shocked I was when Jax asked me to design it with him. We’ve been designing together all week in the evenings and texting with new ideas during the day and late at night. You know he’s a brilliant designer, but I’m in awe of his artistic eye, and it’s so much fun being around all that delicate lace and sparkling tulle, lustrous satin, and elegant chiffon.”
“Oh my God, you sound like a designer. Lustrous satin.”
