by Judy Duarte
Cory Hall was ten kinds of complicated. That was without a baby thrown into the mix.
Jordan didn’t want complications.
Instead of sending her away, he’d told her to bring the baby into the bar. He’d unlocked the door, flipped on the light and reentered the space he knew like the back of his hand.
With Cory following close on his heels, he saw the bar through her eyes. Through the lens of someone who’d known him when he was a big deal in the world, or at least had a monster-size attitude. He’d changed, and because of that, he couldn’t send her away without at least hearing her out.
Then the baby, who’d been sleeping soundly in the car-seat contraption Cory carried him in, had woken. She’d quickly made a bottle while Jordan stared out the bar’s front window into the peaceful night and said a fond farewell to the calm he’d known in life.
“He looks just like me,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Yeah.” Cory smiled down at the baby, who was beginning to drift off once again. “He has your eyes. I’ve never seen eyes that color on anyone else.”
“They’re my father’s eyes,” Jordan said, then clamped his mouth shut. He wasn’t going to bring his dad into this conversation. “Why didn’t you reach out to me right away, Cory? I can’t believe I’m just finding out about him.”
“I’m sorry.” Her delicate brows drew together. “I was reeling after you left Atlanta. I thought...” Heat crept into her cheeks, and she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what I thought.”
“You went back to Kade.”
“Not right away. We gave it another try after I found out I was pregnant,” she admitted. “It seemed like the best thing for the baby. I had a few complications at the start of the pregnancy. When the doctor did the early ultrasound, I realized that, based on the date of conception, the baby wasn’t Kade’s.”
“And there was no one else other than me?”
She closed her eyes for a moment, and he could see how much the question hurt her. Damn it. Even now, he didn’t want to hurt her.
“Forget I asked that,” he said, lowering himself into a chair across from her. “I know this baby is mine. Did you tell Kade?”
Her mouth tightened. “I told him I’d been with someone else during our breakup. He wanted me to give him a name, but I wouldn’t.”
“And he just let you go?”
“That’s not exactly how I’d describe it. He kicked me out of the house with nothing but the clothes on my back. I stayed with a friend for a couple of days and managed to get one of the other guys’ girlfriends to help me retrieve some of my belongings. But most of what I had, he’d bought for me. The clothes, the car, the jewelry.”
“Did those things mean a lot to you?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure you know they didn’t. I never cared about that stuff.”
“I thought I knew you,” he said quietly, the ache in his chest expanding with every moment that passed. “But now I wonder. The woman I knew wouldn’t have kept a baby from me.”
“I get it.” She adjusted her hold on the child, cradling him more snugly against her. “With how you left, I was afraid you wouldn’t want anything to do with me, and it would have broken my heart. I’d planned to contact you after he was born, but with the surgery and follow-up visits, there was so much happening.”
“What surgery?” Jordan sat straighter in the heavy oak chair.
“Ben had a congenital heart defect. The doctors discovered it shortly after he was born,” she explained. “He had surgery when he was five days old.”
“What kind of defect?” Jordan demanded, then took in a calming breath when the baby startled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to shout.”
“It’s okay.” Cory gave him a hesitant smile. The smiles he remembered from her had been wide and beaming, like she was a character in that old TV show his grandma used to watch, turning the world on with her smile. “It was a narrowing of the aorta, and his lower extremities weren’t getting enough blood flow, so they had to do surgery to correct it. It was scary, but he came through like a champ. According to the pediatric cardiologist, he’s healthy now. And he’s perfect.” He watched as she drew in a shuddery breath and then added, “To me, he’s perfect.”
Jordan pressed two fingers to his chest in an attempt to rub away the deep ache that surfaced at the obvious love in her voice. Questions and accusations surged through him in angry waves. He had a child. His baby had been through something as significant as heart surgery, and he hadn’t been there. He’d had no idea. “You dealt with all that on your own?”
Cory shook her head. “I went back to Michigan and moved in with my grandma. Mom didn’t want much to do with me. She was too mad that I’d thrown away my ‘meal ticket.’” It was clear by the sharp air quotes she made what Cory thought of her mother’s opinion.
Jordan agreed. Despite his frustration, Jordan had to admit it said a lot about her character. He’d had his doubts about that part when he’d left Atlanta. Somehow the knowledge that he hadn’t been wrong about her priorities softened the sharp edge of anger he seemed to be skating at the moment.
“Gran was great, but...” Her gaze went dark. “She passed away last month.”
“I’m sorry,” he said automatically.
“I was happy to be with her at the end, and I’m grateful she got to meet her great-grandson. In fact, Gran was the one who made me promise I’d seek you out to tell you about Ben.”
“Thanks, Gran,” he said, glancing up at the ceiling.
“I don’t expect anything from you.” Cory gave a quiet laugh. “Lowering my expectations has become par for the course these days. If you want to be a part of his life—”
“Who do you think I am?” Jordan demanded, temper flaring again. “Hell, yes, I want to be a part of his life, Cory. He’s my son. I don’t know how we’re going to figure this out, but I can guaran-damn-tee you I’m not letting him go.”
“Okay,” she said. “We’ll find a way to make it work. Gran always said everything is figure-outable. I believe that.”
She spoke softly, her tone calm, like she was trying to gentle an angry bear. Jordan sighed when he realized he was the bear. Another benefit of his simple life was that it allowed him to stay in control of his emotions. When he didn’t feel much of anything, he couldn’t get himself into trouble.
Tonight a bomb had gone off, blowing apart the simple life he’d crafted in Starlight. Despite Cory’s vow to make it work, he had no doubt his moratorium on trouble had just been lifted.
Copyright © 2021 by Michelle Major
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ISBN-13: 9781488075421
Their Night to Remember
Copyright © 2021 by Judy Duarte
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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