She walked in with Seth following behind her. I wanted to make sure that I had their undivided attention.
“Come in and take a seat. We need to talk.” I kept my voice stern and commanding. I wanted to have some fun with this.
“Is everything okay?” Seth was the first to talk. They both knew the meeting involved Maria. I stood and handed a pink note to Maria. I watched her eyes swell up. I knew what it said.
I watched her open it as her hands shook. She read over what Amber had written then looked from the note to me and back to it.
“Are you for real Jordan?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, your fired.”
“But, this says…wait I’m confused.” Seth took the note and read it over.
“What?” Amber wrote it out.
“I’m letting you go next Thursday.” I then handed her the envelope with the bonus check. “I just want to be clear on this Thursday to Monday night I don’t want to hear from you. Well from either of you or see either of you. But come Tuesday morning your asses better be back in this office.”
“Wait am I permanently fired.” I laughed again.
“Yes, for five days next week….kind of. Call it a leave of absence for those days or something.” Maria looked into the envelope and then stared at me.
“Jordan this is a lot of money.” I know.
“Use it and go on vacation or something. You earned it Maria. You’re doing an excellent job. Go enjoy being newlyweds for a few days. Both of you. Now say thank you and get back to work.” Maria just smiled and I knew I had done something great today.
“Jordan thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me.” I do now.
“Enjoy the time off and Maria, thank you for standing your ground with Niki. You’re one of a kind and that’s something I don’t want you to change.” She then hugged me. I knew that was coming.
“Thank you Jordan. I’m glad you’re not upset with me for basically being a bitch to Niki.” I laughed harder this time. Even my sides began to hurt.
“I don’t think I could be mad at you for being a bitch to Niki. I’m very grateful for it.”
“No way! You’re glad I was a bitch?”
“Yes Maria, now go get lunch.”
“I will thank you.” I thought for a moment and looked at the time.
“I know you’re going out,” I pulled out my wallet and handed her a twenty. “I have a meeting soon, please bring me back something.”
“Most definitely.” They both left my office and I sat waiting for Mason to show up. I was thankful that Maria came back with my lunch before my meeting. However, I just started to eat when he arrived.
“Mason come in and take a seat.” I said wiping my mouth. Now I’m being rude.
“Sit and eat Jordan. No need to stop on my account.”
“Thank you. I wanted you to come in so we could talk about Cara.” This could be good or really bad.
“Everything okay with my daughter.”
“Yes Sir, I wanted to inform you that I will be needed your legal services.” Why not use the best lawyer I know?
“What do you need my legal services for?”
“Here soon Niki will be brought up on charges for kidnapping Cara. I know she was my ex and I’m not asking you to defend her, but I know what Cara will ask for. I need your help to counter that.” I want to make sure everything is in place correctly so this does not happen again.
“You want me to prosecute Niki?” I don’t know if the state will allow that.
“More like defend Cara and myself.” He grins at me and I know he’s thinking something.
“I’ll do that no matter what, you know this Jordan. Can you explain to me what’s delaying her being brought in?” I spend the next hour telling Mason everything that’s been going on.
“I can understand why she wants to deal with this herself. You just make sure my daughter is safe both physically and emotionally.” Right there, those words hit me hard.
“Mason, I would like to apologize to you for not protecting your daughter to the fullest of my capabilities in the first place. Had I done my job right the first time she wouldn’t have been taken.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“That’s true, you did fail, but you had no idea what was going to happen. None of us can predict the future and you risked your own life to save her. I think you did the best you could and for that I thank you. Now don’t ever apologize to me about this issue again.” Well I wasn’t expecting that.
We spent some more time talking about certain things and then I walk him out. I feel better about today’s events, but I’m worried the about how things will play out. It’s still up in the air if they will turn out good or bad.
CARA
“Why are you going easy on me?” I hated this. I swear Justin had been playing nice with me and that wasn’t the purpose to this. I wanted him to teach me more about defending myself.
“Holy hell woman, I’m not going easy on you. What’s gotten into you?” Huh, he’s not going easy on me.
“I’m determined to be able to properly defend myself. I spent all day yesterday working out with the weights like you showed me.” Justin is irritating me and I stroll over to him. I pretend like I want to embrace him in a hug and then wrap my leg around his causing him to fall back on the mat.
“Okay, that’s not fair. I wasn’t ready.” Really I noticed that.
“Isn’t that how this thing works. People don’t really fight fair.” I thought that was the whole point when you needed to defend yourself, to be unexpected.
“Yeah well now my ass hurts. Alright whatever has gotten into you I like it. I don’t think you need any more training from me. Shit, you just need to be more focused on your surroundings.” Justin walked towards me after getting up.
I thought for a moment that he was going to return the favor of what I just did, but he didn’t. He began to walk around me in a circle. I proceeded to turn with him wondering what his next move would be.
“You do know you can’t trust anyone, but yourself. There will be moments when the unexpected happens and normally it’s by someone we trust the most. Also the more people around you the more distractions that you have.” I was slowly starting to get a little dizzy from walking in circles.
“I get that and have learned it the hard way. Can we stop…” Before I could finish Justin attempted to push me. I dodged his hand and slapped it way.
I turned as he went to circle me again and ran at him purposely moving my foot behind his leg causing us both to trip. I didn’t mean to fall, but I landed on Justin. I began laughing extremely hard.
“Woman, my backside’s going to be bruised something fierce if you keep knocking me over.” I tried to get up, but laughed even harder. I ended up rolling off of him and laid out on my back.
“That was awesome, you deserved that.” Justin stood to his feet and offered me his hand to help me up. I accepted it and stood to my feet. “You have to admit it’s pretty cool that me, a woman, can kick your butt.”
Justin turned and glared at me. I lost control and doubled over with laughter when he crossed his arms over his chest. I can now admit I was proud.
“You’re kidding me right. Whatever has crawled up into you needs to freaking stay there. This new confidence you have seems to of demolished that wall of yours is fucking great. However, Cara, if you tell anyone, remember I know where you live.” I sucked in a breath of air.
“And you want to come head to head with Jordan over that.” I stood up and his eyes were super wide.
“Yeah, forget I mentioned that. I know him. It would be shoot first ask questions later.” I smiled and nodded my head.
“Mmhmm.” I busted up laughing again. This was a perfect day. I checked the time on my phone and knew I needed to get home soon.
We parted and I washed up really quick. It was only two in the afternoon, but I wanted to get home and make a nice dinner. I was hoping that Jordan would be able
to keep his promise to come home at a decent time.
I stopped at the store to pick up what was needed. I picked up pork chops and salad fixings. I grabbed a pineapple and potatoes.
I cooked the pork with some of the pineapple to make it sweet. I watched it closely to make sure I cooked it all the way without over cooking it. I made a fresh salad with all kinds of items and even added raisins to it. Then I thinly sliced the potatoes I baked them up with some bacon and cheese.
Dinner would be great. I was proud of my cooking skills. I went around the house making sure it was tidied up and then waited for Jordan. I had already let the puppies outside and we were chilling in front of the TV. I had an old movie on for entertainment.
It was nice to see that Nate was able to stop by today. He had finished the puppies room under the stairs. It looked perfect. I’m hoping that they like it, because I don’t want them barking all night.
I had gone into the kitchen to check on dinner when I heard a noise at the front door. I went to peek on what I had heard.
“Hey pretty girl, I missed you.” I laughed and placed my hand over my lips in embarrassment.
“Really, we were only apart for the middle of the day. I’m still here.” I gave him my best megawatt smile.
“You seem to be in a good mood today. You want to tell me what happened.” He walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug.
“Can you keep a big secret?” I knew the answer to that stupid question, but wanted to ask it anyways.
“I think I’m pretty good at keeping secrets Cara Mia.” I laughed again and this time I snorted a little. Jordan then laughed. “I’ve never heard you make that noise before pretty girl. It was cute.” Snorting is not cute.
“I was able to knock Justin on his butt a few times. I kind of tripped him, but I still did it.”
JORDAN
There was this glow when Cara talked. It had been way to long since I had seen her so excited. I had brief moments of this before, but there was a noticeable change in her. I wanted to bottle this up and keep it.
“You knocked Justin on his ass. Really…” I believe her, but I’m a little in shock.
“Yep, I even asked him if he was going easy on me.” She turned around and walked back into the kitchen.
“Cara, dinner smells good.” I could smell it the moment I opened the front door. “Sorry, was he going easy on you.” She laughed.
“He told me he wasn’t going easy on me, but I don’t know. Dinner is almost ready.” Cara stopped and went to grab plates. “I’m glad your home to eat.”
“I told you I would be home and here I am. I need to be home more often if you plan to be cooking like this.” She turned and smiled at me as she began dishing out food.
“I like to cook when I can. I can plan out meals so I make nicer dinners like this.”
“I’d like that very much.”
“I might need to spend some more time with your mom, though. She cooks some things better than me. Best to learn from a great cook.” My heart swelled listening to her talk. She sounded at peace with the idea.
Cara and my mom got along nicely. I’m thankful for that because if they didn’t then I’d be in a world of trouble. I just hope Cara’s ready to learn from my mother. I’ll be expected many nights where we eat at my parent’s house. Mom’s going to teach her everything.
We ate and hung out on the couch. This was the start of better things to come. We have plans on Saturday to spend with everyone at Nate and Jessica’s. Cara was looking forward to the time out.
I was hoping I could pull off my plans. If something happens this weekend to interrupt my goal, then someone’s going to pay for it. I can’t wait any longer to do this.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CARA
I woke up tangled with Jordan. It was Saturday and we had to go over to Jessica’s today. The weather had been great so a barbecue was planned in their backyard. Might as well take advantage of the nice Arizona weather before it got extremely hot.
When that happens its unbearable outside. You don’t want to barbecue let alone sit outside. No one needs to get a sunburn. Granted they owned a pool the weather can get up into triple digits and that’s not fun.
I was going to wear shorts and sandals today. I tried to untangle myself from Jordan, but he woke when I moved. He had this dreamy look in his eyes.
“Five more minutes pretty girl.” Yeah right.
“Get up silly man. We have things to do today.” Jordan moved and then rolled me onto my back. He was fully awake now.
“What did you call me?” I laughed a little. I was still sore from the sex we had last night.
“I called you a silly man. Come on we have to get the day started. We have breakfast with Bridgette this morning.” He gave me a cute little pout and then moved off of me.
“Okay.” We went about our morning routine. We had to be at the restaurant by ten. Bridgette was going to be introducing me to her boyfriend.
I was excited to meet my sister’s boyfriend. From what I was told by my dad, he seemed to really like this guy. He recently started working at the law firm. I guess he had a good background because he’s working on being one of the top lawyers at the firm or something like that.
I shouldn’t admit that I wasn’t paying close attention to what I was being told. I really don’t understand what goes on at the law firm. I just know I get some money from it. I also have the final say if this guy becomes a top lawyer at the firm. I don’t understand how I have a right in that but whatever they say.
“Cara you ready?” I was standing in the bathroom. I chose not to put on any makeup.
“Can you braid my hair?” Jordan was standing in the doorway and walked over to me. He instantly ran his hand through my hair and I watched from the mirror as he parted my hair.
“I love your hair pretty girl. I hate that you had to cut it yesterday.”
“I know so did I, but to keep it healthy I only had the ends trimmed. All she cut off was the dead parts. I liked the lady Hanna sent me to, she had fun with my hair. “I smiled and closed my eyes. I loved the feeling of Jordan messing with my hair.
“All done Cara Mia, you’re defiantly my pretty girl.” I turn around and hug him.
“I’m ready to go. Are the puppies going to be okay while we are gone?” I didn’t want to really leave them in their room all day.
“Yep. I let them outside. They can’t get to the pool so they’re good. I checked and the weather is perfect all day.” Awesome, they can play outside then.
We left to meet with my sister. Luckily we were meeting her between our house and hers otherwise, we would be late to the event later today. I was surprised when we pulled into the parking lot that my sister was there at the same time.
I watched the man get out of the car and he said something to her. I don’t know what he said, but her reaction was off. I walked over to her and gave her a hug while Jordan introduced himself.
JORDAN
“Hello, I’m Jordan Carter.” I offered my hand to the man that was with Bridgette. Something was off with this dude. I don’t know what it is, but I had a weird vibe going on.
“Richard Callier, nice to meet you.” He shook my hand. He turned to Bridgette and we all headed inside. I shouldn’t be on alert, but I am.
We all took our seats and I watched how Bridgette took hers. She deliberately sat next to Cara and he made sure to be across from my girl. I need to stop adjudging that something is wrong. I know I need to be more alert, but this shit is stupid.
I know Mason and he would never let his daughter be will a bad man. On top of that, he would never hire a shady man. I’m over reacting like a moron. Cara adjusts in her seat and leans over to me.
“Are you okay?” She whispers.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Maybe I’m wired and being over attentive to details because of what I have with me. I just hope my plans go off without a problem this afternoon.
My phone happens to chime with an incoming text.
I take a moment to read it and see that Matt is heading over to Patty’s place afternoon. I wish he had chosen any day but today. I don’t want any drama.
“How is the new relationship going?” Cara asks catching my attention. I notice that Bridgette looks over to Richard before speaking.
“I think we are doing good. We aren’t official just yet, but in the getting to know you stage. We just have to keep our relationship out of the workplace and all is good.” Bridgette tells us.
“I’m happy. I think Bridgette here is a pretty good catch. I mean I love working at the law firm and to find such a dedicated woman is a plus.”
It didn’t take me long to figure out what I was ordering. Cara stared at the menu. I wasn’t sure what the problem was. However, maybe it was me, but I noticed Richard point to something on the menu to Bridgette.
“Jordan, I want pancakes, but what I want comes with toast.” It was funny to hear Cara having issues over food. This past week she had been eating regularly. I was so happy to see her have an appetite.
“Then order a side of pancakes. You’re still going to the gym. I don’t think they will hurt you.” I laughed when she closed the menu.
Cara ordered her pancakes and I paid close attention to what Bridgette ordered. Her meal was small and on a healthy side. I let Cara and Bridgette talk and decided to speak with Richard.
“So Richard, what is it that you do for fun?” I had to ask something.
“What do I do for fun? I spend most of my free time working on my baby. My Corvet, but normally I don’t have time for anything else. I need to stay focused on work.”
“Work is important. I can understand that. Sometimes it takes up way too much time.”
“Yeah, but I won’t get ahead in life not being the best at what I do. Nothing else really matters than my success in my profession.” I thought for a moment that his choice of words was very interesting.
Breakfast had arrived and the conversation shifted to what Cara and Bridgette were talking about. Half way through the meal Richard had to take a phone call and left the building.
Remember Cinderella (True Loves Fairytale Book 2) Page 37
