by Judith Yates
Lawrence sighed deeply when he’d finished. “Don’t be so hard on Holly, Son. She made a mistake. We all do.”
“Everybody keeps saying that. But nobody but me knows how much that mistake hurts.”
“Nobody does. Nobody can.” Lawrence tried to calm him with a fatherly rub on the back. “Just as no one can know the hell Holly went through back then. How can we sit in judgment of what she did?”
“Why are you defending her like this?”
“Because I see a changed man in front of me. When you hugged me yesterday, I felt it. Something about you was different.”
Jordan felt weary. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Look at you now. You’re full of feelings. You’re opening up to me, letting me in. Surely Holly had something to do with this change in you.”
His father was right; Holly’s love had changed him. Yet now it was making him miserable beyond endurance. He leaned forward, head in hand. “What am I going to do, Dad? There were things that were said, things that were done... They can’t be taken back.”
“Says who? You’re a strong man, Jordan. You can do anything,” Lawrence insisted. “I’ve always been proud of that. I wouldn’t have had the courage to sell CompWare in order to save it.”
It meant the world to hear that from his father. But he was surprised. “You didn’t want me to sell.”
“I was wrong. I see that now.” Lawrence got up from the sofa. “I think I was also wrong in believing you didn’t need me the way Scott did. When your mother died, I guess I let a lot of things slide.”
Jordan looked up as his father lifted a silver-framed photo from the credenza. He recognized it right away. His throat tightened as Lawrence sat down beside him.
“This was the last picture taken of the four of us together, remember?”
He nodded, not trusting his voice.
“Not a day goes by when I don’t think about your mother and your brother.”
“I think about them, too.”
“Good. We can’t forget.” He placed the photograph on a side table. “Now we have some new members for a family portrait. Rachel. Stephanie.” He turned to Jordan, encouragement shining in his eyes. “And maybe Holly?”
Chapter Fourteen
As soon as he saw the emerald green common, rich and lush and welcoming on this beautiful summer day, Jordan realized how much he had missed Golden. Annette from the bakery waved to him when he parked outside her window. And the driver of the retirement home van—whose name he kept forgetting—tooted his horn as he drove past.
When he spotted Holly’s car in front of the boutique, his chest tightened. He still didn’t know what he was going to say, nor did he know what kind of reception he’d get. Things just might not work out. When he crossed the street, however, he saw the big Closed sign on the store door. But Saturdays were the shop’s busiest. Puzzled, he walked over to her car.
He smiled at the stuffed bear tossed in the back seat with Steph’s coloring books and markers. The kid liked to keep busy in the car. In the front, he recognized one of Holly’s sweaters, her hairbrush and one of the many paperback mysteries she loved to read. Small, incidental items that belonged to the two people he loved best in the world.
He had to make things work out. Holly and Stephanie were everything and he’d fight to the death for them. There was just too much love at stake and too much love to lose.
“Hey, Jordan,” Jonathan Warren called from the front of the general store. “On your way to the town meeting? It’s already started.”
The second special meeting—he’d forgotten. That’s where Holly must be. When he reached the town hall, debate on the rezoning was in full force. He searched the vast room with his eyes, but was unable to locate Holly. As he listened to the discussion, several of Franklin Beck’s cohorts began taking verbal potshots at newcomers who tried to make money off the town with no regard for its rural landscape. Jordan didn’t care that his name was derided several times. But when Beck and his army started taking snipes at Holly, Jordan saw red.
He gestured furiously at Dennis Metcalfe to recognize him. Gabe Sawyer spotted him and gave the moderator a poke in the ribs.
“Mr. Mason, you have the floor,” he announced with a smile.
All heads turned to the back of the room where Jordan stood. He scanned the faces but still couldn’t find Holly. Then he fixed his gaze on Dr. Beck and friends. “I’m going to make this short and sweet, because—as Sadie Campbell so kindly reminded me at the door—I can’t vote because I forgot to register.”
A sprinkling of laughter greeted him.
“Perhaps the good people of Golden are right to be suspicious of outsiders like me who can pull some foolish stunts at times. But you people have no reason on God’s earth to suspect Holly West of anything—any—thing—but trying to make a decent life in this town for her daughter and herself.” He looked at Dr. Beck’s cool face once more. “And Golden’s damn lucky to have her,” he added for good measure.
The crowd broke out in applause and Beck’s guys actually booed. Then the moderator called for a vote and chaos reigned.
Holly sat stuck in a corner behind three rows of people eager to cast their votes. She saw Jordan leave the hall, but she couldn’t budge an inch. Her knees were still trembling from his beautiful words of support. It didn’t matter which way the vote went. Jordan was back. And wonders of wonders, he’d stood by her when she needed him—one more time.
When Holly managed to squeeze out of her corner she ran outside to find him. He was nowhere to be seen, and no one could recollect which way he’d gone.
Since experience had taught him that it was impossible to find anybody in the town hall after a meeting, Jordan decided to go directly to Holly’s house. She’d turn up there eventually. Besides, he was eager to see Stephanie, too.
He was almost as surprised to see Ted West still in town as Ted was to see him back in town.
“I’m baby-sitting my granddaughter this afternoon,” Ted claimed proudly. “And I’m looking to buy one of those summer cottages on the pond. I realized I need to spend more time with my girls.”
Jordan was happy to hear that. He knew what it would mean to Holly. He hoped his return would mean something to her, too. When Ted called Stephanie downstairs, Jordan felt another sliver of apprehension. How would she react to him? Was she angry at him for leaving the way he had? Would she forgive him?
“Jordan!”
Her high-pitched squeal pierced the air as she jumped into his arms. She kissed and hugged him, and Jordan held on to her for dear life. He had talked about her a lot to Rachel and his father, yet the real thing proved too delightful for words.
“Mommy said you’d come back.”
“She did?” He hugged her close.
“Every night when she tucked me in bed.”
“Your mom’s a smart lady.”
“Jordan, I know something you don’t know,” she claimed with all the seriousness a four-year-old could muster. “You’re my uncle.”
He was floored. “I am?”
“Your brother is my daddy who died. And Mommy says I have another grandpa who is going to love me like crazy.”
“It’s absolutely true, honey. He can’t wait to meet you.”
It gave him hope to know Holly had already told Stephanie about her other family. It meant she recognized how important it was for Steph, and how much it meant to his father and himself.
The screen door squeaked open, and Jordan turned as the soft, warm scent of the woman he loved reached out to him. Holly met his eyes and everything went still. Joy and relief filled his soul. The bundle in his arms began to wiggle away.
“Mommy, Jordan’s back,” Steph announced gaily. “I don’t think he’s mad at you anymore.”
“Come on, dear.” Ted managed to capture his reluctant granddaughter’s hand. “Jordan and your mother need to talk.”
As Ted coaxed Steph out the back door, Holly walked up to Jordan. “Are yo
u?”
Uncertainty flickered in his dark-blue eyes. “Am I what?”
“Still mad at me?”
He smiled. “Not anymore. It took a few days, but I got over it. I let the anger go.”
“I’m so glad.” Her heart fluttered with relief, and she longed to touch him.
“It’s time we let go of the past, too.” He moved an inch closer as his finger skimmed along her arm. “We’ve got to trust each other in spite of it. So, do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Still trust me?”
“Oh, yes.” She touched his face, caressing his cheek gently, and then she melted against his chest. She could hear his heart pounding wildly.
Jordan closed his arms around her. “Will you have me back? I want us to have a life together—you, Stephanie, me. Here in Golden.”
She tilted her head back slightly. “Golden? Really?”
“Somewhere along the way, I discovered I belong here.”
“Correction,” she said, sliding her arms around his shoulders. “You belong here with me, and I belong here with you.” And then Holly set about to prove it with the first of a lifetime of kisses that would always be there to welcome him home.
Three weeks later, Stephanie ran dripping out of the water, with Taffy licking at her heels. “I’m gonna jump in again. Watch me, Grandpa. Watch me!”
Two heads swung around at the same time, sending Stephanie into gales of laughter. “I forgot. I meant Grandpa Lawrence. But you can watch, too, Grandpa Ted.”
Holly smiled as the two men who’d been estranged too long watched and clapped with delight at the grandchild they shared.
“Holly, here it is.” Gracie showed off the elaborate cake she had made for Stephanie’s “half-year” birthday.
“Steph’s going to love the little checkerboard on it.”
Gracie’s mouth pursed into a proud smile. “That was your father’s idea. Rather ingenious, wasn’t it?”
Holly had suspected Gracie and her dad were spending time together, and now Gracie’s smile confirmed it.
Gracie covered up the cake box and lent Holly a hand setting the table. “At first I wasn’t crazy about the idea of having Stephanie’s little party on Jordan’s beach, but it’s really very nice down here.”
“Tell him when he comes back from rowing Rachel around the pond. He loves it when you compliment him.”
“I think I’ll save the compliments for the wedding tomorrow. Tell him exactly what I think of him all at once—sort of as a special wedding gift just for the groom.”
Holly’s heart was full of affection for her dear old friend. “Gracie, thanks for helping me through the past five years. I wouldn’t have survived to see this day without you.”
Gracie’s eyes glistened as she squeezed Holly’s hand. “I know it’s kind of presumptuous of me. But I’m so excited about your wedding I feel like the mother of the bride.”
“You are to me.”
“Jordan’s coming back in.” Her father walked up to them. “What are you two yakking about now?”
“Bride stuff,” Gracie said, turning away to wipe her eyes with her hand. “Now, come over here and look at this cake.”
Holly looked out at the water where Jordan was guiding the small wooden boat toward the shore. She couldn’t believe that tomorrow they’d be married. It was everything she wanted and more wonderful than anything she could have dreamed.
“That daughter of yours is a little dynamo, Holly,” Lawrence said as he strolled up to her. “She’s just perfect.”
Holly had seen the instant love in Lawrence’s eyes yesterday, when he had first met Stephanie. Now it was even brighter. “She really likes you, Lawrence. She wasn’t shy with you at all.”
“Oh, I think we’re all going to be just fine.” He curved his arm around her shoulder.
He really was the dearest man; not one word of reproach had she heard from him. Yet she still felt guilty about having kept Stephanie a secret from him for so long. She felt she should say something. “I hope you’ll be able to forgive me one day, Lawrence. I’ll try to find a way to make it up to you.”
“Dear, you already have.” Squeezing her shoulder he pointed toward Jordan “You’ve given my son back to me. And to see him this content for the first time in his life is more than a father could ask.”
“Everybody, come and see my cake,” Steph called out at the top of her lungs. “Grandpa Ted, Grandpa Lawrence, come see it.”
Lawrence planted a kiss on her cheek. “I’m going to get my wife and go look at that cake.”
Holly followed him down to the shore, where he helped Rachel step out of the rowboat. “Why don’t you two go for a little ride yourselves,” he suggested to Holly and Jordan. “Let the grandparents run the party.”
She looked to Jordan. With a smile that made her start counting the hours to the honeymoon, he held out his hand.
After they pushed out, Holly glanced back at the beach. The center of attention of four loving faces, Stephanie stood over her birthday cake, chattering away a mile a minute.
With a full heart, she turned back to Jordan, whose gaze was drinking in the happy reunion. His eyes were brimming with joy.
Holly couldn’t remember feeling this happy before her first wedding day, and she certainly hadn’t been as deeply in love. But she was a different woman, and Jordan was her groom now. She knew he’d be there tomorrow, and every day forever after.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6660-5
BROTHER OF THE GROOM
Copyright © 1998 by Judith Yoder
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office. Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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