Free Where the Heart Lies by Susan R. Hughes

in the room. Even after all these years, she’s got you under her spell.”
    “She is bewitching, I’ll admit,” he said with a teasing grin. “But may I remind you, you’re the one who called her up to make sure she came. Is it that you wanted to meet her so you could size her up?”
    Sheryl glanced at him sharply. “And what if I did? I may have been wrong about Molly being your child, but I still can’t say I trust Jordan. Besides, you’re in a vulnerable state right now, barely divorced. You have to know that jumping back into a relationship with an old flame is a bad idea.”
    “I’m touched by your concern,” Clay said, the playfulness leaving his voice, “but I’m a big boy and I can take care of myself.”
    She frowned, assessing him with a probing gaze. “I know that. It’s just that you can’t be objective in this situation. I remember how crushed you were when she broke off your engagement. I don’t ever want to see you go through that again.”
    “You know it wasn’t quite as simple as that. Anyway, Jordan’s on the heels of her own divorce. She made it clear she’s in no hurry to get involved with me or anyone else. So you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
    Sheryl’s eyebrows rose higher. “So you’ve discussed it?”
    Clay gave her a hard look, refusing to answer the question. “Come on, the girls are waiting for cake.” As he reached for the bottle of red wine on the counter to refill Jordan’s glass, Sheryl gave up the argument and resumed her work, and in a few minutes had the cake fully decorated with Alice’s name surrounded by bright sprinkles and rosebuds.
    Clay followed as Sheryl carried the cake out to the girls, starting them on a chorus of “Happy Birthday”. He approached Jordan, handing over her wine.
    “Thank you,” she said, before joining the singing. They exchanged a smile, and then she glanced away.
    Though they’d been enjoying a pleasant conversation, Jordan’s discomfort was still apparent. It didn’t surprise Clay; he’d come on so strongly the last time they saw each other, he was amazed she’d agreed to spend the weekend with him and his family, even with Sheryl’s persuasion. In the cold light of day, his actions from that evening seemed irrational and audacious. Yet at the time, it had felt so natural being with Jordan again that it hadn’t occurred to him not to act on his feelings. He had the same sense of comfort with her as he did at home with his family; at the same time, the spark that had so easily reignited between them had caught him off guard, quickly consuming him. He’d been unable to resist the impulse to touch and hold her again, and to open his heart to her, and consequently he’d sent her into a panic for which he frankly couldn’t blame her.
    He tried to focus on Alice, her eyes glittering with reflected candlelight as her mother set the cake on the coffee table in front of her. As the girls gathered around, she leaned in and extinguished the candles in a single breath.
    “Everyone come and get in the picture,” Lorraine instructed, brandishing a camera. She motioned for Clay’s brother-in-law, Dean, who had come into the house through the patio doors when the singing started, to join his wife and the girls around the cake.
    “You, too, Clay and Jordan,” Lorraine directed.
    “Oh, no, let me take the picture so you can be in it,” Jordan offered, setting her glass on an end table. “We can’t have a picture of Alice’s party without her grandmother in it.”
    “All right then,” Lorraine agreed, handing her the camera. “Thanks.”
    Clay saw the relief in Jordan’s face as she took the camera; the idea of being included in the family photo obviously made her uncomfortable.
    Once the picture had been taken, and the camera returned to Lorraine, Jordan went back to stand in her corner, where she continued drinking her wine in rapid sips as she watched Sheryl cut the cake into slices.
    “Is that your old flame?”