Free Where the Heart Lies by Susan R. Hughes Page A

Dean whispered, nudging Clay’s elbow. “How’d you let that one get away?”
    Clay shrugged, not answering. The question was a good one. He studied Jordan for a moment, appreciating her elegant bearing, the delicate structure of her face, and the sensuous form of her lips as she sipped from her glass.
    It was her soft, natural beauty that had caught his attention the evening they met back in university. A girl he’d been dating casually dragged him to a UBC Poetry Club meeting. It was the young woman who happened to be seated on the other side of him, however, who piqued his interest. Jordan Lewis, an English major, he would later find out. At first she didn’t seem to notice him at all; her attention was entirely caught up in the poetry that another student was reading aloud for the group. It was a work by the likes of Wordsworth, or maybe Coleridge—one of the Romantic poets—recited in ponderously earnest tones. Clay couldn’t remember any of the lines, but he remembered the face of the intriguing blonde next to him; she looked entranced, her eyes brimming with emotion. She had a poetry book open on her lap, dog-eared with notes scribbled all around the margins, and now and again she glanced down to read along silently. She was holding a pencil in her hand, and at one point she scrawled on the page, in large letters, “WOW.” Clay was captivated. Hers was a reaction of the heart, straightforward and unaffected. It struck an unexpected chord in him.
    After the reading he introduced himself to the blonde and spoke to her only briefly, muzzled by the glaring eyes of his jealous date. The relationship with that girl, whose name he couldn’t even bring to mind now, had fizzled out quickly. After that night, he couldn’t get Jordan Lewis out of his mind. He quickly found her name in the student directory and called to invite her out for coffee. For Clay, being with a woman so unlike himself was both fascinating and intoxicating. She was joyful, spirited and idealistic. She saw the good in everything and everyone, responding to cruelty and unfairness with surprise and hurt. Her naiveté sometimes worried Clay, but it endeared her to him.
    At the same time Jordan was the most disorganized and impractical person he knew, a foil to his headstrong practicality. Studying for tests and writing papers were invariably last-minute tasks for Jordan, yet she always achieved high marks. On school nights, she stayed up way too late to watch old movies on TV. She was easily distracted, losing track of time, and late for everything—classes, parties, dinner. Jordan was always in a rush, but never concerned about it. Things had a way of working out for her. Clay was surprised to hear she was running her own business now. Back when he knew her, she’d had her head too far in the clouds. But then, he knew people could change a great deal in a decade, as he had.
    Above all else, Jordan had been the warmest, most open person he knew. He had loved her with his whole heart, and nothing in his life—not even his divorce from Kathryn—had hurt him as much as losing her had.
    So why had he let her get away? Leaving her behind eleven years ago had meant a brilliant career for him. Had it been worth it? In this moment, he couldn’t manage to find a single shred of meaning in those intervening years.
    So she wasn’t ready to get involved right now, so soon after her divorce. He understood that; still, there’d been no mistaking her urgent response to his kiss, or the fierce way she’d clung to him for those few intense moments. She’d been spooked, that was all—he hoped.
    If any small part of her still burned for him, he would do his best to stoke those embers into full flame.

Chapter Six
     
    Jordan woke early Saturday morning to the exuberant twittering of birds outside her window. Unable to get back to sleep, she climbed out of bed and pulled on her pale blue sundress, then peeked out the door of her room to listen for activity in