Free The Problem With Jordan by Joannie Kay Page B

of the path through the woods. Either Cray would come for her or he wouldn’t. It was that simple.
    *****
    Cray was tired. He’d never realized how hard it would be to keep his promise not to touch his pretty little wife until she was ready to be touched. People didn’t fall in love so fast, did they? Cray found that all he had to do was look at the pretty redhead and he was ready to make love to her. He had no clue what she was thinking or feeling because she was so quiet all of the time. Ever since he brought her home after the new Evans baby was born, she had been distant with him, and he feared that she was unhappy.
    It was time to talk to her, Cray decided. This impasse couldn’t continue. They needed to talk through their problem and then compromise with each other to make their situation bearable. He was surprised when he couldn’t find her inside the house. He looked around the outside of the ranch house, but there was no sign of her there, either. He went back inside the house, sure he’d just missed her, but after calling her name several times, he worried that she might be ill. However, the bed was made and the clothes she’d been wearing that morning were lying on the bed. He went to her wardrobe and it only took a glance for him to see that her ‘fending’ clothes were missing! He stomped from the room, and it was then that he spotted a note lying on the table. He picked it up and read it, and then read it again before stomping out of the house and through the woods.
    *****
    Jordan was filled with despair as she looked around her old home. It was shabby as could be. Ike had destroyed almost everything that could be used. She was going to need to ‘fend’ a lot of pieces to furnish the house, and some paint for the outside. But, now that she’d been spoiled by Cray, ‘fending’ seemed so wrong. It just wasn’t right to help herself to what others worked for. She and Cray had talked about that several times, but she’d kept her promise and hadn’t taken one single thing while living with him. She was going to have to find a job; it was imperative if she was to survive and not resort to taking things from others.
    She busied herself trying to decide what she needed most to survive in the old shack, and was in the process of making a list when a shadow loomed behind her. She jumped up and whirled to face a man she didn’t recognize, and leftover fear from when Ike would catch her alone came up to terrify her. Jordan screamed as if she was being murdered!
    Cray heard Jordan scream and he took off running. Damn it, he should have talked to her sooner, but the girl was in for a good hiding. How dare she run off from him? She was his wife, and just because she didn’t want to be married didn’t mean she could simply take off. He wouldn’t have it. He ran faster when he heard a crash from within the house.
    Jordan didn’t know what to do. She’d thrown the only chair in the house at the huge black man, but he merely held out one large hand and batted it away as if it was a pesky fly. “My husband will hurt you if you touch me!” she threatened.
    “Your husband is about this close to spanking your bare butt!” Cray said from right behind her.
    “Cray! Oh, thank God you are here!” She put herself behind her husband. “This man broke into the house and has been threatening me!” she explained.
    “This man is Otis Brown, Jordan, and I hired him to do some repairs on this place. He is living here as part of his wage.”
    “And you didn’t think to tell me this?” Jordan demanded, her hands on her hips.
    “He just done hired me a day ago, Miss,” Otis said quietly in his deep bass voice. “I didn’t mean to scare you none, but I figured I should check to see why you was snoopin’ in here.”
    “I wasn’t snooping!” she angrily declared. “I live here!”
    “You don’t live here, young lady. We are married, and you live with me. Hear that?”
    “No, I do not hear you! You ignore me