“Don’t even try itJo…” She lifted an eyebrow as he gave her a glare, stopping the name, before resting her head against his chest as they danced.
“I love you Mel-Mel.”
“I love you too Tate,” she stated sending a smile towards Jordan and Nicole who’d just joined him.
“You don’t seem as tense as you usually do when you see them like that,” Nicole said sliding over beside him. “Don’t tell me you’ve finally got it?”
“Took me six years but I did.”
“And?” she asked brightly.
“And she made her choice six years ago,” he admitted twirling his ring around as the words engraved inside it played through his mind.My always choice.
“She did?”
“After she told him about me finding out the truth, my proposal, Tate offered to run away with her, help her play pool, go pro.”
“Instead she married you,” Nicole stated.
“She did and now, I’m the one she chose to be with, and I’ll never question that again.”
“Even though she couldn’t make a choice when Kevin held a gun to both of you?” she inquired.
“Could you make a choice between Caleb and Dad, or even Caleb and me?” he countered and he saw the dilemma in her eyes.
“It’s too different of a choice Jordan. Caleb’s my heart but Dad…he’s Dad and you’re my brother.”
“While I’m Mel’s heart and he’s her Tate, her family,” Jordan stated and he saw her understanding of it. “Yes in the first instant I hoped she’d choose me and when I saw the terror in her eyes I told her it was okay to save Tate even though my heart was shredded. Then she told me she couldn’t choose because she couldn’t see a life without us both, couldn’t deal if she were the reason one of us wasn’t here, and I got it. If places were reversed, if I had to choose between Mel and you or Alana…it’s an impossible dilemma, either choice would completely destroy not only me but our entire family, and that’s what was right in her face. This impossible demand that she picks me or Tate to die, and not just hypothetically, but with a gun pointed at us. I get that she couldn’t make that choice but I’m the one she chose to stay with, and I will do anything in the world to make sure it stays that way,” he added as they came over to him.
“I am so glad,” Nicole stated as Mel slid into Jordan’s embrace. “Now, what about making some nieces and nephews for Cord, Trent, Sam and the baby boy Susan and Jake are having?”
“What’s the rush?” Mel asked with a laugh. “We just got married.”
“Six years ago,” she said.
“How about this, next year will be seven, which happens to be one of our lucky numbers,” Mel said with a grin to Jordan. “We’ll see about it then?”
“Alright,” Nicole sighed with a smile before she and Tate let them head out to the dance floor for the last dance of the night, for them at least.
“Are you serious about that?” Jordan asked as he pulled her into his arms. “You want to see about having a baby?”
“Not right now, but yeah, more than anything in the world I want to be the three most important women in your life Jordan.”
“Three?”
“Mhmm…wife.”
“You already are that.”
“Your lover.”
“That too, baby,” he teased his lips whispering over her forehead.
“And the mother of your child,” she stated.
“We’ll just have to work on that one, won’t we?” he said kissing her. “But it might take a long time until we get it just right.”
“Absolutely,” she agreed and that night she knew she wanted to be with just him like this for a bit longer.
