Page 3 of Promised Adventure (Promises, Promises)

Chapter Three

WREN

One thing you had to learn fast in foster care was how to judge people correctly, and I’d say I was decent at seeing a person’s character.

It was the same the first time I wandered into Sweet Buns and met Caleb.

Something inside of me told me that Caleb was good , and that was the reason I’d applied for a job there.

And now I got the same feeling when Jordan made his offer.

My gut hadn’t steered me wrong so far, so I decided to trust it again.

Jordan quickly hooked Marge to the back of his truck. I felt bad that I mostly stood there and watched instead of helping, but honestly, holding the flashlight up for him was probably the only thing I could do without being a hindrance.

Afterward, I hopped into his truck as he towed me and my van a few feet down the road I’d been stranded on. True to his word, a mailbox was hidden, almost out of view, right until Jordan turned onto a small path beside it.

“I thought I was at least an hour’s walk away from anyone else out here. I can’t believe my car broke down right outside your property,” I spoke absentmindedly. “Do you live out here all by yourself?”

“I do, but my brother’s property is adjacent to mine just over there.”

He pointed in a direction to his left, but all I saw were thick shadows of trees.

“You have just enough nature separating your houses so you’re not right under each other’s noses, huh?”

That earned me a soft noise that sounded like a mixture of a snort and a chuckle. I glanced over to study his profile.

He was a giant of a man, who’d easily towered over my five-foot-eight, with a scraggly, curly beard covering half of his face.

That, along with the deep, dark circles under his eyes, told me this man desperately needed rest, but even still, the exhaustion on him couldn’t mask his highly rugged handsomeness.

A few minutes later, Jordan parked outside a little cabin.

I should be worried this was a horror movie in the making.

I mean, c’mon, a dark cabin in the woods?

But the place I assumed was his home had none of the foreboding feelings of a crime scene waiting to happen.

Instead, it was more charming than anything else.

When we pulled up, the cabin’s automatic lighting system highlighted the gorgeous porch that wrapped around the entire cabin.

I was admiring the place and the work that had to have gone into it when Jordan suddenly appeared beside me.

“You want to get anything out of your van?” he asked and gestured to where he’d already unhooked Marge from his truck.

I quickly went to retrieve my most important item—my vlogging camera—and my backpack, which had mytoiletry bag and a change of clothes.

Jordan was waiting by the front door when I turned around again.

Half his body was bathed in warm, artificial light as he waved me over.

My body followed the call to his side and was met with a very modern interior.

I had to look out again to make sure this was still the cabin and not some high-rise apartment building.

“Not what you were expecting?” Jordan asked. He wasn’t smiling, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice. I’d only known the man for less than an hour, but something told me the man didn’t smile or laugh much, which had me wanting to see if I could pull one out of him.

“It’s not, but strangely, it fits,” I replied.

“Fits me or the cabin exterior?” Jordan asked back, his lip faintly furling up under his beard.

I pretended to think about it with a finger to my chin. “I’m still working that out,” I teased, then added, “But the place is beautiful.”

Much like the man himself, but I didn’t say that part out loud.

His lips curled up again, and this time, the small smile that graced his face was unmistakable.

I was completely unprepared for the impact that one tiny smile would have on me.

My heart felt like it was going to shoot out of my chest, warning me that I should probably look away, but my eyes were glued to him, wanting to see more.

Jordan had an almost loving expression as he looked around the place, and I wondered how it would feel to have someone look at me like that. How would it feel if he looked at me like that…like I was special?

“Thanks. It took me a while to build, but she turned out pretty okay,” he said with that same soft smile as he patted the door frame.

I was captured by that smile again that it took a second for his words to sink in. “Wait. Do you mean you built this cabin?”

He nodded, and I turned to look around the place again with a newfound appreciation that the man behind me had a hand in the construction of the place.

Jordan came beside me and started telling me about how he and his friends had slowly worked on the cabin when they had free time.

He talked about the project with so much passion in his voice.

There was pride, but there was no arrogance in his tone like he was trying to show off.

He was simply sharing something he loved with me. I’d always loved a man with a passion.

When we landed back in the kitchen on our tour. Jordan was still bright-eyed as he talked about the custom tiles he’d used to make the backsplash. All the tiles were white, but each piece had a different shape that he’d said was something called a brutalist design.

It looked pretty darn cool, if I did say so myself. But no matter how interesting the art was or how much I wished I could listen to him talk for just a bit longer, my damn body betrayed me, and I let out a yawn.

Jordan immediately noticed, and the awkward cough he let out had me cursing my exhaustion.

“I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear me blab on. You must be tired,” he said, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. The air around him changed from the excited way he was when he was talking about his home to the more stoic and cold demeanor he’d had when we first met, and I hated that so much.

“No! You’re not blabbing. It’s just been a long day on the road,” I said, speaking softly in the hope he could hear my sincerity. I took a step closer to him. “I really enjoy hearing you speak. It’s clear that you put your heart into this place. Thank you for sharing it with me.”

Jordan was quiet for a second, and I almost thought I’d said the wrong thing, but then I caught the tint of red on his ears. The red almost blended in with his dark skin, but then he gently used his thumb to rub his ear as if trying to hide the heat blooming there.

I smiled as he cleared his throat again.

“I don’t usually talk this much,” Jordan commented.

“That’s a shame. You have a really nice voice.”

The shy expression he gave me in reply looked completely out of place, almost like he wasn’t someone who knew what being shy was. His eyes studied me as if trying to figure me out. There was a hint of interest in them I wasn’t unfamiliar with, but there was also a hint of hesitation there as well.

He seemed so put together. He looked like someone who had his life all figured out and had never met a mismatched pair of socks before, yet he also had this look of uncertainty that was freaking adorable on him.

As if catching himself, Jordan cleared his throat, and his face turned into an unreadable mask.

“You probably want to rest. I’ll show you the guest bedroom,” he said, then spun around and headed back to where the bedrooms were located.

His back was toward me, and I wondered if his current expression was as stiff as his shoulders. As he walked, his arms moved robotically in time with his feet.

I barely had time to swallow my laugh when he stopped and covertly glanced over his shoulder, probably waiting for me to follow.

I strode to his side, smiling and wondering how many more sides he was going to show me.