There You Go

I can’t even begin to explain the feeling that came over me when I saw Jordan walk into the room. I watched him cross the room towards me with great confidence and a sexy grin on his face. When he put his hands on my waist and told me that we were in this together, I actually got goosebumps.

“I can’t believe you are here.” I whispered, my hands finding their way to his biceps. “I really thought I was going to have to do this alone.”

“Not if I have anything to do about it,” he leaned down and brushed his lips against my cheek. “Hurry up and tell them,” he groaned. “I want to kiss you so badly right now.”

With a chuckle, I ran my hand down his arm until my fingers entwined with his. “Speaking of hurrying,” I tugged at his t-shirt with my free hand. “What did you do? Hang up and run for your truck?”

“Something like that,” he admitted after taking a quick glance down at his outfit - pj pants and t-shirt.

“You look like you were ready for bed,” I added.

“Well,” he smiled. “I was ready to spend some quality time with my girlfriend.” The look in his eyes told me that he was going to kiss me at that moment. It took all I had in me to turn away and clear my throat.
“We should get this over with,” I nodded towards my family as they watched us curiously. All except Cassie, she was bouncing as if she would explode if we didn’t tell everyone right away.

“Right,” he stepped back from me, turning towards my family and offering a smile before looking back at me.

Having Jordan at my side helped but I was still really nervous. I didn’t know how they would react and that worried me, I wanted them to be as happy about this as I was. Sure, I knew that they have been saying for a long time that Jordan and I were meant for each other but saying that and actually witnessing us in a relationship would be completely different. I was afraid that they wouldn’t understand.

“Anna?” Zack called out to me. “We’re waiting.”

“Yeah,” I took a deep breath and felt Jordan give my hand a reassuring squeeze as I exhaled.

“I know that you have all been worrying about me,” I started. “I can’t say that I blame you, most times that I become secretive it usually means something is wrong.” I noticed my brothers glance at each other for a brief moment before turning their attention back to me.

“Whatever is going on Anna, you know that we’ll do whatever we can to help; you just have to let us know.”

I smiled, “I know Chad. All my life you guys have been there to help me when I needed it but I’m ok. I don’t need help - there’s nothing wrong.”

“But the secrecy -”

“Yes,” I cut Mary off unintentionally. “I’ve been hiding something from all of you for the past month.” I glanced at Jordan; he released my hand and slipped his arm around my waist. He looked so happy as he kissed my forehead.

“You haven’t been hiding it from everyone, have you?” Zack asked defensively and I turned to find him glaring at Jordan.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “No Zack, I didn’t hide it from everyone - Jordan knows, he -”

“Why does Jordan know?” He demanded but there was something underlying in his tone that made me feel that, more than anything, he was hurt that I didn’t tell him.

“Well,” I glanced at Jordan once more and chuckled. “It would be hard to give our relationship a chance - to be his girlfriend - if he didn’t know.”

Silence. Complete and utter silence. I swear none of them even blinked after I said that. I’d even go as far as to say that - if you dropped a pin - it would sound like an explosion.

At my side, I felt Jordan tense and I can’t say I blamed him - he thought that everyone would be extremely excited to hear that we were dating but to look at them all at that moment? They looked like we just told them the world was about to end.

All except Cassie, of course.

She finally exploded.

With a squeal that I’m certain didn’t some damage to all of our hearing, she flew across the room and damn near tackled us to the floor. “OhmyGod!” Jordan flinched as she shrieked. “Ican’tbelievethisishappening!” She said quickly. “I’vewantedthisforsolongbutIneverthoughtitwouldhappen!!!” With each passing word, her volume increased until I was sure that only dogs understood her.

“Cassie!” I grabbed her arms, laughing. “Get a hold of yourself!”

“I know, I know.” She repeated as she waved her hands in front of her face in efforts to calm herself down. “I shouldn’t be this happy but -”

I have no idea what she was trying to say, she burst into tears and babbled incoherently as she gave us both a hug.

When she released us she made her way over to her parents and plopped down next to her mom. “This is…” she glanced at us through her tears and smiled stupidly as she covered her heart with her hand. “Perfect.”

Mary finally managed to shake herself out of the trance they all appeared to be in after I told them, she wrapped her arm around Cassie but her eyes were on me. Beside her, Zack rose slowly from the couch. He stood, straightened his shirt, glanced at his wife and girls, and then at Chad.

Chad nodded, gave Susan a kiss on the cheek and stood as well.

As they both descended upon Jordan and me, my heart started to pound in my chest. Blinking rapidly as I tried to make sense of their approach and the cool look in both of their eyes, I found myself turning towards Jordan and wrapping my arms around him protectively.

“Don’t worry Babe,” he broke away from watching them to give me a reassuring smile. “It’s ok,” he whispered calmly as he tugged at my hands to free himself.

The moment he freed himself from me, Zack and Chad grabbed him. “You’re coming with us,” Zack snarled as he pushed Jordan towards the hallway.

I watched in horror as Zack and Chad forced Jordan down the hallway and out of sight.

“Wait!” I called out when I regained control over my body.

But it was too late; they were already out of sight.

“What are they doing?” I spun around to find Mary standing behind me.
With a chuckle, Mary told me not to worry. “You know your brothers; they love to mess with your head.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and tried to lead me to a chair. “Anna, they aren’t going to hurt Jordan.”

“Of course they aren’t,” Susan agreed.

I must have looked unconvinced.

“Oh Anna,” Mary squeezed me. “You have no idea how happy your brother is right now, do you?”

I shook my head.

“Zack as been waiting for you and Jordan to get together for a long time - he believes that Jordan will make you happy.” Mary paused to give me another hug. “That’s all Zack wants Anna, for you to be happy.”

“Then why…?” I motioned towards the hallway they disappeared down.

“Did you really think that Jordan would escape their ‘interrogation’ because he’s been around forever?” Mary laughed and told me that they were just going to give Jordan the ‘new boyfriend’ talk.

It helped to know that they didn’t intent on beating him up or anything but still I was concerned that they would do something stupid.

Ten minutes later, I heard the three of them laughing as they came down the hallway.

“See?” Jordan grinned as he returned to my side unharmed. “I told you everything would be ok.”