“I know,” Jess moaned. “It’s a mess!”
“My gut feeling is you should tell Cord you like him. It might send him running. But who knows… maybe he’ll realize you’re more than Nick’s kid sister. Believe me, five years of age difference is no big thing.”
“No, no, no! You’re supposed to help me not like him anymore. Then I don’t have to worry about having another relationship mess up my last year of college. And I won’t have to tell him anything.”
“That’s true,” Lexi tapped a fingernail against her front tooth. “Plus, you said you don’t think you could live in a big city.”
“I guess I could, if I had to. But I’ve been living in Dallas for a while now, and all I can think of is how much I love Sage Valley.”
Lexi stared at her water glass, as if the answer were written on the ice cubes. “Sure sounds like Cord’s headed back to New York. He said Phantom Enterprises is his dream job.”
“You were talking to Cord about his job?”
“I’ve been told I’m nosy.” A grin danced onto her face. “He came by this morning to get some snacks for a weekend trip, so I grilled him.”
“You see? That’s a sign from God we’re not supposed to be together.”
“Maybe if he was with you, he’d change his mind.”
“No, he’d be miserable, and it’d be my fault.”
“But if you loved each other, you’d find a way around those things.” Lexi took a long swallow of iced tea. “I guess the question is this. Do you like Cord? Or do you love him?”
“A few months ago, I thought I was in love with Parker. Then he broke the engagement. Now I don’t know what I feel.” Jess sighed. “It’s obvious I can’t trust my feelings.”
“I don’t know, Jess. The way you talk about Cord is different. To me, it sounds like you’d be really happy with him.”
“I’ll be happy, no matter what. I’m a Clark woman. My Nanna says we’re survivors,” said Jessica. “Cord’s the one I’m worried about.”
“Why?”
“Obviously, he’s the kind of guy who’ll sacrifice himself for someone else’s happiness. He moved across the country and risked losing his dream job so he could be with his family when they needed him.” Jess ticked off her points, finger by finger. “He’s doing all this stuff to help my grandparents, even while he’s working his other job online. He let my brother talk him into being my personal watch dog in addition to all his other responsibilities. He pretended we were dating, just to help me save face, even though he must’ve been embarrassed.”
“You make some interesting arguments.” Lexi stood up, stacking their dirty plates. “But I still think you should be honest with Cord and let him decide what’s best for himself.”
“What about my no-dating rule?”
“Rules are made to be broken. Take a chance… tell him the truth.” Lexi wiped off the counter. “Or I can tell him for you.”
“Not unless you want to be tortured again.”
“I kind of like Baby Shark, now.” Lexi hummed the quirky tune as she carried the plates to the small sink.
“You promised me—”
“Just kidding. But he’s gone ‘til Monday. You might get your courage up by then.”
“Where did he go?”
“He wouldn’t say.” Lexi moved to the register and rang up a ticket for the toothbrush. “He bought two boxes of protein bars and a bottle of ibuprofen. Then he joked that his will was under his mattress in case he didn’t survive the weekend.”
“I hope he wasn’t serious.” The hairs stood up on the back of Jessica’s neck. “What could he be doing?”
“I don’t know, but I’m literally dying to find out.”
“I’m dying.” Cord groaned as he limped into the arena on the morning of day two. “Literally dying. Every inch of my body hurts. I must be bleeding internally.”
Several of his classmates expressed similar opinions, but their instructor had zero sympathy.