Tempting /A Jordan Knight fanfic ✔️

37

Chapter 37: There's No Logic in Love

Mary and Marlene left shortly after dinner ended.

Marlene didn't give Mary enough time to say goodbye to any of us before they left. The moment she returned with Mel from outside, Marlene grabbed her and told her they were leaving

After they left, the five of us watched Miracle on 34th Street in the living room—a family tradition. We always watched that movie on Thanksgiving and Home Alone on Christmas Day since I could remember.

When the movie ended, Mel and Jordan left upstairs to their room and took every bit of my focus with them. As I laid on my mother's lap on the couch, her fingers stroking through my hair until I fell asleep, my mind was up in that bedroom with them, wondering what they were doing and if my sister's heart was being broken as I slept.

I woke up some odd-time later, my mother gently shaking me awake and telling me to go to bed. I did, kissing both her and my father goodnight before making my way up the stairs to my room.

Arriving on the second floor, my eyes went right for Mel's bedroom door.

Closed.

Light bled from underneath so I could assume they were both still awake. Wanting so badly to stop and listen at their door but refusing myself the guilty pleasure, I passed their bedroom and went straight to mine.

I waited up for another hour before I finally heard Mel's bedroom door open and shut. Then came the creak from the second step on the stairs, telling me that someone had gone downstairs.

I was out of bed and quietly closing my door behind me before I could really even think it through. Jordan was probably waiting for me in the kitchen which had somehow become our meeting spot over the months, and I had to know what was going on. The second step from the top creaked just the same for me as it had for jordán as I descended down the stairs in relative darkness. The house was a particular kind of silent that pumped the blood through my heart fast. I felt like I was sneaking around, tip-toeing behind everyone's back to do something bad.

In all truth, that's exactly what I was doing.

Late night, secret meetings with my sister's fiancé was indeed a very bad thing to do.

Except when I stepped foot into the kitchen, it wasn't Jordan I found alone in the pale glow coming from the overhead light.

It was Mel and her bloodshot eyes that landed on mine.

A breath shocked my lips apart, propelling my heart to thump harder with the sensation of being caught red-handed.

"What're you doing down here?" Mel's voice came out hoarse and ached with exhaustion.

"Uh—" Lie, quick. Lie quick or else. "I was just coming to get some water."

"How about something a little stronger?"

Before I could protest, Mel was pouring me a glass of wine. She handed over the glass, and I noticed that there was no glass for her sitting around.

"Aren't you having one?"

"Yup," she replied, tilting the bottle of wine back against her lips and gulping back the chardonnay.

Oh no.

I knew it wasn't, but I asked anyway. "Everything okay?"

She took in a breath through her nose, her lips still pursed together, and shook her head.

"No. Everything's not fine."

My stomach buckled, caving into itself out of guilt because it knew.

I knew it before she said it.