Heartbeat

Fifteen

Here's Chapter Fifteen... Sixteen to follow!

Oh, before I forget, thanks to @DaniellaNegri2 for speed reading through Heartbeat... I'm not sure how many notifications I had, but all those votes made me smile. Love, Sarah. xx

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JORDAN

As I drove Caitlin home, I kept sneaking glances at Emma who sat at my side. Her eyes wandered over the view of Newport and I could often see a smile forming on her lips as she took in what she saw.

I had been worried about her since her near breakdown in Joe’s and I just wanted to make sure she was ok. I didn’t understand what she got so worked up about but I knew from the way she looked at the lake it had something to do with that. I hadn’t said anything at the time, and as much as I wanted to ask now, I knew I couldn’t. She’ll tell me eventually, I hope.

I pulled up outside Caitlin’s house and dropped her at her door as she said goodbye to Jessie. Caitlin had made me cranky for most of the day and I was glad she was finally leaving us. She’d been flirting so hard that I wanted to throw up, and the way she spoke to Emma made me want to hit her.

Caitlin had always been a good kid, and I had liked her until recently, before the teenage hormones kicked in. Now, whenever she stayed over I made sure to lock my bedroom door. I don’t think I could start to explain why a thirteen year old girl might have wandered into my room at night.

“Thanks, Jordi,” Caitlin winked at me, making me sink lower into the seat from embarrassment. “Bye, Jess,” she adds without mentioning Emma.

Finally Jessie, Emma and I were alone and I started to relax, feeling my back sliding further into the chair as I headed for out of town.

“So,” Emma slowly turned to me. “Where is Jess’ ballet class? I can’t think of anywhere around here that has dance class.”

“It’s in Bridgestone,” Jessie sings from the back seat.

I know Emma’s eyes are on me, and from the corner of mine I can see that she isn’t so thrilled about heading to Bridgestone. It was the nearest town to us and had a massive mall at the heart of it, and it was also the only place within thirty miles that offered ballet classes.

“So,” Emma whispers as she bites her lip with nerves. “What are we going to do while Jess is at class?”

To be honest, I didn’t know so I just shrug my shoulders and tell her that we’ll think of something. I knew that there was a movie theatre near Jess’ class, but her lesson only lasted an hour, not long enough to take in a movie. There were a couple of restaurants, but we’d already eaten so there was no point going to grab some food.

Coffee? No, that was lame.

The ice rink, maybe. I rethink this plan though when I remember her freak out from last week. Skating obviously wasn’t her thing.

“There’s a park nearby,” I mutter, not loud enough for anyone to hear me. Or so I thought. Emma snapped her head around and smiled like a child at the idea of going to the park. “Seriously? You want to go hang out at the park?”