Chapter eleven

Like a laughing couple, Elana and Jordan walk through the supermarket making jokes about everything they can possibly think of. It's like their problems have completely vanished.

"Elana," he stops in front of her getting her full attention. "Why don't we move in together?"

"Is that even a good idea?" she asks with a giggle and grabs a bottle of shampoo from the shelf. She looks at it and then puts it back.

"The best I can think of," he shrugs his shoulders and takes soap from the shelf putting it in the basket. "Then you can be a stay-at-home mom and I'll keep writing. It'll be like the good old days in the 1950's I think."

"Well, our boys are almost out of the house so becoming a stay-at-home mom now is a little too late," she giggles and stops in her tracks. Ralph is in the same shelf just busy with his own things.

"Our boys," he asks and jumps in front of her to have her full attention on him. She looks at him and starts to laugh. It's obvious that she's not faking her emotions, but something is distracting her from expressing them properly. "I like how you call them our boys. It's like I scored a son out of the blue."

"You're a silly old man," she giggles softly and looks over his shoulder. He notices it and also looks behind him then back at her. She gives a heavy sigh. "What happened doesn't bother me. I have a beautiful son and I'm finally getting the happy ending I dreamed of as a girl."

"That's him, isn't it?" he asks. She nods and grabs his hand looking back at him with a soft delicate look in her eyes. "Don't worry, I'm here for you, not him. If I kill him the way I'm planning to, it'll make you look weak. So instead, I have better things on my mind."

"What?" she asks. He grabs her hips and starts to tickle her. She cries out in laughter and tries to push away from him, failing the more she tries. Ralph looks at them and freezes. Is it the thought of her having someone else that gets to him or the fact that she moved on? Elana just giggles and hit Jordan's chest softly. He rests his hands on her sides and stands closer to her. She bites her lip and stares deep into his eyes. He moves closer and rubs his nose against hers sharing their moment publicly and unashamed. She pulls her breath in and closes her eyes in his. He kisses her cheek and rests his face next to hers. For the first time, they're becoming even more passionate by the second. Though it feels scary for both of them, they admit that they're more excited even.

"It's us against the world now," he whispers in her ear. She opens her eyes and looks at him that has his eyes locked on her. He put his hands on her stomach and look down. Ralph immediately got the idea that she's pregnant and took the advantage of approaching them.

"Looks like Snow-white decided to hook up with one of the dwarfs," he mocks her. They look at him and then at each other. "Who's next?"

"Back off," Jordan says to him and put his arm around Elana.

"Or what?" Ralph asks and pushes him. Jordan turns angrily to him. Elana jumped in front of him to stop him. She's scared and he can see it by the way her eyes painfully begs him.

"He's not worth it," she whispers to him and touches his cheek. "Look down on those that try to push you under, right?"

He looks at her and smiles. She quoted one of his books which immediately made his heart soft. He nods and walks away with her. Ralph yells something after them, but they simply walk on.

Jordan puts the bags in the trunk of his car and smile at Elana that puts the other bags in for him. He looks up at Ralph that's at his car talking on the phone.

"I forgot to get ice cream," he says and looks at her. She looks at him and raises an eyebrow. "Can you go get some? I have to call the boys and ask them if we need to get the games from home."

He takes out his wallet and gives her money. She nods with a sweet smile and walks back to the store. She likes doing things for him. When he asks her to do it, it feels like he's comfortable with her and trusts her. When she was in, he locks the car and approaches Ralph. He grabs his phone from his ear and throws it down. Anger from knowing so little about this man, yet so many bursts to the surface of his emotions.

"What the fuck?" Ralph asks angrily. Jordan grabs him by his collar and slams him against his car punching him in the face. The image of her fighting for her innocence against this man comes to his mind making his hit even harder.

"That's for my wife," he says and stands back. Ralph looks at the blood coming from his nose and punches Jordan against his cheek. Jordan loses his mind, grabs him, and slams his head through his window. When he realized that this has gone too far, he went back to his car. Just like any man loses his mind from getting hit by someone, he can admit he reacted perfectly normal, but that fear of what he could've done to this man if he didn't stop comes in.

The boys made a bed in the living room to play games. Jordan laughs when Liam won against him. He sits back and looks at Elana that puts a plate of cookies in front of them. She looks at him and froze. What should've been a flirty smile turns into noticing what Jordan has been trying to hide since they left shopping.

"What happened there?" she asks and moves closer to him. He looks at the boys and then at her that touches the bruise on his cheek. "Did you get in a fight?"

"I walked into the bathroom door," he lied and grab her arm pulling her unto his lap. She laughs and pushes herself up to get away from him. It's only a matter of respecting their kids and understanding their relationship.

"Let me get ice for that," she says and walks out. Jordan sits up straight and watches her leave.

"Who punched you?" Joe ask. He can see past his father's lies.

"Nobody," he says and stands up. He walks to the kitchen and stops when he saw Elana there busy with something. Her back is turned to him. She's trying to cut the ice with a knife. The knife slips and cuts her wrist. Shakingly she grabs her arm only to see blood appearing everywhere. She must've cut through her arteries. Jordan looks terrified at her and walks fast to her. She makes weird noises about to freak out, but he grabs her from behind and holds her tight.

"It's okay," he whispers in her ear and takes tissues out of his pocket to put them on her arm. She closes her eyes breathing heavily. He tries to dance with her to distract her which he succeeds in just in time before she would freak out and then eventually faint. He rests one hand on her stomach and the other on the paper on her arm dancing like that with her. She moves along with him resting her head back against his chest. He rests his lips under her ear. The distraction does wonders for her body. Every time she'll think of blood, she'll remember them dancing.

He looks at her arm to see how deep the wound is. The bleeding is worse than the cut. He stands still with her and turns her around looking at her. She opens her eyes and also looks at him. He moves closer to her lips. She just stares at him breathing hard. What harmful lays in a kiss, well since it's not their first attempt?

"You're alright," he whispers. She looks down at her arm to see the cut. The blood flows slowly out of it again. She just stares at it. Jordan notices and puts his hand behind her hair kissing her on the head. She looks at him trying to say something, but her mouth doesn't allow her. He moves closer and shamelessly kisses her on her lips. She kisses him back. Their lips pressed together the way they always wanted it. It's more than a connection with her body, it's their souls uniting. He takes her arms and put them against his chest. The blood wipes off against his shirt which goes unnoticed for a while, but he doesn't care. They pull away and stare at each other. Her eyes go down to his shirt.

"I'm sorry," she gasps. He smiles at her and looks at it then back at her. She swallows a big lump and touches the stain.

"Don't worry about it," he says and touches her cheek. She looks down and nods her head slowly.

After he put plasters and a bandage around her arm, he stood topless whilst she's washing out his shirt. What can he do? He doesn't have something else to wear at the moment.

"What if you get menstruation? Don't you freak out?" he asks sitting on the side of the bath.

"It's probably the only thing involving blood that I got used to. Besides, I try to avoid looking at it as much as possible," she replies and puts more soap in the water. She looks at him and froze. He is attractive and much more muscled than she remembers him from the weekend at the river.

"Is this okay?" Liam asks and enters the bathroom. Elana looks at Liam that shows her the shirt. It's a simple white tank top for men. Elana immediately sees trouble picturing that shirt on Jordan.

"That's perfect," Jordan replies and takes the shirt from him. "Where do you get these? I wanted to get me these a while ago, but all the places I know don't have them."

"Mom knows," Liam winks at his mother. "She actually got me a lot of them that I don't wear. If that fits I'll give you a few."

"Thank you," Jordan thanked him and put the shirt on. Liam walks out leaving them. Elana looks in front of her trying not to look at Jordan. The shirt is tight on him. "It's a little small, but I'm sure we can get bigger ones somewhere, right?"

"Hmmm-mmm," she nods and dries out the shirt.

"Leave the shirt, I've got plenty," he says and touches her shoulder. Elana looks at him and takes a deep breath in. She stands closer and touches the bruise on his cheek.

"Did he punch you?" she ask with an odd look on her face. "Did Ralph punch you?"

"I got my punches in too," he reply. She shakes her head in disbelief.

"I knew it," she says and stands back. "You send me back in so that you can confront him."

"I'll do anything for you," he smiles and makes her hair loose for her. She looks down awkwardly. "Can Joe and I move in with you?"

"Yes," she whispers and nods her head. A big smile forms on both their lips. "Of course."

Jordan looks down and put his hands on hers. She giggles softly and looks down at their hands. They're both just so happy to finally have this moment together, something more than just being friends.