Chapter Seventeen Jordan
Chapter Seventeen
Jordan
Me: Maya, please tell me you’ve had enough time. I just want to talk to you. Please.
Five days.
Five whole fucking days since I’d seen her. Even longer since I’d touched her. Since I’d rubbed my nose across her skin and inhaled that green-apple-and-lime scent. Since I’d heard her breathe. Since her body had leaned into mine, aching for more—more of my hands, my mouth, my tongue.
Why, with every day that passed, did I miss her more?
Did I want her more?
Did I yearn for answers I just wasn’t getting?
I couldn’t handle the unknown. The silence. The thought of her not letting me back in. The idea that I might not see her again.
And these random, standoffish texts from her weren’t helping. They didn’t offer any reassurance. They only made me want to walk into her goddamn apartment building and knock on her door.
I wanted her to bend.
No.
I needed her to bend.
To come over.
To answer her fucking phone and hear me out.
Me: I miss you.
But I was getting nothing.
I shoved the phone into my pocket and glanced out the back seat window of the SUV, wishing that I would spot her on the sidewalk, that I could yell for my driver to stop, that I could ask her every question that was haunting me.
When I tried to drag my eyes away from the window, they wouldn’t move.
They insisted on scanning each face I passed as though hers was waiting for me.
As large as Boston was, it was small at heart. And my fucking heart knew just how badly I wanted to see Maya.
It didn’t matter how much I buried myself in work.
If I spent the evenings at the Bears games, immersed in watching the sport that still owned me.
How hard I ran myself in the mornings or during my workouts in the gym.
Nothing made this ache die down.
I wanted her.
I fucking needed her.
The SUV suddenly came to a stop, and it took me a second to realize where I was even though I’d asked my driver to bring me here.
“Has Gavin already arrived?” I inquired.
My driver was in constant contact with Gavin’s driver, the two always coordinating schedules to make sure we arrived simultaneously.
“He’s not coming,” he said.
“He’s not . . . coming? Did something happen?”
“I’m not sure, Mr. Worthington.”
What the hell?
Why didn’t my brother say anything to me?
I climbed out of the vehicle and went through the entrance of the building, checking in with reception before I headed down the hallway. The numbers by the door told me I still had a bit more to go, giving me plenty of time to take out my phone and shoot Gavin a text.
Me: Where are you?
I waited for the bubbles telling me he was typing to appear, and when I didn’t see them after a few steps, I returned my phone to my pocket. I paid attention to the numbers by the doors, and when I neared the one I was looking for, I began to slow.
But as I did, I heard a familiar voice coming from inside one of the rooms, and when I reached the right one, I halted. I gripped the doorframe and stayed off to the side, attempting to be invisible so I wouldn’t be seen as I glanced inside.
There was that fucking smile. That soft tone. That gorgeous body covered in hospital scrubs, not nearly as hot as the outfits she ran in every morning, but cute nevertheless.
Maya.
I’d been dying to see her for five days, and now she was standing right in front of me.
I didn’t believe in coincidences.
I believed everything happened for a reason.
What was today’s reason?
The goddamn universe knew how badly I wanted her and handed her right to me.
I didn’t want to bring any attention to myself. I wanted to go unnoticed for as long as I could, observing her in a mode I’d never seen her in before. And while I listened to her give instructions and dote on her patients, I took her in.
That face.
That fucking body.
The way she moved so confidently around the room.
“Let me know if you need anything, Bettie. I’ll be right next door.” She was holding a small plastic cup as she started to turn and walk toward me.
There was no reason to stay hiding. Not now. Not when, at any second, she was going to walk into the hallway and see me.
I rounded the edge of the doorway and spread out my arms to either side, blocking it so she couldn’t get through. A smile covered my face as I looked at her. “Maya . . .”
It took almost no time for her expression to change.
For her eyes to widen. For her lips to part.
For her chest to rise and stay high. “Jordan!” Her voice was low but sharp.
“You can’t be in here.” She pointed toward the hallway behind me.
“Come on. Out. Now.” When I didn’t move, she added, “Please.”
“But I can be in here.” My smile stayed wide, my focus only on her.
She stopped directly in front of me, and I inhaled her scent—more subtle than normal, but still present. An untrained nose wouldn’t have picked it up; I was just so tuned in to her.
“No. You really can’t.” She turned around and said, “Bettie, I’m so sorry about this, I’ll be right back.” And then she turned back to face me. “Follow me out into the hallway.”
She attempted to get by, but I wasn’t budging.
Here I thought the universe had brought her to me. Now I knew that was bullshit. The real reason was staring me right in the fucking face.
“I want to talk to you, and I don’t see why we can’t do that in here,” I told her.
Her hands went to her hips. “Do you have any idea how inappropriate you’re being right now? This is a patient’s room, Jordan. There are rules—”
“I’m not being inappropriate, Maya. Not at all, in fact. Not in front of you and not in front of her.” I nodded toward the back of the room.
She studied my face. “How can you say that?” She was trying to keep her voice down.
“You came to my work to see me—how did you even find me here when I never told you what rehab center I work at?” She put her hand up.
“Wait, I know . . . you have plenty of resources to find whoever you want.” She rolled her eyes.
“But to come as far as cornering me in a patient’s room?
To talk to me? And refusing to leave? That’s messed up. ”
Suddenly, everything clicked into place.
“I am trying to talk to you—you’re right about that,” I said. “But that’s the only thing you’re right about.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You think I’m lying?” My brows rose.
“I think you’d do anything to get what you want. And I don’t think anyone or anything would stop you.”
I chuckled. “You’re not wrong . . . but you are about this situation.” I looked past Maya at the woman lying on the bed with a sly grin on her face. “Bettie, do you want to be the one to break the news, or should I?”