Chapter 22 #3
She sat on the white sectional sofa in the formal living room and tried to remember where it had come from.
Most of the stuff in the house had been purchased by a decorator who’d been hired to make the house feel like a home.
For the most part, she’d succeeded, but Jordan had no real connection to the house or the furnishings.
It was just “stuff.” None of it meant anything to her, except for photos she had of her and Nik and their friends and some of her clothes. The rest she could easily live without.
Since there was nothing much to eat in the house, she ordered a taco salad from her favorite Mexican place and went to the gate to meet the delivery person, a young woman on a motorcycle who introduced herself as Amy.
“I love your show.”
“Oh, thanks. That’s nice to hear.”
“I hope you’ll be back on soon.”
“We’re working on it.” Jordan handed her a ten-dollar bill. “Thanks for bringing the food.”
“You’re welcome—and PS, you can do way better than Zane.”
“I agree. Thanks again.”
Amy took off on the bike, and Jordan went inside to eat while wondering how long she had to wait before she could talk to Mason.
She felt like she’d been picked up by aliens and transported to a world she no longer recognized, which was odd, as she’d never lived anywhere but LA, except for summers on Gansett.
Other than the two times she’d been there in the last year, she hadn’t been there since the summer she and Nik were seventeen. After all this time away from there, how could that feel more like home than LA did?
“I’ll tell you how,” she said out loud as she pushed the food around on her plate. “It’s all got to do with a six-and-a-half-foot-tall firefighter with a heart of gold.” She missed him so much, she ached, and it had been only eight hours since she last saw him.
Gigi was right. She was being silly to let herself get so involved with a man she’d known such a short time, even if the time with him had been the best of her life.
Now that she was back in LA, she needed to get her shit taken care of and figure out what was next.
She put most of her dinner in the fridge to finish tomorrow and went upstairs to shower.
Forty-five minutes later, she was sitting on her bed staring off into space when her phone rang with a FaceTime call from Mason that wiped out all her resolve where he was concerned. Feeling giddy to hear from him, she took the call. “Hi.”
“Hi, beautiful. How’re you doing?”
“Better now.” That was the unvarnished truth. Hearing his voice and seeing his handsome face made her feel better than she had since she’d left him.
“How are things in Hollywood?”
“Same as always.” She paused before she added, “No, wait. That’s not true. Everything feels different, like I’ve been plopped into someone else’s life.”
“Why do you suppose that is?”
“I think it’s because I met you, and I’d much rather be there than here.”
“I wish you were here, too. It sucks coming home and knowing you aren’t here cooking dinner or sleeping in my bed.”
“I liked cooking for you.”
“I loved eating what you cooked for me. Are you there by yourself?”
“I am now. Gigi brought me home from the airport.”
“Is it safe to be there alone?”
“We changed all the codes. It’s fine.”
“I’m worried about you running into him and having trouble.”
“He’s hiding from being served with the divorce papers. I don’t think I’ll see him.”
“I’m still worried about it. I don’t want you in any danger.”
“I’m okay. I promise. What about you? Any danger on your end today?”
“Nope. We had a fairly quiet day. Wait a sec. I need to knock on wood so I’m not jinxing myself.” He knocked on the headboard, and the sight of him in the bed where they’d found so much pleasure together made her yearn to be back there with him. Where she belonged. “When is your meeting?”
“Tomorrow at noon.”
“And you’ll know more after that?”
“Yes.”
“Will you let me know what’s up?”
“Of course. I promise I won’t leave you hanging.”
“If you have to stay out there to film the show, how would you feel about a freeloading roommate?”
“I’d love that, except I wouldn’t want you to give up a job you love for me. I’d hate for you to do that.”
“It’d be worth it.”
“Mason, you can’t do that. You just can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because we only just met, and you love your job, and you can’t go making big decisions that impact your entire life because of me. I won’t let you.”
“Don’t I get any say in what I do with my own life?”
“Of course, but, please don’t do anything rash. Promise me?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve still got a job. For now.”
Her stomach hurt when she recalled the things that Gigi had said, that she couldn’t fall in love with the second guy she’d ever slept with after having married the first one.
But maybe… No, Gigi was right. It was insanity to go all in with the first guy she dated or slept with after her marriage ended.
She had to rein this in before he did something really stupid, like quit his job to be with her.
“Let’s just press Pause and see what happens, okay?”
“Sure, no problem. As long as I can see your gorgeous face every day, I’ll be fine. For now.”
He kept saying for now as if he’d already made up his mind that he was going to give her only so much time to figure things out before he came after her.
She couldn’t let that happen. Depending on how the meeting went tomorrow, she’d have to figure out what to do about her sexy firefighter before she ended up ruining his life.