Chapter 41
LIBBY
It’s shocking I can pay attention to the game at all. I got a text from Jordan right before it started.
Jordan
FBI arrested Bryce. See you at home.
We’re going to have a talk about detailed texts in situations such as these.
I tried calling him when I got it and didn’t get an answer. He’s only responded to my half a dozen follow-up texts asking for more information with, “Everything is fine.”
Is he still with the FBI? Maybe there was a lot to debrief.
Is he hurt?
Will leans forward, shaking his head as a couple guys get into a fight on the ice. “You know what I have never understood? Why do they take their helmets off, and their gloves?”
“Hockey guys are legit, babe,” Ellie says. The term of endearment reminds me of Jordan, even though he’s switched to calling me boss lately.
“Dropping their gloves is their signal that they’re about to fight,” I say. I asked Jordan the first time we watched a game together. “It’s kind of like everyone giving consent. Also, they can punch better.”
“Hmm.” Will nods. “That’s true.”
Dan comes into the box, settling in a seat next to me. He’s been working some of the other suites, which I’ll need to do at some point as well as the new owner. I’m putting it off for now. I’m so distracted by Jordan being gone, I don’t even know how we scored the one goal we have.
“They’re looking good, Libby,” Dan says, nodding down to the ice.
“We’ve got some really talented guys. Jordan thinks we’re going to lose Jonesy in a few weeks for sure.
He says the Frost’s number one guy had knee surgery right before the season started.
Doesn’t think he’s going to last long before he’s hurt again,” I say, referencing our pro affiliate team in Fort Collins.
“Heard about that,” Dan says. “I bet Jordan’s already got Cooper looking at a replacement.”
“Probably.” I chuckle with him. Jordan has quickly become Andrew Cooper’s favorite. It’s no surprise to me that Jordan is winning over everyone in the White Wolves organization.
“I’m surprised Jordan is missing the first game. Is he okay?” Dan asks, his expression filled with genuine concern.
I flick my gaze to Erin and the cameraman in the box with us. There’s no way I’ll be able to keep everything out of the show anyway, especially with Bryce being arrested this morning. “He’s in Houston. An arrest was made today in a case that involved his family and hometown. He needed to be there.”
Dan pats my arm comfortingly. “Good man,” he says softly. “I hope everything turns out well. You let us know if you need anything. And my wife would like to have you both for dinner soon.”
“We’d love to do that. Let’s get it scheduled.”
Kat comes over to sit in my lap, and I check my phone to see if Jordan has texted me anything. No update, so I pocket my phone and turn my attention back to the game.
With a few minutes left in the third period, we’re up three goals. I’m cheering with my nieces over the latest one when I finally get a text from Jordan.
Jordan
Just landed. Can I make the end of the game?
My heart leaps. I want him to come right to the arena, but he won’t make it before the game ends.
Libby
Only a couple minutes left. Meet you at home?
Jordan
See you there.
The last few seconds seem to drag, and then I go down to congratulate the team on the win.
Thankfully, that can be brief. Erin asks to film a confessional about the game, but I beg her to let me off.
One thing I put in my contract was more flexibility for me in the hours that I needed to film.
I recognize that I’ll have to make up for the time I’m skipping out now, but that’s an okay trade-off since I’m eager to get home and see my husband.
My. Husband.
Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have imagined that I would miss him so much after just a little over a day apart.
I also wouldn’t have imagined falling in love with him.
The house smells like barbecue when I get home.
The seasonings are familiar, but there’s no way Jordan was able to start this just in the half hour since he texted me, especially with the time it would have taken him to get home from Centennial Airport.
I hang up my coat on the hook by the door and set down my bag.
“Hello?” I call.
Jordan appears quickly from the kitchen. “Hey,” he says, smiling at me.
I want to run to him, but I manage to keep my cool and slip my shoes off. “Welcome home. Things went well in Houston?”
Jordan is the one who comes to me, but he stops half a step away, looking down on me with heat in his eyes. Still, he holds back, even after what happened before he left, waiting for me to set the pace of where we go from here.
I lift my hands and rest them on his chest, giving him the go-ahead. He puts his hands on my waist. They’re warm, and his touch makes me lean into him more.
“Barbecue?” I ask.
“Brought some home from that place you love.”
“You’re unreal.” I can’t help the soft laugh at him thinking of something like this after helping take down Bryce Hayes.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal.” He shakes his head.
I grip his shirt, pulling him closer to me. “We need to have a long talk,” I say softly. “But I want you to know, first and foremost, that I love you, Jordan Atkinson—”
“Bennet,” he corrects, his lips tilting up in a playful, sexy smile I could just kiss. That I will kiss.
I laugh. “I love you, Mr. Bennet,” I repeat.
He nods, as if to say, Better. “And I am one hundred percent all in with you. You’ve shown me, every day since I met you, that I can trust you, that you’re going to be right here beside me through everything that comes for us.
I don’t have be sure right now, and some things will still take time.
But I do know that you are a good man. I love you,” I repeat.
He pulls me against him. “I love you, Ms. Bennet.” He wastes no more time before he presses his lips to mine in a searing kiss that chases all coherent thought from my mind.
I can only wrap my arms as far as they will go around his massive shoulders and cling to him, parting my lips when he deepens the kiss, and I let out a soft moan of utter pleasure.
“Libby,” Jordan says in a husky voice, almost like a warning, and his lips are back on mine.
He hooks his hands under my thighs, lifting me up to him.
I grasp his T-shirt, impossibly soft and smelling just like him, because I need to ground myself somehow.
I’m going to get utterly lost in this kiss.
I do have one thought. “Jordan?” I ask. “What about dinner?”
He pulls away enough to stare at me, making me shiver with the intensity; then he shifts me into his arms. I gasp, then giggle, at the surprise of it. “It can wait,” he says.
We do, indeed, put off dinner.
For a while.
Later we eat barbecue and the fries that Jordan reheats in the air fryer, and are somehow still amazing, while snuggling on the bed and watching a replay of the game since Jordan missed it.
“Ooooh, Jonesy’s looking tight.” He whistles.
“We’re not going to get to keep him long, huh?”
“No way.” He beams at me, his expression excited that I’m retaining hockey information he’s passed along.
“You’ve already got Andrew looking at that kid from Montana.” I want to confirm what Dan has guessed.
Jordan grins and kisses the top of my head. “You don’t even need me.”
I place my hands on his cheeks, turning him toward me. “I will always need you,” I say, pulling him down to kiss me.
“I will always be here,” he murmurs against my lips.
Aside from Jordan, I don’t know the last time I lost myself completely in a kiss. It took too much trust. I had to be on my guard, always.
But not with him.
For the first time since Grayson, I have let myself believe in a man. I let myself fall with him, even when it was scary, because he was right there with me. I let myself believe he was good.
What comes next for us will not be an automatic happily ever after. I’ll carry my past with me the rest of my life, and I know from experience that despite doing my best to heal, there will be days when it catches up with me. There will be days I doubt myself and even Jordan.
Those will be the days I know he will still show up for me.
“I love you, Libby,” he whispers in my ear as I’m drifting off to sleep, and I smile at the safety I feel in those words.
“I love you,” I whisper back. “Always.”
Libby
I thought you should know that I am so in love with my husband.
Mom
Um. Good to know?
Libby
Totally, completely, utterly in love.
Mom
Is this about me saying I was coming down to Denver soon? I promise I believe you.
Libby
But you didn’t. Not 100%
I’m just telling you, you should believe me now.
Marrying him was the best decision of my life.
Missed call from Mom
Libby
I’ll call you later.
I’m very distracted.
By my husband.
Mom
I am more suspicious than ever.
Libby
I get it. But there’s no need to be.