CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jordan
Jordan returned to Slap Shot after taking a much-needed break. She’d stormed out of the building and decided to get a coffee. She had sat at the coffee shop for over an hour, stewing about the situation. She had been annoyed. Annoyed that other people had been sticking their noses in, annoyed about his ridiculous rules and outright stupidity, and annoyed that he had made this decision without discussing things with her.
When she’d woken up this morning, she hadn’t expected to end things with Noah. She’d planned to talk to him, lay her heart out there. To ask him if he would consider forgetting the casual and having a proper relationship. And stupidly, she’d expected him to realize how good they were together and make their relationship official.
Not the opposite.
Heading to the office, she wasn’t surprised that it was empty. The Renegades had a game tonight. Looking at her watch, she saw that it was five o’clock. He was probably already in the locker room preparing for the game.
Sinking into her chair, a strong need hit her to pick up her cell phone and call Noah. Everything he had said to her was wrong. There was no way she would consider being nothing but his booty-call. If he didn’t think she was worth holding onto, then she had to end it.
Avoiding Noah was the only thing she could do. She didn’t want to fight with him over this.
Jordan was strong. She’d been fine before Noah, and she’d be fine after him. She just wished she didn’t have to be. She cared too much about him.
From the moment she’d second guessed going on the date with that blogger, she’d realized that this thing with Noah was no longer casual on her end. Maybe she had waited too long to open her heart to him. Or maybe she had been fooling herself the whole time about being able to be casual. Who was she kidding? He’d had her heart with the first kiss.
Yes, they’d been having fun—so much fun. She loved being with him and she always looked forward to seeing him. But his rules so that the lines wouldn’t be blurred? Was he for real?
She knew he was afraid, and that’s why he’d said all those stupid things. Part of her wanted to laugh, because his ideas were such a joke. But that didn’t stop the way her heart was cracking.
And this was why she’d been married to her job for so long. Because she wanted the love story for the ages, the happily ever after. She wanted to find her person and be partners in life. Like most little girls, she wanted to marry her best friend and raise a family.
But getting there without suffering a broken heart seemed to be her biggest challenge. The last time she had opened her heart, she’d ended up crushed. And here she was again, licking her wounds.
She couldn’t blame anyone but herself. Noah was a nice guy. She could’ve held him at arm’s length. But she’d agreed to the ridiculous casual thing, and she should’ve known better. He’d been honest about his reasons, which she understood were supposed to be for her protection as well as his. And he had never promised her anything more.
Obviously, she’d had her reservations when things had heated up between them. They were supposed to have been like friends with benefits. No strings.
But she was the one who had blurred the lines. The number one rule of ‘no strings attached’ was ‘don’t catch feelings.’ Her aching heart was proof that she had already broken that rule.
She knew the bar and dining room would be getting busy by now, and she needed to make her rounds. She hoped that keeping busy with work would take her mind off Noah, but it didn’t seem to work. The more she thought about how she’d ended their conversation, the worse she felt. Maybe she just needed to show him that he had nothing to fear. Maybe she should fight for him.
Seeing that Shelby had everything under control, she headed back to the office. She picked up her phone and called Noah. Her excuse was that there were a couple of Slap Shot issues she wanted to speak to him about, but she also wanted to touch base as a friend, since he hadn’t stopped in on his way to the game. The one thing she didn’t want was for things to become awkward at work.
Her call went directly to voicemail.
“Great, not even answering my calls now.”
She didn’t agree with his ghosting her, but she could see his point. Ending things was upsetting. He’d grown on her, and he was her friend.
At the tone, she left a message. “Noah, I don’t agree with you, but I can see your point. You’re my friend and I don’t want to lose that.”
Jordan didn’t like leaving that on a voicemail; she would’ve felt better hearing his response.
In any case, Noah would have to stop in sooner or later. Tomorrow there was a game, and he usually came in before and after.
She busied herself in paperwork for the next hour, then took a trip out to the bar. She checked around the room, and everyone looked happy. Full house again. She had sat at the bar and was looking over the inventory on her tablet, when her phone buzzed.
She quickly retrieved her phone, her heart anxious that it was Noah.
Instead, it was a text from Jared: We need to talk.
Was Jared going to warn her off as well? Too late, because it was already over. Ignoring his message, she went back to work.
One of the television screens had a local sports channel airing a pre-game show. She was busy working on the tablet, so she wasn’t paying any attention until they announced that Noah was a scratch for tonight’s game.
“What?” She looked up at the screen. She turned to Mo. “Do you know why Noah isn’t playing tonight?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “I haven’t seen him since this afternoon. Maybe Jared knows?”
Jared? Then it dawned on her that Jared had tried to get hold of her. Suddenly a rock formed in her stomach, and she couldn’t shake the bad feeling that came over her.
Suddenly her phone rang, startling her so much she almost spilled her water. She answered the phone without looking to see who it was.
“Noah?”
“Jordan, it’s me,” Talia said.
“Talia, hey. Sorry. I thought you were Noah. We had a disagreement earlier today. I was hoping to—”
“Jordan,” Talia said, “I hate to interrupt you, but there’s not a lot of time.”
“Not a lot of time for what?” She didn’t like the concerned tone to her friend’s words. Her heart rate sped up. “Talia? What’s wrong?” All the worst-case scenarios ran through her brain. Was Noah hurt, or worse? Taking a breath, she tried to hold off on pressing the panic button until she had all the facts.
“Jordan, Noah’s dad was in a car accident. It sounds bad. He called Harrison to let him know he was going home. Obviously, the team gave him a leave of absence.”
That was why he wasn’t playing tonight. Jordan sat speechless. As if their earlier discussion never happened, all she wanted to do was to be with Noah and make sure he was okay.
“So, his Dad?” She knew what she wanted to ask but wasn’t sure how. Almost as if saying it out loud would make the worst be true. And she didn’t want that.
“I don’t know much. Harrison said Noah sounded pretty frantic on the phone. He just said that his sister had called, that the accident was bad and he needed to get there right away. I wish I had more to tell you.”
Maybe that was what Jared wanted to talk about. To give her that message.
“Tal, I have to run. Thanks.” All she could think about was running home for an overnight bag and finding a flight out of Pittsburgh.
Quickly she dialed Jared’s number.
“Jordan? I’ve been trying to get hold of you.”
She bit her tongue, because she wanted to say ‘You didn’t try very hard, considering you know where I work.’ Instead, she said, “Talia filled me in on what she knew.”
“I hate to say it, but I’m worried about him. I know he had a four-hour flight home, but he’s not answering my calls or texts. Not that I blame him, but he needs to know he has people that care and are thinking about him.”
“I’m sure he knows, Jared.”
But Jared’s concerns were valid. He shouldn’t be facing this alone. She cared about him; that hadn’t changed. She knew what she needed to do.
“Jared, I don’t think he should deal with this alone. Would it be possible for you to cover for me tonight? Shelby is scheduled and she’s more than capable. I’m sure she will be fine on her own, but can you be there to back her up? I need to make sure Noah is okay.”
“Absolutely. I think it’s a good idea. I’ll text you the info as to what hospital his dad is in.”
She filled Shelby in about the situation, then hurried home to pack an overnight bag. Buying a ticket on the first flight to Montreal, she rushed to the airport.