by Marie Force
“Maybe a little.”
“You need to slow your roll, sister. Everyone knows the first relationship after a marriage ends is all about the sex and getting back in the saddle. It’s not about falling in love.”
“Ever?”
“Hardly ever. Why? You aren’t thinking you’re gone over this guy, are you?”
“I like him. A lot. I didn’t want to leave him to come here. Not sure if that equates to being gone over him, but there you have it.”
“Dude, you can’t even do a rebound right.”
“I haven’t had much experience, don’t forget.”
“Trust me, I know.” Gigi pulled up to the gate at Jordan’s home and punched in the code. The gates opened, and Gigi drove in, made sure the gate closed behind them and parked by the kitchen door.
“Home sweet home.” After she’d spent a few weeks on Gansett Island, the massive house no longer felt like home. Another thought hit her, rendering her paralyzed with fear. “You don’t think he’s here, do you?”
Gigi shocked the shit out of Jordan when she opened the glove box, removed a small handgun and slammed the box closed. “I’ll check. Stay here.”
Gigi let herself into the house with her key. Ten minutes after she went in, Gigi came to the door and waved for Jordan to go in.
She got out of the car, retrieved her suitcase from the backseat and went inside. The place smelled stale, as if it had been closed off. Her cleaning lady had come every other week while she was gone, but it was apparent no one had lived there in a while.
“Where in the hell did you get a gun?”
Gigi tucked the gun into the back of her pants in a maneuver that seemed well practiced.
“Never mind where I got it. If he’d been in here, you would’ve been damned glad I had it.”
Jordan couldn’t argue with that.
Gigi went to the fridge and took out an unopened bottle of sparkling water and poured glasses for both of them. “Back to what we were talking about before.”
“What were we talking about?”
“Rebounds.”
“Oh, right.”
“Listen, I know your dad did a number on you and Nik. I get why you steered clear of boys and dating and all the bullshit that goes with it until you met dickwad and lost your mind over him. But you’re not going to spend the rest of your life with the second guy you ever slept with! That doesn’t happen. You’re supposed to play the field, date all the guys, have all the sex, and in two to three years, if you find someone who does it for you, then maybe you start having visions of sugarplums.”
“What the fuck are sugarplums, anyway?”
“That’s not the point! Did you hear anything else I said?”
“I heard you. I think they heard you in Sacramento.”
“This is important shit, J. You need time to heal and figure out your life. It’s not the time to be falling in love with some random dude on that ridiculous island you and your sister love so much.”
“He’s not a random dude. His name is Mason, and he saved my life.”
“For which we will always be grateful, but you can take gratitude too far. You had a fun time with him. You had some hot sex that you badly needed after limp dick disappointed you for as long as you’ve known him. That’s all it needs to be. You can’t fall for every guy you sleep with.” She rolled her eyes to high heaven. “Where in the hell did I go wrong with you?”
Jordan was trying not to laugh, which wasn’t easy when Gigi was around. Even though the things her friend had said hurt to hear, it didn’t change how Jordan felt about Mason. She understood and even agreed with what Gigi was saying, but her friend hadn’t spent time with Mason or seen how it was with him.
“Can we talk about the show?”
“Yes,” Gigi said emphatically. “Please. Let’s talk about the show.”
“Would you consider doing it on Gansett Island?”
Gigi’s face lost all expression. And then she busted up laughing. She laughed so hard, she nearly hyperventilated. When she finally recovered, she took a deep breath and released it. “I forgot how fucking hysterical you can be.”
“I’m not joking.”
“You have to be, because that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Hear me out.”
“No, J, I’m not going to hear you out. The network wants another season of the show we do here. You remember what goes on here, right? Nightlife and parties and cool stores and amazing houses and beautiful people. If you go in there tomorrow and tell them you want to move the show—and all the people who work on it—to some remote-ass island in the middle of nowhere Rhode Island, you’re almost asking them to sue you.”
“The show is you and me being you and me. Who says we can’t do that somewhere other than here?”
“I say. That’s who. I don’t want to live in Bumfuck, Rhode Island. My whole life is here.”
“You’ve never even been there. How do you know you wouldn’t like it?”
Gigi stared at her as if she was insane or certifiable or from another planet. “Are you listening to yourself right now? Have you met me? I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that I would not like it there.”
Jordan’s heart sank at Gigi’s emphatic dismissal of her plan. It had been the hope she’d clung to on the long flight. “Do you know how to change the code to the gate and the door?”
“No, but Nik does. I’ll text her.”
With info she got from Nikki, Gigi took care of changing the codes at the gate and on the back door, which made Jordan feel safer about being there alone.
“I’ll stay if you want me to,” Gigi said. “I’m happy to.”
“No need. As long as the codes are changed, I’m fine here.”
“I’ll meet you in town at noon tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there.”
Gigi put her hands on Jordan’s shoulders and looked directly into Jordan’s eyes. “I know your head is all fucked after the last few months, but it’s time to get back to normal around here. Come into that meeting with your head on straight. Whether we like it or not, the show has become big business. They’re not going to let you out of the contract without a protracted and expensive legal fight that we don’t need right now.”
“I hear you. I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the pickup and everything else you’ve been doing for me.”
Gigi planted a noisy kiss on Jordan’s forehead. “Anything for you, kid. See you tomorrow. Call me if you need anything.” She lived at the beach but would come running if Jordan needed her. She had no doubt about that. They’d had each other’s backs for years, and that would never change.
After Gigi left, Jordan wandered around the big, open, airy house she’d once been so in love with. She looked out at the pool that had been cared for in her absence by the company that came weekly to clean it. Everything was just as she’d left it, but she felt out of place here. And it wasn’t because of Brendan. He’d been on the road so much of the time that this had never felt like their home. It’d been hers and Nik’s before her sister decamped for Gansett.
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 hande
d 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.
Chapter 23
Mason was losing his mind as he tried to carry on like everything was normal when nothing was. Ever since Jordan had left yesterday, he’d felt like he was trying to walk straight up the side of the steepest mountain on earth. He had no energy, no motivation, no interest in anything—except her. He’d listened to the message she left on his phone the day of Syd’s accident easily a hundred times the night before, desperate for any connection to her that he could find.
He dragged himself to an AA meeting the next morning because he was self-aware enough to know by now that something like this could threaten his sobriety—if he let it. That couldn’t and wouldn’t happen.
Seated next to Mallory, he did something he hardly ever did and raised his hand when Nina asked if anyone wanted to share.
She seemed as surprised as all the other regulars were to hear from him.
“I’m Mason, and I’m an alcoholic.”
“Hi, Mason,” the others said in unison.
“I’ve been sober for thirteen years.”
“Congratulations,” one of the tourists said. “That’s amazing.”
“I have a really good life here on the island. I’m the fire chief. Got a good group of people working for me, have great friends, and I love this place.” He rubbed at the chin he’d shaved clean an hour ago. “I met someone. She’s…” He leaned on his knees and bent his head.
Mallory’s hand landed on his back in a show of support he deeply appreciated.
“She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever known. Sweet and funny and so, so beautiful. I’ve never connected with anyone the way I did with her. We’ve only been together for a short time, but I already love her. I really love her. But her life is mostly in LA, and that’s where she is now, trying to figure things out. I don’t know when or if she’s going to come back. All I know is I love her, and she’s gone, and for the first time in a really long time, I’m seriously tempted to drink.”
Saying the words out loud took some of their power away, or so he hoped. He’d been dying for a drink since he got home last night and found that his house smelled like her, his sheets smelled like her, his towels smelled like her. He saw her everywhere he looked, and the only thought in his head was how much he wanted a drink.
He’d nearly called Mallory and Quinn the night before out of sheer desperation. But he’d powered through and told himself he had to get his shit together. He couldn’t go off the deep end over a woman he’d only just met, even if she was the best woman he’d ever known.
“How are you planning to combat the urge to drink, Mason?” Nina asked.
“By keeping myself so busy with work and exercise and friends that I don’t have time to drink. It’s the nighttime that’s going to be hard.”
“You’re having dinner with us tonight,” Mallory said.
“You can come to my place tomorrow night,” Nina said.
One by one, every member of the group took a night until they nearly had him in tears. “Thank you,” he said gruffly.
“That’s w
hat we’re here for,” Nina said. “To get each other through the hard times and to fight the urge to drink the same way you and your team fight fires. As a group.”
Mason nodded. “I appreciate the support.”
After the meeting, Mallory and Quinn insisted on buying him breakfast.
Mason went with them because he knew they needed to see he was all right before they went their separate ways.
“You could’ve called last night,” Mallory said when they were seated at Rebecca’s.
“I almost did.”
“Any time, my friend,” Quinn said. “Day or night. Any time.”
“Means a lot to have such good friends.”
Blaine came into the diner, saw them and came over to say hi.
“Want to join us?” Mallory asked.
“Sure.”
Mason pushed over to make room for his friend. Mallory and Quinn would never say anything about what he was dealing with, so Mason took care of catching Blaine up. “Jordan went back to LA, and I’m struggling with the desire to drink. She hasn’t even been gone a full day yet, and I’m a mess.”
“Oh damn, man. That sucks. What can I do?”
“Have him over for dinner one night this week,” Mallory said.
“Done,” Blaine replied. “What else?”
“Keep an eye on him at work?” Quinn suggested.
“I can do that, too.”
“I feel like a fool for letting something like this rock my boat,” Mason said.
“You love her,” Mallory said. “We all saw that. Of course you’re going to be rocked by her leaving. Is she coming back?”
“I don’t know. She’s meeting with the suits today about the show. They told her to get back to LA for the meeting, or they were going to sue her for breach.”
“So she had to go,” Mallory said. “It wasn’t like she wanted to.”
“No, she didn’t want to. She was upset about it.”
“That’s a good thing, Mase,” Quinn said. “She didn’t want to leave you.”
“The thing is, I’ve been down this road before. I was supposed to get married. A month before the wedding, she said she couldn’t go through with it. As bad as that was, and it was pretty damned bad, this thing with Jordan… I think it could be worse, and I’ve only known her a short time. But everything about the time with her was just… It was fucking perfect. You know?”