by BK Rivers
My jaw drops. They did what?
“Micah will just love Mrs. Richardson, and she says there are a couple boys who she thinks will be great friends for our boy.” Mom’s smile is stretched so wide it makes her eyes look cat-like.
“Mom,” I say with a groan. “You can’t just go around placing a deposit on an apartment for Micah and me. We’ve been through this. I like living in Phoenix and so does Micah.”
She breaks her smile, trading it in for a sardonic laugh. “Honey, it’s a house, not an apartment. And you can’t live with Stacey forever.” She thinks because it’s a house that I’ll concede to moving?
“I don’t care if it’s a freaking mansion, Mom. I’m not ripping Micah out of school halfway through the year and moving him away from all his current friends.”
“You need to think about what’s best for Micah,” Mom says through clenched teeth. “He needs a father figure in his life, and you’re sure not going to get it from Micah’s father. I see how much he enjoys spending time with your dad; he needs that.”
“Not once have you supported my decisions since I told you I was pregnant. I’m tired of you treating me like I’m still a child whom you can order around. Micah and I are not moving, end of discussion.”
This time, Mom full-on laughs, and it’s like a knife stabbing into my stomach over and over. My hands ball into fists while my arms fold over my chest. I’m pissed she thinks she has the right to do any of this, to expect this from me. Does she not realize I have a responsibility to Stacey for half the rent or how moving may affect Micah?
“Your decisions have always been poor. Take Micah’s father for example—what a deadbeat he’s turned out to be. We should never have allowed the two of you to date. To think he shares his DNA with—”
“I’ve had enough. You have no right to ask this of me. I’ve said it before—I’m not moving.” I stand up and head for the stairs. “I’m taking Micah home right now, and I don’t want to have this discussion ever again.” Taking the stairs two at a time doesn’t get me to the room fast enough. My heart is pounding, chest heaving, and I’m on the verge of breaking down. But I won’t do that here. I can’t let her know how much her words have hurt me. Quietly, I drag the suitcases out of the room and out the front door. I load them up and then storm back up the stairs and pull Micah into my arms.
“Hey, sleepyhead, we’re going back home,” I whisper against his soft hair. He nods and tucks his head into my shoulder. Carefully, I make my way back downstairs, through the door, and then buckle him securely in the backseat and walk around to the driver’s side.
“Yet another poor decision on your part,” Mom snaps from the doorway. “Always making stupid mistakes.”
“Well, at least this is one mistake I won’t make again,” I say, opening the car door. “If you want to see your grandson next month, I would suggest not ruining the trip by trying to plan out my life for me.” With that I climb inside my car, shut the door, and start the engine. I’ve never spoken to my parents that way, and it felt surprisingly good. Really good. For too long I’ve let my mom try to dictate how I live my life. Well, from now on I deserve better.
Chapter 5
Jordan
Our week in the hotel will be up tomorrow, which means one of two things. One, I continue to pay astronomical amounts of money each week for the remaining four months we’re here, or two, I look for a condo to lease. Jeremy steps through the hotel door without knocking—it should probably bother me, but ever since I called him all those months ago practically begging him to talk the guys into taking me back, he’s been my shadow. I don’t know if he’s waiting for me to slip up or if he’s only trying to be a good friend. Either way, it feels good knowing he has my back.
“Looking good, JD,” I say. He smiles, runs his hand over his cleanly shaved jaw, and pulls a chair out from the small table and sits down. On tour, most of us sport some degree of the five o’clock shadow, and while mine has been more beard-like as of late, it always takes me a bit to get used to baby-faced Jeremy Dixon.
“You’re just jealous I still look like I’m eighteen, despite being twenty-six. Too bad your ugly old mug keeps looking older.” I’m older than him by two months and could pass for eighteen if I tried. Not that I have any reason to.
“I think it’s time to find a short-term lease.” I scrub my hands through my hair, waiting for Jeremy’s response. “Maybe a two-bedroom?” Jeremy’s eyes lift in my direction. I’m guessing he wasn’t expecting me to invite him to live with me.
“Yeah.” He shrugs. “Makes sense. When should we start looking?”
I’m not sure why I was so afraid he’d laugh at me or tell me I’m crazy for wanting to lease a condo, but it feels like a hundred pounds has just fallen from my shoulders now that he’s agreed. At least he’ll be around to keep an eye on me, and that’s a comfort.
“I’ve already called a leasing agency and have an appointment this morning to go see a couple places. You ready to go?” Jeremy nods, and we head out.
The agency is on the third floor of a brick building in downtown Phoenix. The view overlooks a rooftop patio across the street. Jeremy and I sit in beige leather chairs in the waiting area in front of a curvaceous blond—Reagan—with bright red lips and a messy bun on the top of her head. Every so often she glances over the top of her computer screen and shoots us a squinty grin. After the third glance, I meet her up at her desk and rest my arms across the counter.
“I hate to be impatient, Reagan, but I’m kind of on a deadline. Do you know how much longer it will be?” Her red lips turn down in a pout as she picks up her phone. At the same time, the opaque, sky blue door swings open and Reggie steps out. She glances at Reagan and then me, and her cheeks flush.
“What are you doing here?” Reggie asks as her fingers absentmindedly linger on her jaw, before her hand clasps over my elbow as she pulls me back to Jeremy. “Are you both stalking me?” she asks in a whisper.
“What the hell, Jordan? Did you know she worked here?” Jeremy asks. His face pinches while he rubs the bridge of his nose.
Laughing at the way Reggie and Jeremy are wearing matching expressions probably wasn’t the best idea since it earned me a slap on the shoulder from Reggie and a punch in the ribs from Jeremy.
“I had no idea Reggie worked here. The reviews for the agency were the best, so I called and made the appointment.” Reggie folds her arms across her chest, looking unimpressed. “I’m serious, I really didn’t know.”
“Whatever, dude. Let’s just get this over with,” Jeremy says, shaking his head and gritting his teeth.
We follow Reggie through the door and back into her small office. Jeremy and I sit at two chairs in front of a sleek, glass-topped desk. Reggie takes her seat, pulls out some paperwork, spreads it out before us, and explains what each form is and how it protects our rights as tenants and clients of the agency. Once we’ve signed at the necessary places, her attention is what’s on the computer screen.
Seeing her the other day at Eggceptional looking so good in that short skirt has nothing on the way she looks today. Her hair is down in long waves that cascade down her back; red slacks hug her hips just right, and the black-and-white striped, cap-sleeved shirt shows off her curves. The small office is fairly dull in décor but what catches my attention is the lack of personal photos anywhere. That, and the lack of a ring on her left hand.
“It’s more difficult finding short-term leases in the winter,” she says, drawing me back to the subject at hand. “With all the winter visitors here, most of the rentals are already gone.”
“My budget is pretty flexible,” I add, and then flinch when her eyes close and then flutter open. “What I mean is I can afford pretty much anything.” Shit. Insert foot into mouth now. However, a flash of something playful flashes over her face, and I wonder if she’s just issued some sort of challenge.
“Is that so?” she says, a smile dancing on her rosy lips. “Well, this may just make my month.”
“I’m in this lease too, and I have no intention of paying out my ass for a place to live for four months. So please find us something within reason.” Jeremy releases Reggie’s arm and sits back in his chair.
“I’ll see what I can come up with,” she says in an almost whisper.
Jeremy and I exchange silent threats, him telling me to behave, me telling him to keep his bear claws off my girl. After almost ten minutes of our unspoken warnings, Reggie excuses herself from the office.
“What are we really doing here?” Jeremy asks, his face turning an odd shade of radish.
“I was dead serious, dude. I had no clue she worked here.”
“You’re lying. And quit with the ‘I have enough money to buy whatever I want’ attitude.”
I really hadn’t meant for it to come out like that. Something about seeing Reggie again has me all agitated, causing the words in my head to twist into blurts of nothingness.
Before I can respond, Reggie glides through the door, and suddenly I’m on my feet and two sets of eyes stare blankly at me. Heat flames through my neck and as I try to cover up my strange behavior with a cough, the stares don’t go away. Instead, Reggie hands me a small stack of papers, giving me the details of the condos she’s found for us to take a look at.
“This is all the pertinent data on the condos we’re going to go see,” she says as she gathers her purse and fishes out her car keys. She grimaces and then glances back to me and Jeremy.
“I hate to do this, but it’s company policy for us to take a photocopy of your driver’s licenses and keep them in the file.” Jeremy and I pull out our wallets and hand her our licenses. “Everything here is confidential and it should go without saying, but your personal information will be held in strict confidence.”
“Then why do you need the copies?” I ask, a little apprehensive to hand over my ID. I trust Reggie explicitly, but the people she works with, not so much.
“It’s for our own safety,” she says with a shrug before snatching the cards from our hands and disappearing out the door, only to return a few moments later and return our licenses. “Are you ready?” We follow her to the elevator and into the parking garage under the building. Her car is a silver Toyota Corolla, nothing fancy, and it smells clean with a hint of vanilla and spice, just like her. Jeremy takes the front passenger seat, and I climb into the back and sit in the center. Beside me is an iPad, and I must be part cat because curiosity is getting the better of me.
I press the button on the bottom and see a picture of Reggie and her friend I recognize from high school posing in front of the camera wearing nearly identical duck lips and cross-eyed looks. She looks happy and seeing this comforts me, even if it’s just a small amount. Deciding not to pry any more, I press the power button and lay the iPad on the center console between Reggie and Jeremy.
“You left your iPad in the backseat,” I say before sitting against the back of the seat and stretching my arms out to the side.
Chapter 6
Reggie
I almost slammed on the brakes in the middle of the busy downtown streets when Jordan handed up Micah’s iPad. Not once did I consider something of Micah’s may be in the car. I mean, he often leaves little toys or papers from school in the backseat. A wave of nausea surges through me while I silently pray there is no other evidence of my son in the backseat with Jordan. A part of me is dying to look at the iPad’s wallpaper on the screen to see if there is one of the hundreds of pictures of me and Micah together. What if he looked at the screen?
All I can do is remind myself to breathe. Breathe and concentrate on getting this day over with as soon as possible.
“So you and Stacey still hang out?” Jordan asks as he pops his head between me and Jeremy. My fingers grip the steering wheel in relief. He saw only a picture of me and Stacey. Wait! He snooped?
“That iPad is none of your business,” I snap, and then actually have to slam on the brakes in order to avoid colliding with the car in front of me.
“Watch it,” Jeremy snarls as he recovers from bracing his arms on the dash.
“Sorry,” I say as heat floods to my cheeks. We drive through the intersection at a snail’s pace and then turn down the next street and park in front of the building. Jordan jumps out of the backseat and fills the meter with quarters before I even lock the car doors. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” he says with a smile that sets my chest on fire. His brown eyes move over my body, stopping on my chest briefly, before meeting my eyes. After being pregnant and then nursing Micah for a few months, my whole body changed. My hips have widened a bit, and my breasts went up a cup size. After the thorough glance-over Jordan just gave me, it makes me wonder if he has any idea what I’ve been through. What my body created, and how it’s changed.
“Let’s check this place out,” I say as we walk through the lobby doors. We’re greeted by a man in a suit who hands me a key to the condo and directs us to the elevator. I’m hoping Jordan and Jeremy like this place. It’s probably the best-looking of the four I have to show them and, as an added bonus, it’s fully furnished. We ride the elevator to the sixteenth floor and exit into a nicely decorated hallway with three doors, two on the sides and one directly ahead. The condo is on the right and, opening the door, I’m blown away by what I see. The pictures don’t do the place justice.
We walk into a large living room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking downtown Phoenix. The floors are black marble, the furniture classy and comfortable, not to mention the black grand piano sitting beside the wall of windows. The kitchen is modern with gray cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Jordan and Jeremy explore the two bedrooms and bathrooms and meet me back in the living room when they’ve finished their tour.
“Tell me about this place,” Jordan says as he sits on the cream leather couch, propping his feet on the marble coffee table.
“As you can see, it’s two bedrooms, two baths, and comes furnished with everything you see here. There’s a fitness center and pool on ground level, and rent includes house cleaning once a week. Also, the building has a restaurant you can order from twenty-four hours a day.”
“And how much will this cost us?” Jeremy says from the kitchen. He doesn’t look nearly as comfortable as Jordan does, and I can’t help but wonder why. Does he not want to live with Jordan? I pull the lease information from my papers and walk it over to him.
“The lease price includes all these features and covers condo fees, parking fees, and concierge services. So, if you think about it, you’re getting a really great deal. Besides, you can’t beat the view.” I step across the room and stand in front of the windows. “Imagine this at night with all the lights glowing from below. Imagine the sunsets you’ll see from here. Remember how gorgeous the sunsets are, Jordan?”
A warm hand lands on the small of my back, and I have to hold back my gasp. I glance up to see Jordan staring out over the horizon, looking lost in a memory. So many times we’d driven down to South Mountain at night and lay on the hood of his car, staring out at the sun as it dipped lower and lower in the sky. We held hands and remained silent as it disappeared over the mountains, setting the sky ablaze in magnificent pinks, purples, and oranges. I used to try to capture the colors with the cell phone camera, but the pictures never turned out right. Even now, I can’t capture the brilliance.
“I really never paid attention to the sunsets.” He sighs before his eyes find mine and then wander to my lips, stirring up lost feelings from so long ago. “I’m sorry I looked at your iPad. It was none of my business.” His hand slips from my back, and the absence hurts, like I’m just noticing a piece of me that has always been missing—his mere touch completes the makeup of my soul.
“When can we move in?” Jordan asks from across the room.
“Don’t you want to see the rest of the b
uilding?” I ask as we close up the condo.
“Nope. Just need to know what I need to do in order to live here.”
“Jeremy, you good? Is this place okay?” He hasn’t said much since stepping inside the condo and, since he’ll be living here too, I want to make sure he isn’t having any doubts.
“It’s fine,” he says with little enthusiasm.
Back at the office, we sort out all the paperwork, and I submit everything via email to the agency who listed the condo for rent. I asked for a quick response since Jordan’s time frame is pretty tight.
“As soon as I hear from them I’ll call you.”
At three, I receive the approval for Jordan and Jeremy to move in as soon as today. My stomach twists into knots and my hands begin to sweat while I prepare to call them. I really don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with this. With Jordan. It’s not like I’ll see him again—at least there really shouldn’t be a reason to see him again.
I half expect to leave him a message after the fourth ring, but he picks up just as I take a breath. “Hello?”
“Jordan, it’s…it’s uh. You got the condo,” I say, and then softly pound my fist into my forehead. Quit acting like an idiot.
“Yeah? That’s great! When can we move in?” Is it wrong that every time he asks when we can move in, a part of me wishes it were him and me?
“Today if you want. The place is yours for four months.”
“Thank you for your help, Reggie.”
There’s a pause and it’s awkward, but I don’t know how to end the call other than relaying how he can get the keys to the condo. About the time I’m ready to say goodbye, Jordan cuts in.