Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jordan
It’s been three months since she left. Two and a half since I sent the letter and song.
I haven’t heard from her.
The song didn’t work.
It was lame and stupid of me to think it would.
After waiting a few weeks to hear from her, I accepted she wasn’t coming back … and then I got pissed.
I guess it was one of the stages I had to go through. I’d done the depression. It was time for angry, so I went out and got trashed.
And I hooked up with a random chick.
Not my finest moment.
But it only got as far as her hand down my pants, jerking me off before I stopped it, because in that moment I’d realized that I could sleep with this girl, but I’d only feel the same, probably shittier, when I woke up the next morning. I’d still be in the same position. Mia still wouldn’t be here with me. I’d still f*cking miss her. I’d still have this gaping hole in my chest that only she can fill. Screwing some random chick wasn’t going to fix that. It wasn’t going to fix me. So I removed her hand from my pants, told her I was sorry, and left.
Since then, the only action my cock has seen is from my hand.
I think about Mia. And I don’t mean when I’m jerking off. But while the subject is here, of course I think about her while I date my hand.
She’s the only thing I think about.
I figure at some time in the future, I won’t think about her so much. That I’ll eventually get there. Just maybe not right now.
So I’m keeping busy. I’ve been doing more tours for Wade. The first time I went back up to La Plata Canyon after being there with Mia was hard, but I swallowed past it, and now it’s getting a little easier each time I do a tour up there.
The hotel is still quiet fairly, but we’re chugging on and I’m working on a website for the hotel, signing up to tourist and travel agent sites, getting our name out there. My mission is to have the hotel busier than it’s ever been by next summer.
Dozer comes over and plants his face on my legs. “Hey, buddy, whatcha up to?” I say, pulling my eyes from the computer to look down at him. He got his cast off a while back, and he is totally back to himself.
Except he still misses Mia.
At times, I feel like there’s only him who understands me.
He nudges my leg with his head, and brings his paw up batting me with it.
“What? You hungry?” I reach onto the desk and grab one of the cookies I was eating.
I give it to him, and he takes it, laying down to eat it.
I rub my tired eyes, and look back to the spreadsheet I’m working on. Accounts. Fun times.
I know it’s bad when it’s a Friday night and even my dad is out on a date, but I’m sitting here with my dog, working the accounts.
I really need to get a f*cking life.
The hotel phones rings.
“Golden Oaks,” I say, leaning back in my chair.
“You’re home on a Friday night? You really are turning into a sad case.”
“Thanks, Beth. You really know how to boost a guy’s confidence.”
She laughs. “Confidence is one thing you will never lack in, Jordan.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, you’re giving me grief, but it’s not like you’re out, hitting up the town.”
“Um, working girl here.”
“Your mom isn’t paying you enough at the diner, so you’ve had to turn to being a hooker. Sounds like a Lifetime movie in the making”
“Ha. Smart ass. I called because I thought I’d let you know I’m sending a tourist up your way. Thinking I should change my mind, tell her to go somewhere else…”
“Okay. I take it back. Only, as long as this tourist isn’t like the last one you sent me. Kinda got my heartbroken the last time you did that.” I try to come off as jokey and light, but it doesn’t work.
She goes quiet down the line. “Nah, this one is different to the last … I’m sure of it. And she’s not that good-looking. You wouldn’t go for her.”
I let out a laugh. “Okay. Good to know. Should I take it she’s more of Pine room kind of girl?” Pine is our cheapest room.
“Nah, this one is definitely a Lakeview kind of girl. She might be unfortunate looking, but she’s definitely got good taste.”
I swallow down. No one has stayed in there since Mia. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to let anyone sleep in there yet.
Stupid I know.
“Okay. Cool. She on her way now? I’ll go get the room ready.”
“She’s setting off in a few.”
“Thanks, Beth. And I mean that.”
“I know you do. And thank me later.”
I hang up and push out the chair. I grab the keys for Lakeview, and head down the hall.
I switch the light on, avoiding looking anywhere that will remind me of the times I had in here with Mia. I switch the heater on to warm the room for our new guest, turn the bed down, and put fresh towels in the bathroom.
I turn the light off, lock the door up, and go back to the office.
Twenty minutes later I hear a car pulling up the gravel. Dozer jumps to his feet, ears pricked, sniffs the air, and he’s out of the office. Guess he’s smelled something he likes.
I follow to get him back in the office before he scares the living daylights out of our new guest, but I’m too late, and the door opens on the chime. I look up and my heart stops.
It actually f*cking stops.
“Mia.”
I’m not sure if I say the word, or just breathe it through my aching lungs.
“Hi,” she says. Her voice sweet and soft … and painful.
I feel a surprising jolt of anger toward her.
Nothing for three f*cking months, and she just shows up here unannounced. Screw the fact that I’ve been dreaming about this very thing happening for three months, I’m still f*cking pissed. I’m beyond pissed.
I turn and walk away, putting myself behind the reception desk.
I need a barrier between us to stop me from doing something stupid. Like getting down to my knees and begging her to take me back.
She stays by the door, unsure eyes on me. She looks so tiny and fragile. It makes me want to go to her … hold her.
I grip hold of the desk to steady myself.
Dozer is on her, nudging his head at her leg, desperate for her attention.
“Hey buddy.” Her eyes leave me, and she bends down to stroke him. “Look at your leg, all healed.”
Yeah, well it has been THREE F*ckING MONTHS!
She wraps her arms around his neck, hugging him. “I missed you,” she whispers to him.
She missed him! What the f*ck about me?
I scrub my hands over my face, exhaling through my feelings. “Why are you here, Mia?”
She looks up at me, slowly rising to stand. The crestfallen look on her face is like a knife to my chest.
Her hands are shaking. She wraps her arms around herself.
“I read your letter, and the song … I listened to the song. All the way here, in fact,” she adds quietly.
I cross my arms over my chest. “You mean the letter I sent two and a half months ago.”
She bites her lip. “I only read it this morning. I was afraid … afraid there would be something in it that would bring me back here. And I couldn’t come back then. I had to figure a way to get past everything I was feeling, complete my treatment. In hindsight, I wish I’d read it straight away. But the moment I did … the moment I heard that song … I checked out and drove straight here.”
“Why?”
She takes a step closer. “Because … I hoped you’d still be waiting.”
I tighten my arms, and my stance. Every muscle in my body locked. “Why?”
She closes her eyes. “So I could tell you the one thing I didn’t when we were at the hospital.”
I stare at her expectedly.
“That I love you … I’m in love with you, Jordan.”
She loves me?
I can’t speak. Or think. Or move.
You know when you’ve been waiting to hear the one thing from the one person who matters most, and then they say it and it freezes you to the spot with fear.
Yeah, I’m about there right now.
The silence between us is blistering with pain and confusion and want.
Then I find my voice. “So you came here to tell me you love me?”
I watch her wipe a tear away with her hand. She nods, tugging on her lower lip, twisting it nervously. “Yes. I needed you to know that. And … also … to see if you have a room … for me?”
And there it is. I should have f*cking guessed.
“You’re the tourist … you went to see Beth first?” I don’t know why, but knowing that is really pissing me off.
Her eyes drift from me. “I got here and I was afraid. I thought maybe you might have changed your mind … that your feelings for me might have changed after all this time, maybe … there was someone else…” Her eyes come back to me. “I guess I panicked, so I went to the diner in the hope Beth would be there and I could ask her.”
“And what did she tell you?”
She runs her hands nervously down her clothes. “That you … you haven’t moved on.”
“Yeah. Well, Beth was wrong. I have moved on. Moved on majorly, in fact. And I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here.”
I don’t mean it. But I’m hurt and I’m not thinking clearly. And I’m an a*shole.
The pain on her face lances straight through me. Her shoulders pull in as she wraps her arms around her stomach. “Oh. Right. Okay. I’m sorry…” A tear runs down her cheek. She swipes it away with her finger. “… I shouldn’t have come.” Then she’s gone, out the door.
Dozer growls at me, giving me a ‘you f*cking idiot’ look, then he starts pawing and butting his head against the door, trying to get to our girl.
“I know, I’m a f*ckin’ idiot!” I grip my hair, angry with myself. “Shit! Motherf*cking shit!” I kick the desk. Then without another thought, I’m burning out of the hotel, chasing after her. “Mia! Wait!”
She stops by her car, face away from me, but I don’t stop. I stride right over to her, standing before her, I take her tear streaked face in my hands.
It hurts so much to know I put those tears there. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that … I was angry, like three f*ckin’ months worth of angry. But I don’t want you to go … f*ck! … Mia, I just … I just want you.”
Her eyes flash up to me with surprise. “You want me?”
“I’ll always want you.”
Then I kiss her. I kiss her with three months worth of pain and hurt and want and need.
“I love you,” she breathes over my mouth.
It makes me kiss her harder. My feelings for her consuming me.
“I love you…” I say, holding her to me. “So f*ckin’ much.”
She stands on her tiptoes, wraps her arms around my neck, and buries her face in my shoulder. I hold her tight. Afraid to let her go. Afraid to ever let her go again.
“Does this mean you have room for me?” she whispers.
I tilt my head back staring in her eyes. “I think I could make space for you.”
“For how long?”
I shrug. “How does forever sound?”
She puts her hand to my face, the smile on her own real, but tentative. “It sounds too good to be real,” she whispers.
“Oh, it’s real, babe.” I squeeze her ass, lifting her off her feet, loving the feel of her legs as they go around my waist. I turn, walking back to the hotel with her. “And it’s gonna be as good as I’m about to make you feel – this is me we’re talking about here.” I lift an eyebrow.
Her laughter fills me. Her kiss soothes me.
And I feel a peace I haven’t felt in months.