With a nod, he steps back from me. “Come on, let’s get you fed.”
Pulse galloping, I follow Jordan into the diner. He doesn’t wait to be seated, just bypasses the empty hostess station, so I follow behind, still feeling a little off balance from the whole buttoning of the shirt.
He motions for me to sit first, so I slide into the booth. Jordan sits opposite me.
I see Beth walking toward us. She looks between me and Jordan. A frown mars her pretty face.
She doesn’t look happy to see him here with me, and I start to wonder if they’re more than just friends. I also don’t like how the thought of them together is making me feel.
Jealous.
Uneasy.
Jealous.
“Hey you.” She ruffles his hair.
“Watch the hair!” He bats her hand away, laughing.
She gives his shoulder a shove. “Don’t worry, you still look pretty.” Her eyes dart to me, then back to him.
“Beth, how many times do I have to tell you that men are not pretty. We’re hot. Gorgeous. Fuckin’ awesome. But not pretty.”
Looking at me, she rolls her eyes. I can’t help but laugh.
Jordan grins at me.
I feel that as well. Mainly in my southern region.
“Beth, you’ve already met Mia.” He gestures to me.
“I have.” She smiles. It appears genuine which helps a little with my concern.
“Thanks again for the hotel recommendation,” I say.
She looks at Jordan again, but he’s looking at me. Her eyes come back to me. And I notice curiosity and possibly a little humor in them.
It makes me curious.
“No probs.” She smiles again. “I didn’t expect to see you in here today,” she says to Jordan.
His face shifts to a sullen expression. “Some fucknut hit Dozer with their car.”
“Oh my god!” She claps her hand over her mouth. Sitting down next to Jordan, she forces him to shift over. “Is he okay?”
Jordan nods in my direction. “Thanks to Mia he is.”
I can feel my cheeks heating. “I didn’t do anything, not really.”
“Yes, you did.” He gives me a look, before turning to Beth. “She checked him over for injuries and saw that his leg was broken, so she tore up her shirt and strapped up his leg. Mia’s training to be a doctor,” he informs her.
“Wow,” Beth says, looking at me.
I shift uneasily in my seat. I’m not really comfortable with this conversation or attention. I don’t like the focus being on me.
“Guess that explains why you’re wearing one of Jordan’s shirts,” she adds with a grin.
My face instantly fires. “Oh, yes.” I look down at it, fidgeting with the buttons and trying to hide my face.
“We good to get some food? Mia hasn’t eaten anything since last night,” Jordan says, changing the subject. I’m guessing he can sense my discomfort at the whole shirt conversation. “She missed breakfast helping with Dozer, so I brought her out for lunch while I wait to go pick him up.”
She nods. “Absolutely. So Dozer’s gonna be okay?”
“Yeah. He’s gonna be fine.”
“Good.” She pats his shoulder and gets to her feet. “Let me get you both something to eat. Sounds like y’all need it. Your usual, Jordan?”
“Yeah.”
“Mia, what can I get you?” She looks at me.
I grab the menu off the table and quickly scan it. “I’ll have a chicken salad sandwich and a diet coke, please.”
She smiles. “Cool. Won’t be long.”
I watch her walk away to the kitchen. Jordan shifts across the bench, so he’s back opposite me, putting him directly in my eye line.
He rests his hands on the table, tilting his head, and stares at me. It’s then I realize I’m pulling on my lip again. I set my hands in my lap.
“You do that when you’re nervous.” It’s not a question.
I nod.
“You’re nervous now. Why?”
I lift my shoulders, looking anywhere but him. “I’m not really sure.”
He leans forward, clasping his hands together. “You don’t need to be nervous around me, Mia.”
I meet his warm gaze. “I know.” I nod.
“Good.” He smiles and relaxes back. “I’ve been thinking about finding your mom, and how to go about it.” He picks up a pack of sugar from the holder and starts playing with it. “I thought we’d be best starting with the basics like Google, White Pages, Public Records, that kind of thing.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
Of course it does. Any plan would sound good to me because I have no clue how to search for my absent mother.
Putting the sugar down, he pulls his cell from his pocket. “Okay, let’s get started.”
“Now?” My gaze snaps up to his.
“No time like the present … unless you’d rather I wait?”
“No. Now is fine.” I force a smile, knowing how stilted my voice sounds.
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” I’m pretty certain my voice sounds harsher than I mean it to. I’m just afraid. I want to find my mother, but fear of the unknown is suddenly clouding that.
Jordan looks at me with confused sympathy on his face.
I look at him until I can no longer bear it. I hate sympathy.
Turning my face, I stare out of the window.
“Okay.” He exhales. “I’ll start with public records.”
“Sure,” I mumble. My hands feel fidgety, so I wrap them around my stomach, which is turning over.
I can feel myself coming undone.
“What was your mom’s name again?”
“Anna Monroe.”
More typing from him. More fear and panic from me.
I don’t think I’m ready for this. My legs are itching to take me out of here.
I need to leave. I need food. I need to be alone.
Jordan exhales a loud breath, bringing my attention to him. His brow is all scrunched up in thought. He looks really adorable. And suddenly all of my attention is on him.
“I checked your mom’s name against Colorado and New Mexico with us been so close to there, I thought it worth a try, and it’s brought up ten Anna Monroe’s. None in Durango. But three are in neighboring towns. One in Montrose. One in Gunnington. And the other in Farmington, New Mexico which is only an hour away. So I think they are the best to start with.”
He places his phone down on the table and runs his hand through his hair, meeting my eyes, which are fixed on him.
Seeing the warmth in his maple eyes sets my heart beating like a kick drum.
“We can download the full reports on them, addresses and the like. I’ll do it when we get back to the hotel.”
I like how he thinks of things I wouldn’t. I would never have thought to check New Mexico.
Fear aside, I’m so glad he’s helping me. I think I’ll locate her much quicker with his help.
“Thank you for doing this for me.”
“Seriously, stop thanking me. I only do things because I want to. And I want to help you, okay?”
No one has ever spoken to me or treated me like he does. Like I’m a person who matters. That I count for something.
It makes my heart feel warm and alive in a way it never has before.
I’ve known Jordan for such a short time, but that time just feels irrelevant when I’m sitting here with him.
It’s scary. But a good scary.
I like it. I like him.
“Okay.” I smile.
Chapter Nine
Jordan
I told Mia that I’m cleaned up from the person I used to be. That I’m responsible now. Yeah, right. I don’t gamble anymore, but…
If she knew the reason why I’d stopped gambling, she would think I was the lowest of the low.
I try to be responsible, try to keep out of trouble, but it just seems to follow me everywhere I go. Or maybe I just attract it.
No maybe about it. I absolutely do.
Even after everything that has happened, I still bring shit to my dad’s door.
I hook up with a married woman, thinking solely with my dick, and the pissed off husband shows up at the hotel.
I was beyond relieved that Dad was out when he turned up. Even though he found out about it later, I was glad he was out of the loop. I don’t want him getting into any more shit because of me. He’s already lost so much at my hands.
Not that he’d ever say that. He would never blame me a day in his life. Dad never makes me feel like a disappointment, but I know I am.
Thankfully, the angry husband fiasco didn’t culminate into a kick-off—and that was thanks to Beth and her ability to calm angry men down.
But I can’t keep doing shit like that.
Problem is, I don’t know how to be good. Gambling’s out of the question, so women it is. I need to keep my mind busy when I get the urge for the tables, which is often.
Fucking helps with that. So I fuck often.
I just have to be careful of the women I choose to screw as I don’t want anything I do coming back on my dad.
So, definitely no married ones. And no guests at the hotel – meaning no Mia Monroe.
My list of reasons to stay away from her just keeps growing.
She’s a guest at the hotel. She has more baggage than JFK. But mainly, because she is too damn good for someone like me.
Nothing good could come of Mia wrapped around me. Well, something good would come of it—pun totally intended—but after the physical high, reality would bring me crashing back down to earth.
She deserves better than I could ever give her.
And I’m doing well, I think. I’ve been around her for a good while now. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, it’s been less than a day in her company. But trust me, this is some kind of fucking record that I haven’t tried to hit on her.
My only slip up was in the car earlier when I flirted with her. But that was nothing compared to how I usually go for it.
I just couldn’t resist. And the look on her face … so goddamn cute. Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked surprised and embarrassed. You’d think no one had ever flirted with her before, but looking like she does, I find that very hard to believe.
We’re back at the hotel, and I’m in the kitchen making us some coffee. After we’d finished lunch at the diner, there was still an hour to kill before I have to pick Dozer up, so I brought Mia back to the hotel and downloaded the info I found. I printed the details off while Mia went to change out of her torn t-shirt.
She gave me my shirt back before she went to change. I’m not ashamed to say I smelled it once she’d walked away.
It smelled amazing. Total jerking off material.
Seriously, if Mia Monroe were a bottled scent, I’d spray it all over my pillows. And my clothes. Hell, I’d spray it on myself.
When she came back from changing, she was freshly showered, and her hair was still a little damp, vanilla scent floating around her. She was wearing a pale pink tank top and ass hugging jeans, and my cock nearly sprang from my jeans. She looked fucking gorgeous.
It took me a good few minutes to get my head working properly before I could sit down with her and start looking over the details. She’d seemed quiet while I talked her through what I’d printed off, so I left her sitting outside on the porch, thinking she maybe needed a few.