by Marie Force
“Jordan! Let Mason come in, will you?”
Jordan’s sheepish little grin twisted him up inside, minutes after he’d lectured himself about swearing off women and the drama that came with them. Drama was this woman’s middle name. She’d made a profitable career out of courting and exploiting it, which was contrary to what he wanted for himself. He had no business finding her adorable or wishing he could actually kiss those sweet lips that formed the cutest smiles.
As he followed her into the house, he told himself not to look, but found his gaze traveling over her anyway, which didn’t do a thing to support his “don’t get involved” campaign. Despite the oversized clothing, she was still one of the sexiest women he’d ever met. Her sister was equally attractive, but standing in the kitchen with both of them, his gaze sought out only one of them.
“Glad you could make it, Mason,” Nikki said. “What can I get you to drink? We have beer, wine, vodka, soda, water.”
His mouth watered from the scent of garlic and spices. The stench of smoke had been largely eliminated by the removal of the living room furniture and rug. “I’ll do a cola or ginger ale if you have it.”
“Are you on duty?” Jordan asked.
“Nope, but I don’t drink anymore. I’ve been in recovery for thirteen years.” He was always transparent on the subject of why he avoided alcohol, preferring to share his truth rather than try to hide from it. That, too, helped him stay sober.
“Oh.” Jordan sat at one of the stools at the counter and gestured for him to join her. “That’s cool.”
As he slid onto the stool, he could tell she wanted to ask more about it but didn’t. “I’m an open book on that topic,” he said as he accepted a glass of iced ginger ale from Nikki, “so don’t be shy if you want to know about it.”
“It’s none of my business,” Jordan said, “but good for you. That’s an amazing accomplishment.”
“Thanks. It’s something I’m proud of.”
Nikki put both bouquets in water and placed them on the countertop. “Thanks for the flowers, Mason. They’re gorgeous.”
“The pink ones are mine,” Jordan said, flashing that sly, sexy little grin at him again.
“I like these better anyway,” Nikki said of hers.
Jordan winked at him, as if to say, Told you so.
Mason was dazzled by her, and all the warnings in the world couldn’t stop him from wanting more of her or from doing something that would probably lead to even more heartache than he’d experienced in the past. She was the kind of woman who could truly ruin him, which was all the more reason to keep his distance. But as he sat next to her in the cozy kitchen, a feeling of rightness and completion came over him that made him feel even more ridiculous than he had earlier.
He was smitten.
No fool like an old fool, he thought, having been down this road so many times, he knew the routine by heart. He could name every pothole and detour that was waiting to derail him, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to care about any of that now that he was sitting a foot from her, steeped in the rich, fragrant scent of her hair and on the receiving end of her sweet, sexy smiles.
All he wanted was more of her—any way he could get it.
Jordan couldn’t stop stealing glances at Mason. Everything about him fascinated her, from his towering height, to the blond streaks in his brown hair, to his tanned skin and the way his large hands cradled the icy glass of soda. And that he’d come right out and told her he was a recovering alcoholic gave him mad points in her book. Most of the people she knew would never admit to being anything less than perfect and certainly wouldn’t have owned their alcoholism the way he had. That was definitely something else about him to be admired, especially in light of what she’d been through with Brendan and his addiction issues, not to mention her mother’s struggles with drugs.
She liked the deep timbre of his voice and how handsome he looked in the light blue dress shirt that he’d rolled up to reveal strong forearms covered with golden hair. He wore a fancy-looking silver watch with complex dials and gauges.
And he smelled really good.
For fuck’s sake, Jordan, knock it off. You’re technically still married to Brendan and have no business cataloging another man’s features, even if his features are hella sexy.
She pulled herself out of her own silly thoughts to tune in to what he and Nikki were talking about.
“Where’re you from originally?” Nikki asked him.
“Upstate New York. I grew up in the Syracuse area and came to Rhode Island for college. I worked in Worcester, Massachusetts, before I came here.”
“Is your family still in Syracuse?” Nik asked.
“Two of my older sisters still live there with their families. My parents retired to Florida a couple of years ago, my younger sister followed them south, and my older brother is in Seattle.”
“Ever been married?” Nikki asked.
“Nik!” Jordan said. “Stop with the inquisition!”
“It’s not an inquisition. I’m getting to know Mason.”
Mason laughed at their bickering. “It’s fine. I almost got married once, but it didn’t work out. So no, never been married. What about you guys? Where’d you grow up?” Mason took a cracker and a slice of cheese from the plate Nik had put out.
“We mostly lived in the LA area growing up,” Nik said.
“Just the two of you?”
Jordan spoke up to answer that one. “We have numerous half siblings, but we aren’t particularly close to them. They’re a lot younger than we are.”
“We were the subject of a rather bitter custody battle that raged on for years,” Nik added.
“Yikes, that must’ve sucked.”
“That’s one word for it,” Jordan said. “Our family is pretty much each other, our amazing grandmother and our mom, who’s remarried and living in France, so we don’t see much of her.”
“I’m sorry you guys went through that.”
“It was a long time ago now, but suffice to say we were pretty thrilled to reach our eighteenth birthday,” Jordan said.
“Best day ever,” Nikki added.
“So it went on that long?” Mason asked.
“Right up until literally the day before we turned eighteen,” Nikki said, “and they haven’t spoken a word to each other in the nearly ten years since, which is fine with us. They put us through a nightmare.”
“Sounds like it. Thank goodness you had each other.”
“We say that all the time,” Jordan said, smiling at her sister. “My luckiest break ever was being born a twin.”
“Same,” Nik said. “Which is why I’ve never been more thankful to anyone than I am to you, Mason, for seeing the flames last night and acting so fast. I’ll never have the words to properly thank you for saving my sister.”
He glanced at Jordan. “I was in the right place at the right time, thankfully.”
She met his gaze and couldn’t look away, recalling the feel of his lips on hers as he revived her.
“I’m, ah, going to check on Riley,” Nikki said. “He’s taking a long time in the shower.” She left the room in a hurry.
Subtle, Jordan thought, suddenly unnerved to be left alone with the sexy firefighter.
“After dinner,” he said in a low, intimate tone that set her heart to racing, “do you want to go for a ride?”
“I do, but I, um, I should tell you that I’m still married.”
“Oh. Okay.” Did he seem disappointed, or was that her overly active imagination?
“Not for much longer, but technically.” She shrugged. “I’m waiting for him to get out of rehab so I can serve him with papers.”
“There’s no chance you’ll go back to him?”
“No chance in hell.”
“Then going for a ride shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Jordan swallowed hard, wondering if going for a ride was code for much more than that. She nodded, unnerved by the intense way he looked at her. It�
�d been so long since her husband had paid her any real attention. She could barely remember what it had been like to feel the heady sort of anticipation that came with understanding that a man was interested in her. And that she was equally interested.
“I’m kind of a red-hot mess, Mason, and you seem like a really nice guy. Things have been complicated and…” The words died on her lips when his big hand covered hers, infusing her with warmth that seemed to touch her everywhere.
“We’re just going for a ride, okay?”
Now she felt foolish for blowing it up into more, but he had a right to know her marital status in light of the attraction between them that couldn’t be denied. “I’m looking forward to it,” she said, smiling because she wanted him to know she meant it.
“Me, too.”
“And we’re going to find that sling.”
Before he could reply, Riley and Nikki came down the stairs with loud footsteps and conversation that had Jordan rolling her eyes at an amused Mason.
“Could they be any more obvious?” she whispered. Nikki must’ve tuned in to the sparks flying between them, or she wouldn’t be acting like such a loon.
Then again, Nikki would be thrilled to see Jordan attracted to anyone who wasn’t Brendan. Mason was so different from him that he might as well have been from another planet.
Riley followed Nikki into the room, his dark hair still wet from the shower. He shook hands with Mason. “Glad you could make it for dinner.”
“Thanks for asking me.”
“Where’s your brother?” Nikki asked Riley. “Dinner is almost ready.”
“I’ll text him.” Riley pulled out his phone. “Dad texted to send their regrets. Summer is fussy, and Finn said they’ll be here in ten minutes.”
“Text your dad to come get dinner to go,” Nik said. “I made a ton. I’ll box it up for them.”
Riley typed in the text. “He said you’re awesome, which of course we knew, and he’ll be over in a bit.”
“Congrats on your new baby sister,” Mason said to Riley.
“Thanks. She’s so cute.” Riley called up some pictures on his phone and handed it to Mason.
Jordan leaned in for a look and immediately wanted to get even closer. This silly little crush on Mason was absurd, but after her near-death experience—not to mention the nightmare with Brendan—she didn’t care if she was being absurd or ridiculous. Last night was a good reminder that life was a gift that could be taken away without any warning. She’d been given a second chance, and being around him made her feel alive, and not just because he’d saved her life. It was also because of the way he looked at her and listened to her. And, well, he smelled so good.
Brendan smelled like sweat, cigarettes and pot most of the time in the last few years.
Mason was the polar opposite. His scent was fresh and clean and spicy and suited him. Everything about him was strong and masculine and endlessly appealing. Twenty-four hours ago, she hadn’t met him yet, and now she was tripping into serious crush territory. Probably because he’d saved her.
But no, it wasn’t just that.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Finn and Chloe came in, apologizing for being late.
“It was totally my fault,” Chloe said. “My last client took forever.”
Jordan thought Chloe was one of the coolest, hippest women she’d met in a long time. She was lean and sexy with dark hair streaked with hot pink and a sleeve tattoo on one arm. Jordan admired the other woman’s resilience as she battled the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis while still occasionally working as a hairstylist.
“Thought you weren’t cutting anymore,” Riley said as he poured her the one glass of wine she allowed on occasion and got a beer for his brother.
Jordan wondered if it was hard for Mason to be at events where other people were drinking alcohol.
“I rarely cut anymore, but Cindy had a migraine today, so I filled in for her.”
“Which Cindy is working with you?” Mason asked.
“Cindy Lawry, Owen’s sister.”
“Ah, right. I hadn’t heard she was staying for the summer.”
“She is,” Chloe said, “and thank goodness for that.”
Finn put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.
Chloe leaned into him, arms crossed and hands tucked out of sight, as she did when she didn’t want people to notice the redness and swelling. Nikki had told Jordan about Chloe’s RA and the impact on her hands in particular. Chloe was now overseeing the design of the McCarthy family’s new spa, which would be built over the coming winter at their hotel in New Harbor, while Cindy ran Chloe’s Curl Up & Dye salon in town.
The bond between Finn and Chloe touched Jordan every time she was with them. From what Riley had told her, Finn had rallied to the cause by finding out everything he could about RA and how he could support her. Like his brother, Finn was a great guy, and Jordan had been envious more than once of her sister and Chloe.
Where had men like them been when she’d been falling for a malignant narcissist?
Mason nudged her with his good elbow. “You okay?”
Jordan realized she’d spaced out of the conversation—and he’d noticed. “I’m good. Just thinking.”
“You looked sad. Are you?”
Surprised by the insightful question, she tried to decide how to answer him. “I’m wondering what the secret is,” she said in a low tone that only he could hear as the others chatted with each other the way they did whenever they were together. The four of them had become close, and Jordan had been happy to know that Nik had made such great friends on the island.
“The secret to what?”
She nodded toward the two happy couples. “That. What they have.”
“Ah, that secret. If I knew, I’d tell you, but I’m clueless.”
“Glad I’m not the only one.” Jordan helped herself to cheese and a cracker, which she then handed to him before getting another for herself.
“You’re definitely not the only one.”
“Do you believe that some people get lucky and others don’t?”
He appeared to give that some significant thought. “I haven’t really considered that before, but I suppose it’s possible. Why does one person find their soul mate and another never does?”
“Right, exactly. There’s an element of luck to that, wouldn’t you say? Take Nikki, for instance. She met Riley because the roof leaked, and he came to fix it. What if the roof had never leaked? Would they still have met?”
“That’s an interesting question. Perhaps the universe intended to bring them together, and if the roof hadn’t leaked, it would’ve found another way for them to meet.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, I haven’t given it much thought.”
“I have. I’ve thought a lot about why some people click with each other and other people never click like that with anyone. Chloe cuts the hair of hundreds of people in a year, so what made Finn stand out the first time he came into her shop for a haircut?”
“I’m not saying I find him handsome, but from what I’ve been told, women tend to like him.”
Jordan laughed. “He’s not exactly tough on the eyes. I’ll give you that. But I’m talking about the click. That thing that sets him apart from every other guy she’s ever met. That’s the intangible part that fascinates me. Why him? Why not one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of other guys whose hair she’s cut?”
“You didn’t have the click with your husband?”
“I thought I did. At first, but things changed and…” She shrugged as she glanced at the others. “I didn’t have that. Not even close. And the funny thing is, until Nikki met Riley and I got to see them up close, I didn’t even fully grasp that my relationship with him wasn’t what it could’ve been. How’s that for a deep confession?”
“That’s pretty deep.”
“It’s sad. That’s what it is. I wasted years with a guy who did
n’t deserve me.”
“Well, at least you know it now.”
“Yeah.” Jordan rested her head on her upturned hand. “Sorry for the deep thoughts by Jordan.”
“Don’t be sorry. You raised interesting questions.”
“You ever had the click?”
“Thought I did once, but it didn’t work out.”
Jordan wanted to ask what’d happened, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. “That must’ve been tough.”
“It was a long time ago.”
Something in the way he said that indicated it might’ve been a long time ago, but the pain of it had stayed with him. She understood that. Some things could never be outrun, no matter how much time went by. Like the way her father had betrayed them and their mother by having a whole other family with another woman—while still married to their mother. And then the court had given him custody over their mother, who had mental health and addiction issues.
“Everything is ready.” Nikki’s announcement burst the intimate little bubble Jordan had been in with Mason while the others carried on without them.
She’d liked being inside that bubble with him and looked forward to spending more time with him later. Whether she ought to be anticipating more time with any guy right now was neither here nor there. Nothing could keep her from going for a ride with the sweet, sexy firefighter who’d saved her life.
Chapter 9
Dinner was fun and entertaining with the McCarthy brothers in attendance. The two of them were always good for laughs, and tonight was no different, but Jordan could hardly think of anything other than how much she wanted to continue the conversation she’d been having with Mason.
He sat next to her at dinner, so she couldn’t really see him without everyone noticing if she looked at him.
“Jord?”
She glanced at Nikki. “Sorry. What?”
“Chloe asked how you’re feeling.”
“Oh, sorry. I’m good. My chest aches a bit the way it always does after an asthma attack, but otherwise, I’m fine. And I’m very thankful to Mason.”
“We all are.” Nikki raised her wineglass. “Here’s to Mason. We owe you an eternal debt of gratitude.”
