by Marie Force
Jordan glanced his way in time to notice that Nikki’s toast embarrassed him, which she found endearing.
His gaze met hers, sending a shocking jolt of awareness through her that had her scrambling to hide her reaction from everyone else.
“I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time,” Mason said.
“We all are,” Riley said.
“How’s your elbow, Mason?” Nikki asked.
“It’s fine. Just a little stiff and sore, but that’s to be expected.”
“What happened?” Finn asked.
“I was riding my bike out at the bluffs when I saw the flames over here. Took my eye off a jump for one second and landed hard. Cut my forehead and dislocated my elbow.”
“Ouch,” Finn said. “I did that once playing hockey. Remember that, Ri?”
“Ah yeah, how could I ever forget the way you screamed like a banshee when they put it back where it belonged?”
“That hurt worse than being stabbed,” Finn said. “No kidding. Worst pain I ever had.”
“It was pretty bad,” Mason said, “but it immediately felt better after they reset it.”
“I can’t believe you carried Jordan out of here with a dislocated elbow,” Nikki said.
“I was operating on adrenaline. I hardly even remembered it was messed up until after.”
“Not sure how that’s possible,” Finn said. “I couldn’t breathe until mine was fixed.”
“He cried like a baby,” Riley added as only a brother could.
“Fuck off. You would’ve, too!”
Having gotten the rise he wanted out of his brother, Riley lost it laughing.
Chloe shook her head at Nikki. “How old will they be when they finally stop pushing each other’s buttons?”
“We’ll be dead years old when that happens,” Riley said emphatically.
Finn raised his beer bottle to touch it to Riley’s. “You said it, brother.”
Mason laughed right along with the other guys, and a feeling came over Jordan that was all new to her, something she couldn’t readily identify. Whatever it was, she liked it and wanted more of it.
The moment was lost when Nikki stood to begin clearing dishes, and Jordan got up to help her.
“No way, missy,” Nikki said sternly. “You’re supposed to be relaxing. Riley will help me.”
“I will, too,” Chloe said, standing.
“Nope.” Nikki took the salad bowl from Chloe. “You’re off duty, too. Go light the fire pit, Riley.”
Jordan wanted to tell them not to do that, but she’d feel silly protesting something they did all the time. A few random sparks from the neighbor’s fire pit had nearly led to disaster last night. That didn’t mean it would happen again. What were the odds of it happening in the first place? She’d ask Mason that when they went for their ride.
She followed Nikki to the sink. “I’m going for a ride with Mason to find his sling.”
Nikki gave her a perplexed look. “To find his sling? Where is it?”
“He lost it on the way over here.”
“How did he lose it?”
“He threw it out the window. He’s supposed to have it on, so I’m going to help him find it.”
“You sure you feel up to going out?”
“We’re just going for a ride. I’ll be fine.” She kissed her sister’s cheek. “Thanks for a wonderful dinner.”
“You’re welcome. Thanks again for not dying.”
“Happy to still be here.”
“I hope you mean that, Jord. I know things have been rough, but it’s going to get better. I just know it.”
“Nowhere to go but up.”
“That’s right. Good luck finding the sling. Or is that a metaphor for other plans?”
Jordan laughed. “We’re really going to find it. He’s supposed to wear it for a week, and he got pissed and threw it out the window. Be back in a bit.”
“Okay. Have fun looking.”
Mason came over to them. When he was standing right next to her, the top of her head came to the middle of his chest. She wondered how it would be to… Okay, stop it. Right now.
“Thanks for dinner, Nikki. It was delicious.”
Nikki hugged him. “Happy to have you. You’re welcome here any time, Mason. Open invite to come by for dinner any time you’re hungry.”
“If you knew me better, you’d never make such an offer. My appetite is somewhat legendary.”
“I mean it. We owe you everything. Least I can do is feed you.”
“That’s very nice of you. Thanks again for having me.”
Jordan nudged him toward the door before the others could come back inside and waylay them. She wanted to go for that ride with him in the worst way. “Let me just grab a jacket,” she said when they were in the foyer. “Be right back.”
“I’ll wait for you outside.”
“Okay.” Jordan went up the stairs slower than she wanted to, but only because this would be a bad time to trigger another attack. She was always more susceptible after a recent incident. She grabbed a white denim jacket, put the new inhaler in her pocket, just in case, and ducked into the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth. Then she went downstairs and out the front door into the cool air.
It took until late June or even into early July before the evenings warmed up on Gansett. The breeze off the ocean kept the nighttime temperatures cool for most of summer.
Mason was standing by his SUV, waiting for her. He opened the passenger door for her.
“We’re going to find that sling.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. I say so. And you’re putting it back on.”
“Are you always this bossy?” He sounded amused as he drove the SUV down the driveway.
“Only when it’s important. Your arm can’t heal properly if you’re using it all the time.”
“How do you know that?”
“I looked up dislocated elbows online and found out it’s a serious injury. You’re supposed to keep it immobile for one to three weeks if you want it to heal properly.”
“You looked it up online?”
“Did you hear the rest of what I said?”
“I heard it. I just can’t believe you actually looked it up.”
“Why not? I was interested.”
“Well, I was interested in the treatment for a severe asthma attack, and from what I read, you’re supposed to still be in the hospital.”
Jordan laughed. “Touché. Dr. David let me go home because my breathing was almost back to normal, or I’d still be there. You, on the other hand, are not back to normal. Put the bright lights on. We’re going to find that sling.”
He turned the high beams on.
“Where were you when you tossed it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do. Where were you?”
Chuckling, he said, “About half a mile from here.”
“Are you lying?”
“Nope.”
“Which window did you throw it out of?”
“Passenger.”
Jordan leaned forward, scanning the roadside brush. “If we can’t find it, I’m going to make one for you.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
Jordan smiled, pleased by his sarcasm. “Slow down. We don’t want to miss it.”
“Yes, we actually do.”
“No, we actually don’t.”
“Stop!”
Mason hit the brakes.
Jordan released her seat belt and jumped out to grab the sling from around a bush. Standing in the bright glare of the headlights, she held it over her head and did a little victory dance before getting back in the SUV. “Now put it back on.”
Mason was smiling widely as she handed it over to him. “What if there’re bugs in there?”
“Put it back on.”
Mason did as he was told, grimacing as he worked his injured arm into the sling. “There. Happy now?”
“Yes, as a matter
of fact, I am. You can take it off to shower and get dressed. Otherwise, you need to have it on until David says otherwise.”
He shifted the SUV into Drive and continued along the road. “Let me ask you this—do you do everything you’re told, or do you occasionally throw the sling out the window?”
“I’ve never actually thrown a sling out the window.”
“How about an inhaler?”
Jordan bit her lip as she thought about that. “That might’ve happened. Once.”
“Ah-ha!”
“Easy. I was nine at the time, not however old you are. How old are you, anyway?”
“Thirty-five.”
“There you have it. I was nine when I chucked my inhaler. You were thirty-five when you chucked your sling. See the difference?”
“Nope.”
Jordan laughed as she tried to remember the last time she’d had this much fun with anyone.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-eight. I’m surprised you didn’t look that up online, too.”
“Maybe I did.”
Jordan’s good mood shriveled up and died at the thought of him looking her up online. Knowing what was out there for him—or anyone—to find was something she tried not to think too much about out of fear of losing her sanity. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not? I was interested in you after meeting you last night.”
“And now you know all sorts of sordid things.” She kicked off her flip-flops and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around them, wishing she hadn’t come on this ride with him.
“I only found out how old you are because I was actually afraid you were, like, twenty or something.”
“You were not.”
“Yes, I was!”
“Why were you afraid of that?”
“Because I really liked hanging out with you last night, and if you were only twenty, that would make me feel like a dirty old man. But seeing as you’re an old lady at twenty-eight, then I don’t feel so silly.”
“About what?”
“About being nervous about going to dinner with you and wishing we could hurry through dinner so we could go for our ride or whether I have any chance at all of convincing you to maybe hang out with me again sometime. That kind of stuff.” He pulled into the parking lot at the town beach and shut off the engine.
“You were nervous about coming to dinner?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just was.”
“Because of me?”
“Well, I wasn’t nervous because of Nikki.”
“Why were you nervous about me?”
Mason didn’t answer right away, but she noticed he tightened his grip on the wheel. “I had fun last night, which is kind of weird when you figure I was injured and you were struggling to breathe.” He shrugged. “And yet, it was fun.”
“I had fun, too, despite the circumstances.”
“You did? Really?”
“Yes,” she said, laughing. “You couldn’t tell?”
“I wasn’t sure if it was just me.”
She turned toward him. “It wasn’t.”
He glanced at her. “You want to go for a walk?”
“On the beach in the dark?”
“That was kind of the idea.”
“My grandmother always told us to stay off the beach at night.”
“I’ll keep you safe.”
Four little words that meant so much to her. “You only have one working arm. How will you keep me safe?”
“I only need one arm to fend off the dragons. They’re scared of me because I’m so tall.”
And he was delightful. “All right, then. Let’s walk.”
They got out of the SUV and walked the length of the wooden boardwalk that delivered them to the sand. The full moon cast a glow upon the beach as they walked toward the water, which lapped gently against the sand.
“The wind really died down,” he said of the flat-calm water that stretched out before them, seemingly into infinity.
“Without the wind last night, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.” Jordan wasn’t sure where the thought came from or why she’d shared it with him.
“No, we wouldn’t, but you also wouldn’t have almost died.”
“Do you believe in things happening for a reason?”
“Not usually, but I’m wondering if I should reconsider.”
“It’s funny that a leaking roof brought Riley to Nikki, and the same roof catching on fire brought you to me.”
“That is funny.”
She’d no sooner said that than she felt silly for comparing them to Riley and Nikki when they were on a whole other level.
But as they walked slowly along the shoreline, Jordan felt peaceful for the first time in longer than she could remember. The ocean had always had a calming effect on her. Apparently, her companion did, too. “So you almost got married once?”
“Yeah, she called it off a month before the wedding. Kinda sucked at the time, but I’ve come to see it was a blessing. We weren’t meant to be.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“Like I said before, it was a long time ago. Feels like another lifetime, really.”
Jordan sensed he didn’t want to talk about it, so she changed the subject. “Did you spend time by the ocean when you were a kid?”
“My grandparents had a place on the coast of Maine. We went there every summer. What about you?”
“We lived about an hour inland from the coast in LA and much closer in the summer when we got to be here.”
“Did you come every year?”
“Yep, the day after school ended, we were on a plane.”
“Mrs. Hopper was your mother’s mother?”
“Right, and she provided the sanity in a chaotic childhood.”
Mason’s cell phone rang, and he twisted awkwardly to pull it from his back pocket. “Fucking sling.”
Jordan laughed at his contortions. “You need a hand?”
“Haha. Very funny.” He glanced at the screen. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this.”
“No problem.”
“Hey, what’s up?” After a pause, he said, “How bad?” Another pause. “I’ll be right there.” He ended the call and stuffed the phone back in his pocket. “My team is working a pretty serious accident in town. I need to run over there.”
“That’s fine.”
As they started walking back to the parking lot, Jordan could tell he was making an effort to match his stride to hers when, normally, he’d be walking much faster. “The thing is, I don’t really have time to take you back to the house first.”
“No problem. I’ll just go with you.”
“Sorry to mess up our walk.”
“It’s really fine, Mason. I know you’re always on call.”
“I am, and that sucks at times like this.”
“At times like what?”
“When I have something else I’d much rather be doing.”
He sounded truly annoyed to have had their time together interrupted.
“How about we take a rain check and do it again some other time?”
“You want to do it again?” he asked as he held the door for her.
She laughed. “Why do you sound so surprised?”
“I guess it’s been a while since I had a second date.”
“Oh, was this a date?” she asked, her brows raised.
He blew out an aggravated huff and shut the door. While he walked around to the driver’s side, Jordan laughed while she had the chance. Why was it so fun to push his buttons? And why wasn’t it awkward to be pushing the buttons of a guy she’d only just met?
Chapter 10
She was doing this on purpose, Mason decided as he flipped on flashing emergency lights and headed for town. Winding him up in knots for the fun of it.
“I’m very sorry for teasing you,” she said after a few minutes of silence.
“Y
ou’re not one bit sorry.” She was fun to be around. That much was for certain.
Her low snort of laughter confirmed her lack of contrition. “I’m a little bit sorry.”
He glanced at her, struck again by how naturally beautiful she was. “No, you’re not.”
“I am!”
“So this was a date, then?” He cringed to himself at how stupid he sounded. That he’d even had to ask.
“Sure, we can call it that if you’d like.”
“I can do better than a walk on the beach in the dark.”
“Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m intrigued.”
“Tomorrow night?”
“Let me check my schedule.” She pulled out her phone and pretended to peruse her calendar. “It appears I’m free.”
“Good,” he said, amused by her even when he should be annoyed by the way she was yanking his chain. “I’ll pick you up at six thirty.”
“Where’re we going?”
“You’ll find out.”
“What do I wear?”
“Whatever you want.”
“That’s not enough information.”
“That’s all you’re getting.” He’d never sparred with a woman this way, especially one he wanted the way he wanted her. And yes, he wanted her, even if his better judgment was still urging caution. He’d heard all the reasons his better judgment had come up with for playing it cool with her. And then, within thirty seconds in her presence, his better judgment had been thoroughly overruled. He’d have to be dead not to want her, especially after the way she’d tried to kiss him when he was saving her life.
Speaking of that… No, he wasn’t going to play that card. Not yet.
In town, they arrived at the scene of the crash, where numerous other public safety vehicles had already converged. “I’ll try to be quick.” He parked his SUV off to the side so it wouldn’t get hit while Jordan waited for him.
“Take your time. I hope everyone is all right.”
“Me, too.” If they were, he could get back to her that much sooner. He stepped out of the SUV and crossed the street toward the island’s one rotary, the scene of many a crash over the years. He and Blaine had tried for a while now to get the town to consider putting a light at the intersection, but so far, they’d been unsuccessful in making that happen. The islanders liked their rotary and didn’t want any stoplights on their unspoiled island. So the crashes continued.
