“I don’t have to leave for work for another hour or so. Let me know if you need anything.”
He extended his hand to shake hers. “Thank you.” It was a bit formal, but she got the impression he didn’t know what to say. She put her hand inside his.
“I’m sorry that happened,” she said.
“All I could think of was how I could get away from her if she tried to put her hands on me. She was between me and the crutches. I’m steadier on my feet now than I was a couple of months ago, but . . . ” His voice trailed off.
“I was in the gym for a while. I came upstairs because I thought something might be wrong and you needed help,” she said. “I heard it all.”
His shoulders slumped.
“You told her no. Several times,” she said. “I heard it.”
His voice lowered. “Could I ask you for one more favor?”
“Yes.”
“I gotta get some clothes on. Will you sit in the living room and watch that she leaves?”
“Yeah,” Jordan said. She squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.
Barb emerged from the master suite five minutes later. She dragged her suitcases through the entryway as Jordan watched.
“I suppose you think you’ve won,” Barb said to Jordan.
Jordan stared back at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
Barb’s face was frozen into a mask of fury. Cold dread slithered down Jordan’s spine. Barb was obviously upset at losing her job, but this was a little creepy. Jordan gestured toward the open front door.
“Do you need any help with your things?”
“No, I don’t. Get out of my way,” Barb said, despite the fact Jordan was at least three feet away from her and nowhere near the front door. She left a long scratch in the patterned hardwood floor as she dragged her luggage out of the house. “I wasn’t kidding about his ex, Star, either. She went to college with my daughter. We’ve had an earful about Tanner. He made the first move with me.”
Jordan reached into her pocket to verify her phone was there, just in case. She waited until she saw Barb drive out of the security gate and the gate closed behind her before she got to her feet and called out to Tanner, “She’s gone.”
***
JORDAN ARRIVED AT the high school football field a little after five PM that afternoon. She and Tanner agreed via text that morning she’d do some stretching with him after practice. The cloudless sky was still a dark cerulean blue. The sun was starting its late-afternoon descent. Harrison herded the knot of six-year-olds onto the football field. The air smelled like freshly mown grass and warm soil, and Tanner was already sitting on the sideline bench.
It appeared Tanner was still among the living. She’d been concerned she was going to go back to his house and find him in a heap on his bedroom floor. He was her client, but even more, she’d been worried today about his reaction to what happened with Barb. She’d tried to put what she’d overheard out of her mind as she worked. But she kept remembering the look on his face when he’d hobbled out of the bathroom: shock and anger. In that moment, all she could think of was what she could do to help him.
One of Tanner’s arms was slung over the back of the bench as he eased his body against it. He grabbed his injured leg and moved it off the bench as the little quarterback approached him. She plunked down on the bench beside him. Jordan couldn’t hear what was being said, but she saw the girl rubbing her eyes.
He said something to her. She turned to look at him as she spoke, still rubbing her eyes.
Tanner patted the girl’s shoulder in a clumsy sort of way. Jordan was willing to bet he hadn’t spent a lot of time with little girls since he was a child, but he appeared to be comforting her somehow. The girl sat next to Tanner for a few more minutes as they watched the team practice. He patted her on the back a couple of times. She squared her shoulders, jumped up from the bench, and ran back to the other kids.
***
IT WAS A good thing the weather was great today, because that was the only thing that had gone right in Tanner’s world. It was humiliating to call his agent and ask what he should do first—contact her agency or call the cops and give a statement as a preemptory strike. His agent advised him to call his attorney and give a statement, which was another fun hour-or-so convo. Tanner didn’t think she’d be dumb enough to press charges against him or whatever, but weirder things had happened. Luckily for him, the attorney handled talking with the agency. He had other things to deal with.
The agency called him to offer another live-in nurse: a guy. Tanner told them he’d think about it. He wished he was far enough along in his recovery to tell them to stick it, but he really needed someone for at least the next month or so.
Harrison showed up at his house at four PM to pick him up for peewee football practice. Tanner managed to get up the stairs in front of his garage with the crutches so he could get in Harrison’s car. He was horrified to realize he was breathing hard after walking such a short distance. He’d been exercising as much as he could on his own, but it wasn’t enough. He needed more cardio.
“How’s your sexy, sexy agency nurse?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about her right now.”
“Is she still treating you like you’re four?” Harrison teased.
“I fired her this morning,” Tanner said.
Harrison stared at him. “You what?”
“She came on to me,” Tanner said.
“What the fuck?”
“DP overheard the whole thing too.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “At least there’s a witness.”
“Was she freaked out?”
“Jordan? Yeah,” Tanner said. “She can be a handful, but she had my back this morning.”
Harrison grinned at him. “Turning soft in your old age, bro?”
“Shit, no. She’s going to chirp something at me and I’m going to lose my grip—”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Harrison said.
Things improved when they got to the football field. Tanner settled himself on the bench. He’d discovered that the kids didn’t need a lot of direction from him, so he figured he could spend his time observing and talk about what he saw with Harrison later. Today, though, Kiernan needed some extra help. She ran over and plunked herself down beside him on the bench.
“What’s up?” he said. He glanced over to see tears running down her face. “What happened?”
“Jayson said that I can’t throw. He said I was ugly.” She rubbed her eyes.
He gave her a clumsy pat on the arm. “That wasn’t nice. It’s not true, either.”
“How do you know?”
“I have been sitting over here watching all of you. You throw just fine. He’s mad because he’s not playing quarterback.”
She brushed the tears off her face. “Do you think I’m ugly?”
He took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how to answer this one, but hopefully he’d say something that wouldn’t make things worse. “No. You are pretty, but I like you because you are kind to other people too.”
She rubbed her eyes again as he patted her on the back. She jumped up from the bench and ran back to the other kids. When practice was over, she hurried over, perched on the bench next to him, and threw her arms around his midsection. “I like you too,” she said.
His day hadn’t been so bad after all.
***
JORDAN WAS A bit surprised to see the little red-haired quarterback make her way over to the bench. She perched next to him and threw her arms around Tanner’s midsection. She gave him a quick squeeze.
Jordan watched as Tanner gave her another clumsy pat on the back. For a guy who had spent the past few weeks singeing everyone in his vicinity with sarcasm, the little girl seemed to enjoy his company. The quarterback’s dad shook Tanner’s hand as he left the practice field as well.
Jordan’s feelings about Tanner were changing by the hour. She was confused by her indecision. Just when she thought he coul
d be a real jerk sometimes, he’d do something sweet like give a little girl a hug or whatever. Maybe she should spend less time looking for reasons to think he was a jerk and concentrate on the good things she’d noticed about him.
Maybe she had Stockholm syndrome or something.
She hurried down the steps to the front door and spun around in case Tanner needed some help getting into the house safely. Harrison was dropping him off at home before he went out on a date.
“Come on, old man,” Harrison said to Tanner as he got out of his car. “I’ve got plans.”
“You can leave. I’ll be fine,” Tanner snapped. He grabbed his crutches out of the backseat of Harrison’s car.
“Don’t wait up,” Harrison teased.
“The fuck I will,” Tanner said.
“What was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”
Tanner paused long enough to flip Harrison the bird as he approached the stone steps leading to his front door.
Jordan turned at the base of the stairs to watch as Tanner made his way down the steps. She glanced up from her musings on the mystery of Tanner’s recent behavior and had opened her mouth to speak just in time to see Tanner’s crutch miss the step below him. He tried to catch his balance but couldn’t do so. A few seconds later, he landed on top of her. The crutches went flying. She hit the tiles with an oof.
Tanner couldn’t seem to maneuver down the stairs safely, but his reflexes were still in perfect condition. He’d wrapped one arm around her before they’d both fallen onto the sun-warmed tiles. His other hand cradled the back of her head. If he hadn’t, she would have smacked her head on them.
“Are you okay?”
She couldn’t really form words at the moment. She was so shocked he’d landed on her she didn’t have a lot to say. He rolled off her as she tried to speak. Despite having a very large male lying on top of her, she seemed to be okay.
“Say something,” he said. “Do we need to call an aid car? Are you hurt?”
“Mph,” she said. She shook her head vigorously from side to side. No ambulance. If they’d just give her a second to gather her thoughts and breathe a little, she could tell them she was going to be fine.
“I’m fine,” Tanner snapped. “She needs help.” He held up his hand. Blood ran from his scraped knuckles. “I might need a Band-Aid,” he said.
“Don’t look at the blood,” Harrison told him.
Jordan watched the color drain out of Tanner’s face. He looked horrified. She regained the use of her extremities and reached out to grab his upper arm.
“Fuck. There’s more than I thought.” Tanner’s voice sounded panicky.
“Shut your eyes.” Harrison half ran to Tanner’s side, propped him into a sitting position, and told him, “Put your head between your legs. Breathe.” He pulled up the leg of Tanner’s warm-up pants. “Your incision seems fine.”
“I didn’t twist it or anything. DP needs more help than I do.”
Jordan was sure that this entire thing would be hilarious later. Right now, it wasn’t quite so funny. She was going to be sore as hell tomorrow morning, and she wasn’t going to think about what would happen if Tanner passed out right now. It seemed that the big guy didn’t like the sight of blood, especially his own.
She shoved herself into a sitting position. If she braced herself with both hands, she could get up off the ground. Harrison was running back and forth between them like a field medic. She could get up right now and walk, but maybe it would be a good idea to sit here for a minute or so and gather her thoughts first. She was also attempting to forget what it felt like to have Tanner on top of her. It wasn’t like it was romantic, but she’d be lying to herself if she tried to ignore the fact she spent a few seconds wrapped in his arms and liking it.
Liking it, hell. His skin felt like a brand against hers. She didn’t know if her heart rate sped up because she’d been scared or she was near him. She wished she could ignore the hormones currently coursing through her bloodstream. It wasn’t going to happen.
Jordan was in good shape and strong from lifting weights five days a week, but she knew she couldn’t pick Tanner up herself if it happened again. He seemed uninjured, but she knew that they would be waiting for the adrenaline to wear off before he would notice any other issues. Her heart was still pounding too.
She definitely had Stockholm syndrome. Plus, she couldn’t ignore her physical reaction to him. Hopefully he’d do or say something shitty so she could remind herself how annoying and full of himself he was. It should happen any minute now.
***
BY THE TIME they managed to get Tanner into a chair and mop up his bloody knuckles, nobody felt like a drink. The three of them sat on the deck while the sun sank on the horizon and Tanner inhaled a barbecue cheeseburger and a small mountain of fries from UberEats. He wrapped a napkin around his bandaged knuckles so he wouldn’t get barbecue sauce on the gauze. Harrison and Jordan split a pizza.
“So, champ, how you feeling?” Harrison casually slung one arm around the back of Jordan’s deck chair. She smiled as Harrison winked at her.
Tanner’s eyes narrowed a bit as he watched. He took a swallow of the one beer he’d managed to snag on his way out to the deck. He looked like a thundercloud.
The urge to laugh at the expression on Tanner’s face warred with a teeny bit of uneasiness inside her. She wasn’t worried that Harrison didn’t know what the word no meant. She didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about how she felt about him, and the hurt feelings that would ensue.
“Are you sure you should be drinking that while taking pain pills?” Jordan said to Tanner.
“Don’t start with me,” Tanner said. “It’s one beer. Also, could we talk about something else? I’m tired of discussing my health.” He raised one eyebrow. “Seen any good movies lately?”
“She’s on your ass now, T,” Harrison said. “Good luck with that.”
“I’m arguing with her right now.” Tanner gestured at Jordan with a ketchup-coated French fry. “Get in line.”
Jordan got up from her chair, flounced into the kitchen, and filled a glass with ice and water. She made a quick search for the pain medication she knew Tanner took; he must have left the bottle in his bathroom or something. She reappeared on the deck a couple of minutes later, set it down in front of Tanner, and said, “Drink this.”
Harrison patted her shoulder as she sat down again. “Don’t worry,” he said under his breath. “It would take a hell of a lot more than a beer to kill his ass.”
“I feel like ass right now, as a matter of fact,” Tanner shot back.
“Sore?”
“Yeah. You try wiping out on the staircase.”
Harrison pretended to rub one eye with a fist. “Waaaah. And you didn’t take your pain medication, either.”
“Don’t be a dick.”
“Don’t be a big baby. We’ll get you some Bengay or something. You’ll be good as new by tomorrow. You used to knock other guys on their asses, and now a spill down a few stairs is taking you out? Jordan told me she’s a little sore too.” Harrison moved a bit closer to Jordan as he spoke.
Tanner’s eyes riveted onto Jordan’s as his eyebrows slammed together. “Are you okay? Do I need to call the doc to get over here and check you out?”
She waved one hand in a “no, thank you” gesture. “It’s a few pulled muscles. Whatever. I’ll get some sleep and I’ll be fine.”
She could also soak in the guest room tub for a few minutes before she went to bed. The hot water and the jets would help. Right now, she was a bit curious about the game Harrison seemed to be playing with Tanner. Harrison was flirting, and Tanner seemed unhappy about it.
Harrison looped his arm around Jordan’s shoulders again. Tanner’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t you have to work in the morning?” Tanner asked him.
“I’ve got all the time in the world,” Harrison said. “I know I asked you out for a drink. We could still go if you feel like it.” He squeezed
Jordan’s upper arm. “The old man must be tired.”
“I’m not fucking tired,” Tanner snapped in response. Harrison ignored him.
“Want to go sit on the dock for a while?” Harrison said to Jordan.
“That sounds great, but I have to work tomorrow too,” she said. “Maybe another time?”
“Of course,” Harrison said. “Want to walk me to the door?”
Tanner let out a snort. “I think you know the way.”
Harrison got to his feet and held out one hand to Jordan. Tanner’s expression had gone from fairly irritated to fiery as color surged over his face. She wished someone would fill her in on what the hell was going on. If she didn’t know better, she’d say that Tanner was acting like he was jealous, which was the most ridiculous thing ever.
It didn’t matter if he was beyond hot, had every physical feature that made her want to throw herself in his lap, or he was nice to a little girl. She wasn’t going to think about the fact she was living in his house rent-free for the rest of the summer. He was really bugging her in the last hour or so. In the meantime, Harrison was holding her hand as they strolled to Tanner’s front door.
“I think I can get my hands on some Sounders tickets for next week. Would you like to go with me? I’ll buy you a beer.”
“I—I—well, uh,” she stammered. She didn’t want to lead him on. He was making moves. She was out of her mind for friend-zoning him. She wished she knew why he didn’t do it for her. Actually, she knew why.
She liked the bad boys—guys who were rough and tumble, guys who didn’t graduate from an Ivy League school and look like they just walked out of a Fortune 500 boardroom, like Harrison did. Guys who weren’t Mr. Romance but could generate plenty of heat when they wanted to. Every guy who put a twist in her knickers was like Tanner, who didn’t seem to know she was alive but she was kind of into him anyway.
Harrison dropped her hand and patted her shoulder. “How about I text you when I get the tickets?”
Her breath came out in a rush. “Sure. That would be great.” She could come up with a reason why she wouldn’t be able to go then.
Necessary Roughness Page 8
