Cityscape Affair Series: The Complete Box Set

by Hawkins, Jessica

  “Okay.” I nodded, trying to determine if that was the whole truth. “But it’s perfectly fine to change your mind about him, too. You know that, right?”

  “I know.” She linked her elbow with mine, her blue eyes shining. “Let’s chow down.”

  I grabbed my purse, and we went downstairs. Brian introduced us to his girlfriend, Kat, who had waist-length brown hair and squeaked like a mouse when I shook her hand.

  To enjoy the temperate night, we walked the few blocks to the restaurant. The moment we entered, Greg yelled across the restaurant to Jordan, who was seated at the bar. I hadn’t given Greg a thorough lashing yet, mainly because I hadn’t had a chance. And I knew David would get to it himself.

  As soon as Jordan’s eyes locked on me, he grinned and stood from his barstool. “Hey, you,” he said and wrapped me in a hug. “Long time.”

  “Hi, Jordan.” He and I had dated on-and-off my first two years of college. After he’d dumped me for good, we’d remained distant friends because of Greg. Even though it’d been years, I still got a few butterflies seeing the first boy I’d loved. With dark blond hair and green eyes, he was solid and tall, but nowhere near David’s towering frame. He’d always been good-looking, but he’d known it.

  I remembered Jordan as a bit more straight-edge, a bit of stability during a fresh start at school, but now, a tattoo peeked out from his sleeve. “That’s new.”

  “Yeah. You like it?” He placed his hand on my shoulder and guided me over to the table where a hostess seated the others. “You look great, Livvy,” he whispered as he pulled out my chair and then sat down next to me.

  Brian cleared his throat from one end of the table, giving Jordan a once-over. “I don’t think we’ve met,” he said.

  “Jordan, meet Brian,” Greg said. “J’s an old friend of ours from college.”

  “Aha.” Brian’s eyes darted between Jordan and me, and he scratched the back of his head. “Nobody told me we had a sixth.”

  “Greg’s fault,” I said, shooting Greg a daggered look that he ignored.

  We promptly ordered a few bottles of wine. As Brian lamented about the day’s poor surf conditions, Jordan leaned over to me. “Greg told me about Bill. Sorry to hear it,” he said, but he smirked.

  “Are you?” I asked.

  Jordan grabbed a bottle of white wine from the center of the table and poured me a glass. “Not really. You got me.”

  “Jordan,” I admonished.

  “No, I’m just messing,” he said, raising his glass. “Divorce is rough, babe. Or so I’ve heard.”

  “It is, but I have someone to help me through it.”

  “Gretchen?” he asked with a playful waggle of his eyebrows.

  “No,” I replied and clinked his glass with mine. “My amazing boyfriend. Did Greg mention him?”

  “Yeah. I’m glad Greg invited me tonight,” he said, ignoring the topic.

  I sipped my wine and looked into the glass. Chardonnay. Great. That made me miss David’s company all the more. “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “Just because,” Jordan said. “Haven’t seen you since graduation. We get to catch up.”

  I nodded but narrowed my eyes at him in warning.

  Since David and I were the reason the group had come together, I did my best to keep the conversation flowing. Greg, Gretchen, Jordan, and I reminisced about college, memories that came easier the more we drank. Whereas Gretchen and I got giddier as we drank, Greg and Jordan seemed to get more nostalgic. The way they grasped at a long-gone past only made me more grateful my present was as close to perfect as ever.

  When Jordan excused himself to the bathroom, Greg leaned over Gretchen’s lap to get my attention. “So?” he asked just above a whisper. “Jordan?”

  “Jordan what?” I asked.

  “You guys seem to be getting along.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah. And?”

  “I’m just saying.” Greg grinned. “How awesome would it be if you guys got back together now that you’re single again? It’d be like the good old d—”

  “Don’t fucking say ‘good old days’ one more time,” Gretchen interrupted. “And what the hell are you even talking about? Liv isn’t single.”

  “You know what I mean.” He jutted his chin at me. “She’s no longer hitched.”

  I glanced at Brian, who was thankfully preoccupied with his date. I didn’t need him relaying any of this to David and getting him riled up from twelve-hundred miles away. “Did you set this up on purpose?” I asked Greg.

  He shrugged. “I just think it would be cool.”

  Gretchen grimaced and beat me to my response. “You’re a dick.”

  He glanced at her. “Why, babe? I thought you’d be into it.”

  “Because I’m with David,” I said.

  Gretchen just shook her head and gave me an apologetic look.

  Greg leaned back into his seat, but not before he said to me, “Think about it.”

  The waiter arrived with our meals, and as he distributed them, I studied Greg. We’d been best friends in college. I’d enjoyed getting to know him again, but the bond we’d had before didn’t seem to exist anymore. Gretchen was right—he was a dick. Maybe he always had been. Inviting Jordan with the assumption that he could lure me away from David made me mildly sick to my stomach.

  I wasn’t the only one watching Greg. At first, I assumed Brian’s thoughts were also on protecting his friend David as he stared at Greg over his glass of wine—until his eyes shifted to Gretchen. Did I detect a hint of jealousy in them? I forked a bite of salmon and decided to ask her later if she’d ever give Brian another chance.

  “So, Jordan,” Gretchen said, “seeing anyone special these days?”

  “I see some special girls at this table right now,” he said, glancing between the two of us.

  “Well, hands off, chap, they’re all spoken for,” Brian said, and his usually jovial tone held an edge of warning.

  “I know, dude,” Jordan replied. “I’m messing around.” But he was giving me his best fuck-me eyes, and he had been all night. Flirtatious by nature, but not afraid to go for what he wanted—it was what’d drawn me to him in the first place. I silently thanked the universe that I had David and wouldn’t have to make up an excuse to shake Jordan later.

  Jordan lowered his voice. “So, is it serious with this new guy?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, biting off the tip of an asparagus spear. “Very.”

  “And where, pray tell, is he tonight?” he asked.

  “New York for work.” I inclined forward as if to tell him a secret. “He gets here in the morning.”

  “Ah, interesting,” Jordan said.

  I turned to Brian’s new girlfriend, who I’d almost forgotten was here, and asked her what she did for a living. Her voice was so soft that I could barely hear her response. I just nodded and took another bite until she stopped talking.

  Gretchen leaned over a moment later and whispered, “What’s with her? She’s creepy.”

  “She is not, Gretch,” I said. “Maybe a little shy.”

  “She’s barely said a word. Which is probably why Brian likes her,” Gretchen reasoned. “She won’t complain when all he talks about is himself.”

  “Be nice,” I scolded but stifled a laugh.

  “Do you think she’s cute?” Gretchen asked.

  “Yes.” I arched an eyebrow. Perhaps the jealousy I thought I’d seen in Brian ran both ways. “Why?”

  “She’s all right, I guess,” she said and then sat back and kissed Greg on the cheek.

  I wondered if Brian had heard her, since he made a fist around his fork. His eyes quickly shifted to me, and he smiled. I smiled back. Regardless of Gretchen’s opinions, I liked Brian, and I could tell that he was watching out for me in David’s absence.

  “More wine?” Jordan asked, positioning the mouth of the bottle over my glass.

  “I shouldn’t.”

  “Come on.”

  “No,” I said. “
I think I’m good.”

  “Aw, Livvy,” he sang, the way he used to when he was trying to convince me of something.

  “Jordan,” I replied in the same voice, shaking my head.

  He put the chardonnay down and his eyes drifted to my neck. “Did I tell you how pretty you look tonight?”

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

  “I was just thinking about us. You know.” He shrugged. “We have a long history.”

  “History, yes,” I said. “Future, no.”

  He laughed a little, then stuck out his bottom lip. “I’m not a kid anymore. I was stupid to let a girl like you get away. I’m happy to hear this Bill guy’s out of the picture.”

  “How can you say that?” I asked at his offhand comment when the last several months had been anything but easy. “That was my marriage.”

  “Candidly . . . because it gives me a second chance,” he said.

  “It doesn’t, though,” I said, folding my napkin in my lap. “I told you. I have a boyfriend.”

  “Who’s in New York,” he pointed out. “So, maybe you and I could, you know, get a drink after this. Without the others.”

  I stared at Jordan a second. The idea was so ridiculous that it fizzled my anger, and I burst out laughing.

  His expression fell. “What’s the big deal? You cheated on Bill, didn’t you?”

  My laugh vanished with his proverbial gut punch. So because I’d done it to Bill, I would to David? Jordan’s interest had just gone from harmless to insulting. “The big deal is that my boyfriend is ten times the man you ever were.”

  “Aw, Liv, come on,” Jordan said. “You don’t even know me anymore.”

  “I don’t need to,” I said. “Sorry, babe.”

  Jordan inclined farther toward me, and I realized I’d slid to the opposite edge of my seat. “Think about it,” he said. “We make perfect sense. We were college sweethearts.”

  “There’s literally nothing you can say to convince me,” I told him. “So you can back off. I’m totally and completely taken. I might as well be—”

  “Olivia,” I heard behind me.

  I whipped around at the endlessly deep voice that made my heart soar. David stood over me, arms crossed, wearing an expensive suit and a hard gaze. Just his tone alone was enough to quiet the table.

  I jumped up and threw my arms around his neck. “What are you doing here?”

  “Who’s this?” Jordan asked behind me.

  “Boyfriend,” David bit out. “Who the fuck are you?”

  Since David was still as a statue, I drew back. “You came early,” I said as my shock melted into a big smile.

  “Who is this guy?” David responded, nodding over my head.

  “It’s Jordan Banks, my—”

  “Jordan? Ex-boyfriend Jordan?” David clipped. His nostrils flared and his gaze cut across the table. “Brian?”

  “Sorry, mate,” Brian said. “I didn’t know until I got here, and they told me he was just a friend.”

  “Mate?” Gretchen uttered under her breath. “Is he Australian now?”

  David’s eyes met mine. “Outside. Now.”

  “Is there a problem, Liv?” Jordan asked.

  “No,” David answered for me. “And I’d advise you to keep your mouth shut.”

  Before leaving the table, I turned back to Jordan. “Ten times,” I reminded him. “I mean it.”

  Outside, I shivered despite a much nicer evening than it would’ve been in Chicago right now.

  “We’re apart a couple nights, and you’re having dinner with your ex?” David started.

  “It’s not like that,” I said, rubbing my hands over my sleeved arms. “Greg has some twisted idea about recreating the past, and he invited Jordan without telling anyone.”

  “You didn’t know he’d be here?”

  “No, baby. I swear. I’m totally uncomfortable with this. Trust me?”

  David pressed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. “Yes. I trust you, and I trust this,” he said, motioning between us. “It’s everyone else I don’t trust. And I don’t like the way he was leaning on you.”

  I didn’t love it, either, if I was honest, so I remained quiet.

  He cocked his head. “Why aren’t you arguing with me?”

  “Because you’re right.”

  He frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “You’re right. I was clear that I have a boyfriend, but Jordan won’t back off. He seems to think because I cheated on Bill that I’d . . .”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” David asked, shoulders tensing. “He said that?”

  “Not outright.” I put my hand on David’s forearm. “But I’m trusting you not to explode. If you freak out every time I confide in you about something I know you won’t like, I’m going to stop.” I slid my hand up his biceps until he visibly relaxed. “It doesn’t matter to me. I see right through his garbage. He’s no threat to you. Nobody is.”

  David’s eyebrows knit. “Since when do you like tattoos?”

  I laughed. “I don’t.”

  The look on his face betrayed his skepticism. “What does ‘ten times’ mean?”

  My shoulders eased as David began to thaw. “I told him my boyfriend is ten times the man he is.”

  David looked me up and down. “Ten times, huh? Did you use a ruler to figure that out?”

  I blushed and glanced at the ground. “I didn’t have to. You’re ten times any man I’ve ever been with.” When I looked back, a silly grin spread across David’s face. I arched an eyebrow at him. “Don’t act as if you don’t know you have a huge cock.”

  He laughed his surprise and then leaned into me, taking my entire jaw in one big hand. “What a dirty mouth you have, Miss Germaine.” Finally, he kissed me. “I might have to spank you for that one.”

  I wriggled, smiled, and hugged his neck. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

  He let go of my face, and his arms surrounded my waist. “You look beautiful. Too beautiful to be out without me.” He ran his hand over my hair. “You’re cold.”

  “I’m getting warmer, sexy.”

  He laughed. “Feisty tonight?”

  “Very. I’m just glad I don’t have to spend another night alone.” I batted my lashes. “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to surprise you, so Brian told me where you guys would be. What he failed to mention was that you already had a date.”

  I laughed. “Poor Brian had no idea, but he was keeping an eye on Jordan. You have a good friend there.”

  “Speaking of, you say that Greg orchestrated this?” David asked.

  I nodded as my smile fell. “I understand if you’re pissed. I am.”

  “Damn right I’m pissed, and I’ll tell him next chance I get. I don’t like that shit.”

  “All right.” I took his hand. “Come on, and help me finish my dinner.”

  “I’m not sitting next to that tattooed asshole.”

  “Don’t whine,” I said, leading him back inside. The group was already settling the bill so David took my seat, and I perched on his knee.

  “Did you eat?” I asked, nodding at my dinner. “Because I’m full.”

  “I ate on the plane,” he said right before making short work of cleaning my plate. With his last bite, he picked up the bottle of chardonnay between Jordan and me to inspect the label. “What is this garbage?”

  “Jordan picked it,” I said.

  Jordan frowned. “I mean, it’s just your basic house wine . . .”

  “Yeah,” David said, setting the bottle aside. He thrust my glass away as if it’d offended him. “Not in my house.”

  I giggled as David winked at me, and the others just looked confused.

  “Well, I’m going to take off,” Jordan announced. “Got plans tonight.”

  I wasn’t surprised Jordan didn’t want to stay, as David literally used his large body to block him off from the rest of the table.

  Even though he’d i
rritated me, he was harmless, and he was still my friend. Or he had been once. I tried to get up and hug him good-bye, but David’s arm tightened around my waist, securing me to his knee.

  “Well, bye,” I said.

  Jordan stood awkwardly for a moment. “Okay, then. Have a good weekend, guys.”

  “Ready to rip tomorrow, Bri?” David asked Brian, ignoring Jordan as he waited a moment and then left.

  “I don’t know, man,” Brian said. “Waves are looking a little bleak. We’ll give it a go, though. Greg?”

  “I might just hang back with the girls.” Greg looked over at David. “I had a two-hour phone call with planning and zoning officials today. Feeling like a zombie.”

  David rubbed my knee as he asked Greg, “You invite that guy Jordan?”

  Greg cleared his throat. “Ah, yeah. We’re old friends.”

  “Not now, honey,” I said near David’s ear.

  He glanced around the table, then at Greg. “We’re going to chat tomorrow.”

  “Maybe we girls want to go surfing,” I said to dispel the awkward silence.

  “Do you, baby? I’ll take you,” David decided before I could respond. “Brian and I are going to hit the line-up pretty early, but mid-morning should be good for beginners.”

  “How about you, little lady?” Brian asked.

  “I’m in,” Gretchen exclaimed and then reddened when she realized he was talking to his date. Kat only shook her head.

  “We’d better get some rest then,” David said to me.

  I clasped the big, rough hand moving back-and-forth on my leg and whispered back to him, “Don’t count on it.”

  On the way back to the house, we fell into couples. “I know I said it already, but I missed you,” I told David as we walked hand in hand.

  “Me, too.” He passed his thumb over my knuckles. “Baffling how we went all those months away from each other.”

  I snuck my arm across his lower back. “You must be tired,” I murmured, snuggling into him.

  “Yes, and I didn’t even get everything done.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, because it sounded like an admonishment.

  “I’m not,” he said softly and stopped walking. I looked up at him as we stood still. “Everything is better when I can look into your eyes. That’s what I realized being away from you.” He touched my cheek. “They’re the most beautiful shade of green. They’re the first reason I fell in love with you.”