Hush (Just This Once)

by Deborah Bladon

  She pretends to mull it over with a deep sigh. “What time were you thinking, handsome?”

  “Midnight,” he answers quickly as he moves closer to her. “We can meet here, or I can grab your number and shoot you a text. Your choice.”

  Gabi has a plan of her own. It’s a trick she taught me early in our friendship if I was semi-interested in a guy, but not entirely committed to going out with him. “Why don’t you give me your number so I can send you a text later tonight?”

  He’s all over that idea. He starts calling out his digits before Gabi even has her phone in her hand. I watch in silence as she keys in the numbers before she looks up at him again. “I need your name.”

  “Trevor,” he whispers under his breath. “What’s your name?”

  Her gaze drops back to her phone. “I’m Gabriella and that’s Chloe.”

  Naturally, he doesn’t look in my direction at all. I pick up the glass of water and take a drink while my stomach rumbles for more. I last ate hours ago and that was only an apple. I’m famished.

  “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Gabriella.” His hand shoots out toward her. “I’m looking forward to seeing you later tonight.”

  “Can you give us a minute to decide on dinner?” She ignores his offered hand along with everything he just said. “Come back around in five and we’ll be ready to order.”

  He jumps into action and moves toward another table where a couple has just been seated.

  “Are you going to text him?”

  She pushes her phone toward me and I read what’s on the screen.

  Trevor, the server: thin moustache.

  “I thought you gave up taking notes on the men you meet?” I laugh as I hand her back her phone.

  “I never know when I’ll run into a man I’ve already met.” She drops her phone in her bag. “Besides, I made him feel good and we’ll get excellent service.”

  “He’ll be waiting with baited breath at midnight to hear from you.”

  She enjoys a leisurely sip of her drink. “If I have enough of these, I might grab a disposable razor for that god-awful moustache and meet him after all.”

  I look over the menu. “I’m going to have a steak. That’s okay, right?”

  “I’m all for feeding the hungry.” She looks to where Trevor is standing near the bar before her gaze shifts back to me. “I’ll drop the subject of where you were yesterday morning if you tell me if it’s the same guy who arranged for the flower delivery.”

  “It’s him,” I whisper under my breath. “That’s the guy.”

  “I’m glad you met someone.” She reaches across the table to cover my hand with hers. “It’s good to see you having fun.”

  “It is fun.” I pick up another breadstick and grasp it firmly in my palm. “It’s harmless fun and right now, that’s exactly what I need.”

  Chapter 16

  Chloe

  “Do you want to hit up a museum on Saturday?” Rocco asks before he picks up the tea I ordered. “There’s a new installation at the Whitney that I’d like to check out.”

  Art isn’t something that interests me. Rocco happens to love it and since he can’t find anyone else who is willing to spend hours in a museum with him, I’m usually the one who tags along.

  I’m tempted to say yes, but I have an important case heading to trial next month so every spare second I have is devoted to work. “I’m going to be in the office all weekend. You can drop by after the museum and fill me in.”

  “And bring one of these?” He hands me a tall paper cup of green tea. “Maybe a pizza too?”

  “With extra cheese and pepperoni?” I take a small sip of the hot liquid.

  He swallows a mouthful of the coffee he ordered for himself. “I know how you like your pizza.”

  “How does she like her pizza?”

  Rocco and I both turn at the sound of a male voice. I recognize it immediately.

  I haven’t seen Evan in more than a week-and-a-half. I’ve been by the café most mornings, although I had to rush past it twice last week when I was running late for meetings. I did stop briefly to peer in through the window and didn’t spot him.

  I was disappointed but that was quickly replaced with acceptance. Evan and I aren’t dating. We fuck. It’s as casual as any relationship between two people can be.

  Rocco looks to me for reassurance that I know Evan. I give him a quick nod.

  “I’m Rocco Jones and you are?” Rocco offers his hand to Evan who takes it without hesitation.

  He shakes it while he studies my face before he finally looks back at my brother. “Evan. I’m Evan. It’s good to meet you.”

  “You two know each other?” Rocco takes a leisurely drink of his coffee.

  “Not as well as you two know each other.” Evan’s gaze is back on me. “I had no idea that Chloe liked pepperoni pizza.”

  “With extra cheese,” Rocco adds.

  Evan’s brows rise. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to say hi to you, Chloe, since we haven’t spoken in a few days.”

  Eleven days. It’s been eleven days.

  “You’re not interrupting.” Rocco pats Evan’s shoulder. “My sister has to get to work and I need to head out.”

  “Your sister?” A wide smile covers Evan’s mouth. “Chloe is your sister?”

  Rocco grins. “The best sister a guy could ask for.”

  Evan’s shoulders relax. He looks relieved and that makes me smile. “What else can you tell me about, Chloe?”

  My brother looks at me before he turns back to Evan. “Chloe will fill you in on everything she thinks you need to know. I can tell you that her brothers protect her at all costs.”

  I had no idea when I got out of bed this morning that my brother would be threatening my fuck buddy before I got to work.

  “Brothers?” Evan ignores the veiled threat to dig for more personal details about me. “How many Jones brothers are there?”

  “Three,” I blurt out because I want this conversation to be over. “I have three brothers.”

  “I have none,” Evan admits. “Consider yourself lucky, Chloe.”

  I do.

  “It was good to meet you, Evan. I’m going to run.” Rocco leans down to kiss me softly on the forehead. “I’ll stop by on Saturday, Chloe. Call me if you need anything before then.”

  I watch in silence as he walks away before I turn back to face Evan.

  “Chloe Jones,” he says slowly as he takes one step closer to me. “It suits you well.”

  I don’t correct him. There’s no need to. I’m working on changing my surname back to Jones since Newell is a name I’ve come to loathe. I want to leave it and the all the memories of it behind.

  ***

  “I don’t have time to go to a hotel with you today,” I say when Evan motions toward the door of the café. “I have a lot going on at work.”

  His gaze travels over my face. “We don’t have to go to a hotel. I came here to see you. That’s all. If you can give me five minutes right now so I can stare at you, I’m good. “

  I can’t contain a smile. “You’re very charming.”

  “You’re mistaking honesty with charming.” He kisses me lightly on the cheek. “I was hoping I’d see you today. I’ve been putting in long hours at work. I did stop by a couple of times last week, but you were nowhere to be found.”

  I raise my cup in the air. “Here’s to long hours at work. I’ve been swamped.”

  He taps his cup to mine before he takes a drink. “I have tomorrow off.”

  It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines of that statement. He wants to hook-up. I could use the distraction and there’s nothing like an orgasm to do just that. “Name the hotel and the time.”

  Something shifts in his expression. “We could do that, but I was thinking about dinner.”

  “Dinner?” I cast my gaze down before I look back at him.

  He just invited me to dinner. I’d classify that as an actual date. A rush of heat
overwhelms me and I know that my cheeks must be turning a soft shade of pink.

  Dammit, Chloe. Get a grip. It’s just a date.

  “If you’re not comfortable with that, say so.” He taps the middle of his chest. “It may bruise my heart, but I’ll get over it.”

  I press the toe of my boot against the corner of the barista counter. I should say no. Dinner can lead to more and I’m carrying so much baggage that he’d get lost under it.

  “One meal, Chloe,” he goes on. “I didn’t ask you to marry me.”

  I laugh. “I know.”

  “If you feel like having dinner with me tomorrow, meet me at The Hot Oven Pizzeria on Broadway.”

  I nod.

  “I’ll be there at around six.” He gives me a chaste kiss. “I hope to see you there, Chloe Jones.”

  I don’t say anything in response because my heart won’t let me. I have more than a day to think about it. I just hope that tomorrow at six, I make the right decision.

  Chapter 17

  Evan

  I slide my phone back into the front pocket of my pants. Why the fuck is there no trace of the Chloe Jones I’ve been fucking? I searched for more than ten minutes and I came up with nothing.

  There are a lot of women named Chloe Jones. A lot. When I narrowed my search to those who lived in New York State, I still couldn’t find her.

  Not one of the images online for women with that name matches the woman I met outside the hotel. She’s an enigma.

  Her brother popped up on dozens of sites. He’s a retired professional poker player. Naturally, not one of the articles I read about him mentioned his family.

  “What’s with you?” Jordan rounds the corner and approaches me. “You look like you’re ready to bite someone’s head off.”

  I’m disappointed, not pissed.

  “You look like you’re waiting for a flood.” I gesture toward his pants. “Have you grown an inch or two since you had those hemmed? Nice socks, by the way.”

  He looks down at where a good three inches of his pale pink socks are on display between his shoes and the bottom hem of his black pants.

  “My tailor made a mistake.” He tries to tug down on the fabric covering his thigh. “He gave me a good deal so I thought, what the hell, who will notice?”

  I shake my head. “Did you pop in to see Mrs. Walton?”

  “I did.” He moves closer to me when an orderly passes us pushing an empty gurney. “I concur with your diagnosis.”

  I pat him on the shoulder. “That’s all I need to hear. I’ll stop in to her room to discuss treatment options.”

  I start to move past him but he stalls me with a hand to my forearm. “You didn’t need to play third wheel at lunch the other day. Kylie and I would have been just fine on our own.”

  He would have been, Kylie not so much.

  She was nice to him; nicer than I thought she’d be but she cut the lunch short when she got a text message.

  It stung Jordan. I could see it in his face and when he asked her to dinner in front of me, I cringed.

  She didn’t decline or accept. Instead, she said she’d get back to him.

  It was an act of kindness that has spiralled out of control.

  Jordan keeps hitting me up to ask Kylie when she’ll have an answer to his dinner invitation. I keep telling him to wait it out because patience is a virtue.

  It’s not. It’s generally a waste of time.

  “Has she said anything about me?” he asks expectantly. “I mean, it’s been days, Evan. She must have said something by now.”

  “Ask her yourself.” I gesture behind him. “Kylie’s headed our way and this is your chance. Talk to her.”

  He spins around to look down the corridor. Kylie is strutting toward us like the former model she is. She tosses us both a wave and a smile.

  “Kylie.” Jordan approaches her with quick, uneven steps. “You look beautiful today.”

  “Jordan.” She looks him over before she locks eyes with me. “Evan.”

  “I was wondering…” Jordan starts before he stops to pull in a deep breath. “I’m just wondering if you’ve given any thought to having dinner with me one night when we can both escape this place.”

  She lets out a little laugh as she pushes her long dark hair back over her shoulder. “Is this dinner with just you, Jordan, or both of you? Are we talking about a twosome or a threesome?”

  I almost throw up in my mouth at the mental image of Jordan without clothes.

  “Evan isn’t part of this.” Jordan squares his shoulders. “I’d like to take you to Nova for dinner one night. Just you and me.”

  I should step away before she crushes every one of his dreams under her red stiletto, but I don’t. I’m all for watching the crash and burn. I take my thrills where I can get them.

  “In that case, I’d love to have dinner with you, Jordan.”

  Well, fuck.

  Miracles do happen every single day in this hospital.

  ***

  When I asked the hostess to sit me at a corner table in The Hot Oven Pizzeria she gave me a wink. That might have had to do with the fact that I told her I was meeting a beautiful woman for a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese.

  I hope to hell that Chloe doesn’t make a liar.

  My gaze falls to my phone. I got here early and that was on purpose. I had the day off but that didn’t stop me from going to the hospital to do unofficial rounds. That resulted with a little one-on-one time with my boss.

  He wanted to know why I’m not seeing more patients at our luxurious office uptown. I wanted to know why his wife always squeezes her tits whenever I make eye contact with her.

  Obviously, I didn’t ask my question because… rent, food, subway fare.

  I’m doing fine with the set up I have going on at the hospital. I see patients in the office twice a month. The rest of the time, I’m where I need to be and that’s a few steps away from an operating room.

  I glance at the door again. It’s five after six and Chloe isn’t in sight.

  I can wait it out. I have faith that she’ll show because I see the way she looks at me.

  She might not have admitted it yesterday, but she was happy to see me in that café. I was happy to see her too.

  I look over at a table next to me. It’s a couple, years younger than I am. They’re obviously on a first or second date. Their movements are awkward and their loud conversation is stunted.

  It’s not a match made in heaven but most in this town aren’t.

  “Evan, I’m here. I came.”

  I look up and smile. Chloe’s standing next to the table, dressed in jeans and an oversized red sweater. Her coat is draped over her arm. The wide smile on her face tells me she’s glad to see me.

  She has no idea how glad I am to see her.

  Chapter 18

  Chloe

  He stands and pulls me into a warm embrace. He looks as handsome as ever. He’s dressed just as casually as I am in jeans and a black sweater.

  “Sit, Chloe.” He pulls on the back of a wooden chair that’s next to where he was seated.

  As I sit, he takes my coat from my hands and drapes it over his on the back of a third chair.

  “Did you have any trouble finding the place?”

  I shake my head as I take in the space. It’s not packed, but there are enough diners to keep the servers on the move. “It was easy to find. I’ve never been here before though.”

  He doesn’t seem surprised by that. Pizza is plentiful in New York City. You can eat a different slice every day for a month and still have hundreds more places to try.

  “It’s one of my favorites.” He pushes the large menu in front of him aside. “I’ve never had the pepperoni with extra cheese so I’m looking forward to that.”

  I like that he remembers what my brother said about my favorite pizza. It’s not a big deal, but it speaks to his attention to detail. I value that in my life. I have to pay attention to every small detail at work, but I do the s
ame in my personal life. Details can make all the difference.

  “I like your brother,” he goes on. “Are the other two like him?”

  I sigh. I had a feeling that he’d bring up Rocco and I was hoping there would be a way to effortlessly change the subject. I don’t see that out now, so I answer truthfully. “They’re all very different.”

  “Are you the youngest?”

  I nod. “I am.”

  “I have an older sister,” he offers to my surprise. “That was it’s own special hell when I was growing up.”

  I feel some of the tension in my shoulders release. “Did she bully you?”

  “Babied me,” he corrects me with a soft tap on the top of my hand. “Whenever I’d turn around she’d be right there. I love her, but when you’re a twelve-year-old trying to be a bad ass, you don’t want your older sister watching your every move.”

  “I know that feeling.” I laugh. “My brothers are overly protective. They’ve always tried their best to shield me from everything.”

  “Is that why Rocco was giving me the once-over? He saw me as a threat?”

  I shrug as I look down at the table. “He doesn’t want me to get hurt. He has yet to realize that I’m a grown woman who can take care of herself.”

  He takes my hand in his and circles my palm with the pad of his thumb. “It’s good to have someone looking out for you. We all need that.”

  We do.

  I sit back in my chair. “Does your sister still look out for you?”

  He releases my hand and drops his in his lap. “Not as much anymore. She’s got her own stuff going on.”

  I don’t press. How can I? I’m not willing to share my secrets with him so I can’t expect him to share his with me.

  ***

  “There are a million secrets lurking inside of you, aren’t there?” Evan skims his lips over my neck. “Tell me one, Chloe. Just one.”

  I look over at him beneath hooded eyes. We’re in a hotel. This one was next to the pizza place. That had me immediately wondering if he chose that particular restaurant for dinner so we could enjoy each other for dessert. “What makes you think I have secrets?”