AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He grimaced. “Say we decided to have that kind of relationship. What happens to the business when things between us go bad?”
She laughed without humor. “You’re using the word ‘when’ as though it’s a given that we wouldn’t work out. Either you don’t have faith that something with me could be good, or you think you’ll want out. That tells me everything I need to know. The casual thing is over. We are over.” She walked to the door and opened it.
“Look, Jordan, I do care about you. If you don’t like my suggestion…” He didn’t even know what to say. His thoughts were tumbling around in his brain like lottery balls, and he didn’t understand the wrenching feeling in his chest. Maybe it was how everyone felt when they were dumped, but it wasn’t a feeling he’d ever experienced. All he knew was that he didn’t want to lose her. “I still want to be friends. Can’t we just see how that goes for a while?”
“If we aren’t a couple, then I’m good with friends only.” She spun on her heel and walked away.
Noah watched her leave, feeling as though his heart had sunk into his stomach and lay there in broken little pieces. Maybe he should run after her. But how would that help matters? Nothing had changed.
He was well aware that she wasn’t issuing him a challenge. She’d drawn a line in the sand, and that was that. But what his heart heard was that she didn’t believe he could commit to her, so they were defaulting to friends.
Of course he wanted more than to be friends with her. And he wanted it with only her.
He just had no idea how to get there.
He dropped his head into his hands. Why had he even got out of bed this morning? Everything he’d touched today had turned sour. He just hoped he hadn’t ruined things between them for good.
The afternoon silence in the office was deafening. Jordan’s words kept replaying in his mind. His phone buzzed in his pocket and echoed through the room. Hoping it might be Jordan, he answered eagerly.
“Noah,” his older sister, Tracey, spoke. “There’s been an accident. It’s Dad.”
Panic ran through him at her words. “Tracey? What happened? How bad? Is he okay?”
“I don’t know.” She sobbed on the other end of the phone. “They had to cut him out of the car. He’s been rushed to the hospital. It sounds bad, Noah. Mom, Lexi, and I are on our way there now. You need to come home.”
What happened after that was a blur. The next few hours he acted as if in auto-mode, not remembering anything until he was on a plane home to Canada.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jordan
Jordan returned to Slap Shot after taking a much-needed break. She’d stormed out of the building and decided to get a coffee. She had sat at the coffee shop for over an hour, stewing about the situation. She had been annoyed. Annoyed that other people had been sticking their noses in, annoyed about his ridiculous rules and outright stupidity, and annoyed that he had made this decision without discussing things with her.
When she’d woken up this morning, she hadn’t expected to end things with Noah. She’d planned to talk to him, lay her heart out there. To ask him if he would consider forgetting the casual and having a proper relationship. And stupidly, she’d expected him to realize how good they were together and make their relationship official.
Not the opposite.
Heading to the office, she wasn’t surprised that it was empty. The Renegades had a game tonight. Looking at her watch, she saw that it was five o’clock. He was probably already in the locker room preparing for the game.
Sinking into her chair, a strong need hit her to pick up her cell phone and call Noah. Everything he had said to her was wrong. There was no way she would consider being nothing but his booty-call. If he didn’t think she was worth holding onto, then she had to end it.
Avoiding Noah was the only thing she could do. She didn’t want to fight with him over this.
Jordan was strong. She’d been fine before Noah, and she’d be fine after him. She just wished she didn’t have to be. She cared too much about him.
From the moment she’d second guessed going on the date with that blogger, she’d realized that this thing with Noah was no longer casual on her end. Maybe she had waited too long to open her heart to him. Or maybe she had been fooling herself the whole time about being able to be casual. Who was she kidding? He’d had her heart with the first kiss.
Yes, they’d been having fun—so much fun. She loved being with him and she always looked forward to seeing him. But his rules so that the lines wouldn’t be blurred? Was he for real?
She knew he was afraid, and that’s why he’d said all those stupid things. Part of her wanted to laugh, because his ideas were such a joke. But that didn’t stop the way her heart was cracking.
And this was why she’d been married to her job for so long. Because she wanted the love story for the ages, the happily ever after. She wanted to find her person and be partners in life. Like most little girls, she wanted to marry her best friend and raise a family.
But getting there without suffering a broken heart seemed to be her biggest challenge. The last time she had opened her heart, she’d ended up crushed. And here she was again, licking her wounds.
She couldn’t blame anyone but herself. Noah was a nice guy. She could’ve held him at arm’s length. But she’d agreed to the ridiculous casual thing, and she should’ve known better. He’d been honest about his reasons, which she understood were supposed to be for her protection as well as his. And he had never promised her anything more.
Obviously, she’d had her reservations when things had heated up between them. They were supposed to have been like friends with benefits. No strings.
