Kat comes over to sit in my lap, and I check my phone to see if Jordan has texted me anything. No update, so I pocket my phone and turn my attention back to the game.
With a few minutes left in the third period, we’re up three goals. I’m cheering with my nieces over the latest one when I finally get a text from Jordan.
Jordan
Just landed. Can I make the end of the game?
My heart leaps. I want him to come right to the arena, but he won’t make it before the game ends.
Libby
Only a couple minutes left. Meet you at home?
Jordan
See you there.
The last few seconds seem to drag, and then I go down to congratulate the team on the win. Thankfully, that can be brief. Erin asks to film a confessional about the game, but I beg her to let me off. One thing I put in my contract was more flexibility for me in the hours that I needed to film. I recognize that I’ll have to make up for the time I’m skipping out now, but that’s an okay trade-off since I’m eager to get home and see my husband.
My. Husband.
Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have imagined that I would miss him so much after just a little over a day apart.
I also wouldn’t have imagined falling in love with him.
The house smells like barbecue when I get home. The seasonings are familiar, but there’s no way Jordan was able to start this just in the half hour since he texted me, especially with the time it would have taken him to get home from Centennial Airport. I hang up my coat on the hook by the door and set down my bag.
“Hello?” I call.
Jordan appears quickly from the kitchen. “Hey,” he says, smiling at me.
I want to run to him, but I manage to keep my cool and slip my shoes off. “Welcome home. Things went well in Houston?”
Jordan is the one who comes to me, but he stops half a step away, looking down on me with heat in his eyes. Still, he holds back, even after what happened before he left, waiting for me to set the pace of where we go from here.
I lift my hands and rest them on his chest, giving him the go-ahead. He puts his hands on my waist. They’re warm, and his touch makes me lean into him more.
“Barbecue?” I ask.
“Brought some home from that place you love.”
“You’re unreal.” I can’t help the soft laugh at him thinking of something like this after helping take down Bryce Hayes.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal.” He shakes his head.
I grip his shirt, pulling him closer to me. “We need to have a long talk,” I say softly. “But I want you to know, first and foremost, that I love you, Jordan Atkinson?—”
“Bennet,” he corrects, his lips tilting up in a playful, sexy smile I could just kiss. That Iwillkiss.
I laugh. “I love you, Mr. Bennet,” I repeat. He nods, as if to say,Better. “And I am one hundred percent all in with you. You’ve shown me, every day since I met you, that I can trust you, that you’re going to be right here beside me through everything that comes for us. I don’t have be sure right now, and some things will still take time. But I do know that you are a good man. I love you,” I repeat.
He pulls me against him. “I love you, Ms. Bennet.” He wastes no more time before he presses his lips to mine in a searing kiss that chases all coherent thought from my mind.
I can only wrap my arms as far as they will go around his massive shoulders and cling to him, parting my lips when he deepens the kiss, and I let out a soft moan of utter pleasure.
“Libby,” Jordan says in a husky voice, almost like a warning, and his lips are back on mine. He hooks his hands under my thighs, lifting me up to him. I grasp his T-shirt, impossibly soft and smelling just like him, because I need to ground myself somehow. I’m going to get utterly lost in this kiss.
I do have one thought. “Jordan?” I ask. “What about dinner?”
