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She laughed. “Seriously? Um, very creepy.”
His smile was hesitant. “I saw you go into the coffee shop. Tried to work up the courage to approach you, but you’d already driven away. I followed. When I figured—guessed—where you were going…” He looked over her shoulder. “I thought you needed a bit of time. I parked out on the main road.”
She took this all in. The fact that he cared enough to come after her and yet knew her enough to let her have her solitude when she most needed it.
“How the heck did you know I was in Keaton, Kansas? If you say it was Simon, I’ll kill him.”
“Oh, trust me, I’d have hunted him down if I had to. But I started at your workplace.” Luke’s eyes came back to hers. “Only, turns out it’s not your workplace anymore.”
She gave a nervous smile. “Surprise.”
He didn’t smile back. “I spoke with Raven—who, by the way, very scary, even on the phone. She irritably informed me that you’d given your two weeks’ notice…the day you learned they were moving forward with the Eva story line.”
Jordan crossed her arms. “So?”
He merely looked at her and waited, not seeming to care that they were both getting damper by the minute.
She shoved her messy hair out of her face. “Okay, fine. I decided that that world wasn’t something I wanted to be a part of. That I didn’t want to watch people—good people—have their lives turned upside down for the sake of ratings or a promotion.”
Luke lifted a hand and rubbed it over his mouth as he studied her. “Had nothing to do with me, huh?”
She shrugged, remembering his assessment of her. The way it had stung. “I’m too smart to get hung up on a guy who’s still hung up on his ex’s betrayal.”
He looked away, then back again. “Well, this is the way I see it, City. I wasn’t over her. Or, rather, I hadn’t let go of what happened with her and Gil. Or maybe it was that I never had a chance to make it right with Gil before he died. I’ve been locked in a loop of memories, none of them good….”
Jordan reached out and wrapped her fingers around his forearm, needing to touch him—to reassure.
His hand closed over hers and lifted it, pressing her palm to his chest, directly over his heart, in an unexpected telling gesture that made her eyes water.
“I didn’t realize…” He cleared his throat, tried again. “I didn’t realize just how isolated I felt until a certain City Girl waltzed into town and tried to turn my life into a circus.”
She winced and looked away, but he squeezed her hand. “I’ve never been so damn grateful.”
Jordan looked back at him, saw that his hazel eyes were pleading. “Those things I said to you—Jesus, Jordan. I’ve never been so damn terrified that I’ve screwed it up. Beyond repair.”
She gave a wobbling smile and stepped closer. “Not beyond repair.”
Relief flashed over his face as he tentatively reached his free arm around her waist, pulling her in. “No?”
Jordan swallowed. “You weren’t the only one who’d been isolated without realizing it.”
“That why you’re here?” he asked. “Facing demons?”
She nodded, her tears running freely now.
“Ah, City.” He drew her even closer. “You’re doing the right thing, but you don’t have to do it alone. I’m here.”
She turned and glanced over her shoulder. “I miss them. And I thought by not letting myself get close to anyone else, I’d be honoring them. Or protecting myself? I’m not sure exactly what I’ve been doing, but I do know I’ve been wrong.”
She took a deep breath. “The last thing my family would have wanted was for me to be floating through life, not letting myself care about anyone or anything too much. Even with Simon, with my friends in New York—I love them, but they’re safe.”
Luke gently pulled her chin around and tilted her face to his. “What am I?”
She let out a nervous laugh. “Well, you’re not safe.”
“How do you figure?”
“You’re a firefighter who ditches brides on their wedding day,” she joked.
