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She fumbled with the keys in her hand until she was able to locate the right one and shove it in the lock. She’d like to say her trembling was from the cold, but she was wearing gloves—the new leather gloves Pasha bought her—so the shaky hands were all nerves.
Stepping inside, she held the door open for Jordan and they toed out of their boots.
He took her jacket for her like the gentleman that he was and hung up his with hers.
Her place wasn’t too cold, since she’d left the baseboard heater on low before she left that morning. But she located her slippers anyway and slid her feet into them since the tile floor throughout the apartment sucked the heat out of her body like a vacuum.
With her nerves in her throat, she swallowed hard, crossed her arms over her chest, and spun around to face him, leaning against her kitchen island. “Just say what you need to say, Jordan. Don’t keep me in suspense any longer. I can’t handle this shit. Are you dumping me?”
He hadn’t been cagey at all that day. They exchanged thoughtful gifts that morning, made love, then headed over to Joy and Grant’s for the big family hullabaloo. If hewasdumping her, he’d been a gigantic dick leading her on all day making her think things between them were great. Sure, he wasn’t the mostopenor revealing guy. He still harbored secrets about his life and refused to talk about his family, but she just chalked that up to him being a run-of-the-mill emotionally unavailable guy. They hadn’t been together for quite a year, maybe in time, he’d let her in.
Though he knew everything about her now, so it did chap her cheeks more than she would admit that they weren’t even in the demons and secrets revelation department.
She watched him warily.
She would not let her lip tremble.
She would not let one of those motherfucking tears that were burning the back of her eyes fall.
No, she would not.
He’d shoved his hands in his pockets, but then pulled one out and started to scratch the back of his neck. “No. I … I don’t want to. Break up with you, I mean.”
What? She shook her head. “What does that mean?”
“I’ve been transferred.”
That reindeer on her chest bent its head and speared her in the heart with one of his antlers.
“To where?” she asked.
Jordan was RCMP or Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They were all across Canada and he could very well be transferred to the other side of the country for all she knew.
Since there were thirteen municipalities in the Victoria area, every municipality had its own police force. Some had RCMP like the WestShore and Esquimalt, while others like Victoria and Saanich had city police. The city police didn’t transfer the way the RCMP did.
If you were city police, you could stay where you were unless you asked to be transferred, but the RCMP didn’t always get a choice where they went.
But just like the city police, RCMP officers could alsorequesta transfer.
Had Jordan requested one, or was he being sent away against his wishes?
“I’ve been transferred to Ucluelet and Tofino, out on the west coast. A posting for a position—a promotional position—came up and my staff sergeant recommended me. Said it’d be a good experience.”
She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when common sense had her sucking that air back into her lungs. Tofino and Ucluelet were small towns on the west coast of Vancouver Island. They were tourist, camping, and surfing hotspots, as well as a mecca for storm watchers during the fall and winter. She and Jordan had actually gone to Tofino just last month for a romantic weekend away where they made love in front of a roaring fire while an epic winter storm nearly shook their cabin clear off its foundation. A month ago. Thirty days.
Everything had been perfect.
And now …
Because as beautiful as it was, Tofino and Ucluelet were also over four hours away from Victoria.
“So …” She uncrossed her arms and instead wrapped them around her body in a self-hug. “This is the end then?”
His face fell and he stepped toward her. “No. It doesn’t have to be. You could come with—”
“I have school, Jordan. And I just switched my major from business to social work this year.”
“You can do your social work degree via distance, though. I looked into it. You could come with me. We could get a little place near the beach. Storm watch and surf.” He took her arms, peeling them away from the sides of her body until he could weave his fingers through hers. “Or we could do distance … we can make it work.”
