Chapter Nineteen
The next morning,the incessant ringing of my cell phone woke me up. I groaned as the noise pierced my skull like an ice pick.
“Hello?” I mumbled into it without opening my eyes. I could barely hear the person on the other end, their voice garbled. “I can’t hear you. Speak up.”
When I still couldn’t understand them, I pulled the phone away to look at the screen and realized I was holding it upside down. I also saw that it was my sister, Tessa, on the line.
Twisting my hand around, I grumbled, “It’s seven in the morning on a Sunday, you’d better be in jail or on your deathbed.”
“No, what I am is pissed as hell that my older sister finally found a guy and she didn’t bother to TELL ME!”
“Jesus, Tessa, stop yelling.”
“Why? Afraid I’ll wake him up?”
I glanced over my shoulder and found Jordan watching me with alert blue eyes. Very alert and very amused.
“No, he’s already awake,” I croaked, turning back toward my nightstand. Like an offering from the hangover gods, a tall glass of water stood next to two small pills. “Thank you, sweet Lord.”
“You call him Sweet Lord?” she asked incredulously.
“What? Who?”
“Your new boyfriend!” she yelled.
Wincing, I pulled the phone away from my ear. “Tessa, if you won’t stop screaming at me, I’m hanging up and turning off my phone. It’s seven in the morning and I had the girls over for dinner and games last night. We were up late.”
“You got plastered, you mean,” she stated in a much softer tone.
“Yeah. They came over for dinner. Jordan cooked.”
“Who’s Jordan?”
“The man I’m seeing.”
“Jordan what?” she asked.
“Jordan Hawke.”
“Okay, are you sure that’s his real name? Because that name sounds like it belongs in one of those romance novels that Mrs. Marshall reads.”
“It’s his real name,” I sighed.
“Hm. Cool. I guess it’s not a bad name. Tell me more about him,” she insisted. “Other than the fact that he freakin’ cooks, which is awesome by the way.”
“Tessa, I just woke up, I’m hungover, and I desperately need coffee. Why don’t I call you back in a couple hours when I don’t feel like the entire cast ofSTOMPis in my skull.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “But if I don’t hear from you by tonight, I’m not going to be so nice.”
I disconnected the call and tossed the phone on my nightstand. Moving carefully, I pushed myself up onto an elbow, popped the pills into my mouth, and drank half the glass of water.
When I was done, I lowered myself back down and turned over to face Jordan, jostling myself as little as possible.
I could see the corners of his mouth tip up before he managed to suppress the urge to smile. “I take it you left the water and ibuprofen on the nightstand.”
“Yes. I thought you might feel rough when you woke up this morning.”
I closed my eyes and moaned. “Oh, God. How bad was it last night?”
