“Can you please come downstairs?”
Why is she acting like I’m the last person on earth she wants to see right now?
Her beautiful, red-rimmed hazel eyes refuse to look at me. Instead, she says to Chase, “I’m so sorry about this. I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble. Do you mind if I speak privately with Jordan in your living room?”
“Not at all,” he replies.
“It’s that way, asshole,” Mason says, pointing to my right.
I wait for Douglass. When she hasn’t moved to come downstairs, I take the hint and sulk toward the room Mason is pointing at.
I’m so damn confused right now. It’s like I left the house, only to return hours later to theUpside Downwhere things are similar but different, and not in a good way.
Entering Chase’s living room, I glance around, half expecting to see traces of Amelia. They did live together for almost five years. But there’s nothing. No framed photos or anything overtly feminine that would show a woman’s presence. Just a brown leather sectional, coffee table, wide-screen television, and bare, dove-gray painted walls.
I feel her before she says anything. I can always feel when she’s near, like a sixth sense. Two opposite poles of a magnet that when placed near each other, create an invisible force that draws them together.
I’m on her before she can utter a word. I can’t stop myself. The need to touch her consumes me.
“I was so worried and scared,” I breathe into her hair as I try to absorb her into my body; that’s how tightly I’m holding her. “Are you okay?”
Douglass is lifeless and limp in my arms, like a rag doll that has lost most of its stuffing.
“I’m fine,” is her monotone reply.
“Nat’s house? What happened? Mike said there was a fire.”
“It’s gone.”
“Does Nat know?”
“Not yet.”
The clenching around my heart squeezes harder. It’s going to destroy Nat when she finds out.
“Everything’s going to be okay. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I promise we’ll figure things out.” My lips kiss her hair, her forehead, her cheek. But when I go to kiss her mouth, she pulls back sharply.
“I don’t want your help. I want you to leave.”
She says it so stoically, but I feel it like a smack in the face.
My hands curl over her shoulders, fingers pushing into her skin until she winces, like they know she’s about to walk away and refuse to let her go.
“If you think I’m leaving you, you’re out of your damn mind. I love you.”
Douglass bares her teeth and shoves at my chest with all her might.
“That’s not what you told Daniella.”
Chapter 52
I push at his chest again, and again, needing to release the fury his words of love create.
“I heard everything, Jordan!”Shove.“I heard you and Daniella.”Shove.“I heard what she said about me.”Shove.“I heard her tell you she loved you. I heard her ask you if you loved me.”Shove.“And you said nothing! I’m nothing!”
The shock on his face caused by my uncharacteristic aggression transforms into one of indignation.
“Don’t you dare say that! You areeverythingto me!” he replies in a raised, booming voice that only makes me madder, so I push him again.
