Trust me. I researched the profession. It’s impressive.
“First of all, you aren’t falling. You fell. Probably the first time he saved your ass. And secondly, that man is not out of your league. Might I remind you, you are not only beautiful on the outside but on the inside as well. And you have your own business and work a second job,” she says matter-of-factly.
“I’m not in love with him.” She gives me a pointed look. “I’m not,” I argue, “and the coffee shop is my first job, not my second.” I roll my eyes at her warped view of my life.
“Well, it’s about to be your second. Kyle told me that you have a ton of people messaging and asking for sessions, but you can’t take them all because of your schedule at the coffee shop. Plus, I’ve done a lot of thinking, and I may or may not have put out an ad looking for new hires.”
I stare at her slack-jawed. If she’s saying what I think she’s saying, then she’s trying to replace me. “When are you kicking me out?” I ask point blank. I want to be mad at her but can’t be. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how I can take on more clients and keep my job at the coffee shop. It looks like Penny is one step ahead of me.
“Once I can find a competent employee who you can train to be you, then you can leave me.” She smiles triumphantly like she has it all figured out. “Now back to Mr. Hot Stuff…” She leaves the comment open-ended.
“His work took him away for the week, maybe longer, I’m not sure. I haven’t seen or heard from him in a bit. And I may or may not have pushed him away the last time I saw him.”
“Jordan!” she admonishes me, and I sigh.
“I know. But your daughter was the one who made me realize the error of my ways.”
She nods. “She’s a smart cookie that one. Maybe you should send him some sexy pictures. Remind him of what he’s missing and show him you’re thinking about him.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
I shake my head. “Absolutely not. I don’t want to feel like a stage five clinger who fell for the guy she gave her virginity to. If he hasn’t reached out for a week, what makes you think he wants to hear from me now.”
“Aww, you said fell,” she swoons with a sappy smile on her face.
“If we weren’t holding wine I would throw a pillow at you,” I tell her with narrowed eyes.
“You know you love me. I’m sure he’s not texting you because he’s deep undercover or something though.”
“What?” My eyes widen as panic sets in. How does she know?
“He’s a bodyguard. Whoever he’s bodyguarding must have some important shit going on right now,” she says, shrugging a shoulder.
A breath I didn’t know I was holding leaves my mouth. “Right. Yeah. He must be busy.”
She hit way too close to home with her statement. Even the other week when she said he could be a cop hit right on the head. Her intuition is spot on.
“Now, about those photos…” A devious smirk graces her face.
I have a feeling by the end of the night I’ll be sending some not-so-appropriate messages to Lucas’s phone. Just like the dating app, Penny has a way of convincing you to do things you wouldn’t normally do. And this, I can tell, is going to be one of them.
Plus, he never said no contact, just that we can’t see each other anymore.
I’ve been on pins and needles all week waiting for him to message me. Maybe I need to take the bull by the horns and make the first move. Show him that I’m not pushing him away like I have been.
Yeah. I think I’ll do that.
Chapter 24
Lucas
Between sorting out the evidence against Emmett, and staying away from Jordan, this has been one of the longest weeks of my life.
On top of that, I’ve been sleeping out of my car, watching Jordan’s apartment at night. It’s not the most comfortable thing but until this is all resolved, it will have to do.
As far as I know, Emmett thinks everything is normal. Conner even made it seem like he was afraid of Emmett the other day after he ran into him at work, selling the idea that I really did rough him up. It made Emmett turn even more smug, a look I wouldn’t mind slapping off his pudgy little face.
There’s an end in sight, what I don’t know is when it’s going to happen. With all the information I gave Miller, he’s getting the department to start research on the people in the photos. The problem is, we’re lacking resources and it’s going to take some time before we get the answers we need. In the meantime, I have to keep up the bodyguard gig with the hopes that more is uncovered. Emmett is a sneaky man but he’s not invincible. And it’s looking like he’s in deeper than we could have ever imagined.
On top of everything else, I’ve been trying to come up with a solution on how I’m going to keep Jordan after this is all over. Either she’s going to have to move to L.A. with me, I’ll have to stay here, or we do long distance. The latter isn’t happening. It has been torture staying away from her this week and I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up.
