Page 58 of Necessary Roughness

Nobody seemed to notice that she was still forcing herself to keep her mind on work and not engage in endless speculation on where the hell Tanner was earlier, let alone why he’d cancelled his appointment so abruptly. She focused on the woman she was working with instead.

“Just a few more minutes,” Jordan said. “You’re doing great.”

“I know it might be a while before I feel better,” she said. Her name was Connie. She’d fallen off a ladder while she was painting the trim on her house.

“You might think you haven’t made much progress since you started. That’s not true. Do the exercises seem easier at all?”

“They do. I remember my first appointment. It was a little scary.”

Jordan saw Connie smile a bit.

“If you stick with it, it will get easier and you’ll feel better. I promise. Please let me know if you have questions or want to talk some more about your progress.” She reached out to pat Connie’s upper arm.

“I’ll do that.”

The appointment finished up a few minutes later, and Jordan made sure her area was neat before she headed to the locker room for her purse. She pushed the door to the parking lot open and hurried toward her car. Her feet stopped moving when she saw him.

Tanner was leaning against her car door with a large bouquet of flowers in his hand.

She stared at him. Maybe it wasn’t really him. Maybe she was hallucinating because she’d spent so much time over the past two days wishing she could see him again. Maybe she was dreaming.

Maybe she should see a doctor.

“Hi there,” he said.

“Hello.”

She was still staring at him. If she didn’t knock it off, he was going to figure out that her feelings for him were a lot stronger than she’d ever admitted to, and it wasn’t going to go well after that. Even if he’d lied to her, she knew she was in love with him. She wished it wasn’t true, but she’d be lying if she denied her feelings.

He was leaving. He wasn’t an option anymore.

“You must be wondering why I’m here,” he said.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“I’ll tell you all about it when you get a little closer.”

“Uh-huh,” she said.

She was pretty sure he wasn’t a hallucination anymore, but she wasn’t ready to have this confrontation right now. She wasn’t sure when she’d be ready. If she wanted to leave, she’d have to tell him so, and she wasn’t screaming across the parking lot to do it.

She moved her feet until she was a yard or so from him. That was a good distance. She couldn’t throw herself on him or do something else equally as embarrassing.

He approached. He was close enough to give her the bouquet.

“I don’t know if the guy at your front desk gave you my message. What happened to Britt?”

“She doesn’t work here anymore,” Jordan said.

“It must have been sudden.”

“It was.”

They could stand here all night and make small talk, but nobody was saying “I have to go.” She needed to leave, but she couldn’t make herself say the words. He wasn’t saying them, either.

He swallowed hard. “I wanted to let you know I’m sorry for missing my appointment. My new boss called as I was about to walk out the door. He wanted me to be on a conference call with ten minutes’ notice. It ended up lasting almost two hours.”

“Does he do this often?”

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