Page 121 of Crossing the Brooklyn Briggs
“Brooklyn! What’s wrong? What did I say? What can I do?”
Answering him is going to be pretty much impossible with the way I’ve suddenly become a blubbering mess. My whole body is shaking from my sudden eruption of so much pent up emotion that I’ll probably be lucky to be alive when it’s over.
“Brook, baby, tell me how to get to you and I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Donotcall me baby!”
“Wait, are youlaughing?”
I try to take a breath but end up snorting. I drop my phone as another bout of laughter overcomes me, though it lands screen side up on the bench next to me so Jordan can still see me. Yes, I’m laughing and crying at the same time. That’s where I’m at when it comes to emotional stability.
“Sorry,” I gasp. “That’s just the worst pet name. Anything but that.”
He lets out his breath all at once and falls back against the tree, knocking a few dead leaves onto his head. “You’re okay,” he says, more to himself than to me. “Seriously, though, where are you?”
“Just outside the lab. But let me come to you. You’re always the one chasing me, and I want to repay the favor.”
“I don’t mind chasing you, Queens. I can come—”
“Jordan.”
He sighs. “I’ll send you the address. Don’t let your phone send you in the wrong direction, okay? I’ll be on the line the whole time, until you’re safe in my arms.”
Twenty-one minutes later, I throw myself into Jordan’s embrace outside of a huge house with a giant dinosaur-shaped bush, while his team cheers him on. He holds me like he’s afraid to let go.
“I got my dream job,” I say into his shoulder. It finally sank in on the drive over, after I got over the initial shock of it all, and I haven’t stopped grinning ever since. One of the interviewers told me he’d wanted to hire me years ago but was overruled, and he was glad to finally get the chance to see what I can do.
Jordan holds me tighter. “I knew you would.”
“Did you really talk to Natalie’s dad to help me?”
He laughs. “It was awful. But yes.”
“Because you love me?”
“Have I told you that yet today?”
Goodness, I didn’t know anyone could feel this completely happy. I’m crying again, but it’s still good tears. “You have,” I say with a sniffle, “but you could tell me again.”
He loosens his hold, glances at his team who are still watching us instead of trimming rose bushes, and then takes me by the hand and tugs me around a large hedge until we’re out of sight of everything except a skeptical-looking garden gnome.
“One,” Jordan says, gripping both my hands but taking a step back so he can get a good look at my outfit. “You are positively stunning, as always. Two.” He moves in close and touches his forehead to mine. “I am so proud of you. You’ve earned this job. And three…”
He brushes his lips against mine with agonizing care, like he’s savoring each taste. “I will tell you how much I love you every day for the rest of my life if you’re okay with that.”
My heart skips a beat. “Are you saying…?”
He smiles against my mouth. “I’m not proposing, Queens. Not yet.”
“Yet?” I squeak back. Why doesn’t that word scare me like it should? Probably because Jordan’s kisses are incredibly distracting and his employees are hooting and hollering on the other side of the hedge and making this moment far less intimate than it could be. It feels oddly right. Plus, if he did ask me, I would probably say yes. I have no reason to panic.
Jordan finally picks up on the ruckus behind the hedge, and he groans. “This is why I wanted to come to you.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “You could have warned me they were here.”
“Maybe I wanted to get chased.”
“As long as you let me catch you, Torres, I’ll chase you any day.”
