Page 51 of Make You Love Me
This is what I want. Her with me always. I can’t let her go this time. I won’t.
???
The waiter returns with our orders, snapping me back to the present.
“Jordan,” Avery says cautiously, setting a hand on mine. “Give me the bottle.”
“What?”
“Give it to me before you crush it.”
Still caught between the past and present, my gaze shifts to her touch. She gently peels my aching fingers from around the glass, then sets it aside, watching me closely.
“Shake it out and breathe,” she instructs.
Too confused to think for myself, I flex my hand to relieve the stiffness as instructed. I inhale, but instead of filling me with calm, all the emotions I kept bottled up since leaving VETS burn hot and sprint through my body, erupting at the same time.
“Jordan, breathe,” she says with more sharpness this time and demonstrates. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. I focus on her, doing as she encourages. It wouldn’t seem so impossible if my world wasn’t in the process of crashing down around me.
I continue to mimic the motion until I crawl through the wreckage. The air in my lungs feels thin and lacking life-sustaining quality, but at least I can breathe normally again.
“You zoned out for a few minutes before panic took over.”
“Yeah. Reliving the buried past will do that.”
“Where’d you go?”
My throat feels like I swallowed a spoonful of powder. I reach for her water and gulp half of it to keep my throat from closing. “Back ten months,” I finally answer.
She counts on her fingers. “December? What happened in—Oh, Jackson and Emily’s wedding. I remember you and Nora that night at the reception. You looked so happy. I hated you something fierce.”
A rumble in my chest ignites a chuckle, and it feels good. “You hated us?”
“Oh yeah. I’d never been more miserable than I was that day.”
“I get it.”
She bites a fry and my stomach churns. Food no longer appeals. I rather drown my frustrations, sorrow, anger in a keg of beer. Reaching across the table, I retrieve the bottle Avery took away from me and drink.
“What happened after the reception? I shot dagger eyes at your back as you two drunken lovebirds left together. I thought you were going to undress right there in the foyer.”
“We made it to the car first…barely.”
“Was she unable to resist that magnificent dick of yours?”
“Precisely.”
Her easy laughter settles me until my phone vibrates in my front pocket. I react with a jolt, and she follows my gaze.
“Everything okay down there?” A sensual nibble on the fry steals my attention, and I roll my eyes in response before reading the text message.
Nora:Where are you?
Nora:I’m worried sick.
“You’ve lost your sexy glow again. Is that from Nora?”
“Yes. She’s wondering where I am.” I stare at the screen, debating on responding or tossing the phone into the mop bucket I see within range. I played basketball in high school. I could totally make it.
