Page 64 of Before You Say I Do
That made Jordan smile. “You’d think I would be feeling a bit more positive about that, wouldn’t you? I can normally cope with one-night stands. I’m prepared. I control them. Not this one. Plus, when my business and reputation are hanging in the balance, getting a shag isn’t top priority.” She picked up the pace and began to run. There was too much thinking going on. She needed distraction.
“How did you leave it with Abby?” Karen kept up with Jordan this time around.
It was a good question. Images flashed through Jordan’s mind. Stroking Abby in the hot tub. Her own orgasm on the plane, head falling back as she came hard. Abby’s lips pressed to hers.
The electricity sparked inside her. It was still there. Abby was still there. Jordan could feel it. Or had the near desperation of the plane been Abby’s version of a last hurrah before she signed on the dotted line with Marcus? Had she been using Jordan to get something out of her system? It hadn’t felt like that at the time, but looking back, the truth was staring her in the face.
She stopped running abruptly, hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath. Her heart was beating so fast, it almost caught in her throat.
How could she have been so stupid?
She glanced up at Karen. It was hopeless, wasn’t it?
“I don’t know how we left it. She said we’d meet for lunch. Carry on working together. But now she’s pulling back, changing things around.”
Karen stroked her back. It was soothing. Jordan needed it. The world didn’t make sense right now. It was swirling around her, and it was out of control.
Jordan was out of control. She hated that feeling.
“Can I do anything to help?”
Jordan shook her head. This was her mess, and she had to work out how to get out of it.
“Then here’s my advice before I race you home. You ready?”
Jordan brought herself up to standing. “I’m all ears.”
“You need to see her and talk to her. You need to find out what she’s thinking, and work out a proper plan of action. Whether you carry on working with her or not. If you carry on, you figure out some boundaries and an exit strategy. If you decide to stop working with her, you agree on an excuse — a family emergency or something. It happens. But the main thing is that you need clarity. So does she, come to that. She’s the one getting married.”
“I know.”
“Let’s run home and then you can call her and arrange to see her. If she doesn’t answer, go to London anyway. She’s not calling the shots here. You’ve got a lot on the line, too. So take control. Okay?”
Karen was right.
Jordan needed to get this back on track.
She needed to start project managing her bride once again, rather than the other way around.
Chapter 24
Abby satin her firm’s green meeting room, opposite her boss, Neil. He was smiling at her in a strange manner she couldn’t quite pin down. He was wearing too much aftershave again, along with a cerise-pink tie that should be illegal. What did Neil do for fun? She’d love to know.
There was nothing wrong with him. He wasn’t nasty. He didn’t talk over her or steal her credit for work. However, the past year or so, Abby had resented him just for asking her to come into work every day and do the job she was paid to do. She thought back to her chats with Jordan, where Jordan had told her not to forget her dreams. To go after what she’d wanted to do when she was eight and they were friends. In their fake childhood.
Their childhood might have been fake, but their present was very much real. In fact, for the first time in a long time, Abby had been positively glad to come to work and be distracted by it.
It’d been a whole day since they’d got back, and she’d been avoiding Jordan’s calls and texts. Avoiding thinking about her or processing anything that had happened.
Neil was talking, but she wasn’t listening. Did he really think that tie was okay? Had he looked at himself in the mirror this morning and thought, “looking good!” She glanced at his ring finger. Neil wasn’t married. He wasn’t dating. He needed to date someone to get a second opinion on his clothing choices. Although him not getting married was the smart choice from where she was sitting. You needed to be sure you wanted to marry the person you were marrying. You needed to be sure he didn’t then hire a bridesmaid who you were attracted to. And you needed to be doubly sure that you didn’t accidentally have sex with the bridesmaid on the plane home.
Abby closed her eyes.
When she refocused on Neil, he was smiling at her. “So, what do you think?”
Abby sat up. About what? Shit, she was going to have to try to feel her way back into this conversation. “I think it sounds great. Could you just run over the finer points again?”
Neil looked pleased at her answer. That was a good start. “That is terrific!” He sat forward, clasping his hands together on the oval table that could easily seat eight. “So you’re up for heading up the project?”
