Wright with Benefits, page 15
“It’s okay, Annie. We’ll find it.”
“I don’t want to go to my interview without it.”
“I know you don’t, but you don’t need it either,” I said, taking her by the shoulders and forcing her to look at me.
She bit her lip. “I’ve had it forever. My parents gave it to me at high school graduation.”
“Hey, listen, you’re an amazing doctor, and you’re going to kill this interview. A ring isn’t going to change that.”
She nodded slowly, swiping at the tears on her cheeks. “You’re right. You’re right. I don’t have time for this. Can you keep looking and let me know if you find it?”
“Of course. I’ll retrace our steps yesterday and see if someone found it.”
She beamed. “That’s a great idea. Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
After I got her calmed down enough to function, she threw a jacket on over her suit and headed out the door. I had a car waiting for her on the curb, and she texted me when she realized it.
You didn’t have to do that!
That was the reason I’d done it.
Then, instead of spending my morning getting caught up on work, I got dressed again and walked every step we’d walked the day before, even going inside the coffee shop to see if anyone had found a ring. No one had, of course. If it wasn’t lost somewhere in Pike Place Market, then it had fallen down the drain, and we’d never see it again.
I decided to let Annie know.
Hope everything is going well for you. No luck with the ring.
She responded almost instantly.
* * *
I hated that I couldn’t fix this for her. I knew what that ring meant to her, but there was nothing more I could do. I should have returned to the hotel and worked the remainder of the afternoon. Instead, I trudged down the bleak Seattle streets in the fog and misty rain. It felt like home.
Annie had asked if I missed it, and I’d said I did, but being out here showed me how much I had missed it. I’d never lived anywhere but Vancouver and a four-year stint in Seattle for college. And Lubbock was about as opposite as it could get. Who knew the Pacific Northwest would hold on to my heart so decisively? That I’d want to wander through the mercurial weather just to feel like I lived here again.
I ended up in front of the bay when my phone rang. Hollin’s number was on the screen.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Jordan, sorry to bother you on vacation.”
“I’m always available. You know that.”
“For sure, dude. There’s a guy here at the winery who says he’s with the health department.”
“The health department?” I asked incredulously. “What does he want?”
“I don’t know. He said he got a complaint and needs to do a full inspection of the location.”
“We’re not even open.”
“I know, dude,” Hollin said in frustration.
“And he wants to do the inspection right now?”
“Yeah.”
I tapped my finger on the railing. “I’ll look into it. Let him do the inspection if he must. I don’t know what he could possibly find, considering we’re not even fully operational yet.”
“All right.”
“See if he has an order or knows who filed the complaint. I want to follow up with it. I’ll check with his superior.”
“Okay. I’ll get on it.”
I hung up the phone and wanted to chuck it into the bay. When we’d been told that the winery was haunted, we’d thought it was a joke. That all the bad luck was of the supernatural variety was outrageous. I never would have believed it until the last couple weeks of ownership. This health inspection was the last of a line of things that had gone wrong, starting with the higher offer. At some point, the electricity was cut for no particular reason. We had a containment permit, which we were certain had already been filed, go missing. We just had to refile it and get it approved, but still, it made no sense. Then Hollin had had one too many workers back out of employment contracts right before signing to work with us.
It was maddening. I was starting to think less ghost and more that someone was doing this to us.
I just had no idea who.
Annie returned to the hotel long enough to change for dinner and go out again. They’d set up a special dinner for those interviewing this weekend. I ordered takeout from a local Ethiopian restaurant. One of the things I missed most about Vancouver: the food.
She came back two hours later, a little tipsy from wine at dinner, and immediately started digging through the bathroom again.
“No luck.” She pouted. “I just…I don’t know how I lost it. I’ve had it for almost a decade. Fuck.”
“I know. I looked everywhere.”
She sighed and shook her head. “Nothing I can do about it, I guess. Are we still going out?”
“If you’re up for it.”
“I am. Just let me change.”
“Cush said he’d meet us in an hour.”
She smiled and headed back into the bathroom. Thirty minutes later, she returned as a sex goddess. She wore a slinky black dress and thigh-high boots. Her red hair was down past her shoulders in large curls, and she had on sexy, smoky makeup that only highlighted her bright green eyes and the pout of her red lips.
“Fuck,” I growled, stepping up and running my hands down her sides. “We might need more time.”
“Oh yeah?” She giggled.
“I might need to bend you over this bed before we go.”
“I might like that. Do we have time?”
“We can make time,” I told her.
She laughed as I herded her toward the bed. “I want to, but I want to meet your friends. You know all of my friends.”
I adjusted my erection and groaned. “Annie, love.”
“Come on,” she teased. “You can imagine fucking me all night and then come home and do it.”
“I don’t want to be hard all night.”
She leaned in and kissed my lips. “It’ll be sweeter when you come home and rip my dress off to get inside of me.”
“You’re speaking my language.”
“I thought I might be,” she said with a laugh, squeezing my ass. “Now, let’s go.”
She wiggled out from under me and headed toward the door. I let out a long, restrained sigh, adjusted myself again, and followed her. This was going to be a long night.
The trip to the club was a twenty-minute drive despite the fact that the Four Seasons was directly downtown. I sure didn’t miss the traffic.
“So, who are we meeting again?” Annie asked, staring out at the misting sky.
“Should just be a small thing. Cush, Georgia, and Tye.”
“And Cush is the one who’s a doctor?”
“Yeah. Cush, Tye, and I went to Washington together for undergrad. Then Cush went to medical school in Vancouver. He’s now a surgeon here in Seattle. Georgia is his fiancée. She’s a higher up for Nordstrom. Their headquarters are here. Tye and I were roommates. He was a music major and does equipment work with the stadiums, plays in a few local bands, helps at music festivals.” I shrugged. Hard to pin down Tye. “He does a bit of everything.”
“That’s cool,” she said as we rolled up to the front of the building.
She was back to bouncy Annie. I hadn’t thought she’d be this excited to meet a few of my friends, but leave it to Annie for her extroversion to take over.
The valet opened the door and helped Annie out of the car. I followed her, and we walked right past the line of people waiting to get inside. A red rope was swung open wide at our appearance.
Annie’s eyes were wide. “Is that normal?”
“For me,” I told her.
And it used to be. This used to be my life. Nightclubs and galas and models and lots of alcohol. We’d all been young and stupid. Invincible. Now, it would be fun for a night, but they couldn’t pay me to go back to this.
We entered the club, which was standard-issue Cush—over the top, girls dancing in cages, music blaring—and headed straight for the VIP section. I spotted Cush by the mop of shoulder-length blond hair, pale skin, and Neanderthal physique. He’d taken to wearing his hair in a man bun, as it had become fashion, and I still couldn’t get over it.
“Jordan!” Cush yelled. “My main man has arrived!”
Georgia was as stunning as ever with light-brown skin that practically glowed in this lighting. Her natural corkscrew curls had been left loose in a small Afro. She was tall, lithe, and had been inseparable from Cush for at least a decade.
As soon as she saw Annie, she elbowed Cush out of the way to get to us first. “You must be Annie!” she gushed, throwing her arms around Annie as if they were lifelong friends.
Annie laughed and went with it. “Georgia, I’m guessing.”
“The one and only. Come do a shot with me before the boys bombard you!”
Georgia pulled Annie to the bartender for our booth and gestured for shots. Annie’s eyes were wide, but I couldn’t keep the laugh from lighting in my eyes.
“Georgia,” Tye said in exasperation. He wore a band shirt that revealed both full-tattooed sleeves. His hair had been recently buzzed, and I could see the outline of a cigarette packet in the pocket of his loose jeans. Old habits died hard. “Don’t overwhelm the poor girl. It’s bad enough she’s dating Jordan.”
“You’re still an asshole, I see,” I said to Tye and stepped into their booth, holding my hand out to shake.
We were an odd trio if there ever was one, but we’d known each other too long for us to not fit.
Tye shrugged. “I’m still me.”
“You couldn’t convince Logan to join us?” I asked about his husband.
Tye shook his head. “He said to send his regards. He’s been working doubles right now on the docks.”
“Sad I missed him,” I told him, clapping him on the back.
Cush threw his arms around both of us. “Hell yeah. It’s like college all over again! No chicks, no dicks!”
Georgia rolled her eyes, after finishing the shot she took with Annie. “I am standing right here, babe.”
Cush sighed. “Fine. Maybe not just like college.”
Annie giggled. “Who knew Jordan Wright was such a party animal?”
Cush, Georgia, and Tye all turned to look at her at once. I nearly put my face in my hands. Oh boy.
“That’s a joke, right?” Georgia asked.
“She’s definitely joking,” Tye agreed.
Cush burst out, “Jordan Wright is the party animal.”
Annie looked between them all incredulously before landing back on me. “You’re the party animal.”
“Let me learn you a thing or two,” Cush said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her deeper into the booth.
Tonight was going to be interesting.
26
Annie
Of all the things I’d anticipated about meeting Jordan’s friends, this was the most surprising. Jordan spent more time at work than I thought was humanly possible. He was hardly a party animal. The only time I’d seen him out was the time I invited him the night of our one-night stand. Actually, maybe that was why he’d said yes without question. I just thought he wanted to get into my pants.
“No way,” I said with a laugh.
“I thought you said this was your girlfriend, Jor,” Cush said.
Georgia elbowed him in the side. “Shut up, Cush.”
Jordan shook his head and took a seat in the booth. “That’s who I used to be, Cush.”
“Jordan went out every night,” Cush informed me.
“Not every night,” Georgia said with an eye roll. “Could you please let the experts tell this story?”
“Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights,” Tye added. “Minimum.”
“Half the time, it was to see you play,” Jordan countered.
“Well, yeah, but what about the other half of the time?”
Georgia cackled. “The other half was for all of you to chase ass.”
“We were young,” I offered.
Cush arched his eyebrows. “Young? You were still doing this shit in Vancouver up until you left. What happened?”
Jordan shrugged. “There aren’t clubs in Lubbock.”
I laughed. “Yes, there are. You just don’t go to them.”
“You’ve domesticated him,” Georgia said with a wink. “We all do at some point.”
“Not me!” Cush cheered.
Georgia shot me a look. “Even Cush. This isn’t normal for us anymore. We were lucky that these were his days off in surgery.”
It was hard to imagine that this had been Jordan’s life. It didn’t mesh with what I’d seen of him the last three years. But I liked getting a more complete picture of who he was and had been. No wonder Lubbock felt so simple to him and he had so much to get used to. He’d gained a family and lost everything else.
Cush turned away from the group to order drinks from their private bartender and returned a minute later with a shot-laden tray. He passed them out efficiently.
“Cush was a bartender in college,” Jordan said, pulling me down next to him and wrapping an arm around my waist. “He hates having other people pour our drinks, but he endures.”
Cush held the drink aloft. “To friends, old and new!”
We all held our drinks up and yelled, “Cheers!”
I downed the shot, letting the vodka course through my system. It was going to be quite a night indeed.
An hour later, we were all thoroughly tipsy, and Cush was regaling us with stories of their college adventures and all the ways Jordan had apparently gotten out of things by having too much money.
“And there we were,” Cush said dramatically, “about to be arrested because someone had vomited in public.”
“That was you,” Tye drawled.
“Whatever,” Cush said, pushing it aside.
“It was him,” Jordan said to me. His hand was still around me. His face nuzzled into my neck.
“And Jordan started pulling out hundred-dollar bills.”
Jordan shook his head as he kissed my shoulder. “It was twenties, and we were drunk.”
“Hundreds sounds better,” Tye conceded.
“He told the cops that they should just let us go.”
Georgia rolled her eyes. “And they fucking did because you’re white boys.”
“Aww, baby,” Cush said, pulling her against him. “You’re ruining the story.”
“With the truth?”
I snorted. “I think you’d like my friend Cézanne.”
Jordan groaned. “We shouldn’t put them together in the same place.”
“Afraid we’d take over the world?” Georgia countered.
“I’d happily let you take over the world, G,” Jordan said, coming to his feet and pulling me up, too. “You and Cézanne together would burn it down.”
“Then I definitely want to meet her,” Georgia said conclusively.
“Dance with me,” Jordan said with a laugh.
I followed him out onto the dance floor. It was slammed with people now. The music had a heady beat, and we were pulled into the flux instantly.
“Your friends are nice,” I told him.
He slipped his hands around my waist, sliding down to my ass and pressing me against him. “They’re ridiculous.”
“They love you.”
He nodded. “They do. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed them. It’s so easy to be around them.”
“Like with Jen and Sutton.”
“Just like that.”
Jordan took my hand, twirling me in place so that my ass was back against his hips. Then he bent me forward slightly at the waist. I flipped my hair and shook my ass. I could feel every single inch of him press against me as we danced seductively to the music.
His hands slid up my bare thighs, hiking my skirt higher and higher up until it was nearly around my hips. I shivered as his hand slipped under my dress and ran along the seam of my thong. I gasped, but it was lost to the music and the press of bodies around us.
He didn’t go any further. Just danced and teased and worked me up into a frenzy. I supposed I deserved it after teasing the shit out of him earlier in the hotel room, but damn! If it wasn’t rude, I’d ditch all of his friends and head straight back to the hotel.
I turned back into his arms, letting my skirt fall back into place. “Tease!” I accused.
He laughed, as carefree as I’d ever seen him. “From the queen of tease, that’s a compliment.”
“Was this really your life?” I asked into his ear as we swayed to the music.
“Yeah. It’s strange to look back now, but I was always the one pushing everyone to go out.”
“Doesn’t seem like the Jordan I know.”
“I think I was looking for something,” he admitted. “I was chasing the high I get every day with you.”
My heart constricted around the words. “Jordan.”
“I kept coming out, dancing, drinking, sex. But it never filled me up, so I did it over and over again. Relationships fell through my fingers like sand in a sieve. I thought that was just me, just who I was. But here, with you, I don’t feel like that at all.” His hands tightened around me. “I don’t feel like you’re set to slip away from me.”
It was a dangerous thing to say, considering that I had every intention of leaving Lubbock and going away for residency. But right now, it felt like we could make anything happen. That we could survive anything. And I didn’t want to crush that thought by bringing in reality.
“I’m not slipping away,” I told him.
After a few songs, we headed back to the booth, staying until close, drinking and reminiscing. If we were going to be in Seattle longer, I would have been happy to go to one of Tye’s shows and meet his husband, Logan. To see the new art opening that Georgia’s sister, Tosh, was having next week. To talk doctor to doctor with Cush about what it was really like in surgery. But we didn’t have more time. We only had tonight.
