Wright with Benefits, page 17
I laughed. “I was terrible.”
“Same thing,” she said. “You played the sports balls, and the team won. So, you won.”
“I love you.”
She made a cute face like she was going to rub her nose against mine. It was so adorable. “Love you, too. I’m going to get pizza.” She glanced at Jordan. “Can you get her home?”
“Already the plan,” he said easily.
“Thanks!”
“I’ll see you later.”
“Bye!” Jennifer said, waving at us and then running to catch up with Blaire.
“Shall we?” Jordan asked.
I nodded, stretching my arms overhead and yawning. “Why am I tired already?”
“Because just ran for an hour and you’ve been working overnights.”
“Right,” I said with a soft laugh. “Of course.”
We reached his truck, and Jordan came around to my side to let me in. But before he opened the door, he turned to face me. “Before we go, I wanted to give you something.”
“Oh?”
Then he produced a small box…a jewelry box. My mind stopped, and everything in the entire universe screeched to a halt. I mean, he’d said that he was willing to move with me, but that couldn’t be what that was, right? Right?
He laughed when he saw my face. “Breathe, Annie. I’m not proposing.” Then he considered it. “Not yet.”
I flushed all over at that comment. “Jordan…”
“Shh,” he said playfully and then handed me the box. “Just open it.”
My mouth opened and closed as the box settled in my hand. I swallowed, wondering what the hell he could be surprising me with. And why I hadn’t recoiled at the thought of him one day proposing?
I opened the box and gasped, my hand going to my mouth. Nestled in red velvet was a small claddagh ring.
“Jordan,” I breathed. “You didn’t!”
“I know it’s not the same as the one your parents gave you.” He plucked the ring from the box as I stood there, frozen, trying not to cry at the thoughtful gift. “But I wanted you to have something at least.”
“Thank you so much,” I whispered. “It’s perfect.”
He went to slide it onto my finger, but I stopped him.
“The claddagh is a traditional Irish ring with three parts. The hands represent friendship, the crown represents loyalty, and the heart is for love. If you’re single, you wear the ring with the heart facing out,” I told him, showing him that was the way he was about to put the ring on my finger. I turned the ring around. “If the heart is facing inward, it means that you’re taken and your heart is guarded.” I slipped the ring on and looked up at him tenderly. “Now, you’re guarding my heart.”
“Yes, I am,” he said and then kissed me.
28
Jordan
Annie had agreed to have dinner with my mom tonight. It was her first day off after her overnights, and she had said that she wouldn’t be fully adjusted but didn’t know when she’d have another day with end of term rapidly approaching. My mom was thrilled.
That left one thing I needed to do. I’d been putting it off for days, and I needed to get it over with. It wasn’t going to be pleasant, but it was necessary to at least lay the groundwork.
I shoved away from my desk and headed out of my office.
“Anything I can help you with today, Mr. Wright?” my assistant, Michael, asked.
He was a twenty-something who had been passed to me late last year. He handled my calendar and phone calls. I probably didn’t utilize him as well as I could have because I was a control freak.
“No, thank you, Michael. I’m going to go discuss something with Morgan.”
He checked my calendar. “You don’t have an appointment scheduled with Ms. Wright.”
“No, I don’t. Is there anything on her schedule?”
His eyes scanned the computer. “She has a video conference in twenty. You should be clear. Is that all, Mr. Wright?”
I tapped Michael’s desk. “That’s all.”
“I could get you coffee.”
“I’m fine.” And I arched an eyebrow. “Why don’t you go get yourself coffee?”
Michael still thought I was strange to work for. His last boss must have been a hard-ass, and he kept expecting me to make him pay his dues. It was frankly an outdated model.
I strolled down to Morgan’s office and rapped on her door. Her assistant glanced up as if to stop me but then thought better of it.
“Come in,” Morgan called.
I pushed the door open and found Morgan busy at work, typing away. She gave me a half-look before returning to her typing.
“What’s up, Jordan?”
“Can I talk to you?” I asked.
“You are talking to me.”
“Without a monitor between us.”
She huffed, finished her next sentence, and then leaned back. “Take a seat. What’s this about?”
After I sat, I cleared my throat. She wasn’t going to like this. “So, just hypothetically, if I moved to Seattle—”
Morgan straightened abruptly, her seat snapping as it righted its position. “Come again?”
“Well, if I moved to Seattle, I wanted to see what my options were with the company.”
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
I ran a hand back through my hair but didn’t drop her gaze. “It’s theoretical, but if I moved, could we open a new office in Seattle?”
“You’re moving to Seattle?”
“Theoretically,” I reiterated.
This was why I hadn’t wanted to do it. There was a chance that Annie wouldn’t be chosen for Seattle and that she’d end up somewhere else. But I thought her chances were good that she’d get her top pick. And I needed to figure this out before we got to that day and I blindsided Morgan with a transfer request.
“Seattle is handled by the Vancouver office,” she said evenly. “As you know.”
“Right. As I know.” I leaned forward. “But wouldn’t it be better to have someone on the ground in Seattle to help with the projects there?” I’d done my research. “We have that new wing at the University of Washington, and we’re building that new Hyatt downtown.”
“Someone…like you?”
“Right.”
Morgan sighed dramatically. “But I like you, Jordan,” she groaned. “We made this position for you, and I was uncertain at first that we really needed it. And now, I have you here, and I do need that position. I like having you here. You work harder than Austin.”
I laughed at the compliment. “Low bar?” I joked.
She waved her hand. “Probably. Are you really moving?”
“I don’t know. I won’t know what’s going to happen until the end of March, but I wanted to run it by you first. Before it became a real problem.”
“I appreciate that,” she said with a sigh. “Of course we’d figure something out for you. Maybe a part-time office in Seattle, and you could commute to Vancouver or something every other week.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Morgan.”
“Anything for family, Jordan. You should know that.”
I should, but I hadn’t been sure. Three years, and I still didn’t know that they’d do anything for family. I was starting to get it…and worried I was going to miss it.
“Flowers!” Annie gushed when I showed up to her house a few hours later. She put the blooms to her nose and breathed deeply. “I love them.”
“I’m glad.”
“You didn’t have to do this.” She headed into the kitchen and pulled a vase out. After filling it with water, she put the flowers in it and rearranged them to her specifications. “Gah, they’re so pretty.”
“Like you.” I tugged her toward me. “And it’s worth all the flowers to see that smile.”
She giggled and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Stop. You’re too romantic. It’s gross.”
I laughed at her assessment. “Then I’ll just have to be gross,” I told her with another kiss.
“Okay. Fine,” she admitted. “I don’t mind.”
“I thought not.” I took her hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She ran a nervous hand down the front of her sweater. I could tell she was second-guessing her outfit—pink sweater, black leggings, knee-length black boots. But she had no reason for nerves. My mom liked basically everyone she’d ever met.
“You look great,” I assured her.
She smiled again, returning to normal, over-confident Annie. “Thanks.”
My mom’s house was closer to Annie’s than my house. Really only around the corner as far as Lubbock was concerned. I parked in the driveway next to Julian’s tricked-out Audi SUV. He cared way too much about that car.
I didn’t bother knocking, just walked inside and announced us. “We’re here!”
“In here, dear,” my mom called from the kitchen.
Even though we’d all wanted to build her a huge, new property here in Lubbock, she’d insisted on something small and homey with character, built in the ’70s with a step down into a sunken living room, and the intercom system still worked. She’d agreed that we could renovate the bathrooms eventually, but she liked its personality—the textured wallpaper, painted brick, and quirky, tiled bonus room. And I just wanted her to be happy, so I’d shut up about it real quick.
Annie and I headed to the dining room. Ashleigh was seated already, deep into her phone. Julian was in the kitchen, sautéing vegetables, as my mom pulled out a fresh pie from the oven. Julian had been graced with all of the culinary skills. I knew how to order takeout, and that was about as far as I went other than some breakfast.
“Glad you made it,” my mom said, coming over and kissing me on the cheek. She pulled Annie into a hug.
Annie retrieved the wine she’d taken with her. “I brought this with me. It’s a Burklee Hill red.”
“Oh, wonderful. I’ve been meaning to try all the local wineries, so I have a way to determine whether my sons’ new venture is worth anything.”
Annie laughed. Julian just glanced over at me with an eye roll. Typical.
“Do you need help with anything?” Annie asked. “I’m not super great in the kitchen, but I can serve or plate.”
“No, no. None of that. I want you to relax,” she said. She passed me a corkscrew. “Pop that open and pour your girlfriend a drink. I don’t want you touching any of the food.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to burn anything, Mom.”
She shot Annie a look of despair. “I apologize that Jordan doesn’t know his way around a kitchen. He has that huge kitchen back at his house and only eats Chinese.”
“Luckily, I like Chinese,” Annie volunteered.
I popped the cork, which I was actually excellent at, and found glasses in my mother’s dining hutch. I poured glasses for everyone, passing them out.
“Ashleigh?” I said, offering her a drink.
She wrinkled her nose. “I actually only drink hard liquor.”
I nearly choked. “All right.” I turned back to Annie and found her trying not to laugh as she sipped her wine.
“We don’t keep hard liquor in the house,” my mom grumbled under her breath.
Because my dad was an alcoholic.
Okay, when I’d said that my mom liked everyone, I meant, almost everyone. Because I had never seen her dislike anyone like she disliked Ashleigh Sinclair. To be fair, none of us really liked her, but Julian did, and we’d learn to deal.
My mom tapped me to carry food out to the table, and then we were all seated, loading our plates with the roasted chicken and vegetables, fruit salad, and creamed corn. My mom was an excellent cook, and we all dug in. The pie still needed to cool, but I had every intention of devouring it after eating.
“So, Annie, tell us about medical school,” my mom said. “How does that all work?”
“Well, I’m in an emergency medicine rotation, where I work at the hospital with a doctor on staff. I want to be an ER doctor. So, I’ve been interviewing for residency programs. ER residency is three years, and then I go full-time.”
“And where are you going for residency?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet. We have to submit our top choices soon. We find out where we’re going on Match Day at the end of next month.”
“Exciting!” my mom said.
“Why would you want to be an ER doctor?” Ashleigh asked. “There’s, like, dermatology and plastic surgery and shit.”
“We need ER doctors, Ash,” Julian jumped in.
“Yeah, but…still.”
“Well, I watched someone I care about die, and if there’s another emergency, I want to be able to help. So, I chose to work in the ER.”
“I think it’s admirable,” my mom said.
I squeezed Annie’s hand under the table. “She’s great at it, too.”
“Sounds terrible,” Ashleigh blurted, looking down at her phone again.
My mom clenched her jaw. “Why don’t we do pie?”
She stumbled as she entered the kitchen again, nearly falling. Julian jumped to his feet and was at her side almost instantly. She laughed, waving him away.
“I’m fine. Just tripped.”
I frowned. My mom had never been clumsy. What was that all about?
Julian followed her into the kitchen anyway and served up a blackberry pie that was maybe the best thing I’d ever eaten.
“You are going to have to give me this recipe,” Annie said. “It’s incredible. I’ll probably butcher it, but I could try.”
“I’ll make you a card,” my mom said with a wide smile. She loved to hand out recipes. She had an enormous book of them.
“I might have to make Sutton help me, so I don’t screw it up.”
“Oh, I love her little bakery downtown, Death by Chocolate. The chocolate-mousse cups are my favorite,” my mom said with relish.
“It’s okay,” Ashleigh said. “I mean, I like that other place better. What’s it called? In Cactus Alley.”
Julian shrugged, trying and failing to rein in his girlfriend. “I don’t know. I like Death by Chocolate.”
“I guess.” Ashleigh still looked at her phone.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Annie tried to engage her in conversation, but Ashleigh was on a full rampage today. She clearly didn’t want to be here. I didn’t even know why she’d bothered to come if she was going to act like this.
The rest of the evening was awkward, and Julian eventually said that he was going to get Ashleigh home. She jumped up like her ass was lit on fire.
“We should probably go, too,” I said. “Annie is still adjusting to the time difference.”
She looked up sheepishly . “But we’ll have to do this again. I loved it so much.”
“Anytime, dear. Anytime. Jordan, do you think you could stay behind for a minute with Julian?”
“Sure,” I said with furrowed brows. I passed Annie the keys. “Want to get it started?”
“Of course,” she said before heading out.
“What’s going on?”
My mom didn’t beat around the bush. She looked at me and my brother and sighed. “It’s back.”
Julian stiffened.
I stared in horror. “What is?”
But I knew.
I knew before the words left her mouth.
“The cancer.”
My vision went blurry. Everything turned to static. Julian hugged her, promised to be there for her. She told us the diagnosis. The chances of success for another time were low. But she was a fighter. She was going to fight.
“I love you, Mom,” I told her, hugging her.
She choked up. “I love you, too.”
Then I left. Because I couldn’t stay there for another minute. I couldn’t even breathe.
I dropped into the passenger seat and sat facing forward like a ghost. Completely drained of all thought.
“Jordan?” Annie whispered softly. “Is everything all right?”
“Her cancer is back.”
She gasped, “Oh, Jordan. I’m…I’m so sorry.”
Her hands wrapped around me. I should have felt something. Should have broken down like Julian had as he cried on my mom’s shoulder. But I felt nothing. Just numbness.
I didn’t know if she’d make it this time. And I’d moved to Lubbock last time to be here when she went through her care. What if I was gone this time for it? Fuck.
29
Annie
Jordan dropped me back off at home. He wanted to be alone despite all of my protests. So, I slunk back to my house, nudging a meowing Avocado out my way, as I worried about him. I knew exactly what I needed to do.
I pulled my laptop out and opened my ranks.
* * *
Seattle—University of Washington
Baltimore—Johns Hopkins
Atlanta—Emory
Los Angeles—University of Southern California
Dallas—University of Texas, Southwestern
…
* * *
Seattle right there at the top, like I’d always wanted. I still had a few days before I needed to commit and submit the official form. I probably should have talked to someone about it, but I’d already made up my mind. As soon as Jordan had sunk down into the driver’s seat, I’d known what it meant.
His mom had cancer. He’d moved here, primarily, to be with her for the worst of it. He and Julian had literally given up their entire life to take care of her. They were only now getting back on their feet, and now…it was happening all over again.
Right after Jordan had agreed to move with me to Seattle.
As much as I tried to avoid worst-case scenarios and look on the bright side and all that, I was a medical student. I knew the likelihood of her recovering after her fourth—or was it fifth?—time with breast cancer. It didn’t look good. Would he hate me forever for taking him away if something went wrong?
I closed my eyes and tried not to cry.
I couldn’t take him away. That much was obvious.
The Submit button hovered invitingly. But despite how much wanted Seattle…it had always been a pipe dream. I’d rather be here and happy with Jordan than away and have him resent me. I reordered my choices.
