Grab (19 page)

There was a group of boys standing not ten feet away, staring at Mia and Rose, mostly Rose, nudging each other. He could imagine the conversations they were having, daring one of them to get her number so they could all text wildly inappropriate things back and forth.

Speaking of which. Mia and Rose both needed a cell phone. Rose would be starting school soon, and Jordan hopefully still had a job. At some point in the future, they would all need to stay in contact while everybody went to work and things.

Dropping his credit card in Mia’s lap, he whispered in her ear, “Get those shoes. And anything else you need. I’ll be across the mall for a bit.” She nodded, biting her lip, and Jordan winked before striding out of the store. She might not be ready for sex yet, but she would be. Hopefully soon. He was just reminding her that he still wanted her.

Preferably in those shoes.

His cell phone carrier had a kiosk in the mall, and after having two more lines added to his plan, he walked back to the store to find the boys still standing outside and Mia paying for the shoes. Rose shyly watched the boys while pretending not to see them.

Jordan pulled out Rose’s new cell phone and handed it to the squealing girl, accepting her hug. She was ridiculously happy. He could tell she never would have asked. In fact, she had quit asking for things an hour ago, and they were both content to let Mia lead them around the mall pointing out things Rose needed.

But this time, Mia was pouting.

“What? I got you a new one, too.” Jordan pulled out the other phone and handed it to Mia, who pushed it back into his hands.

“You shouldn’t have gotten us phones,” she stated simply. Her eyes were dark, though, and angry. Jordan had to admit, if she were wearing those shoes and angry at him, he could die a happy man. It was a major fucking turn-on.

“Why not? In a couple of weeks, I’ll hopefully be at work, and she’ll be at school. It’s a safety issue.”

She crossed her arms and huffed, stirring the hair around her face. “It’s not that. I appreciate that, Jordan. It’s… It’s a pretty big commitment, don’t you think?”

Jordan had to make Mia understand he’d fallen in love with her. Period. He opened his mouth to tell her that but decided the middle of a crowded mall wasn’t the right time or place to profess his love. So he put his arm around her and steered her to a quiet spot along the wall.

“Look, Mia. I don’t know how you feel about me, but I’m already committed, so do me a favor and use this phone. It’s newer than yours, and I wanted to buy you something nice. If a damn phone is too much, I’ll take it back, but you are it for me. So unless you hate the sight of me, then just take the fucking phone.”

Okay, he sounded madder than he meant to, but the spark in her eyes as she snapped her mouth shut was enough for him. He pressed his lips against hers in an all-too-brief kiss that told her to shut up and quit arguing. Which she did. Thank God, because he had a raging hard on that hadn’t totally gone away since the shoe thing, and he needed to get her to stop looking at him like that.

They turned around and immediately started looking for Rose. Scanning the crowd, Jordan didn’t immediately see her. Shifting bags around, he clasped Mia’s hand. He was panicking and needed to stop, but he couldn’t do that until he found her. The squeeze on his hand told him Mia was a bit freaked, too. He started walking toward where he had seen her last, by the shoe store.

Which was where she still was, only she wasn’t alone.

One of the boys had her pressed against the wall, his hand on her hip, in a posture not unlike the one Jordan had just had her sister in.
Fuck.
If the boy’s thoughts were anywhere along the same lines Jordan’s had been, he needed to castrate the damn kid.

He settled for spinning him off Rose and pinning him to the wall with his elbow.

“Um, Jordan? Overkill much?” Rose, in her ever-teenaged, overdramatic way was beating on his back like he was killing the kid.

“Not likely. I know what he’s thinking.” Jordan’s voice was a low, warning grumble.

“Dude, I was just talking to her,” the boy choked out.

“Talking doesn’t equal touching. You just met her, and she deserves more than man-handling. Respect.” He bit out the last words so harshly, spittle flew from his mouth, landing on the kid’s face. To his credit, he didn’t flinch.

“Got it, Sir. Respect.” At least he’d said Sir. There were some manners in there.

“You ready to go?” Jordan asked over his shoulder before loosening his hold on the boy. He’d had about as much as he could stand. All the fluttery feelings had fled in a storm of lust and then rage. He needed to get out of here before he killed one of these punks.

“Renegade,” Rose muttered under her breath.

It had been two weeks since the mall, and Jordan and Mia’s life had become hectic, although it was a frenzy Mia could embrace. Rose had started school, and even though she was a grade behind where she should be, she was still enjoying it. In fact, she’d come home one day babbling about some after-school technology program she wanted to take part in, and to Mia’s surprise, Jordan had said it was his brother’s and his girlfriend’s program. So she was all into it, and they were even planning on having Evan and Paige over for dinner tomorrow night, since Mia was now the only person in the apartment who didn’t know them.

But right now, Jordan was getting ready to hear his fate with the DA’s office and Mia could see his nerves in every clench of his bad fist. He was nervous, but he said Simon had sounded reassuring on the phone when they’d spoken. The Assistant DA had made his decision and was going to meet with Ryan, Jordan, and Simon to tell them over breakfast.

Ryan and Krista showed up at their apartment with tons of shopping bags.

“What’s all this?” Mia let them in the door, having met Ryan briefly before, but not Krista. She was expecting them to show up, as Jordan still didn’t want her to be alone. She hated to admit it, but she wasn’t ready to be alone yet, but she was getting closer.

“Jordan said you baked. I brought ingredients, hoping you’ll show me a few tricks.” Krista was grinning at her eagerly, and Jordan’s smile was bigger than anything she’d ever seen. Before, she’d been too tired, now, she just didn’t seem in the mood. But if she’d realized her baking would make him so happy, she might have made herself do it sooner, as payback for everything he’d done for her.

“Awesome. Is there stuff in there for chocolate chip cookies?” Jordan started digging around, only to be slapped away. Mia giggled, a sound she hadn’t made in a while and it felt weird, but not unwelcome. She needed more of that in her life.

“It’s a surprise. Get out of that.” Krista’s raised eyebrow was almost too much.

“Fine.” To Ryan, Jordan said, “You ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Ryan was in almost as much trouble as he was. He hadn’t pulled the trigger, but he’d been there, tossing grenades around just like Jordan. They both stood to lose their jobs and possibly go to jail for their actions.

Mia saw both of the men looked uncomfortable, and she tried to ease Jordan as best she could. She was well aware part of his discomfort was because he was about to leave her for the first time in weeks.

“I can go with you and talk to them, if you think that will help?” She’d already told her side of the story, but if it would make Jordan feel better, she would do it again. And again. God, she hated talking about it, but it seemed to help when she did. In fact, she’d finally told Rose about it all, but hadn’t prolonged the conversation.

“Do you not want to stay here? Krista will be with you.” The concern in Jordan’s eyes was almost too much.

She let out a resigned sigh. He wasn’t thinking about himself at all. He was more concerned with her feeling safe. And for that, she loved him. “I’ll be fine. Just let me know as soon as you hear, okay?”

He swept his lips across hers, and she wished like hell they would linger a little longer. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her today. Was it the prospect of a girls’ day and baking? Why hadn’t she done this earlier?

It wouldn’t have helped. This was happening today because she needed it today. Not yesterday.

“I love you.” His murmured whisper against her lips sent a shiver of awareness up her spine. He’d never said as many words to her before, and they made her so happy, even though a tiny part of her felt like she had no right to claim his love. He was leaning his forehead against hers, his deep blue eyes peering into hers. “There’s never going to be a perfect time for me to tell you that. I’ve been waiting for it, and it hasn’t come. I just needed you to know before my meeting today.”

“I love you, too, Jordan,” she whispered, breathless, a little desperate. They’d spent weeks in their own little bubble with little outside interaction, except Rose. And now it was all threatening to be undone. With one meeting. She understood his need to tell her now. While everything between them was still relatively perfect.

Mia dug through bags, sorting things, working out a system.

“What was the plan? What do you want to bake?” Mia reached under the cabinet for the one cookbook she’d brought from her apartment—the
Bible of Baking
, a four hundred page tome that had been her best friend since she was Rose’s age.

“Cake. Ryan loves cake, and so help me God, I can’t ever get it to come out right. Granted, part of that is his oven, but he seems to think I don’t have the basics.” Krista’s smile was bright, and Mia warmed up to the woman immediately, glad she’d be spending the day distracting her from Jordan’s fate and her guilt associated with it.

“And apparently, Jordan likes cookies…” Mia mused.

“Yeah, I got enough stuff for double everything and more bread because we eat a lot of bread. That’s one thing I’ve got down.”

“You can do bread but not cake?”

The women had a lovely afternoon, talking and giggling in Evan’s amazing kitchen. Mia really couldn’t figure out what had taken her so long to bake in here. With double ovens, they were making great time.

About the eighth batch of cookies and the second cake, Krista set aside a bowl of bread dough to rise and turned to Mia. “Let’s do something girlie. I haven’t been around another woman in a while. I’ve been stuck out in the woods, by myself, which is awesome, but I need some girl time.” She poured Mia a glass of wine as she spoke.

“Baking isn’t girlie?” Mia smiled at the woman’s excitement. She’d readily admit she also hadn’t spent time with another woman, except her sister, in a while. Before the incident, she couldn’t remember when she hadn’t been working like a dog and actually had time to do ‘girlie’ stuff.

“Baking is girlie, but I needed to learn some stuff. I want to play with hair, go through your shoes, and maybe we could do our nails?”

Mia admitted it sounded like a great idea. She wanted more to keep her mind off Jordan’s meeting. If the DA decided to prosecute, his life wouldn’t be the same, and it would definitely be because of her, and she didn’t know how to deal with that guilt on top of everything else.

“There’s an old-fashioned dressing table in the master bedroom. Let’s go in there,” she said as she slid off the barstool she’d been sitting on, talking to Krista.

“You have beautiful hair. I’ve been dying to curl it. Does it hold a curl?” Krista was talking as she followed Mia up the stairs to the bedroom.

“Sort of,” Mia allowed. Truth was, it had been so long since she’d done anything besides a ponytail, she wasn’t sure what her hair would do. She hadn’t fixed herself up much since the incident. Part of her would freely admit she didn’t want to look attractive enough to tempt another man to lose control and try again. She knew that was flawed thinking, but it was ingrained in her that she should have done something to keep it from happening. If she hadn’t been what Mike was looking for, she wouldn’t have been grabbed.

Sitting at the dressing table, she looked at herself from different angles, turning her head this way and that. “What do you think of me dying my hair? Do you think I could do blonde?”

“Don’t you dare!” Krista took handfuls of her hair and bunched them up over her head. “You have such pretty, glossy-black hair. Jordan would kill me if you dyed it because I said it would look good.”