This was not new. Why was she acting like this was new? She and Fletcher had been comfortable around each other physically since they were six.
She studied him in the mirror as he chatted with Naomi and Charlie and examined his work on her hair.
He looked really good. He had a couple days’ growth of scruff on his jaw. He’d worn his hair long for several years now. Not as long as his twin brothers Zeke and Zander, who pulled their hair back into “man buns”, but Fletcher’s hair was long enough to hang past his shirt collar, and when he reached up and ran his hand through it, he definitely made waves in it. It would blow in his face at times when he was outside working so he would pull it back into a ponytail. It looked good on him. It was a little wild, a little nontraditional for an elementary school teacher, and gave him just a hint of the bad boy he’d been in high school.
But that bad boy was mostly gone. He’d grown up and took being an elementary educator very seriously. He knew he was a role model and knew that a lot of the parents of the kids he taught were aware of his reputation. Heck, some of those parents had been at the same parties, fights, and drag races that had resulted in that reputation. And most of the moms had found that edge, that reputation, attractive. At least at one point.
A lot of the parents who had kids in Fletcher’s class were a bit older than Fletcher and Jordan, but Autre was a small town and everyone was aware of everyone else. Some of the parents had run around with Fletcher’s older cousins—Sawyer, Owen, and Josh—and Fletcher had tagged along at a much younger age than most kids.
“Okay, so can we eat breakfast while your hair turns purple?”
Jordan became aware that there was a knocking on the suite door again.
“You already called room service?”
He nodded. “I’ve been sitting in airports all night. I’m starving.”
“You have?”
“I headed straight to New Orleans after I saw what happened. But there were no last minute flights and nothing direct. I camped out there and got on standby on the first flight out, but had a long layover.” He spread his arms wide. “But I’m here now.”
He’d sat in airports and been on planes all night. For her.
“Yes. Of course. Let’s eat.”
Fletcher’s eyes dropped to the front of her shirt. Then traveled down past the lower hem to her bare legs. “Can you put more clothes on now?”
Actually, having more clothes on suddenly seemed like a great idea.
“Yeah, I’ll put on a robe or something,” she said. “I have to wash my hair after the time is up for the color though.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll meet you out in the living room.” He turned to look at the computer screen. “Thanks, ladies. See you soon.”
Naomi and Charlie were both watching intently. They nodded and said goodbye.
As soon as he left the room though, Charlie said, “Oh my God.”
“Seriously,” Naomi added.
Jordan frowned at them. “What?”
“That was so sexy,” Charlie said.
Jordan shook her head. “What was so sexy?” It had definitely been sexy.
“Watching you and Fletcher just now,” Naomi said. “Talk about foreplay.”
“Foreplay? Stop it. I was just dumped last night. He’s helping with my hair because I’m an idiot and started dying my hair purple without thinking it through. That’s all that was.”
Except that four months ago he’d essentially told her he wanted her and had asked her to choose between him and Jason. And then there was Galveston…
Charlie and Naomi didn’t know about either of those things though.
“Whatever you say,” Naomi said.
“Sure, okay,” Charlie said.
Jordan leaned in closer to the computer screen. “I just got out of an eleven-year relationship less than twenty-four hours ago.”
Charlie snorted. “Stop it. You already told us everything.”
Jordan sighed. When Charlie and Naomi had called that morning, concerned about her, she’d told them about the fake proposal and that she and Jason had planned to pretend to be engaged for the next four months while he was on this tour to preserve his image.
It sounded way stupider when she’d explained it out loud than it had in her head though. Or than it had when Jason’s manager had explained it to her.
The whole a-breakup-at-this-point-in-his-career-will-ruin-everything had seemed dramatic to Jordan, but then she’d been recognized in the lobby of the hotel that morning and now she realized Ethan had reason to be concerned. The fans in line at the coffee shop had called out things like, “Team Jordan!” and, “he’s a scumbag!” and, “I’ve already deleted his album!”
So, she was glad she’d said yes to going along with the whole idea.
And then Jason had botched it anyway.
Jordan could only imagine what Ethan had said to Jason about that last night.
“Okay, well, I better get going,” she told Charlie and Naomi. “But I guess I’ll see you guys in a few hours.”
Her friends smiled brightly at that.
“I can’t wait to have you here with us,” Charlie said. “Oh my gosh! You can come work at Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild with me!”
“At the petting zoo?” Jordan perked up at that. They had alpacas. She loved alpacas. And they now had lemurs and a sloth. How cool was that?
“Of course. You can take over what Fletcher did all summer with the educational talks and stuff,” Charlie said enthusiastically. “With school back in session, he can’t do them anymore. We’ve talked about alternatives.” Then she gasped as a thought clearly occurred to her. “We can expand our educational offerings! You’re a teacher! We could put together some really amazing programs. Maybe some online stuff. We could—”
“Oh my God, Charlie!” Jordan broke in, laughing. “Okay. We’ll definitely talk. Let me get there first.”
“And she’s not supposed to make any decisions for the rest of the day,” Naomi reminded them both. “Fletcher’s in charge.”
Jordan pulled in a deep breath. Yes, that really did sound nice. “Exactly. I’ll see you when I get to Louisiana.”
“Okay. But I’m typing up notes as we speak,” Charlie said.
And she literally was. The creative part of Charlie’s brain worked constantly. Jordan knew that in the hours it would take for her to get to Louisiana, even with a layover somewhere between Vegas and New Orleans, Charlie would have some amazing plan worked out.
“I love you both. Thank you for being here for me this morning,” Jordan said, carrying the computer back into the bedroom.
“Of course,” Naomi said sweetly.
“I would have been pissed if you hadn’t picked up,” Charlie told her.
Laughing, Jordan disconnected the call.
She pulled on one of the plush robes provided by the hotel. She supposed if she got purple dye on the robe it was Jason’s problem, since this was his room.
He could fork over the money for a new robe at least after messing everything up last night and leaving her scrambling for a plan this morning.
She hadn’t wanted to say yes to the proposal. She hadn’t wanted to be proposed to, period. But she’d been willing to go along with it for his image.