“I’m not fucking doing that, Jordan.”
Fletcher realized his reaction to her request seemed harsh.
But fuck.
She’d been single for a few hours.
Yes, so she’d apparently been getting over Jason for a while. And she didn’t want to be single. But holy shit. The last time a guy had asked her out, she hadn’t been single again for over a decade. She’d probably go out to one dinner with a new guy and they’d all be pushing forty before they broke up.
And yes, Fletcher wanted her single.
Because he wanted her.
She sighed. “You just want me to be alone? Forever?”
“Of course not.” He gripped the railing under his hands tightly and pretended to study the lighted numbers on the elevator panel.
He very much wanted her to not be alone. But he also had very specific ideas about what not alone looked like for Jordan. And he needed to give the girl a chance to breathe and a chance to settle a little before he told her how he felt and what he wanted. Didn’t he? There was time to talk about all of this later.
As long as she didn’t even have coffee with anyone else in the meantime.
He was exaggerating. Probably. But Jason Young had asked her to the Valentine’s Day dance when they’d been fifteen and Jordan had been taken ever since, for fuck’s sake.
Jason had walked up to her in the parking lot after their schools’ big rivalry basketball game—where she’d been standing with Fletcher, Zeke, Zander, Naomi, and Naomi’s brother Michael—grinned at Fletcher, then turned to Jordan and asked her out. Right in front of everyone. Even now, Fletcher had to admit that had taken balls.
Fletcher had known Jason had done it to annoy him. Everyone had known that except Jordan. But dammit, she’d said yes, they’d gone to the fucking dance, and…that had been it. They’d gone and actually fallen in love and the rest was history.
So now? No, Fletcher would not be setting her up with anyone. She’d probably fall in love while they were still on the appetizers.
“Think you’ll like my next boyfriend?” she asked.
“I doubt it.” He was sure he wouldn’t in fact.
“It would be good if you did,” she said. “You’re my best friend. It would be really nice if you liked the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with.”
“So now we’re already onto the rest of your life? Thought you were talking about a boyfriend.”
Fletcher was trying really hard not to grit his teeth. Of course, in Jordan’s experience, going out for pizza with a guy was basically the same thing as saying ’til death do us part. Fletcher shoved a hand through his hair. He needed to relax. He was definitely overreacting.
But damn. She was just now single after eleven fucking years. It had been less than a day and she was already talking about her next boyfriend. Who she was, apparently, already planning to marry?
Maybe he wasn’t overreacting. That was insane.
Why the fuck was this elevator taking so long?
“I told you, I want to settle down,” Jordan said. “I’m not going to just date for fun. I won’t go out with a guy I know for sure I can’t be with long term.”
Fletcher lost the battle to not grit his teeth.
“What if it’s Zeke or Zander?” she asked a second later.
Fletcher looked at her quickly, scowling. She was poking him now, but he wasn’t sure why. “It will not be Zeke or Zander.”
“Why not? They’re both great guys. They’ve both grown up.”
“Have they?” His brothers were great guys, that was true. But grown up was a relative term.
“Zeke owns his own company,” Jordan pointed out. “Zander’s a cop.”
Fletcher pushed off the back wall of the elevator and turned to face her. “No.”
He didn’t have much else to say about her going out with either of his brothers as anything more than friends.
“Well, what about Knox? He’s still single, right?”
Knox was also a great guy. Far more mature and settled than Zeke or Zander. He was intelligent and serious and knew exactly what he wanted, and the females in Fletcher’s family always commented on how hot he was.
So, not just no. Fuck no. Because if she went out with Knox, it was even more likely Jordan would be filling out her wedding gift registry by the time dessert came.
“You are not going out with Knox,” Fletcher said. Firmly. Really firmly.
The elevator finally arrived at the ground floor and the door swished open. Jordan stepped out first with Fletcher right behind her.
They made it down the short hallway that led from the private elevators to the main hallway that would then give them the choice of heading to the casino, the front of the building, or to the bank of elevators that went up to the regular floors.
They started for the front doors.
But even before they made it all the way down the hallway, they heard the commotion.
They came up short as the hallway opened to the front entryway of the hotel.
Jason Young was there.
Right in the middle of the lobby. Surrounded by people. A few looked like reporters, but most were clearly just fans. His bodyguards were keeping people several feet back, but nearly everyone was holding up a phone or a camera, recording what he was saying.
He was holding an impromptu press conference.
“Oh my God,” Jordan said. She reached out and grabbed Fletcher’s forearm. “Shit.”
Yeah, shit about summed it up.
Fletcher looked around quickly. Was there another way to duck out of here? They could turn around and head back to the casino. There were entrances on that side as well. Here in the lobby though, the check-in desks were to the left and there were a few closed doors along the right, but otherwise, it was just a huge open space with lots of marble and lots and lots of people.
He reached for Jordan’s hand and started to turn, but just then he heard, “There’s Jordan!”
He felt her stiffen.
Then a louder voice—Jason Young’s voice, to be specific—said, “There she is! See? Doesn’t she look amazing?”
Fletcher pivoted to glare at Jason. The guy was pointing Jordan out? And saying she looked amazing? What the hell?
But it only took a second to realize that this little gaggle hadn’t been going well for Jason. He looked stressed. And maybe like he’d been sweating.
That was confirmed when someone said, “Jordan, are you all right?”
And another called, “Team Jordan!”
And yet another, “Be strong, girl, we’ve got your back!”
Had the crowd been ganging up on Jason? Were they blaming him for what happened last night? That was fair but a little surprising. Fletcher suddenly liked this a lot better.
He looked down at Jordan and squeezed her hand. “You okay?”
She looked like a deer caught in headlights, actually. But as the crowd started to press in her direction she straightened and lifted her chin. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
She took a few more steps further into the lobby and gave the crowd a wobbly smile. She lifted her hand. “Hi, everyone.”
Seeing that as obvious encouragement, half the crowd broke off and came to surround her. Fletcher immediately felt claustrophobic, but he kept his hold on Jordan. He was definitely bigger than most of the twenty-something women who were first to get close, and he spread his feet and angled his body slightly, making his physical space, and that around Jordan, wider.