Well, what the fuck was that about?
I slammed the door shut behind Annie. So much for friends with benefits not being complicated. Things had been going so well. And now…whatever that was.
My anger simmered in my gut, threatening to boil over if I didn’t give it an outlet. I’d always had a short temper. Courtesy of my asshole father. But I’d learned to rein it in when I had to in business. In my personal life, it was my weakest link, and I didn’t want to let it loose here. Even though I was frustrated and wanted to.
I threw on running clothes and forced myself to go for that run anyway. Annie didn’t want to go, but now, I needed to go. The first few steps were too fast. I knew it wasn’t a sustainable mile, but I didn’t care. I just ran and let the anger out on the pavement.
My breath frosted in front of me, but I wasn’t cold. And for the first time in a long while, I missed Vancouver. Missed the run along the Stanley Park Seawall, the way the sun shimmered along the waterfront in the winter, the eclectic food options, the vibrancy of my home. I even missed the rain. Fuck, who knew I’d ever miss the rain? But I was used to it raining what felt like half of the year, and now, it never rained in Lubbock’s arid climate.
A few miles in, I slowed my pace. The nostalgia of Vancouver had brought my temper back to normal. Whatever had upset Annie wasn’t my concern. If she didn’t want to tell me and she didn’t want to run, then fine. I’d run without her.
Six miles later, I returned to my house and took another shower. I found my phone where I’d left it charging. I had a missed call from Larissa.
My heart skipped. I’d been so occupied with Annie that I forgot we’d hear from the winery seller today. She’d kept me so thoroughly fixated that I forgot business. Who the hell was I?
I called Larissa back. “Hey, Larissa. Sorry about that. I was out for a run.”
“Jordan, good to hear from you.”
“Do you have news?”
“I do. I wanted to call to deliver this: you got the winery!”
I released a relieved breath. “That’s great news, Larissa. Really great news.”
“I’ll let you deliver it to Julian and Hollin.”
“Of course.”
“I’m sending the contract your way right now. Everything looks good to me, but look it over and tell me if there’s anything you want to change.”
“Will do. Did you hear anything else from the other people who offered?”
She sighed. “I didn’t. I know that they went back to them to ask if they’d go over our asking price, and they said no. So, it’s yours!”
I nodded in relief. It was still strange to me. Usually, I knew who I was going up against in business. I didn’t particularly like thinking that my opponent was a ghost.
Larissa congratulated me again and then got off the phone. I read the entire contract before calling Julian and Hollin and asking them to meet me at Walkers.
I staked out an oversized booth at the coffee shop and bar and ordered a latte from the barista. Walkers was actually the first place I’d ever met Annie. She’d been standing against the bar at a medical school orientation happy hour. She’d been shockingly aggressive, and I’d been into it. I still thought about her when I walked into the darkened interior with all of its hardwood booths and glossy bar. During the day, it was a coffee bar, and as the sun set, it turned into a real bar, serving all sorts of libations. I came here frequently enough that I had other memories layered over my first one with Annie.
Julian and Hollin showed up together, finding my table immediately and heading toward me. Hollin in jeans and a button-up, belt buckle, and boots and all. Julian in crisp maroon pants, a white polo, and gray cardigan. They were a mismatched pair and still had turned into the closest of friends. It was one of Julian’s specialties.
“What’s all this about?” Julian asked, shaking my hand when I slid out of the booth to meet them.
I grinned. “We got the winery.”
“What?” Julian gasped.
Hollin’s eyes widened. “We did?”
“I wanted to tell you in person.”
“Holy shit!” Hollin crowed.
Julian looked amazed and jubilant. He threw his arms around me in a careless way I hadn’t seen since we were kids. “You did it!”
I laughed and released him, shaking Hollin’s hand. “I didn’t do much.”
“Whatever, man,” Hollin said. “We never would have gotten here without you.”
They were probably right, but I just laughed them off. I was far too buoyant from our victory. They pulled me over to the bar. I couldn’t even find it in me to argue when they convinced the barista to pour us shots of something clear. I had a way with business, and they had their own charismatic specialties. Apparently, getting drinks out of a barista was one of Hollin’s.
One drink turned into five, which turned into ten. I stopped counting as we celebrated well into the evening, forgetting all about the work I should have been doing and the earlier argument with Annie.
When David showed up with Jensen, Austin, Landon, and Patrick in tow, it was only then that I remembered why I’d chosen Walkers to begin with. It was David’s birthday. All of the guys had taken the night off and planned to start festivities at Walkers.
I clapped David on the back. “Happy fucking birthday.”
David cracked up. “Looks like someone started celebrating without me.”
I laughed. “We got the winery.”
“That’s incredible,” David said, shaking my hand. “I’m happy for you all. I know you’ve been busy with it.”
“What winery?” Jensen asked. He appeared at my other side with a bourbon in his hand. Top-shelf likely. Jensen was the oldest Wright. He’d been CEO and given it up to pursue his love of architecture. It was his wedding to Emery where I’d managed to fuck everything up with both Annie and Missy. A talent, I know.
“We bought West Texas Winery,” I told him.
Austin wrinkled his nose. “That shithole?”
His best friend, Patrick, elbowed him in the side. “Dude.”
“It is,” I agreed anyway. “But we have big plans for it.”
“Isn’t it haunted?” Landon asked with a laugh.
“If you believe in that sort of thing,” I said with a shrug.
“It’s had one too many problems not to blame it on something,” Austin added.
Jensen rolled his eyes. “It’s not haunted. That’s ridiculous.”
“I’ll blame it on mismanagement.”
“Seems more reasonable,” Jensen said. “Haunted.”
“It’s what everyone says,” Landon added.
Julian appeared then with another shot.
I took it from him and lifted it into the air. “To David’s birthday and owning a haunted winery.”
All the other guys raised their glasses at the toast. We all drank deep. The tequila hardly even burned. I didn’t even need a chaser. That was probably a problem. I hadn’t let loose like this in Lubbock in years. Not since the night our mom’s cancer had gone into remission. We’d celebrated for three straight days. We hadn’t thought she’d make it this time, but a year of chemotherapy, and they’d declared her cancer-free. This didn’t feel quite like that, but it was definitely worth celebrating.
The conversation turned to work, as it so often did with so many from Wright in one place. I wasn’t even sure when Morgan had turned up to make fun of us all for talking work at a birthday party.
“You all are the absolute worst,” she said with an eye roll. “I’m going to get another drink to avoid this conversation.”
I laughed, finishing off number thirteen…or was it fifteen? Uncertain. I was drunk. That was for sure.
David pushed past me and straight toward the entrance. I turned and found Sutton standing in the entranceway. He picked her up and swung her in a circle like they were in some fucking Hallmark movie. But it wasn’t Sutton that stopped me in my tracks. It was the woman standing next to her—Annie.
She was in a black dress that I’d never seen before. It hugged her features to her hips and then flared out in a flowy skirt to her knees. Her wild red hair had been tamed into some intricate updo, and she had on more makeup than I’d seen from her in weeks.
She was deep in conversation with Jennifer, who tugged her toward the bar. Neither of them noticed that I was even here. After our fight this morning, I probably should give her space.
But I didn’t.
I stepped right up to her, leaning into the bar and sliding my hand up her waist. She jumped almost out of her skin before she saw it was me.
“Jordan,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
I arched an eyebrow. “It’s David’s birthday.”
“Right,” she whispered.
I moved in even closer so that we were nearly touching. My fingers found hers in the empty space between our bodies. She flushed and tugged back.
“Stop it,” she hissed.
“Why?”
“We’re in public.”
“So?”
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Don’t. Not tonight.”
Jennifer passed her a drink and shot me a pained look. “I’m going to go find Sutton.”
Then she scampered off, leaving us alone.
“I thought you were studying,” I said as my brain remembered her words to me this morning.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” she got out, “but Sutton insisted I come with her since she got a sitter for Jason and Madison. I agreed to one drink.”
“How exactly is that none of my business?”
“I don’t have to tell you where I am.” She took a sip of her drink, averting her gaze.
“You didn’t have to lie to me.”
My temper was a caged animal, threatening to rip free and devastate everything in its path. I wished that I’d had a longer leash. That I had found a way to channel my anger into something productive. And while sometimes I could, when I was drunk…all bets were off.
“I didn’t lie,” Annie shot back. “I had planned to study all evening. I told Sutton that I wasn’t going out this semester at all because I was too busy. But she’s my best friend, so…here I am.”
“You had to know that I was going to be here.”
“And how would I know that?” she snapped. “You didn’t tell me that you were coming to David’s party.”
“Not after you had a meltdown at my house this morning.”
She took a step back. “Fuck you, Jordan.”
She turned away from me, but I grasped her arm to stop her.
“We are not dating,” she spat at me. She shook with the control to not raise her voice. “We’re not.”
“I heard you, Annie,” I growled. “We’re not dating. We’re fucking. Friends with benefits. Whatever you want to call it.”
“Fucking is fine with me.” Her eyes were twin flames. “Because right now, I’m not sure we’re even friends.”
“Fine,” I said.
“Fine,” she repeated through gritted teeth.
She jerked out of my grip and stalked across the room. She stood like a sentinel next to Jennifer and Sutton. They all laughed and joked while Annie sipped her drink and pointedly avoided my gaze. She finished her one drink, hugged her friends, and then headed for the door.
She really had come for only one drink.
I’d been in conversation with Julian and Hollin about the winery when I saw her slip out. I didn’t even make an excuse; I just darted for the exit.
I caught up to her on the sidewalk next to her car. “Annie.”
She sighed heavily and then turned to face me. Her eyes glittered in the moonlight. I wanted to kiss her, to brush aside all the harsh words we’d said to each other. Just to take her home and forget it’d all happened.
“What do you want, Jordan?”
“I don’t want this to be the end.”
It wasn’t what I’d meant to say. Instead, it was the truth.
“Whatever it is, Jordan, it has to end eventually,” she said, defeated. “I’m leaving. I told you that from the start. I’m leaving in a few months, and you’re staying. We can’t date.”
“Okay,” I said calmly, stepping closer to her. “I know you don’t want to date.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “We can’t date.” She drew an imaginary line between our bodies. “This is the line in the sand.”
“And if I want more?” I asked stupidly, drunkenly. A question I never would have asked sober. Not in a million years when she was right there in my grasp.
She crossed her arms, blocking me from her body. “If you can’t stay on your side of the line, then that’s that.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. Because Annie and I worked. We worked just how we fucking were. I’d be an idiot to fuck with that. But I was drunk and honest, and I couldn’t deny that crossing that fucking line sounded like the right move.
So, when Annie opened the door and got inside her car, I let her drive away. I wouldn’t push her for something she didn’t want. Even if she was what I wanted.