Finding Jordie: Things aren't always what they seem. (The Love Lies Bleeding Series Book 1) (12 page)

I couldn’t get my head around the fact that this gorgeous, kindhearted man was willing to go through all that trouble for us. “I need to talk to her, Nathan.”

He pulled me in closer to him and wrapped both arms around me again.

“Can I be there when you talk to her?”

“Why?”

“Please?” he asked again.

“Okay.” I wondered what he was up to but dismissed it after a moment.

“We can get her from school and go to my hotel for lunch. They’ll keep it quiet there for us.” He took my hand and we made our way back inside.

I called Rachel to let her know the change of plans and to meet us at the Mercer around noon, and that I needed my truck back. When I hung up with her my house phone rang. I went to answer it and noticed there were twenty-two messages on my machine.

“What the...?” I pressed play, ignoring whoever was calling.

Message after message were reporters asking questions about Nathan and myself. The phone began to ring again. This time Nathan picked the handset up.

“Do you know this number?” He flashed the caller ID in my face.

“Yeah, it’s my sister.” I took the phone from him and answered it. “Hey, Kelly.”

“Nate Harper!” Kelly screeched through the receiver. “First of all, why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone and second, why didn’t you tell me that someone was Nate freaking Harper, Jordie?” She was so loud I had to take the phone away from my ear.

“To answer your first question, I only met him Friday and your second, because I didn’t know. I have to go get Emma from school. We were ambushed by a shitload of paps this morning when I was about to walk her to the bus stop.” I switched ears and turned my back to Nathan. “We have some things we need to discuss. Kelly, I hate to toss this in your lap, but could she maybe spend a week or two with you until this mess calms down? I have no problems dealing with this shit, but I don’t want her anywhere near it. Nathan said he’ll get security for her wherever she is. I just think I’d feel better if she was away from here right now.”

“Whatever you need,” she assured me.

“Thanks. I’ll call you later.” I let out a little sigh of relief. “Love you, doubt it, bye.” As I clicked the end button, I could hear Nathan talking to someone in the kitchen. I walked in to see him leaning on the counter, his cell phone to his ear.

“Yes, thank you... All right... Hold on a second.” He took the phone away from his mouth. “What school does Emma go to? I need to tell the driver.”

“I’ll tell him when we get in the car,” I said.

He nodded. “We’ll give the details to the driver. Yes, great. Thank you. Eleven A.M.” He hung up and went to the front window and peeked out the curtain.

“Are they still there?”

“Oh yeah, they won’t be leaving until I do.” He ran his hands through his hair.

I’d noticed he did that when he was feeling frustrated.

He turned and walked over to me with a sly grin on his face. “Shower? We have an hour and forty-five minutes until the car gets here.”

“Then what? We walk through that?” I motioned to the front of the building.

“You know, if that fire escape worked...” he joked.

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to discuss at the moment.

“And no. You call the police. They can’t block your exit to the street like they are, but from the looks of it... Mike and Carlos, is it?”

I nodded.

“From what I can see, they have it under control.”

I put my hand on his arm. “Call the police, please. They have to work late tonight. I don’t want them overextending themselves for me.” I hit the buzzer for the door. “Can you guys come up, please?”

“Sure, Jordie,” Mike answered and I hit the button letting them in.

“Hey, guys.” I hugged them both as they walked into the apartment.

Mike assessed Nathan from where he stood. “So this is what all the fuss is about?” he said, I hoped jokingly. You could never tell with Mike.

I pursed my lips and slightly widened my eyes at him to quickly diffuse the pissing contest that was about to take place in my living room. “How did you guys know?”

“My roommate has the police scanner on some special channel the paparazzi use,” Carlos answered me, staring at Nathan. “Caught the address, thought it was the bar. She came out and told me. I called Mike right away. He said that address was your building, not the bar. So we rushed down here. My roommate followed me, because it was
him
.” He nodded to Nathan and shrugged. “She’s a celebrity junkie.”

“Well, thank you, guys so much, but we’re okay now. Going to pick up Emma from school and try to make the best of it.” I gave Mike a hug goodbye.

“No worries, Jordie. I’ll see ya later.” Mike hugged me tighter and longer than usual, lifting my feet off the ground. When he finally let go, he winked and smirked at me, reaching out to shake Nathan’s hand, even though his eyes were still on me.

Uhhh, what was that about?

“Thanks, guys.” Nathan nodded to them both as they left.

We walked upstairs. An hour and thirty-eight minutes until the car arrived.

How could I be angry with him when all the crap that’d happened this morning had made me feel closer to him? He’d planned on telling me when I got back, and it really wasn’t his fault he was treated that way. He was aiming for normal.
But this would never be normal, would it? Could I handle women throwing themselves at him everywhere we went? Could I handle this kind of chaos all the time? And what about privacy? I guess we could kiss that goodbye. What about Emma? Do I have some sort of expectation to live up to as a celebrity’s girlfriend? What if people hate me?
My head was spinning.

Nathan turned on the shower. “Come here.” He reached out, and as he undressed me I realized I was okay with all of it, as long as I could be with him. I felt alive and happy. Not the content “my life is stable and settled happy” that I’ve been in the past few years, either. It was an “I’m so happy I’m going to pop” kind of happy. We stepped into the deliciously steamy shower and he pulled me close. I could feel him against my hip and couldn’t help but smile. As water trickled down my face, he backed me up against the wall. I jumped at the chill of the tile, but he pressed against me, keeping me in place. He ran his hand down the side of my face, along my neck, over my breast, past my stomach, and down my thigh, where he stopped at the back of my knee and hitched it up around his waist. He stared intently at my upturned face with a soft smile as he hovered over me. I felt his breath against my skin and his lips pressed against mine hungrily, and once again, I was lost around him.

We headed out the door at five after eleven. “You okay?” he asked me one last time as he held my face in his hands.

“Um, I thought you witnessed firsthand that I’m no wuss?” A little annoyed at his question, I furrowed my eyebrows and tightened my lips.

“Fair enough. You’re so cute when you’re mad.” He chuckled and kissed me quickly.

We both put our sunglasses on as he opened the door. To my surprise there was a clear path to the car. The NYPD kept the crowd at bay, but I was pretty sure the number of people had tripled out there since I’d last checked. Nathan led the way to the car with a tight grip on my hand. Once we were seated inside, I just stared out the window in awe.

“How do they do that? Ask so many questions at once? So pushy.” I shook my head in disbelief. “And my god, I’ve seen celebrity buzz in the city before, but this is absolute madness. This is some Backstreet/*NSYNC fandom BS right here.” I scoffed, still fixated on all the people.

We made it to Emma’s school, and it was an absolute circus. The police and school security were trying to get a handle on things, but that didn’t matter. I was livid. “They’re all over my kid’s school!” I screeched out, causing the driver to jump and tap the brakes.

“Sorry, sorry,” I apologized. “Shit, Nathan. Me, I’m okay with it. I know I can ignore it, but she’s nine. I—”

“I understand.” He interrupted me with a kiss on my forehead and took my hand.

“I’ll wait here if you want. The driver is security as well. He can walk you in if you’d prefer.”

“I don’t know. What do you think? I really don’t know.” I breathed out. There was a knock at the window and I jumped, letting out a small yelp. The driver got out and barreled his way around to my side of the car. I heard him conversing loudly, then he knocked on the window. I cracked it open.

“Mr. Harper, he says he’s the principal.”

“Move out of the way, please. Let her see him.”

I looked through the blacked out tint and saw Cal Hopper.

“Yeah, that’s him. Let him in please.” I scooted over closer to Nathan as Cal climbed into the car.

“Cal, I am so sorry about all this,” I began.

“Jordan, please, no need to apologize. You know some of the children that attend here have prominent parents. We’re accustomed to these situations and it’s in the process of being handled. I apologize that the mess wasn’t cleaned up prior to your arrival.” He nodded to Nathan. “Mr. Harper.” He held his hand out to shake Nathan’s.

“Mr. Hopper.” Nathan nodded as they shook hands.

“Please, call me Cal.”

“Cal, I’m Nathan. Pleasure, sir.”

“Anyhow, Jordie.” Cal turned his face to me. “When Ms. Rachel called to check in on Emma she informed me of your plans to take Emma out of school for a week or so until this blows over. It’s not my intention to interfere with your parental guidance, but I may have a better suggestion. Pulling her out of her usual environment may cause her hostility towards you and Nathan here. I’ve called for triple security and can arrange for a car to pick Emma and Brandon next door up in the morning so she doesn’t feel isolated.”

The driver knocked and Cal cracked the window.

“Everything is under control out here, sir.”

“Thank you.” He closed the window. “Shall we take this to my office?” He opened the door.

Nathan exchanged words with the driver and they nodded to one another. He took my hand and we followed Cal inside.

“This is private property, Jordan,” Cal said. “They’re not permitted on school grounds and anyone—and I mean anyone—who violates those rules will be arrested for trespassing.”

“Thank you, Cal.” We walked through the small front office and sat in front of his desk.

“Please give me one moment to have Ms. Allen collect Emma for us,” he said and walked out of the room.

When he reentered moments later, he took a seat behind his oversized desk and folded his hands. “Jordie, please, I hope you’ll think about not removing Emma from school. In my experience, it isn’t the best route to take.”

“That’s fine. As long as she’s comfortable with the situation and will be protected, I’m okay with her staying.”

“Mommy!” I heard Emma squeal and I turned around to see her running into the office.

“Honey, are you all right?” I gave her a good once over.

“Yes, Mom, I’m fine.” She rolled her eyes at me and locked eyes with Nathan.

“Nate freaking Harper, Mom?” She laughed and held out her hand to Nathan. He looked impressed with my kid and I smiled.

“Emma.” He smiled.

“Nathan.” She beamed back at him. “Seriously, Mom, leave it to you to have zero clue that you’re wearing one of
Popular Magazine’s
Sexiest Man’s T-shirt.” She shook her head at me.

I blushed. “Emma,” I whispered, embarrassed as I turned my attention to Cal.

“Well, I think she is handling this just fine.”

He chuckled.

“Please, I’m better than handling this. This is so cool, Mom. I was freaked out this morning. I had no idea what was happening. But when I got to school everyone was showing me the paper and—”

“All right, I can see you’re okay with this,” I interrupted her. “Since that’s the case, you can stay in school and I’ll see you at home after practice. Mr. Hopper has arranged for private transportation until some of the attention has died down,” I explained.

“Hate to break it to ya, Mom, but this isn’t dying down for a while. See ya later.” She hugged me. “Oh, and I want sushi tonight. You owe me.” She waved and practically skipped out of the office then she stopped short. “I almost forgot! Can Nathan come to my classroom? Please?”