Page 15 of The Chance

“What about Jordan? Is he still sharing space with you?”

I tense at the reminder of my bodyguard so soon in the conversation but manage a stiff nod.

“And,” she almost drags out. “Is that something you’re still okay with?”

Another stiff nod.

I know I shouldn’t continue to do what I’m doing. It’s unhealthy. Each day that I spend with Jordan at my side making me more unstable than I already was when I met him.

But the idea of anyone else being in his place isunfathomable.

It’s so uncomfy that it makes my stomach roll with just the thought.

“Mac?”

My head snaps up and I do my best to squash the voice in my head that makes me feel like I just got my hand snagged in the cookie jar. “Huh?”

“I asked if you liked it.” She looks at me pointedly, like I just missed a whole important scene in the movie I’ll be quizzed on, and my brows meet in the middle of my bandana-clad forehead.

“Liked what?”

Doc’s lips purse and she shakes her head. “Tell me where you went. In your head. Just now.”

Pulling in a cleansing breath, the truth of my thoughts are off my tongue before I can reframe them in a way that doesn’t out me. “I feel like I shouldn’t want this.”

“But you do.”Not a question.

I nod anyways, my arms crossing over my chest as I lean back into the cushion. “I don’t want anyone but him.”

The truth of the words startle me more than they do her and my wide eyes drift to the floor once again.

I thought we were past this.

These deep-seated and unrequited feelings have finally surfaced all over again. I’ve had them stuffed down long enough to decay.

So why now?

Huffing, I set my attention back on the note-taking brain doctor.

When she finally looks up, she crosses one knee over the other and sets the notepad aside.

Having all of her attention feels almost as bad as admitting Iused tohave a crush on someone close to me and now I just feel about two feet tall.

“I want to ask you something.”

My stomach drops, but I nod her on.

“Are you jealous of your brother?”

If it’s possible, my stomach drops even farther.

“What? No.”

“And possibly his openness about the relationship that he’s in?”

Tingling takes over my fingertips and my chest gets real tight.

“Or is it Toby’s stint in rehab and all the attention he’s getting now that he’s home?”

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