Page 73 of Fake Dating Daxton Hawk
“You get your ass over to my place straight away. Unless… Are you with Daxton right now?”
“Yeah. But he’s busy with a phone call.”
“Oh, all right,” she sighs.
“I’ll visit you the first chance I get. Promise.”
“Wait, does this mean the escorting is over?”
“Yeah. I’m going to stay here, though. In the penthouse. Things are good between us.”
“Thank God. Babe, I’msohappy for you. Hey, um…” Mina’s bubbly voice takes a turn into something troubled. “There’s one more reason I’m calling. I’m guessing you haven’t seen Ryan’s latest YouTube video if you’re this happy.”
Shit. “No. What’s wrong?”
“I think it’s best if you look at it yourself.”
I put Mina on speaker phone and open the YouTube app, finding my brother’s channel. My stomach drops when I read the video’s title.Marrying the Girl of my Dreams in the Himalayas.
“Are you kidding me?” I shout. “Ryan got married?”
ChapterThirty-Six
Daxton
Heavy metal music blasts from the gym when I finish the call with my mom. So, I know where to find Jordan.
I enter the gym and there she is in a sports bra and short pants that hug her ass, sprinting on the treadmill. She doesn’t glance my way, not even when I step right up to her. Jordan keeps running at an impossibly fast pace with what could easily be mistaken as a look of determination if I didn’t know her so well. She’s frustrated about something.
“Impressive speed.”
Jordan hits the emergency stop button and climbs off the treadmill, wiping her face with a towel. “I need to be alone right now.”
She walks past me for the door, but I grab her hand and pull her back to face me. “Jordan, what’s wrong?”
She closes her eyes as if to calm herself. But when she presses her palms to her face, I realize she’s holding back tears. “I woke up to eight hundred thousand new views on my TikTok—”
“That’s incredible—”
“But then I found out Ryan got married.” Jordan’s voice crumbles when she says that last word. I pull her to my chest, wrapping her in my arms. “My brother got married and I had to find out through a viral YouTube video he posted of the ceremony.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“I would have loved to have attended the ceremony or to have known he was engaged.” Her words muffle against my shirt. She remains strong, not breaking into tears, but pain is heavy in her voice.
“What can I do to make the Ryan situation better?”
“There’s nothing you can do.”
“Maybe not about Ryan himself, but I can try and do something to make you smile. Cook your favorite breakfast—eggs with way too much chutney and chili flakes? Have that long-awaited running competition? After what I just saw on that treadmill, you would annihilate me.”
She wipes her eyes and laughs, finishing the sound off with a sigh. “Thank you, but I’ll be okay. I’m just having a moment. How are you? I saw you out by the pool. Your phone call looked kind of tense.”
My chest tightens with unease over my mother’s condition. I sit on a nearby gym bench and lower Jordan to my lap. “I was speaking to my mother on the phone. She… has cancer. The doctors say she doesn’t have long.”
Jordan’s face pales. Her body stills for a long beat before her arms slink around my neck. “That’s terrible. Why did you let me complain about this stupid thing with Ryan’s marriage?”
“The Ryan thing isn’t stupid. You’re hurting and your feelings are valid.” I hug Jordan, stroking her hair. “My mom has asked that I return home this weekend. I’ve already arranged a flight. It leaves in a few hours. I’m so sorry I’m leaving you like this after last night. I was hoping we would have more time to be together and talk about us.”
