Falling Hard Read online

  With Molly out of the house for a few hours, she couldn’t get underfoot, and the first thing she associated with the new city would be a fun day at the park, not all this chaos.

  Emma counted the neatly labeled boxes stacked against the built-in bookcase in her new living room.

  Nine. Which meant there were two more outside. Good thing the rest of her books were stored on her e-reader.

  When she went outside to get the two boxes, her neighbor was just leaving the house too.

  She had changed, and the white button-down shirt she wore now looked great against her rich dark brown skin and her naturally coiled, black hair, which was cut close to her head and amplified her great cheekbones and her full lips. Her jeans clung to her long, muscular legs and emphasized her slim waist and the slight flare of her hips. Jordan’s loose-limbed stride oozed confidence.

  Emma touched her thumb to the bare spot at the base of her ring finger, annoyed at herself for even noticing the way her neighbor looked.

  When their gazes met across the driveway, Jordan flashed a grin.

  Emma couldn’t believe the woman had hit on her. Her flirting had been obvious, even for someone who was as rusty as she was. Admittedly, it was a bit flattering and had bolstered her self-esteem, which had taken quite a beating in the past year. Once upon a time, she might have flirted back, but experience had taught her to stay away from a player like Jordan Williams.

  She knew Jordan’s type. Women like her were easy on the eye but hard on the heart, and she was determined to never again give anyone the chance to hurt her. If she got involved with a woman again at some point down the road, it would be with someone who knew the definition of commitment and faithfulness.

  So she just lifted her hand in silent acknowledgment without returning Jordan’s smile and climbed into the moving van. Her to-do list was as long as the Great Wall of China, and flirting with the admittedly good-looking new neighbor wasn’t on it.

  As usual, LAX was a zoo. The automatic doors of the terminal swished open, and Jordan jogged through. Cursing under her breath, she dodged past tired travelers, crying children, and chatting groups of tourists with large suitcases blocking her way.

  She craned her neck to follow the signs toward domestic baggage claim. As she rushed past, she glanced at the large digital monitor listing the arrival times of various flights. Damn. It showed Simone’s plane as having landed an hour ago.

  By the time she reached baggage claim, she was starting to sweat. Simone hated waiting, and usually, Jordan hated being late. In her family, being fifteen minutes early had been considered being late, and it had taken her years to become a little more relaxed about tardiness.

  Nearly running, she rounded the corner.

  There she stood, next to the by-now empty conveyor belt. God, Simone looked good…and annoyed. Her black corkscrew curls bounced up and down with every impatient tap of her foot, and her dark eyes narrowed as she watched Jordan approach.

  Jordan cringed. “Sorry,” she called across the distance between them. When she reached her, she greeted her with a hug and a kiss that lasted a split second longer than usual between friends. “I got held up.”

  Simone shook her head at her. “Oh, yeah. I can imagine by what. Or should I say by whom?” Despite the rebuke, there was no bite in her tone, only gentle teasing.

  That was the nice thing about being just friends with benefits. No jealousy dramas.

  “I wish,” Jordan said. “For once, it wasn’t a woman that made me late.” Well, okay, the sleepover at Colleen’s and then trying to flirt with her new neighbor hadn’t helped, but if not for Tuna, she could have driven directly from Colleen’s condo to the airport. “I had to feed my cat.”

  A grin spread over Simone’s face. She looked left and right to make sure they were alone. “Is that a euphemism for eating pussy?”

  Jordan laughed. God, she had missed this crazy woman. “Has anyone ever told you you’ve got a dirty mind?”

  “You did, but you didn’t complain back then.”

  True. They had met right after Simone’s high school sweetheart had broken up with her, and Jordan hadn’t minded being her rebound woman. She had expected them to go their separate ways after a few hot romps, but instead, they had become friends. “I won’t complain tonight either, but the only dirty thing about feeding my cat is the way the kitchen floor looks afterwards.”

  Simone’s laptop bag started to slip from her shoulder, and she caught it before it could crash to the floor. “So you really got a cat? You? The woman who once said getting a pet was the first step toward being tied down with the matrimonial ball and chain?”

  “I didn’t get a cat.” Jordan reached for Simone’s suitcase and led the way toward the exit. “The cat got me. One day, it showed up on my doorstep and wouldn’t leave, no matter how many times I shooed it away. Finally, I just gave up and took it in.”

  “I always said that you’re just a big old softie,” Simone said affectionately. “Before you know it, a woman will sneak into your life the same way.”

  “Won’t happen,” Jordan answered with confidence. “Tuna is the only female who’s ever gonna live with me.”

  Simone nearly lost her laptop bag a second time because she was laughing so hard. “Tuna? You seriously named your cat Tuna?”

  Jordan shrugged. “She never came when I called her by any other name, but whenever I called ‘Tuna’ and opened a can, she was right there.”

  Laughing, Simone followed her to the car. “Thank God you don’t want kids, or you’d end up calling them Pizza, Burger, and Cake, after your favorite foods!”

  She reached for Simone’s laptop bag. “Shut up and give me that thing before you drop it.”

  “And that’s how the little frog found a new home.” Emma closed the book and looked down at her daughter to see if she had grasped the meaning of the story.

  Molly yawned. She had worn herself out at the park with the sitter and exploring the house, sliding across the gleaming hardwood floor in her socks. “That was a good story, Mommy.”

  “Yes, it was.” She had picked it to help her daughter get settled into her new home and routine.

  “At first he was so sad, but then he liked the new house because it was right next to a creek,” Molly said as if she had to explain the story to Emma, even though she’d been the one reading it to her.

  Emma smiled at how cute she was. “What about you? Do you like our new house too?”

  Molly nodded. “I like the tree.”

  “I bet.” Emma laughed. If she had let her, Molly would have climbed the mulberry tree in the backyard.

  She waited, but Molly didn’t say anything else, and Emma didn’t want to force it. She had a feeling that the five-year-old hadn’t yet realized that this wasn’t just a fun vacation in an exciting new place. Of course she had told her daughter that they would be staying for good, but Molly hadn’t fully understood yet that it meant they wouldn’t be returning to the only home she’d ever known and to her friends in Portland.

  For now, she was content, surrounded by her toys that Emma had unpacked while Molly had been with the sitter.

  Molly yawned again and pressed her cheek to Mouse, her favorite stuffed animal.

  Emma tucked the covers more securely around her daughter and then bent to kiss her forehead. “Good night. Sleep well.”

  “Night, Mommy.”

  She flicked off the bedside lamp and tiptoed to the door, already hearing Molly’s breathing fall into the more regular pattern of sleep. At the door, she turned around. The astronaut night-light cast a gentle yellow glow across Molly’s face.

  For several seconds, she stood in the doorway and watched her before making herself move. She still had several boxes to unpack so Molly would wake up to a house full of familiar objects tomorrow morning.

  Several hours later, she folded up
the cardboard box that had held her urban fantasy novels and then glanced at her watch. It was already past midnight, and she had slept very little the past two days while they’d been on the road. A wide yawn made her jaw pop.

  Enough was enough. The boxes of office supplies would have to wait until tomorrow. So would all the other things going into the tiny third bedroom that she would turn into her office.

  Maybe it was a good thing that she’d left behind all of the kitchen utensils, taking only some pieces of furniture, her clothes, her books, and all of Molly’s things. Chloe had offered her the ice cream maker, the wineglasses they had bought in Venice, and the knife set their best man had given them as a wedding gift, but Emma hadn’t wanted any of it. Those had been their things, stuff they had bought together or received as a couple, and she didn’t want that reminder every time she caught sight of them.

  This was a fresh start, and that meant new kitchen utensils. She’d have to go shopping tomorrow.

  She wandered through the still-unfamiliar house, touching a wall here and one of the arched doorways there as if to mark them with her personal scent and make them hers. It was a beautiful house, but—like Molly—she couldn’t quite grasp that it was her home now. Maybe it hadn’t fully hit her either that there was no going back to the life she’d once had.

  Sighing, she stopped in front of Molly’s room and peeked in through the door that she’d left ajar so she would hear if Molly woke up.

  Even in her sleep, her daughter’s small hands held on to Mouse, as if the stuffed animal were a lifeline keeping her afloat.

  Had she done the right thing by uprooting their lives and finding a new home for them, or had taking Molly to the town where Emma had grown up been an entirely selfish thing?

  Only time would tell.

  She tiptoed across the room, tucked the covers closer around her daughter, and watched her for a few seconds longer before sneaking out.

  God, she was exhausted. After a quick shower, she slipped into the new bed that had been delivered this afternoon.

  The guest room in their home in Portland had been transformed into an office, so Emma had slept on the couch for the last year. Now lying in a real bed felt strange, even though her aching muscles definitely appreciated it. Her thoughts wandered to the last time she’d slept in a bed, back when her life had still been happy and normal. Or maybe it hadn’t been, and she just hadn’t realized.

  Had Chloe held her that last night? Had they made love? Or had it been one of the rare nights that Chloe had been called back to the hospital? Had she returned muttering about wannabe beauty queens who refused to let the ER residents touch their faces and insisted on having a plastic surgeon come in for a few stitches?

  Now, of course, Emma could no longer be sure that those emergencies had ever really existed and hadn’t been just fabricated excuses so Chloe could spend the night with her lover. Since the infidelity had come to light, everything Chloe had ever said to her had come under suspicion.

  Resolutely, she pushed away those fruitless thoughts. She’d lost enough sleep over Chloe during the last year, wondering when it had all started to go wrong and why she hadn’t noticed sooner. That had to stop now.

  It took a few more minutes before she could shut off her brain and fall asleep.

  When she startled awake some time later, it was still dark outside. She reached for her cell phone on the coffee table that served as her bedside table, only to discover that the phone wasn’t there. Neither was the coffee table.

  Then she remembered. She wasn’t in the living room back in their house in Portland. She was in her new bedroom. For several seconds, she couldn’t figure out what had woken her. She was still bone-tired, so why the heck wasn’t she still asleep?

  Banging noises drifted through the wall.

  Thump! Thump! Thump!

  For a moment, she thought it was Molly, pounding on the wall because she was scared. But before she could jump up and race over to her, she remembered that Molly’s room was on the other side of the bathroom, at the front of the house. This wall was the one she shared with Jordan, her new neighbor.

  Thump! Thump! Thump!

  Jesus, what was she doing? Playing indoor basketball in the middle of the night?

  Thump! Thump!

  Then a loud, ecstatic scream came from the other side of the wall. “Yes! Just like that. God, yes, right there!”

  Emma let her head fall back onto the pillow and groaned. Well, at least someone was getting some while she had lived like a nun for the past year.

  “Don’t stop!”

  It wasn’t Jordan’s voice but that of another woman.

  Emma couldn’t believe that Jordan had flirted with her and even asked her out for coffee even though she had a girlfriend. Were there no faithful people left on earth?

  Or maybe the vocal woman wasn’t Jordan’s girlfriend but just some stranger she had picked up in a bar.

  Why was she even thinking about it? It wasn’t any of her business what her neighbor did on her side of that wall—unless it kept her awake.

  The banging and moaning lasted for quite some time. Apparently, her neighbor wasn’t all talk and no action. Emma had to giggle at the thought and then pressed a hand to her mouth. Since when was she a giggler? She definitely needed some sleep.

  But with all the sounds coming from next door, that wouldn’t happen anytime soon. The moans, groans, and little screams seemed to go on forever.

  Maybe she should have accepted that invitation for coffee after all. Her neighbor had amazing stamina; she had to give her that. Then she grinned wryly and shook her head. Sex with someone like Jordan wasn’t worth the inevitable heartache, not even sex that made you scream so loudly that you woke up the neighbor.

  After a while, the rhythmic pounding of the headboard against the wall started to speed up. “Yes, yes, yes. God, Jordan!”

  Then, finally, there was only silence.

  Thank God! Emma hooked one leg over the covers in her favorite sleeping position and prepared to go back to sleep. Just as her thoughts started to drift away and that feeling of heaviness overcame her, the rhythmic banging started again.

  Thump! Thump! Thump!

  With a grunt of frustration, Emma yanked the covers up over her head. But after a while, she started to sweat. It wasn’t because of the hot sex happening on the other side of the wall, she told herself; it was because she was stuck beneath the covers, where the temperature was heating up.

  Were they done?

  Carefully, she poked her head out from beneath the covers and listened into the darkness.

  Thump! Thump! Thump!

  “So good.”

  “No,” Emma muttered. “That’s not good at all. I have to get up early tomorrow morning, dammit.” Why on earth couldn’t she at least have straight neighbors? If one of them were a man, their middle-of-the-night romp would have been over already.

  “More! Harder! God, yes!”

  The framed poster she had leaned against the wall toppled over. She hadn’t hung it yet because she hadn’t wanted to disturb the new neighbor with her drilling so late in the day. But apparently, Jordan Williams had no such compunctions.

  Grumbling, Emma got out of bed, snatched up her pillow and blanket, and marched into the living room. Great. Now she was back on the couch.

  At least here she couldn’t hear the energizer bunnies next door anymore.

  With a grunt, she pulled the blanket up to her chin. What a welcome to the neighborhood!

  Chapter 3

  Jordan glanced at the dashboard clock while she drove. It was already half past six. Usually, she didn’t mind the ten-or-eleven-hour days at the hospital, but Simone was only in town for a few more days, so she had promised to take her out to dinner at a nice restaurant.

  She had loved having her friend stay with her for the last two da
ys. After not seeing each other for almost a year, their reconnecting in the bedroom had been explosive. But, truth be told, she also looked forward to having her house to herself again, with no one who left their stuff all over and no guilty conscience if she didn’t make it home on time because she had ended up having to open a patient’s abdomen instead of removing his gallbladder laparoscopically.

  When she pulled into the driveway, she once again found something blocking the access to the detached garage she shared with her neighbor. This time, it wasn’t a moving van. It was a little girl.

  “What the fuck?” Jordan had never had a child play right in front of her house. Sometimes, the neighbors’ kids were playing soccer on the street, but unless the ball rolled up her driveway, they usually stayed off her property.

  Jordan left the car at the bottom of the driveway and climbed out.

  She had lived on this street for almost three years, and she’d never seen this kid before, at least not that she remembered. Maybe it was someone’s grandchild here for a visit. She’d never been good at guessing children’s ages, but the girl didn’t look older than three or four, too young to wander around the neighborhood on her own, especially since it was probably close to her bedtime.

  The girl was kneeling in front of the garage, drawing on the pavement with red, blue, and white sidewalk chalk. Half of it dusted her bib overalls and her fair cheeks.

  When Jordan rounded the car, she caught a glimpse of what the kid was drawing: some kind of animal with huge triangular ears. Either it was the stuffed lion she clutched in her free hand, or it was supposed to be Tuna, who lay next to the girl, her tail swishing back and forth across the chalk drawing, adding a fourth color to her fur.

  “Um, hi there,” Jordan said from several steps away, not wanting to scare the kid.

  The girl’s head shot up, her lopsided blonde pigtails flying. She stared at Jordan with large eyes but didn’t return the greeting or say anything else.