Jersey Six - Jewel E Ann Page 0,69
buried his head between my legs before—”
“Jersey!” Max sprang out of the chair, doing a weird dance like something crawled up her pant leg. “No! Why do you hate me? I’m old enough to be your mother!” She shimmied a bit more before pointing to another chair.
Jersey nodded.
“So where’s Chris?” Max wasted no time changing the subject.
“I don’t know. Probably taking a walk. He likes to walk. I think that’s when memories come back to him. And he needs a phone too so I can communicate with him when I’m gone. Oh … and access to the internet would be great for him as well.”
Max nodded. “That can be arranged. Ian’s with Nick doing therapy this morning. He should be back soon so I can go over his schedule with him. How are you liking L.A.?”
Jersey sat across from Max, blowing the steam from her coffee. “I don’t know. I guess it’s all relative. I’m staying in a fancy house. Eating three meals a day. Showering. So in that way, L.A. is amazing. And maybe if I were on the streets, it still might feel like an improvement just because it doesn’t get as cold here.”
“Well, if your birth certificate shows up, we’ll get things going on your passport.”
“We’ll? Aren’t you leaving too, in three days?”
“Yes. Jeanine, my assistant, will take care of whatever you need.”
Jersey coughed, setting her coffee on the table. “You’re Coop’s assistant, but you have your own assistant?”
Max pulled Jersey’s phone out of the bag and turned it on. “Yes, but she’s part-time. I use her to help me when I can’t be in two places at once, like when they’re touring. Like when Ian’s personal life becomes his priority, but he still has to do his job.”
“You think I’m his personal life?”
Max nodded on a chuckle. “If you saw the messages he’s sent me since the day he met you, I think it’s safe to say he’s made you his whole life.” She shrugged. “And I don’t know why. And that’s nothing against you. I genuinely like you. It was just an odd meet cute.”
“Meet cute?”
“A meet cute is a first encounter that leads to a romantic relationship.”
“Whoa … we don’t have a romantic relationship. It’s sex.”
Max curled her hair behind her ear and reached across the table, resting her hand on Jersey’s hand. The smile Max shared, a mix of amusement and sympathy, made Jersey nervous. “Have you ever been in love?”
Jersey shook her head.
“Have you ever thought about a man in a nonsexual way, for no particular reason other than you just liked how it made you feel to think about him?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.” Her gaze averted to the windows. “Maybe. But that doesn’t mean anything.”
Releasing her hand, Max sat back and grinned. “No? Well … maybe not. But when you overshare with me about the sex, you do it in a very matter-of-fact way. In those moments, I might believe it’s just sex. However, when I mention Ian, when I watch you watching him on stage, or when you ask where he’s at, your cheeks turn pink, you wet your lips, and you can’t even look me in the eye. That’s romance. And you don’t have to admit it, but I know from experience it’s an incredible feeling.”
It wasn’t an incredible feeling, not for Jersey. Had someone told her that the Russells were going to die and there was nothing she could do to stop it … that’s what it felt like to think about Ian.
“Here.” She slid the phone to Jersey. “Enter a six-digit code and remember it.”
Jersey stared at the screen a few seconds then tapped it six times.
“You just typed 666666, didn’t you?”
She nodded.
Max rolled her eyes. “Okay. Whatever. We’ll just make sure you don’t keep the launch codes on your phone.”
“What launch codes?”
“Nothing.”
“No.” Jersey tipped her chin up. “Not nothing. I’m sick of everyone around here making fun of me.”
“What’s going on?”
They turned toward Ian’s voice. He dropped his wallet and key fob on the counter, giving them a narrow-eyed inspection.
“Just a misunderstanding.” Max smiled.
Jersey grabbed her phone and marched out of the kitchen.
“Jersey …” Ian tried to grab her arm, but she jerked it away and ran up the stairs, slamming the door to Ian’s bedroom, tossing the phone onto the floor and pounding the door with her fists like a hammer.
“Ahhhh!!!!” She released her frustrations. When she gave up the door fight, it opened slowly, forcing her to take a step back.
Ian peeked around