Entangled

chapter 11

Nicole is still not ready to start a romantic relationship with anyone because she fears getting her heart broken and not being able to get over her first love, ever, so she and Ivan, as much as they love one another, decide to remain friends although they've known and loved one another for over six months. They go their separate ways and convinced that, if there hasn't been romance between her and Ivan, there won't be, for a while, or there may never be, so they give each other a chance to date other people and experiment this love thing, the many sides of it, and in the end, if they are meant to be together, they will be, in the future, when she's no longer afraid of losing it all. Nicole starts dating Howard Reese's brother, Holden Reese. Holden knows that Nicole is officially in love with another man, and after holding feelings for him this long, there is nothing he can do to change that, so they date the old-fashioned way—they go to the movies, they go to the club, to dance, they take walks in the park, thus Nicole can walk now, but she can't run and she can't jog just yet, and they have a good time. Meanwhile, Jordan, seeing that she has a chance with Ivan, although not for a serious relationship, but a chance to have fun with him until her desire for him comes to an end and she's finally able to see him as a friend, jumps right in, not wasting time. They start sleeping together, but Ivan doesn't know how this will end because he's not sure if he's ever going to have the only woman that he's ever wanted, Nicole Ward, so he resigns to having her in his dreams, while Jordan blows his mind. He doesn't know who's really going to get Jordan for keeps in the end, but from the way that she makes love to him, whoever that guy is, he will be the most fortunate man in the world. But this relationship is not just about sex. They're also friends. They share beautiful and unforgettable times with Jayden, whom, although he's not as healthy as he was before, he's a survivor, and he gets better and better. He will still need a few more operations to get his lungs to work correctly, but at least he can breathe on his own, during the day, and he uses artificial oxygen when he sleeps at night. Because running takes a lot of work and can leave him out of breath in a matter of minutes, he can't do that, but he can walk and he can play with his little friends—and with Ivan, who loves him like a son, and always will. All is well until Mark, thinking Jordan's been alone all this time, decides to jump back into Jordan's life. The flings he had after the woman that broke his heart, they didn't work out, and he wants another chance with Jordan, like she's his back-up woman, or something of that sort.

Ivan was making breakfast that morning. He and Jordan had been together for only two weeks. He was doing something he'd never done with any woman before. He never expected a subservient woman because he knew that was way too seventeenth or eighteenth century, and not even that, but he was a traditional, but not chauvinistic man, who would not serve the woman outside the bedroom. For the love of Jordan, and to keep her with him for the longest time possible, he'd become that man, a man willing to do anything for the woman, in and out of the bedroom, though he knew this relationship was only casual, but he wanted to make it last. Jordan came into the kitchen to make breakfast for him and here and was awed to see he was almost done doing the same thing. "What are you doing?"

He knew what she meant so he didn't state the obvious to be a smartass. "I love cooking," was his excuse. "I cook for me and Aaron when he's here with me. He says I'm an awesome cook, that I should've been a chef, but when he told me that I told him that although my favorite place in the house was always the kitchen, since I was a little boy, I preferred working in healthcare, doing anything related to healthcare. I had studied to become a nurse because in reality I'd studied three professions," he said as he put Jordan's favorite creamer, French vanilla, in her coffee, one of the most-expensive brands of coffee creamer. The pancakes were done, and the scrambled eggs, and he'd turned everything off before she came into the kitchen directly from her room, and he was about to serve them, but not before serving the drinks: orange juice and coffee, Jordan's favorite, because she preferred the standard breakfast as it would be presented on TV and other places, with orange juice on the side. "But then I fell, oxygen was depleted in my brain, and I got cerebral palsy. Being a nurse was out of the question, so I went the other direction and studied to become a PT. I could be a PT because PT's don't have to lift or carry anyone, just provide them physical support. I never lost my ability to walk but after the accident in the bathroom, it became just a little more difficult."