Page 60 of Elling & Jackie

Chapter 23

Jackie wrapped thesheet around her body and awkwardly crawled off the bed. "Elling?"

She'd slept deeper and longer than normal, having only woke up once to find Elling holding her. Looking around the room, she searched for her phone. She'd had it in her hand when she'd ran across the hallway.

Getting no reply from Elling, she walked into the main part of the hotel room, expecting to find him up and dressed.

"Elling?" She stood in the middle of the room, turning in a circle. "Where are you?"

He always left the hotel by nine o'clock, except for yesterday. Would he have left without telling her goodbye?

Finding her phone, she looked at the time. She bit her lip. It was only six thirty in the morning.

She rubbed the base of her neck, trying to wake up fully and think of what to do. Looking around the hotel room, she couldn't find Elling's duffle bag.

He'd left her.

Unable to go back to her room until seven o'clock when Sharon, the day-shift worker, came in and took Terri's place at the desk, she went into the bathroom and showered.

Her stomach rumbled more in anxiousness than hunger. She thought Elling would wake up with her and they could start a new day together. They still needed to talk over where to meet and how they would work out seeing each other in private.

That had been the plan last night. It was what she wanted to happen between them, and he'd agreed to keep seeing her in secret.

Rinsing the conditioner out of her hair, she lathered her body. Highly sensitive still from last night and now thinking of Elling, she hurried. He hadn't even given her his cell phone number.

She tilted her face and closed her eyes under the spray of water. Telling herself not to worry, she shut off the shower, toweled dry, and slipped her sundress on.

In the kitchen, she found relief when the clock showed she had two minutes to wait until she could hurry across the hallway and hide out in her room until it was time to work.

Counting down the seconds, she walked over to the door and gripped the handle. The risk of losing her job worth it for a chance to be with Elling last night. Once he was no longer a guest, he could come and visit her in her room or meet her away from work on her days off.

When she'd made the decision to take the position in Portland and move away from her family and Brikken, living her own life had been the goal. She wanted to make her own decisions, meet people on equal ground who would normally look down on her for belonging to a motorcycle club, and find love away from the pool of available men within Brikken.

Nobody and nothing would make her sacrifice the safety of her family, but she deserved to find what and who made her happy.

While Chief and her brothers would never accept Elling, she had no problems separating him from the patch he wore on his vest and the code in which he lived his life. She had a lifetime of experience knowing as soon as Chief came home, he became more than a biker. He was her father first.

The same went for her brothers. They were hardcore riders and men of authority, but she'd had more knees bandaged, tears dried, and lectures given for her to see the soft side of them. The side that would protect and stand by her, no matter what decisions she made.

To an extent.

Being aware of Brikken's enemies and acting accordingly had been drilled into all of them. As Rollo for an example and Chief as a teacher, there was only one thing that would destroy the family. And that was to trust an enemy.

She opened the door and darted across the hallway. Inside the room, she exhaled in relief. While she had never considered her private room at the hotel as home, it made her more confident being around the few items she'd brought with her from her parents' house.

Her and Elling were only getting to know each other. They had to learn about each other's schedules. Try and fit into each other's lives. He might even have some odd behavior that she wasn't aware of yet. He might find out she was too stubborn and needy for his liking. All of that would come out in time.

Right now, she loved everything about him.

She sat down on the couch, excited for tonight and the chance to see him again.

Pulling up her texts, she sat straighter. There were a lot of them from her mom and Stassi. She also had three missed calls from home.

Quickly going through the messages, they all had the same urgency to call. Panic filled her. Her father was older. She worried about how many years she had left with him. At seventy-five years old, he was healthy and active, but nobody had to tell her the risk of heart attacks and strokes were a bigger concern because of his age.

She pushed the contact button for home, grabbed the throw pillow beside her, and hugged it to her stomach.

"Oh, thank God," answered her mom. "Where have you been? We've been texting you since last night. Stassi even called your room phone. I was about ready to call the desk and ask them to check in on you in case you were sick or hurt."