by Susan Gable
Wish you were there….
“JORDAN! JORDAN, come here!” Uncle Greg waved at her from the archway that led into the banquet room. His voice barely carried over the music from the DJ. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
“Okay!” She turned from the dance floor, where people were slapping their elbows in the chicken dance, and shut her video camera. Minutes earlier she’d taped Uncle Hayden and Aunt Judy doing a rumba almost worthy of a Dancing with the Stars episode. She’d had no idea he could dance like that.She’d been glad she hadn’t known how good he was when she’d danced with him, and stepped on his toes five or six times.
Jordan scurried over to Uncle Greg, who’d peeled his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves. Beside him stood… She forced herself to walk more slowly. More ladylike.
“Jordan, this is Ty.” Uncle Greg gestured to the teenage boy who stood at his side. “Ty had a bone marrow transplant…what’s it been? About a year and half now?”
“Yeah, something like that.” Ty had wavy brown hair and hazel eyes that sparkled as he gave her a slow once-over. Her heart pounded.
“I thought maybe you’d like to talk to him. To ask questions about the procedure. You don’t mind, do you, Ty? This is my niece Jordan, the one I’ve been telling you about.”
“Sure, no problem.”
Jordan wanted to squeal. Instead, she offered her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
He enfolded her fingers in his grip. Butterflies rumbaed in her stomach.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
Across the room, someone clanged silverware against glass. The ringing spread quickly until the sound overpowered the music.
Uncle Greg’s face reddened and he scanned the dance floor. “Better find my bride, or they’ll never stop. You kids have fun.” He waded into the thick of the crowd, which parted for him. Aunt Shannon, gorgeous in her short white dress, met him in the middle of the floor and they kissed, causing the clanking to stop and everyone to clap.
“It’s kind of loud in here. Let’s go someplace quieter.”
“Okay.” Jordan followed him out of the ballroom and down the hallway. Massive stairs split, one set leading up, the other down.
“Here,” Ty said, dropping to the bottom step of the stairs leading to the third floor, his back against the wall. Jordan sat beside him, her back to the banister.
“So, what do you want to know?”
Jordan shrugged. “Why did you need a BMT?”
“Leukemia.”
“Oh. My uncle Ian died from leukemia.” The night of the ballgame Finn had told her, in great detail, the story of his brother. “Sorry.”
Jordan covered her mouth. “Oh, no, I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. He didn’t actually die from the leukemia. He got pneumonia before he could get his bone marrow transplant, and died.”
Ty loosened his necktie. “Happens.”
“Did your hair fall out? You have beautiful hair.” Hesitantly, Jordan reached out to touch it.
His cheeks flushed. “Yeah. It had only just started growing back again, too, from the chemo I’d had weeks earlier. But the chemo before the transplant can be rough. You’ll puke. And your hair will fall out.” He pulled on one of her curls. It bounced up when he let go. “But as you can see…it grows back.”
Jordan sighed. “I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. I don’t want to be bald.”
“Like I said, it grows back.” He pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket. “You wanna see a picture of me bald?”
Jordan nodded, leaning closer to look at the screen. “Oh. See, boys can get away with it. You’re cute even without hair.” Her face scorched.
He smiled at her, and her stomach quivered again. “Cute, huh?”
She glanced down at her lap. “Yeah.”
“You’re not so bad yourself. How old are you?”
Jordan’s mind raced. What was the right answer? “How old do you think I am?”
“Fifteen?”
She smiled. “Good guess. How old are you?”
“Sixteen.” He fingered her curl again. “What else you want to know?”
They talked for a while about being sick, missing school, and friends staying away because they were afraid. Eventually Ty produced an iPod. She plugged the earbud he offered into her ear, while he took the other. A few minutes later, he took her hand, pulled her to her feet. With a smile that made her heart start to pound, he led her to the landing at the top of the stairs. After a furtive glance around, he walked her backward until she bumped into the wall. “You’re really pretty,” he whispered.
Her legs trembled, and a rush of heat made her think she was in Fresh’s kitchen in the midst of dinner service. The thudding of her heart made the music hard to hear.
He lowered his head…she closed her eyes.
His lips brushed over hers. Soft.
She prayed she wouldn’t make a fool of herself. Then she kissed him back. Her hands fluttered at her sides, then she lifted them, settling them around his shoulders.
He slipped his around her waist, pulling her closer.
With her pulse double-timing, she followed his lead, parting her lips, letting the tip of her tongue connect with his.
Abruptly he jerked away from her, pulling the earbud out of her ear.
“Hey, Casanova, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Jordan opened her eyes to find Uncle Hayden with his hand clamped on Ty’s shoulder. The spare earbud dangled by the wire. Ty sputtered.
Hayden leaned closer, peering at her. “Your nose is bleeding. Damn it. Boy, I’m going to count to one, and you’d better be gone. One.” If looks could kill, Ty would have dropped dead on the spot. Great.
Ty barreled for the stairs, sending an apologetic glance over his shoulder when he was halfway down and well out of Hayden’s reach. Jordan touched her nose. When she pulled her hand away, it was wet with blood.
Uncle Hayden fished in his jacket for a handkerchief. “Here. Use this.”
Jordan held it over her nostrils, pinching them shut. She tipped her head back, ignoring the metallic taste of blood running down her throat.
“Sweetheart, are you okay?”
“I was fine until you got here.”
“You’re bleeding.”
She lifted one shoulder. “I get nosebleeds sometimes. It wasn’t his fault.”
“Don’t you know better than to go off alone with a guy?”
She sighed contentedly. “I got my first kiss. It was wonderful. And scary. At the same time. Haven’t you ever felt that way?”
Uncle Hayden raked his hand through his short hair, spiking the longer strands in the front. “Yeah, I’m familiar with the sensation. Watch yourself, kid. It’s highly addictive.”
“Are you going to tell?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” He guided her to a chair and eased her down in it. Then he took the handkerchief, keeping pressure on her nose for several minutes. “Let’s see if this has stopped.” He gingerly let go.
Blood flooded out, all over the white skirt of her dress. “Oh!”
He clamped the cloth over her nose again, pinching it shut with one hand and pushing her head forward so the excess missed her clothes, spattering onto the floor. “Keep your head level. And don’t sweat the dress.” He dug out his cell phone with his free hand, stabbing buttons with his thumb. “Elke? I’m on the landing at the top of the stairs by the bathrooms. I’ve got a big problem. Jordan’s got a nosebleed. A gusher. I can’t get it to stop. No, I don’t have her head back. I know better than that. Okay, we’ll meet you downstairs. Thanks.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket.
“Looks like we’re going to the hospital, pip,” he said.
Still on a high—Shelby was so not going to believe this!—Jordan smiled up at him and shrugged again. “Even if every last drop dripped out, it was worth it.”
Uncle Hayden shook his head. “No need to get all Juliet about it. It was just a kiss. There’ll be
plenty more of those in your future.”
“As long as I have one.” She gagged and coughed, spraying his tuxedo with blood.
His eyes widened. He bent down, scooping her up with one strong arm as if she were a ventriloquist doll, keeping the other hand firmly clamped on her nose. “Don’t talk like that. Hasn’t working with Greg taught you anything about positive thinking?”
She tried to nod. “Positive. More kisses in the future.”
“Stop talking!” Hayden blew out a long breath as he raced her down the stairs. “No question. I’m definitely telling your father.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
HAYDEN PUNCHED IN the code, then held the door as Finn carried Jordan’s sleeping form up the last steps.
“Thanks,” Finn murmured. “For everything.” Hayden had ditched the woman he’d been flirting with—someone he and Greg knew from the Children’s Cancer Center, apparently—and insisted Elke stay behind to enjoy the reception. He’d gone to the hospital with them. His presence had allowed Finn the opportunity to slip outside the hospital and call Amelia from time to time.The doctor had packed Jordan’s nose with gauze and given her a transfusion and platelets. Because of the packing and her condition, she’d also be taking antibiotics as a precaution.
Hayden rolled a shoulder. “Always got your back, man.”
“As long as it doesn’t involve a secret, yeah.”
His brother grinned, offering a middle finger, then disappeared into his room. Finn carted Jordan down the hall.
“Finn?” Amelia called. “Is that you? How’s Jordan?”
“Basically knocked out.” He stopped outside their bedrooms. “Let me get her settled and—”
“No! I need to see her. Bring her in here, please?”
He nudged the door open with his foot and laid Jordan on the near side of the bed.
Amelia rolled onto her side to face her daughter. She stroked her forehead, then fingered the sleeve of the yellow hospital pajamas. “Where’s her dress?”
“In a bag in the foyer. It’s probably unsalvageable. It’s covered in blood.”
“So’s your tux.”
He glanced down. The jacket was still in the backseat of his Explorer. The white shirt looked like he’d lost an ax fight. “Yeah, I’m thinking Hayden and I aren’t getting our deposits back.”
“Sorry.”
He shrugged. “Not like it’s your fault.” He crossed to his dresser and rummaged in a drawer. Only some of his clothes had moved with him into the other room. He peeled off the bloody shirt, dropped a T-shirt over his head.
“Someday you have to tell me about that tat.”
Glancing over his shoulder, he found Amelia watching him. He kept the shirt bunched around his neck. “What, this?” The blue-eyed white tiger had been another of his impulsive decisions, though one that had lasted longer than both his marriages put together. Some days you just had to say “what the hell” and go with it. Mistakes were easier to live with than regrets. That was the lesson he’d learned from Ian…one he’d been forgetting lately. Too busy worrying about failing. Failing at his business, failing at his life.
“You got another one?”
He fished an old pair of jeans out of the bottom dresser drawer. “I do. Maybe someday I’ll show you.”
Being that the four crossed swords graced his left butt cheek—a location specifically chosen so his mother wouldn’t see it, or the matching tats on Greg’s and Hayden’s rears—they’d have to be on rather intimate terms.
He popped into the bathroom, exchanging black tuxedo pants for the jeans, then peeling off the black dress socks. Barefooted and much more comfortable, he padded back to where Jordan lay.
“Why is she so out of it?” Amelia caressed the girl’s face.
“Diphenhydramine. She had a mild allergic reaction after the transfusion.”
Amelia’s head jerked up. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m telling you now. Like I said, it was mild. Best guess the docs have is that the donor ate a bunch of tomatoes before donating, and Jordan’s body reacted like it does when she eats too many herself. She got a rash. I had no idea that could happen.”
“Oh, sweetie. As if you haven’t had enough problems. My poor baby.”
A goofy grin tugged at Jordan’s mouth. Her eyelids fluttered opened, and she stared blearily at Amelia. “Mommy?”
“Yes, baby, I’m here now.”
The grin widened. “Ty kissed me, Mommy.”
Amelia exchanged a bemused look with Finn. “So I heard.”
Jordan sighed. “It was wonderful. And scary. And…wonderful.” Her eyes shuttered again, and her head lolled to the side.
“Her first kiss, and I wasn’t there for her to share it with me.”
Finn snorted, perching on the edge of the bed. “I doubt most moms are present for their kid’s first kiss! Probably wouldn’t even share the news with their mothers. If not for Hayden catching them in the act, we’d have never known about it.”
“Don’t be so sure. We have a very close relationship.”
He swung his legs onto the bed, stretching out on his side, sandwiching Jordan between them. “We could poll my sisters. I doubt any of them told our mom, and they’re all pretty tight.”
Jordan told me.” Amelia’s mouth set in a firm line.
“She’s drugged. Did you see her face? She looked like she’d spent hours standing downwind of a Grateful Dead concert.”
When Amelia’s lower lip started to quiver, he back-pedaled. “Hey, now. I was just teasing you.” He reached across Jordan to brush his fingers across Amelia’s cheek. “She did tell you. You guys have a terrific relationship. As to missing out on a first…” He moved his hand to his daughter’s face. “I missed them all. Kind of nice that I got to hear this one before you did.”
Amelia stared at him for a moment. “You weren’t entitled to them,” she said gently.
“I know.” But now… Things had changed for him tonight. At the idea of missing the rest of her life, of missing all of Chip’s firsts, a big hole opened in the middle of Finn’s chest. He stroked Jordan’s forehead.
“I didn’t mean for you to get hurt in this,” Amelia murmured.
Gruffly, he cleared his throat. “I know that, too.” He slipped one arm behind Jordan’s neck, the other under her knees. “I’m going to put her to bed now.”
Amelia pressed a quick kiss to their daughter’s forehead before Finn lifted her.
After settling her in, he returned to Amelia’s room, standing in the doorway. “Anything else you need?”
“Company?” She patted the covers next to her. His pained expression when he’d left…she needed to know what was going on his head. Where he…where she…stood.
“I dunno. Wasn’t it too much company that made your blood pressure shoot up today?”
“That was forever ago. I’ve been all alone since then. Besides, I’m used to you. You don’t make my blood pressure shoot up.”
“Way to bolster my ego,” he muttered. “You don’t mind if I lie down, do you?”
He exhaled loudly as he lowered himself to his side, then propped his head in his palm. “After taking her to the doctor’s a few times, I thought I knew how all this worked. Thought I could stay detached. But I have never felt terror like I did when Hayden brought her into the ballroom and I saw all that blood. I swear, I aged ten years in ten seconds.”
“Scary, isn’t it?” The terror in his voice when he’d called to tell her about the situation had touched Amelia. Deeply.
“Yeah.” His eyes shimmered. He lowered his head.
“Hey…” She threaded her fingers into his dark hair, pulled his head to her shoulder.
Stiff and unyielding at first, he eventually sighed, relaxing into her. She stroked the silky waves. Damp warmth spread into her nightshirt near her collarbone. “Are you crying?” she murmured. She wanted to wrap her arms around him, assure him everything would be all right—just like she did for Jorda
n. “Hell, no.”
“Either tears or blood are seeping into my nightshirt from your face, and we’ve had enough blood for one day.”
“Amen to that.” The gentle whoosh of the central air filled the silence. “It was bad. Made me realize exactly how many things can go wrong for her. Bleeding, infection…”
“Ahhh. You were thinking about your brother, and what happened to him. And applying that to Jordan.” For the first time, she had someone who shared her darkest fear.
His shoulder twitched against her body. He lifted his head. Tear tracks stained his cheeks. He brusquely dragged the back of his hand over his face, wiping them away. “I…I can’t lose her, Amelia. Not to an infection, not to the aplastic anemia… Not to you. I might not have been entitled to it in the past. But tonight changed everything. Tonight, I became a dad, Amelia. Not a sperm donor. She’s my daughter. And I’m claiming her.”
Stunned, Amelia stared at him.
He draped his palm over her belly. “Chip, too. A son needs a father. I want to be part of their lives.”
He framed her face with his hands, pressed his lips to hers. “Part of yours,” he whispered.
“Did you save the best for last, or am I an afterthought?”
He took her mouth again, harder. Driven. Desperate.
She matched him for intensity, demanding more. Letting their emotions swirl around them like a tempest. Finally pulling away from her, he growled, “Did that feel like you’re an afterthought? Or how about this?” He shifted, pressing a rock-hard erection against her hip.
Heart hammering, and with her brain still off-line from his kiss, she shook her head.
His megawatt sexy grin slid into place.
“W-what?”
“Your hair is rumpled, your eyes are languid and your face is flushed. There’s something extremely satisfying in knowing I made you look that way.”
“Arrogant, arrogant man.” She cupped him through the denim, smug at his sharp intake of breath and the way his body bucked in response. “And who made you like this? Hmm…I think that would be me.”
