Sparring Partners (17 page)

"Ease up, or the death grip you have on that
glass is going to make it shatter."

Jordon didn't take his eyes from his mother,
laughing at something Charlie said, as she took the empty seat next
to Irma, but his hand unclenched enough to ensure the crystal's
safety.

"So, now you've met my mother." It was a
lame statement of fact, but at the moment it was the best he could
do.

"She's beautiful."

Jordon grunted. All the women in his family
were beautiful.

"Seems kind too."

"She is."

"So why are you over here holding up the
railing instead of introducing your family around?"

"Don't worry about Lily, she can hold her
own in any environment. See," Jordon said, nodding toward the patio
table, "everyone loves her already."

Jesse said nothing until Jordon looked at
him. If the eyes really are the windows to the soul, Jesse's soul
was very old and very wise. It had no business hiding in a
teenager. "I wasn't worried about your mom. I'm worried about
you."

Simple, honest, kind. Reed's son had a way
of cutting through the crap to the truth underneath. Jordon looked
at his glass and tossed the contents over the railing. It wasn't
helping, and he didn't need the fog, especially with his mother and
William invading Reed's magic kingdom.

Jordon threw his arm around Jesse's broad
but bony shoulders. "You're a good man, Jesse. Care to stand by my
side as we brave the lion and the lady?" Jordon asked, finding a
genuine smile.

Neither man saw the curtain move upstairs.
Nor did they see Reed smiling with tears glistening her eyes as she
watched.

...

"What would you ask for if you could have
anything?" William asked Reed.

Reed sipped her wine slowly, enjoying the
night and the company. William's question, quietly spoken, brought
a sudden stillness to the table. The question seemed innocuous
enough to her, but she could feel Jordon's discomfort radiating
from him. His hand tightened on her knee briefly before he drew it
away. He was withdrawing into himself, yet he seemed riveted,
waiting for her response.

Reed was mildly irritated with him for not
telling her that his mother and uncle were coming, even though
she'd just found out that Jordon didn't know they were coming. The
fact that he would have sent them away, had she asked, mollified
her ire, but it was easier being irritated with Jordon than it was
trusting the way his crooked smile curled her toes. Easier than
trusting his ease with Jesse and the rest of her rag-tag
family.

"Come now, young lady. You must have thought
about what you'd like if resources weren't an issue."

"Oh I've thought about it. I think about it
every night before I go to bed. It's not the thinking that's the
problem. It's that pesky resource problem I've yet to hurdle."

"So ignore that for this exercise. Just
think about what you'd want if you could have anything. Anything at
all."

Reed grinned at him. William was fun and
light-hearted. The twinkle in his eye and the fact that he looked
like an older version of Jordon didn't hurt his like-ability one
bit.

"You mean besides two-point-three babies and
their stud-muffin father in my bed loving me for the rest of my
life?" She asked.

Jordon's mother took her seriously. The poor
woman couldn't take more than one martini without believing every
'when-pigs-fly fantasy' that came pouring out of Reed's mouth. "No
dear, not besides that, in addition to it."

This was fun, in a 'half a bottle of wine
with friends' kind of way. Reed sat back and thought for a
second.

"I guess if the anything-you-want fairy were
visiting, I'd ask for enough cash to make Potters Woods run the way
Finn, Charlie and I always dreamed." Reed paused. No one was
laughing at her.

William seemed oddly interested. Jordon was
silent. He could have been asleep for all the emotion he was
showing, except he kept blinking, so Reed knew he was awake. She
ignored him and continued.

"We'd like this to be a type of 'community
wellness retreat'. Sort of like assisted living for elderly and
disabled without the stigma. Charlie wants a theater where he can
organize poetry readings, music, and small theater productions.
He'd like to get the high school to perform their plays here. Right
now Irma is our only guest, but," Reed shrugged and took another
sip of her wine, "we're working on it."

"Finn wants an art studio where guest
artists can visit. Painters, sculptors, quilters, basket-makers,
wood-workers, jewelry artists, you know," Reed waved a hand in the
air exuberantly warming to her subject, "the whole nine yards."

"What would you want?" William asked.
"Where's your role in all this?"

"Jesse and I would take care of the body and
spirit. We'd have staff trained in traditional medicine as well as
alternative and preventive care to see to the residents needs of
course, but Jesse and I would organize strength and movement
classes."

Reed paused to smile at her son and took
another sip of her wine. "We'd have a good size dojo where we could
teach self-defense classes, tai chi and yoga, meditation, and some
lighter stretching for those who have restricted movement. We'd
have a physical therapy room with a separate massage area where
music and a rock garden fountain help residents relax." Reed
smiled. "And, as queen of this realm, I'd make weekly massages
mandatory for residents and staff. Pedicures too."

Jesse cleared his throat loudly inclining
his head toward the meadow. She'd forgotten his favorite part.
"We'd also have a pool. No, make that two pools. One for therapy
and one for fun. And a state of the art kitchen of course, where
only organic local produce and the occasional chocolate cake would
be served."

"Of course." William said. "Everyone needs
an occasional chocolate cake."

"You won't get any backers if you can't
market the idea." Jordon said, raining on fairyland. "You need to
apply what you want on a much greater scale to get any meaningful
money. You should start with the mid-west and work your way toward
the coasts. I could run a market analysis for you." Jordon said,
matter of fact. He even made sense in a cold, analytical, profit
minded kind of way.

Reed wanted to make a difference in the
quality of life of the local people she cared about. Going national
had no appeal at all to her. She almost stuck her tongue out at
him, but restrained herself since his family was present and she
didn't know them all that well yet.

"Unfortunately, before we can do any of
that, we need to save enough money to pave the driveway and make
the rest of the house handicapped accessible." Finn said from the
shadows, drawing everyone's attention.

Reed set down her glass. "Nothing like a
dose of reality to kill the 'anything' fairy. You and Jordon really
know how to zap the magic out of good clean 'what if' fun." Reed
said, watching her aunt take the last empty seat at the table. She
sat next to Henry who, as far as Reed could recall, said nothing
since William and Lily arrived.

"Someone has to keep your feet on the
ground." Finn said.

"William and Lily Bennett, meet my very
practical aunt, Finn Mohr. Finn these are -"

"Jordon's parents?" Finn asked.

"Not exactly dear." Lily stuck out her hand.
"I'm Jordon's mother, William is his uncle." Lily cocked her head
at Finn. "You don't look much over forty. You're young to be Reed's
aunt."

Reed choked on her wine. Lily had an amazing
delivery. She didn't sound offensive at all commenting on another
woman's age. Finn, however, never spoke about her age and ate
anyone alive who had the audacity to bring it up. Reed took another
swallow and waited for the sparks to fly, knowing anything she said
or did to try to stop it would only make Finn's reaction worse.

Charlie, who teased Finn mercilessly when it
was just the four of them, winked and threw Finn an empathetic
smile as he handed her a large glass of white wine. Finn smiled
back, surprising Reed and Jesse who seemed to be holding his breath
until that moment.

Finn took a sip. "Nice to meet you Lily and
William." Her eyes flashed to Henry briefly before settling on
Lily. "Thank you for the compliment. I was almost ten when Reed was
born. My sister, Reed's mother, died when Reed was fourteen. Reed
came to live with me when she was almost sixteen. I'm forty-seven.
She's thirty-eight and our birthdays are coming soon." Finn raised
her glass in salute.

"I didn't mean to offend you." Lily said,
sounding sincerely upset by the prospect that she might have.

"You didn't offend. I doubt you could. I
loved my sister a great deal. It hurt Reed and me very badly when
she died, but we've made a family here and we take care of each
other. I guess that makes us closer than some aunt-niece pairs."
Finn looked at William. "But that must be true for you and Jordon
too. I mean since you've worked so closely together for almost
twenty years you must be very close."

The mood at the table turned cold. Reed
wasn't quite sure why Finn's observation would take the twinkle
from William's eye, but it did. For a split second Reed read sorrow
in those eyes and then it was gone, replaced by a veneer of
civility that was a mirror of Jordon's stoic countenance. She
suddenly wanted to spank them both. For such smart men, who
obviously loved one another, they sure were acting like idiots.

Lily must have thought so too because she
stood and took Reed's hand in both of hers.

"It was lovely to meet you, dear." She said,
enveloping Reed in another wonderfully scented hug. This time Reed
didn't pull away. "Forgive us for dropping in uninvited. I was so
excited when William called with the news that Jordon married, I
hopped on the first plane and made William bring me straight here.
I'm staying in Lake Geneva at William's cottage for the next week
or so, please come and see me if you have time."

Lily kissed Jordon's cheek and said good-bye
to the table before Reed could formulate a response. Jordon's
mother left as gracefully as she'd come, leaving a faint trail of
oriental musk and flowers in her wake. Reed jumped up to walk her
and Jordon's uncle to their car, but Jordon waved her away. He
probably needed time alone with them to explain why he married
without even calling to let his mother know.

It was a question she wanted the answer to
as well, but not tonight. Tonight she wanted to savor what was left
of the night without any more questions like
what would you want
if you could have anything
?

An image of Jordon naked under her willow
tree flashed through Reed's brain. Instead of banishing it, Reed
closed her eyes and held it close as she curled into her chair
while savoring the rest of her wine. Jordon's words to her over
dinner on the night she married him flitted through her head.

"
There is nothing I won't give
you
..."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"You'd better give that girl what she
wants." William said, out of ear shot of the others.

"I've never been a two-point-three-kid kind
of guy, William. You know that. What exactly is it that you want
from me? I did what you asked. I married before your deadline. Reed
isn't an actress or a model. She's a real woman."

"And she's got real feelings."

"Don't you think I know that?" Jordon asked,
more than a little irritated with William and his dictates and his
aura of superiority.

"Then don't piss all over her dreams by
telling her she's a failure if she doesn't want to turn Potters
Woods into a country wide franchise. She's interested in people,
Jordon. I don't think she cares about profit margins, marketing
strategies, or setting a new trend in elder care."

"Well she'd better wake up. Without a firm
understanding of marketing and profit margins she's never going to
get Potters Woods out of the red. She can't even make a go of it
with Irma's influx of capital."

"If you keep talking dollars and cents, that
woman is going to leave you in less than a year. How are you going
to earn her love if you can't see what's important to her?" William
said.

Jordon fervently hoped it wouldn't take that
long to get Reed to love him. William only gave him a month, but
with William, the rules kept changing, and Jordon was getting tired
of trying to keep up. He'd done enough for one week.

"Someone's got to talk sense into Reed. I
don't think Finn's going to manage it alone for very long." Jordon
raked a hand through his hair, not sure what William wanted to
hear, not sure how much he still cared.

William opened the car door. "Do yourself a
favor, Jordon. Make that woman happy. You just might find yourself
again if you do." He got in and shut the door before Jordon could
respond. His mother, ever the peace maker, kept her window shut
during his exchange with William.

Now that William was behind the wheel and
the engine was running Lily must have felt free to open her
window.

"Come to the lake cottage, Jordon. Bring
your family." She didn't wait for his response, but then she never
did. Lily, like mothers everywhere, made her demand, no matter how
sweetly, and expected to be obeyed. And he, like every child
capable of feeling love and guilt, would obey. Eventually.

Bring your family.

To the cottage.

Last week the closest thing he had to a
family besides an uncle he'd rather forget he was related to and a
mother he loved and knew he should see more often, was Henry. Now
he had a hodge-podge, rag-time band of strangers he married into
and a wife who wasn't sure she even wanted his name.

It had been one hell of a week. And it
wasn't over yet.