Sparring Partners (43 page)

Regardless of their motives for coming, they
were generous in their donations to the 'MacDonald Fund for
Wellness', one of his mother's friends started in honor of Irma,
after news spread that Irma's death was the reason Jordon missed
his own wedding reception. Reed and Finn were named as the trustees
of the fund, and donations totaled more than three-million
dollars.

Not bad for one cranky old lady he called
friend.

No one stayed long, even though Reed
insisted on having additional food delivered for everyone. By noon,
there were only a handful of people left, and most of them were
family. Every line in the guest book was signed, and additional
signatures colored the back cover. Jordon planned to put the book
in a shadow box, with a gilt frame, in his office which was going
to be added to the main house immediately.

He needed to focus on something now that he
didn't have a job. Building an office seemed like a logical place
to start. What he was going to do there once he had the damned
thing built, he hadn't a clue, but that was a worry for a different
day.

Today was a day to set worry aside and focus
on keeping his promise.

CHAPTER SIXTY

The phone rang, startling Jordon. He rolled
over and checked the clock, 5:30a.m. Monday morning. What concerned
him more than the time, or the fact that this was the first Monday
he hadn't been employed since he was a teenager, was the fact that
the caller I.D. told him it was his old office calling. Not just
B.H.'s headquarters, or the Milwaukee office,
his
former
office number. The one he'd kept until last week Friday when the
Takahara deal was formally signed, sealed, and delivered.

He didn't even have time yet to clear out
his desk. Not that there was much to clear. All he really wanted
from his old life was the cowboy and the little girl holding a
daisy sculpture his father completed the year he died, and the
framed photo of him and his grands at Jenny Lake.

Death and hope. Until he left, only death
haunted his dreams. Now, hope was present, dominant, even, easing
his journey. Now he had a family.

He picked up the phone. "This had better be
good."

"Something got lost in translation,
buddy."

"It certainly did. In case you didn't
notice, Jay, that's not my name on the door any more. Hell, man,
you're calling from what used to be my office. 'Used to be', being
the operative phrase here. What do you want?"

"To give you the heads up. The Takahara deal
already hit the papers. It's online too. Takahara's people are
pissed. Everyone's wondering why B.H. and Takahara are building
libraries instead of alternative health care communes. I'm trying
to fix it, buddy, but I'm afraid it's going to take more than just
me. William's pissed too. He wants you to come in." Giles paused,
and Jordon knew enough about his old nemesis to know the other shoe
was about to drop.

"He wants to see you and Reed. This morning.
Now."

Jordon rubbed the sleep from his eyes and
sat up in bed. Reed was still sleeping next to him and he wanted to
keep it that way. She'd joked her way through Irma's funeral. She
and Finn both, trying to keep it together, but the last week had
been hard on her. She didn't need any more shit from William.
Neither did he.

Jordon got up and walked into the bathroom,
closing the door as silently as he could. Reed needed her
sleep.

"Jay, just tell me what this is all about.
In English, not that code that comes out of your mouth after too
much caffeine. From the beginning please." Jordon pinched the
bridge of his nose trying to stave off a headache, something he
hadn't needed to do since he moved to Potters Woods. "And just for
the record, you might not want to pitch Reed's idea as a commune.
It's a residential campus and day-programming facility. Not a
cult."

"Noted."

"Now, Giles...spit it out or I'm hanging
up."

"The translator who did the first story on
the Takahara deal screwed up the translation and now it's all over
the net."

"What exactly got screwed up? And more
importantly, why is any of this my problem?"

"You're the one who insisted the project
carry your wife's name."

"It was her idea. Potters Woods is the
prototype. Why is that an issue?"

"Instead of translating this merger as the
Reed Mohr Project
it got translated as the
Read More
Project
. Takahara is not amused. Neither is William. He wants
you and Reed here to do a press conference laughing it off,
clarifying the project name, and giving the reason you retired from
B.H."

"I didn't retire and much as agree to be
fired. Does William want that in the press?"

There was a long pause on Giles's end of the
line. The bathroom door opened slowly and Reed stood in the
doorway, bathed in early morning light, her rainbow peace frog
t-shirt touching her knees. She was barefoot, probably because she
kept losing the frog slippers he bought for her, but that was fine
with him.

Then, she smiled her naughty smile, pulled
off her shirt, and walked slowly back into the bedroom.

"It's up to you of course. I just thought
this might be a chance to see Reed's dream implemented on a large
scale. A little positive press would go a long to making that
happen. Especially with Takahara making rumblings about pulling the
plug on the Asia plan."

"Tell William we'll be there, but not before
nine. Reed and I have something important to do first. Oh and
Jay-

"Yeah?"

"Stop calling me buddy."

Jay Giles's laughter trailed off as Jordon
closed the phone.

...

"Who was that on the phone?"

"We can talk about that after we talk about
that smile you flashed right before flashing your lovely
backside."

Reed rolled on top of him and started
playing with his hair. He could cut it, now that he didn't need to
show what a Maverick he was in the geek financial world, but if his
wife kept running her hands through it, maybe he'd keep it
long.

She lowered her head, taking his earlobe
between her teeth. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"As long as it's as naughty as your
smile."

"As a girl I had fantasies about the Braun
man."

"Those old commercials, where all you saw
was some guy with a towel wrapped around his waist from behind and
a glimpse of his jaw in the mirror?"

"One and the same." She moved down his torso
nibbling at him as she went until she sucked his nipple into her
mouth.

He inhaled sharply as her teeth grazed him.
"And what did you want to do with the Braun man?" Jordon asked,
wondering how he could possibly be jealous of a nameless torso from
an ancient television commercial.

"Besides yanking off his towel?" Reed said,
sliding the sheets down to his ankles, "I didn't get very far. Why
don't you fill in the gaps from one of your fantasies?"

Jordon rolled her under him, cradling her in
his arms as he kissed her thoroughly. The way he wanted to kiss her
every morning for the rest of his life.

His elf wasn't content with kisses. She
grabbed him with one small hand and led the tip of him to her wet
entrance to heaven. Breaking the kiss, he held himself up. She
tried to impale herself on him, but he wouldn't give her more than
the tip.

Smiling down, into her disgruntled blue
elf's eyes, he said, "My every fantasy begins and ends right here,
with you." He sank into her in one swift thrust of his hips.

Braun man, eat your heart out.

"I love you, Reed."

"I love you too."

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

BEGIN

This is now. Now is. Don't postpone

till then. Spend the spark of iron

on stone. Sit at the head of the table.

Dip your spoon in the bowl. Seat yourself

next to your joy and have your awakened
soul

pour wine...

Rumi,~13th Century

Lights flashed, hurting Reed's eyes. She'd
seen press conferences on T.V., but she'd never been the subject of
one, until now. There wasn't much to like in this nether world of
strobe and light and noise, so convoluted she could hardly make
sense of it. It was disconcerting, especially after the normalcy of
making love to Jordon before breakfast.

William bent down to whisper in her ear,
"Don't let them see you sweat, Reed. Take a deep breath. It gets
easier. Just be yourself, and you'll be fine."

Reed nodded as William squeezed her hand,
offering her comfort and some of his strength. Ever since Jesse
turned things upside down at the cottage, William had been
unusually open, kind even.

Jordon gave up his high profile public life
of plenty to help her run Potters Woods. He was no longer running
B.H., Jay Giles was doing the grunt work, and taking over some of
William's work as well. Now, Jay's handsome mug was plastered all
over the glossy financial magazines. That could have been Jordon.
Should have been Jordon. It was his for the taking.

And he'd given it all up.

Reed knew she wasn't wholly responsible for
that, but a good deal of it lay at her feet. She hadn't felt good
enough to fit into this magical world of his, and rather than leave
her, he chose to leave that world behind. He didn't seem to mind.
He seemed, if anything, more at peace. But somehow, peace didn't
suit him as much as raw activity did.

Jordon needed a new vision to channel his
whirlwind energy. His genius needed an outlet equal to it. One that
allowed his generosity and inherent goodness to come out to play
was an added bonus. One William said would snag Jordon's interest,
and give him back his purpose, only this time with more meaning.
William told Reed his plan to name Jordon as the head of a new
charitable foundation he was announcing this morning.

Jordon knew nothing about it. He thought he
was there to proclaim his retirement from B.H. was his idea, and
that all was right with the world's most profitable privately held
investment company. He thought he was there to soothe the stock
holders.

Reed wasn't sure why she needed to be beside
him to soothe anybody, but William said he wanted her there to give
a face to Jordon's reason for leaving. She agreed to appear, as
long as she didn't need to speak, and, as long as William gave a
public plug for Potters Woods. After all, if she and Finn were
going to expand, which Finn wanted to do, a plug from William would
generate more than enough interest to fund another alternative
healthcare complex. She wanted to call the new one Elf Glen. Finn
was holding out for Nymph's Way, which sounded far too naughty for
a wellness center, in Reed's opinion.

William stepped to the microphone, held up
one hand and beamed his wholesome Orville Redenbacher smile at the
reporters. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. We're here
today to celebrate the retirement of my nephew, Jordon Bennett.
He's served B.H. well for close to twenty years, and now it's time
for him to move on to a more vital, and hopefully more fulfilling,
venture."

Reed felt Jordon stiffen beside her as his
public smile grew. Standing next to Jay Giles who was almost as
tall, but totally relaxed, Jordon looked like a caged animal, ready
to strike or leap away into the jungle depending on what happened
over the next few seconds. His stance widened, and his knees flexed
slightly. For all his financial genius, Jordon was at heart, a
warrior.

So was she at her core. They were a good
match, physically, spiritually, intellectually, and they were damn
good in bed. She was happy with her deal. Hopefully he was too.

"What's got you smiling like Finn's cats on
catnip?" Jordon whispered, barely moving his lips. "It can't be
William's wit."

"I was thinking of you and me skinny-dipping
in the pond later."

"Done. Now quit grinning like Lady Godiva,
or William's press conference will be all about you being carried
off-stage by his love-struck nephew."

As it turned out, suddenly all of the
cameras were focused on her. Reed stopped smiling and started
sweating.

"I'd like for all of you to meet Jordon's
wife, Reed Mohr. Reed and her aunt, Finn Mohr, are the inspiration
behind B.H.'s newest joint project with Takahara Enterprises, where
we will be developing a model for elder care campuses based on
their pro-type, Potters Woods, here in Wisconsin."

The brief applause made Reed blush. She
could see Finn out of the corner of her eye giving her a thumbs up
sign. William was definitely a man of his word, that was one heck
of a plug. They'd probably have a waiting list to get in by the end
of the day.

"Jordon has started a new chapter in his
life with Reed, one I hope to be involved in for years, if not
decades, to come. It will ensure that the profits Jordon has
created over his years at B.H. are used to help the planet. With
that goal in mind, I've created the Reed Mohr Foundation."

What? This wasn't the plan William called
her about this morning.

Now she wasn't just sweating, Reed could
feel streams of perspiration running down the insides of her arms.
Why was William doing this? And why was he doing it so
publically?

Oh God...oh Goddess...oh God...I'm wearing
tennis shoes...don't let them pan down...please don't let them pan
down.

"The foundation will support worthy causes
revolving around meaningful healthcare for the aged with dignity.
I've named Reed as the director of the foundation. Jordon, Finn
Mohr and I will sit on the board. The purposes of the foundation
will expand as Reed, Jordon and Finn Mohr expand their vision for
it. I am funding the Reed Mohr Foundation, initially, with
forty-billion dollars, not from B.H., but from my personal
funds."