Chapter 7 – Jordie
CHAPTER SEVEN
Who is this?
Jordie
TWO YEARS LATER
I sit in the off-campus apartment I share with Carrie. She’d gone home for the weekend, but I decided to stay here to obsess over film for our first game of the season.
My senior year of college. It’s hard to believe it’s finally here. A lot has changed in the past two years. Our team played for the national championship last year and lost by three points, but we’re favored to win it all this season.
As far as my family is concerned, a lot has happened there as well.
That “fling” Juliette met at the Pineapple Island resort?
Yeah, turns out he was none other than hockey superstar, Reno Swain.
When he was traded to my brother’s team, The Dallas Brewers, he and my sister found each other once again.
They carried on this whole forbidden, brother’s teammate thing for a while. It was something straight out of a romance novel. And now they’re married with one-year-old twins, Jace and Ruby… and two goats.
Holly and Bubba’s little girl, Amber, was born a few months before the twins, and their son, Aiden, is now three. It’s definitely getting to be a full house in both the Ward and Swain households.
I rewind a play on my iPad and watch Georgia’s defensive backs again, committing them to memory. Gonna have to watch out for—
That thought is halted when my phone rings, and I glance down at the screen to see an unknown number. Jesus. Probably a spammer that wants to discuss my car’s extended warranty.
“Yeah?” I answer rudely, rolling my eyes when there’s a hesitation. “Look, I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling.”
“Jordan?”
I don’t recognize the voice, but it’s female and doesn’t seem to be a spam call.
“This is Jordie.”
“Oh, Jordan. Hiiiiii.” The woman’s tone brightens, and spikes of unease prickle the back of my neck.
“Who is this?” I demand.
“Baby, it’s your mom.”
I’ve never seen Delphine Caldwell-McNamara-Ward-Something-Something-McNamara-Whatever in person. At least, not that I can remember. When I was thirteen, I asked Dad what she looked like, and he pulled a shoebox from the back of his closet and unearthed a photo of a pretty blonde holding a baby… me.
So I’m not exactly sure what to expect when I enter the café near my campus, but I spot her immediately.
She’s sitting in a padded booth near the back, and she stands immediately when she sees me.
Despite over twenty years passing since that single photo I saw, Delphine looks much the same.
Blonde hair, aqua eyes, and full fuchsia lips.
Her resemblance to Juliette and me is astonishing. She’s definitely our mother.
“There’s my baby,” she coos, throwing herself at me. If I didn’t have so much muscle tone, she probably would have knocked me over with the force.
I return her hug tentatively and with much less fervor than her embrace. I’m still not sure what I’m doing here, but when your long-lost mother calls out of the blue and says she wants to see you, well… Shit. What else was I supposed to do?
“Um, hi,” I say, extricating myself from her arms. The top of her head comes up to about my nose, and she tilts her face up to beam at me. From this distance, I can see the signs of aging creasing her forehead and around her eyes.
“Look at you,” she croons, placing a cool hand on my cheek. “So beautiful.”
My emotions are all jumbled up, and I’m not sure if I welcome her touch or if I'm repelled by it. Maybe a little of both.
“You, uh, look good too,” I say, feeling awkward because that sounds like something you’d say to someone you’ve actually… you know… seen in the last twenty two years.
“Let’s sit down and chat, honey. I can’t wait to catch up with you.”
Catch up. Like it’s been a month or so since we last met.
“Okay,” I agree, sliding into one side of the booth and realizing there’s a man across from me. “Oh, hi.”
Delphine scooches in next to him, so close she’s practically in his lap. “Jordan, this is Willie, my fiancé. Willie, this is my baby girl. She’s twenty-one.”
“Twenty-two,” I correct, taking in the man who has a possessive arm around the woman who birthed me.
He looks… smarmy, for lack of a better word, his hair thin and slicked back against his head, leaving a few spots of scalp showing.
His nose is slightly crooked, and one of his front teeth is chipped.
“Nice to meet you, Jordan.”
“You as well,” I tell him politely. “And I go by Jordie.”
Delphine rests her chin in her hand and stares at me with glittering eyes. “I’ve been seeing you on the television, and I just knew I had to see you.”
“You’ve watched my games?” I ask incredulously, somehow feeling touched by that fact. I’ve never even thought about her maybe being out there somewhere, watching me play. She’s just been kind of a nonentity my entire life.
“Of course,” she exclaims, like it would be the craziest thing in the world for an absentee mother not to keep up with her kid. “And we’ve seen all the talk about the draft coming up in the spring. I can’t believe there’s an actual league for women’s football. It’s just so exciting.”
A burst of happiness bubbles up in my chest, and I nod. “I’m hoping to get drafted.”
“Pshh,” she scoffs. “Of course you will. You’re one of the best… what’s it called? A fast end?”
“Tight end,” I say with a laugh.
Delphine snaps her fingers and points at me. “Yes. That. Well, you’re one of the best tight ends in the whole country. At least that's what the sports people are saying on TV. Tell me all about it.”
I begin talking, detailing how there have been women’s leagues for years, but they haven’t been taken seriously, most of them playing at high school football fields and drawing tiny crowds.
“They’re saying fifty percent of season ticket packages for the WNFL have already been sold,” I finish. “They’re starting with ten teams next year, and then after five years, they’re going to add six more expansion teams.”
“That is fantastic,” Delphine says, doing tiny claps beneath her chin and looking truly excited. God, this is so surreal, seeing my actual mother sitting across the table from me.
“It really is cool. We have the full backing of the NFL, so that adds to our legitimacy. Not that we’re not legit in our own right,” I add quickly.
“But with an established league behind us, people are getting excited. Some of the current leagues have some very talented women, but their clothing…” I make a cringey face.
“Their uniforms look like something a waitress at Hooter’s would wear. Crop tops and booty shorts.”
Willie nods as if he understands. “Ah, yes. The tits and ass league.”
I do my earnest best not to glare at him.
“Yes, that's what some jerky, misogynistic men call it. The women are seen more as sex objects instead of athletes. But like I said, there’s a lot of talent in those leagues, so the WNFL will be making offers to some of them. They will kind of be like the ‘veterans,’ while those of us being drafted from college will be the ‘rookies.’”
The waitress stops by to take our orders, and Delphine leans across the table toward me. “Get whatever you want, honey. Willie is paying.”
“Oh. He doesn’t have to do that,” I say. “I have money from babysitting during the summers when I don’t have practice.”
She makes a little dismissive sound in the back of her throat. “Nonsense. We’re your parents, Jordan.”
“Jordie,” I correct, tamping down the discomfort her last sentence evokes before turning to the pretty waitress. “I’ll have an egg white omelet with ham, all the veggies, and feta cheese. Water to drink.”
After Delphine and Willie order, my mother pats my forearm across the table. “I’ll bet you’ll get tons of endorsement offers since you’re so pretty, honey.”
I want to tell her I want to get offers because I’m a kick-ass football player and not because of my looks, but I force my lips to curve upward. “That would be something.”
She offers a beaming smile. “I’m just so excited that my daughter is going to be a professional athlete. I can’t tell you how proud I am of you.”
Her pride makes my heart do a little flip but part of what she said also makes that same organ squeeze uncomfortably.
“Bubba is also a pro athlete. He plays hockey for the Dallas Brewers.”
My tone is defensive, and my mother’s smile flickers and disappears like someone blew out a candle.
“I’m aware of that, but he and your sister wrote me off years ago.
And Xander… well, he never really bonded with me.
He always wanted to be stuck up Emmett’s rear end.
” I don’t point out that he was a toddler at the time.
Delphine blinks rapidly and looks away for a second before bringing her aqua eyes back to my face.
“You, though, my baby… you were a mama’s girl through and through. ”
“Then why did you leave me?” The words are out before I could even process them. I never realized I was internalizing that thirst for this vital piece of information.
The few times I’d questioned my fathers, I always received the same bland response. Delphine wasn’t cut out to be a mother. Never once did they utter a cruel word about her, but the implication was clear: Your mother is selfish.
Delphine’s mouth relaxes into a tender smile.
“I wasn’t planning to leave forever. I could never sit still for very long and always felt the need to travel.
To…” She rolls her hand in a circle a few times as she searches for the words.
“To find myself. Everyone deserves to pursue their dreams, just like you’re doing with football. Don't you agree?”
“I, uh, I guess.” My fingers fidget with the paper napkin in my lap, feeling the slight roughness against my skin. “What dreams were you pursuing?”