Chapter 12 #2
To be fair, Locke had been with Cammie for less than a year, and Jordy wasn’t fond of talking with Moore at all, much less sharing anything about his life. But surely he’d mentioned this to Colleen?
Guess not. She would have told him.
His son was connected to the baby within Cammie's womb, a baby who would be connected to another child that the father had sired. Jordy already had a half-sister in little Soria, who Cammie kept from even meeting Moore.
Compartmentalizing was Cammie’s superpower.
"Does Locke have contact with this eleven-year-old?"
"Sure," Jordy said casually. "I don't meet him or anything, but Locke sees him once a month or so."
"Oh."
Jordy glanced at Moore.
"Kind of like you."
"Like me?"
"You only see me when the court requires you to. Same with Locke."
Normally, Moore would have let that comment slide, considering it part of Jordy's inner emotional journey, something he needed to get out. Moore had no problem being the whipping boy.
But not now. Not anymore. Not after what Colleen had told him about Cammie.
Carefully, he pulled the car over to the side of the road, reaching forward to press the hazard lights, then turning to look his son full in the eyes.
“Dad, what are you doing?”
"I don't see you fifty days a year because the court requires me to. I see you fifty days a year because that's the limit I'm allowed."
Heated silence filled Moore’s SUV, Jordy tall enough now that they were at eye level. No more looking down to communicate. His kid was as tall as he was, and maybe Colleen was right.
Maybe he was also old enough to know the truth.
“Oh,” was all Jordy said, confusion dominating his face. “Mom always said–”
“Don’t believe everything that comes out of your mother’s mouth.”
A flinch, then raised eyebrows, greeted Moore.
“Whoa.”
Knowing full well he’d say something he regretted if he replied, Moore turned the hazard lights off, put the car in gear, and blended back into traffic, Jordy giving him covert glances before shoving earbuds in.
A very, very angry piece of Moore felt liberated.
When Moore was reunited with his son after a year of nothing but pain, he’d made a decision never to badmouth Cammie, no matter how much she deserved it. Jordy didn’t need to be put in the middle of them like that.
Cammie could be a jerk, but Moore wouldn’t stoop to her level.
As the therapist who’d helped him when Jordy was taken had said, “He’ll see the truth when he’s older. The hard part is that you have to absorb Cammie’s immaturity now.”
Colleen thought he needed to tell Jordy the truth about that missing year, but until just now, Moore had never said a cross word about his ex to their child.
Then again, he’d also spent countless years not telling Colleen his true feelings for her. The fear of outcomes from acting had always overridden the lost opportunities from not acting.
Time to change all that.
Jordy pulled one earbud out and said, “Grandma and Grandpa are here, right?”
“Yep. Came back from Florida just to see you.”
“Last year you took me down there.”
“Last year you weren’t considering the new school here.”
“I probably won’t like it.”
“I hope you do.”
“I’d have to live here, huh?” Chewing on his lower lip, he looked more vulnerable, less jaded, than Moore had seen him in the last few years.
“Unless you can find an easy way to commute from Minnesota, yes.”
“More like California,” Jordy mumbled.
“What?”
“Mom didn’t tell you? Locke might get a shot at a team in California.”
Over the last few years, Moore had mastered the art of booking direct flights from Portland to Minneapolis. His flight into Manchester last month had been a fluke.
Now California?
“Where?”
“San Diego.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“New little brother or sister and a move?”
“Right.”
Pangs of guilt turned into twisted knots of pain inside him, his little boy torn no matter what he decided. Jordy would have to move wherever his new stepfather took him. Cammie would go along with anything, he knew, as long as she was being financially supported.
Moore’s selfish desire to have Jordy move here meant he’d lose access to his only siblings.
“You know, no matter what, I’ll always visit. And if you decide to stay here in Luview, we’ll make sure you see your mother, Soria, and the baby as much as you want.”
“I know. You told me a million times. Colleen has, too.”
“She has?”
“Oh, please. Like you didn’t put her up to it.”
Moore chuckled. “No one forces Colleen to do anything. Ever.”
Jordy joined him in laughter. “No kidding. She’s the most stubborn person I know.”
“Second to you.”
“We were playing League last week and she completely backdoored their nexus while their whole team was in our base!”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“It means Colleen is a badass.”
“Yeah,” Moore said with a grin. “She really is.”
Jordy ignored him after that, settling in to play some kind of game on his phone.
The clear roads were easy to navigate. Spring in Maine was a jumble of weather you couldn’t quite predict.
Other than some leftover piles of old snow lining the roads, everything was melted.
The flanks of mud could fool you into thinking that warmer weather was finally here, but a freak nor’easter could dump snow as late as the first week of May.
Predicting the weather was a form of high witchcraft.
“What’s Grandma making for dinner?” Jordy asked as they crossed into Luview, the homes instantly changing color until everything was red, white, and pink.
“Pot roast.”
“She always makes pot roast.”
“But it’s really good pot roast.”
“Locke is vegan.”
“He’s what?”
“Vegan. Says if Tom Brady can do it and still play into his forties, he can do the same.”
“You don’t eat meat anymore?”
“No! Locke doesn’t. Mom refuses to go vegan, too. Says it’s bad for the baby. Then Locke makes a comment about how fat she is and they start screaming at each other.”
The casual way Jordy threw that into the conversation made Moore’s back teeth grind together.
Hard.
“They fight a lot?”
“More now that Mom’s pregnant, yeah. I hate it.”
Being overjoyed that his kid was confiding in him while also being horrified by the content of the confidences made Moore’s head spin.
“No one likes watching people fight around them.”
“Did Grandma and Grandpa ever scream at each other when you were growing up?”
Moore nearly ran off the road in surprise.
“Uh, no. I’ve never seen them fight.”
“Really? Never? You’ve never seen them get mad?”
A flash of being seventeen, holding Cammie’s hand in his own clammy paw as they told his parents she was pregnant, ripped through his psyche.
“I’ve seen them mad, yes. But not fighting with each other.”
“Mad at who?”
“Me.”
“I can’t imagine Grandma getting mad. She’s always so happy. And Grandpa’s just… there.”
“There?”
“Quiet. Boring. He reads the stocks in the newspaper and watches those stupid nature shows.”
Laughing at that, Moore had to agree with Jordy’s assessment of his dad. “He’s never been interested in much other than family, his business, golf, and a good Nat Geo scene where the elk gets shredded by a lion.”
“Grandpa’s super into those documentaries. Like, extra.”
By now, this was more conversation than he’d had with Jordy in the last three years.
“He is, but some of them are interesting. Remember that Joe Exotic one?”
“So stupid, Dad. Like a car accident.”
Those two words made him think of Colleen and the cabin.
Taking a right just before the center of town, he drove to the house he’d grown up in. His parents’ semi-retirement hadn’t made them give up the old homestead, a big colonial with an attached barn that Moore and Luke had spent countless hours playing in as kids.
Most of their time was at Luke’s house, though. Unlike Moore, Luke had siblings close in age at his house.
And then there was Colleen…
“Oh. Sorry.”
Surprised, Moore looked at his son. “What?”
“Sorry. I said car accident and you went quiet. I keep forgetting you were hurt, too.”
A portal to a new dimension had definitely opened up. Jordy never, ever said sorry to Moore, and certainly never worried about his feelings.
“Uh, it’s okay.”
“Colleen’s cast is off, right?”
“Yes, but her wrist is still really tender.”
There was a pause, and then:
“You were really great, saving her like that.”
Those words came out of Jordy as Moore turned into his parents’ driveway. They registered in his brain as he pressed the brake pedal, damn near hitting an unexpected car parked before him.
Colleen Luview’s car.
“Hey! She’s here!” Scrambling out of the SUV, Jordy shot into the house before Moore could kill the engine. As he watched his mom in the doorway, backlit by the glow of the house, Moore slowly bent down and banged his forehead lightly on the steering wheel.
Colleen was here.
Mom must have invited her.
Years ago, Jordy had a meltdown on a visit, insisting on leaving Moore’s apartment and going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa.
His parents obliged, of course, but it cut Moore deeply.
Colleen had stepped in without being asked, acting as a bridge between them, eventually turning Jordy into a giggly tween as the three of them played Super Smash Bros. together.
Ever since, his mom had invited Colleen over for a big family dinner at least once every visit.
“And tonight, we come clean,” he said aloud, breath fogging in the cool air as dusk showed up to take over from the sun.
The red front door was the same color it had been his whole life, white clapboard siding and black shutters completing the classic New England colonial look.
Although his parents spent half the year in Florida, they were always here from Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day, to help in the store with all the major sales periods.
Unconventional retirement, yes. In Florida during much of the time when it was hot, in Maine when it was cold, but they liked it that way.
Flying back here for Jordy’s visit was an exception to their schedule.
A welcome one.