Chapter 12 #3
As the “bumper baby” of the family, Moore was like an only child, and an errant one at that.
His relationship with his parents had never quite recovered from the colossal shame he’d felt at seventeen, the broken condom on homecoming night shaping the last sixteen years.
Between the “tough love” they displayed during Jordy’s first five years and then their extraordinary support when Cammie stole Jordy away, his relationship with Leander and Francine was best described as mercurial.
The last nine years had been stable. He was the only one of their three kids to stay in Luview and take over the store, though the addition of their grandchild, Joey, to the business had been a welcome surprise.
One more long, deep breath and he steeled himself for the dinner he was about to walk into.
Jordy’s negative talk about Locke and his offhand comment about being glad Moore wasn’t dating made going public with Colleen even pricklier.
He knew she wouldn’t say anything to anyone without him there, but how could he explain the emotional tenor of what had just happened with Jordy?
He couldn’t. How do you describe a happy heart?
A soaring feeling filled his chest, new and exciting.
His son might come to live with him! Be here every day.
Fold into the normalcy of each other’s lives.
Parched for that, Moore felt the world tilt a bit, the chance that Jordy might say no and stay with Cammie an outcome that would hurt more than it did before.
The potential for having his child all to himself was suddenly a viable option.
Nothing could blow his chance.
His phone buzzed in his jacket–Colleen.
Are you waiting for an engraved invitation? Come on! This is the perfect chance to tell them we’re together.
She added ten hearts.
Grinning like a fool, he opened the car door, thumbing his reply.
On my way.
With a spring in his step, he jogged to the same front door he’d been going through his entire life, the scent of pot roast, rosemary, garlic, and love infused in the air. The sound of his parents chatting with Jordy in the kitchen filled him with a happiness he didn’t know he’d been missing.
Before he made it down the hall, Colleen grabbed him.
“How do we do this?” she whispered, eyes big. “I–I feel shy.”
“YOU? Shy?”
She punched his shoulder.
“It’s different now. I’ve been here loads of times as your friend, but never as your… you know.”
“My erotic pool noodle?”
“Moore!”
“What, exactly, are we?” he asked, leaning in, inhaling her perfume, a light scent that was more herbal shampoo than anything else. Whatever she smelled like, Colleen was Colleen, and he fell deeper and deeper for her as each moment passed.
His son might move here. The girl he’d pined for most of his life wanted him right back. His parents were hosting them.
This was perfect.
Beyond perfect.
Which made him instantly uneasy.
“Hey,” she said softly, giving his hand a squeeze. “You just changed.”
“I did?”
“You look worried. Did something happen on the drive with Jordy?”
“Did you know Locke has a kid?”
“You mean the one growing inside Cammie, or–”
“An eleven-year-old.”
“Wow. No. Jordy never said a word.”
“And he was so glad to hear Hannah dumped me.”
“I think we all were.”
“I don’t mean it like that. He–”
“Dinner!” his mom called out, making him feel like he was twelve again, coming to the table alone, his parents tired and silent as they ate.
Not tonight, though. A lively table awaited them.
“Francine’s pot roast is the best,” Colleen said with lusty joy.
“Glad you have a good reason to be here.”
She poked his rib. “When she called and asked me to come, I wondered if you’d said something.”
“No. Not yet. I thought we agreed we would talk to Jordy privately first, then tell our parents.”
“Oh. Right. Sure.” The way she looked up at him made his body relax. His hand went to her hip, then slid up her back.
“Let’s go before they discover us,” he whispered, planting a kiss on her cheek, then squeezing her beautiful butt for good measure.
Her laughter led the way as they marched into the kitchen, where Jordy was getting plates out of the cupboard, his shift from arriving at the airport two hours ago to helping set the table as seamless as could be.
Moore’s parents were in their seventies, a decade older than Colleen’s mom and dad. Francine had been forty-two when she’d had Moore, and Leander was forty-five. They thought they were done.
All his life, Moore had heard his entrance into the world described that way. By the time he and Cammie had nervously sat down with them and explained the pregnancy, his dad was close to drawing Social Security.
Old enough to be a grandfather, but definitely not ready for his high school senior to become a dad.
Shoving all those memories aside, Moore took his place at the table, his mom directing Colleen to sit across from him, Jordy to his left, his dad at one end of the table, herself at the other.
Nose-tickling delights filled the air.
“Meat,” Jordy moaned. “Delicious meat.”
“Is that a meme?” Francine asked Colleen, perplexed. “Sometimes he makes jokes and calls them memes.”
“He’s excited to see beef, Mom. Locke has gone vegan.”
His dad’s eyes got judgmental as he stood, carving a thick slice from the roast. “Vegan! Now, why would a professional athlete deprive his body of proper nutrition?”
Moore could think of plenty of perfectly good reasons why, but he wasn’t about to defend the guy.
Jordy shrugged, clearly uninterested in talking about Locke, but he startled suddenly, sitting up, casting an evil glare at Colleen.
“Why did you kick me?”
“I didn’t kick you!”
Jordy grabbed a roll from a basket and started to throw it at her, but Francine easily intercepted it.
“No food fights at my table, Jordan.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They began serving, the sound of clinking silverware and glasses being filled with water and wine dominating until they were all ready to start.
In his youth, the Mottins had been a family that prayed before meals, but his parents had relaxed in that department as they got older, so his dad just picked up his knife and fork, his mother began buttering a roll, and that was that.
Jordy took a big mouthful of roast and sighed contentedly.
“Mff much a muud ook, Ammaw.”
“Excuse me?” his mom asked.
“He said, ‘You’re such a good cook, Grandma,’” Colleen translated.
Jordy nodded, pleased with himself, swallowing half a cow in one gulp.
“How on earth did you understand that?” Leander grumbled, taking his own bite of meat with a careful fork, tipped just right. Table manners had been drilled into Moore from toddlerhood.
His own son? Not so much.
“I am fluent in teen boy,” Colleen replied, taking her own forkful of mashed potatoes into her mouth with perfect timing so she didn’t have to follow up.
“Glad someone is,” Jordy muttered, busy inhaling his plate.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Francine asked, her voice concerned. “Are you feeling misunderstood?”
No self-respecting teen boy was about to answer that with any authenticity, so instead he replied with, “I’m invisible, Grandma. My replacement is coming in four months. I’m a first-pancake kid.”
“Replacement?” Francine frowned. “Oh! You mean your new little brother or sister.”
“Sister,” he said, then cleared his throat before reaching across the table for the roasted carrots. “Mom’s having a girl.”
Colleen looked at her plate and took small bites. Moore had no idea what he was expected to say here.
“My goodness! Congratulations, dear. Another sister!” His mom took a bite and smiled at Jordy, who rolled his eyes and shoved food in his mouth.
They all chewed for a minute. The silence was merciful.
Until Jordy looked at Moore and announced, “Good thing Dad’s not dating anyone.”
Colleen froze.
Leander and Francine looked at each other. His dad cleared his throat and said, “Jordy’s right. Your track record with women is…”
“Terrible,” Jordy said flatly. “Hannah dumped him by text.”
His parents had the decency to just keep eating and say nothing.
“I wish Mom would dump Locke. He’s such a dick.”
“LANGUAGE!” Leander, Francine, and Moore all called out, which only made Jordy smirk.
Ah. There he was. The kid Moore knew all too well.
“You, Dad, are the best,” Jordy declared, knowing full well the words would shock everyone.
“I am?” At this rate, Moore was going to need the Heimlich. “For what?”
“For sucking at love.”
“Jordy!” Colleen clapped out. “What do you mean?”
“He and my mom didn’t make it. Gia did something really terrible you all think I don’t know, but Mom told me.”
“She told you?” Francine gasped.
“Yeah. Gia, like, slept with the bartender at your wedding reception?”
“The DJ,” Moore said weakly, as if correcting the details somehow made it better.
“And now Tissue Lady dumped you.”
Tissue Lady? Colleen mouthed at him. He shook his head quickly.
“Face it, Dad. You suck at love. And that means you’re my best option.”
“Best option?” His mom looked at him with so many questions in her eyes, but hell if Moore knew what was going on. Colleen’s foot found his, her nudges making the same inquiry.
“Yeah. You’re alone. No stepmother. No live-in mommy figure.
And no babies coming.” Jordy’s expression made it clear what he thought about babies.
“It’ll be great living here with you. None of that crap to deal with,” he added, happily buttering a roll with what looked like half a stick of creamy goodness.
“Language,” Francine said weakly as Moore’s heart began to pound, Colleen’s eyes big as moons.
“And you don’t have a three-year-old I have to babysit every moment I’m not at school.”
Francine frowned. “Being an older brother means helping with the younger child. Vanessa and Lucy always helped when Moore was little.”
“From the second they got off the school bus until bedtime? And every weekend? Dave used to help, but since Mom’s been with Locke, I’m not allowed to be in shows anymore. It takes up too much time, she says.”
“What?” Moore gasped. This was new information. “She’s making you watch Soria that much?”
“Uh huh. Unpaid, too.” The flippant tone was cover for a misery Moore could feel. Colleen closed her eyes, but Moore knew what she was thinking.
Cammie was doing to Jordy what she’d done to Colleen.
“You decided already?” Colleen ventured as she opened her eyes, clearly feeling her way through the minefield this conversation had become.
“Oh, yeah. Easy peasy. The performing arts school is just the cherry on top. Mom already said I could live here if I wanted to.”
You could hear a pin drop.
“SHE DID?” all four adults gasped, in various vocal ranges and intensities.
“I think it would be easier for her that way. You know.”
Colleen reached across for Jordy’s hand. He let her grasp it.
“Did she say that?”
“She says it all the time when we fight. Tells me if I can’t shut up, she’ll send me back here, but Dad doesn’t really want me.”
A gasp from Francine and a growl from Leander made the atmosphere so tense, Moore nearly leapt to his feet to get out of the house, clear his mind, breathe in something other than Cammie’s toxic air.
Even half a country away, she was poison.
“I do want you.” Moore stood, the dinner in his stomach bitter and heavy, emotions all over the place but grounded in the very sharp reality that Jordy was hurting. His playful tone was a coverup for what he was communicating with absolute clarity:
Rejection.
Cammie was rejecting him, one emotional papercut at a time.
All while using him unfairly to raise his own sister.
Jordy stuffed a forkful of beef in his mouth, looking down at his plate.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll stay if you promise me one thing.”
“Anything.”
“Just don’t date anyone. Please. Or, at least, don’t make me meet them, or have anything to do with them.”
Helpless, Moore looked at Colleen.
“Dad?”
“Huh?”
“Deal or no deal.”
Leander snorted. “Easiest negotiation Moore’s ever faced in his life.”
In Colleen eyes, he saw all the conflicted emotions he felt, the tug of his heart in two directions. Surely Jordy would understand, once they told everyone. Colleen was different.
Jordy would make an exception for her.
Right?
“I’m so happy for you, Moore,” Colleen said slowly, pulling her cloth napkin from her lap, dabbing her mouth. “You’ve always wanted this. Jordy’s offering you everything you could possibly imagine.”
No.
No, no, no.
He knew what she was doing. Intellectually and developmentally, catering to Jordy’s request was smart. Cammie might pitch a fit if she didn’t really want Jordy leaving, which meant that having as much buy-in as possible from him would be crucial.
But–and it was a big but–what about him and Colleen?
“I–”
A plea in her eyes shone across the table, the most subtle of hints from the way she nodded making it clear she wanted him to agree to Jordy’s request.
“You can work out the details later,” she stressed, her eyes flaring, sending silent signals he was scrambling to read properly.
“I can? Are you sure?” Moore choked out, her additional nod a lifeline.
“Mom’s going to hate losing my child support,” Jordy said, cheeks turning pink as he looked around the table.
Then he grinned.
If the dictionary ever needed a picture below the entry for schadenfreude, his son would do nicely.
“Your mother has done just fine for years with what Moore’s sent,” Leander announced, making Jordy’s mouth snap shut.
“And Locke is in baseball. He probably makes great money,” his mom added.
“Maybe? I don’t really know. He just signed an endorsement deal for, like, thirty thousand dollars,” Jordy said, but as he explained the specifics to Moore’s parents, a ringing in his ears, ominous and piercing, made their words fade to gibberish.
Despair filled his bones, his eyes meeting Colleen’s.
So much for telling Jordy.
So much for a declaration to his parents.
Bye-bye to going public with their feelings.
Jordy didn’t realize he was doing it, but he was forcing Moore to choose between his son and his love.
Who was shaking her head just enough to make it clear to Moore that she was putting Jordy’s needs first.
Which made him love her even more.
And now he couldn’t have her.