Chapter 14 #2
Jordy reappeared and grabbed his headphones, about to put them back on.
“NO! JORDY! WAIT!” Moore shouted as his son gave him a wtf? look, sliding the headphones on.
“Hey, Colleen?” he started, at the same time she said, “–am touching my–”
The rest of her words turned into unintelligible gurgles.
“Touching your what?”
“My cat.”
“Your cat? What’s wrong with Sandwich?”
“She’s lonely,” Colleen said in a quiet voice. “Really lonely. Needs some extra touching.”
Moore was about to die on the spot.
“Oh, that’s easy. Just give her more love than she can ever possibly need. That’ll satisfy her.”
Cold, sputtering silence filled the air between the three of them.
“What?” Jordy asked, looking at Moore. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he and Colleen said at the same time.
Completely flummoxed, Moore pulled his headphones off and was assaulted by all the tiny sounds the device had muted.
“Uh huh,” Jordy said. “Okay. Bye.” Tossing his headphones on the chair, he said, “Colleen says goodnight. She has to deal with her cat. Give it lots of attention so it’ll be happy and go to sleep.”
“Gotcha.” Moore pretended to yawn. “I need to go to bed, kiddo.”
“It’s only ten thirty!”
“I get up early.”
“You’re getting boring.”
“I just played League with you!”
“Fine.”
“Tell you what. Get up early with me and we’ll go to Greta’s.”
Jordy’s face lit up. “Seriously?”
“Sure. The high school tour isn’t until eleven. Plenty of time.”
“Cool.” Jordy walked down the hall to his bedroom. The door closed softly.
Moore dropped to the couch, slumping, staring up at the ceiling. What the hell were he and Colleen doing?
And how could he get her to do more of it–in person?
Moore appreciated the fact that Greta’s son, Wolf, didn't do what some of the townspeople did. Being greeted with, "Hey, Jordy, you in town again?" always made Moore feel like a guest parent, rather than a real parent.
The fifty days a year he got with Jordy, half of them here in Maine, were the only moments he had to find normalcy with his son. Walking into Love You Bakery meant being treated like a typical dad.
When Luke came to Greta's with Harriet, no one said, "Hey, Harriet, you in town?" because he raised her.
Moore was raising Jordy, too, just in a different way.
“Jordy!” Wolf shouted.
The place was surprisingly quiet. Nine-thirty on a weekday was the right time to come in.
After his promise, Moore had made sure they were here, starving and ready for whatever yummy goodness Wolf was serving up.
Some of his newest items included heart-shaped red velvet Belgian waffles, strawberry pancakes, and sage chicken fried steak, but Jordy was fixated on one offering.
“Hey, Wolf. Got any chaffles?”
“Sure do. That keto lady writer who came through here last year did me a favor. Between these new bacon and cheese chaffles and Rachel Hart’s Love Bomb over at Love You Coffee, we’re becoming a boutique café in a foodie town.”
“Got to include The Food Alchemist in there, Wolf. Blake and Sheila would be hurt if they weren’t mentioned.”
Wolf snorted. “Anyplace but Bilbee’s.”
Moore made a thoughtful face.
“Rider is trying, with those pop-up chef events.”
“I’ll give him credit for that, but only that.”
“Fair enough.”
“Two bacon and cheese chaffles, home fries, and rye toast?”
“Yes, sir. Coffee for me.”
Wolf nodded, then grabbed a mug, gesturing for them to pick the counter or a free booth. Jordy led them to the counter, where they chose stools and settled in.
“Can we also get loaded brownies for later?” Jordy asked. “And I want a coffee, too.”
Moore startled.
“You? Coffee?”
“Yeah.” Shifty eyes met his. “Half a cup?”
“I thought you weren’t allowed. Cammie says so in her emails to me whenever you’re here.”
“I drink Starbucks sometimes with my friends. Mom doesn’t know.”
Wolf let out a whistle.
“Never, ever say the S word in front of the crew at Love You Coffee. You’ll get stoned to death.”
Jordy smiled, his grin all metal. The braces would be gone the next time Moore saw him. Two more months and counting, he knew.
Which meant Moore’s payments would stop, as well.
“Can I, Dad?”
Yet again, the sheer normalcy of the moment rocked Moore internally. Fifteen-year-olds pushing boundaries, wanting to be more grown up. Cammie’s rule about caffeine rolled through his mind, but damn it, he was Jordy’s parent, too.
He didn’t have to defer to her.
“Sure.”
Wolf poured them their coffees, filling Jordy’s halfway. Then he topped it off with decaf.
As Moore drank his back, he watched Jordy pour… and pour… and pour sugar from a heart-shaped container into his heart-shaped mug. Six creamers later, and Jordy had a very nice drink.
In no way did it resemble actual coffee.
As they sipped from their respective mugs, Moore looked around.
A couple he didn't know was sitting in a booth behind them, and then three more customers came in, the bell at the door ringing.
It made him think of the jewelry shop and how glad he was that his nephew, Joey, was manning the store this morning.
The drive to the new school would take about thirty minutes, more like forty-five in winter.
It was a drive that Moore would have to learn and work around if Jordy came and lived with him.
Those two or three hours in the car every day would be a joy.
Eventually, Jordy would have his license, and the captive hours in the car would have been just a phase.
But a phase Moore got to experience in full.
"It's really nice to be here, Dad," Jordy said unexpectedly. He was halfway through his coffee and looking around, just like Moore. "Every time we come here, I feel like I'm at home."
"You are at home."
Jordy shrugged. "Not really. This isn't where I live."
"Luview is your home, Jordy. You're a townie, just like everyone else."
"How?" Jordy's voice wasn't defiant or defensive, which was new. "How am I part of Luview if I'm only here a few weeks a year?"
"We take what we can get, kiddo. You can change that, you know."
"Can I?" Jordy took a sip of his coffee as the scent of their chaffles made Moore's stomach growl. Jordy's decided to join him, as if they were singing a duet. It made them both laugh, breaking the seriousness of the moment, but Moore didn't want to lose this thread.
"I don't know how hard your mom would fight. You said earlier that she told you to go ahead and move in with me."
Jordy let out a snort.
"She says that, but you know Mom."
"I do indeed."
The silence that buffered those words said so much: fifteen years of pain all rolled into that which was unspoken.
"I'm fifteen now, and I'm behind. You guys held me back a year."
"I didn't hold you back a year, Jordy," Moore began, but his son put up his palm.
"I know. I know how it works. That year I was gone is why I'm behind."
"Right," was all Moore could say.
"I've got four years of high school left, and I'm really into theater. It's my jam, Dad. There's something about it, and League, that makes me feel like I'm finding my place."
Moore went still. He got the sense that Jordy was ready to say more, open up more, share more. Any interference could screw this up, so he took a sip of coffee and just listened.
"I don't know what to do. Mom's having a baby, my second little sister, and I want to be part of her life. Soria’s a pain in the butt, but I love her, too. I can’t stand Locke, though.
Then there's this really cool school here in Maine, and I never really got to live with you all these years.
I barely remember when you and Mom were still together and we lived in the basement at Grandma and Grandpa's house. "
"You don't have memories?"
Jordy shrugged. "I guess they're more memories that come from the pictures that Grandma shows me every time I visit. I have a few. I mostly remember Colleen."
"Colleen?"
"Yeah, I mean, she was with me all the time."
Colleen’s confession about helping take care of Jordy while Cammie claimed all the credit boiled Moore’s blood. He wanted to say something, correct the record, but he played it cool.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I mean, I can remember being three or four and going to preschool. Colleen walked me there. She was always the one who was there to pick me up."
"Right."
Jordy shrugged. "I remember you sometimes, and I remember Mom. Most of what I remember is you and Mom arguing."
"You do?"
"You'd get home from school, because you were always at school or work. But I remember Grandma and Colleen always telling me that your school was so important, but not more important than me. I didn't understand how something that wasn't more important than me took you away, though."
Moore let out a big breath.
"Oh, Jordy."
Jordy's eyes went wide as they locked with Moore's.
"I'm not supposed to say this, am I?"
"No, no." Moore reached over and covered Jordy's hand with his. To his surprise, his son didn't move. "This is exactly what I want to hear from you. There is nothing you can't talk about with me."
"Chaffles!" Wolf announced, standing in front of them.
The look on his face made it clear that he thought he was walking over to one situation and had encountered a completely different one.
Plunking the large heart-shaped plates on the counter, he gave Moore a sorry, dude look and asked, "Need more coffee? "
Moore covered his cup with his palm after letting go of Jordy's hand. "I'm good."
Jordy avoided eye contact and just dug into his food. Wolf walked away, giving Moore an appraising glance. Wolf was definitely among the people who understood how hard parenting is, as the father of two girls who had turned out beautifully, a little bit older than Jordy.
Food was the great equalizer and conversation ender, a relief for both of them. Jordy was clearly going through something developmental, testing the waters, trying out some kind of emotion other than contempt.
And Moore was here for it.