Sparring Partners (38 page)

Jordon closed the distance between them and
reached for her left hand with his empty one. Bringing it to his
lips, he kissed her knuckle right under the slim rose-gold band she
picked out in Las Vegas.

He handed her the box.

She looked at him, confusion and something
that made her frown, marring her beautiful face. "Jordon, I..."

"For once, Reed, just go with it. You don't
need to fight absolutely everything."

Her expression looked hurt for a moment, as
if she didn't realize what a terrier-like personality she had
underneath her elven facade.

"Just open the box, love."

She opened the box.

Her hand went to her mouth and her tears
were back. "Oh, Jordon. It's so beautiful. So elegant. It looks old
and well loved."

Finally, he could give her something
meaningful that she appreciated. Jordon's chest expanded and he
felt himself smile.

"It is. It belonged to my great-grandmother.
She gave it to me when I was nine."

"And you didn't lose it?"

"I kept it safe. It's always been with me.
Even as a little kid, I knew how important it was." Jordon shrugged
remembering the day his great-grandmother gave it to him, and the
promise she exacted in return. "I've always known there's magic in
that ring."

Jordon reached for the ring and pulled it
from its velvet pillow, marveling again at its beauty as he did
every time he looked at it. The three stone ring was hand carved in
platinum. The hall of mirrors cutting on the square emerald cut
stones, and their severe corners added drama and symmetry. The
stones were one carat each and lightly tinted, a soft yellow hue.
The ring suited Reed perfectly.

"My great-grandmother Bennett said I'd know
when I found the missing part of me, and that I should make sure I
gave this ring to the woman who makes me whole."

Jordon slipped his great-grandmother's ring
onto Reed's ring finger, just above the pink gold band. It fit
perfectly, like it was made to fit only her.

"It's where it belongs now."

"So am I." Reed said, tears running freely
down her face.

Jordon swept her back up in his arms and
called Thorson on his cell for Drambuie, pretzels, and coconut
bubble bath. He asked that they all be delivered to his room in
exactly one hour.

"Why one hour?" Thorson asked.

"Because I need to make love to my wife
first, and it is going to take awhile to get the job done
thoroughly." Jordon said, before turning off his phone.

Reed was so pleased with him she didn't even
hit him for being so male, she was too busy giggling in his
ear.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

An insistent knock on the door woke Jordon.
A sense of urgency surged through him as he shook off the fog from
sleep laced with the after effects of Reed and Drambuie.

He glanced at the clock, blinking 4:30, the
sky didn't even hint at dawn yet and he'd only been asleep for a
few hours. He found his boxers, on the floor where he threw them
and slipped them on, just in case it was his mother at the door.
Thorson's concerned face greeted him without a smile. The perpetual
twinkle in his eye was missing.

"What's wrong?" Jordon asked, instantly
alert.

"The hospital called. It seems you have a
decision to make as Mrs. MacDonald's power of attorney."

Jordon's stomach revolted, and every cell in
his body tried to come to his aide by cooling the flames that began
in the pit of his stomach and radiated outwards. Beads of sweat
made his skin glisten in the moonlight shining through the windows.
Jordon glanced over his shoulder toward the bed where his elf, his
wife, the keeper of his heart, slept. Just watching her sleep
calmed him. His heart opened even farther at the sight of Reed's
small hand wearing his great-grandmother's ring, the ring he'd
waited a lifetime to give away. Jordon sent a quick prayer of
thanks before turning back to Thorson, who seemed to know exactly
what Jordon was thinking.

"Wild roses are amazing. Tough enough to
survive glaciers and dinosaurs. Sweet and deceptively fragile.
Things of beauty and grace. Well worth the thorns."

"So, have you ever been pricked,
Thorson?"

The twinkle was back for a moment as Thorson
glanced toward the bed and then away. "Once or twice. God willing,
I still have a prick or two left in me."

Jordon appreciated Thorson's diversion. It
gave him time to ease the clenching in his stomach and to let the
perspiration evaporate from his skin. He was prepared to face the
world now, even if that meant saying good-bye to Irma.

"Let Irma's nurse know I'll be there within
the hour. Could you make coffee for me to take along? And, let's
keep this between us for now. I don't want the others worried just
yet."

"No worries. I've already got the coffee
ready."

"Thanks, Thorson. I appreciate it."

"I know you do. Glad to see you coming back,
Jordon. I've missed you."

Jordon didn't need to ask him what he meant
by 'coming back', the fact that he stopped calling him Mr. Bennett
said it all. He shut the door, headed toward the shower and sent
out another quick prayer:

Please give me a chance to say good-bye. I
never got the chance to show Irma how much I care.

...

"Is she in pain?"

"No. Not to any discernable degree." Dr.
Minorik said.

"So what's the rush?"

"There's no rush. It's just, given Mrs.
MacDonald's age, her obviously frail state, and the fact that her
coma seems to be deepening, it doesn't make any sense to keep her
on the ventilator."

"So if she starts breathing on her own, then
what?"

"That is highly unlikely."

"Irma is an unlikely kind of woman. She may
look frail, but she's tough as nails. I wouldn't count her out too
quickly, Doc."

"We're already past the point where I'd make
the call."

Jordon's jaw popped as his muscles forcibly
clenched. His eyes narrowed and he flashed the doctor a smile that
could slice through concrete. "It's a good thing it's not your
call, then. It's mine. All plugs stay firmly in place. If I were
you, I'd pray there isn't a power spike within a hundred miles of
here. I'm not letting her go before she's ready to let go."

Jordon looked back at the tiny woman
entombed in mounds of white cotton sheets covered by a thin waffled
blanket that wouldn't keep a polar bear warm. He dismissed the
doctor simply by turning away.

Sullen, not so subtle, footsteps left the
room, and Jordon's canine clench of his jaw eased as he let the
pit-bull in him evaporate while bringing out his inner golden
retriever. Irma liked dogs. Reed's three monsters were never far
from her side. The giant cats liked her too. In fact, everyone at
Potters Woods liked Irma, even the people who came during the day
for the various programs Finn, Reed, and Charlie set up.

He was the only one Irma gave hell to, and
yet, he loved her too.

Jordon reached for Irma's hand, holding it
in his much larger one. She was limp, dead weight lying on that
bed. Her skin had the transparency of onion skin and was so dry
Jordon was afraid he might tear it if he gripped her too hard.
There were bruises up and down her wrinkled arms from all the blood
thinners she was on.

Jordon didn't realize he was crying until
his tears hit her bony arm. He sat in the chair next to the bed and
raised her hand to his cheek.

"Feel that, you old bat? You finally made me
cry. Why don't you wake up so you can enjoy it. Come on old, girl.
There's still fish in that pond you haven't scared to death. Wake
up, Irma. Wake up."

Jordon fell asleep, alternating between
cursing Irma and praying for her as he held her hand.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

"Where the hell is he?" William demanded of
Thorson, as he looked at his watch for the fifth time in twice as
many seconds.

"I can't say, Sir."

"You mean you won't say?"

"If you say so, Sir."

"Stop 'Sir-ing' me, Thorson we've been
through enough together for me to know where your shifting
loyalties lie."

"My loyalties don't shift. They remain
exactly where they need to be."

"He'd better not be at the office. Of course
my staff is loyal to
me
there, and since he's banned from
the office, I would have heard otherwise." William's eyes narrowed.
If throttling Thorson would do any good he would do it. "Get Jordon
back here, Thorson. Quickly." William looked at his atomically
updated to the millisecond watch again, not seeing Thorson rolling
his eyes.

"He's about to miss an incredibly important
meeting with Mr. Takahara and Giles is already buttering the man up
in my study. It's almost as if Jordon's trying to lose this
account. He knows how important this is, why the hell isn't he
here?"

"I can't say, Sir."

"As soon as he reappears, send him to me.
I've
got plenty to say."

...

Jordon woke still holding Irma's hand.
Rubbing his free hand across his whisker stubbled face, he winced.
He left this morning without shaving, throwing on the first clothes
he found, a t-shirt and a pair of jeans he'd gotten a hole in while
helping Jesse plant a surprise peace garden for Reed. The tear
actually happened after Curly, Mo and Larry knocked him down in the
universal call to play of deerhounds everywhere. He and Jesse
played with the dogs most of that afternoon, chasing those three
ladies all over the meadow.

Looking at his watch, a new solar powered
gift from Reed to replace his platinum Rolex, he bolted upright. He
just meant to close his eyes for a moment and channel what energy
he could out to the universe for Irma to wake up and for that
damned doctor to stop hovering like a vulture over Irma's bed.

Instead, he'd slept for five hours.

And, missed his nine o'clock meeting to
discuss his plan for taking over and expanding Takahara's
alternative health care business. Giles was probably doing a
victory dance already.

Worse than that was the fact that he was
going to have to sneak back into the cottage, looking like he just
got out of jail after one hell of a bar fight and a night in the
drunk tank.

Shit.

Resting his elbows on his knees, hands in
his hair, Jordon sat collecting his thoughts. Six weeks ago, his
biggest worry was how much more profit he could produce than Jay
Giles, so he could ensure his position at B.H. A month ago, he was
sure this whole marriage requirement of William's was a cosmic joke
to test his commitment to B.H., and once again, his biggest worry
was beating Giles, dollar for dollar. He never saw Reed, Potters
Woods or Irma coming.

They snuck up on him and altered his DNA
when he wasn't looking, and now he was afraid there was no
inoculation in the world that could purge any of them from his
system.

Now, his biggest worry was getting a chance
to say good-bye to an old woman he didn't know existed until he
came to Potters Woods, and hanging on to the mixed up family
serendipity gave him and he wanted to keep.

"You look like shit."

Jordon raised his head and stared at what
had to be the second most beautiful woman in the world. "I heard
you got married."

"Are you angry about that, or is that your
way of saying congratulations?" Finn asked, walking into the
room.

Jordon stood and enveloped Reed's aunt in a
big hug. It surprised him almost as much as it surprised her, but
he recovered more quickly, pulling away before she had a chance to
push him. Smiling down, but not too far down considering how much
taller Finn was than his elf, Jordon answered honestly.

"Congratulations. Henry is the closest thing
to a brother I have. He's lucky to have you."

She looked at him like she was waiting for
the other shoe to drop before she smiled at him with real warmth.
"You really do look terrible. Where's Reed?"

"She's still at the cottage. She doesn't
know how bad this is yet. I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell her.
I was hoping Irma would come out of it and I wouldn't have to tell
the others how close she came to leaving us."

"Henry said you had an important meeting
today.
The meeting
, I think he called it." She cocked her
head at him, narrowing her eyes slightly, although there was a
small smile on her face that said she knew more about his motives
than he did. "Why are you here?"

"Irma needs me here."

The smile Finn gave him as she silently took
his hand filled him with a feeling he hadn't even known he'd been
longing for.

Belonging.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Jesse didn't like the monkey suit Lily
insisted he wear for the late afternoon wedding reception from
hell. He didn't know any of these people, neither did his mother.
As it turned out, the billionaire groom everyone was whispering
about was nowhere to be found, leaving everyone gossiping about
Reed. Dreadful hair, too short, too poor, too ugly, too common, too
unworthy to be Jordon's bride. Too stupid to see the writing on the
wall of what Jordon's absence meant. Too stupid to leave before
things got 'really embarrassing' for her, and her working class
friends.

It was as if dressing like these androids,
in an attempt to be accepted into their privileged club of
worthless consumerism, wasn't embarrassing enough for him and his
mother. Just watching her trying to blend, as she was oh-so-subtly
looked down upon, made Jesse want to grab Sensei Schwartz and start
kicking tail and taking names. The sad thing was, Reed didn't seem
to get it. She moved with the strength and grace, that twenty years
of martial arts training and blazing her own trail had forged into
her bones, from table to table on William's arm, looking more
beautiful than ever, which was no small feat as far as Jesse was
concerned. She seemed to ignore all of the jealousy and the
condescension oozing from the people around her.