Catching Up With Everyone

Never in my life would I have thought that being at Jordan’s parents’ house - surrounded by people who were, essentially, my family - would have felt like torture. But that’s exactly what it felt like as I sat in their living room that night. Every time I glanced Jordan’s way and his gaze met mine or every time I heard him say my name, I ached to be next to him with his arms around me - not sitting next to his father and sister-in-law.

I couldn’t explain it if I tried. It made no sense to me when I tried. How could I possibly be this deeply tuned into him when all my life I knew him and I managed not to lose my mind over him.

Well, barely. My last few years of high school were nothing but pure hell as I pretended that I didn’t have more than friendship feelings for him. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that nothing would happen between us and I guess you could say that’s when I started to seriously date those guys who ended up not working out - Will, who cheated and Mike, who turned out to be gay - just to name a couple.

I suppose it’s best to say that all my feelings for him have always been lurking beneath the surface, just waiting for the moment when we are both ready to explore that possibility. Now that the possibility was real, I couldn’t stop my feelings or the way my body and mind reacted to his presence.

And to tell you the truth, I didn’t want to change or stop it at all. Whatever was to come, whether or not we would last, I was happy that we were taking the chance and seeing where it could lead us.

“Jordan?” Harriet came into the living room drying her hands in a towel. “Why don’t you go take up some dinner for Jenna? We are going to be sitting down soon.”

“Sure mom,” he excused himself from the conversation he had been having with Mike and Eric. Without drawing too much attention to myself, I watched him cross to his mom and kiss her cheek. “Thanks mom.” Before he left the room, he sent a look my way that had me squirming in my seat.

I waited, I didn’t want too but in order to not make it obvious, so I waited a good five minutes before I excused myself and went to find him.

“What was that look for?” I asked him as I came up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “It was hot,” I sighed against his back while my hands roamed over his stomach to his chest.

“Was it really?” He chuckled softly. “Did it make you squirm?”

“You know it did,” I leaned around and watched him cut up vegetables in small pieces for Jenna. “Look at you,” I grinned. “Not even six months ago you swore you would never be a dad, let alone a good one and now?”

“Anna,” he chuckled. “Anyone can cut up food for their kid; it doesn’t make me a good dad.”

“No,” I agreed. “But the happy little girl in the other room, who adores you, does.”

“She does, doesn’t she?” He smiled.

“Mmmhmm,” I gazed up at him. “She not the only one.”

“Babe,” he sighed, dropped the fork he was using and turned towards me. “When you look at me like that…” his arms wrapped around me. “You make me feel things I can’t describe.”

“Then don’t describe it,” I told him. “Show me.”

“Show you?” He lowered his head. “Give you a little taste of my…”

“Yes,” I said breathlessly as my lids dropped as my gaze focused on his lips. “Show me how you feel Jordy.”

“Like this?” He pressed his lips against my temple. “Or maybe like this…” he trailed kisses down my cheek and along my neck. “Did I tell you I really like this dress?” His fingers slipped under the strap of my dress as his lips grazed my skin. “So hot…”

“Jordy,” I moaned softly. “You have to tell them, now.” I swallowed hard. “I can’t handle this anymore.”

“What?” He blinked. “What do you mean?”

“It’s killing me to be this close to you and not be able to touch or kiss you whenever I feel like it.” I pouted. “It really hurts to hold back when all I want to do is be with you.”

“I know how you feel,” he kissed my forehead. “How do you think I felt for the last two years? To watch you kiss and touch other guys? Wishing with every breath that you would look at me like that - touch me like that.”

“This is your chance,” I whispered against his neck. “Tell you family and let’s finally be together. Please Jordy.”

“I will,” he nudged my cheek with his nose. “I promise. Just let me do it my way.”

“Ok,” I lifted my face and met his lips.

Jordan’s hands travelled down my back to cup my ass, thrusting me against him as his lips captured mine.

“Yes mom, I’ll ask him!” We pulled apart at the sound of Nick’s voice as it came closer.

“Damn it all,” I cursed. “Please tell them,” I begged as I pressed my lips against his cheek.

“I will,” he promised, pouting as I slipped out of his arms.

Nick came through the door shaking his head. “Mom wants to know why you aren’t potty training Jenna yet.”

Jordan stared at him blankly, which I think had more to do with what he interrupted as opposed to the question he asked. “Is that all you came in here for?”

“No, Jenna needs her diaper changed and mom sent me to find out where her bag was…” Nick trailed off as he glanced back and forth between the two of us. “What’s going on in here?”

Jordan looked at me. “We were just talking,” he told him before excusing himself to go check on his daughter.

Nick watched Jordan go and then turned to me. “I don’t believe that,” he stated. “I know there is something going on between you two, I can feel it.”

“Going on between Jordan and me?” I chuckled. “What on earth would make you think that?”

“He’s happy,” he replied simply. “We both know Jordan isn’t just happy.”

Rolling my eyes I told him there were many reasons for that. “I mean, he does have his daughter today and his whole family is here. You know how much he loves it when Mike is home.” I shook my head and started to walk away from him. “You really should get some sleep Nicky, you are becoming delusional.”

It killed me to walk away from Nick without telling him that Jordan and I were dating but I promised Jordan that he would be the one to tell his family.

An hour later I would realize that as hard as it was not to tell Nick in the kitchen, it would be harder not to spill the beans while we all sat around the table for dinner. I even tried to make Jordan to spill sooner than he seemed to want too by stroking his inner thigh with my fingers from the start of dinner. It didn’t seem to be working, he was barely managing to hold on to his emotions but he wasn’t giving up our relationship.

“Fine,” I whispered, pulling my hand from his thigh and turned my attention to everyone else except him.

First up were Mike and Eric and their hunt for a house here. “How’s that going?” I asked. “Is that your main focus for this weekend?”

“Yes,” Eric replied. “We’re hoping to find something suitable before we load everything into the moving truck at the end of the month.”

“Don’t worry about it Eric dear,” Harriet piped up. “John and I already told you guys that you are more than welcomed to stay here until you find a place.”

Eric smiled, “And we appreciate that Harriet but we wouldn’t want to burden you longer than necessary.”

“It’s not a burden,” Harriet said with a dismissively wave of her hand. “We are excited to have Mike home again, aren’t we John?”

“Yes, of course,” John responded.

Beside me Jordan leaned in and whispered that he was certain that Eric wasn’t too happy at the idea of living with his parents. “Can’t really blame him, can you Babe?”

Shrugging, I turned to Mike. “So what are you doing when you come back to town? Have you started to look for work or…?”

“I haven’t looked yet,” he told me. “Eric and I figured that I would wait until we are settled here before I look for something.” He smiled. “Since any job I’m qualified for doesn’t involve skill,” he muttered.

“I never said that Mike.” Eric replied defensively. “I just thought that you would like to take some time to spend with your family when we first move back. I never meant -”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mike cut him off. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Eric slumped a little in his chair next to me and I can’t say that I blame him, the last time something bothered Mike, he didn’t talk about it for the longest time. “Well,” I gave Eric a smile. “I for one am very glad that you guys are going to live here, I’ve missed Mike terribly and I feel like I don’t know you that well Eric. I want too, just the little I came to find out when Nick, Jordan and I visited you guys that day - well, I have to say, I believe we would be friends even if we didn’t know each other through Mike.”

“Thank you,” Eric smiled at me while Mike gave me a questioning look.

“What?” I asked Mike. “I can’t help it that your boyfriend is interesting and fun to talk too. You are lucky he gave you a chance.”

Mike laughed and said something about nosy little girls and their ‘do good’ attitudes but I did see him exchange a look with Eric that made me smile.
Jordan poked my side, trying to get my attention when his reach for my hand resulted in me drawing it out from under the table.

I turned to Nick and Amy. “I can’t believe it’s been a month since that little guy was born,” I glanced at Bradley sleeping in his car seat on a chair at the end of the table by his grandmother.

“Me neither,” Nick gazed at his son. Sighing, he turned back, “It’s going to suck going back to work next week after being home with Amy and Bradley for the last month but,” he shrugged. “I have to start earning some money soon, things are getting expensive fast.”

“Are you going back to the restaurant?” I asked while shifting in my chair as Jordan poked me again.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I might have to look at something else though, it may not be enough.”

“You promised you wouldn’t work two jobs,” Amy turned to him. “Bradley will never see you if you do.”

“I know,” Nick looked at her. “I don’t want that but baby we can’t expect your parents to let us live in their basement forever. And I don’t want that either. I want to give you a place to call your own and a yard for Bradley to play in - I can’t do all that at the restaurant alone.”

“Nicky dad said that they would give us money for a down payment -”

“And we would help as well,” John cut in.

“No,” Nick shook his head. “I want to provide for my family myself; I don’t want to continue to depend on everyone else lending me a helping hand! Mike doesn’t do it and Jordan has never needed to.”

“Nicky -”

“No Amy, I told you, I’ll figure something out.” Nick stabbed at the last of his roast beef. “I have to figure something out,” he mumbled.

“Ummm,” I glanced around the table, not sure if I should say anything. “Nick?”

“Yeah?” He sighed as he looked at me.

“Well, I don’t know if you are interested but I happen to know that they are looking for unloaders at work and Zack mentioned something about needing another dispatcher at the station. Maybe you could check into one of those?”

Nick’s face brightened with that little piece of info. “Thank you Anna, I’ll check into both.”

Jordan poked me again and whispered my name.

“John,” I smiled as I turned to him. “Are you and Harriet going to visit your parents this summer? Don’t you normally go this month?”

John nodded, “Yes, we’ll be going in a couple weeks but we are only staying a couple days.”

“What?” I was surprised; they normally stayed a couple weeks. “Why is that?”

“Mom and dad want to come back here to visit with the boys.”

“Anna,” Jordan hissed.

“That’s great,” I smiled at John. “I sure hope I get a chance to visit with them, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“I know,” John told me that his parent’s had been asking how I’ve been doing. “They are looking forward to seeing you too.”

Finally I turned to Jordan’s mom; I wanted to know all about the look she gave me and give Jordan the perfect chance to tell his family. “Harriet can I ask you something?”

“Sure Anna,” she smiled at me. “What’s on your mind?”

“Well,” I frowned. “I was curious about the look you gave me when you answered the door.” I paused. “Were you upset to see me?”

Harriet looked across the table to John and then to her boys before she looked at me. “I wasn’t expecting you,” she told me. “When I told Jordan about dinner, he told me he would be bringing someone and I had assumed that he meant a girl.”

“But I’m a girl,” I said a little more defensively than I had planned.

“I know you are dear,” Harriet laughed. “I meant I thought Jordan was bringing a date.”

Finally, I glanced at Jordan; it was the perfect time for him to tell them.

But he didn’t.

“Excuse us,” Jordan grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my chair. He ignored me demands that he let me go as he stomped out of the dining room, not stopping until we were in the living room.

“What are you doing? I was talking in there!”

“I know!” He snapped. “And you did it while ignoring me too.”

“If you don’t like it, tell them!”

“I’ll tell them when I’m damn good and ready Anna!”

“And when will that be Jordan?” I sighed, shook my head. “I’m dying here! I want to touch you, I want to kiss you and the longer it takes you to tell them, the more frustrated I’m becoming! I can’t take it too much longer!”

“Babe,” he rubbed his hand over my arm. “Just a little while longer and you’ll be able to do whatever you like with me. I promise.”

“Fine,” I turned away from him. “Do this your way.”

“Don’t be mad,” he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “You know I want everyone to know about us Anna,” he spoke against my ear. “I want nothing more than to be with you in public.”

“Just tell them,” I said simply. “Tell them and we can be a real couple.”

With more reassurance that he would tell them, we made our way back to the dining room where I did my best to ignore all the curious looks from his family.

When it came time for dessert, I volunteered to head into the kitchen to retrieve the pies and ice cream just so I wouldn’t have to sit next to Jordan any longer. I was moments away from pushing all the dishes off the table and throwing him on it!

After returning from the kitchen a second time with bowls and spoons, I reached for the ice cream tub to remove the lid.

“Here,” Jordan stood up. “Let me get that for you.”

“It’s ok,” I started to protest but he removed my hands from the 4lt tub and insisted that he had it.

“Who wants -?” Jordan had removed the lid, placed it on the table and them turned to me, pulling me into his arms. “…ice cream…” I whispered as he lowered his head and gently kissed my lips.