Has Enough Time Passed?

Harriet rambled on and on as I sat with her in Jordan’s living room that morning. There was a moment or two when I was almost wished that John was still being a jerk to Jordan so that I could be in the kitchen with him. I loved it when I had a chance to be that close to him, there was nothing like spending little moments at his side. I loved being with him, whatever he was doing – whether it was standing in the garage, handing him tools whenever he asked or in the kitchen with him as he cooking up something delicious or even sitting on the couch in his arms, just relaxing, while watching a movie. I was so comfortable with him; it seemed that there was nothing outside of the world that we created when we were together. It was perfect.

“So I told John that it would be great having Mike and Eric in town now – it’s been way too long since all my boys were home.”

“Mmhmm,” I nodded but I wasn’t really listening to Harriet. The low voices coming from the kitchen were taunting me; I wanted to know what was going on in there. I wanted to know if this was for real. “Excuse me,” I blurted out as I jumped up.

I left Harriet in a sputter on the couch while I went into the kitchen. “Hey sexy,” I walked up to Jordan and wrapped my arms around his waist. I took a deep breath as I buried my face in the back of his shirt. I love you. My heart soared as I thought those words; I did love him – very much.

“Hey Babe,” his hand closed over mine. “I thought you were hanging out with mom?”

“Yeah,” I sighed and let him go as I noticed his dad trying to pretend he wasn’t watching us. When Jordan turned towards me, I flashed him a smile. “I just wanted to see how breakfast is coming – I’m hungry!” I rubbed my belly for added conviction.

“You are always hungry,” he chuckled as he reached out and placed his hands on my belly. “I can feel the growling!”

“Oh shush!” I slapped playfully at his hands. “You can’t feel anything.”

“No?” He raised a brow. “I can feel –” Jordan stopped short as Jenna’s voice came over the baby monitor resting on top o the fridge.

“I’ll get her!” I spun around and took off for her room.

“The hell you will!” Jordan called out after me before he turned to his dad and told him he’d be back. “Get back here woman!”

“Don’t call me ‘woman’!” I called back at him as I came to a stop outside Jenna’s door.

Jordan came skidding to a stop just in front of me. Before I could move, he wrapped his strong arms around me and pulled me to him. “I’ll call you whatever I like,” he growled against my neck. “You’re my wench.”

“Wench!?!” I stared up at him in shock. “I’m not a wench!”

His deep chuckle vibrated against my neck as he pressed his face back there again. “But you don’t deny being mine.”

“Of course not,” I replied immediately. “How can I deny what I know in my heart?”

“Your heart.” He pulled back and I turned my face upwards until our eyes met. I bit my lip as his eyes darkened. “Would you –” his finger travelled down over my chest and stopped over my heart. “Tattoo my name here?”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Because…”

“Ok,” I laughed. He raised a brow. “As soon as you get a tattoo that says, ‘Property of Anna Christenson. No trespassing. All trespassers will be shot on site.’”

He stuck out his bottom lip as he slipped his arms around me again. He stared up at the ceiling, not saying a word; he was thinking. “Ok,” he said finally. “I’ll do it.” Slipping on hand down between us, he cupped himself. “There should be enough room to tattoo that a couple times.”

“Ha ha!” I rolled my eyes. He laughed. “Come on you freak,” I turned to push Jenna’s door open. “There’s a little girl in here who wants out of her wooden prison cell.”

Even though I wanted to be the one to go to Jenna and get her out, I was able to control myself long enough to let Jordan pass in front of me and make his way over there.

“Good morning Sleepyhead!” He exclaimed happily as he bent over the railing to pick her up. “How is Daddy’s little –” his nose crinkled. “Ewwww, what did you do?” He held her out at arm’s length. “Did you poop in your diaper Jenna?”

Jenna stared at him for a moment and then turned to me with a sly smile on her face.

“Oh no,” Jordan chuckled. “I know Anna didn’t poop in your diaper, Stinky Bum!”

Pressing her fist against her mouth, Jenna giggled at the grossed out faces Jordan made as he walked over to her change table. While he started to change her, I slid over to where they were and leaned against the edge of the table. I got a chuckle or two out of the faces he was making and the running commentary on how stinky Jenna’s bum was.

“Remind me not to feed her anything green,” he gagged at one point when he pulled the dirty diaper down over her bum and got a load of what she was packing around. Leaning down, he kissed Jenna’s forehead. “Daddy didn’t need any stinky presents J-Roll. You gave me plenty last weekend!”

She just thought he was the funniest thing going. The entire time he was changing her, she giggled like her life depended on it. I couldn’t help but think that Jordan was a fun dad. This led me to wonder if he could be a serious dad when the situation required.

Of course he could, I thought. Just because he doesn’t like being serious, doesn’t mean that he can’t be. There had been plenty of times that he was required to be serious and he did it well.

Thinking about the kind of father Jordan was led me to wonder if he would be the father of my children. I found that the most I thought about it, the more I really wanted it to happen. I started to wish that we were alone and I was able to talk him into crawling back into bed.

“Anna?” Jordan’s voice was full of concern as he gave me a gentle shake. When I gave him a questioning look, he told me that he had asked a couple times if I was going to come with them to the living room. “Are you ok Babe?”

“Yes,” I smiled, falling into step next to him. “I was just thinking about how much I love you.”

“Really?” He grinned before continuing teasingly. “I suppose I love you too.”

The rest of our visit with his parent’s went really well. While Jordan and John finished breakfast, Jenna and Harriet played with Jenna’s toys on the couch. When we all sat down to eat, John insisted that Jenna sit by him and he proceeded to feed her before he even touched a forkful from his own plate.

Just before his parent’s were about to leave, Jordan decided to tell them how much it meant to him that they came by and visited.

“You say it like it has never happened before,” John commented.

“Well,” Jordan glanced at me. “It hasn’t.”

“Yes it has,” John argued. “I’m pretty damn certain that your mother and I have been over here on more than one occasion to visit you.”

“Then I must not have been home at the time,” Jordan muttered.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Jordan groaned. “Nothing dad, just forget it.”

“No,” John took a step closer to Jordy. “If you got something to say to me son, then you damn well better spit it out.”

I could tell he really wanted too but at the same time he didn’t.

But in the end, he did.

“As far as you’ve been concerned, dad, I’ve been nothing but a disappointment. You’ve never come over to visit me and you barely let mom come see me.” Jordan crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his chin. “I know damn well if I wasn’t dating Anna, I wouldn’t have spent the morning with you today.”

“That’s not true,” John snapped. “Coming over this morning had nothing to do with Anna!”

“Bullshit!” Jordan bit out. “You never had time for me before. Never!”

“Jordan that’s not true,” his mom cut in.

“No, no,” John waved her off. “Let the boy think whatever he wants Harriet.” John turned to go. “Come on, let go.”

Jordan wasn’t done. “Why didn’t you ever love me dad?”

John stopped.

“You told Anna that bullshit story about blaming me for Nick almost drowning but that was over 20 years ago dad! Why the hell don’t you care about me?” Jordan reached out and spun his dad around. “Why did you hate me? What did I do?”

“I don’t hate you Jordan.”

“Bullshit!”

“I don’t!” You could see that John was becoming more and more frustrated like Jordan was. I wanted to tell Jordan to just leave it but Harriet caught my eye and shook her head. She wanted me to leave it alone and let them do this.

“You do! You’ve always hated me and I don’t know –”

“You never needed me, you son of a bitch!” John yelled at him before spinning around and stomping out the door.

Silence settled over Jordan’s house as the front door slammed shut. I slowly turned to look at Jordan and found him staring at the spot his dad just stood; he was utterly confused.