At the same time, though, she suspected Jordan wouldn’t simply go away. Whether he genuinely wanted to know if he had a daughter or was after something else, she didn’t know, but if Jordan had reached out to them once, he’d most likely do it again.
So although it’d gone against what she wanted, Taylor contacted him Wednesday. Considering the subject of the call and the fact Jordan knew her sister, she’d prepared herself for an unpleasant conversation. While it’d been uncomfortable and awkward, it’d gone far better than she’d expected. After he’d more or less reiterated the details he gave to Mom, Jordan requested a meeting with both her and Reese. When she’d refused to bring Reese along, he hadn’t pushed the issue. In fact, he’d said he understood her desire to protect Reese. He’d also agreed to her predetermined location and time for their meeting, something she and Curt discussed in great detail before he left on Tuesday night. On the off chance the man didn’t know where they lived, neither of them wanted to invite him into her mom’s house. The subject matter, though, made them both leery about having the meeting in a coffee shop or a restaurant. In the end, Curt offered the use of his house. Although not ideal, it would give them the privacy she wanted and didn’t potentially give Jordan additional information about Reese.
“I’ll need to refinish the floor if you don’t sit down,” Curt said Saturday afternoon.
Like he could talk. He’d been drumming his fingers against the table for the last ten minutes. “If it needs to be done, I’ll help you.” She pulled out the chair next to him and sat. She’d invited Jordan over for one o’clock. It was five minutes until then now. If she’d been in Jordan’s position, she would’ve already arrived.
“She gets that habit from her dad,” Priscilla explained.
In the beginning, Taylor had planned for only her and Curt to meet with Jordan. After thinking about it, though, it seemed right to include Mom this afternoon.
“Reese played well this morning,” Curt said, clearly in an attempt to distract her.
Reese’s game had been at ten o’clock today. Like Coach Bruno told her, she’d played keeper first. She hadn’t let in a single goal. In the second half of the game, she’d scored one goal, and Hazel had scored the team’s other one.
Taylor nodded and rechecked her watch.
“I bet she gave my mom a play-by-play recap of the game in the car,” he continued.
Curt’s mom had met them at the house after the game and picked Reese up for the rest of the day. Reese hadn’t complained about the unexpected outing with Judith. She loved spending time with Curt’s mom as much as she did with her grandmother. And if anyone ever saw the two of them together, they’d assume they were a grandmother and granddaughter spending the day together. She’d noticed Curt’s mom treated Erin, Leah’s stepdaughter, the same way.
“I told Mom not to spoil Reese too much today,” Curt said.
Taking a page out of Curt’s book, Taylor started tapping her fingertips against the table. “And like Judith always does, she’ll ignore you.” The word “overboard” didn’t exist in Judith’s vocabulary.
“Probably, but everyone deserves to get spoiled sometimes.”
No sooner did he finish speaking than the doorbell rang. Although she’d been pacing moments ago, Taylor now found her butt glued to the chair. Perhaps everyone else suffered from the same ailment because no one moved a muscle.
“I’ll get it.” The first to move, Curt pushed his chair back and stood.
Curt’s voice broke whatever hold the chair had on her butt, and she stood too. “I should be with you. Mom, maybe you should stay here.”
Mom nodded as she took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
Based on her sister’s past and the type of friends she’d spent time with, Taylor expected to see someone who looked like Brad, Eliza’s kidnapping partner last year. The man standing on Curt’s front step was about as different from what she expected as one could get. Dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket, Jordan had short, light brown hair and looked as if he took good care of himself.
Why would you ever get involved with my sister? “Jordan?” Taylor asked rather than assume, because for all she knew, the man in front of her wanted to sell them something. After all, a few weeks earlier, a salesman had stopped by their house offering to give them a free estimate on all new windows.
Nodding, the man extended his hand, and again she wondered about how he met Eliza and why he’d ever spent time with her. “It’s nice to meet you,” Jordan said.
“Please come in.” She took several steps back so that he could enter. “Jordan, this is my fiancé, Curt.”
“I’ve seen pictures of you together.” As he’d done with her, Jordan shook Curt’s hand.
Okay, time to get this over with. As if reading her mind, Curt squeezed her hand. “We’ll be more comfortable in the kitchen,” she said.
They hadn’t discussed what type of man Jordan might be, but the way Mom’s eyes grew wide when she saw Jordan walk in the room told Taylor their assumptions had been similar.
“Jordan, this is my mother, Priscilla. I thought she should be here today too.”
Before sitting down, Jordan pulled an envelope from his back pocket and removed his jacket, revealing a wrinkle-free, dark green button-down shirt. “I brought the letter Eliza sent me. I thought you might like to see it. Please feel free to read it.”
Without hesitation, Taylor accepted the envelope and pulled out the letter. She recognized Eliza’s barely legible handwriting right away. It had always been so poor that it’d been common for teachers to make her redo assignments before they even tried to grade them in school.
Eliza had kept the letter short. In it, she didn’t ask how Jordan had been or what he’d been up to. Instead, Eliza explained she’d had a baby nine years ago, and she believed he might be her daughter’s father. She also mentioned that she’d given up custody to Taylor when Reese was about a year old and then provided him with Taylor and Priscilla’s home phone number. Eliza gave no explanation as to why she’d waited so long to reach out or wh
y she felt the need to do so now. Eliza did, however, ask him to write back and let her know if he turned out to be Reese’s father.