Chapter Eleven
Raising a tentative hand, Riordan leaned toward the monstrosity cautiously, as if it were hot to the touch. He had climbed up canyons with his bare hands, thrown grappling hooks over building ledges, and spelunked into caverns a half-mile into the earth. He had never ever been to an indoor rock wall with a lavender façade and rainbow hand/foot holds. What had happened to his friend Michael? The man had lost his mind. He gazed up to the top of the wall face and at the peak stood Michael, tossing down lines.
“Seriously, Sin, was the cotton-candy rock wall necessary? I’m ashamed to even be touching this.”
Michael tossed down two harnesses, yelling all the while. “Audra wants to build upper body strength after the baby is born. I’m putting an addition on the house anyway, so what’s a few extra rooms? A gym here, a shower there? I figured it was a fun way to work out together, and the kids can use it as they get older when we are here in DC. Everything I do is about the future, man, the next generation.”
Riordan hooked his safety line to his harness, talking to himself. “Some couples invest in college funds—my best friend invests in the Barbie version of Mt. Fuji. Is my future niece or nephew climbing Everest in the next few years? Who does that…? Oh, yeah, Mr. and Mrs. Make-up-for-Lost-Time. Can we say overkill? Are you gonna build the kid a college in the backyard too? This could never be Jordan and I...”
Then Riordan paused for a moment, dropping down to his haunches, his shoulders hunched. His chest hurt all the time, and he felt so fucking empty at the thought of his lady carrying her burdens alone.
Who was he kidding? If she said build a tree house under the Pacific and she was heavy with his child, he’d damn well learn to scuba dive. After reading the police records, counseling notes, and hospital records that had sent Jordan’s step-father to jail for domestic violence and the autopsy records that described Jordan’s mother’s advanced cirrhosis and liver failure, he finally understood the level of pain she carried.
“What?” Michael yelled down. “Hold on...lowering.” He easily lowered himself from the faux mountain peak, landing next to Riordan at the bottom. “What were you saying?”
“Oh, I just said that seems like a great way to bond as a family.”
“Exactly!” Michael exclaimed. “I never thought you’d understand. There’s only one reason you would be thinking about building families… Jordan’s got you all tied up in knots, huh? You really should put both of you out of your misery and go to her. Now that you know her past, are you going to let her work it out on her own? “
“No. Yes... I don’t even know where to start, asshole. Just climb the damn ice-cream mountain!”
***
The dressing area of Michael and Audra’s home gym contained four full-size lockers, two showers, two toilets, a three-way mirror, a steam shower, a sauna, and two massage tables. Jordan knew Audra had grown up comfortably, but due to Sinchester Securities’ success Michael was able to cater to Audra’s every desire. He’d come a long way from cleaning Audra’s father’s pool on Cape Cod. Jordan respected that type of determination and will to succeed. It was inspiring, she thought, as she turned this way and that, trying to find an attractive way to stand wearing spandex workout pants, two sports bras, and a T-shirt. She sucked in her stomach and held her breath, her face pursed in concentration.
“If you strain any harder you’ll get hemorrhoids,” teased Audra, walking past her friend.
“Oh, hush! You can blame your ‘extra’ on baby weight. What’s my excuse? Besides, you’re just here to watch me make a fool of myself. You’re not gonna do anything besides walk the track, Mama Bear,” Jordan quipped.
“You never had an issue with your ‘extra’ before, Jay. You’re just scared of seeing him again after running like Captain Cowardice. You’ve been avoiding him for two weeks. You’ve got me over here planning a home-gym ambush because you can’t just pick up a phone and call him? I’m just telling him you’re here—this is childish.”
Jordan caught her friend’s arm, her eyes pleading. “Don’t, please, Audie. It’s awkward enough as it is. He and I have made this monumental leap from enemies to lovers, and I’m so upside down that I decided to go back to Doc AB to see if I can get my act together. I was hoping to see him today and possibly ask him to help.”
Audra’s teasing eyes softened in concern. “They’ve come back? The terrors? You never told me that part.”
“Like a raging bout of herpes, my friend.” Jordan sighed, her expression resigned. “Doc AB says she wants to do another sleep study where I pick a partner of my choice and have that person help me confront my demons. I want that person to be Riordan.”
“Well, that’s a step in the right direction, right there, sweetie,” said Audra, pulling Jordan in for a hug. “You trust him enough to let him catch you when you fall. I hope this go-around sticks, Jay. I love you and just want you to be at peace enough to receive your blessings, wherever they may be. By the way, can you never let ‘raging bout of herpes’ come out of your mouth again? That was just nasty.”
Jordan smiled at her college friend, turned back toward the three-way mirror, and began to dance a cha-cha while chanting, “Herpes, herpes, her-pees… Cha cha, cha cha, cha, cha.”
***
The last thing Riordan expected to see was Jordan walking out of the women’s locker room as he scaled the face of the gym’s rock wall. Surprised, he lost his grip and fell back a few feet before the safety line drew taut, causing him to lurch forward into the face of the wall with a grunt.
“Lowering!” he announced as he descended to the floor.
Unhooking his harness, he stalked over to Jordan, his back stiff and his muscles taut. He was furious that she had let two weeks go by without knowing he wanted to be there for her, two weeks without his reassurance that she was safe, two weeks alone.
As he got closer to her, he opened his arms wide and pulled her stiff body into his.
“Don’t ever run from me again, Jordan, no matter what? Do you hear me?” He grasped her shoulders and pulled back, searching her face for answers. Why would she go into hiding when they were on the verge of starting something beautiful? “I need you, Lovely Viper, and you needed me. Why would you go?”
Jordan raised her hand to his cheek, and Riordan watched unchecked tears begin to fall from her eyes. “What good am I to you, Riordan? I’m broken and moody, emotional, and sometimes downright crazy? You deserve better, and I couldn’t stand to watch you leave once you realized it.”
Riordan pulled her into a hug again and held tightly until her posture became pliant and her curves were flush with the hard angles of his body.
“How many times do I have to tell you, I am not leaving, baby?” he said in her ear as he ran his thumb over her cheeks, catching her tears. “What can I do to prove that to you?”
Jordan’s eyes lit up and she sniffled loudly and chuckled.
“Well, it’s funny you should ask that…I have this doctor…”
He took her hand in his they exited out of the side door to the adjacent track, next to the tennis courts. Heads together, they walked into the sunlight, discussing how to confront demons, how to stop running scared, and who thought the cartoon princess rock wall was a good idea.
***
Michael dropped to the gym floor and walked over to Audra.
“Ok, what did I miss?”
“Oh, nothing, handsome. Jordan’s finally sharing with Riordan some things that make her tick the way she does. They will be all the stronger for it.”
“Good, it’s about time she let him support her and he had someone else to love besides himself. Besides, night terrors and PTSD are nothing to play with. I can’t wait to see how this plays out,” he said, rubbing her lower back absently, staring at the closing gym door.
“They’ve had eyes for each other for months, sweetheart. You know this will play out well… Wait… How do you know about Jordan’s terrors and PTSD? I would never share that secret. That’s her story to tell.” Audra turned slowly in Michael’s arms and ran her fingers up his biceps and around his shoulders. Smiling sweetly, she reached up and whispered into his ear gently. “Have you been checking up on people again, my love?”
Michael ran his hands over her lower back, cupping her plush rear in his hands.
“Just a little, love, to make sure you were safe…” He leaned back and kissed her nose.
“Oh, I see,” she said, “because somehow since we’ve been together my best friend of fifteen years may decide to…what? Put a hit out on me, kidnap me?”
The dulcet tone of her voice steadily rose until anger pulsed around her like a solar flare. “Did you do one for David, too? My sweet, lovely David?”
Michael shrugged. He wasn’t going to apologize for doing something so simple to assure the safety of his family. He ran a security firm, for God’s sake.
“Michael Sinchester, you will not hear one word from me until you apologize to my friends and destroy those files. Do you hear me? We get married in a
week
! You fix this!” Audra’s voice boomed from the excellent acoustics in the gym as she stormed toward the exit.Michael sighed heavily, scooped up a nearby basketball, and lazily dribbled it toward the hoop. He heard the shattering of glass in the distance as Audra let her anger out on some innocent knick-knack.
“Damn, more shrapnel…,” he said to himself tiredly, throwing a perfectly executed free throw.
Swish
.