And there would remain this huge empty space inside her, a space meant to be filled by all the love she had to share with Jordan’s children.
* * *
Jordan heard Dani’s shouts long before he spotted her. She was racing down the lane as fast as her churning little legs could carry her. He stooped down and held out his arms. She ran into them and flung her arms around his neck. Why hadn’t he ever guessed how being a parent would make him feel?
“I was sleeping when you came to get me last night and I never, ever, woke up until this morning,” she said.
“I noticed,” he said, loving the way she smelled of bubble bath, loving even more the fierce protectiveness she aroused in him.
“Did you miss me?” she demanded.
“Every single minute,” he confirmed. “But I’ll bet you didn’t miss me and your mom at all.”
“Sure I did. I even drew you a picture. Want to see it?”
“Of course, I want to see it,” he said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that had been folded and refolded into a small, rumpled square. Jordan took it and spread it open. Tears sprang to his eyes as he saw what she’d depicted.
There, drawn with the brightest crayons in the box, were Kelly and Dani, standing in front of a lopsided house that was recognizable as this one. He was standing between them. In case the drawing itself wasn’t clear, she had labeled each of them in crooked letters—Mommy, Dani and Daddy. A fat black cat—or something that vaguely resembled one—was at their feet. A striped cat was clutched in Dani’s arms. Kelly was also holding something.
“What’s that?” he asked, though he had a pretty good idea.
“That’s my baby sister,” she said. “See the pink blanket? That’s how you know it’s a girl.”
Jordan nodded solemnly, since he couldn’t seem to squeeze a word past the lump lodged in his throat. Across the top Dani had written in large, tilting letters, My Family.
“Did you show this to your mom?”
“Not yet. I made it for you. Will you hang it in your office?”
“You bet I will,” he promised.
“Are we going to have a baby?” Dani asked worriedly. “I really, really want a sister.”
Jordan saw an opportunity to probe this pint-size genius’s mind for an argument he could offer Kelly on the same topic. “Why?”
“So we can play with our doll’s together,” she said at once. “I tried with Angela, but she’s pretty little. She couldn’t even hold the doll.”
“Babies generally start out pretty little,” he mused.
“Couldn’t you and mommy have a big one?”
He chuckled. “I don’t think it works that way. So, tell me why else you want a sister?”
Dani’s face scrunched up as she gave serious thought to the question. “So we can love her to pieces. Mommy always says she loves me to pieces.” She looked up at him. “I think she loves you to pieces, too.”
An interesting tidbit of news, Jordan thought. “She does? What makes you think so?” he asked, pushing aside how pitiful it was to be pumping a five-year-old for information on his own wife.
Dani gave him a disgusted look. “Because she married you, silly.”
Realistically, Jordan supposed that was one explanation for Kelly’s decision, even if she’d never flat-out said it. His spirits rose a fraction. “Anything else?”
“She thinks you’re a saint.”
Jordan stared. “A saint? What makes you think that?”
“`Cause she always said the only way she’d ever get married again was if a saint came along. And we learned in Sunday school that you should love saints, right?”
He found the logic a little convoluted, but essentially correct. It was certainly a topic worth discussing with his wife.
“Jordan?”
“Yes, munchkin?” he said distractedly, his thoughts already leaping ahead to the conversation he would have with Kelly the instant he got back to the house.
“I been thinking.”
“Oh?”
“I think maybe I should call you Daddy,” she said, gazing at him soberly. “What do you think?”
He gave her a fierce hug. “I think there’s nothing that would make me any happier.”
“Really?”
“Really, really,” he confirmed. He took her hand. “Why don’t we go back to the house and I’ll show you what I brought for you?”
“You brought me a present?” Dani asked, looking a little too innocent.
“I did, indeed,” he said. And in another nine months or so, he intended to see that another of her dreams came true. She would have that baby sister—or a brother, if nature got the order mixed up.
As they reached his car he paused and opened the trunk, removing a huge box that had taken up every square inch of room. He watched in delight as Dani saw the picture on the side and a grin spread across her face.
“It’s a baby buggy,” she said. “Hurry, Daddy. Open it up.”
The minute he had the small pink carriage out of the box, Dani grabbed the handle and began propelling it straight toward the barn. Jordan stared after her in bemusement.
“Where are you going?” he shouted.
“To get Francie and the kittens. I’m going to take them for a ride.”
“It’s supposed to be for your dolls.”
“But I know that Francie really, really wants to go for a ride.”
Jordan had his doubts, but he let her go. He had more important things to settle.
He found Kelly inside doing laundry. She’d changed to a pair of incredibly provocative shorts and a halter top. The dryer had made the laundry room steamy. Her skin glistened with a sheen of dampness. With all of the noise from the washer and dryer, she didn’t hear him approaching. He slipped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and sprinkled kisses across her bare shoulders.
“Nice,” she murmured, and turned in his loose embrace to claim a real kiss.
Her body fit snugly against his. Heat shot through his veins. On any other occasion the distraction would have worked. Today, though, Jordan had something
