The moment Jordan opened the front door, Danny was assaulted with music and voices and laughter. Danny hesitated before following her in. The activity seemed to be at the rear of the house, so when Jordan walked back to help in the kitchen, he ducked into the comparative quiet of the living room.
Similar to his parents’ house, the furniture and décor were formal and yet Danny had an immediate sense that this living room was really lived in. The seat cushions all bore the indentations of the people who’d settled into them. Moisture rings showed against the dark wood of the coffee table. A tiny handprint marred the creamy paint on one wall. And everywhere he saw photographs proudly displayed.
His parents had a specially commissioned oil self-portrait over the Georgian fireplace mantel. They also had stiff photographs of David and him documenting their achievements in lengthy increments. He could still remember the way the starched collar itched his neck. As Danny looked at the candid group pictures of the Gregorys, his heart wrenched.
This picture showed the family outside of Radio City Music Hall in New York. That one portrayed them waving from the edge of the Grand Canyon. Here was a grinning, muddy bunch who’d just won a game of tug-of-war. There was a sodden, laughing group with tangled fishing rods and a tiny lake trout.
Feeling his throat close up, Danny had to acknowledge his jealousy. The joy of the moment and the pleasure of being together was evident on every face in every picture… Except one. His brows furrowed as he realized Jordan was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you ready to join the fray? Everyone is wondering where you are.”
He turned to see her standing just behind him. “Where are the pictures of you? You’re not in any of these.”
She patted the 35mm Nikon hanging from her neck. “I’m the official event photographer. That means I have to be behind the camera.”
Some instinct told him it was a responsibility she’d volunteered for, as opposed to being asked. “There must be some pictures of you as a kid?”
Jordan shook her head and affected a smile. “Nope. I got rid of all the ones I could find.”
“You’re telling me your parents don’t have one single, solitary photograph of you?”
She pursed her lips and swept an arm across the room toward the baby grand piano. “They hide them over there.”
Danny walked over to the Steinway to look at the grouping of silver frames. Far from being relegated to the corner, it looked more like a showcase. Her parents had displayed Jordan’s achievements in a place of honor. The frames sat on a white linen cloth, arranged by height and angled so they could all be easily viewed.
Jordan’s expression in her younger pictures was poignant. She looked ill at ease, pudgy and miserable among her slender and attractive siblings, as she received various awards. Even in her high-school-graduation photo she refused to smile. Danny leaned closer to see the gold tassel on her cap and the blue National Honor Society scarf around her neck. Her parents stood on either side of her, grinning happily and obviously proud.
“I like this picture the best.” He indicated a group shot of high-school-aged kids in bright stage costumes. He recognized the play as John Waters’s
Hairspray,
a musical about a heavyset girl who wants to be on a 1962 television dance program. And there was Jordan, front and center and actually grinning, dressed as Tracy Turnblad, the lead character.
“That was the senior-year production.” She smiled softly, as if momentarily lost in good memories, then pointed to a different photo. “
This one
is my favorite.”
Danny shifted his attention to a picture of her law-school graduation. She’d slimmed down a lot by the time this photo was taken. Her smile was beaming, her hair was swept up into some kind of braid and her makeup was flawless. She looked like an advertisement in a glossy university brochure.
Jordan turned away from the photographs. “If you’ve had enough of memory lane, I’ll introduce you now.”
Danny braced himself and followed her along the hallway deeper into the house. As with most parties, everybody gravitated toward the kitchen. This one opened onto a family room, so there had to be fifteen people positioned at the sink or stove or counter or just standing around.
“Everyone, this is David Navarro. David, you already know my mother and my aunt Celeste. The lady peeling potatoes is Aunt Geneva and the lady chopping celery is Aunt Meredith. Over here is Aunt Linda making her famous coleslaw, Aunt Joanne with the secret baked beans recipe and my cousins Whitney, Sarah and Carrie…”
Danny nodded in greeting but gave up trying to remember all of the names and hoped there wouldn’t be a test later. Jordan had told him that her mother’s side of the family would be here today too, however, he hadn’t realized how big the Gregory-Maxwell clan was. Just as panic began to set in, someone pushed an ice-cold beer bottle into his hand.
“Thanks,” he said gratefully to the only other man in the room. The guy was his height, though he had a slighter build, and he wore a sympathetic smile as he offered to shake hands.
“Hi, I’m Mason. These women can be overwhelming the first time. They’ll give you the third degree, because they’re not happy until they know who your first-grade teacher was, but you’ll survive, I promise.”
Jordan gave Mason a playful slap on the arm. “I’m going to tell my sister you said that.”
“Tell me what?”
At the sound of a husky female voice, Danny glanced behind him and froze in momentary shock. The classically beautiful face and sexy body of the woman next to Mason graced several posters in the locker room at the fire station. He just stared as he tried to locate what was left of his brain cells.
Mason chuckled knowingly. “Close your mouth, dude. She’s already spoken for.”
“Everyone reacts that way to meeting Camryn.”
Jordan’s quiet, detached statement captured his attention. In her expression, Danny saw both love and resentment before her lashes swept down to shield her eyes. His mind instantly recalled the family photos and his heart broke for the girl she’d once been. He slipped his arm around her waist and drew her close, placing a gentle kiss on Jordan’s temple.
“I reacted that same way when I first saw
you.
”
Camryn grinned at him. “Welcome to the family, David.”
Danny smiled and took a swallow of his beer as he turned the chicken breasts over on the gas grill. Jordan’s father and Uncle Matt had been arguing over who made the better barbecue sauce for almost twenty minutes now. They’d been so focused on the debate that he had taken over the cooking so the spareribs and hamburgers didn’t burn to ash.
“Next you’re going to tell me you use maple syrup instead of brown sugar.”
“Humph. Only amateurs use maple syrup, Jackson. Us professionals use molasses and plenty of onion powder.”
Jordan’s father sputtered. “Powder! You can’t substitute powder for freshly chopped onions! I can’t talk to you.” He turned and clapped a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “You’re doing an excellent job there, boy. Anybody would think you’d cooked for this mob before.”
Danny chuckled. “I’ve had to feed fifteen to twenty hungry firefighters after a three-alarm blaze. It’s not so different.”
Jackson Gregory shot him an odd look. “When did you have time for that, what with your workload at the law firm?”
Damn. Realizing he’d screwed up, he bought himself a minute by transferring the grilled hot dogs onto a platter. “I used to volunteer at my local fire station.”
Jordan’s father continued to study him, then finally smiled and changed the subject. Danny silently released the breath he’d been holding. He hadn’t lied—he had volunteered before entering the Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute—but he hadn’t been completely honest, either. With an unexpected bitterness, he resigned himself to half-truths for the next seven days.
The ball popped out from under his arm and was quickly snatched up by her eight-year-old nephew Lukas, who sprinted in the opposite direction. No one on Danny’s team bothered to stop him—they were too busy roughhousing on the grass.
Camryn reached over to squeeze her hand. “He’s a great guy. I’m really happy for you.”
It was nice to have someone for a change, someone her family obviously adored. It would be even nicer if it were real. A dark void of loneliness opened within her, but Jordan simply smiled. “Thank you.”
Danny finally begged out of the football game, claiming age and exhaustion and beer deprivation, until the kids let him up. He got to his feet, looking grass-stained and utterly gorgeous, and headed toward the patio. Instead of coming over to her, though, he went to sit in on her grandparents’ card game.
Camryn laughed as Grandma Emma and Grandma Margaret argued over who got to be Danny’s bridge partner. “This one is definitely a keeper, Jo-Jo.”
Sure he is. For seven more days.
Later that night, Jordan snuggled into the leather front seat of the Jeep as Danny drove north on I-97 back to Baltimore. She felt tired, both physically and emotionally. Maintaining a false impression required a lot of mental energy. “I can’t believe it’s after nine o’clock already.”
“Get-togethers with my family are always quiet, structured and mercifully short.”
She shifted her gaze out the side window, inexplicably hurt. “I’m sorry you had to put up with—”
“No, what I meant was that I liked being with your family a lot better than my own. David and I both look on those visits as an obligation instead of a pleasure.”
“Well, they sure seemed to like you, too. Keisha must have spent most of the day trying to get you to notice her.” She grimaced, remembering her cousin’s transparent attempts at flirtation.
“She was trying too hard. I prefer women who don’t feel the need to advertise.” Danny glanced over with a smile and reached for her hand. “Other than having to avoid Keisha, it’s been a great day.”
The warmth of his touch sent a wave of longing coursing through her body. This moment felt so comfortable, so relaxed, so right. They could be any normal couple leaving a family event.
“Yes, it was a nice day, wasn’t it?” One based entirely on her lies and fallacies.
“It’s easy to see why your grandparents lasted fifty years. I swear your Grandpa Charles patted Grandma Emma on the butt when he thought no one was looking.”
Jordan laughed. “I’m sure he did. I caught them smooching like teenagers in the study. Luckily I found them just before my brother Reece walked in. He would have teased them for the rest of the day.”
“I liked your brothers, too. Despite Eric trying to decapitate me with the volleyball. You’ve got a terrific family, Jordan.”
“Thank you for being nice to them. I’d say today was a success. Everybody believed you were David.”
She felt the slightest tension in his hand before he slid his fingers away. In the silence that followed, he abruptly flicked the turn signal and changed lanes. He cleared his throat before he finally replied in an animated voice.
“Good. That’s what we wanted.”
Yep. That’s what they wanted. That’s
all
they wanted. And the rest was just physical. How else could she explain what she was feeling? Danny had helped her awaken her sensual side. He’d complimented and flirted with her all day, making her feel pretty and desirable. She wasn’t ready for that to end. But she wasn’t sure how to ask to be with him. Then again, she didn’t have to ask. Their agreement could work both ways.
“You know what I want now?”
“What’s that?”
Jordan quietly inhaled and tentatively placed her fingers on his denim-clad thigh. “The
anytime
we didn’t have this morning.”