Sparring Partners

by Leigh Morgan

  "Reed, please, I hit him with the door. Remember? If I hadn't tripped, he wouldn't be wearing my breakfast. Give the guy a break." Jesse said.

  "Seems to me he shouldn't be standing with his eyes closed right in front of a door."

  "He's the one with the ruined clothes. This really isn't his fault. He doesn't look or smell like he's been out all night. Why are you being so hard on him? It's not like you at all."

  Jordon heard enough. The art museum needed to post a sign saying: No red-headed elven harpies with great eyes escorting yogurt throwing, overgrown teenagers allowed. Violators will be spanked by the throw-ee.

  He sent one narrow eyed searing glance toward the leprechaun from Hades, nodded toward the kid and turned and walked away without a word. What was the point? He'd had enough stress for one day. He couldn't wait to start at Sensei Schwartz's dojo. He really needed to hit something soon.

  He heard rapid footsteps behind him before a small hand gripped his arm. He let her stop him because it was the most efficient thing to do. He was not going to engage with her though. Jordon couldn't see any up-side to that conversation. He didn't turn around, he made her come around to him.

  "Jesse is right. I am sorry I acted so rudely". She said, sounding like she meant it. "I saw your thousand dollar suit, and something inside me shouted, "Warning, jerk alert"."

  Jordon couldn't decide if he should continue to be offended by her outrageousness, or laugh. The sincerity on her face as she insulted him, coupled with the twinkle in her eyes, made him smile. He had a few warning bells of his own going off inside his head, but surprisingly, his headache was gone.

  "I am sorry." she said again.

  She didn't sound like she believed herself, and the flush on her cheeks gave proof to her lie. He quirked a brow, and the flush deepened. She held his gaze though and stuck one foot out, like she was gearing up to argue the point. He waited, curious to hear what she'd come up with. She didn't apologize again. Instead, she held out her small hand and waited.

  When he didn't respond quickly enough, she demanded, "Give me your tie. If I can't get it cleaned I'll buy you another one. And another shirt."

  "You can't afford them." He said.

  Withdrawing her hand before he could shake it or disrobe into it, she cocked her head at him and smiled, sending her mop of red-gold curls bouncing. When her eyes narrowed, he knew he'd pissed her off. For some perverse reason he couldn't name, Jordon was enjoying her reaction. Since he didn't have to get back to work, and he didn't have any place he needed to be for the next month, he could afford a few more minutes in wet clothes while he watched her steam.

  "If I have to dance naked on a street corner shaking a tambourine and whistling Dixie, I'll find the cash to replace your overpriced shirt and tie." She said, sticking out her chest and batting her glorious eyes at him, hand extended again like she really expected him to turn over his tie.

  "As much as that image appeals to me, and it does, have dinner with me instead. You can dance after I feed you. Or before. " Jordon shrugged. "I could go either way." Some of the tightness he'd felt since his meeting with William eased as she stood toe to toe sparring with him.

  "I don't own any overpriced clothing."

  "Doesn't matter. Especially if you're intent on dancing naked. What you've got on now will do." Jordon shrugged, looking at her well worn concert-t-shirt. "Although I prefer Aerosmith to Alice Cooper."

  "Why?" She asked.

  "Alice Cooper's a little one dimensional for my taste."

  She waved that away. "My son just ruined your clothes. Why take me to dinner?"

  Jordon lost the smile he didn't know he was sporting until it was gone. "My apologies. I didn't see a ring. I didn't realize you were married. Don't worry about the shirt and tie. No problem." He took a step towards the exit, but she blocked him.

  "I'm not married. Not anymore."

  Jordon's shoulders relaxed and the acid in his stomach seemed to neutralize. Then he remembered the kid called her Reed. "Your son calls you by your first name?"

  She waved that away too. "Jesse's only been my son for two years. It's a long story."

  "Tell me over dinner." Jordon didn't normally have to ask twice, but this time he wanted to. "Come on. I'll bring a tambourine."

  The smile she gave him transformed a perfectly pleasant face into a beautiful one. She had the kind of fresh faced attractiveness that he knew from experience would get more beautiful every time he saw it. That kind of beauty was dangerous, it never grew old. He should have just kept walking. He didn't really have time to enjoy himself, and, he didn't need a relationship. He needed a wife.

  Jordon was about to tell her he'd forgotten a prior commitment when she pulled a card from the back pocket of her well worn jeans and slapped it into his hand.

  "Pick me up at seven." Grinning widely, she winked at him. "Wear the tie. We'll add some salsa stains for variety." Reed turned and bounced back toward her son of two years, who looked to be at least sixteen. She looked back over her shoulder at him, before pulling Jesse away. She was interested, and interesting, and she wore trouble like a neon warning sign around her neck.

  Instead of doing the smart thing, Jordon looked at the card. Reed M. Mohr - Mediation Specialist. Judgmental little thing, for a mediator. He put Reed's card in his pocket, pulled out his cell, turned it on and punched one on his speed dial. His friend and head of security, Henry Platske, answered before the first ring ended.

  "Where the hell are you?" Henry yelled into the phone. "You left B.H. without me. Not cool. Do you want me to station two of my guys with you 24/7? You're lucky you didn't get your ass kidnapped."

  Jordon pinched the bridge of his nose again. He'd forgotten all about Henry when he fled B.H.'s conference room after meeting with William. "Are you done?"

  "Stay where you are, I'm coming to you." Henry said.

  "Henry, take your bodyguard hat off for a second and just be my friend." The silence on the other end of the phone meant Henry wasn't done tracking him yet.

  "Give me a break, Henry. I need you to run a name for me. Not just the average background check, I want everything you can find. And I need it by five."

  "Shoot." Henry replied, all business.

  "Reed M. Mohr. She does mediation at this address."

  Jordon heard some clicking sounds right before Henry said, "Got her. What's so important about this woman?"

  "Don't know yet, but I want to know everything about her. Find out her ring size too. Just in case."

  CHAPTER THREE

  William Bennett brushed a lock of silver streaked dark brown hair from his lover's face as she slept, wondering just when she'd give in and marry him. He'd been asking for the past eight years, she'd been a widow for ten, surely she'd had enough time to get used to the idea. As sick as he was of all the sneaking around, he'd never give up on Lily. He'd loved her too long and too deeply to ever let her go.

  William's hand trailed into the sheets as he pulled them up farther on his chest. He liked to sleep with the windows open, enjoying the light breeze off Lake Michigan. It was cool for mid-June in Milwaukee, cooler than Omaha, where his home office was. Hopefully he'd be on a plane back there soon, just as soon as Jordon settled in here, and the Milwaukee office was running efficiently. Then he would drag Lily to the altar, kicking and screaming if he had to. William wanted to be her husband, not her secret.

  Lily opened her sleepy blue eyes, softly wrinkled at the corners, proof of how often she laughed and how quickly she smiled. She was smiling sleepily at him now. Remnants of last night's mascara still smudged the small circles under her eyes. Lily was never more beautiful to him than when she was in this gloriously tossed state, still sleepy from making love most of the night before. Her smile remained as youthful as the first time he'd seen it, when she came home in the arms of his brother, wearing his brother's ring. William loved her then. He loved her still, but, he didn't return her smile.

  "Marry me, Lily." It wasn't a question,
William was tired of asking, it was a command, albeit a gentle one.

  Lily deflected instead of answering, asking a question of her own. "What made you issue that ridiculous demand that Jordon find a wife in four days?" She didn't let him answer before rapid-firing more questions at him. "Four days, William? What were you thinking? How do you expect Jordon to find happiness in less than one week?"

  "Are you finished?"

  Lily nodded, jutting her small chin out like a petulant teenager dissatisfied with a parental decree and ready to sulk about it. Sometimes he wondered how she made it to the ripe old age of fifty-seven without ever having been spanked. William sighed heavily, putting as much feeling into the gesture as he could manage without playing the put-upon-parent. He sat up straighter so he could look at her without being tempted to kiss her silly and make love to her again until she focused on him and not her thirty-nine year old son. Since that fix would only be temporary, William did what he was most comfortable doing, he attacked the issue head-on.

  "You know as well as I do why I gave Jordon that deadline."

  Lily opened her mouth, to contradict him no doubt, but William stopped her by putting one index finger to her lips, thanking God she was too much of a lady to bite him.

  "If I'd given Jordon two months, or even two years, he would have waited until the last seventy-two hours to do anything about it. By giving him the deadline I did, I saved him the trouble of procrastinating. And, I even added an extra day onto the time table, giving him only slightly more than the amount of time he would have given himself."

  Lily didn't argue with that. She knew that when faced with something he didn't want to do, Jordon would wait until the last possible moment, and only then complete whatever it was he didn't want face earlier. He'd been that way since kindergarten, He remained that way today. Jordon called it "crunch time". William called it something else entirely, but Lily didn't need to know that. Instead of challenging William on his assessment of Jordon's reaction, Lily asked another question, one he couldn't explain without revealing more than he wanted to about himself.

  "Why does he have to marry at all? And don't give me that line of bull you tried to sell to Jordon, about Mr. Takahara specifically stating he would only accept someone 'traditional'. Someone male, married with a family, to run the alternative health care division of Takahara Inc." Lily sat back against the headboard. She stared at William through narrowed eyes. Lily hadn't raised her voice, but the death grip she had on the summer weight quilt she was entombing herself in let William know she wasn't pleased with him.

  "Takahara did say that. He also said he'd go elsewhere if B.H. couldn't meet his requirements"

  "I don't doubt it. What I do doubt, is that you couldn't talk him out of it. I know you better than that, William. Once Jordon starts thinking, instead of simply reacting to your crazy order, he'll realize it too."

  "I probably could talk Peichin Takahara out of his preference for a married man with a family to head that division, especially given the amount of cash I'm willing to part with to buy his company, if I wanted to. I don't want to. If Jordon doesn't find a wife, and Peichin likes Jay Giles, then Jay can run that division and be next in line for my seat when I decide to retire. If Jordon can't accept that, he's out."

  The coldness in William's voice, and his matter of fact attitude, must have made Lily's blood run cold, if her sudden involuntary shake and paleness were any indication. William wanted nothing more than to pull her close and whisper that everything would be all right, but the truth was, he wasn't sure Jordon would make the right choice unless pushed into it. Jordon could screw the whole thing up. There was only so much William could control with his dictate, that Jordon pick a real woman, and not someone he paid to perform the role. Jordon was going to have to find love and meaning on his own.

  Looking into Lily's fragile, much loved, face, William wanted to relent. He couldn't. He loved Jordon, and he couldn't stand by any longer and watch Lily's son sever every human connection, every chance at a family of his own, in favor of creating jobs and a better life for others. William knew that the status that came with being CEO of B.H. was cold comfort alone in bed at night. Jordon failed to truly understand that. He wanted Jordon to be one of those balanced people who worked hard and loved hard. He wanted Jordon to realize that he could make B.H. better and have a life with a wife and family of his own. As much as William wished it were so, he and Lily wouldn't be around forever.

  "I don't understand why you're being so hard-nosed about this?" The entreaty in her voice pierced William with it's sharpness, making his response sharper than he intended.

  "Because I don't want Jordon to turn out like me." There, he said it. Let Lily make of that what she will, William thought.

  "What's wrong with turning out like you?" Lily said, offering him a small, shaky smile. "I like you well enough."

  Again William didn't return her smile, and after a second, it left her lovely face. "And what if James hadn't died ten years ago? What if his heart hadn't given out? What then, Lily? Who would I be to you then?"

  She looked away and tried to get out of the bed, but she'd gotten herself so tangled in the quilt she couldn't manage it. William turned her back to him and held her at arms length, forcing her to listen.

  "I'll tell you what, Lily. You'd still be in love with and married to my brother. I'd still be hopelessly in love with you. While at least I'd still have my brother, and I wish to hell and back James was still here, I'd be alone and lonely."

  William's unshed tears stung the back of his throat. Thinking about James did that to him. He loved James, and his death damn near killed William too. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about that. Nothing except make certain his brother's son had every advantage William could give him. Even if that meant forcing Jordon to see the other half of life he was missing by burying himself in B.H. The kid was in denial, trying to protect himself from the pain of loving someone, just like William was nearly forty years ago.

  "Look at me, Lily. If I didn't have you, I would never marry." When she looked at him William steeled his eyes and his tone, willing her to understand just how much he needed to do this for Jordon.

  "I would continue buying companies, and I'd take great comfort in knowing that my business was continuing to create meaningful employment for families, but I wouldn't have one of my own. I'd go to my mistress every Wednesday and every Saturday just like I did while James was alive, and I'd die old and alone, probably at my desk."

  William squeezed Lily's arms and then let her go, knowing he may lose her, but unwilling to risk Jordon's future for his own. "I won't resign Jordon to the same fate. Not without a damn good fight anyway."

  To William's surprise, Lily didn't leave the bed, although if she had he wouldn't have stopped her. Perhaps she knew that. Lily seemed to know most everything about him despite his tendency to hide himself.

  "What makes you so sure Jordon wants a family? Maybe his desire is simply what he says it is, to run B.H. after you retire."

  Was she projecting or just playing devil's advocate? Sometimes William couldn't tell. He didn't know Lily Bennett half as well as she knew him. All he knew for sure, was that he wanted her by his side so he could spend the rest of his life figuring out the workings of her heart and mind.

  "Do you remember when Jordon asked me for a loan so he could buy a ring and find a wife?"

  "William, he was four years old."

  "And very sincere. I asked him why he wanted a wife. Do you remember?"

  "I remember." The smile on her face made William long to kiss her, but he needed to make his point first. Then he'd see if she still wanted to kiss him. He fervently hoped so since he was bound to do it anyway.

  "He told me he wanted someone to love and to snuggle with. Someone who would be his best friend forever. Remember?"

  "And the two of you went to the store and came back with a ring. That was over three decades ago. What possible relevance does it have now?" Lily sai
d, sounding slightly exasperated with his trip down memory lane.

  "That same boy married his high school sweetheart and held his dying daughter in his arms right after she was born."

  A single tear ran down Lily's face. She brushed it away, angry with the memory or with him for bringing it back up again, William wasn't quite sure which.

  "Emily wasn't Jordon's baby." Lily said.

  "He didn't know that when he married Emily's mother. He didn't know that when Emily died in his arms. He only learned it right before they buried her. Yet, Jordon spent every last cent he had on a gravestone etched with 'Bennett' in big letters right after 'Emily'. He wanted Emily. He wanted that family."

  "He was only eighteen, William. It was a long time ago."

  "Fundamental things like that don't change. Jordon's been running from getting hurt like that again since he left Jackson and came to work for me. That doesn't mean his bone deep desire for a family of his own isn't still there, branded on his soul."

  "You're playing with fire, William. Jordon may never forgive you for putting him through this."

  "Will you?"

  She touched his cheek with one small hand and kissed him lightly before answering.

  "Probably."

  "Then marry me, woman. I know what I want and I'm too damn old to wait." He lied. He'd wait forever if that's what it took to have her.

  "I'll marry you. Just as soon as all of this with Jordon is settled."

  William scooped her up and set her in his lap, quilt and all. "Is that supposed to make me extend my four day deadline? If it is, you need to brush up on your negotiating skills."

  "I won't interfere, just as long as you promise to abide by whatever Jordon decides to do. If he doesn't want a wife you'll back off."

  William knew better than to promise Lily an inch, she'd make it stretch a mile.

  "I promise to stick to exactly what I told Jordon. The ball is now firmly in his court, let's see what he does with it. In the meantime, Mrs. Bennett, I have some balls of my own I'd like help with."