Chapter 10

The move went very smoothly. Harm didn't have much in the way of personal belongings to bring from the hotel. When Jordan commented on that fact, he explained that the Navy had taught him to travel light. She wondered about mementos and keep sakes, but he didn't seem comfortable with the subject so she let it drop.

She didn't tell anyone at work about his moving in. Whenever the group did socialize outside of work hours, it was at a public place like a restaurant or her dad's bar. She knew it would remain her secret until she chose to tell them. In the back of her mind she was thinking that if things didn't work out between her and Harm, she wouldn't have to face the 'I told you so-s'. Plus, she didn't want Woody to know, giving him more reason to be morose around her.

With two straight weeks of her being on time for work, it was actually becoming accepted as the norm rather than the exception and the comments about it had all but stopped.

During that week, she got a note in the mail from her Aunt Meredith, inviting her to Virginia for a wedding planning weekend. Jordan showed the note to Harm and he happily agreed to go with her. She wrote back to Meredith explaining that she would come, but rather than staying with her, she would book a room for the two days. She said in her note that she had a surprise for her Aunt.

That was about the same time that Harm started talking about sending out resume's and going on job interviews. She had no way of knowing that he was setting up his excuse for not going to Virginia with her in two weeks time.

There was one other thing he did during that week which was all part of his master plan to destroy Harmon Rabb Junior's life as much as possible. But that maneuver would not reveal itself for a while yet.

The living together arrangement was going much better than Jordan could have hoped. It was only a few days before the trip to Virginia and she was seriously considering making the announcement that Harm had moved in with her when they returned from Boston.

On the Thursday before they were to leave town, Woody came into the office looking happier than she had seen him in weeks. "Hey Jordan," he greeted her with a beaming smile.

"What has you so chipper?" she asked; glad to see this change in his attitude.

"I was at the Ralston hotel last night to question a witness and thought that while I was there I would talk to Rabb and see how long he was intending on hanging around. They told me he had checked out, leaving no forwarding address. Why didn't you say he'd left town?"

Lily had overheard the question and said, "He hasn't, unless he did it after dinner. Last night we saw him at Max's place when we all were there."

Both pairs of eyes turned to Jordan for an explanation to the facts presented and she sighed before admitting, "I was going to tell everyone when we came back from visiting my Aunt Merry, but Harm has moved in with me."

"When did this happen?" Lily asked eagerly, as Woody's smile fell as he brought down an almost visible shield to hide his feelings.

"Over a week ago," Jordan reluctantly told her.

"Wow! That's great!" Lily cheered before she realized that her enthusiasm wasn't shared by Woody. Quickly telling Jordan that they could talk about it later, she made her escape down the hall to her office.

"So it's serious between the two of you?" Woody asked when they were alone.

Hanging her head and keeping her eyes on her own feet so she wouldn't have to see his reaction, she answered, "Yeah. I wanted to wait until I was sure myself. Since things are working out even better than I had hoped, I guess we have a future together. I'm sorry, Woody, I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but there it is."

She was surprised when after a minute he hadn't said anything. Looking up to see what was going on; she found herself alone in the hall. Her eyes flew down the hall just in time to see the elevator doors close, hiding his sad face from her view.

To be continued…