She pulled out of the embrace after a few seconds and wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry." A shy smile formed on her lips. "It's good to be back..." She trailed off and looked around. "There was a lot of people here tonight." Jordan stated, simply. "Is it always that crowded?"
He felt her pull away from him but he left her go. Jordan never really was one for physical contact and Max knew that. Even the smallest comforting gesture made her uncomfortable. "Is it always crowded? Yes." Was his only answer to her question as he stood and moved behind the bar once again. "You never did get your drink. What will ya have?"
She spun back around to face the bar and regarded her father for a moment. "Water. I don't drink anymore. I gave it the moment I woke up with a killer hangover not knowing where I was. I think I got lucky that it was Mark working that shift. Who knows what would have happened to me if it hadn't been?" She chuckled after seeing the shocked look on her fathers face.
Max couldn't help but looked shocked. Jordan was always a drinker. He knew that during her teenage years she had developed a taste for his beer that was kept in the back of the refrigerator. There was always a can or two missing but he didn't think much of it. His daughter always had friends over. Friends that weren't exactly normal. So he just suspected one of them was stealing it. But as the years went by, and him catching her, he came to realize that it was her, not one of her friends, taking it. He shook those thoughts from his head as he removed a bottle of water from an under-bar refrigerator and sat it in front of her. Now it was his turn to be honest to her. "Garrett still asks about you."
Jordan's smile slowly faded into a frown as she stared at her bottle of water. "He does?" Her voice is steady. She really didn't know what to say. Garrett wasn't the entire reason for her leaving seven years ago but he was a big part of it. "How's he doing?" Now her voice held nothing but bitterness.
"He's doing good, Jordan. He stops in on the weekends with Spencer." Max knew he was taking a risk talking about Garrett. He knew that the man had hurt Jordan beyond repair. But wasn't it Jordan who had, this very night, stated that she messed up and that was the reason that she ran? "He's getting big, Jordan." He says, quietly.
She couldn't help the pain that reflexed in her eyes. This was a sensitive subject for her but one that needed addressed. Jordan had hoped that it would take a few days for her father to mention Garrett. That would have been enough time for her to get her bearings about her and face the subject as a mature adult. Something she was unsure of doing at this moment. "I..." She trailed off and looked towards the office when she heard ruffling but Eve did not emerge and silence settled back into place. "I spoke about this with Mark. I told him before we got married. He needed to know the truth. He took me in his arms and held me. After that, he was hell bent on trying to get me custody or at least visitation rights. He was friends with most of the local attorneys since they went to school together. But I got him to drop it only after I made it clear that this was my life not his. He was pissed at me for days." She let out a little chuckle then continued. "Garrett took Spencer away from me for a reason that he thought was just. I accepted that I would never see him again. It was heart breaking for me to finally let go. To move on. But Eve made it easier and so did Mark. But there isn't a night that goes by that I don't think of him. That I don't think of my son!" She spit the last part out like it had burnt her mouth.
Max, literally, winced at her tone. He could remember when Jordan and Garrett had been happy together. They had only been two years into their marriage when Spencer was born. After that, everything seemed to go down hill. Jordan would show up to the bar, crying. Their marriage ended shortly after the third year. Garrett had filed for divorce and full custody of Spencer and it was granted to him. Jordan never said how he was able to do that but it wasn't long after she signed the divorce papers that she had left.
Max could never figure out why she showed up in tears so much. He had his suspicions. One being that Garrett had returned to his old habits and she had discovered him cheating on her. He sighed, tiredly. "Do you have someplace to stay, Jordan?"
Jordan knew that he was changing the subject for her benefit. "Yes. This trip wasn't a spur of the moment ordeal. I made sure that we had someplace to live before coming back. It's one of the new townhouses downtown. Big enough for me and Eve to live comfortably. It's just weird moving back into an apartment. Selling our house was the hardest thing I've ever done." Glancing down at her watch she frowned. "I should be getting Eve home. I have things I need to unpack." She stood and started towards the office but stopped. There as something else she needed to tell her father. Chewing on her bottom lip, she turned back towards him.
"Townhouse?" Max raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "You really have changed Jordan." He watched her get up and move towards his office where her daughter, his granddaughter, was resting. He blinked when she stopped and turned towards him. "What is it?"
Swallowing she looked down at her hands then withdrew a slim, flat, wallet out of her back pocket. She rummaged through the contents for a moment before removing something and staring at it. She placed the wallet back into her pocket and walked over to the bar. She laid the object in her hand, a picture, onto the counter then disappeared into the office to wake Eve up.
Max watched her and only move towards the object when Jordan disappeared from sight. Glancing down, he picked the picture up and looked at it. It was a family picture by the looks of it. He let his eyes scan over the smiling faces. Turning it over, he discovered that it was taken two years ago. Again he turned back to the smiling faces. Jordan was in the middle with a younger Eve sitting on her lap. A nice looking man with sandy blonde hair and a honest face sat to her left. "So that is Mark." He mumbled noticing the resemblance between him and the little girl on Jordan's lap. It was actually the eyes that gave it away. Same crystal blue. But there was another man in the picture sitting on Jordan's right. His smile was identical to Jordan's. Max felt his breath catch in his throat and looked up just in time to see Jordan's back as she exited. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to look back at the picture. "James" His mouth and mind said at the same time. 'What on earth was James doing in this picture?' He asked himself mentally. Then asked the obvious question. 'James is alive?' That surprised him. Then he made a mental note to ask Jordan about it. She obviously wanted to explain or she wouldn't have given him the picture. With one last glance at the picture, he turned off the lights and left the bar.