Chapter 2
Carter
Woody hurried to his feet as Jordan entered the room. He had expected a baby but the small child in her arms was definitely a toddler, probably a year and a half old ifhe was to guess.The boyhad on Pajamas with fire trucks all over them and was battling with his mother to get a plastic red fireman's hat on his head. As Jordan looked at Woody, she seemed to give into the battle over the hat. She attempted a smile but quickly looked away. Woody backed away, he didn't want to intrude.
"Okay, baby," she said sitting the little boy on the counter next to the sink. "Water okay?"
The boy squirmed a little and tilted his head like he was thinking, "uh huh." He said it with determination and enthusiasm. Jordan filled a sippy-cup with water and placed it into the small outstretched hands. "Cawrs?"
Jordan laughed. "Sure baby," she said helping her son down from the counter. "You can play with your cars for a minute."
As the boy tottered off, she turned her attention to Woody. "I usually would put him back to bed, but being as it is my fault he is awake…"
"Out fault," Woody jumped in, wondering why she would feel the need to defend her parenting to him.
Woody looked over at the boy who was now running a car alone the coffee table while making a motor noise. "Do you think boys are genetically able to make that noise? It seems like they can all do it from birth." Jordan just shrugged. "Wow, Jo. He is really cute."
"Thanks, Woody," she looked down as she said it. She didn't know what to say. She almost wished he would yell at her again.
"How old is he?"
"Eighteen months last week," she said still not making eye contact with him. She looked toward her son now sitting on the floor running the cars over a pile of dirty clothes. She hoped by looking at him, Woody wouldn't think it was weird she wouldn't make eye contact while they were talking.
"Jordan?" Woody asked cautiously.
"Yeah," She finally looked at him this time.
"What's his name?"
"Carter," she said instinctively. Honestly that was his middle name. She took a deep breath. He had been starting to say it was a cute name when she cut him off. "His name is James Carter. Everyone calls him by his middle name." She stopped as if preparing to continue. But she didn't need to.
Woody's mind was going a mile a minute. A year and a half-old that meant Jordan had been pregnant when… "Like Jimmy Carter?" he asked, scared to breathe. "The President?"
"I wanted…" Jordan stopped leaned against the counter and started again. "I wanted him to be tied to his father somehow. I wanted… I wanted him to have a connection to you." At this point she really couldn't look at him. "In case he never got to know you," she finished not looking up for a minute.
Woody was in shock. Jordan as a mother had seemed weird enough. Now… he was a father. He stared straight at her waiting for her to lift her head. When she finally did he couldn't say anything. Jordan had tears streaming down her face which startled him more.
"I'm so sorry Woody," it was lacking but it was all she could think to say. "Do you want to…?" She motioned to Carter who was now lying on his back on the floor moving a truck along his chest.
All Woody could do was nod. Jordan reached out her hand and was a bit surprised when Woody actually took it and allowed her to lead him out of the kitchen and into the living room. She sat down on the floor next to the child and coaxed Woody down with her. The boy crawled up onto her lap almost immediately. "That means he is tired," she said to Woody, who simply nodded. She spoke quietly rubbing Carter's back the whole while. "I can introduce you now, if you want, then put him to bed. After that we can talk," she said as calmly as possible.
"I'd like that," Woody finally managed to say aloud.
"Carter, baby, Mama needs you to sit up and listen to me for a minute." The little boy straightened up still leaning against Jordan's chest, looking into her eyes and side glancing at Woody as if he were noticing him for the first time. "Baby, I want you to meet someone," this all seemed very weird to Jordan, she had thought about how she would do this a million times. Sitting on the floor in her living room amongst dirty laundry and toy cars at 10pm had never entered her mind. "Honey, this is your daddy."
Carter looked at Woody, squinting one eye as if analyzing him. It was then that Woody notice. Carter's eyes were blue. His hair screamed Jordan as did most everything else about him. But his eyes, Woody felt like her was looking into a mirror as he felt the toddler examining him with those eyes. Eventually, Carter quietly and shyly said "Hi."
As Woody wondered if the word daddy even meant anything to the little boy Carter crawled off his mother's lap and into the larger one next to hers. He wrapped his little arms around Woody's neck and squeezed a big hug. Jordan started to tear up again as Woody wrapped his arms around the little boy and held on as if for dear life. Tears began to stream down Woody's face as Carter said, "Daddy love."
Woody looked at Jordan, his eyes wide. With a small smile creeping on her face she said, "Every night when I put him to bed I tell him that his daddy loves him very much."
"How would you know...?" Woody asked quietly.
"Because I know you, Woody," Jordan stood reaching out her hands to take Carter from Woody. The little boy was falling asleep.
"Can I?" Woody asked pleadingly.
"Sure," Jordan replied leading him into Carter's room. She stood back and watched Woody laid him into his crib and rubbed his back softly. Jordan left the room and sat down on the couch, waiting for Woody to join her.
As Woody emerged from the room the smile on his face couldn't have been bigger. "Wow," he said looking at Jordan. "I never would have thought…" Then he looked down. "Why didn't you tell me? I would have come back you know."
"I didn't want you to come back just for us." She trembled as she continued, "I mean I really wanted you to come back but…"
"But what?" Woody looked at her curiously.
"I didn't want you to come back because I was pregnant and then resent us."
"I never would have," Woody started.
"You might have, and even if not how was I to know?" Jordan had struggled with her choice a thousand times. "You said you were never coming back."
"I wish I had known."
"I am really sorry Woods. I mean I thought about it a lot. A few months ago Carter was sick and I was up with him all night and I kept thinking about you," Jordan said. "All I could think was that if you were her you would have known the right thing to say to calm me down. Instead, Garret just kept asking what his temperature was, always the doctor."
"He knows Garret pretty well, I guess." Woody was suddenly jealous of all the people who had gotten to know his son over the past year and a half.
"He calls him Grandpa," Jordan smirked. "Garret hates it but he never stopped him once he realized Carter probably would never know a real grandfather. He calls Lily a Bug aunt and uncle and Nigel is his Godfather."
"Nigel's gonna give our son spiritual advice?" Woody asked rolling his eyes.
"Hey, I probably wouldn't have even had him baptized but I figured you would have wanted..." Jordan stopped when she realized Woody wasn't listening. "What is it Woods?"
"Our son…" It was all he said. It was all he needed to say.
Jordan smiled back at him and nodded, "our son."
"Jordan, I need to go. I need to process all of this," Woody said getting up and moving toward the door. "I'll see you at work tomorrow."
