Chapter 32

"After the way I acted when I got home, I bet she didn't want to chance a repeat of it by staying, or having you take her home. She's a big girl, not to mention a Marine, let her make her own choice."

He conceded Jordan's point and they talked about the plan for the next day while waiting for the cab to arrive.

As soon as Mac was out the door, Jordan said she was going to take a long hot bath. Woody encouraged her to do so, saying he would do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. Since that was something Jordan rarely offered to help with he was not surprised when she just nodded and headed to the bathroom.

When the kitchen was at last put to rights, Woody sat down with the evening paper. He always read the news first, sports second, and his guilty pleasure, the comics he saved for last. Woody was very surprised that Jordan was still not out of her bath when he finished. He had expected her about halfway through the sports section. They usually watched some TV together before bed.

Concerned he got to his feet and went to knock on the bathroom door. At first there was no response, until he called out her name, which was when he got a groggy, 'what?'

"Did you fall asleep in there?" he asked needlessly, since it was clear she had.

"So?" was her grumpy answer.

"I was just concerned. Do you need any help?" he wanted to know.

"I just fell asleep, and I have been drying myself off for years, even though there is a lot more of me these days, I think I can manage!"

"Alright Jordan," he said, backing away from the door sadly. He really thought they had been making progress lately and tonight she had even sounded jealous when she came home. But now she sounded angry at him for just offering to help.

Jordan had no idea she had upset Woody. All she knew was she was tired and achy all the time these days and when Woody had woke her the first thing she saw was her huge belly covered with stretch marks. Here she was having a baby that wasn't even her husband's. She was also sure she didn't have any clue how to take care of it. To top that off, the pregnancy was doing things to her body that she didn't appreciate. Especially at a time when she suddenly wanted the man she married to find her attractive!

Wow, thoughts like those kept cropping up. She had no idea what was going on in her life! A year ago she had been a focused career woman in search of the perfect pair of jeans and a man she could imagine spending her life with without wanting to kill him.

Now here she was in a mess it would take a physiatrist a decade or more to straighten out. What was she thinking?! Having the child of an assassin for hire, and yet married to a man that loved her, and she couldn't figure out her own feelings.

How could she test out the odd feelings she'd been having? It wouldn't be fair to Woody to try kissing or even sleeping with him only to find that her feelings weren't love at all. Then it hit her. A year ago, it wouldn't have bothered her at all to test out how she felt on a guy and dump him when she was done. So she must have some feelings for Woody or she wouldn't' be worried about how he would react to her actions.

There might have been more thoughts along those lines if she hadn't had a full day at work, followed by an evening of entertaining company. But those things had taken their toll on a body already tired from an advanced stage of pregnancy. So, before Jordan could come to any conclusions about her feelings, or any that she was willing to admit to at this stage, she put her robe on over her still wet body, crossed the short distance to her room without even throwing Woody a glance and was asleep almost before she crawled into bed.

To be continued…