Chapter Ten

Noah’s house was the epitome of upper middle class. It wasn’t huge or anything; it felt pretty huge to Jordan, but he knew, logistically, that it really was not. Just a basic bungalow with a tall chimney and a slatted exterior painted a soft powder blue. There were three visible windows, all of them covered with white shutters, and a beige front door with carved wooden panels on the bottom, and a small frosted window at the top. The entire house was encased in an elevated porch and surrounded by trees draped in long strands of Christmas lights. With the whole of Lake Superior peeking out from behind the building, it looked like something out of a painting, or a cozy winter movie.

Jordan didn’t get the chance to gawk very long though. Noah pulled the car into his snug little garage and barely took the time to carry Jordan’s suitcase inside and show him to his room down in the basement before he was ready to head out again.

“Sorry, I’ve really got to pick up Lucy from school,” he explained. “I didn’t realize traffic was going to be that bad.”

“Want me to come with you?” Jordan asked. He felt more than a little bit uncomfortable at the thought of being left alone in a stranger’s home.

Noah shook his head.

“Nah, you go ahead and get settled. I want to talk to her a bit about you being here first. Establish some ground rules and everything. She can be kind of a nosy kid and I don’t want her invading your space.”

Jordan wanted to tell him that even with a kid all up in his grill, this was still more space than he’d ever had in his whole life, but Noah had already made up his mind and he didn’t want to be rude.

“Go ahead and make yourself comfortable,” Noah said, pausing halfway up the stairs. “Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge. We don’t have cable, but we get local channels and you’re welcome to stream movies or whatever on the TV in the living room. The remote’s in the pocket on the side of the couch. I won’t be gone long.”

And with that, he was gone. Jordan could hear the faint rumbling of the garage door opening and closing, then the house descended into a weird, foreign silence. In his apartment, he’d always been able to hear something; the knocking of pipes, the sounds of his neighbor’s footsteps, scattered threads of conversation as groups of people walked by his front door on the way to their own units. Even his uncle’s house, the house he’d grown up in, was full of mysterious noises, but not this one. Even the central heating was as quiet as the wind.

Jordan sat down his suitcase and surveyed the room. It wasn’t just a basement. It was a basement suite, complete with its own outside entrance and a bathroom. The bed was at least a queen, draped in a fluffy purple duvet and adorned with at least half a dozen pillows. There were small nightstands on either side and a luxurious tufted headboard looming above. In the corner was a small dresser, the top of which was lined with photos in mismatched frames. Upon closer inspection, Jordan realized that they were all close-up shots of wild animals, save for one picture of Noah, Lucy, and a spritely middle-aged couple that were probably Noah’s parents. They were all standing in front of Niagara Falls with cheesy grins on their faces. Next to the dresser was a floor lamp, which cast dim yellow light throughout about three quarters of the space. The overhead lighting took care of the rest.

On the opposite wall, there was a small seating area which consisted of two small armchairs and an ottoman on top of a round multicolored rug. Behind that, nestled into the very top of the wall, was the room’s only window. It was covered by a sheer half-curtain that didn’t provide much privacy at all, but it looked pretty. Jordan walked over to it and glanced outside.

The backyard was just as stunning as the front. There was a large, open space for Lucy to run around and play, with no fences in sight, only a thick copse of trees separating this house from the next. Jordan could make out several snow angels and a partially melted snowman, no doubt Lucy’s handywork. Far off in the distance he could see the fickle sunshine glistening off the lake. It looked like the kind of place little old ladies came to retire after their husbands died, and he meant that in the nicest possible way.

Once Jordan had looked his fill, he shook himself out of his melancholic haze and dragged his suitcase into the bathroom where he unceremoniously upended his suitcase into the bathtub so that his clothes could thaw out. After that, he decided to wander upstairs and explore the rest of the house. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

The rest of the house was laid out and decorated similarly to the basement. The only difference was that the upstairs looked much more lived-in. There were stains on the carpet and buckets of toys shoved off in the corners and ring-shaped stains on the coffee table where someone had forgotten to use a coaster. There was a Christmas tree in one of the corners and he honestly couldn’t tell if it was real or fake. The mantle was covered with gaudy silver tinsel and hanging down on either side of the fireplace were two classic red and white Christmas stockings, one labeled Lucy and other labeled Daddy. Jordan wondered if Noah actually bought stuff to put in his own Christmas stocking or if it was just for decoration. Lucy still seemed to believe in Santa Claus, so surely she’d get suspicious if he only brought presents for her, but he had never believed in Santa Claus anyway, so what did he know?

The living room branched off into a small hallway, at the end of which was a restroom, as well as a staircase leading upstairs to the bedroom, but Jordan just couldn’t justify going up there without being strictly invited. He wandered into the kitchen instead. It had marble countertops and an honest to God island, like the kind you only ever saw in cooking shows and design catalogues. The attached dining room was tiny, but Jordan hadn’t ever lived in a place with a dining room at all, so it was still pretty impressive. There was a Christmas tree in there too, and a vase with poinsettias on the table. Hanging above the archway was a tiny sprig of mistletoe.

How was Noah able to afford all of this? He wondered. Oddly, in all their time swapping sob stories, what the other man did for a living had never come up. Had he gone to college? It seemed unlikely when he had Lucy to take care of, but he had to have established himself in some sort of lucrative career in order to maintain all of this by himself. He obviously wasn’t a doctor. That probably would have come up while he was at the hospital. He clearly didn’t work minimum wage. Maybe he was a manager, or a supervisor of some sort. Although, it seemed weird that someone in charge of people could be away from the office for so long in the middle of a weekday afternoon. That was how Noah and Lucy found him, hunched over their breakfast nook pondering the source of their wealth.

“Mr. Jordan!” Lucy screamed as she walked into the kitchen.

She dumped her backpack on the ground and ran toward him at full force, tackling him into a hug. Her body was cold, and her head was pressing right into the most painful of his injuries, but he didn’t jerk away or push her off. He just patted her on the back nervously. Despite his part-time elf gig, he didn’t really have a lot of experience with kids. Especially feisty ones with shared trauma who didn’t seem to want to let him go.

A minute or so later, Noah came stomping in, jacket in hand, and pried Lucy off Jordan with a half-hearted reprimand.

“Bugs, what did I just tell you about him being hurt? You’ve gotta be gentle with him or else you’re gonna make things worse.”

Lucy looked up at him with giant puppy dog eyes and said, “Sorry, Mr. Jordan.”

Jordan’s mouth twitched. If for some reason he had been mad at Lucy, that look definitely would have done the trick. This kid could probably get away with murder if she really wanted to.

“It’s fine,” Jordan lied, although he was already feeling soreness in his torso from all the exertion he’d done today. “And you can just call me Jordan.”

Lucy beamed at him and it made his jaded heart melt just a tiny bit. He was so infinitely glad that Robert Miller hadn’t gotten his filthy hands on her. Without Lucy Andrews, this world would be a much bleaker place.

Lucy seemed to have gotten the hugging out of her system, but she still wanted to spend as much time with Jordan as possible. She started talking his ear off, telling him about anything and everything; her day at school, her best friend in class, the things she was learning, what she thought of the most recent superhero movie, how her dad called her Bugs because she liked to collect them in little glass jars. The words were all constant and effortless on her part. Jordan, as an introvert, could not relate. He was grateful that she wasn’t asking any questions about him just yet.

“Bugs, why don’t you give Jordan the grand tour,” Noah suggested.

“Okay!” Lucy exclaimed. “Let’s start with my room.”

Lucy gently grabbed hold of Jordan’s wrist and started leading him toward the staircase. Noah fell in step close behind, just like he had at the apartment complex a couple of hours ago. Maybe it was just because he was a father, but Noah seemed oddly overprotective of him. He wouldn’t let him carry his own suitcase or go up and down stairs without help. He’d even told his daughter, whom he loved more than anything, to take it easy on him.

Jordan had to admit, it felt kind of nice to be taken care of for once.

As Lucy was pulling him into her neon green and pink bedroom, Jordan craned his neck to steal a glance at his host. Noah was already looking in his direction, staring at him and his daughter in amusement. He instantly caught Jordan’s eye and gave him one of his patented warm smiles. Jordan smiled too, despite his best effort not to. He bit his cheek and stared down at Lucy’s patterned rug until the startling surge of happiness started to dissipate.