Believe in Me by Laura Moore

Author:Laura Moore [Moore, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-01-17T22:00:00+00:00

AN ADVANTAGE of having been married for close to ten years was that Jordan could calculate to the hour when Richard would call. The lobbyist in him would want to pitch his case in addition to the letter his lawyers had drafted; the father in him would want to talk to the children and hear how they’d been faring while he was honeymooning in Hawaii; the ex-husband in him would want to choose an hour when it was most likely his former in-laws would be out of the house.

When the phone rang within ten minutes of the predicted hour—four hours after his plane touched down—she glanced at the caller ID and couldn’t help but wonder whether Cynthia had already acquired this kind of knowledge and, if not, how many years it would take before she understood her husband as well as Jordan did.

The children, Miriam, and she were in the double parlor, gathered around a puppet theater she’d fashioned out of a cardboard wardrobe-size moving box with maroon hand towels serving as curtains. Kate had drawn the backdrop’s scenery. It was filled with masses of flowers and a smiling sun surrounded by puffy clouds. Jordan had helped write out and cut admission tickets for the performance Kate and Max had decided to put on that evening to surprise Margot, who’d bought the puppets during their trip into town. This was the dress rehearsal. If one were to gauge the show by Olivia’s reaction, it was a smash hit. She kept clapping her hands and talking to the puppet animals. Luckily the audience’s enthusiastic participation didn’t rattle the performers, nor did anyone notice when Jordan slipped into the adjoining parlor to answer the phone on the second ring.

“Hello, Richard.”

“Jordan, hi. I’m glad I caught you. I’m not interrupting anything?”

“No, the kids are playing. Miriam’s with them.”

“That’s great, just great.” He fell silent. It struck her then that he was nervous, perhaps for the first time unsure of his power to persuade. He was actually scared of saying the wrong thing. His hesitation showed her more than any of his facile words how important spending time with the children was to him.

Taking pity on him, she said, “I got the letter from your lawyer.”

“Oh, right! Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I was calling.” There was another pause, then his words came out in a rush. “The thing is, Jordan, now that the work’s finished on our new place and Cynthia and I are back from our, um, trip to Hawaii, and summer is coming with the kids on vacation from school, I thought it would be a really good time to … to kind of reintroduce myself into their lives.”

“Yes.”

For some reason, nervousness probably, Jordan’s reply didn’t register. As soon as he’d drawn a breath, Richard plunged back into justifying his request. “The house has plenty of room. We’ve set up two bedrooms right next to each other. I’m going to contact Susannah and pay her whatever she asks to come and sit for them again.

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