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“Yes, Chloe can be single-minded when she has something she wants to accomplish.” The Judge put his arm around her and kissed her forehead. She rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Takes after me in that way. Now, where’s my supper?”
Jordan made it through the meal with an impressive ease. He laughed at the Judge’s cheesy jokes, listened to Brianna complain about wedding details, and even managed to compliment Mrs. Walker’s cooking with sincerity. Chloe had worried that with his past he’d have a hard time in a family situation, but it seemed to be the opposite. He acted like this was an everyday occurrence for him. He was a natural.
“What I want to know is…” Judge Walker sat back in his chair and patted his full stomach. They’d spent the entire dinner talking and reminiscing about childhood stories and how kids today are stuck behind electronics. He grinned at Jordan and then at his daughter. “Did Chloe ever tell you about Mr. Snuffles?”
“Daddy, no,” she protested. Her mother and sister moaned in mock sympathy for her, but with grins plastered on their faces. “Can’t we just get through one family dinner without rehashing that story?”
Jordan smiled and looked back and forth between the Judge and his daughter. “What story?”
“It’s terribly boring.”
“She means embarrassing,” Brianna added with a smirk.
Chloe gave her a hard look. “I mean totally unnecessary. Come on, Jordan. I’ll give you a tour of the house.”
“Not until I hear this story,” he replied with a laugh.
She grabbed his hand to pull him from the table, but he resisted her desperate pull and instead held her hand tight underneath the privacy of the table, his thumb rubbing circles along her skin. The sensation sent a thrill through her, her nerves burning with a desire she couldn’t name.
“When Chloe was five, she was obsessed with weddings,” Brianna started, her eyes sparkling with humor. “We’d just attended our cousin’s outdoor wedding, so she thought it was the best thing in the world. When I wouldn’t play with her, she enrolled her teddy bear, Mr. Snuffles.”
“Except the only wedding dress Chloe had was just big enough to stuff Mr. Snuffles into,” Mrs. Walker added. She tried to hide her smile from her daughter, but failed miserably.
“So, little Miss Chloe comes marching up to me while I’m working on a case for trial and asks to borrow one of my suits,” Judge Walker said. He rubbed his belly again and chuckled. “She said she couldn’t get married without a suit. But I wasn’t about to let her borrow one of mine, so I told her to get creative. Little did I know how creative she could be.”
Chloe buried her head in her arm and groaned. “Please…stop.”
“I found her outside in the pouring rain ten minutes later,” the Judge went on to say, ignoring his daughter’s pleas. He could barely keep in his laughter. “Standing stark naked next to a raggedy old teddy bear in a stained white dress.”
Another groan came from Chloe’s lips.
Jordan squeezed her hand and laughed. “Why would she do that?”
“That’s exactly what I asked when I’d scooped her up and brought her inside,” the Judge replied in a roaring voice. “She gave me a reason only a five year old could come up with. If she couldn’t get married in a wedding suit, she’d ge
t married in her birthday suit.”
Laughter spilled from every person at the table, except for Chloe. She closed her eyes against the mirth and took deep cleansing breaths that did nothing to keep the heat from rising in her cheeks. Daring to take a peek at Jordan, she saw him grinning at her, amusement and another emotion she couldn’t name in those brown eyes. His expression made her stomach flip.
“Alright, I think we’ve embarrassed me enough for one night.” Chloe pulled on Jordan’s hand again and this time he got up to follow her, releasing her hand beneath the table. Her family collectively groaned, but didn’t call them back to the table. They’d had their fun.
She mourned at the lack of his hand on hers, but felt relieved he’d finally had enough of her humiliation. Leading him through the living room and upstairs, she paused at all the interesting spots, like her old bedroom which had been transformed into a workout room, and then took him through a pair of glass french doors.
“This is my favorite room,” she told him, turning on a small lamp in the corner. The light revealed walls of shelving that housed more books than they could count. A giant oak roll-top desk stood in the middle of the room with a high-backed leather chair. “It’s daddy’s office. Back when he practiced law, he spent a lot of evenings in here working on cases. He’d let me crawl under his desk and read while he worked. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, too.”
Jordan ran his hand along the desk and looked at her. A solemn frown pressed his mouth into a line. “You have a really great family, you know?”
She gave him a small smile. “I know. I’m lucky.”
“Very lucky.” He looked out the door that stood behind the desk and opened out onto a balcony. Great big fluffy snowflakes had begun to drop lazily to the ground. “I didn’t think families like these existed anymore.”
She didn’t know what to say, so she opened the door to the balcony and walked out to watch the snow fall. It wasn’t fair that he’d grown up without a tight family. If she had one wish, it was that everyone got to experience a family like hers growing up. But that wasn’t the reality. She stared out at the quiet streets of New Hope, Christmas lights twinkling in the distance. Moments later, she felt him move beside her, his shoulder warm against hers.
“Thank you for putting up with my family tonight.” Her breaths came out in little white puffs. “I’m sorry if they made you feel uncomfortable or anything.”
“Why would they make me feel uncomfortable?” he asked with a tilt of his head.
She looked up at him. “It’s just…you know. People don’t usually have male coworkers over for family suppers. Usually, it’s someone they’re dating.”
