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He nodded, but he clearly wasn’t happy with what she’d had to say. It occurred to her that she should tell him about the baby right now. The sooner she did, the better for everyone involved.
Jordan walked back to the front door. “I’ll see you Saturday afternoon, then.”
“Jordan.” Even to her own ears, his name had a frantic edge, and he turned around immediately.
“Yes?”
She looked at him, debating whether to tell him, and instinctively knew she couldn’t. Not yet. She needed time to come to grips with the news herself before she confronted him. When she told Jordan, she’d need to be strong and confident, and right then she was neither.
“Nothing,” she said, offering him an apologetic smile. “I’ll see you Saturday.”
* * *
As he’d said, Jordan was fond of Kati. She was by far his favorite of Molly’s cousins, and since she’d specifically sent him a wedding invitation he felt honor-bound to attend.
But there was more to his determination to attend this family event than sharing in Kati’s happiness, Jordan had to admit.
True, this wedding was an excellent way of broadcastinghis divorce from Molly. He would use it to introduce the woman he intended to marry, but it was also his way of proving to himself that the marriage was completely over.
Inviting Lesley had been a calculated risk on his part and Jordan had weighed the decision carefully. If he attended the wedding alone, it was a foregone conclusion that at least one of Molly’s aunts would take it upon herself to speak to him and possibly Molly about the breakup of their marriage.
By bringing Lesley with him, he was making a statement to all concerned that the divorce was imminent. Any well-meaning advice at this point would be irrelevant.
Decision made, he invited Lesley. When he picked her up on Saturday, he thought she’d never looked lovelier. She was a wonderful person and she cared deeply for him. They would make a good life together. Jordan didn’t know why he found it necessary to remind himself of that so often. He’d be glad when this divorce was over and done with.
And yet…he couldn’t make himself stop feeling guilty. Not that he knew what he had to feel guilty about. Molly was the one who’d abandonedhim. She’d been away for three years.
All right, so he’d made an idiot of himself in Africa, but under the circumstances, that seemed forgivable. As for the divorce, he’d bent over backward to be fair in his settlement offer. More than fair. All he was asking for was his freedom. There wasn’t a single reason he should feel the way he did.
“You seem very absorbed,” Lesley commented as they drove to the church.
Lesley often sensed his mood. He reached over and squeezed her hand. “I was just doing a little thinking.”
“About what?”
“Our wedding,” he lied, and the words nearly caught in his throat. “We should start making the arrangements soon.”
“I’m not in any rush and I don’t think you should be, either.”
Her hesitation surprised him.
“Why not?”
“Jordan, a divorce takes time.”
“It’s just a few more weeks!”
“I don’t mean legally, I mean personally. You’ll need to grieve the loss of your marriage before we can make any wedding plans ourselves.”
“Grieve the loss of my marriage,” he repeated impatiently. What did she think he’d been doing for the past three years?
“You’ll understand more once it’s final,” Lesley added with a sigh.
He didn’t know what had made her such an expert and bit his tongue to keep from saying so. The last thing he wanted to do was argue, especially now.
“Fine, whatever you say,” he muttered as they approached the church.
Finding a parking place was a struggle, and his mood hadn’t improved by the time the ushers seated them on the bride’s side of the church. The first person he saw, two rows up from him and Lesley, was Molly, sitting beside her father. She was wearing a pretty outfitwith a red blazer and a pleated red-and-white flowered skirt. He remembered it from years earlier and how she’d had trouble fitting back into it after Jeffrey was born. It fit her just fine now. Just fine.
