Surprise was quickly forgiven, and Jordan grinned to her boyfriend, only certain that he knew what a fine figure he cut, standing there in the doorway.

“We are,” she answered and walked up to kiss him soundly on the lips. “Duh.”

Tina cracked a smirk in the midst of her smoke. “Good comeback.”

Chris returned the kiss and nuzzled his nose with hers, causing Jordan to laugh. “Damn straight we are.”

At the other end of the hallway, Jason’s feet pounded against the floorboards in a run. “Chris!” he cried happily, even louder than he had before.

“Buddy!” Chris called.

The twenty-year-old bent down and lifted the small boy up in one swift movement, swinging him around by his waist. “Who’sa master?”

Jason let out a war cry. “I’m the master!”

“Better believe you are.” Chris set him down on his feet and roughly ruffled his hair. “What’re you doing here?”

“St. Luke’s was boring.” He let off a knowing yawn just like his sister had hours before. “So Jor took me here.”

Chris looked up to Jordan from the ground. “Good plan,” he said.

Jordan smiled.

“We took the subway,” Jason told him as they started into the apartment.

“Yeah?” Chris asked.

“Yeah. There were buildings and smoke and people, and they all zoomed past us.”

“Sounds like one bitchin’ adventure.”

“Yeah.”

Jordan chuckled at them from outside the doorway, and looked back to Tina. “I better get in there and save Chris from another round of twenty questions.”

Tina snickered. “You do what you have to, kid. But just between you and me…I don’t think he wants to be saved.”

Jordan mulled over that. It was amazing how such a small phrase could embody so many meanings. “No, huh?”

“Nope.” Tina let out a sigh, moving back inside her apartment. “If you ask me, Chris is right where he wants to be.”

Jordan smiled tentatively while Tina left her alone in the hallway.

She stared back at Chris’ door before walking through it.

Perhaps she was, too.

* * * * *

Lunch consisted of cut-up hot dogs in macaroni and cheese, Jason’s all-time favorite dish. Chris’ apartment didn’t have much in the way of cooking utensils, but they made do, using forks for spatulas and spoons for serving ladles. They ate well, and played well for that matter, as the two alpha males got into a food-flinging contest mid-way through the meal.

Later, as they cleaned off the macaroni from the walls, Jordan shook her head at Chris in disapproval.

“Hey, Jason was the one who started it,” he protested, grinning from ear to ear. He wiped a wet washcloth across the walls. “He challenged me. I couldn’t back down.”

Jordan rolled her eyes, scrubbing the wallpaper. “Yeah, you’re the perfect role model.”

“Kid needs a friend, not a role model.” Picking up the dishes, he sent her a smile. “He’s got you for that, remember?”

“Well, whatever you do, lower your voice,” she warned him. “You’re gonna wake him…” She looked in on the room opposite the kitchen where the child had fallen into a slumber. Full bellies did that to kids.

Putting the pots aside, Chris stepped over to her and gently held his hands against her waist. “How ‘bout we take a little nap of our own…” he suggested.

Jordan, no stranger to intimacy, shook her head. “No way,” she said, smiling. “Then we wake him up. He comes into our room, sees me with you… You think he’s asking questions now, just wait until he catches us in the act.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “C’mon…” he tempted her, dragging her slowly to the bedroom. “I promise we’ll be quiet.”

Jordan crossed her arms. “No way,” she repeated.

“I’ll tell him we were wrestling.”

“No.”

“Tickling.”

“No.”

Chris effortlessly lifted her up and swung her over his shoulder. “Trading Levis.”

Jordan let out a playful cry as he carted her into the bedroom like a sack of potatoes. “No!”

“Looking for loose change?”

“Not on your life.”

Closing the door behind them, he plopped her down on the mattress and joined her on the bed. “C’mon…” He gave a boyish shrug. “Kid’s gotta find out about it sooner or later…” He leaned in for a kiss.

Jordan put a finger up to his lips and gently pushed him back. “And I’d rather…it was later.”

Chris sat back, fairly aggravated by her lack of advance.

But when he turned his back to her at the edge of the bed, Jordan crawled up and loomed her arms around his neck. “Jason’s been through a lot.” She rose and went over to where her tote-bag hung on his oak dresser.

“He never knew his dad. And our mother…” Jordan took in a bitter sigh as she turned on his CD player. “From the way things are going, it’s not looking like he’s going to get to know her either.”

As soft jazz music floated from the radio, she sat back down next to Chris. “His innocence is hanging by a thread,” she told him. “Somehow, despite everything that’s happened, he is still a child. And there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do to keep that from being disrupted.”

A sadness set into Jordan’s eyes, a sadness that was older than her years. “I’m here to keep him safe,” she said. “He’s all I’ve got left.”

An understanding gaze set into Chris’ eyes, and no longer upset with her, he reached out and took Jordan’s cheek in his hand. Linking an arm around her, he led her onto her side on the bed, where he held her in his arms.

“He’s not all you’ve got,” he whispered.

The words fell though her like rain, and Jordan turned, leaning her nose against his. “I know,” she whispered back.

Chris held her tighter. “You know I’m leaving on Tuesday…”

Jordan sighed. The words clenched her eyes shut.

“Chris, I told you-”

“I know you told me not to talk about it. But I’ve got to. I need you to know… I don’t care how far away I am. I don’t know how it’s all going to work. But I don’t care.” He looked her in the eyes. “I love you. And I love Jason,” he said softly and slowly. “And if that means driving down here from Chicago two times a week to be with you, then that’s all there is to it. I’ll do it.”

Jordan looked up, searching for anything besides honesty in his eyes.

“I’m serious,” he ended.

She stared back, studying him. “You’d do all that,” she said, “drive miles and miles…for me.”

He smiled. “I make a two-course lunch, I pay your tolls for the subway…Jordan, I would do anything for you. I’d give you the moon if I could.” He laughed suddenly and pointed to the CD player. “I put up with friggin’ sorry-ass Nora Jones for you. If that’s not love, I dunno what is.”

First it was a smile, a sweet smile that melted away her doubts and inhibitions. But then, Jordan let out a laugh, let it ring out as loudly as she wanted as her bliss reached its peak. “Look, buddy. Nora Jones is a classical, soothing artist!”

“Classical, soothing artist,” he muttered back. “Every time you come over I listen to this jazz crap. Here, I’ll bet I even know the words.”

Though Jordan sputtered a protest, Chris ignored her and started out comically singing with a voice that she was sure had been outlawed in several states. “Come away with me.” She only laughed, unable to respond to her joy in any other way. “And we’ll kiss on a mountaintop.”

But as the music continued, his voice grew softer, and Jordan’s laughter faded. “Come away with me…” he breathed just above a whisper. “And I’ll never stop loving you…”

As she felt her heart beat against his, Jordan took his chin between her fingers. She kissed him, breathing in his scent, breathing in everything that came with being with him.

When their lips parted, Chris went back to humming the rest of the verses, and Jordan leaned against the pillow. As she laid there, listening to his voice and the soft sounds of the city, feeling his arms support her, she had never felt safer.

She fell asleep, leaving New York City and its troubles behind her. She dreamt of marrying Chris in an outside ceremony, buying a big house in the country, and raising Jason, without having to worry about money, drugs, or anything else living in the South Bronx.