Just Hit 'Send' By Grasshopper

Just Hit 'Send' - The Interim Years by Grasshopper Ch. 7

**Two days until he'd turn twenty-five. Jordan tried not to think about it any more than he had to. Twenty-five, alone. He knew his family loved him; his Mama and even his Daddy, in his way. He saw the love in his little boy's eyes. Even though Markie was married now, she loved him unconditionally. Lucky she had found someone who could understand. But, he was alone.

He sat on the old log they'd dragged onto the sand a few months back after he'd bought the house. It had been a fluke really, finding the house. He and Marks and Josh had been walking in the surf on a part of Wrightsville Beach they'd never walked before, just playing and laughing and he'd looked up and seen it. The house. Danny's house. Just like the one in the tiny painting Danny had given him that Christmas when they had first been apart. It wasn't hard to imagine the two lovers walking, arms around each other, the big doofy dog twinning around the legs. Fiddlesticks, Danny had said. What a name for a dog.

The 'For Sale' sign was there, stuck in the ground, just like Jordan knew it would be. Fate wouldn't be that cruel.......well, yeah, it would be but this time, this time she smiled down on Jordan Lawrence. "You can't have your love but I'll let you have his house", she seemed to say.

He always wanted to call Danny and tell him "I found the house!! Your house; OUR house, Baby." But he couldn't. There were no more late night phone calls, no more soft whispers, no more giggles or tears, at least no more tears together. After eleven months, Jordan wanted his heart to move on but he couldn't. He knew the answers to many questions but still he didn't have Dan.

He let Markie live in the house with Josh and her new husband while he lived in the apartment but there was always the tiny flicker of hope that one day......one day, Danny Trainor, with the dreaming blue eyes would come home. Jordan knew he would never live in that house without Dan.

Markie pulled the curtain back and peered out the window. "He's just sitting there again." She worried so about Jordan but she knew there was only one thing that would mend his heart. "Maybe I should......."

"No, let him be. I'll go out in awhile. Sometimes, Jordy needs to be alone. Ever since he was a kid, he's always been like that."

They heard the screen door slam and shook their heads when they saw that Jordan being alone with his thoughts was no longer an option. "Hi Dadda," Josh said as he screeched to halt by his daddy's leg. Scrambling up, he schooched around until he made a perfect nest in his daddy's lap. "What cha doin'?"

"Just listening to the ocean, JD," he smiled, ruffling his son's hair. "It's singing to me. Hear it?"

"Awww, Dadda," the little boy laughed, "Water dun't sing."

"Sure it can. It's like a roar of little elves as they do whatever job they're working on."

"Like Snow White?"

Jordan laughed, "Yeah, kinda. Those were dwarfs, but same difference, little guys singing "Hi Ho Hi Ho" I guess."

"I love you, Dadda," Josh snuggled closer.

"I love you more than you know, JD." They sat quietly watching the moonlight glint off the waves and listening to the elves and dwarfs sing.

They walked out quietly, settling on the 'talking log'. "Jordy? Why are you calling him JD?" Markie asked.

Jordan sighed. "I love both the names. You know that but sometimes Josh is too hard cause all I do is think of Adam. I love that you chose my brother's first name but I can't use it without hurting inside. I can still hear my Mama calling 'Joshua Adam, get out of that tree!' and well, Daniel's just not an option. I guess I just need to think of my little guy here as a little man in his own right."