Janelle Taylor Read Online Free Page A

and Kevin ran off and Jordan moved to Washington, Jordan still considered Phoebe her most cherished friend. There was no secret she wouldn’t entrust to her.
    “I have to ask you to do something for me,” Phoebe said, her voice edged with despair. “Something huge. Something you don’t have to do, except… if you don’t say yes, Jordan, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
    “I’ll do anything for you, Phoebe. You know that. Believe me, no favor is too huge.”
    “I need you to take Spencer for me.”
    Jordan gaped at her. “ Take Spencer? You mean …” She took a deep breath. “Are you sick, Phoebe? Are you—?”
    “No, it’s nothing like that. I’m not sick. And I don’t mean forever. Just … take him. Please.” Her voice wavered. “Keep him here, for as long as I need you to.”
    “But… why? It’s not that I don’t want to take him,” Jordan added hastily, her mind cascading with frantic questions that mingled with apprehension and doubt.
    Take a four-year-old boy? She had never even talked to a four-year-old boy, had she? No, not since she was a six-year-old girl with a kid brother.
    “I can’t really explain it, Jordan. All I can say is that nobody can know he’s here. Nobody. Not your family, and not mine. Not even Reno.”
    “Not even Reno? Phoebe, what’s going on?”
    “Jordan, just say you’ll do it. Please. It’s …” Phoebe trailed off, wiping at the tears that spilled from her eyes.
    “It’s what, Phoebe?”
    “It’s a matter of life and death.”

Chapter Two
    “Jeremy? Did I wake you?”
    “Wake me?” Jordan’s partner’s sleepy voice was barely audible on the other end of the line. “What time is it?”
    “It’s almost six,” Jordan said, pouring her second cup of coffee from the stainless steel percolator. She had grown pleasantly accustomed to creamy Starbucks lattes, but today she was so exhausted that she didn’t even mind this home-brewed black stuff.
    “Six?” Jeremy echoed. “Not even six, but almost six? What the hell are you doing up? What the hell am I doing up?”
    “You’re preparing to do me a huge favor, Jeremy.”
    On the other end of the phone, she heard the rumble of a male voice and knew it belonged to Paul, who shared Jeremy’s bed, his life, and four cats named Curly, Larry, Mo, and Joe—Joe being a recently adopted stray.
    “No, it’s Jordan,” Jeremy told Paul around a yawn. “Go back to sleep. So what kind of favor do you need at this ungodly hour, Jordan?”
    “It’s an ongoing favor, actually. You don’t have to do anything right at the moment—”
    “Thank God for that.”
    “And before I tell you what’s going on, I have to make it clear that I can’t tell you everything, okay?”
    “What do you mean by that? You can’t tell me everything? What’s going on? Did something happen?”
    Did something happen?
    You bet something happened. And I’m still not even sure what, she thought grimly.
    Aloud she said, “Jeremy, I need to take some time off.”
    She heard him exhale audibly. “Is that all? You had me thinking the worst. It’s about time you took time off. When, how long, and where are you going? I hope you’ve decided to check out that spa I told you about, because the massage therapist there is—”
    “Jeremy, it’s not like that. I’m not going on vacation. Something’s come up and I need to take some time.”
    “What came up? And how much time?”
    “I can’t tell you, and I don’t know.”
    There was a pause. “Did somebody die?”
    “No!”
    “Are you sick?”
    “No. I can’t—”
    “Okay, I get it. You can’t tell me. God knows you deserve time off, Jordan. Take all you need. I’ll hold down the fort. When are you leaving?”
    She hesitated, wondering whether she should let him know that she wasn’t leaving. But maybe it was better if she didn’t even tell him that much. The last thingshe wanted was for him to give in to his curiosity, stop over to see her, and see Spencer. Then