More Than Words - Jerry Cole Page 0,2

O’Leary. Why the fuck was he so stuck on this guy? He’d never been the one to remember a man’s full name unless they did business together. The men he’d hooked up with in the past had all been first-name-only guys whom he never planned to meet again so why bother with last names? That was a waste of brain cells.

But Jordan O’Leary…he wasn’t a waste at all. Bennett knew it somehow, intuitively, and the idea scared him a little bit. He turned onto his side, trying to find a comfortable place to lie, determined to get some sleep. The next day was busy. He was starting a new project, which would take him away for a couple of weeks. He didn’t have time to think about someone he had no real connection to. He sighed, punching his pillows into some kind of sleep-inducing nest for his head.

His last thought before he fell asleep was of that smile, the one Jordan had gifted him with. He didn’t even realize that he was smiling, too, as he drifted off to sleep.

Chapter One

“Good morning, Mr. O’Leary.”

The students sounded as bored and tired as he felt, but Jordan kept a cheerful smile on his face as he answered them.

“Good morning, class! Welcome back. How was your Christmas break?”

It was the Monday after New Year’s Day, the first day back from the Christmas break, and no doubt the teenagers sitting in a circle in his room would have a lot to share. This was their double period math class, and he was happy to let them share their news while he pulled the stack of papers he had found time to grade after his friend Mac’s wedding. The research portion of their vacation assignment was due by the end of the week, and he would spend a little time reviewing its requirements with them today as well before settling in for some test prep.

“What did you do over Christmas break, O’Leary?” one boy in the back asked.

He had expected the question. They never failed to try to find out anything they could about his private life, and he always managed to give them just enough to satisfy their curiosity without giving away anything significant.

“I went to the wedding of one of my best friends.”

That was strictly the truth. Aside from Mac’s wedding, he had vegged out on the couch in the second side of the duplex townhouse he rented from his buddy’s mom, made Christmas dinner for her and walked her dogs Marco and Polo. And he’d taken her grocery shopping and to her elder club’s New Year’s dinner. Yeah…he was definitely living in the fast lane!

“Boring!” another boy intoned and the class laughed.

Jordan laughed with them. The kid wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t really mind. At least he had someone to watch over, to look out for, someone who asked him about his day when he went to take her dogs out, someone who made him butter cookies and chocolate pound cake when she was feeling well. He refused to think of how pathetic his life would seem to anyone who might have a chance to examine it. Happily, no one would, not even Mac, who was too loved up now to notice if Jordan let anything slip.

“Alright, guys! Time for work. I see that most of you submitted the work online, but Friday is the actual deadline, so if you’ve still got it, you have until Friday midnight to submit it. The link will disappear after that.”

“Like Mission Impossible! I knew you were a fan!”

The class laughed again at yet another student’s comment and Jordan shook his head with a smile. He loved working with the older kids. They were more mature and he could banter with them in ways they’d appreciate. Sometimes he felt like he channeled their attitudes and behavior a little too much. For being forty years old, he could be really juvenile, but sometimes, that’s what he needed to be to get through to them. Given the variety of their special needs, some of which they found especially challenging, it helped him to be able to speak to them in a voice they didn’t mind hearing.

“Okay, guys, settle down. We’re going to review the research task you had the Christmas break to start working on, so that by the time it’s due on Friday, there will be no excuses for subpar work. Please remember that to review is to…?

“View again,” was the choral response.

“Which means what, Jimmy?”

Jordan didn’t