Dana made her way to her childhood bedroom to find her daughter asleep. She stood at the door watching Jordan with tears forming at the corners of her eyes before they spilled down her cheeks.

"Let her sleep, Dana." Mama approached her only child. "You know Jimmy will do the right thing."

"He won't even take a call from me." Dana wiped the tears with the sleeve of her knitted sweater before expressing her fear. "He will never forgive me for leaving the way I did."

Mama comforted her daughter before setting off for her room. "Come with me." She looked back to Dana. "Come. Let her sleep." Jordan's grandmother continued to her own bedroom.

Dana closed the door and Jordan pulled the blankets back only pretending she had been asleep. She waited a moment then opened her door to listen to Dana and Mama talk.

"Dana, why you worry so much?" Mama, a native of Shanghai, China questioned her only child. "That man will do the right thing."

Dana rolled her eyes. "Are we talking about the same, Jimmy?"

The elderly woman moved with extra energy. She walked to her closet while explaining her reasoning. "That man loved you, I know this. He will come through for Jordan." Mama returned to her bed with a beautifully decorated box, placed it between her and Dana before sitting.

"What's this, Mama?" Dana ran her hand along the lace edges. "I have never seen this before."

"Just a box. Inside is far more important." Mama smiled as she pulled a loose end of the lace bow. "And the reason I believe there is good in the world."

Jordan crept closer to Mama's room curiously listening to the conversation and trying hard to get a glimpse of the box. Dana opened its lid then closed it quickly.

"Mama, I threw these away almost twenty years ago!" Dana stood and was ready to leave when her elderly mother motioned for her to stop.

"These letters are the reason to believe Jimmy will come through." Mama opened the box again. "Dana, how can you read these and not know he will be there for Jordan?"

The tears began again for Dana. "I broke up with Jimmy over the phone after six years. Who would forgive someone for doing that?" She confessed to her mother. "Jordan is fifteen years old. He has missed everything!"

Jordan walked into Mama's bedroom. "He hasn't missed everything, Mom!" The teenaged girl knelt in front of Dana to comfort her mother.

Mama smiled for her granddaughter, pulled the beautifully decorated box to her lap, making room for Jordan to sit.

The fifteen year old cancer survivor hugged her mother as Mama placed a loving hand on the child's back.

"There is still much more life ahead for me. He just missed all the hard stuff." Jordan leaned into her mother.

"You don't know how stubborn Jimmy can be." Dana shook her head. "He may never agree to donating a kidney because of me!"

"You don't know this!" Mama spoke softly.

"Why did he not pick up when I phoned him tonight?" Dana responded to her mother's optimism.

"Maybe he was not ready to talk after so much time has passed." Mama gave Jimmy the benefit of doubt. "He just found out he has a teenaged daughter and she's in need of a kidney. Maybe he just needs time to let it sink in?"

Jordan took the box from Mama but Dana snatched it from her hands. "Mom!"

"Dana. Do not hide love from your daughter." Mama held an open hand out for her daughter. "Let Jordan see her father's love for you."

"But..." Dana held firm on the box. "That was then ~ not now, Mama!"

"Mom. I need to know." Jordan provided tension until Dana relented, releasing the box.

Mama reached into the beautifully decorated box and pulled a bundle of envelopes banded together with a lace wrap. The elderly Asian woman handed the stack to her grand daughter. "What you now hold was the heart of the man who is your father. He did love your mother."

"Mama, these were written so long ago." Dana protested.

"Dana, love is love." Mama met her daughter's protest with the need for knowledge. "Let your daughter know she was created out of love."

Dana sighed before giving in to her mother. "Fine."

Jordan wiggled back onto Mama's queen-sized bed, looked at her mother before releasing the lace from the letters. She opened envelope after envelope, reading and taking in every word. After all ninety-four love letters were read she just looked at her mother.

"What?" Dana shrugged.

Jordan smiled. "He really loved you, Mom." A tiny laughed escaped. "Like, totally."

Dana allowed herself a smile. "Honestly, those first few years were unbelievable. I felt so special with Jimmy. He really was sweet."

"What happened?" Jordan looked to her mother. "What could possibly change it from this..." she held a few letters up. "...to the look you are giving me now?"

"I changed. I wanted more from my life. I needed to just be myself." Dana raised her eyebrows. "I couldn't do that with Jimmy. So I finished my studies in New York hoping he would find someone and move on but he didn't and I felt as if I was suffocating."

"Then what?" Jordan wanted more.

"I met your dad ~ Brad was so exciting when we met." Dana's eyes brightened as she recalled meeting her husband. "It all happened so quickly. Everything I didn't want with Jimmy I wanted with Brad and I made the decision to move that very night. Bad, I know. I didn't tell Brad about Jimmy either."

"Harsh Mom." Jordan reacted to her mother by lifting several of the love letters again. "And what did you say to Jimmy before you left?"

"Nothing." Dana tilted her head. "I couldn't bring myself to tell him." Her eyes looked as though they were fixed upon a moment in the past as she continued. "I just didn't want to see him crushed." Dana snapped out of the distant stare and stood. "Enough about the past. It won't help anyone!"

"You're right." Jordan agreed. "Give me his number." She looked at her mother. "Mom ~ his number."

Dana looked at Mama who nodded in agreement with Jordan. She handed the cellphone to her daughter with a word of caution. "Don't believe everything he says!"

The next Morning

Jordan woke up, found Jimmy's phone number, and stopped just before committing to the call. "Wait! He likely won't answer a number he doesn't know." She sent a text.

I know you don't know this number but I'm Jordan. Can I call you?

Jimmy rolled over after hearing his cellphone vibrate on his night table. "Better not be Dani." He pulled it close to read the text. "Ohhhhh."

He typed one word. Yeah

The phone vibrated again. Jimmy cautiously accepted the call. "You have reached Jimmy." He paused.

"Ahhh, do I need to leave a message?" Jordan frowned.

"Jordan?" Jimmy smiled.

"Butt head." Jordan barked. "You are not funny!"

Jimmy fought back his laughter before starting over with a sales pitch-like tone. "Good morning Jordan, I am Jimmy. How are you?"

"Even worse." Jordan produce dry heaving noises. "Don't you have a normal mode?"

"Maybe. Do you really consider this a normal phone call?" Jimmy countered the sarcasm with a healthy dose of reality.

"Well..." Jordan quickly found the words. "Maybe it is after the year we had ~ yeah, it's normal."

Jordan had Jimmy with that statement. The pandemic threw a wrench into everything. It actually kept him from finding Lana's killer. Maybe keeping him from becoming a killer himself.

He sat up and gave the phone call the respect it deserved. "Hey Jordan, I am Jimmy."

"Better." This seemed to appease the teenager. "Continue."

Jimmy bit his lip. "I once loved your mother."

"No longer?"

"No. No longer, Jordan." Jimmy breathed loudly. "I fell in love again but......let's just say it didn't work out."

"Burn. What happened?"

Jimmy offered an excuse me laugh. "That is a story for another time, Kiddo. The wound is too fresh right now. Maybe even deeper than the wound your mother left."

"Mom says you are stubborn. True?"

"Maybe?" He explained his side of the statement. "There are things I refuse to let slide. If that is stubborn, then yeah, that's me."

"Well, duh." Jordan laughed. "So are we just going to talk like this or do we get to meet?"

"How about Thursday at three?" Jimmy waited for laughter but clearly he did not understand this teenager.

"Wow, you just said that to your dying daughter?" Jordan pulled the trump card from her deck of life. "No wonder my mom left you for a drummer!"

"Ouch, you are your mother's daughter." Jimmy recognized the sharp tongue.

"Dude, you're my father." Jordan reminded him. "Take a little credit for the sarcasm."

"I will have to check, but I believe sarcasm is an environmental trait." Jimmy chuckled but offered another time to meet. "Hey, I assume you are at your grandmother's in Richmond. So let's meet at the nearby Starbuck's in, say, an hour?"

"You're not out of bed yet, are you?" Jordan spoke in a motherly tone.

Jimmy let it slide. "Nope. And I bet you're not either! See you in an hour." He hung up.

"Good Burn, Jimmy." Jordan giggled.

Starbuck's ~ No.1 Road, Richmond

Jimmy pulled into the parking lot with his 1972 Dodge Challenger. The late morning sun turned the windows at Starbuck's into mirrors and Jimmy could only see his reflection. Three days growth on his face, his wind swept hair along with his well-worn leather jacket made him look as if he were lost in his glory days.

Inside the coffee house were Jimmy's ex-girlfriend and his biological daughter he never met. He stood five foot ten inches and a little heavier than the average man but carried most of it in muscle. He dressed simply; jeans, his jacket, tee shirt and a pair of well worn shoes.

In one of his pockets he carried his harmonica. Every so often he would make sure it was with him, as if it were his security blanket. The sentimental value attached to memories from his past could not be overstated. Just then he patted his leather jacket to make sure the harmonica was there. It was and his mind relaxed.

Dana and Jordan watched Jimmy enter from their corner seat. His eyes were still adjusting to the inside light and he did not immediately notice them. He ordered a grande latte and waited at the pickup station.

Dana nonchalantly pointed to Jimmy standing at the counter. "There he is, Jordan. Your father."

Jordan immediately stood.

Dana reached out and hooked a finger into one of Jordan's belt loops. "Wait, where do you think you're going, young lady?"

"Ah ~ to tell him we are hiding in the corner." Jordan looked at her mother. "You didn't have to come with me."

"Well, I didn't want him lying to you about me." Dana confessed.

"You seem obsessed with him lying."

Jordan unhooked her mother's finger and approached Jimmy. Her gait ~ lethargic. Her body looked as though it had been burdened with a heavy load, grimacing with each step. "Hey mister, looking for an old girl and a hot chick?"

Dana rolled her eyes and hid her face.

Jimmy laughed before he turned to see his daughter for the first time. He needn't guess Jordan was of his own blood with her thick eyebrows, same brown eyes, and the same shaped face. "That depends." The father placed a condition on his answer.

"On what?" Jordan sparred.

"Which one are you?" Jimmy's laughter was met with a hard right cross to his bicep. "Got it." He reached out for a welcome hug but was left hanging. "Okay, where's the old...I mean ~ where's your mother?"

"Hiding in the corner." Jordan waved to her mother. And like a ventriloquist the teenager spoke without moving her lips. "She thinks you are going to lie to me."

Jimmy waved to Dana. "Well ~ not now." He laughed. "Come on, I haven't argued with a woman in like eight hours."

Jimmy watched Jordan fight through the pain just to walk. Tough kid. The two arrived at the table in the corner and his eyes met Dana's for the first time in almost sixteen years.

Dana stood.

"Dani." Jimmy offered a wry smile.

"Jimmy." Dana winced.