Choosing Happiness (22 page)

Andrea laughed this time. "Yeah, right. I'll be home by the time you get off tonight. I miss you."

"I miss you too, take care."

"Bye.” Andrea disconnected the call and handed Jeanie her phone back. "I swear some days he's worse than a mother hen." She smiled at his concern and went back to looking at her menu.

They visited and talked about the men in their lives while they ate and when they finished, Jeanie dropped Andrea off at home. Andrea kicked back on the sofa where she'd been earlier and listened to the final scene of her movie as she drifted off to sleep.

The sound of the front door opening startled Andrea awake, she gasped and sat up strait from where she'd been half reclining on the couch. The sudden movement made pain shoot through her, taking her breath away. She sat stunned for a moment before her mind registered what the sound had been and she relaxed as she turned to see Jake coming in.

He removed his weapon and unbuckled his duty belt and re-buckled it, hanging it on the door knob to the front closet.

"Hey, Dee, how was your day?" He carried his pistol into the bedroom to put it in the night stand drawer where he'd been keeping it at her place. They would need to look into a gun safe if he was going to stay.

Andrea waited for him to come back in the room before she answered. "Good. After we ate, Jeanie brought me back here. I finished my movie and took a nap."

"That's good. Did you enjoy getting out of the house, having some girl time?" He unbuttoned his uniform shirt and took it off.

Andrea got up, doing her best to push the throbbing in her shoulder out of her mind. She led him into the bedroom where he could undress and talk to her at the same time.

"I did. I've missed being able to go and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Having to rely on someone to take me everywhere is getting old."

He hung his shirt in the closet.

"You know, now that you're not hurting so bad and on pain meds all the time, there's no reason you can't go and do whatever you want, within reason." He sat on the edge of the bed and started unlacing his boots.

"The problem is it's tricky to drive my car with one arm."

"That's right, you're car's a standard. I’d be reluctant to drive it like that, too." He dropped one boot beside the bed and started unlacing the other. "My truck's an automatic, there's no reason you couldn't take it if you wanted to go somewhere. If you want, I could take your car to the station when I go to work and leave you with the truck."

"That never occurred to me. That would be great." Andrea pulled a pair of his jeans out of the closet and draped them across the foot of the bed as she went back to the closet to find him a sweatshirt. "It would mean I don't need to feel stuck or like I'm relying on someone else to get out of the house, even if I don't go anywhere."

Jake stepped out of his uniform pants, draped them over the chair in the corner of the room and pulled the jeans she'd laid out for him up his long legs, buttoning them before he pulled the sweat shirt over his head.

"What do you want to do for dinner?" he asked pulling the sweatshirt down his torso.

"I don't know, what sounds good to you?"

"I thought if you felt up to it I'd take you out."

"That's fine. I feel great, mostly.”

“What do you mean mostly?” He frowned at her.

“Nothing major. I was asleep when you came in and the door startled me. I sat up suddenly and now my shoulder hurts.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” he reached for the bottle of pain pills on the nightstand. “You can still take these for stuff like that, even if you don’t have to take them all the time.”

Andrea frowned. “I don’t like taking them they make me foggy.”

“But they keep you from hurting.”

“I can take a little pain.”

“I don’t like it when you hurt.” He looked down at the bottle then back to Andrea. “How about a compromise?”

“What do you mean?” She narrowed her eyes at him. She suspected she’d end up taking the medication even though she didn’t want to.

“How about you take half of one? It will at least ease what you’re feeling, without messing with your head, at least not as bad.”

She looked at him a moment, trying to find a fault in his logic, then relented.

“All right. I’ll take half of one, but you’ll have to cut it for me.” She waved her good hand in the air. “I’ll just end up cutting myself.”

“No problem. I’ll do that first, so it can start working by the time we get to the restaurant. Then I’ll finish getting dressed.” He took the bottle with him and headed for the kitchen.

“We can stop by your place and pick up some things if you want." She followed him into the other room.

"I don't know. If I bring much more I'll be living here."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, but I wouldn't want to all but move in, then once you've healed have to go back." He handed her half a pill, then once she put that in her mouth, a glass of water.

Andrea took a long drink, washing the pill down then set the glass on the counter. "Who said anything about you going back?" She smiled and turned to go back to the bedroom, leaving him to follow.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Are you asking me to really, officially move in with you? Not just stay here while you need someone to help you with basics?"

"I didn't ask you to stay because I needed help. If you'll recall, that was your decision."

"It was," he admitted. “You wouldn't take the help you needed from your family. I just didn't give you the chance to say no."

Andrea turned and, going up on her toes, she kissed his cheek. "I haven’t thanked you for that, have I? Now, I'm asking you to move in. There's no sense in keeping an apartment across town, paying rent there, and staying here. You spend all your time here, only going over there to get stuff when you need it."

"Is convenience the only reason you’re asking me to move in?"

"Of course not, I told you. I love you. I want you. I want to see if we can make a life together, this seems like the logical next step."

"All right.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him, careful not to jar her injured shoulder. “I'll have to look at my lease and see what it will take to get out of it. I signed for six months and still have about half of it left. I may have to keep paying rent for the rest of the lease."

"That's fine. It gives us plenty of time to get you moved. I'm not going to be any help getting your things out of there like this. It's going to be a while before I can help."

"I can find the people to help me move. I'm not worried about that."

"Since you're not worried about why I want you to move in, or getting help moving, what are you worried about?"

"Nothing, at the moment." He bent to kiss her. "I'm not worried about anything at all."

She stood kissing him for several minutes, enjoying the feeling of his arms wrapped snug around her body. They ended their kiss and stood together a while longer. Andrea laid her head on his shoulder. "It's still kind of early, what do you want to do before we go to dinner?"

"I thought, if you aren't too tired, we could go see your parents." He laid his cheek on top of her head.

"Too tired? I've slept most of the afternoon. I'm more likely to go stir crazy than be too tired."

"Let me get my shoes on then we’ll get something warm on you and get out of here."

"Here, help me into this," she picked the hoodie she'd worn out earlier and tossed it at him.

"This isn't going to be warm enough."

"No, but that and a shawl will be close and it's a lot easier than wrestling with a coat.

Jake winced. “I bet.”

A
t her parents’ house, Andrea opened the door, letting herself in, as usual. Jake was right behind her.

"Hello? Anybody home?" Andrea called as she stepped into the house.

"Andrea? Is that you? I'm in the living room." Sophia called back.

Andrea and Jake made their way down the hall and into the living room, where they found Sophia setting her knitting aside and getting out of her chair. "Is everything all right, dear?"

"Everything’s fine, Mom. Jake and I were on our way to dinner and thought we'd stop and see what you and Dad are up to."

"I've been knitting, working on a couple things for Christmas while I watch my shows. Charles is out in the garage, he's working on some project. I don't know what."

"I'll go out and see your dad if you don't mind," Jake said to Andrea.

"That's fine, I know where to find you if I need you." She kissed him lightly on the cheek before he left.

Andrea waved her mother back to her chair as she took a seat on one end of the sofa. "What have I missed while I've been housebound?"

"Nothing more than the drama surrounding something as big as a bank robbery in a town this size. It’s just starting to die down and get back to normal. How's your shoulder doing?" Sophia asked.

"As well as can be expected, the wound is healing well, I'll get my stitches out tomorrow. Unfortunately, breaking your shoulder blade isn’t like a lot of broken bones, I have to keep the whole arm still while the bone heals, but that causes muscle atrophy, so I'll have physical therapy later on. I'll be out of work at least a couple months, maybe more."

"Oh no!" Sophia said. "How will you pay your bills? Do you need help?"

Andrea waved one hand. "I've got it covered, Mom. I have short term disability. It won't pay my full wages but it will give me enough to cover things like food and utilities. I'm lucky I own the house outright. I thank Grandma and Grandpa for that every day lately. It means no rent payment and that's a big help."

"I guess that does help."

"I also wanted to tell you myself, before you hear it from anyone else. I've asked Jake to move in."

"I know he's been staying with you. He's been helping you while you can't do things for yourself."

"Yes, but I've asked him to make it permanent. To let his apartment go and move in with me."

Sophia frowned. "You’re moving awfully quickly, dear. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

“I'm sure, Mom. It's right and I know it. I'm not going to wait to do what I know is right just because everyone thinks it’s too soon." She didn’t let her mom see her doubts, they weren’t about how she felt about Jake anyway. Her doubts were that it might not last forever. Right now, though, she refused to think about it.

"All right, then. If you're sure this is what you want, then I'll support it."

"I'm sure, Mom."

~~~

J
ake stepped into the garage, closing the door into the house behind him.

"Hey Charles, what're you up to out here?"

Charles had the hood of his old truck up and he was standing on a small stool leaning under it. "The heat's not working right on this thing and I thought I'd see if I could fix it myself here before I called Ben to have a look at it."

"Need any help?"

Charles looked up from where he was messing with something under the hood. "All right." He grabbed a rag and wiped the grime off his hands onto it. "Ben said you can barely change your oil without being walked through it. What is it you want to talk about?"

"Well, sir, I did want to ask you something." Jake fought the urge to shuffle his feet.

"What is it?" Charles asked.

"Well, sir, I'm not really sure how this is done."

"That's twice you've called me sir in the last minute. It must be something big. Just spit it out, boy." Charles’s tone was gruff.

"Well, um. I'd like you're permission, sir-"

"For what?"

"To marry your daughter."

"You came in here to ask me for permission to marry Andrea?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you asked her yet?"

"No, sir. I wanted to ask you first."

"And what will you do if I say no?"

"Well, sir, I hope you won't but I'll marry her anyway, if she'll have me. I love her."

"That's what I wanted to hear. If you want my permission, you've got it, as well as my blessing. You treat her right or I'll do worse than come after you myself. I'll sic Ben on you."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Jake sagged, the relief surging through his body. He'd been afraid for a few moments there that Charles would say no. Charles bent back over the engine on the truck. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help you?"

"Nah, I'm about to give it up and call Ben. I just don't have the tools here to figure it out. I'll probably just take it into the shop in the morning and see what I can do there." Charles stepped down off the stool and closed the hood. He stopped on his way into the house to wash his hands at the large sink next to the door, then he and Jake went inside.

They walked into the living room to find both the women sitting in chairs talking, the conversation stopped as they stepped into the room.

"What were the two of you up to out there?" Sophia asked.

“I was trying to figure what’s wrong with the heat on the truck.”

“Did you?”

Charles shook his head. "No, I'll take it into the shop tomorrow and see if I can figure it out." He took a seat in his recliner and Jake sat on the sofa. They visited and caught up on what had been happening, leaving after an hour or so.

Afterward, they went to a restaurant not too far away. It was a small Mexican food place decorated with hats and blankets on the burnt orange walls.

"How was your day?" Andrea asked after they’d placed their orders.

"Good, we stayed busy but there wasn't anything of real interest. Patrolling, speeders, a couple of call outs. Just the average day of a uniform officer in Hastings."

“I'm glad you had a good first day back. Did you have any trouble from taking so much time off?"

"No. When I went back to the station after your surgery I filed my report on what happened that day and arranged to take some time off. Your family is well known and well thought of. No one said anything."

"That's good." She reached across the table and took his hand, "I'm glad you were able to be there for me and not have it cause you trouble."