Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (38 page)

“Jake, why are you planning this around the girls and I?”

“Because in December you will be moving in with me,” he smiles.

“You’re pretty confident.”

“Yes, I am.  Jo, you will do fine in this life, you are so damn high strong that no one is going to get to you.  You know better than to believe rumors or tabloid magazines.”

“Oh, thanks,” I slap his leg.

“Hey now,” he grabs my hand.  “Jo, I'm so excited for this,” he kisses my hand.  “I want to be with you all the time.”

“Me too,” I kiss his cheek.  “I just worry about moving too quickly that’s all.”

“It’s not like we are getting married, we are just moving in together.”

“Yeah, into a brand new house that you are building to accommodate the girls and me.  That’s not a big deal at all,” I roll my eyes at him.

“To me, it really isn’t.  I mean I know it won’t happen but if this doesn’t work I will be able to sell it no problem.  But if that happens I'm moving out of state,” he looks down at me.

“Running from your problems never solves anything,” I smirk at him.

“If I can’t have you there is no reason for me to stay here,” he wraps his arm around me.  “I love you Jo and that will not change.”

“I know,” I smile.  “So when do I get to see the blue prints?”

“When I get them from him.  I should have them tomorrow or Friday.  Maybe this weekend we can decide if we want new furniture or keep this stuff, or yours which ever.”

“Well, I thought a lot about what you said about me renting my place out to Ryan and I think that is what I might do.  He is going to need a place of his own, especially now that he has a new girlfriend.”

“Yeah, and my sister will need a place to stay because she will not be staying with us.”

“So if he rents my place I will probably leave almost everything there.  His bitch ex took everything from him so he has nothing right now.”

“If that is what you want to do.  It’s your place.  You make it sound like you’re not going to be there that much longer,” he smirks at me.

“Oh no, that’s not going to work.  December, we agreed.”

“I know,” he kisses my temple.  “So, I was thinking a nice relaxing night lying in bed watching TV.  I can’t really do anything else.  They have me on these pain meds and I can’t drive or anything.  I have Mark picking me up for practice tomorrow.”

“I'm game for that.  I had another long day at work.  Half of my team has moved on to the next case because we can’t really do anything until Saturday.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right.  When are you going to be gone Saturday?”

“I will most likely be at the office all day.  Probably go in about 8:00 or 9:00 and be there until after we are done.  Then I was thinking I should go home and clean up my place and get some stuff done there since the girls are coming home Sunday.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.  Well, can I take you to dinner Friday night then?  Things are going to be crazy next week.  We fly out to Denver Wednesday night and I won’t be back until Monday sometime.”

“Yeah, I think that would be ok.  I am not looking forward to next week.  The girls start school Monday so I am off for that but then the rest of the week will be all paper work for me because of this bust.  The DA is going to want all the evidence that I have against them, it is going to be a nightmare.”

“Well, my parents and the sibs will be flying out on Friday morning at like 8:00 I think.  So when you get out of work I am all yours.”

“Where did you want to go?”

“Someplace quiet and were we won’t be bothered.”

“Did you have a place in mind?”

“Well, depends, what is your favorite kind of food?”

“I'm really not picky.  I eat pretty much anything.”

“I know this great place uptown, they have the best steak and fish there is.”

“Sounds good,” I smile at him.

“Well, want to go up and watch a movie?”

“Yeah, sounds perfect.  I'm going to go grab a bottle of water you want something?”

“Sure, I will take one too,” he gets up off the couch.  “I think I am going to check the fridge for a snack, I'm hungry,” he goes into the kitchen.

“Ok, I will meet you in the room.”  I go to the bar and grab two bottles of water.  I start to the bedroom and hear him drop something on the floor.  I run to the kitchen.  “You ok?”

“Yeah, not used to only having one hand.  He starts picking up the strawberries that he dropped on the floor.”

“Here you take these,” I hand him the bottles.  “I will pick these up and wash them off.  Is this your idea of a snack?”

“Yes it is,” he smiles.  “Hey, don’t give me that look I love strawberries.”  I shake my head and pick them up and take them to the sink and wash them off. 

“I will carry this you carry those,” I look at him.

“Yes ma’am,” he smiles at me.  I follow him upstairs.  “Your awfully bossy tonight, someone not listen to you at work today that you are taking it out on me?”

“I am not,” I laugh and smack him in the butt.

“Hey, don’t make me trip, coach would come kick your ass,” he laughs.

“Jake,” Molly sticks her head out her bedroom door.

“Yeah,” he turns and looks at her.

“How is your arm?”

“It will heal.  Nothing too bad, just a pulled muscle.  They did x-rays and all that nothing is torn or anything like that.  Just have to rest it for a couple weeks.  Probably won’t play until the second game.  If they want to put me in that is.”

“That sucks,” she steps out into the hall obviously forgetting about the bruise on her arm.

“Molly what the hell happened to your arm?” He walked back toward her.

“Nothing, its fine.”

“Bullshit, what happened?”  She looks at me and I nod at her, she is going to have to tell him at some point.  Jake looks at me and knows that I know what happened.  “You know?”  He asks me.  I nod.

“I just told her, I asked her not to tell you.  You have yourself to worry about you don’t need to worry about me too.”

“Molly, tell me what happened.”

“I went to get my stuff from William and he was upset with me.  It’s taken care of, I filed a complaint against him and he is getting charged.”

“He touched you?”

“Yes Jake, but it’s taken care of.”

“Dammit Molly, I warned you about those guys.  I told you to stay away.”

“Jake, stop.” I put my hand on his shoulder.  “She knows she screwed up, but it is taken care of.  You yelling at her is not going to make anything better.”  He looks at me.

“Sorry,” he looks back at her.  “I just want to protect you that’s all.”

“I know, I'm sorry I didn’t listen to you.  Trust me, you’re not the only one that has chewed my ass out tonight,” she glances at Ryan sitting on the bed.  He looks highly upset.  We have seen a lot of domestic abuse cases and it hits home when it is someone close to us.  I'm sure he is beside himself knowing it could have been stopped with a simple phone call.  “I just wanted to see how you were feeling.  Ryan is going to head out here in a little bit once he is gone I'm going to bed.”

“Ok, good night,” Jake says.  She goes back in her bedroom and shuts the door.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”  He looks at me.

“Because it wasn’t my place Jake.”

“Do you think she should be alone tonight?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe you should ask Ryan to stay with her?”

“I should?” I look at him.

“Jo, she is my baby sister, I'm worried about her.  I knew something was off when I talked to her this morning.  She is obviously shaken about it.”

“Yeah, I will talk to him,” I smile and walk over and knock on the door. She opens it, “can I talk to Ryan?”  He gets off the bed and comes in the hall.  I make sure he shuts the door before I start talking.  “Why are you going home?”

“Because she wants to be alone.  She thinks I am pissed at her about not telling me about this guy.”

“Are you?”  Jake pipes in.  I look over at him and give him a look that tells him to bud out and he turns and walks to the bedroom.

“No,” Ryan shakes his head.  “I want to stay, I'm worried about her.  We have seen a lot of this and I want her to know that I am here for her.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“I tried; she keeps telling me she is fine.”

“I'm going in to talk to her,” I open the door and walk in before he can say anything and then shut the door behind me.  “Molly, why are you pushing Ryan away?”

“He is mad at me for not telling him about William.”

“No, I don’t think he is.  He has been worried sick about you since Jake called this morning asking about you.  He knew when he talked to you that something was wrong.  Did he tell you what we deal with at work most of the time?” She shakes her head.  “I am willing to bet that 70% of our cases that we get are domestic abuse cases, most of them involving a child.  We see a lot of this, and we know what it does to the victim.  He wants to make sure you are ok Molly.  He is not mad at you.  I can promise you that.  Pushing away the guy that cares about you is the worst thing that you can do right now.”

She looks at me and I can see tears forming in her eyes, I pull her into a hug.  She has broken like most people do.  I hear the door open and see Ryan walk in.  He sits down next to me and I can feel him rubbing her leg.  She looks up and him and lets go of me and goes to him.  He pulls her close and just holds her.  I look at him and smile.  I know he isn’t going anywhere tonight.  I get up and leave the room and go down to Jake’s room.  He is taking his clothes off and getting into his shorts.

“Talk him into staying?”

“Wasn’t him I had to talk to,” I sit down on the bed.  I realize that I have no clothes with me.  “You know what; I didn’t go home after work tonight.  I have nothing to wear.”

“Sure you do,” he throws a t shirt at me.  I laugh when I see it is his team t shirt with his name on it.

“This may work for tonight, but not tomorrow.” I get off the bed and go out of the bedroom and back down the hall.  I knock on Molly’s door.  Ryan opens it.  “Sorry, I just need to borrow some clothes from Molly.”

“Sure, she is in the shower, grab whatever you need,” he backs up and lets me in.

“She ok?”

“Yeah, I knew it was bound to happen.  But I didn’t realize she was trying to hide it that much from me.  Thank you for talking to her.”

“That’s what I'm here for,” I smile.

“Who’s in here?” I hear her yell from the shower.

“Sorry Molly, just me.  Is it ok if I borrow some clothes for work tomorrow?  This was an unplanned trip overnight tonight.”

“Yeah, no problem take whatever you need Jo.”  I go to the dresser and grab a couple things and leave.  I go back into Jake’s room and go right into the bathroom and wash my face and brush my teeth and put his t shirt on.  I open the door and look at him and smile.

“You look so damn good in that shirt,” he smiles.

“Well thank you,” I laugh and get in bed next to him.  “I would say you look good in your shirt too, but you aren’t wearing one.  Actually I think I like this look much better,” I run my fingertips across his chest.  He takes a deep breath and smiles at me.

“You do bad things to me Jo,” he smirks.

“Yeah, I know,” I laugh and sit back and get close to him.  He puts his good arm around me and pulls me close.  “So what are we watching?”

“Well I'm not sure, you want to look at movies, or is there a show you want to watch?”

“Doesn’t matter.  To be honest I might be out in less than ten minutes,” I laugh.

“Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Here I will set the sleep to thirty minutes and we will find something.”  He flips through the channels and picks something to watch.  I lay on his chest and he rubs my back.  I feel so good lying here next to him.

“Well, it looks like everything is all set for tomorrow,” Chief says to me Friday afternoon while we are going over the plans for our bust tomorrow.  “Has Ryan talked to Lewis at all?”

“Yeah, he called yesterday.  Lewis got a call from them saying that he needs to be there at 8:00 tomorrow night.”

“Ok, well everyone will be ready to move out on your say Jo.  Just be careful and try not to get into too much trouble,” he laughs.

“I'm sure I will be fine.  Hoping I won’t even have to go in.  SWAT should be able to take care of most of it.”

“Yeah, hopefully.”

“Although, it would be amazing to see the look on those guys faces when they realized they are busted,” I smile at him

“Yeah, it will be nice to get rid of one of the biggest problems.  Maybe it will send a message to the rest of them.”  I smile and look at my watch; it is 4:00 already.

“I think I am going to head out.  Jake and I are going to dinner tonight and I want to go home and clean up a little first.”

“Sounds good, see you tomorrow.  What time are you coming in?”

“I will be here by 10:00.  I want to go over some fine details with the team and make sure we are all on the same page.”

“Alright, see you then,” I get up and walk out of his office.  I walk to my office and see Ryan sitting there.  “Hey,” I say as I sit at my desk and start shutting down my stuff.

“Hey,” he seems distracted.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing, just trying to dig around on this William guy.”

“Ryan, let DCPD take care of it.”

“Easy for you to say, you haven’t seen Molly the last two nights.  She wakes up crying every hour.”

“You knew that would happen Ryan, we see this all the time.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier Jo.”

“I know that, but what else can you do?  Beating the shit out of him isn’t going to get you anywhere but put in jail.”

“I know, it’s just frustrating knowing there is nothing I can do for her.”

I pull open the top drawer of my desk and grab a card out.  “Here, this is Lisa’s card.  Have her call Lisa.  It’s what she does Ryan; she deals with sexual abuse victims.  I know she says he didn’t try to rape her, but at least it would give her someone that she trusts to talk to about it.  Someone other than you or me.”

“Ok, I will try and get her to call.”

“That’s all you can do.  Now, I am going to get out of here.  Jake and I have a dinner date tonight and I want to go home, clean up and enjoy my night before all hell breaks loose tomorrow.”

He smiles, “have fun.  Try not to get to crazy wild tonight,” he laughs.

“I think there will be no chance of that.  He is still really sore from his arm getting hurt.  He is finally off the pain killers, but I think that is just because he wants to drive tonight.”

“When did he stop taking those?”

“Yesterday after practice when he stopped putting it in a sling.”

“They let him take it out?”

“Well, he says they told him as long as he didn’t use it he didn’t have to sling it.”

“I hope he is listening.”

“I'm sure he isn’t, you know how he is,” I laugh.  “Well, I'm outta here, see you tomorrow morning.”  I get up and head out.  I call Jake when I get to my car, he should be done with practice by now, I think he said they were only going to be there until like 1:00.

“Hey baby,” he answers

“Hey, I just wanted to call and let you know I am going home to shower and change then I will be on my way over.”

“Why don’t I just pick you up?”

“I have to have a car tomorrow to go to work.”

“You can take mine; I don’t have a problem with that.”

“Really?  You’re going to let me drive your fancy car again?”

“I trust you to drive it so yes I will let you drive it.”

“Ok, that’s fine, if you want to pick me up.”

“So like an hour?”

“Yeah, that should give me enough time.”

“See you in an hour.”

“Ok,” I smile and hang up.  I go home and get in the shower and get ready for our date.  Other than when we went out down in Virginia Beach we have never gone out to eat anyplace before.  I do my hair nice and put on some makeup when I get out of the shower then go in the bedroom.  I got a new dress the other day that I have been waiting to show off to Jake, he is going to love it.  I pull it on and look in the mirror. Its knee length and light yellow.  I love how it flows with my body.  I smile; it’s amazing how I have changed my attitude about dating in the last couple weeks.  I slip into my heels and go downstairs.  I remember that I wanted to wear my necklace and go back to my bathroom and put it on.  I walk back downstairs and see him pulling into the driveway.  I walk to the door when I see he is about ready to knock.

“Wow,” his mouth drops when I open the door.  “Jo, you look absolutely amazing,” he smiles that smile at me and pulls me close and kisses me.

“You like this dress?” I smile when he lets go of me and I step back a little bit.

“I love it! When did you get it?”

“The other day when I went and finished school shopping for the girls.  I saw it and loved it immediately.”

“Well I love it too.”

“Good,” I smile.  “You don’t look half bad yourself,” he is wearing black slacks with black dress shoes and a light green button up shirt.  He has his hair messy the way I like it and he smells amazing as usual.

“Not nearly as good as you,” he grabs my hand.  “You ready to go?”

“Let me grab my bag and sweater,” I walk to the kitchen.  I grab my things of the table and walk back to the door.  “Ok,” I smile at him.  We walk to the car and he opens the door for me.  I get in and he goes around the car and gets in.  “So how is your arm?”

“Better, not nearly as sore as it was the last two days.  I can use my arm for simple things like driving,” he smiles, “but no lifting or anything like that.  It sucks, I'm used to being able to do that kind of stuff.”

“Yeah, that would suck.  Well how long before they let you play?”

“At least two weeks, not sure yet.  Coach has me benched right now, telling my backups what to do basically.”

“The boss?”

“Yes, just like you,” he laughs.

“Feels good sometimes doesn’t it?”  I laugh.

“Yeah, sometimes.  But I would rather be playing.”

“Understandable.  So where are we going?”

“It’s called Marty’s.  I found it not long after I moved up here.  Their porterhouse here is to die for.”

“Good, because I am starving.  Chief had me running around all over today.”

“I was surprised when you called me at 4:00.  I thought for sure you wouldn’t get done before like 5:30 with your big bust tomorrow.”

“Yeah, well I am going to be spending sixty hours a week for the next two weeks at least there, I'm pretty sure he can give me a couple hours tonight,” I laugh.

“Yeah, things are going to get crazy from here on out for me too.  It’s going to suck not being able to see you as much anymore,” he grabs my hand.  “But that is when we make the most of the time we have right,” he kisses the back of my hand.

“You bet, every minute that we can.”

“After we are done with dinner tonight I have some house plans to look at with you.  I finally got a rough draft for us to go over.”

“Oh yeah, is it what you wanted?”

“Yes, I think so.  Just want to see if you have any thoughts at all.”

“Ok,” I smile at him.  We get to the restaurant and I see right away why he wanted to come here.  It is very private and we have pretty much a room to ourselves.

“So, don’t be mad at me, but I bought you something today.  And I know you are going to throw a fit about it but don’t.”  I look at him.  He pulls a box out of his pocket and I can tell right away it is from a jewelry store.  “Just open it before you say anything,” he says before I can say a word.  I take it from him and open it.  Inside is the most beautiful bracelet I have ever seen I notice right away there are three different stones in a pattern around the entire thing.  “The girls and your birth stones,” he smiles at me.

“I didn’t know you knew that.”  I'm shocked.  I don’t remember telling him when our birthdays where.

“You didn’t.”

“Annie?”

“Who else?”  He grabs my hand.  “I know you don’t like me spending money on you Jo, but I saw it and wanted to get it for you.  Please don’t be mad.”

“I'm not,” I look at him.  “I love it Jake, thank you.”

“Good I'm glad,” he takes it from me and takes it out of the box and puts it on my wrist.  “It looks amazing.”

“Why did you want to get it for me?”

“Because I loved it.  I thought it would suit you.  Not too flashy but very pretty.”

“Well good choice,” I look at it.  It is so pretty.  He has really good taste in jewelry.  “Did you pick it out all by yourself?”

“Yes, I did.  They actually tried selling me a different one, but I liked this one much more.”

“Did you spend too much on me?”

“I could never spend too much on you,” he smiles that smile, and for the first time in a few days I actually blush.  “Oh, I got my touch back,” he teases me.  I just shake my head and look at the menu.  We order our food and talk a little about his trip to Denver.  “I'm really not looking forward to spending five days there, especially since I'm not even playing.”

“Well enjoy your time away then.”

“Time away from you,” he pouts.

“I'm not going anywhere I will be here when you get back,” I laugh.  Our dinner arrives and we eat quietly.  He is right their food here is amazing.  At about 6:30 we are done eating and he is paying the bill and we are headed back to his place.  “You know I am beginning to think that I should just keep some clothes at your place I have been staying there so much.”

“You’re more than welcome to.  You can bring over whatever you and the girls need.”

“I don’t know that I will be staying over as much when the girls are home.  Especially during the week now with school starting.”

“Yeah, well maybe I should bring some clothes to your house and stay there then,” he smiles.

“I'm ok with that, and I'm sure the girls would love it.”  I watch out the window as we drive back to his place.  He pulls into his driveway and I see Ryan’s car sitting there.  Not that I am surprised but almost figured he would have been working with Lucas tonight.  “I'm surprised he isn’t working tonight at the restaurant.”

“Me too actually, I thought we would have the house to ourselves.  I thought Molly was going out with one of her friends.”  He parks the car in the garage and we walk in the house.  I see Ryan and Molly sitting on the couch watching a movie.  He smiles at me.  Something is wrong I can tell.

“Hey, no work tonight?”  I walk in by them.

“No, Lucas hired two new cooks and wanted to put them to the test tonight.” He looks up at me.  I can tell something is off.

“Ah, well a good night to have off is a Friday,” I smile.

“Yeah, that it is.  So you are all dressed up where did you go?” He looks back at Jake.

“Marty’s, wanted a night out before things got too crazy,” he smiles.  “What are you guys up to?”

“Just watching a movie,” Molly looks over at him.  This is the first good look I have gotten and she has been crying.  I look at Jake and shake my head because I know he wants to drill her with questions right now.

“Ah, well we are going to look at some house blueprints in the kitchen if you need us,” he smiles.

“House blueprints?” Ryan looks at me.

Jake raises his brows at me; he knows that I have not said anything to Ryan yet, “So she didn’t tell you yet huh?”

“Tell me what?” He sits up a little bit.

I sit down on the chair next to him because this is going to take a while.  “Well, if things continue to go as well as they are right now, in December the girls and I will be moving into a new house with Jake not far from my place.”

“You just bought the duplex,” he looks at me.

“I know, I have to rent it out.  I'm not going to sell it.  I like owning it.  I thought maybe I could find someone that needed a place of their own to rent it to,” I smile at him.

“Oh really?” He shakes his head and looks down at Molly.  “Sounds like you might be getting the boot,” he laughs.

“Well, she is going to need a place, and I'm pretty sure you won’t want to live with my brother that much longer.  I lived with him for sixteen years and he is a slob,” I laugh.

“That might be a possibility,” Molly smiles. “I mean I know the landlord so I might have it made getting in,” she looks at me.

“Nah, I don’t think you would have any problems.”

“I'm happy for you,” Ryan looks at me.  “Plus I really like that place so you know I would take it in a heartbeat.”

“You can have pretty much all the furniture too since Hailey took everything.”