Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (16 page)

I shake my head and turn back to my coffee.  I will not have the energy to deal with the girls until I at least get my coffee started.  Jake walks up behind me and puts his arms around me.  “Want me to run to the store?”

“No, they are fine.  I'm sure that is what they did at my mom’s all weekend one more day isn’t going to hurt them.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”  He seems satisfied with my answer and starts kissing my neck.  It sends chills down my back and makes all the hair on my body stand straight up.  “Jake, stop it,” I try to move out of his grip.  He doesn’t let me go and just keeps kissing me.  “If you don’t stop I'm going to have to use my training to get away from you,” I say all breathy.  I feel his smile against my shoulder and he backs away.  “What are you doing?”  I turn and look at him.

“I couldn’t resist, I'm sorry,” he smirks at me. 

“Well, you better behave with the girls around,” I try to sound stern and fail miserably.

“You’re not very good at hiding what you really want,” he walks to the fridge and grabs the orange juice out.  “Speaking of what you really want, what was your attack on me last night all about?”

My jaw drops and I look at him.  “What attack?”

“Oh please, you would have ripped my clothes off if I wouldn’t have stopped you,” he tries to keep a straight face but fails.  I grab the paper towel that is sitting on the counter and chuck it at him.

“You’re a jerk!”

He is laughing hysterically.  “I'm sorry,” he picks up the paper towel and walks back over to me.  He stops laughing.  “I'm sorry,” he smiles.  “Trust me; I wanted it just as much as you did.”

“You put a stop to it not me,” I say.  I turn back to the coffee pot and wish it would brew faster.

“Hey,” he turns me back to face him.  “We agreed, and I want this to be based on how much we care about each other, not sex.”

“I thought we determined that last night too?”

“Determined what?”

“Our feelings.”

“No, I told you and you attacked me,” he smiles again.  I just stand there looking at him, not sure exactly what to say.

“Mommy, Lizzy won’t share the remote,” Abby runs in the kitchen.  “I want to watch Mickey and she is being mean.”  I walk into the living room thankful for the interruption.  I know that I will have to come to terms with my feelings for him, but right now is not the time.  I haven’t even had my coffee yet.  I deal with my screaming children and end up sending Lizzy to her room for a time out. 

“Here, I thought you might need this,” he hands me a cup of coffee when I walk back into the kitchen.

“Thank you,” I smile and take it from him.  “Look Jake, last night.”

“Jo, its fine, I didn’t actually expect you to say anything.  I know this is too fast for you.” He takes a drink of his coffee.  I look at him confused.  How can he know what I am thinking?  I actually wasn’t thinking that, but I will let him go with that.  I look at the clock, only 8:45.  I wish the morning would go faster so I can go to the station and get this meeting over.  “So when are you leaving for the beach?”  I can tell he is trying to lighten the mood.

“Hoping tomorrow morning.  Depends on how today goes at work.”  I look at him.  I can tell that he is a little upset about my non answer to his comment last night.  “Jake, why don’t you come with us?”

He looks at me a little shocked.  “Really?”

“Yeah, I mean everyone already saw us on the news and every way possible by now I'm sure, so what is the difference if we are seen together at the beach?”

“You really want me to go, or are you just trying to make me feel better?”

“A little of both.  You won’t let me talk to you about how I feel so I am trying to make you feel better.”

“So tell me,” he gives me a daring look.

It is way too early for me to have this kind of conversation with him.  I hear the doorbell ring.  Thank god!  I walk to the door and see my brother standing there.  “Hey,” I say when I open the door.  “What brings you over?”

“Mom wanted me to bring by the clothes that the girls left at the house,” he walks in the living room and sets them on the couch.  “So how’s it going?”  He sits down next to the bag that he just put down.

“Um, pretty good,” I see Jake walk around the corner and smirk at me.  He is daring me into telling my brother he is there.  I’ll play that game! “Lucas, this is Jake,” I point to him and smile back at Jake.

“Hey,” Jake walks into the room and holds out his hand.  I'm not sure whose mouth has dropped open more, Lucas’s or Jake’s.

“Jake, my little brother Lucas,” I'm feeling pretty good right about now.  Score one for me, I can’t help but smile.

“Nice to meet you,” Lucas stands up and shakes his hand.  “Sis I'm sorry I didn’t know you had company,” he backs toward the door.

“Its fine, he is just hanging out.  I have a work meeting today and Jake is going to stay with the girls.”  I smile at him, willing him not to leave yet because I know that I have just embarrassed the hell out of Mr. Super Star.

“A meeting?  I thought you were on vacation?”

“Yeah, I'm supposed to be, but this crap with Ryan needed to get taken care of.  I thought I told you that yesterday?”

“Yeah, I think your right, you did.  Yesterday is a blur.  There is a lot of information that I have had to take in the last couple days.”

I laugh, “Yeah, I feel you there,” I walk toward the kitchen.  “You want a cup of coffee?”

“Sure.”

I feel Jake turn and follow me to the kitchen.  “That was pretty unexpected,” he whispers in my ear.

“Was it?  Well it is only polite to introduce you isn’t it?”  I don’t have to look at him to know that he is smiling, and I know that I have him right where I want him.  “Jake, I feel the same.”  I turn and look at him.  I can see right away that he cannot think of anything to say.  I get up on my tip toes, kiss his cheek and take the coffee back into Lucas.  What did I just do?  Holy crap!  Now I have to make sure that Lucas stays for a little while and let Jake stew on that information for a while.  Lucas tells us about all the issues he is having with the building that he has the restaurant in.  Before I know it its 11:00.  I need to get the girls some lunch and get ready for my meeting.

“Well, I should get going anyway,” Lucas stands up.  “I will see you guys later,” he shakes Jake’s hand again.  “It was really nice meeting you.  Sis, take care.  Let me know you get to the beach ok, and have fun,” he kisses my cheek.

“Want me to run and get the girls some lunch?” Jake asks me when I lock the door behind Lucas.

“Sure, if you want.  Or I can call and order a pizza or something.”

“Hey,” he stops me when I try to walk past him to the kitchen.  “Did you just say that to make me feel better, or did you mean it?”

“You should know by now that I don’t take that kind of stuff lightly.  Why would I say something like that without meaning it?”

“Jo, I don’t want you to just have said it to make me feel better after what I told you last night.”

“You really think that I would do that?”  He doesn’t say anything and just stands there looking at me.  “Jake, after what I told you last night, why in the hell would you think I would say something like that to make you feel better?  If I didn’t mean it I would have never said it.  If you can’t accept that then I don’t know what to tell you.”  We stand there just looking at each other.

“Mommy, I'm hungry,” Lizzy walks into the living room.

“Ok baby, should I order a pizza?”  I don’t take my eyes off of Jake.

“Yeah, that sounds yummy.”  She turns and runs back to her room.  I break the eye contact and walk up to my bedroom.  I don’t know why I am so mad at him right now, but I really want him to disappear for a few minutes.  I sit on the edge of my bed and dial to order pizza.  Once I have that ordered I tell the girls to watch a movie in Lizzy’s room so that I can get ready for my meeting. 

I am in my bedroom getting clothes out so that I can take a quick shower and Jake comes in.  He sits down on the bed next to the clothes that I have laid out and just looks at me.  After what seems like forever he grabs my hand as I turn to get out a pair of shoes and pulls me in front of him.  He doesn’t say anything just pulls me close to him and kisses the back of my hand.  He trails kisses up my arm until he can’t reach any higher because he is sitting and I am standing.  He stands up and pulls me close to him and starts kissing me.  It’s that hungry kiss again and I know that at that point I am no longer mad at him.  It’s so hard for me to control myself when he kisses me like this.  I lose all train of thought.

He pulls away and puts his forehead up against mine like he does and runs his fingers down my cheek to my neck.  “I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to accuse you of not having those feelings, and I know you wouldn’t say it if you didn’t feel it.”  He kisses me again.  “I'm just scared that if I tell you too much of how I feel you will get freaked out and run in the other direction.”

“Let’s get something straight right now,” I push him down so he is sitting back on the bed.  “I'm not going anywhere.  I keep telling you, now that you have met my kids you’re in it for the long haul.  My kids are attached, and so am I.”  I kiss him.  “You’re just going to have to get used to having us around.”  I give him one more long passionate kiss then turn and walk toward the bathroom with all my clothes in my arms.  There, let him stew on that one for a while.  Score two for me! I'm on a roll.

I take a deep breath as I stand outside Chief Lorenz’s door and knock.  Here goes nothing.  “Come in,” I hear him say. 

“Hi Chief.”  I smile at him.

“Hey Jo, how’s it going?”

“Not too bad.  Not sure I'm ready for this.”

He laughs, “We will get it taken care of.  Have a seat,” I points at the chair across from his desk.  “So,” he takes out a file from one of his drawers, “first things first.  You want to add someone to your team?  Who did you have in mind?”

“Officer Turner.  She is very qualified and she has a great team attitude.  I have had my eye on her for a while now and I have heard nothing but good from her superiors.”

“I knew you had your eye on her.  I already talked to her Lieutenant and got the ok to move her up.  Should we pull her in and offer her the position?”

My mouth drops open, “Sure,” that was easier then I had anticipated.

He smiles at me, “Jo, when are you going to understand that I have complete faith in your choices?  This is your team, and I am going to let you run it and build it up the way that you want to.  You know what that means though don’t you?”

“What’s that?”

“More paper work,” he laughs at me.  “Because I don’t want to handle it anymore so by me giving you this power makes it your responsibility.”

“Oh, thanks Chief just what I want is more paperwork to do.  I have always wanted that,” I joke with him.

“Sure, no problem, but that also means a raise for you.”

I smile, “I'm ok with that.”

“I figured you would be.”  He picks up his phone.  “Yeah Walsh, can you send Officer Turner up to the board room for me please,” he sets it back down and looks at me. “Let’s go promote a new detective.”

“In training,” I laugh.

“Yeah, in training.  I think two detectives on your team are enough for now.”  He gets up and walks to the door.  I follow him down the hall to the board room and we go in and wait for Officer Turner to show up.  I hear a knock on the door and she opens it.  I see that she is nervous, I'm sure that Chief has probably never called her into a meeting before.  She seems to relax a little when she sees me standing there.  “Hi Officer Turner,” I smile at her.

“Hi,” she smiles back.

“Have a seat,” Chief says to her and points to one of the chairs across from us.  “So, you have been called in here today by Detective Lewis,” he looks at me and nods.

“Right, so Chief has given me control of the Investigations unit that Detective Parker and I have been building up for the last couple years.  Along with that I have been given the go ahead to add another officer to the ranks.  I have thought long and hard about this and came to the conclusion that I would like to offer you the opportunity to work on our growing team,” I look at her.  She is in shock.  Pretty sure this is not what she had expected when she walked into the room.  “Of course it means more hours, and a little bit of a pay raise, but along with that comes more responsibility and harder work.  We bust our butts on this team and we need someone that is going to put forth just as much effort as the rest of us.  I have had great things said to me about you and your ability to work with others and make sure that the job gets done.  So, it’s up to you, I have gotten the ok from Lieutenant Jacobs to take you away from him.”  I look at her.  I can see her processing. 

She smiles, “I would love to join your team Detective!”

“Great,” Chief smiles.  “I will have some paper work for you to fill out to transfer.  Now Jo is off for the next two weeks so you will start the Monday that she comes back.”

“Perfect,” she smiles at us both.  “Thank you so much for this opportunity.”

“You deserve it,” I smile back.  “Just keep up the good work and you will go far.”  Chief stands up so do I.  I reach my hand across the table and shake hers.  “Welcome to the team.”

“Thank you so much Detective,” she doesn’t stop smiling.

“Please, call me Jo,” I smile.

“I will send the paperwork down to Lieutenant Jacobs for you to fill out and turn into HR.  In the meantime we are having a division meeting at 2:00 and I would like for you to keep this quiet until then.  Jo’s team does not know about the addition so we will reveal it to them then.”

“Sounds good.  Do you want me present in the meeting?”

“Yes, I have already arranged for someone to take your route for the next couple hours so just make yourself busy for the next forty-five minutes and we will see you back here at 2:00,” Chief smiles at her. 

“Yes sir,” she smiles and turns to leave.  “Thank you again for this opportunity.”

We both nod.  I smile when she leaves the room.  It feels so good to have the say in what is going on.  I feel like there are going to be a lot of happy people today.  One unhappy, but for the most part I think I will have my team all set by the time I leave here.  That reminds me, “Chief,” I say.

“Yeah Jo?”

“I have decided to only take off the rest of this week.  I think with all the changes that it is best if I am here to oversee everything.”

I see him contemplate for a little while but he decides not to argue with me.  “If that’s what you want then that’s fine.  I wish you would take the time that you deserve though.”

“I will, I just feel like after all the changes that I will be making I need to be here to oversee and make sure everything goes well.”

“I understand that.  So, what’s next?”

“I'm not sure I'm ready for this one.”  I look down at the file in front of me.  “Ryan.”

“I will go get him.”  Chief gets up and goes out of the room.  I take a deep breath.  I know this is going to be hard.  Not something that I am really looking forward to at all.  After all the crap that Ryan and I have been through telling him that he will no longer be my partner is not something that is highly ranked on my list of things to do.  I hear the door open and see Ryan and Chief both walk in.  I can see his face drop as soon as he sees me sitting there.

“Hi Jo,” he tries to smile but fails.

“Hey,” I manage to find my voice.

“Have a seat Ryan,” Chief takes his place back next to me. “I want you to know this right off the bat.  I am not the reason you are here.  If this was my choice you would be back down on the patrol squad after the way that you treated her the other day.  But I have handed this situation over to Jo, and she has made some decisions that I back 100%.  If you don’t like it, then we will go from there.”  Chief gives me a nod telling me he is done and I am about ready to start my speech to Ryan.

“Can I say something before you start?” Ryan looks at me.  I just look at him.  Chief waves his hand telling him to go ahead.  “I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for talking to you the way that I did.  I know it was inappropriate and I should have never said the things that I did.  You have been through hell and I hate that I made this harder for you,” he looks right at me as he talks.  “I am supposed to be your partner and have your back at all times and I let my personal issues get in the way of that.  I promise both of you if I am allowed to keep my job on this team I will never let something like this happen again.  If I do, I will gladly walk out that door and not bother looking back.”

I just sit there looking at him in shock.  Not really sure how to process what he just said.  “Ryan, I know things are difficult for you right now, and I understand that more than anyone.  You know that I am here for you no matter what.  You got me through some of the worst days in my life and I am going to repay that favor.”  I take a deep breath, “but with that being said this is not about our friendship.  This is about me running this team and doing what is best for it.  Chief has given me control of this unit and I am going to do everything I can to make sure that we run as a well-oiled team. I have made some changes within the people that already make up our team and I have added someone new.  First things first, you will no longer be running this team with me.  You will be working side by side with Officer Wilson to make sure that things are handled and he will be taking over some of your duties.  I have looked back and some of the things that are being handled and I think your work load is too much.  I want this to be equal for everyone.”

“So you are running us as a division then?”

“Jo is now the leader of this division.  Head Detective of Investigations.  She will lead not only your team, but work with the other detectives from the other branches.  You will answer to her.”

I see a little bit of shock in Ryan’s eyes.  “Sounds good,” I see him smile.  Maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

“Ryan, I just think this is a better move for the entire team,” I say as calmly as I can.  This is tearing me up having to tell him this.

“I agree,” he sits up more in his chair.  “I think you will be a great leader Jo.  And I am glad that you decided to keep me as a part of this team.”

I look at Chief and nod telling him that I am done.  “Alright, that’s all for now.  Jo and I have a few things to go over before the rest of the team comes in.  We will see you in a few minutes,” he is nicely telling Ryan to leave.

He stands up and looks at me and smiles.  I can tell that he is more grateful than I thought he would be.  I thought for sure he was going to hate me.  He leaves the room and as soon as he is gone I feel like I have not taken a breath the entire time he was in there.

“You ok?”  Chief looks at me.

“Yeah, I think so.  He took that better than I had thought he would.”

“That’s because he knows you will be a great leader Jo.  I am more than willing to bet that any cop in this building would be more than happy to work for you.”  He smiles at me.  “One thing though, I need to know being your boss, is this mumbo true about you and Jackson Adams.”

I can’t help but laugh, “Because you’re my boss, or because you are curious,” I ask him.

“Maybe a little of both.”

“Well, it is true, yes I am dating the most eligible bachelor in Baltimore,” I roll my eyes.

“Good for you!  It’s about time you find yourself a man!”  I shake my head at him and just look at my papers I have sitting in front of me.  I am about to say something when I hear a knock at the door.  It opens and I see Officers Wilson and Larson walk in.  I motion for them to sit down and know that the others are not far behind them.  I get everything ready to go over with them. 

“I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to get together on such short notice.  I know you guys have a lot of stuff on your plates right now, but we needed to get a few things taken care of before Jo goes out of town for a few days,” Chief starts the meeting.  “Now I have something that I want to announce before I let Jo have the floor.  Starting today she will be leading this team.  You no longer answer to me or come to me for anything unless Jo isn’t around.  As of this moment she is your team leader, the head of your department.  Anything now goes through her and she will bring things to me if she feels it needs to.”  He sits back down and everyone starts clapping.  I had not expected this to be the reaction.

“Thanks Chief,” I smile at him.  “My first move as the head of the department was bringing on someone new.  I know how shorthanded we are and have decided that we need to add someone that can do the job just as well as the rest of us.  So on that note, I know you all noticed Officer Alicia Turner sitting here, she is our newest member.  She is going to need help learning the ropes around here so I expect everyone to help her as much as possible.  Angela I am going to have you work side by side with her for a few weeks just to make sure she is catching on and to help her learn everything.”  Angela nods at me and smiles. 

I take a deep breath, now to tell everyone about Ryan.  “As Chief has given me this great opportunity to run this unit I sat down and took a look at some things on the team.  I have been working side by side with most of you for the last two years and we have made this unit what it is today.  Chief has detectives from other branches calling and asking how we handle our investigation so well and what our secret is.  When he asks me I tell him it is our team work.  We all work very well together, and I think that stems from the fact that we all trust each other.  Now there have been some things that were brought to my attention the last couple days that have really made me sit down and look at the outline of this team.  And I have decided to take a few things and move them around.”  I grab the stack of papers I have sitting in front of me and pass one sheet to everyone.  “I have outlined the changes and what everyone will now be taking over.  For the most part not much has changed.  I took a few things from Ryan and handed them to Bob, now if there is something that you don’t know how to do, or need help handling, let me know.  This is not written in stone and I want all of us to be able to work together.”  I look at Ryan.  I feel so bad calling him out like this in front of our entire team, but it needs to be done.

“I know most of you were here Saturday when I came in to take care of some stuff.”  Ryan looks at me and I see the hurt in his eyes because he knows what I am about to say.  “I need to know if any of you feel like there is anyone on this team that you cannot trust.  It was brought to my attention that some feel I can no longer do my job.  This was discussed at length with Chief Lorenz and we have taken care of some of the issues that were causing that, but I know for a fact how hard it is to work so closely with someone that you can’t trust.  So on that note, please tell me right now if any of you feel this way about anyone, even if that person is me.”  I look around at all my team members and everyone is shaking their head.  I look at Ryan and see him relax.  “Good, then only one more thing.  Let’s keep up our great work and keep doing what we are doing.  Like Chief said, if you have any problems, let me know from this point on, I am here for you all.  I will be gone the rest of this week so I am going to have Bob and Ryan work together on what we currently have and then come next week Monday we will be functioning as a full team,” I smile and look around the room.  I feel comfortable with this group of people.