Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (26 page)

“Where are they going to stay?”

“Not at my place if that is what you are worried about.  Joan is going to have them stay at one of the hotels on the north side of town.  Try and keep them out of the spot light at least through next week.  My sisters start school like in two weeks so we are hoping it will blow over so they can be back home before then.  But you are going to have to meet them,” he smiles at me.  I look up at him and notice that his mood has lightened.  I think he likes the idea of me meeting his family.  “You need to get back to your place so we can do this so we can go back to my place and relax.  I have invited a bunch of people over and I want you to myself for at least two hours before they show up.”  He gives me that smile.  Before I let it get to me I turn and walk away and back my Annie, my mom, and Lucas.

“What’s going on?”  Annie asks when I get back.

“Some crap with his family.  This shit with his brother has the media going crazy right now.”

“Are you involved in that Jo?”

“Annie, you know I can’t talk about that.”

“By that answer I will assume that you are.  Please be careful.  I would hate for you to get hurt trying to help his brother.  He seems like a low life.”

“It’s the drugs Annie.  I told Jake the same thing.  I think he is a good guy, just mixed up with a very bad crowd right now.”

“Here we go everyone,” I hear Joan say then next thing I know they open the door.  There is a flood of people that come in.  It is a mad house for three hours, I frequently look in Jake’s direction and he looks happy signing autographs and having little conversations with people.  I see a lot of people smile at me, not sure if the recognize me, but mostly assume they do. 

Its 2:00 and the line is finally gone, we have a few people that come through randomly but the last half hour has been pretty slow.  I walk around checking things out.  Ed tells me that they are almost out of corn which is amazing.  I stop and talk to Ryan; he seems to be doing really good.  He is excited for me to be back to work on Monday.  I also find out that he has been invited over to Jake’s for dinner tonight as has the entire team.  I see Chief Lorenz walk in and he comes over to us.  “Quite the crowd you have here,” he smiles at me.  I am not used to him being so dressed down.  He is just in street clothes and a baseball cap.  He looks much younger dressed like this. 

“Yeah, it turned out really good.” I smile at him.

“So you ready to get back to work yet?”  He asks.

“Yeah, getting there,” I smile.  “Hoping to get this next case over and done with.”

He smiles, “fingers crossed it goes quickly.  But, we know the odds of that happening don’t we?”

“For the sake of Jake’s family, I hope this one is better than the odds.  The media is really tearing this one apart.”

“Yeah, that’s never a good thing.  Hopefully we can get done what we need to with them having their noses in it.”

“Yes, I agree.”  I see Jake come into the kitchen and see that he is looking around.  He smiles when he spots me and starts in my direction.  “Ready to meet him?”  I ask Chief.  He turns and sees Jake coming toward us.

“Hey,” he smiles and kisses my cheek when he is standing next to me.

“Hey, Jake this is Chief Lorenz, Chief Jake.”

“Hey, call me Miles,” he reaches out and shakes Jake’s hand.

“Good to meet you, Jo talks about you all the time,” Jake smiles at him.

“I do not,” I poke him in the stomach.

“Ok, no she doesn’t,” he laughs.  “Just the last few days.”

“I tell you what Jake; we are going to bust our asses to get this taken care of.  You know that I have my best detectives on the case,” he winks at me.

“So I’ve heard,” Jake grabs my hand.  “As long as she is safe, that is all I care about.”

“I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, she has a good team surrounding her.  One that she has hand-picked and from what I have seen from the last seven years I have worked with her, I trust her judgment, sometimes more than my own,” he jokes.

“Good, now if you don’t mind, I would like to get this lovely lady out of here, I have plans with her,” he smiles and reached out the shake Chief’s hand again.

“Sounds good, it was nice to meet you.  Jo, I will see you on Monday,” he smiles at me then turns toward the door.

“What have you been doing out there?”  I ask him when we are alone.

“Taking pictures for the paper and talking to like six news crews.  This is a big thing for this station so the news crews got first pick at everything.  They had a lot of questions about you,” he smiles.  “But, I tried not to answer them.”

“Why do they want to know about me?”

“Jo, seriously?  You are the only girl that has ever been seen with me.  Probably the only relationship they know about I'm sure.  It’s apparently news worthy.  Enough talking, I want to go.  I want you to myself until people show up at the house.” He grabs my hand and leads me to the door.

“It’s not going to be that easy to get me out of here you know.  I have a lot of people to say good bye to.”

“No you don’t, they are all coming to the house later.”

“Not all of them.  What about my mom and Lucas?”

“They will be there, along with Annie, Michael, Ryan, your entire team, Bobby, Mark, Lisa, and like six more.  We can talk to them then.”

“You are very selfish,” I tease him.

“I have you to myself for two hours in the next who knows how long.  We won’t get to be alone very much tomorrow because my family is landing at about 8:00 tomorrow morning.  And then we both go back to work on Monday.  So I am being selfish, yes.  Now can we please go?”

I smile at him, “yes, we can go.”

“Good,” he waves to the group of people that are standing in the kitchen and out the door we go.  We get in the car and before I am even sitting down he grabs me and kisses me.  His crazy passionate kiss.  When he pulls away we are both out of breath.

“What was that all about?”

“I have wanted to do that since I talked to you about my family and you were so calm and calmed me down.  And you look so good today; I just wanted to do it.”  He smiles and starts the car.  We ride quietly back to his house.  I see that the crowd of people that was there this morning is gone.  He pulls into the garage and gets out of the car and around to my side.  He opens the door and helps me out like normal.

“Why do you do that?”  I ask as I shut the door.

“Because I am a gentleman,” he laughs.  “I don’t know, I was taught that way.  My dad to this day still does it for my mom.”

“I was just curious, I like it,” I smile at him.  We walk into the house and I take my flats off at the door.  He walks in to the bar and gets us both a beer.  “Thank you for doing that today, it meant a lot to me.  And I'm sure helped the department out a great deal.”

“Hey, it was a Saturday well spent.  I got to watch you from a distance doing what you do best.”

“What is that?”

“Being selfless.  You do anything for anyone.  I saw you throw some money in the jar and give a couple little kids some pictures.  You are the most amazing person I know Jo, the more time I spend with you, the more I learn about you.  You are very comfortable around the guys at the department.”

“They are like my family, have been for eight years since Jarrod started there.  They would do anything for me, and I would do pretty much anything for them.”

He walks over to me from behind the bar and takes the beer out of my hand and puts both his and mine on the bar.  He grabs both of my hands and pulls them around his neck.  “Jo, you are so amazingly beautiful right now, I just want to kiss you.”  He leans down and kisses me.  A long passionate sensual kiss.  It makes every part of me tingle and ache at the same time.  He runs his hand up the outside of my leg and to my waist.  I feel his other hand at my chin then my neck and into my hair.  I hear a small groan come from him and that wakes my senses up even more.  I want him, right here, right now.  I try to pull away from him but he holds me close.  I can feel how turned on he is, and just let him keep running his hands over my back and legs.  He pulls back away from me just enough to pick me up in his arms.  Next thing I know he is carrying me up the steps to his room.  He is still kissing me when we get to his room.  He lays me down on the bed and climbs in next to me.  He stops kissing me and looks at me.  “Is this ok?”

I look into his eyes and see not what I had expected.  I thought I would see the need of a man that has been interrupted more than once by my kids, but I see a man that wants to be with me.  I know that he loves me, he has told me that.  But the look in his eyes right now puts it into perspective for me.  I know this isn’t a game to him, he wants this, and he wants me.  I don’t say anything I just nod, because for the millionth time he has me completely speechless.

“Please tell me if you change your mind,” he kisses me.  I feel him adjust in the bed and he is lying on his arm hovering above me.  I feel his hand move up my side and to my stomach.  He trails his fingers up my stomach to my breast.  My breath catches in my throat and he stops.  “You ok?”

I smile at him, “it’s been a really long time since anyone has touched me like this,” I pull him back down to kiss me.  He trails his fingers down to my skirt and unbuttons it, I feel him pull my shirt out and he slips his hand under.  I make good use of my hands and start to unbutton his shirt and pull it out from his pants.  There is that chest again.  I run my fingers across his chest and down his abs.  I hear him take a sharp breath.  He shrugs his shirt off then sits me up just enough to slip my shirt over my head.  I lay there with him looking down and me and realize that his is probably the most of me he has ever seen.  I don’t think he saw me with anything less than a tank top and the beach.

“You are so beautiful baby,” he smiles and kisses my neck.  He trails kisses down from my neck to my shoulder then across to my chest.  He unhooks my bra and slips it off.  I feel exposed.  I look up at him and see him smile at me.  It is a soft smile; it is almost a reassuring smile that he is not going to do anything that I don’t want to.  He lies down next to me and covers us up with the blanket.  He grabs my chin so I look at him.  “Are you ok?”

“Jake, I'm fine, I promise.”

“Good, because I have been wanting to do this since you walked out of that bathroom in just a towel this morning,” he gives me that smile.  Then before I can say or do anything he is kissing me again. 

~~~~~

“Jake?” I am lying on his chest running my fingers across it.

“Yeah?”  He is rubbing my shoulder.

“I love you,” I look up at him.  I see him smile.

“I love you too Jo,” he pulls me up to him and starts kissing me again.

“So what did you guys do with your alone time?”  Annie is drilling me about the last two hours.

“Nothing really, just spent time together.  His family is coming up tomorrow so we won’t really get to spend much time alone together.  Then it is back to the real world on Monday,”

“You are such a liar,” she smirks at me.  “Look at you Jo, you are glowing.  More than you were at the station.”

“What are you getting at Annie?”

“You totally did it!”

“What are we in high school again?  God Annie,” I laugh at her.  I pick my beer up off the bar and go outside.  I see Jake and Michael down by the pool uncovering it and cleaning up the bar he has down there.  I didn’t even know he had a pool until about an hour ago.  He told me he was going to stock the outside bar and that he needed to uncover the pool since he told everyone to bring their suits.

“Spill,” she grabbed my arm and turned me back around.

“He is amazing Annie, what can I say?”

“Ugh, you are so sickening, but I love it,” she smiles.  “Has he told you he loves you yet?”

“Yeah, he told me that when we were in Virginia Beach.”

“Have you told him?”

“Yes, today.”

“I knew it,” she is so giddy.

“You need to calm down; no one needs to know about this but you and me,”

“No one needs to know what?”  Jake walks up the steps.

“Nothing,” I answer too quickly.

“Oh, you told her huh?”  He smiles at me.

“She guessed,” my face turns bright red.

“Are you embarrassed?” His eyes get big.

“No, just don’t think something like that needs to be gossiped about,” I give Annie a dirty look.  I walk up to him.  “Why would I be embarrassed of you?”

“I don’t know, you are the one that is turning different shades of red not me.”

“I just don’t like sharing my extremely personal things with people.  Especially this personal.  This is between you and me, not her.  No one else needs to know what happens between us.” 

He looks at me and smiles.  “I agree,” he kisses me and goes into the house.

“Annie, please shut up about this.  It’s between Jake and me.”

“Ok Jo, I won’t say anything.  Why are you being so secret about things?”

“Because if you haven’t noticed our relationship is already in the spot light.  We don’t need rumors flying about what we do behind closed doors.  We don’t need more attention than we already have.”

“I understand and I'm sorry.  Can we go down in the pool now and relax?  I feel like we haven’t seen each other in forever and I would like to hang out like friends,” she smiles at me.  I nod and we walk down to the pool and sit by the bar.  Michael gets her a glass of wine and me a beer.

“So they had a good turnout at the station today,” Michael smiles at me.             

“Yeah, they did.  I hope it helps them.”

“I'm sure it did Jo.  What would they do without you there?”

I smile, “I'm sure they would be just fine.  And if you think about it, this would have never happened if it wasn’t for your overly pushy wife,” I smirk at Annie.

“Hey, you wouldn’t be as happy as you are if I wouldn’t have pushed you into him.  I think a lot of people have been made very happy because of me,” she gets a big grin on her face.  I just shake my head at her.

“I am going to go get my suit on, I will be right back.”  I walk upstairs and into the house.  I see that Mark and Lisa are pulling up to the house and I see Jake standing at the front door.  I go in and head for his room.

“Hey, where are you off to?”  He turns and looks at me.

“To put my swim suit on.  Annie is begging to go in the pool,” I smile.  “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for my friends,” he smiles that smile at me.  I shake my head and go upstairs.  I go into his room and get my suit out of my bag.  He told me to pack it when we were at the house, but I guess I didn’t really put two and two together because I was in a hurry to get over and see Lewis.  I wonder how he is doing as I am in the bathroom changing.  I take my phone out of my pocket. Its 5:00.  Maybe I should call the center and check in on him.  They have given him is own security guard at my request because we found out that the Warrens are trying to buy their way into the center.  I do have Dr. Manny’s number; I could call her and see how he is doing.  I pick her name and dial her number.

“Dr. Manny,” she answers.

“Hi Dr. Manny, this is Detective Jodene Lewis.  You are caring for a Lewis Adams that I have a watch on.”

“Oh yes, hi Detective Lewis.”

“Please call me Jo.”

“What can I do for you tonight Jo?”

“I am just calling to check on Lewis, see how he is doing?”

“He is good; I was actually just down to see him about an hour ago.  From what I can tell most of the drugs are out of his system.”

“Perfect, his family is coming into town tomorrow and I have a feeling his parents are going to want to see him.”

“Oh, I bet he would enjoy that very much.  He sure isn’t fond of his room right now.”

“Yes, I know that.  He told me that yesterday when I was there. But like I told him, I need to make sure that he is safe before I can release him from the hold.  I'm assuming that Chief Lorenz has you briefed on everything that is going on?”

“Yes, he has.  He told me that if I needed anything to make sure and contact you.”

“Perfect.  Well thank you for taking the time to talk to me,” I smile.

“No problem Jo, talk to you soon,” she hangs up.  I hang up and look around the room.  I see a picture on Jake’s dresser and walk over and look at it.  I see him and five other guys.  I recognize Lewis, and notice that for the most part they all look alike.  I can only assume it is all his brothers.  He looks happy.  He and his family must be a lot closer then I had realized.  I know he has issues with Lewis, but those are obvious to me right now.  But the rest of them he hasn’t told me much about yet.  I wonder why he is bringing his parents and younger brother and sisters up here instead of sending them to his older brothers or someone else’s place.  Maybe this is his way of making sure I meet them.  I smile at the thought.

“You snooping through my drawers?”  He walks into the bedroom.  I set the picture down.

“No, just admiring is all,” he walks over and puts his arms around my waist.

“That’s a good looking group of guys isn’t it?”  He kisses my neck.

“Yeah, some cuter than others,” I smile.  He turns me around and kisses me.

“You look good,” he runs his fingers down my side and kisses me again.

“Jake, stop,” I try to push him away.  “We have company, not now.”

I hear him groan, “Oh all right,” he looks at me.  “But promise we will have fun again later after everyone leaves?”

I don’t say anything just smile and shake my head at him.  We walk back downstairs and out to the pool.  I see that pretty much everyone has arrived that he invited over.  I walk around and talk to pretty much everyone.  I introduce Jake to everyone that hasn’t met him yet and he hits it off with everyone.  I see Mark at the grill and smile.  I need to introduce Annie to Lisa.  I look around and see Lisa sitting by the bar talking to my mom and Annie and Michael are sitting on the edge of the pool.  I wave for her to meet me at the bar.  I walk up next to Lisa, “hey,” I smile.

“Hey,” she smiles and gives me a hug.  “Sounds like the fundraiser was a success.”

“Yeah, I don’t know numbers yet, but there were a lot of people there,” I smile.  Annie walks up and stands next to me.  “Annie, this is Mark’s wife Lisa.  Lisa, this is my best friend Annie.”

“Nice to meet you,” Lisa reaches out to shake Annie’s hand.  Annie shakes her hand.  “I have heard a lot about you.”

“Yeah, me too,” Annie smiles.  “Sounds like you two had a fun time down at the beach.”

“Oh yes, maybe next time you and your husband can join us?”

“Maybe,” I see Annie smile at the thought.  “Maybe an adults only weekend?”

“Now that sounds fun,” I smile.

“Jake, they are doing a report on the fundraiser,” I hear one of the new guys yell from behind the bar.  Everyone gets quiet and he turns the TV up. 

“And in other news it seems some of the guys from the local football team have been spreading some generosity around.  The Town Street Fire Department held their annual corn roast today and along with getting some good grilled corn they could also get some good face time with four of the players.  Among them were Braden Houser, Matthew White, Mark Brooks, and of course the one and only Jackson Adams.  Now reports say that this is the fire house that Jackson’s new girlfriend’s husband was a part of.  We did get a little face time with Jackson, but of course he would not comment on the new woman in his life.  He was however extremely happy to be able to help out a local cause like this.  He says although he is not in the neighborhood of the Town Street Department he knows how much it means to everyone in the neighborhood.  When we had talked to Battalion Chief Ed Klug before we left he said they were well on their way to at least double what they had done in the past.  I guess thanks should go out to the guys and good job.”

I smile.  I knew that they would have a good turnout, but to double what they have done in the past is amazing.  I look over at Jake who is standing by the grill and smile at him.  He has no idea how amazing he is.  And I cannot believe how lucky I am to have him in my life.

~~~~~

“What a day,” Jake crawls in bed next to me.  “I'm exhausted.”

“I bet, being admired by a ton of people must really ware you out,” I laugh.

“You have no idea,” he smiles and pulls me close to him.  “But I want my time with you now,” he kisses me.

“Jake,” I pull back from him.  “Thank you so much for everything that you have done for me.  I don’t know what I would do without you right now.  You have really shown me a lot in the last few days.”

“Well, you have shown me what it is like to be strong.  I don’t know anyone that can handle all of the stuff that you have handled in the last few days.”

“I'm used to handling stuff, and I'm used to doing it on my own, like I have the last two years.  I didn’t have a choice but to be strong, I had two girls to raise.  I wasn’t going to get a break from life, so I learned to roll with things the best I could.”

“Not many people can do that Jo.  Especially alone.”  I smile at him.  After what I have been through the last few days have been easy.

“Well, I'm not alone anymore am I?”

“Absolutely not and please remember that,” he smiles and kisses me.  He runs his fingers up my side and to my strap on my tank top, just then his phone starts ringing.  “Who the hell is calling me this late,” he looks at the clock.  It’s already 10:30.  He grabs it off the night table and answers it.  “Molly what’s wrong?”  He sits up.  “Why didn’t you call me when you left?”  He sounds a little upset.  “So when does the plane land?”  I see him shake his head.  “Well thanks for the fifteen minute warning.  I will try and get there by then but I can’t promise, you may have to wait for a while.”  He stands up and goes to his dresser and pulls out a shirt.  “Well, then you should have called me before you left.  I'm sure mom has been bugging you all day.”  He sits back down on the bed.  “Ok, see you soon.” He hangs up.

“What was that about?”  I sit up.

“My sister is a pain in the ass.  She decided to come home and she is landing in fifteen minutes.  So I have to go and pick her up.  Apparently my mom called her and told her that she would love for her to be here so she can see her too.”

I laugh, “And she is just calling you now?”

“Yeah, she said she was busy packing all her stuff and getting a last minute flight out.  She is so frustrating.  But, I have to go and get her.  Why don’t you stay here and sleep.  I should be back hopefully in like an hour.”

“Ok,” I smile at him.  He stands up and puts his shirt on and grabs his keys off the dresser.  He walks around the bed and sits on the edge close to me.  “I will be back soon,” he kisses me and gets up and leaves.  I hear his car pull down the driveway and down the road.  I just sit there staring out the window.  How did I end up here?  How did I get so lucky?  I grab the remote off the night table and turn the TV on.  I find an old movie to watch and lay down and snuggle with my pillow.  It is so weird to be here without Jake.  Before I know it I am drifting off into a deep sleep.

I am standing outside Jarrod’s and mine house watching it burn to the ground.  I hear him yelling, telling me to get away.  I keep telling him no, I can’t I think that the girls are still inside because I can’t find them anyplace.  I feel the heat once I get closer and there are flames coming out the upstairs windows.  I feel someone grab me by the waist and pull me; I can’t see who it is.  All I can hear is my own screams telling them to let me go because I need to find my girls!

“Jo!”  Jake is shaking me. “Baby, wake up,” he is looking down at me worried.

“Jake?”  I sit up.  I'm sweating.