Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (43 page)

“That’s cool,” I smile at him not really sure what to say.

“Jo, I want you to go with me.”

“That’s a little big for me isn’t it?  I mean won’t there be a lot of press there?”

“That’s the reason that I want you to go.  I finally have the chance to show you off,” he grabs my hand.  “Baby this is something that you will have to get used to if we are going to be together.  This is part of my life also.”  I just sit there thinking.  I know he is right but that is so much more than I have ever had to deal with before.

“I wouldn’t have anything to wear,” is all I can come up with. 

He laughs and shakes his head.  “I'm sure we can get you something to wear.”

“How about we wait to talk about this until you get back on Monday?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he pulls up to the gate at his house.  He pulls up to the garage and parks the car.  “Do you want to come in?”

“Yeah, I see Ryan is here I would like to talk to him,” I unbuckle.  He walks around to my door and opens it and helps me out of the car.  My shoulder still hurts but not nearly as much as it did.  I follow him into the house and he lets my hand go when we get to the living room where Ryan and Molly are sitting looking at something.

“Hey,” Molly sees me and gets up.

“Hey,” I smile.  She walks over and hugs me.

“How you feeling?”

“Better, glad to be out of there.”

“I thought they were letting you out tomorrow morning?”  Ryan sets whatever they were just looking at on the table next to him.

“They were, but she begged the doctor to let her out tonight because she wants to take the girls to school in the morning,” Jake walks up behind me.

I smile, “that’s right I want to take my baby to school on her first day, sue me,” I sit down on the chair in front of me.

“Well that’s good, I'm glad you get to take the girls to school,” Molly slaps Jake and sits back down next to Ryan.

“I am going to stay at her place through Wednesday then I'm off to Denver,” Jake sits on the arm of the chair.

“I thought you guys didn’t leave until Thursday?”

“Coach wants an extra day there with the elevation I guess.  I don’t know we have never left Wednesday night before.”

“That sucks,” Molly looks at me.  “You need someone to come stay with you?”

“No, I will be fine,” I smile.  I can just imagine what it would be like for her to come and stay with me.

“I am going to go up and pack some stuff.” He kisses my cheek and goes upstairs to his room.

“So are you ready for him to hover for the next three days?”  Molly laughs.

“No not really, but it was the only way I could get him to stop trying to talk me into staying with my mom,” I laugh. “So what are you two up to?”  I am referring to the paper they were looking at.

“Nothing really,” she says.  “Just looking at a few things for the duplex.”

“You have a little while,” I smile then I look up toward the steps and see he isn’t coming yet.  “He wants me to go to the Fundraiser Ball next week with him.”

“Oh yeah?  I have heard about it but never been to it.  I see a lot of pictures from it though and it looks awesome.”

“I'm nervous about it because it would be our first event together.”

“That would be a good event for you guys to be seen for the first time at.  You would both look amazing and everything that is raised that night is all charity money.”

“Yeah, but I would have nothing to wear.”

“Oh please, you know he would take you to get something.”

“I was thinking if I go I don’t want him to see what I get though.”

“So I will take you.  I will get his credit card and we will go without him.”

“Why would you take his credit card?”

“Come on Jo, he is going to want to buy the dress whether he sees it or not.  I know he isn’t going to let you pay for it.  I have seen how expensive those dresses are.  We can even have Lisa come with us, I'm sure she knows where to get a dress like that.”

“I don’t want him to buy those kinds of things for me.”

“Yeah, that isn’t going to happen Jo,” Molly laughs.  “He is already whining because you yell at him for buying you jewelry.”

“Really?”

“Yes, he is weird about that kind of stuff.  He is always buying stuff for my parents.  I think it because we never had money growing up and now he likes buying things for people he loves just because he can.  He won’t buy something nice for himself that he doesn’t need, but everyone around him he will.  Except me, he won’t buy me anything.”  She laughs.

“I gave you a house to stay in rent free,” he walks back into the living room.  “I think that is better than buying you something.  Besides what do you need, besides a car?”  She gives him a dirty look.  “Maybe you can sweet talk Jo into letting me buy her a new car and she will sell you hers,” he smiles at me.

“Maybe one like yours only in blue instead of red.  I'm not a big fan of red.  My birthday is coming up,” I smile at him.

“Really?  You would let me buy you a car?”

“You can buy me one,” Ryan jokes.  I just shake my head and laugh.

“Are you ready to go?” I look at him.

“Yes, I have everything I need.  You two behave please,” he points at Molly.

“Yeah, sure no wild crazy parties,” she laughs.  He shakes his head and holds his hand out for me to grab.  I grab it and stand up.

“Call if you need anything,” Ryan says to me.

“Sounds good, see you one Monday,” I follow Jake out the door.  He goes to the truck instead of the car and we get in.  “Why are you taking this?”

“Molly needs the car for a couple days.  Since she doesn’t have one I have no choice but to let her drive my baby,” he looks at me.  “So where you serious you would actually let me buy you a car?”

“No, I know how much your car is worth Jake.  I see the bills come in from the department getting Chargers.  Yours is probably worth more than those ones are and they have a lot of add ons.”

“Come on, let me buy you one.  It doesn’t have to be the same.  You know you can drive mine whenever you want.  What is the one car that you have always wanted?  I'm sure it isn’t the Impala that you have.”

“No, it isn’t, but I don’t think I ever really had a dream car.”

“Well, I will take you car shopping then.”

“You are not buying me a car Jake.”

“Come on baby, you won’t let me buy you anything.”

“Sure I will, I will let you buy my dress for the Fundraiser Ball, but you are not going shopping with me to get it.”

“You’re going to come with me?”

“Yes, I will go with you.  But like I said you will not see my dress until that night.”

“I can handle that.  When are you going to go shopping?”

“Not sure, Molly said she would go with me, so I thought I would take her, Lisa, and Annie with me and get something nice.  I will need shoes, purse, earrings, you know all that stuff,” I smile at him.

“How about this, I will give you my credit card; you buy the dress, shoes, and purse and let me get the jewelry?”

“How will you know what to buy?”

“I will get something that matches everything.”  I see him smile.

“That means a lot of money doesn’t it?”

“Jo, have you seen the prices of nice dresses lately?  And I know that if you go to any place that Lisa would take you, it is going to be expensive.”

“Well that doesn’t make me want to buy one,” I look at him.

“Well then I will tell them to not let you look at the price of the dress and Molly will use the card to pay for whatever you want.”

“You are a pain in my ass you know that,” I laugh at him.

“I try my hardest,” he smiles.  “I want you to look amazing that’s all.  I know it doesn’t take a fancy dress to do that, but it can’t hurt to have the best looking one can it?”

“No, it can’t.” I just shake my head.  “Should I just give in and let you buy me whatever you want?  Will that make you feel better?”

“That would make me feel great,” he glances over at me.  “But I know better than to believe that you will actually let me do that.”  He pulls into my driveway.  “Baby, I just want you happy.  And I will do whatever I can to make you happy.”

“I'm with you that is all I need Jake,” I smile and lean over to kiss him.

“So, Jake gave me his credit card before he left this afternoon and told me to make sure that you get whatever you need for the ball next weekend,” Molly is on the phone.

“I'm sure he did,” I smile.  He has been hounding me the last three days about buying a dress for the ball and to make sure that I pick something I like and not something that is cheap.

“He wants you to look good Jo.”

“Yeah, I know he does.”

“So what do you need to get?”

“Well I need a dress, shoes, and I would like to get a purse because I don’t have anything really.”

“Ok, when did you want to go?”             

“Well, I can give Lisa and Annie a call and maybe do it Friday night?  I could use some girl time.  We could do dinner then go shopping.”

“Yeah, I think that would work for me.”

“Ok, I will find out from them and let you know.”

“Perfect sounds good.  If you need anything the rest of this week let me know I don’t have much going on with work.  I have one job to finish up then I'm done for the week.”

“I will be fine Molly, but thank you,” I smile.

“No problem, have a good night Jo.”

“You too,” I hang up the phone.  I am on my way to my mom’s house to have dinner with her and the girls.  Abby wants to tell me about her day at school.  I'm so glad that she is enjoying it so much.  I did find out that Morgan is in her class and she loves that.  I pull into my mom’s driveway and go into the house.  I can hear the girls playing downstairs when I walk in.

“Hey honey,” my mom says from the kitchen when I walk in.

“Hey mom,” I sit on one of the stools next to the cupboard.

“No more sling?”

“No.  Doctor gave me the ok to take it out as long as I am careful.  He gave me exercises to make sure it doesn’t tighten up and to build my strength back up.”

“How long before you are back in the field again?”

“Well I am off until Monday, and then I am sure I will be buried in paperwork for at least two weeks with this mess.  He said I should have full strength and mobility back in a couple weeks.  He was impressed by how much mobility I had already.  And I was able to lift fifteen pounds when I was there without it hurting.”

“Good, I'm glad you didn’t lose any of that.”

“I'm tougher than I look Mom,” I smile.

“I know, doesn’t make me worry any less about you.”

“It’s no wonder you and Jake get along so well, all you two do is worry about me.”

“Well you’re my daughter so I have that right.  And he loves you, so I'm pretty sure he has the right also.”  She smiles at me, “How is Jake?”

“Fine, he left my house about 2:00 to go and get stuff from his place then head to the stadium and get ready to fly out.”

“They left already?”

“Yeah,” I look at my watch and see it is 6:00.  “I think their plane left at 5:00.  He said they should land by 8:00 our time.”

“How are you going to be without him here for four days?” She laughs.

“I'm sure I will be fine mom,” I shake my head.

“Well, I don’t think you two have spent much time apart since you started dating have you?”

“No, not much.  But this is what his career is all about.  I know he will be gone for a few days at a time from now until the end of the season.  That is a lot of the reason I decided to wait to move in with him.  I need to make sure it is something the girls and I can handle.”

“I'm sure you will do fine with it Jo.  You have been on your own for two years now and you handled that just fine.  The only thing is he will be gone for what three days like every other week.”

“Yeah, it should be fine, and I'm sure he will call me a million times while he is gone,” I smile at the thought.

“I'm so happy you found someone Jo.  And Jake is such a good guy.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“Have you guys gotten everything worked out from the other day when I saw you?”

“Oh our little spat at the hospital, yeah.  He wants me to quit my job and live off of him.”

She looks up and me and smiles and shakes her head, “he actually asked you to do that?  He has guts I will give him that.”

“Yeah, even after Annie had already told him I would say no.”

“He worries about you.  He loves you and you couldn’t ask for anything more.”

“No, you’re right, I couldn’t.  But he keeps showering me with gifts and buying things for me.  I don’t know how to accept it.  He wants to buy me a new vehicle for crying out loud.”

“A man with no objection to spending his well-earned money on the woman he loves,” she laughs, “sounds like a keeper to me.”

“I don’t love him for his money mom.  I hate that he spends it on me.”

“I don’t think that will stop him will it?”

“Oh no, he already gave his sister his credit card and told her to take me shopping for a new dress for a fundraiser that I agreed to go to with him.”

“You get along good with his sister?”

“Yeah, actually I do.  She and Ryan are dating now,” I smile.

“I heard, Lucas told me about them.”

“They are good together.  And Jake is extremely happy she is dating a cop.”

“When he isn’t thrilled that you are a cop?”

“Imagine that,” I smile.  I sit there looking at my mom.  “You really think it is possible to be in love with someone like him this quickly.”

“Absolutely, I think you two were waiting for each other.  Jo you know that I believe in love at first sight.  I think he had that for you.  I think it took you a little longer to realize what you had in him, but I think you get it now.  He is the right guy for you, and I don’t say that because of who he is.  Every mom wants to see their kids end up with someone that can take care of them.  I think that no matter what Jake did for a living you two are meant to be together.  I'm glad that you and he have the connection that you do, and what’s even better is the connection that he has with the girls.  They adore him, which is amazing.  They have gone through so much at such a young age yet they know that you are happy which makes them much happier.”  She walks over to me.  “Barb told me when she dropped them off that they couldn’t stop talking about Jake and how happy you have been lately.  They know Jo, they know how much you care about him, and that makes them trust him and want him to be around.  They need that father figure in their lives.  Jarrod will always be their dad, and I'm pretty sure Jake knows that, but he also wants to take care of them.  I honestly don’t think that Jake would ever try to take Jarrod’s spot in their lives, but he will take care of them and give them what they need.”

“I don’t think he would ever try to take over that roll.  He loves helping me with them though.”

“Does he want kids of his own?”

“Yeah I think so.”

“Is that something that you are willing to do?”

“Have more kids?  I'm not sure.  We haven’t really talked about that.  He told me on our first date that he can’t wait to have kids.  He comes from a huge family so he wants a couple kids.  But I also heard him talking to Mark and telling him that he would be ok with just the girls, but would like a boy,” I smile.

“Yeah, a houseful of girls and him, I can see that.”  She finishes cooking dinner.  “Here, set the table and get the girls for dinner,” she smiles.  We all sit and talk for about an hour before the girls need to get ready for bed.  After they are dressed and tucked into bed I tell my mom that I am going to head home and get some sleep.  I don’t have a lot to do the next couple days with Jake being gone and I can’t go back to work until Monday so I figure I can do some cleaning at the duplex and maybe finally get the wall fixed from when that guy broke in.

I am lying in bed watching a movie when my phone starts ringing.  I look at it and see it is Jake. “Hey handsome,” I smile.

“Well hello,” he laughs.

“How was your flight?”

“Boring, nothing exciting.  Just got to my room.”

“Is it lame?”

“Actually it isn’t, I'm pretty surprised.”

“Do you have it to yourself?”

“No, I bunk with Mark.  Saves us both from having to deal with rookies,” he laughs.  “How was your night with the girls?”

“Good, I had a nice long talk with my mom about you.”

“Oh really?  What did she have to say about me?”

“Nothing I didn’t already know.  Although she did ask me a good question.”

“And what is that?”

“If you want more kids?”  He doesn’t say anything.  “I know you said on our first date that you couldn’t wait to have kids.”

“No, I said I couldn’t wait to have a family.  I have that with you and the girls.  If you don’t want more kids then I am ok with that.  I know you heard me say that to Mark at the beach.”

“Yeah, I know I did.  But I did also hear you say that you wouldn’t mind having one more.  One of your own, a boy maybe.”

“Yes, a boy would be nice.  But like I said I am happy with what we have.”

“What if I say I wouldn’t mind having one more?”

“That would make my night.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to because you heard me talking about it.  It’s a decision that we should make together when we get to that point in our relationship.”

“Jake, I have thought a lot about it, and I would not mind trying for another one.  I never decided that I only wanted two, it just happened that way.  Jarrod and I were ok with just the girls at that point in our lives.  When I had Abby and had my birth control inserted we never decided we were done.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and I know how much you wanted your own, and I am more than willing to give you what you want.  You have done so much for me it’s the least I can do,” I laugh.

“Jo, that’s a big deal.”

“I know that, but like I told you Jake, I have given my heart to you.  I belong with you and if that is where life takes us, then I'm ready for it.  Maybe not right now, but eventually.”

“Me too baby.  Listen, as much as I am enjoying talking about this, I'm beat and need to get to bed.  Coach is going to be working us double time up here.  He wants me practicing because he wants me playing next week.”

“Already?”

“Yeah, he talked to my therapist and he said I should be ready next week.  Which reminds me, what did the doctor say today?”

“Not much that we didn’t already know.  I am out of my sling.  Stitches are healing better than they had hoped for.  I have a lot of movement and can lift fifteen pounds.”

“Awesome baby, just don’t overdo it.”

“I won’t.  I just plan on cleaning around the house for the next couple days.  I think the girls and I are going out to dinner Friday night then shopping so I can spend your hard earned money.”

“Perfect,” he laughs.  “Molly knows that I don’t want you looking at prices.”

“I know, she told me that already.”

“I love you Jo.  Please don’t be stubborn about this.”

“I'm not Jake.  I know you are going to spend money on me.  I just don’t want you to go overboard.  There are things that I don’t need that you want to get me.”

“Oh Jo, you don’t get it do you?”

“Get what?

“I have the opportunity to give you anything that you have ever dreamed of.”

“And what you don’t get Jake is that you are all that I need.  I am happier than I have been since Jarrod.  I thought I was ok with being alone with the girls, but now I don’t think I would want to be without you.  I love you and I love being with you.  I don’t need you to shower me with gifts; I just need you to love me.”

“I do.”

“That is all I need Jake.” I smile.  I wish he was lying here next to me. 

“I'm going to go, I will call tomorrow?”

“Sounds perfect.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, and Jake.”

“Yeah?”

“I think you should call the contractor and have him put another room upstairs.  Just in case.”  I smile.

“You know how to get to me don’t you?”

“I know what you want, and that is what I want.”

“I will email him tomorrow.  Good night.”

“Good night,” I hang up.  I smile.  I know that I made his night by telling him I am open to having kids with him.  Am I crazy?  Oh well if I am.  This is what I want, him and I together.

~~~~~

“So, what are you looking for?”  Lisa asked as we are sitting waiting for our dinner on Friday. 

“I'm honestly not sure.  What do you wear to these things?”  I look at her.

“I would think the fancier the better,” Annie takes a drink of her wine.

“Yeah, pretty much.  What is your limit?”

“She doesn’t have one,” Molly smiles.

“Of course she doesn’t,” Annie smiles and shakes her head.  “Let me guess he gave you his credit card?” She asks me.