Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (9 page)

“But you’re a cop; you’re supposed to be safe aren’t you?”

“Yes, but he thinks I no longer have the edge to do it.  Like Annie pointed out to me earlier, he is lower than me in his position and he thinks that if he can talk me down that maybe he will get the upper hand and get my job.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I'm not sure yet, I was hoping to talk to Annie about it.  She knows the history with Ryan and I was hoping she could maybe give me some good outlook on it.”

“Were you and Ryan friends before you worked together?”

“No, he started a year after me, but he was always good at his job.  We have actually been partners since my second year.  That’s why this is so hard for me; I thought he was someone that I could trust.  I just don’t understand people like that.  I mean why try to undermine someone to make yourself look better?”

“Man, that sucks,” he kisses the back of my hand.  “I hope you can get it figured out without stressing out too much.  I thought you had two weeks off?”

“Yeah, I do.  But I stopped in this morning to sign some stuff and he went off on me.  So after breakfast I stopped back in and talked to Chief and he told me that we are going to have a meeting Monday at 2:00.  So after that my vacation starts, hopefully,” I laugh.

“Well that’s good.  What are you going to do with two weeks off anyway?”

“Well I was hoping to take the girls to Virginia Beach for maybe a couple days.  They start school the Monday I go back to work so this will be our summer end fun.”

“Wow, they are lucky girls.  I bet that will be a fun trip.”

“Yeah, I'm hoping so.  And I think Jarrod’s mom wanted to take them to their cabin for a couple days too so I will have a few days to myself, which is always nice.”  I watch out the window and notice that we are slowing down.  I see that he pulls up to a gate.  “Your place?”

“I hope that is ok?  It was the only place I knew of besides your house that we would be alone.” He puts in a code on the key pad outside his window and the gates open.  “We won’t really be alone because I have a chef for lunch but he won’t see us.”

I smile, “you are so ridiculous it is funny.”

“What does that mean?” He drives up the long driveway.

“It means that I am in way over my head with you.”

He laughs, “Ditto, Ms. Lewis.”

“This is your house?” I am in shock.  It looks more like a hotel then a house.  “How many people live here?”

“Just me, I have a maid too, but she doesn’t live here.  Only comes during the day when I am gone.”

“Good lord Jake, my entire family could live comfortably in this house.”

“Too much?”

“For me, yes, but you are probably used to this kind of stuff.”  I can’t stop staring at the house.  It is so beautiful. 

“In all honesty it only has four bedrooms, so it isn’t as big as you think it is.”

“Yeah four bedrooms, three bathrooms, probably a theater that you watch sports in, I'm sure it has some sort of office, and bar and who knows what else.”

He looks at me, “I take it you have been in houses like this one?”

“No, but I have read about them in magazines,” I look at him and smile.

He smiles and shakes his head.  “I’ll give you that one,” he pulls the car into the garage and parks it.  He then gets out and comes around to open my door.  He holds his hand out to help me out of the car.  “By the way, you look amazing, I think I like this dress more than the one you had on Thursday night.”

I blush almost on cue, it’s like he says that stuff to me to make me blush.  “Thanks,” I muster a smile.

“You’re so adorable when I catch you off guard like that,” he bends down and kisses my cheek.

“You do that to me on purpose,” I accuse him.

“It’s possible,” he smirks at me.

“You’re mean,” I whine.

He looks at me and shakes his head, “you have it coming, and you are the one that keeps pointing out my magazine like qualities.”  He offers me his hand and I take it and follow him into the house.  He opens the door and steps in, “welcome to my home.” He smiles at me and shuts the door when I walk in.

“Jake this is amazing,” I look around.  It is even more beautiful inside then outside.  “There is no way you did this by yourself.”

“No, your right I didn’t, my sister is an interior designer and she did it.  I just paid for it.”

“Awe, what a supportive brother to pay for your sister to do work for you,” I laugh at him.

“You bet anything I can do to help my family.  I told you that already.”

“Speaking of family,” I grab my phone.  “Annie wants me to ask you what we have planned for dinner.  She was hoping we could do something because she wants to get to know you a little better since you are, and I quote “Dating her best friend”.” I smile at him.

I see his face brighten up a little, “wait so we are dating?”

“I don’t know, are we?” 

He walks down the hall we are standing in and turns into the living room.  “I wouldn’t object to that,” he smiles and walks over to a table that I see is set up for lunch.  Candles, flowers, music the whole thing.  “Hungry?”

“Jake, this is too much.”

He grabs my other hand and pulls me over to stand in front of him.  “Jo, I am only feeding you lunch, what’s the big deal?”

“Flowers, candles, it seems a little overboard for a little lunch date doesn’t it?”

“I don’t think so.  And I actually didn’t do that, the chef did.” He walks me over to the table and pulls a chair out for me.  “I will be right back with lunch.”  I watch him walk toward the kitchen.  I look around the room.  I see pictures of his family over the fireplace and get up to go look at them.  There is a picture that has about twelve people in it.  I am assuming that those are his parents and siblings.  He did say he came from a big family.  “Checking out the family,” he walks back across the room to the table and sets the dishes of food down.  Then he walks to me.

“I saw the pictures thought I would take a look,” I smile at him.

“That is my big family, I have five brothers and six sisters.”

“You weren’t lying when you said you came from a big family.  That is a lot of kids for two people,” I laugh.

“Yeah, the house was a zoo that is for sure.”

“So are you the middle kid then?”

He laughs, “I have three older brothers and an older sister, so I guess I am one of the middle ones.  We are all right around sixteen months apart.  My mom and dad knew how to have kids I will give them that.  My two younger sisters,” he points to a picture with two girls in it, “they are twins.  I think they are the only ones that mom and dad didn’t plan for.  They are seniors this year.  My sister Molly,” he points her out in the family picture, “she is the one that did the house.”

I smile when I look at him.  I can see how much he loves his family and I see why he wants to help them.  “So what do your parents do?”

“My dad works in a mill, has his entire life, and my mom just started working again five years ago as an in home nurse.  She didn’t work pretty much for twenty years when she had all us kids at home. I don’t know how they did it.  Only having one income and twelve kids.”

“Yeah, I have a hard enough time with two and I have a decent income.” I start back toward the table where lunch is sitting.  “I don’t think I could handle that many kids.  What made them want such a big family?”

“Not sure,” he pulls my chair out and I sit down. “I know my mom has a big family, and my dad only has three brothers so maybe my mom talked him into it.”

“Well if that is what they wanted then that’s cool that they went for it.”  I look at lunch, a salad and sandwiches.  “You couldn’t make your own salad and sandwiches?” I joke with him.

“Well I probably could have, but they wouldn’t be nearly as good.  Besides I pay him for a reason.”  He looks up at me.  “So, about dinner?”

“Oh yeah,” I say after I swallow the bite of salad I am chewing.  “Annie was hoping we could do something.  She suggested my place or her place.”

“Well what about inviting them here?  I have the scrimmage tomorrow so I don’t really want to chance being out late like I was last night,” he smiles at me.

“I didn’t hold you hostage you could have left,” I tell him.  “If you don’t want to go anyplace how am I getting home?”

“I never said I didn’t want to go anyplace, I just thought that since we are already here they could come here for dinner.  I could grill some steaks and potatoes.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to cook?”

“Cook, no I can’t, but I can grill pretty damn well if I must say so myself,” he looks up at me.  “I actually like to grill.”

“Oh yeah?” I smile at him.  “You don’t seem like the grilling type.”

“That sounds like a challenge,” he throws his napkin at me.

“Never,” I say matter-of-factly.

“Well, text Annie and tell her we are eating dinner at my house.  They can come by any time after 4:00.”

“Why after 4:00?”

“You don’t want to hang out with me alone or what?”

“I never said that.  But I didn’t know you wanted to just hang out.”

“I have an entire yard that I want to show you,” he smiles at me.  My breath catches in my chest.

“You need to stop doing that to me!”

“Doing what?” He asks innocently.

“Making me all blushy and act like the stupid little teenager with a crush.”

“I don’t do it all the time on purpose, only sometimes.”  I shake my head and grab my phone off the table where I put it.

Jake says dinner tonight sounds good, but he would like for you and Michael to come by his place…

“There I sent it. Now can I eat my lunch without you trying to embarrass me?”

He waves his hands like he has done nothing wrong and sits back in his chair.  I can feel that he is watching me eat.  I am just about to say something to him when his phone starts ringing.  He looks at it and stands up.  “I will be right back.”  He walks toward the hall we came in.  “Phil, what’s up?”  I hear him say then hear a door shut.  I finish my salad and what is left of my sandwich.  I hear my phone ping for a text and set down the glass of water I have in my hand. 

His house? Why?

I laugh, only she would object to having dinner at someone’s house.

Because he wants to cook for us I guess.  I'm not entirely sure.  He has a game tomorrow so he said he doesn’t want to be out late.  This house is AMAZING you should come just to see it.

I am standing in front of the window looking out at the front yard when I hear him come back in.  “Sorry, I had to take care of some stuff for my parents.”  He comes and stands next to me.

“No worries,” I smile up at him.  He looks upset.  “Everything ok?”

“Yeah, that was my account manager; he told me that my dad’s company is forcing him to take early retirement.  Which probably wouldn’t be so bad if they were giving him the entire pension and everything that they promised him, but they are trying to screw him out of it now.”

“That sucks,” is all I can come up with to say.

“Yeah, but we will get it figured out.  I have my lawyer on it and Phil, my account manager, is staying on top of it with my dad.”  He grabs my hand and turns me toward him.  “I want to show you around,” he smiles at me.

“Jake,” I pull on his hand so he stops.  “I am just curious?”

“About?”

“Well you asked me what I want, but you never told me what you want?”

He looks at me and smiles, “I have what I want right now.  You are here with me and we are getting to know each other.”

“I mean what are you looking for long term?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes.”

He cups my face in his hand and pulls my chin up so I am looking at him, “I want to make this work.  I like you, a lot more then I had anticipated when you dumped your beer all over me,” he smiles.  “This is new for me, and I have no idea what I am doing right now, but I know that I like spending time with you, and can’t wait until I can show you off.”  He looks longingly at me and I quick turn away from him.  “You don’t want that do you?”

“Jake, it’s not that at all.  You have to remember I was with the same guy for almost ten years.  This is all new to me too.  How about we make a deal?”

“And what kind of deal would that be?”

“Let’s just go with the flow and let everything happen naturally?”

He chuckles, “what if my flow is faster than yours?”

I turn back around and look at him, “well you’re a guy so I would expect that.”

His mouth drops open.  “That’s not fair!”

“Either are you,” I smile and poke his arm.  He grabs my hand and pulls me closer to him.

“You really aren’t fair, I want to kiss you right now, but I'm afraid you will get mad at me.”  Before I have a chance to say anything he grabs my hand and pulls me to follow him.  He walks me around and shows me the house, which is so extraordinary I don’t even know what to say.  Why does one guy need so much room?  As I suspected he has a theater and an office, but what really catches my eye is the game room that he has.  He is like a child when he talks about it.  “I bought games just so that I could say I had a game room, even though I never really play in here that often.  I have my favorite which is the air hockey table, and then my next favorite ski ball.”

“Ski ball?”

“Yes, I love that game.  My dad used to take me and my brothers down to the arcade on Saturday nights and give us each $2 and let us play.  Even when we were all older he would still take us.  Now, even, he takes my brother Max there.  He just turned nineteen and goes to school at the local college and lives at home with them.  I will admit, when I go home to visit I still like going there with dad.  It is sort of our get away,” he smiles at the thought.  I can see how much his family means to him.  Just as we are walking toward the kitchen his phone rings again.  He pulls it out of his pocket and looks at it.  “Hello?” He answers.  “Hey Em, what’s up?” He holds up a finger signaling to give him a minute and I walk over to the patio door.  I hear him talking; from the tone I'm guessing it is probably one of his sisters.  “Yeah, Phil called me.  I told him that dad is not going to settle for that and I have my lawyer all over it.”  I open the door and walk outside.  I take a deep breath.  My head is spinning, I look around.  What does this guy see in me?  I mean I see so many good qualities about him, but I just don’t get why he is trying to start a relationship with me, I'm so average compared to him.  Then I remember that he told me he is just trying to be a normal guy.  I smile at the thought.

“Don’t worry Em, I will handle it, I don’t mind.” He walks out on the porch behind me. I turn and face him and lean back against the railing.  The sun is shining on him and I just admire the view.  He is so good looking.  I would love to kiss him.  That reminds me of what he said in the living room.  Why didn’t he kiss me?  Is he really scared I will get mad at him?  He laughs, “Sure I will see if I can get you and Andy tickets to the game.”  He looks at me and smiles.  “Listen Em, I have to go I will give you a call later. Love you.” He hangs up, “Sorry, my sister.”

“I figured,” I smile.

“I'm actually surprised she is the only one that has called me.  This crap with my dad has everyone pissed off right now.  My oldest brother John is down there with my lawyer trying to get it figured out.”