Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (22 page)

“Not sure, he was right behind me.  Maybe he forgot something in the room.”  I look back at Mark; he is just standing there smiling at me.  “What?”

“It’s just amazing to me what he has turned into the last week.  By now, he would have had an entire six pack of beer down and probably out looking for a party or starting one.  You dear lady, have changed him.  Turned him into a better person.  And it didn’t even take you a week.” 

I smile, “Well, to be completely honest with you, he has done the same for me.  I mean I wasn’t out partying and all that, but I was in a rut and couldn’t get out.  Now I feel like I actually have a chance at possibly being in love again.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I do.  It has taken me a long time to get to this point, and I'm glad it was him that I spilled my beer all over at the bar the other night,” I laugh.

“Ah, yes, the trip.  I heard all about that.  I didn’t personally see it, but some of the rookies did, and let me tell you, they were pissed because they wanted to buy you a beer.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, there were four guys that were bitching Jake out cause he beat them to you and gave him your number.  Of course none of them actually believed that you would text him that night.”

“I wasn’t sure she was going to text me either,” Jake is coming down off the steps.  He walks up behind me and puts his arm around my waist.  “Sorry, I forgot my phone.  I got an email from Joan she said it is all set up for Saturday.  There will be four of us from the team there,” he says to Mark.

“You’re coming too?”  I look at him.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he smiles.  “I know how much the fire stations need the fundraising so I was more than happy to help out when Joan asked me.”

I look at Jake and he smiles, “I told you,” he bends and kisses my cheek.  “So where’s the wife?”

“Still getting ready, she should be out soon.”

We are just at the bar talking when Lisa walks out of the bedroom.  She looks amazing and I see in Mark’s eyes that he thinks the same thing.  He walks out from behind the bar and walks over to her and without saying anything grabs her and kisses her.  I smile and look at Jake.  He looks down at me.  “That is what I want.  A love that never goes away,” he kisses my cheek.

“This place is amazing,” I say to Lisa when we go to the bathroom after ordering our dinner.

“Yeah, this is a favorite with the team.  Most of the guys come down once and a while just to come hang out here.  I actually wouldn’t be surprised if we see a few guys out tonight.  I love that dress by the way,” she smiles at me.  “You were right when you said Jake would love it.  He hasn’t taken his eyes off you all night.”

“I think he likes it better than the other one he keeps begging me to wear again,” I laugh.  We walk back toward the table and I see that Jake is missing.  I scoot in behind Lisa in the booth and look around.  I don’t see him anywhere.  “Where did Jake go?”  I ask Mark.

“I think he had to take a phone call.  Not sure he said he would be back,” he smiles at me.  Both Mark and Lisa have been so nice to me.  I wonder if it is true what they say about Jake being completely different since he and I started seeing each other.  We all sit there and talk for about fifteen minutes and Jake still hasn’t been back.  I take my phone out and send him a text.

Where are you?  I feel lonely sitting here by myself.

Sorry baby, taking care of something with my big brother, be back soon.

I frown, what could he be taking care of now?  I know he said he tried as hard as he could to help his family out, but he sure does spend a lot of time dealing with family issues.  Oh well, nothing I can do but sit and wait.  Our food arrives and Jake still isn’t back.  We decide we can’t wait for him because not only would his food be cold, but so would ours.  All of a sudden Mark gets a phone call.  He looks at his phone and tells Lisa and me he will be back and he goes down the steps and past the dance floor out the door.

“What is going on?”  I look at her.

“I'm not sure, but I think it was Jake calling him.  What did he say when you text him?”

“Said he was dealing with something with his brother.”

“Did he say which one?”

“No, just said his big brother.”

She looks at me.  “My guess, Lewis is here causing trouble.  He is a little over a year older then Jake but always in trouble.  He is always trying to pick a fight with Jake about being the favorite son and all this other shit.  Basically he is an alcoholic and I'm pretty sure he abuses drugs.”  My heart drops.  I didn’t know that he had those kinds of issues with his family.  From the sounds of what he told me he got along with most of them.  Lisa and I both pick at our food while we wait for the guys to come back.  I see Mark walk in but still no sign of Jake.  Mark sits back down next to Lisa.

“Jake will be in soon.  He had to take care of something quick.”  He looks at me, I am sure he can see the worry on my face.

“I will be back, I have to use the bathroom,” I say and stand up and go down the stairs to the bathroom.  I walk into the bathroom and just about run over an older lady walking out and apologize to her.  I stand in front of the mirror and look at myself.  I am just standing there for what seems like forever.  I feel my phone buzz because I have it on silent.

You ok?

It’s from Jake.  I must have been gone longer than I thought.

Fine, just needed to freshen up a little.  You sitting back at the table?

Waiting for yo
u


Be back soon.

I take a deep breath to steady myself.  I have had about three glasses of wine and have hardly eaten any of my dinner so I am feeling the alcohol a little.  I think to myself that I should really go back to the table before they get worried about me.  I walk to the door and take a step out.  Next thing I know someone is grabbing my wrist.  I don’t see him right away but next thing I know Jake has me down the hall so we are alone.

“Are you ok?” He looks down at me.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I look up at him.  I notice that his cheek bone is all puffy.  “What happened?”

“Nothing, I'm fine.  You were in there a long time.”

“Yeah, sorry, too much wine not enough food, my head is getting a little fuzzy.  Jake, what happened?” I can see a bruise forming.

“Nothing,” he rubs his thumb across my cheek.

“Please don’t lie to me,” I beg him.

He takes a deep breath, “Lisa told you about Lewis?”

“Yes, she said he is big into alcohol and possibly drugs,” I reach up to his cheek and touch it.  He flinches a little.

“He was here, starting his same old shit.  Never fails when I am down here.  He always finds out and tries to get into it with me.”

“Looks like he got a good swing in, you should get some ice on that before it gets worse.”

“Baby, I'm fine.  I’ve had worse trust me.”

I shake my head at him, “well I still think you should get some ice.”

“Ok, fine, I will go get some ice to put on it,” he smiles.  “Will you come back to the booth now?”  I look up at him worried, and I know that he can tell.  “Hey, I promise, I'm fine.  He was drunk just trying to start a fight.  I called the local PD and they have him at the station in detox.  No more interruptions, I promise.  Just our night out.  Now come on, I want to finish dinner so I can get you out on the dance floor and show you off in this amazing dress,” he leans back and looks at me.  “Baby, you look so good,” he bends down and kisses me.  When he pulls away he grabs my hand and leads me back to the booth.  When we sit down he asks the waitress for some ice.

“You ok?”  Mark asks him.

“Yeah, the asshole got a better swing at me then I thought he would.  I wish I could get him some help.  My mom is out of her mind worried about him.  He even stopped calling home.”

“Jake, if you want I can have one of my colleagues put in a request that he gets transferred right to a rehab clinic,” Lisa says. I look at her because I realize that I have no idea what she does.  “I work at one of the rehab clinics in Baltimore.  My specialty is sexual abuse,” she tells me obviously remembering that we never covered that in our afternoon together.

“I'm not sure that would help,” he looks at her.  “But I guess it would be worth a try.

“Hey, you know I have been working with the narcotics department down here to try and figure out the link between Baltimore and Virginia Beach to try and stop the drug flow, I could make a call to him and see what kind of information he can give me about your brother.  Then we would know what he is into and how deep he is into it. I mean some of these guys are just taking the drugs, but there are some that are so far in that they sell in order to keep themselves a stash,” I look up at Jake.

He looks at me a little shocked.  I don’t think he had considered that his brother could possibly be a dealer.  “Yeah, that might not be a bad idea.”

“I can take a ride over there tomorrow.  He owes me anyway.”  I take a bite of my dinner.  It is really good.  I didn’t really appreciate it while I was worried about Jake, but now he is back and I can relax a little.  We talk about a few different things to try and get our minds off of everything that happened with his brother.  When the waitress comes back to clear our table Jake orders another round of drinks. 

“Well, I am going to take my wife down to the dance floor,” Mark says after the waitress sets their drinks in front of them.  “Will we be seeing you down there?”  He looks at Jake.

“Eventually,” he smiles.  I can tell he just wants to be alone with me.  Mark nods and grabs Lisa’s hand.  She smiles at me before they are out of sight.  “Sorry, this is not how I pictured this night going,” Jake grabs my hand and kisses it.  “I was really hoping to stay under his radar this time.”

“It’s fine; maybe between Lisa and I we can get him some help.  Hey, you do know that if he is in deep it is going to take more than rehab to get him out right?”  I rub his leg.

He takes a deep breath, “yeah, but I don’t think that I had even thought he could be in that deep until you said it.  God how would I explain that to my mom?  She would go ballistic.”  I can feel him tense up.  “Can we go down and hang out downstairs, sitting here is not doing me any good.”

I smile, “Yeah sure.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just worried about you, that’s all.”

“Please don’t, I'm fine.”  He stands up and puts his hand out for me to grab.  I grab it and stand up.  I feel a little wobbly when I stand up and he steadies me.  “Are you ok?”

I smile, “it’s been a while since I have drank.  Usually my cut off is two beers and this is my forth glass of wine, not including the one at the house.”

He smiles at me, “don’t worry, I won’t let you fall on your face.”

I shake my head and grab his hand and we walk down and find Mark and Lisa by one of the tables off the dance floor.  There is a stool there, which I am happy about.  Jake stands next to me and puts his hand around my back.  We are at the table for a good hour and a slow song comes on.  I see a bunch of couples go to the dance floor.  Mark grabs Lisa’s hand and leads her out on the dance floor.  I feel Jake move next to me and next thing I know he is grabbing my hand and taking me out to dance.  He puts his arms around my waist and pulls me close.  I wrap my arms around his neck and nuzzle in on his chest and move with him.  I feel safe here, in his arms.  This is where I want to be.  Maybe it is the wine, but I look up at him and catch his gaze.  “Jake, I think I'm in love with you,” I say to him.  I see the shock in his eyes then I see him smile. 

“Baby, I'm sure that I am,” he leans down and kisses me.

~~~~~

I wake up and look at the clock.  Its 9:00.  I sit up quickly and look around.  Jake is still in bed next to me.  I hear the girls giggling from the next floor down and realize that they are probably playing with Bridgette and Morgan.  I lie back down and relax.  My head hurts a little from all the wine that I drank last night.  I remember dancing and Lisa and I having a dance off against Jake and Mark.  I laugh at the thought of how horrible of a dancer Mark is.  “Good morning,” Jake says and I look at him.

“Hey,” I move closer to him.

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me close, “how are you feeling?”

“I have a little headache,” I muster a smile.

“I bet, you were having a good time last night.  Do you remember our little dance off?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking about how bad of a dancer Mark is,” I laugh.

“Yeah, he really doesn’t move that well does he?”

“No, not really.  I had a lot of fun last night, I'm glad we went out with them.”

“Yeah, I am too.  Do you remember our little talk on the dance floor?”

“I don’t really think it was a talk.  More of a statement.” I smile at him.  I know he is talking about when I told him I thought I was in love with him.

“Yeah, I guess,” he smiles.  I hear a knock on the door.  Jake gets out of bed and opens the door and in run Lizzy and Abby.  They jump in bed with me and crawl under the blankets.  They are both giggling like crazy. “I'm coming back to bed, you girls better look out.”  He jumps into bed and lands on all three of us.  They start squealing and trying to wiggle out.  He has us trapped.  I am laughing at them wiggling around and finally Lizzy finds her way to the foot of the bed and gets free and Abby is right behind her.  They both make a mad dash for the door.  I roll him off of me and sit up against the headboard.

“I should get moving.  I want to get down to see Sargent McDonald early so he and I can have a nice talk about your brother.”

“You don’t have to Jo; I know you are on vacation.”

“Jake, he is your family and you told me that you would do anything for your family.  Well I would do anything for you which means I would do anything for them too.”  I stand up and head to the bathroom. I take a quick shower and get dressed and head downstairs.  He is already down at the breakfast bar with Mark.  I hear Lisa on the phone out on the porch.

“Morning,” Mark says to me and hands me a cup of coffee and some aspirin.  “Heard you had a slight headache,” he laughs.

I smile and take them from him.  “I'm not used to drinking.  But I had a lot of fun last night.”

“Yeah, that was definitely something else,” he takes a drink of his coffee.  He is watching Lisa and starts walking toward the sliding door.

“Hey, are you sure you wanna do this?”  Jake grabs my belt loop and pulls me close to him.

“Of course I am.  I already called his office and I am supposed to meet him in about twenty minutes.  Will you stay here with the girls?”

“You don’t want me to come?”

“Well, I might get to talk to Lewis and I don’t think he would talk if he knew who I was.  I mean I know there is that chance that he already does, but if you go with me he will for sure.  I will be fine, I promise.  This is what I do for a living Jake.”  I see the worry on his face.

“That doesn’t mean I like this.  He is a temperamental asshole.  I don’t trust him around you.”

“I won’t be in there alone, besides he will be cuffed I'm sure.”  I run my fingers over the bruise that is on his cheek bone.  “I shouldn’t be gone too long.  I will call you as soon as I am done.”