Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (28 page)

“Ok, we only have a few bags,” his dad says as the head down to baggage claim.  Jake waits until everyone is out of earshot before he turns to me.

“What was your phone call all about?”

“Apparently they caught someone trying to get drugs to Lewis last night.  They think they were trying to get them to him to pass out there.”

He looks at me in shock.  “Why?”

“Because they are a drug cartel and they want their drugs in everyone’s system.  That is how they operate.  They are going to try and get to him no matter where he is and they are going to expect him to sell for them.  Jake I keep telling you this is bigger than you think.  It’s going to be tough.”

“The more you tell me about this, the more I hate that you are involved.  I thought you had a narcotics department?  Aren’t they supposed to handle this kind of stuff?”

“I won’t let them take this case from me.”

“Why?”

“For two reasons, the first, your brother is involved in this, deeper than I had originally thought and I am going to make sure he gets out of it.  Second is I have been after this group of dealers for three years, I am going to nail them this time.”

“The fact that you are so involved in this case has me worried out of my mind baby,” he grabs my arm and turns me so I am facing him.  “Promise me you are not going to do anything stupid?”

“Jake, how many times do I have to tell you, this is my job, and I know what I am doing?”

“Hey, are you two coming?”  Jake’s youngest sister Lindsey yells back at us because we have fallen behind.  I am glad she interrupted.  I realize he really is scared that something will happen to me.  We grab everyone’s bags and head to the cars.  Just as Jake thought the twins climbed in with Molly and I.  We drive to the restaurant and the twins are drilling Molly about if she is seeing someone or not.  When I pull up to the restaurant I see Ryan’s car sitting out front and wonder what he is doing there.  I get out and follow Jake and his family in.  I see Lucas behind the counter and he smiles at me.

“Hey big sis,” he walks out and gives me a hug.

“Hey Lucas,” I hug him back.  “So this is Jake’s family.  His mom Linda, dad Glenn, younger sisters Molly, Chelsea, and Lindsey, and his youngest brother Max.  Everyone, this is my baby brother Lucas.  He owns this place,” I smile like a proud mom when I say that.

“Lucas, it’s nice to meet you,” Jake’s mom hugs him.  “Please tell me you have some good coffee in this place,” she smiles.

“The best,” he laughs.  “Please have a seat, there is a big table in the back for you guys and I will have Ryan bring out a round of coffee for you.”

“Perfect, thanks Lucas,” Jake smiles.

“I will be there in a minute,” I tell Jake.  He nods. “Hey, what’s Ryan doing here?” I smile at Lucas.

“Funny story, who knew the guy could cook?  He is going to help me out around here for a while when he isn’t working with you.  Apparently Hailey had his landlord evict him so he is staying next door with me.  So instead of paying me rent he is going to work.”

“That bitch,” I say louder than intended.

“Yeah, she is,” Ryan walks out of the kitchen.

“Sorry,” I look at him.

“For what?  Your right, she’s a bitch.  She is pretty much screwing me over in every way possible.  But you know what; I am just rolling with it.  That is about all I can do at this point.”

I smile at him, “I'm glad you’re doing well.”

“Thanks, now let’s get Jake’s family some good service,” he smiles.  I follow him back to the room where everyone is now sitting down.  I see Jake is talking to his mom and there is an empty chair between the two of them.  I assume it is for me.  I walk over to him and he smiles up at me. 

“Hey, sit,” he pulls the chair out for me. 

“Thanks,” I sit down and Ryan comes around and gives us coffee.  Jake puts his arm on the back of my chair and rubs my shoulder.  I sit just listening to the conversation and laugh at some of their stories.  His mom was telling me about when he was in high school no one ever thought that he would get a girlfriend.  I also found out that he was a nerd when he wasn’t playing football.

“He trained all year for football though,” his dad piped in.  I can see how proud his parents are.  After all that this family has been through over the last few days they sure don’t seem to let it bother them.  They start asking me about the girls and now it is my turn to be the proud mom.  I tell them about Lizzy and Abby and Jake pipes in once and a while.  He tells them about taking them to the beach last week.  I can see that he is proud of the girls as well.  I like that; he is so protective of them and would do anything for them just like I would. 

“I am going to go to the bathroom,” I tell him quietly and get up.  I walk out to the dining area and see Lucas talking to some girl at the counter.  I smile at him and turn to go to the bathroom.  I am washing my hands when Molly walks in.  She smiles when she sees me.  “Hey,” I say to her.

“Hey Jo,” she smiles.  “You know you make my brother really happy.  I have not seen him like this before.  He is carefree and acts his age again.”

I smile, “I have been hearing that a lot the last few days.”

“It’s the truth.  He had a hard time when Trisha pulled that shit on him that she did.  I have not seen him be a good man in probably three years.  He was always out partying and causing trouble.  But I can see a difference in him.” 

“I'm glad I can help,” I laugh.

“Me too.  And I'm glad that my mom got to see you guys together.”

“Are you going to tell her about your boyfriend from DC?”

She just stares at me.  “How do you know about that?”

“Jake was a little less then pleased the other day when you told him you weren’t coming back.  I won’t tell anyone don’t worry.”

“Well, I don’t think I am going to be going back to DC, at least not to see him.  Jake was right about him, he is just a selfish rookie asshole that just wants to flaunt his shit off.  I think I will just stick to the normal guys from here on out.  No more famous guys whose heads are gigantic,” she laughs.  “Speaking of normal guys, the one that brought us the coffee and took our orders is mega hot.”

I let out a laugh, “Ryan?”

“Is that his name?”

“Yeah, that’s his name,” I can’t stop laughing.  “He works with me.  We have been partners at work for six years.”

“Oh, let me guess he is taken?”

“No, not as of almost a week ago now.”

“Really?  Will you introduce me to him?”

“I don’t know that Jake would approve.  He doesn’t like that I am a cop, I'm pretty sure he would not like his little sister getting involved with one.”

“Who said anything about getting involved?  I just want to say hi,” I see her smirk.

“This is a very bad idea,” I shake my head and grab her hand and take her out of the bathroom.  I walk up to the counter and see Lucas standing there. “Where is Ryan?”

“He is taking care of the table down there,” he nods toward Ryan.  “Why what’s up?”

“Oh nothing, just wanted to talk to him,” I smile.  Lucas looks from me then to Molly and I can tell that he has it figured out.  He just shakes his head and walks into the kitchen.  I am standing there thinking about how bad of an idea this is and how Jake is probably going to kick my ass and Ryan walks behind the counter.

“Hey, how’s it going?” He says when he walks up and puts the order in the window for Lucas.

“Not too bad, I just wanted to introduce you to Molly.  She is Jake’s younger sister.  She is the one that did all the decorating at his place that you saw last night.  Molly this is my friend Ryan.”

“Hi Molly,” he puts his hand out to shake and she shakes it.

“Hi Ryan,” she says quietly.

“So your Jake’s little sister huh?”

“One of five,” she smiles.  She has the same smile that Jake does.  I almost laugh when Ryan’s mouth drops open in shock. 

“Well, I'm going to go back and sit down” I say.  “Try to behave,” I wink at Ryan.  I see his face get red.  I am glad to see I am not the only one that this family has an effect on like that.  I turn and head back to sit down.  I sit back down next to Jake and put my hand on his leg.  I just sit there listening while they talk about Max going to school this year.  He is going for some sort of engineer something or other. 

“Where did Molly go?” Linda asks.

“I think she was going to the bathroom, she probably got a phone call or something,” Chelsea answers. 

“So, Jo, I know you are responsible for Lewis being up here.  I was wondering if we are going to be able to see him at all.” Glenn asks me.

“Actually I talked to his rehab doctor this morning because I figured you would want to see him.  She said that she thinks that would be good for him.  But I would suggest that just you and Linda go up.  It’s not a pretty environment.  And I would like to be the one to go with you.  He has pretty heavy security right now and they aren’t letting many people in.  They are trying to keep certain things and people out of there.”

“Ok, sounds good,” Linda smiles.

“I'm going too,” Jake says.

“You don’t have to,” I look at him.  He grabs my hand under the table and squeezes.  There is that protective thing again.  “I will be fine Jake.  Please don’t.”

“It’s not a big deal he can come,” Glenn says.

“Yeah, see, not a big deal,” he smirks at me.  I roll my eyes.

“Well we can go there right after we are done here.  Maybe let Molly take the car back to your place and the four of us can go up and see Lewis.”  Jake narrows his eyes at me and I know I got him with that one.  He won’t admit to his parents that he doesn’t want Molly driving his car.  “I just have to grab something out before we go,” and I can tell he knows I mean my gun and badge.

“I didn’t know you had it with you,” he whispers when his parents start talking to Max.

“I told you, I have it at all times, the only reason it is not on me right now is because I have no place to hide it.  It is in my purse, which is in the car.”  He shakes his head at me, and I just smile.  I look up and see Molly walk back into the room and sit down.  She flashes a smile at me, and I assume that she has gotten Ryan’s phone number for as long as she was gone.  A little while later Lucas and Ryan walk in with our food.  I eat my breakfast not really paying much attention to what is going on around me.  I look up and see Lucas walk back into the room and check on everything.  Everyone is very happy with their food and he smiles pleased with that answer and goes back out.

“So, Molly,” Jake says.  She stops eating and looks at him.  “Thanks to Jo you get to drive my car.  If you aren’t nice to it, I kick your ass.”  She smiles at me with big eyes.  I take the keys out of my sweatshirt pocket that is on the back of my chair and toss them to her.  She is like a school girl when she catches them.  I don’t think I have ever seen anyone so happy to have keys to a car.  We finish our breakfast quickly and I take the keys back from Molly just to go out to the car and get my purse.  When I walk back in the door Ryan is standing at the counter.

“Hey,” he motions for me to come by him.  “Is Jake going to kick my ass for giving my number to his sister?”

I laugh, “I couldn’t honestly tell you.  He doesn’t like that I'm a cop, I don’t know how he would react to his sister seeing one.  But it might be different maybe he will see that you are able to protect her.”

“I hope so; I really don’t think I could handle an ass whooping from him.  He would probably kill me,” Ryan jokes.  “So what are you up to the rest of the day?  Getting to know the family more?”

“Actually his parents want to see Lewis.  So I am taking them up there.”

“His rehab doctor approved that?”

“Yeah, they aren’t really holding him as a rehab client, he is there for protection, and because that is the only place I could think of to put him where I didn’t think they could get to him.”

“What do you mean you didn’t think they could get to him?”

“Apparently they tried getting someone in there last night.  I don’t know Ryan, this is going bad already and we haven’t even started yet.  I just hope this goes smoothly once he is out.  Maybe with them having open access to him will make it easier.”

“Where is he going to stay?”

“Well, I am hoping at Jake’s but I haven’t talked to him about that yet.”

“Jo, you should probably get that taken care of.”

“Yeah, I know.  I haven’t really had the time though.  We haven’t been alone a whole lot the last couple days.”

“Yeah, I guess.  Well hopefully you get a chance to talk to him.  I think the sooner he is out of there the better.”

“Yeah, hopefully.  I hope I am not in over my head with this one.”

“You’re not, you have your whole team behind you and we will get this thing done,” he smiles. 

“Hey, you just about ready to go?” Jake walks out the door way to the back room.

“Yeah, I'm ready when you are.”

“Ok, let me take care of the bill and we will head out.  Why don’t you go get my parents and tell Molly to get everyone back to my place?”

“Ok,” I walk past him and go back by everyone else and tell them we are all set to go.  We are coming out of the back room when Jake finishes paying the bill.