“Hey, Jo,” I hear Brandon. He comes walking over to me and gives me a hug. “Quite the big ordeal we have going on here. I see a few all-star football players standing around out there. Would you be the reason for that?”
“Well one of them is my doing, the other three volunteered. Looks like you guys have stuff under control in here huh?”
“Oh yeah, we are doing great. I heard your team is coming down to help out to?”
“Yeah, I believe so. I heard Chief Lorenz may even stop by. Hopefully this goes good. There are a lot of people lined up outside.”
“I'm sure it will be great. I have heard a lot of chatter the last few days. A lot of people are excited. We had to have all the parks bring over picnic tables just so we would have seating.”
“Good, lets fill those seats,” I smile at him.
“Hey Jo,” I hear someone say. I turn and see two people waving at me. I'm not sure who they are so I wave back.
“Who is that?” Annie asks me.
“I have no idea. If I had to guess I would say rookies. Everyone tries to be extra nice to me at these things.”
“Well can you blame them? You are the biggest supporter of this fire house Jo. They probably have more money than any other station because of you. You know I heard that the city was going to shut them down until you became their donor.”
“Yeah, I heard that too. Jarrod told me a couple times that he wasn’t sure how long this house would be up because of financial issues it was having.”
“You do amazing things for these guys Jo. Just remember that.”
“I know Annie, trust me Ed doesn’t let me forget either.” I smile at her. We stand around talking for a while. I look around for Jake, but I don’t see him, I'm guessing he is hanging out with the rest of the guys from the team. I see Ryan and the rest of my team come in and gather around by the food cart that they will be serving the corn from. I look at Annie and she has a stupid grin on her face. “What?”
“You’re so happy, I love it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t wiped that stupid smile off your face since you got here. Which means you are putting on a front for the guys here, or you are truly happy with Mr. Hottie!”
“He has a name, and yes I am happy. This is way more than I ever expected to come from him giving me his number in the bar last week.”
“See, aren’t you glad I shoved you into him?”
“Yes, Annie, thank you for making me spill my beer all over the hottest guy in the state.” I laugh at her.
“Yes, thank you Annie for pushing her into me,” Jake scares me when he walks up next to me.
“You scared the crap out of me,” I slap his arm.
“Sorry,” he smiles and kisses my cheek. Annie is laughing and shaking her head at me.
“Jake, I like the necklace.”
“Yes, thank you for that as well Annie. Although I did get in trouble when she found out you gave me your number.”
“I figured you would,” she smiles at me. “But someone has to tell you what she likes, because I know she isn’t going to.” I shake my head and stick my tongue out at her. She is so mean sometimes. But I still don’t know where I would be without her.
“Jo,” I hear my mom. “Hey sweetie,” she gives me a big hug when she gets next to me. “How was the beach?”
“Amazing,” Jake smile and gives her a hug.
“Good, I'm glad. So where do you need me?”
“Not sure, I will have to ask Ed. Is Lucas coming?”
“Yes, he will be here soon. He had to swing by the restaurant quick to pick something up.”
“Oh, ok. Well let’s go find Ed and see what he wants you to do,” I grab her hand and pull her with me. I see Jake start talking to Annie and can’t help but wonder what they are up to now. My mom and I find Ed and he tells my mom that she can help us to sell the pictures and make sure that everyone gets an autograph. It sounds like they have a few security guys watching to make sure that no pictures are taken. I can’t help but wonder if this is normal. I would think the guys would be ok with getting their pictures taken, but this is big news for the fire department because they have never had anything big like this before.
“Alright, you guys ready to go?” Joan walks up to the four of us standing at the entrance.
“Yeah, I think so,” I smile at her. She is super nice. I can see why Jake trusts her so much. I look over at the tables lined up by the trucks and see Mark and the two guys I don’t know but I don’t see Jake. He sure is doing a lot of disappearing today. I am watching the guys and I see Jake come out from behind the fire truck shoving his phone back in his pocket. He doesn’t look happy. I catch his eye and he just smiles at me. I can tell something is wrong though because he doesn’t seem to be in a good mood anymore. I can see him call Joan over to him and they talk. I see her nod then grab her phone.
“I will be right back,” I say to Annie. I walk over to him and can tell that he is extremely upset. “Hey,” I grab his hand. “What’s going on?”
“The press is harassing my parents about this whole thing with Lewis. I just got off the phone with my mom and she said that they have been outside the house since 5:00 this morning. They can’t even get out of the house to go to work right now.”
“Jake, I'm sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I am having them come up here and stay for a few days until things calm down.”
“Who is them?”
He smiles at me, I'm sure he knows I am nervous about meeting his family. “My mom and dad, Max, and Lindsey and Chelsea.”
“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.
Chapter Fourteen
“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?”
Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) Page 23