Unexpected Love (Jo's Story)

by Nikki Williams

  “I'm calling Ryan,” Bobby whispers to me. I just nod my head; I know that is probably a good idea at this point.

  Amber just stands there staring at me for a little bit and then opens her mouth. “I think you are a selfish bitch that is what I think. Your husband is killed saving lives and now you are sleeping around with some millionaire. Doesn’t seem to me like you give two shits about your husband.”

  “Well, if I can nicely remind you, Amber, MY husband has been gone for almost two years now. I think I deserve to move forward with my life at some point don’t I?”

  “No, I don’t think so. You didn’t deserve him in the first place!”

  “Oh, but you did? Is that why you hate me so much? Because he chose me over you? Aw poor Amber you told him you were his best friend but that was all just an act wasn’t it? You just wanted him! Too bad he didn’t love you, he loved me.”

  “You’re a slut that is the only reason he chose you. You gave him what he wanted. I wanted to be more than just a good lay to him,” she starts at me. Bobby steps in front of me.

  “Amber, enough,” he warns her.

  “No Bobby, let her get it out. She has been blaming me for this for the last ten years, that is a lot of built up anger,” I smirk at her.

  “You bitch,” she starts to swing at me and I grab her hand.

  “I will remind you one time, I am a cop. Off duty or not, that is assault on an officer,” and I let her hand go.

  “You think I'm scared of you and your stupid ass badge? I think you are a coward and hide behind that.”

  “Oh you think that is what I am doing? Hiding? Ok, if you want to play that game lets have it out right here. You don’t think that I can kick your scrawny little ass? You want a chance to rough me up a little bit?” I step closer to her. I feel Bobby grab my arm but he lets go right away. I never break eye contact with her. “You tried to fight me a week after I buried my husband and lost that, now after two years of built up anger toward me you think you will have the upper hand on me? Go ahead; take your best shot bitch!” I see her swing at me. I grab her hand and spin her around so she is no longer facing me and push her away. “You have no chance Amber. Your drunk and I'm trained to take down guys three times the size of me.”

  “I'm not scared of you,” she turns back around and charges at me again. This time I step out of the way and grab her arms and pin her between me and the bar.

  “I'm less scared of you, I have nothing to say to you and nothing that you say to me is going to have any effect on me. I know you are just out to hurt me and that is fine, but you know what, the truth is Jarrod and I were happy no matter what you tried to pull to tear us apart. You think he didn’t tell me about all the times you tried to convince him I was cheating on him, or the times you told him he would be happier with you? I'm not stupid Amber. I knew better than to trust you. You’re worse than a jealous ex-girlfriend. He knew better than to think you were a real friend. You know the saying; keep your friends close but your enemies closer? Yeah, that is what he was doing with you. He knew you were no good.” I let her arms go. She pushes herself off the bar and turns to me.

  “He would have been mine if you would have just left him alone,” she pushes herself off the bar at me. I see Ryan out of the corner of my eye grab her in midair.

  “Alright, I think that is enough,” he pulls her back and pushes her back up against the bar.

  “Let me go, she started it,” she tries to fight him off.

  “She didn’t touch me Ryan, let her go,” I tell him. He shakes his head at me. “She can’t touch me, even if she tried.” He lets her go. She looks up at me and gives me a really dirty look.

  “This isn’t done bitch,” she snarls.

  “Ok, that was your one free go, next time I won’t be as nice,” I laugh. I walk back over to where Bobby and I were sitting.

  “What the hell was that all about?” Ryan walks up next to me.

  “She is drunk, and obviously still thinks that she and Jarrod would have been together if I would have walked away from him.”

  “So you let her have a free shot at you?”

  “Actually about three of them,” I smile at him. “You don’t actually think I would have let her hit me do you?”

  “No, but that is assault on an officer,” Ryan looks down at me.

  “I thought I would forget for five minutes that I was a cop,” I laugh. He just shakes his head. “I think I might come down one Sunday and visit with everyone,” I look at Bobby. “I thought it would be worse seeing her, but you know what, she doesn’t bother me. I know that Jarrod would have never touched her and he loved me. She does not threaten anything to me right now.”

  He smiles, “Good, I'm glad. I hope you come soon.”

  “I will, but right now I need to get going. I told Jake about twenty minutes ago I was going to head that way soon.” I finish my beer and stand up.

  “I will walk you out,” Ryan says to me. I nod to him and then give Bobby a hug.

  “Congrats to you, tell Marie I'm so happy for you guys and cannot wait to celebrate,” I kiss his cheek.

  “Thanks Jo,” he smiles, “and good luck with the house thing,” he winks at me.

  “Thanks,” I smile and turn to follow Ryan. “Hey, thanks for coming,” I say to him once we are outside the bar.

  “No problem, Bobby sounded a little panicked when he called so I figured I better get here.”

  “I had it under control. I was just letting her vent, and facing my issues with her as well. Last time I saw her she tried the same shit, but that was a week after Jarrod’s death and I was in no shape to defend myself then.”

  “Yeah, I remember that. I'm pretty sure I was the one that held her back there too,” he smiles at me. “So you’re headed to Jake’s?”

  “Yeah, were you there?”

  “Yeah, I was with Molly, she is not in good shape right now. She won’t tell me what happened down there. And I tell you what I will find out. Someone tried to do something to her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She has black and blue spots on her arms and legs. I think someone tried to rape her Jo,” he tenses up.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “No, she won’t tell me what happened which means she is covering for someone.”

  “Does Jake know?”

  “No, he has been up in his room since I got her home. He got beat up at practice today I guess and is on some pretty heavy pain killers. Mark was there a little while ago checking on him. He was down on the couch when I left. They have his arm in a sling.”

  “Yeah, he told me he got hurt. He is going to flip out when he finds out about Molly.”

  “She doesn’t want him to know,” he looks at me. “Jo, I'm worried about her.”

  “I will talk to her when we get back. See if I can get anything out of her.”

  “Thank you,” he relaxes a little. “I will follow you back to the house.” He gets in his car. I can’t believe that someone would try and hurt Molly. I hope it wasn’t that football guy. Jake will kill him. I pull up to the gate and enter the code and drive up to the front door and park. Ryan and I walk into the house and Jake is lying asleep on the couch.

  “I will go up and talk to Molly now if you want while he is sleeping.”

  “You can try,” he looks at me with doubt in his eyes.

  “That’s all I can do,” I walk up to her room and knock on the door.

  “Come in,” I hear her say.

  “Hey Molly,” I say when I see her sitting on the bed.

  “Hey,” she pulls the covers up over her legs and smiles at me.

  “You don’t have to hide from her,” Ryan walks in behind me. “I told her already,” he walks over to the bed and sits next to her.

  “Why?” She looks at him.

  “Because I can’t talk you into telling me the truth, I thought maybe she could get through to you.” He looks up at me.

  “Can I have a couple minutes,”
I ask him. He knew it was coming and gets up kisses her on the cheek and goes out of the room.

  “There is nothing to tell you Jo,” she looks at me.

  “You forget that I know about the guy that you were seeing down there,” I sit on the bed next to her. “Tell me what happened Molly, before I tell your brother and he goes completely ballistic.”

  “Jo, he doesn’t need to know, it was nothing.”

  “Molly, these are not nothing,” I point to the bruises on her arms. “Something happened, tell me.”

  “I was picking my stuff up from William’s place and he got a little rough with me. I already filed a report down there with the cops. He didn’t try to rape me like Ryan thinks he did. He was pissed off that I was leaving him. I know I should have probably taken someone with me to get my stuff but I was hoping he would be civil enough. Apparently I was wrong. Please don’t tell Jake. He would probably fly down there and kick his ass.”

  “I'm more worried about Ryan, he is freaking out Molly. He doesn’t know about this guy you know that right? You need to tell him. If you already filed a report against him there is nothing else that can be done.”

  “He is being charged for domestic abuse. They filed it under anonymous because I don’t think that Jake needs another sibling to drag his name all over the news.”

  “Well, Jake is going to find out, you can’t hide in your room for a week while the bruises go away.”

  “I know, I'm just not ready to prove to him he was right,” she looks up at me and smiles. “He will have that “I told you so look” as soon as I say anything.”

  “I won’t say anything to him, but you need to tell Ryan the truth.”

  “I will, thanks Jo,” she grabs my hand. “Thanks for everything.”

  “No problem,” I get up and walk out the door and go downstairs. I see Ryan sitting across from Jake and he is awake now. They are talking but stop when I get closer to them. “Molly wants to talk to you Ryan,” I smile at him.

  “Ok,” he gets up and goes back upstairs.

  “Hey baby,” Jake smiles at me. I can tell he is in pain.

  “You look like you are in so much pain Jake,” I walk over and kneel in front of him.

  “I'm fine,” he grabs my hand. “They stretched it out a lot after I did it to make sure I didn’t tear anything. I will be ok.”

  “And you worry about me. You get hurt more than I do,” I look up at him.

  “Oh stop,” he laughs. “Come here and sit,” he pats the couch next to him. He grabs his laptop off the table and puts it on his lap. “There are three lots for sale. Which one do you like more?”

  “Why do I have to pick?”

  “You’re not; I just want to know which one you like. I already picked one out I just want to see if it is the same one.”

  I look at the computer and look at all three closely. “I like the one with more trees and this looks like it’s next to a field,” I point to the one I like.

  “Yes, it is. And five houses down across the street is Mark and Lisa’s place,” he smiles. “That is the one that I put the offer in on. They were asking too much for it. The realtor said it has been open for almost three years now. So I made an offer with the promise to build immediately.”

  “So when will you know if you got it?”

  “Probably tomorrow. He doesn’t think they will turn the offer down. They have a bunch of lots around that area that are open and they are all overpriced.”

  “So what do you do then?”

  “Well, I have a contractor working on some blue prints for a house for me. He has the blue prints to this place; I told him I like the layout, with the exception of a few things. I was thinking that both girls will have their own bathrooms, I remember what a mess my house was growing up with not enough bathrooms,” he laughs. “And I am going to make the game room bigger, but it is going to go in the basement along with a family movie room.”

  “Jake, why are you planning this around the girls and I?”

  “Because in December you will be moving in with me,” he smiles.

  “You’re pretty confident.”

  “Yes, I am. Jo, you will do fine in this life, you are so damn high strong that no one is going to get to you. You know better than to believe rumors or tabloid magazines.”

  “Oh, thanks,” I slap his leg.

  “Hey now,” he grabs my hand. “Jo, I'm so excited for this,” he kisses my hand. “I want to be with you all the time.”

  “Me too,” I kiss his cheek. “I just worry about moving too quickly that’s all.”

  “It’s not like we are getting married, we are just moving in together.”

  “Yeah, into a brand new house that you are building to accommodate the girls and me. That’s not a big deal at all,” I roll my eyes at him.

  “To me, it really isn’t. I mean I know it won’t happen but if this doesn’t work I will be able to sell it no problem. But if that happens I'm moving out of state,” he looks down at me.

  “Running from your problems never solves anything,” I smirk at him.

  “If I can’t have you there is no reason for me to stay here,” he wraps his arm around me. “I love you Jo and that will not change.”

  “I know,” I smile. “So when do I get to see the blue prints?”

  “When I get them from him. I should have them tomorrow or Friday. Maybe this weekend we can decide if we want new furniture or keep this stuff, or yours which ever.”

  “Well, I thought a lot about what you said about me renting my place out to Ryan and I think that is what I might do. He is going to need a place of his own, especially now that he has a new girlfriend.”

  “Yeah, and my sister will need a place to stay because she will not be staying with us.”

  “So if he rents my place I will probably leave almost everything there. His bitch ex took everything from him so he has nothing right now.”

  “If that is what you want to do. It’s your place. You make it sound like you’re not going to be there that much longer,” he smirks at me.

  “Oh no, that’s not going to work. December, we agreed.”

  “I know,” he kisses my temple. “So, I was thinking a nice relaxing night lying in bed watching TV. I can’t really do anything else. They have me on these pain meds and I can’t drive or anything. I have Mark picking me up for practice tomorrow.”

  “I'm game for that. I had another long day at work. Half of my team has moved on to the next case because we can’t really do anything until Saturday.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right. When are you going to be gone Saturday?”

  “I will most likely be at the office all day. Probably go in about 8:00 or 9:00 and be there until after we are done. Then I was thinking I should go home and clean up my place and get some stuff done there since the girls are coming home Sunday.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. Well, can I take you to dinner Friday night then? Things are going to be crazy next week. We fly out to Denver Wednesday night and I won’t be back until Monday sometime.”

  “Yeah, I think that would be ok. I am not looking forward to next week. The girls start school Monday so I am off for that but then the rest of the week will be all paper work for me because of this bust. The DA is going to want all the evidence that I have against them, it is going to be a nightmare.”

  “Well, my parents and the sibs will be flying out on Friday morning at like 8:00 I think. So when you get out of work I am all yours.”

  “Where did you want to go?”

  “Someplace quiet and were we won’t be bothered.”

  “Did you have a place in mind?”

  “Well, depends, what is your favorite kind of food?”

  “I'm really not picky. I eat pretty much anything.”

  “I know this great place uptown, they have the best steak and fish there is.”

  “Sounds good,” I smile at him.

  “Well, want to go up and watch a movie?”

  “Yeah, sounds pe
rfect. I'm going to go grab a bottle of water you want something?”

  “Sure, I will take one too,” he gets up off the couch. “I think I am going to check the fridge for a snack, I'm hungry,” he goes into the kitchen.

  “Ok, I will meet you in the room.” I go to the bar and grab two bottles of water. I start to the bedroom and hear him drop something on the floor. I run to the kitchen. “You ok?”

  “Yeah, not used to only having one hand. He starts picking up the strawberries that he dropped on the floor.”

  “Here you take these,” I hand him the bottles. “I will pick these up and wash them off. Is this your idea of a snack?”

  “Yes it is,” he smiles. “Hey, don’t give me that look I love strawberries.” I shake my head and pick them up and take them to the sink and wash them off.

  “I will carry this you carry those,” I look at him.

  “Yes ma’am,” he smiles at me. I follow him upstairs. “Your awfully bossy tonight, someone not listen to you at work today that you are taking it out on me?”

  “I am not,” I laugh and smack him in the butt.

  “Hey, don’t make me trip, coach would come kick your ass,” he laughs.

  “Jake,” Molly sticks her head out her bedroom door.

  “Yeah,” he turns and looks at her.

  “How is your arm?”

  “It will heal. Nothing too bad, just a pulled muscle. They did x-rays and all that nothing is torn or anything like that. Just have to rest it for a couple weeks. Probably won’t play until the second game. If they want to put me in that is.”

  “That sucks,” she steps out into the hall obviously forgetting about the bruise on her arm.

  “Molly what the hell happened to your arm?” He walked back toward her.

  “Nothing, its fine.”

  “Bullshit, what happened?” She looks at me and I nod at her, she is going to have to tell him at some point. Jake looks at me and knows that I know what happened. “You know?” He asks me. I nod.

  “I just told her, I asked her not to tell you. You have yourself to worry about you don’t need to worry about me too.”