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ChapterNine
Jess carefully made her way from the car to the sidewalk, trekking through the sleet that was making the ground too slick to allow her to walk quickly. She’d driven from the diner at a snail’s pace, terrified of crashing the car. Ordinarily, she would have walked to work or taken the bus, but she’d left late this morning and she was unfamiliar with the bus stops on this side of town. So she’d foolishly hopped into her car, despite the weather forecast.
She paused when she reached the front door and sighed, her breath escaping in a huge, white puff of fog.
Once again, she was outside Tony and Rhys’s building. Glancing up at the light shining from the top two floors, she tried to figure out how she kept ending up here. It was only a little before five p.m., but it was quickly growing dark—damn daylight savings time.
After what had been a rocky start to last night—Jess shaken by the attack in the motel and Jasper’s terror over “the bad man”—she would have expected to suffer from a sleepless night.
Instead, the moment Tony and Rhys had claimed their places on the edges of the bed, promising to keep them safe, she’d slept like the dead. Slept so well, in fact, she’doverslept. Something she couldn’t remember doing in years.
Tony and Rhys hadn’t been in the bedroom when she woke up, and all day she’d caught herself wondering how long they’d sat sentry before returning to their own rooms.
She’d awoken with a start this morning, in a panic over being late, belatedly recalling she hadn’t figured out the babysitting issue with Jasper and that she wasn’t going to make it to the intake office before work.
With no other choice, she had planned to ask Paulie if she could leave work early, hating the idea of losing yet even more pay but not seeing a way around it. In her plan, she was going to pick Jasper up right after school, make the journey to the social services office, and hope the woman there could find a place for them to stay.
But that wasn’t how her day had gone at all.
After planning out her schedule, she’d gotten herself and Jasper ready for the day, hastily packed up their things, bid a silent, sad goodbye to the gorgeous guest room, and headed to the kitchen to say thank you to her weekend saviors.
That was when her schedule had been shot to hell. She’d been met by Tony, Rhys, and Aunt Berta, who had theirownideas about her day. In their version, Aunt Berta picked up Jasper after school and watched him until Jess got “home” from work.
That had been the word they’d used.
Home.
Tony said they’d planned to talk to her about that—and a couple other things—over breakfast, but because of her sleepy start, whatever they’d planned to say would wait until after her shift.
So here she was…after her shift…hoping whatever they had to say wouldn’t take too long. She’d called the woman at social services on her lunch break but hadn’t had a chance to fill out the paperwork yet, which meant they were spending tonight in the shelter, something she wasn’t looking forward to.
After a full day on her feet, she wanted to grab something for her and Jasper to eat, then get in line. She was looking forward to the time when she could just sit down and be done with the day. Unfortunately, she was several hours away from that, as she also needed to take her car back to Debbie’s before making the trek to the shelter.
Walking in, she encountered Rhys leaving his office with an elderly gentleman, clearly a patient.
Rhys smiled when he saw her, and her heart pitter-pattered a little harder. She’d been shocked last night when he’d pulled her onto his lap. She’d been even more surprised by how much that simple, comforting gesture had actually aroused her, something she wouldn’t have expected after being attacked by the asshole at the motel.
“There you are, Jess. Tony was just about to send out a search team,” he said warmly before turning to the man next to him. “This is Oscar Reynolds, one of my worst patients. Oscar, this is Jess Monroe, another equally bad patient.”
Jess grinned. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too. And good for you, Jess.” Oscar laughed heartily, slapping Rhys on the back. “We gotta keep Doc on his toes. Wouldn’t want him to get bored, would we?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Rhys murmured. “I could stand to be a lot less bored by you, Oscar.”
Oscar sighed. “I hear you. Less smoking, less drinking, less bacon. You’re a real buzzkill.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Rhys said, walking the man to the door. “I’ll call you as soon as the results of the blood work are in.”
The two men said goodbye, then Rhys locked the front door. “That was my last patient for the night.” He gestured toward the stairs. “Let me get the lights and I’ll walk up with you.”
Jess waited, her nipples budding when Rhys placed his hand on her lower back and guided her upstairs. Thank God she still had her winter coat on.
“How are you feeling today? Any pain?”
She shook her head. “No. The ibuprofen you gave me is doing the trick. Keeping the soreness away.”
When they reached the landing just outside the apartment, he turned her toward him, his fingers on her chin. He studied her face, then her neck.
