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“Who got himself shot? I’m betting that you won’t have to dig too deep to find out that I’m right and that under that cop façade, you’ll find a bad boy.” God, she hated when her brother acted this smug, and she especially hated when he was right. Jo had a feeling that he was one hundred percent correct when it came to Stone, even if her brother had never met the guy.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Jacob,” she insisted. “You’ve never even met the guy, so how can you say that you know who he is.”
“I’m just saying that you seem smitten by him and that usually means that the guy’s bad news,” Jacob defended.
“First, I’m not smitten by him. Who even talks like that anymore? Second, he’s a nice guy. You’re wrong about all of it, Jacob. Just accept defeat and move on,” she said.
“Fine, how long will you be gone?” he asked.
“Why do you ask?” she questioned.
“So that I can throw a raging party,” he teased.
“And who will you invite to this rager?” she asked. “You have no friends. Your ex got them all when you two broke up.” Sure, she was being a bitch by bringing that up, but she couldn’t help herself. Jolene knew that her brother had no friends. Even if he didn’t seem to mind being alone most of the time, she minded for him. It wasn’t fair that Jacob’s ex-girlfriend got to keep all of their old “together” friends while he was sitting alone night after night.
“You can be really mean when you want to be, sis,” Jacob accused. “I was just joking around. I’ll take good care of your apartment until you finish with your client,” he said, putting air quotes around the word, “Client.”
“Yeah, well, you’re kind of being a jerk right now too, Jacob,” she said. “If I say he’s my client, you should accept it and stop pushing for more information.”
Jacob held up his hands as if in defeat and smiled at her. “Sorry,” he said, “I’ll quit pushing for answers about your mysterious client and you can rest assured that I won’t be throwing a rager. Deal?” he asked, holding his hand out to her to seal the deal.
“Deal,” she agreed, shaking his hand. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to pack and get back to work.”
“Don’t forget to pack all your good underwear. You want to give the best first impression you can on the guy,” Jacob teased. She shook her head at him as she walked down the hallway to her bedroom.
“You really are an ass,” she muttered as she disappeared into her room, her brother’s laughter following her the whole time.
* * *
Jolene spent the rest of the day and into the evening cleaning Stone’s house and getting it ready for him to come home the next day. She didn’t push the doctor for his release today, as she promised Stone she had. It was best for him to stay in the hospital for the night to get all his antibiotics before being sent home. It would certainly make her job a bit easier knowing that the infection that he was fighting was on the mend.
She had spoken to the nurses and planned his release for the next morning when she heard a woman shouting from his room. Jo ran down the hall to find an older woman standing over Stone’s bed, yelling at him, as he cowered beneath her.
“You didn’t even call me,” she shouted, causing Jolene to wonder if she had walked in on a lover’s spat or something like it.
“I didn’t call you because I didn’t want to worry you, Ma,” he said. Oh, that seemed to make more sense. The woman was his mother and when she giggled at her own faux pas, both Stone and his mother stopped fighting long enough to look over at her standing in the doorway.
“Hi,” she squeaked, “sorry to interrupt.”
“Not a problem,” Stone insisted, “come on in.” His mother seemed less happy about her intrusion, but she stood to the side, letting Jo into the room.
“I’ve got everything set for your release tomorrow,” Jolene said. “I’ll be back here tomorrow at nine to help you with everything.”
“That won’t be necessary,” his mother spat. “I’ll be here for his discharge and will be taking him home with me.”
“Ma, we’ve been over this. You don’t need the added stress of taking care of me, and Jolene is a physical therapist. She’s been hired by the department to help get me back on my feet. Let’s let her do her job.”
His mother looked her over and then back at her son. “You’re not adding stress to my life. I love taking care of you, you’re my only child.”
“Oh, I thought you had sisters,” Jolene said. She was sure that the two women she met earlier both said that they were his sisters.
“I do have sisters, you met them earlier,” he said, “but, we all have different mothers.”
“Your new sisters were here and you didn’t bother to call me to let me know that you were shot on duty? I had to hear it from your boss when I took you lunch yesterday?” his mother asked.
“Well, if you would stop showing up at my job with food, we wouldn’t have this problem, Ma,” he said.
“Don’t be smart,” his mother said. The woman looked about ready to backhand her adult son and Jo had to stifle her giggle again. “A mother deserves to know these things, Stone. I shouldn’t come in second to your new family.” Hearing the hurt in Stone’s mother’s voice made Jo feel sad for the woman.
