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“We asked Moore’s new girlfriend to ask him to keep us informed of the goings-on of the case, and she called us and told us the guys were headed over!” she bursts out. “Don’t blame him,” she adds with a glance at Anderson. “Men do the stupidest things for the women they love.”
There’s a beat of silence in which the eyes of every man in the room settle on the woman they love: Montgomery on Emily, Stafford on Lucy, Seth on Becca, Anderson on Mel…and Jack on me.
“You can say that again,” Jack laments, then in unison all five of them throw their heads back and laugh.
Chapter 31
Jack
“I’LL BE QUICK,” Nora tells me, as we pull up outside of her condo later that night.
Montgomery and Stafford took Stella and Sven to the police station and Frank took Connie back home. To my surprise, before they left, Connie ended up apologizing to us for her behavior toward us. She also explained that it was the husband of her nosy neighbor (aka Botox lady) who had found my sweatshirt hanging on the fence. This morning Connie had run into Botox lady on her way to turn in the sweatshirt to security (aka Sven on his way out for the night) and recognized it as mine from when she’d seen me last night with the tow truck. Hence her comments about me hopping fences to get into the subdivision. Then she said I could probably get it back now that Sven is in custody.
While it’s nice to know how my sweatshirt played into all of this, I won’t try and get it back. I have other things on my mind. Or really just one thing: Nora.
Out of a sense of duty, I did offer to stay and help Anderson with paperwork and things, but he laughed in my face and–for the second time today–told me to get the heck out of there with my wife.
Which I gladly did. I am more than ready to be back home with Nora. Of course, I wasn’t expecting Nora to ask to make this little detour to her condo first, but like Mel said, men do the stupidest things for the women we love. And, despite the fact that I told Nora the guys had agreed to come help pack up her stuff this weekend, she insisted there was something at her condo that she needed tonight. So now–because I am in fact completely in love with her–we’re going miles out of the way to stop at her condo when all I really want to do is take her back to my house and kiss her all night long.
Among other things.
“Not so fast,” I tell her, turning my car off. “I’m coming in with you.”
“What? Why?” She sounds alarmed.
“Do you not want me to go in with you?” I ask, mollified.
“No, it’s not that,” she says in a way that very much makes it clear that it is that.
“Nora,” I narrow my eyes at her, “what’s going on here?” Earlier today I might have read into her not wanting me to go in with her, might have thought she wanted space from me. But seeing as she spent the entire car ride here with her head on my shoulder and our hands intertwined, I’m pretty sure this isn’t a space issue. Nope, this is something else.
Something suspicious.
“What? Nothing’s going on!” She laughs nervously. “Why would you think something is going on?”
“Because your voice sounds like it belongs to a chipmunk named Alvin.”
“What— no it doesn’t,” she denies, lowering her voice to a register usually reserved for Darth Vader. She coughs, then clears her throat. “It’s just a little messy inside, okay? It’s embarrassing.”
“You do know I was in there last night, don’t you?” I remind her. “I’ve seen it already. And it really wasn’t messy.”
“That’s right, you have been in there already,” she cries. “Unsupervised!”
“What’s your point?”
“Jack!” She puts fisted hands on her hips. “I can’t have you in my house right now, okay? You appear to have made it in and out unscathed last night, but it was dark and you were focused on the task at hand. I doubt I’ll be so lucky the second time around.”
“What are you talking about? Unscathed?” I take a step toward her, itching to take her back in my arms. Even all riled up she looks gorgeous standing there. Maybe even especially gorgeous all riled up. “Is there something in your house that you’re worried is going to attack me?”
She flushes a pretty pink. “Noooo,” she stretches the word, then finally looks me in the eye and gets to the crux of the issue. “Fine, you can come inside, but I don’t want to hear a word about anything you might see that might make you think…things. Okay?”
I’d really like to ask her again what the heck she’s talking about—think things? What does that even mean—but I don’t want to push my luck. She said I could go in with her, and that’s enough for me.
“Okay,” I agree, offering my hand out for her to shake. She takes it and I seize the opportunity to pull her toward me for a kiss.
“Jack,” she chides as we separate a minute later, “what will the neighbors think?” But there’s no real censure in her tone, only twin spots of color on her cheeks and a shine to her green eyes. So I pull myself up next to her and sling my arm around her waist, giving her butt a little tap on the way there. “Jack!” she giggles.
“What?” I feign innocence.
