7. Put Him In His Place

7

PUT HIM IN HIS PLACE

T oward the end of the day on Monday, Jarrett was driving back to the barracks and decided to swing by Andi's house. He'd gone by a few times this weekend. Each time there'd been two cars in the driveway, but this morning he'd gotten a notification that Jack Wilson had left the island.

He'd seen that the ticket was purchased but more so, he'd gotten a notification from the docks that Jack and his rental car were tagged driving onto the ferry on the island and off of it in Boston.

This time when he drove by, he expected to see one car in the driveway and did.

He also saw her bringing groceries in and, before he could think better of it, pulled over and rolled the window down. "Do you think you should be doing that?"

She squinted at him in the black SUV and then smiled. The sun was hitting her head and he realized she had more redhair than brown.

Her hair was down and covering one side of her face. On Friday it'd been pulled back in a ponytail.

"I needed some food," she said.

"Let me help you," he said, putting the SUV in park and shutting it off. It'd give him time to feel her out too and find out if she felt safe or uncomfortable over anything.

"I suppose I couldn't say no," she said. "I've only got three bags."

He jogged up to her and pulled the two out of her hands. "Give me that one too and you can open the door."

She handed it over and he noticed that she had a lot of makeup on her face over her eye, but he could see it was still bruised.

"Thanks," she said.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," she said. "Still sore but not horrible if I'm moving around."

They made their way to the front door. "Do you want me to leave these here or bring them in?"

She seemed to hesitate. "You can bring them in. I trust you."

"You should," he said. "I'm only trying to help even if your cousin might have doubts."

She sighed. "Jack is pretty protective. He can't help it."

"He's gone now though, so he can't be too protective."

"I'm sure you got notification the minute he left," she said, smirking but then winced when she did.

He followed her into the house, through the living room and a dining roomandright into the kitchen. The place wasn't that big and he was assuming the bedrooms were on the other side of the house.

"I know what is going on here," he said.

"There is nothing to worry about," she said.

He nodded his head and set the bags on the kitchen counter. "You'll let me know if there is something?"

"I will," she said. "But the biggest worry I've got now is the amount of time I'm missing from work."

"Sorry about that. You shouldn't push it though."

"I'll be fine. I've had worse things happen in my life than this."

He lifted his eyebrow at her. "You have?"

"Don't read more into it," she said. "You know Jack was called and said he was my only family. It's true. I have no relationship with my mother and my father died two years ago. I'm an only child. No grandparents left either."

"That's hard," he said. "I've got two brothers and lots of cousins. Not just first cousins, but more distant ones too."

"So I've seen and heard. I saw one of them today. Gotmyselfone hell of a dental bill to go with it."

"Yikes," he said.

"Again," she said, "it's all good. I've got a rainy day fund for these things and I'll be tapping into it. Thankfully I only need one crown and the other is an easy fix. Nothing else damaged other than maybe knocking some sense into me on the fall."

"You seem pretty smart to me," he said as she unloaded the groceries. Lots of healthy food. Things that might be easy to eat and chew with two broken teeth. "Ice cream and lots of it."

"I can have a pity party each night and tell myself it's what's best for my teeth. Even Coy laughed when I said that."

"He's a good guy," he said. "Takes care of my teeth too. Not that I enjoy sitting in the chair and feeling defenseless with my mouth open like that, but it is what it is."

"Better than lying on a bed unconscious while strangers touch and examine your body," she said.

There was humor in her eyes when she said it, reminding him that he'd done that to her by the water.

She'd been unconscious and he wanted to make sure there was nothing broken and bleeding and ran his hands all over her body quickly.

If he was thinking he'd like to do it again but not in a medical capacity, he kept those thoughts to himself.

"You've got a point. How long do you have to stay out of work?" he asked.

"I've canceled everything for a few days and rescheduled for most of the following week. I did keep the two I had this coming Friday. I've got two appointments on Saturday too. Might as well start back slow and see how I feel."

"Bestway to do it," he said.

He felt like a fool standing there having this conversation with her but wasn't sure he wanted to leave yet.

She did seem fine for the most part.

Not jumpy either.Andhe was looking for signs of that.

He noticed the security system when they entered. Nothing alarming there, as a lot of houses had them.

"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked. "Water or tea. Soda? Though it's diet."

"I'm good," he said. He wanted to stay but didn't want to push it either.

The fact she offered that told him that she wasn't afraid of him.

"Thank you again. I'm not sure what would have happened if you weren't there when I fell."

"Not a problem. Guess it was fate." And the minute those words were out of his mouth he was reminded of the lore of this damn island and how he'd never believed in it before.

"I never thought much of that one way or another," she said. She was still putting her groceries away and he noticed she was neat like him.

Not over the top, but everything was lined up and made sense where it went.

"Not many do," he said. "What do you know about this island?"

"Quite a bit," she said. "If Amanda didn't fill me in, but I don't see her much, then my clients do. I know the lore and the legend. I know all about your family finding the island. I just don't know who is who. Like since you're last name is Bond, you come from one of the three sons."

"William," he said. "The poor side."

She snorted. "Do people think of it that way? In this day and age?"

It kind of put him in his place. "More than you realize."

"That's sad," she said.

"Guess I'm used to it."

"I try not to get too used to anything in life. Too much can change."

It was the quiet way she said it that told him that she wasn't going to say much more, but he knew she was hiding something.

"That goes for everyone," he said.

"You're right. This is me and my pity party. It will pass. Been a bad couple of days, but I'll be happy to get back to normal."

"What's normal?" he asked. "Formethat is working nonstop and then going home to work on my house."

"Alone?" she asked. "Sure I can't get you something to drink?"

"I'm good," he said. "And yes, alone. Seems to be the story of my life."

He added a cocky smirk to that statement and she matched it. "I think we might have that in common now."