A Wild Ride (Jessica Brodie Diaries #3)(32)

Mr. Shoemaker was the sweet, old English butler. I certainly wouldn’t be calling him Jeeves anymore!

“Can I talk to William now? Then I need to sleep.”

“Maybe a little later, dear,” Denise said, heading toward the car. “Let’s get you to bed and you can talk to Will—“

“No. Now. Please.” I pulled away and walked toward Tom. Denise caught up with me immediately

“Honey, Willie is a little...worried. It might be best to give him a second to calm—“

“I’ll speak with him now, please.”

“It might not be the best thing—“

“Now.”

I got a sigh. Denise finished walking me to Tom, who flinched the phone away when he saw me.

“Jessica,” he said, “now might not be—“

I put out my hand. I must have had a murderous look on my face because after a second’s delay, Tom handed it over.

“Tell her no, Dad. She doesn’t need—“

“Hi, baby.”

William’s speech cut off with a loud inhalation of breath.

“Oh God, Jessica, love. How—Do you—Were—“ He exhaled again. He sounded every bit as panicked and scared as I knew he would be.

“Adam is pretty tore up emotionally, but it really did sound a lot worse than it is,” I told him in a soothing voice.

“You’ve made the news already, Jess. I have a picture of Fred up as I speak. Adam was not—“ William’s voice hitched.

“It was no one’s fault. I switched up my schedule—so actually, if it were anyone’s fault, it would be mine.”

“Don’t—“

“I wish I could hold you to make it better, but I’m okay. I’m going to be okay. I don’t think I’ll be any good in the next crisis situation, but I’m hanging in there.”

Silence.

I had a feeling William was trying to stay strong. Sometimes men could be so freaking stupid—it really made their girlfriends work twice as hard at normality.

“Please say something,” I pleaded softly.

“I don’t know what to say, Jessica. I don’t. I’m hundreds of miles away when you need me most.”

“I don’t need you most right now. I needed you most the last time, and you were there. Tonight I needed Fred most. And he was there. God only gives us as much as we can handle. Didn’t you say that? Well, I am handling it, so now you have to handle it, okay? Have a good cry. It’s the boys turn to cry tonight. Lump and I will take our turns tomorrow..”

“Oh Jess—“ William said, finally letting the intense worry out. “I can’t stand this.”

“I know, babe. I know. But what you are doing is important. I at least have loved ones around me. You are all alone. But one week left then back to life as normal, huh?”

“Miss Brodie, we should go,” Scotty said beside me, one hand on my back, one out, directing me.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m on an early flight out,” William told me.

“Miss Brodie—“

“I’ll take the phone, Jessica,” Tom said.

“William, I have to go. I love you.”

“I love you, Jess—“

Tom gently took the phone from me as Scotty was moving me toward an idling car with Denise at the wheel.

“I’m sorry about that, but I don’t want you on camera,” Scotty said as he put me into the car.

“My vulnerable look has worn off?”

Scotty smiled slightly, pity in his eyes. “The strength is showing now, yes. Actually, I want Fred to be the star of the show. If this becomes a high-profile case, then we’ll introduce you to the cameras when you are all done-up. Right now, though, let Fred take the spotlight. Let’s keep him the hero.”

“Not enough room for two. That might be better.” I let him close the door and we drove away from the lights and the chaos. The only things I wanted was my bed and William. I wouldn’t get either.

”I think it’s time,” William said as we sat at his dining room table around a glass of tea.

He had come in that morning, early, and rescued me from his parent’s house. When I woke up next to him a few hours later I had no idea how I’d gotten there. That was thanks to the drugged up OJ Denise had given me the night before. She wanted to make sure I slept. And for once, being drugged without my consent was not a bad thing.

William spent the morning clutching me like a poor man clutching his life savings. To say he was upset was to say the Titanic got a small scrape from an iceberg. The man was slightly unhinged. But so was I. He was not ashamed to cry over this, and obviously, I wasn’t either. We spent most of the day huddling in each other’s arms, saying little.

It was the evening now. It was time to come out of our shell and rejoin the world. William had one more day with me, then he had to return to work. Me likewise. It was an insanely anti-climactic end to one of the three scariest moments in my life.

“I am not saying that I think moving in is a bad idea, I’m not," I said in a patient voice, "but I do want you to realize that houses get robbed all the time. Just because I’m in your house doesn’t mean that suddenly my bad luck will end.”

“I think it’s time we got married.”