CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“So this is Scottsdale?”
“This is Scottsdale.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
JJ looked at her. Would it be too much for right now? “Go right ahead.”
“How can a man that lives in Scottsdale be a judge for Jacksonville?”
“I’m a circuit court judge for the fourth circuit. The fourth circuit includes Duval County, which is Jacksonville, Clay County, which is Scottsdale, and Nassau County, which is Fernandina Beach. Just as long as I live in one of the three counties, I should be okay.”
Tish nodded. She enjoyed learning something new. “So this is Scottsdale?” she said again as JJ drove past the Welcome to Scottsdale sign.
“Never been here?”
“Only once. When me and Shake first came to J-ville. We heard they pay you more in Scottsdale so quite naturally we wanted to get paid more. So he drove us over here.”
“How did it go?”
“Terrible. Those rich folks looked at our Alabama asses and said no thank you. They wasn’t trying to hire us. But that was years ago.”
“What is your impression of it now?”
Tish continued to look out at the clean, tree-lined streets. “Farty-tarty,” she said.
That phrase caught JJ so off-guard that he burst into laughter. “What does that mean?” he asked her between laughs.
“You know. Rich. Uppity. Think they’re better than regular folks.” Then she looked at JJ with a smile on her face too. “Am I right?”
JJ nodded. “You’re right.”
Tish continued to stare at him. “Why aren’t you like that?”
“Oh, but I am.”
When Tish’s stare wouldn’t cease, JJ glanced at her. “You don’t agree?”
“When I see you in your expensive suits and driving your fancy car, I say yeah, you fit right in here in Scottsdale. But when I talk to you, it’s like you don’t fit in. I don’t know.” She scrunched up her face as if puzzled. “You confuse me.”
Those words struck a chord with JJ. Because everything about his need to help her was confusing him too. Which led him to believe that they just might have more in common than meets the eye.
They arrived at his lake estate on the far east end of Scottsdale. It was located in a gated community with a guard at the booth that allowed them passage in. Her first reaction was that the two-story red-brick colonial looked like a bank. “This your house?”
“Yes.”
He began getting out, so Tish grabbed her backpack and began getting out too. And as he walked back down the driveway to get his mail out of his mailbox that was planted at the streetside curb, Tish suddenly felt inadequate standing in such a fancy neighborhood. Every house looked like a mansion to her, and every car that drove past either blew their horn or stopped and talked with the judge. What was he thinking bringing a hood-rat like her to this kind of world? What did he want from her?
When he made his way back with a small stack of mail, he said sorry about that for how long it took him. Then he grabbed his briefcase from the backseat and escorted her to his front door. She was amazed at how he only had to press a keycard against what looked like a keypad and his glass, high in the sky double-doors unlocked, and she walked on in.
JJ walked in behind her, but he could tell by the way her head immediately started looking up at the cathedral ceilings and the huge staircase that it was a lot for her to take in.
But what was impressing Tish even more than the grandeur of it all was how open the house was. It was like one massive space with his living room, dining room, and kitchen all in one place and surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere she turned. And to top that off, the Saint John’s River was his backyard. It was amazing to Tish. She felt so out of her depth that she almost wanted to turn right back around and go back to what she was used to.
But she held on. Primarily because she knew she had nowhere else to go. But also because she kind of trusted Judge Brant. He was the man that called out those prosecutors and even her own public defender for trying to lock her up and throw away the key. He was the man that saved her from sleeping on a bus bench. He was the man who rescued her when it seemed like that spaced-out looking, meth-head burglar was getting the upper hand. Why would he do all of that for her and invite her into his beautiful home if he wasn’t a good guy? And although she wasn’t as experienced with men as people thought: She’d only had one her entire life and that was Shake. But until he gave her a reason to not trust him, she felt he’d earned the benefit of the doubt.
Something else she noticed about his home too: it was totally masculine. From the black and white accents, to the exposed brick of the fireplace, there wasn’t a woman’s touch anywhere at all. Which seemed strange to her given the size of the house and the fact that he was a man in his forties. And an extremely great-looking man at that. She looked at him.
JJ had by now walked all the way over to his kitchen area and had sat his briefcase on the center island and was thumbing through his mail. He had opened one letter and was reading it. But she asked the question anyway. “You’ve never been married?”
JJ looked at her. “Why would you ask that?”
“Your house. It doesn’t seem to have any female stamp on anything.”
That was very observant of her, he thought. “No, no one’s lived here but me. And yes, I’ve been married before.” Then he looked her up and down in a way that made Tish feel he was assessing her. Then he said, “come on,” as he dropped his mail on the countertop and began heading toward the staircase.
Tish held onto her backpack as she followed him up the winding staircase that felt as if it was swallowing her. She’d never seen such elegance in her life. But when he opened the double doors of one of the rooms upstairs and she realized it was a bedroom inside, she wouldn’t cross the threshold.
She was staring at him when he entered and then turned around. That was when he saw that odd look on her face. “What’s the matter?” he asked her.
“I’m not . . . I don’t . . . do that.”
JJ frowned. “You don’t do what?”
“You’ve helped me so much, and I appreciate it, truly I do. But let’s be clear. I’m not down for whatever. I’m not returning the favor that way.”
JJ stared at her. He was pleased that she wasn’t letting anybody, not even him, take advantage of her. But he needed her to say the words. “What way is that? Say what you mean, LaTisha.”
“I mean sexually. I’ll wash your dirty draws and clean your house and cook all day long, but I don’t do sexual favors.”
A part of JJ wasn’t offended at all that she had thought such a thing. It was a reasonable conclusion. Even he would have thought similarly had it not been him but some other man bringing her to his home. But it was him. And that part of him was pissed. “Have I asked you to grant me sexual anything?”
Tish could see he was pissed. Had she missed the mark that badly? “No, sir.”
“Then stop making assumptions or I’ll give you something to assume.”
His voice was harsh, and Tish didn’t know what he meant by that. But she immediately hated that she verbalized something so base about him. He wasn’t that kind of man, why was she even thinking that? “I wasn’t trying to disrespect you,” she said. “I just didn’t want to give you the wrong impression of me. A lot of guys think I’m that way, but I’m not.”
“What way is that?”
“Easy.”
JJ studied her emotional face. He never thought of her that way, but he could see how others would. She had a vulnerable look about her that no manner of circumstances could erase. He saw it in the courtroom two months ago where she looked so out of place to him that it bothered him, and that same look was there as he looked at her now. It cloaked her. Just as her poverty cloaked her. Just as her skin color cloaked her to some. It made her an easy mark in this world: a target. But that was why he was pleased she was in his home, and under his protection. Nobody dared to target her now.
“This is where you’ll sleep tonight,” he said to her. “In the closet are a number of shirts. Put one on if you don’t have anything to sleep in in your bag. Then come downstairs. You’ve already showered, correct?”
“As soon as I was discharged from that hospital and got to that motel room. But I’ll probably want to do it again, if that’s okay. They didn’t have any hot water in that room.”
JJ’s jaw tightened as another reminder of how regretful he was that he didn’t bring her home with him last night instead of leaving her in that dangerous motel. “Yes, of course you can bathe again. There is an ensuite bath in this room as well. Feel free to use anything you like.”
“Thank you. And sir, I didn’t mean to,” she started saying with all sincerity.
But JJ cut her off. “No need for an apology,” he said. “You stood up for yourself by making yourself plain. I appreciate that. Don’t you dare apologize for it.”
Tish felt relief wash over her. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was alienate the only person in this world willing to stand by her.
“I’ll see you downstairs,” he added and stepped out, closing the door behind him. Then he stood on the landing waiting for it. Then he heard her, within seconds of his departure, locking the door. Which pleased him as well.
That’s my girl, he said to himself as he walked away. Trust no one.