Chapter Ten
They parted ways in the same spot that they’d met. Jamie thanked them a few more times and then went into Georgie’s room, yawning despite his coffee.
JJ watched him go.
He wasn’t her brother, but she felt sympathy for him.
One moment, his life was going exactly the way he wanted, and in the next, he’d become the man with only a box of valuables left. Though, that sympathy evened out quickly for JJ.
As Jamie said himself, the person he loved would be fine so he would be too.
It was a warming thought that moved through JJ while watching the door close behind him.
That warmth was still there when she turned to Price.
Then it grew cold.
Price wasn’t just looking at her. He was staring.
There was a difference.
JJ took a small step back, hunching ever so slightly so her height changed. She also averted her eyes. Hers were a dime a dozen in color but that didn’t mean Price couldn’t use them to realize she was the one he fought at Josiah Teller’s home.
“I’m really glad they’ll be okay,” she said, swinging her gaze back to the door behind them. “It definitely could have been a lot worse.”
Out of her periphery she saw Price nod. She doubled down on sincerity.
“Speaking of being okay, I really was last night, but I have to say it was nice having someone around. Thanks for getting Winnie to keep me company.”
JJ chanced a look at the man.
She could have sighed in relief. He was back to his usual smiling self.
“Hey, I didn’t have to force anyone to do anything.” He held up his hands in defense. “After you helped me with that man yesterday, she said our family owed you.” He shrugged. “And I don’t make the rules. I just follow them.”
Just as she knew Winnie was a good kid, JJ knew that Price had been the first one to come up with the idea to have someone keep her company. After all, hadn’t she admitted to him that she had no one to call?
That didn’t seem to be something Price Collins would let sit still.
Friend or not. Acquaintance or not. Whatever-they-could-be-called or not.
Regardless, she had been begrudgingly comforted to have someone to talk to.
Plus, Winnie wasn’t like other people in Seven Roads. Her gossip meter seemed to be turned off. That included the power of prying. The teenager didn’t ask any questions unless JJ led her to them. Even then, she didn’t drill into a topic too long.
It let JJ do something she hadn’t done in a while.
She had let down her guard a little.
Now, she remembered that she wasn’t dealing with the youngest Collins anymore.
She was back with the big one.
JJ mentally buttoned herself up. She returned his smile.
“I’m also thankful she isn’t a snorer,” JJ added. “Though she definitely seems to be a deep sleeper. When the nurses did their rounds earlier, she didn’t budge.”
Price snorted.
“You should see her in the car. If the trip lasts more than ten minutes, she’s already been asleep for five.”
They quieted as they went into the room, but Winnie was already awake. She had changed out of her pajamas and was making the hospital bed.
“Did you sleep there?” her father asked her.
Winnie immediately pointed to JJ.
“She made me! I told her I’d take the couch, but she was all weird about not liking the bed!”
It was JJ’s turn to put her hands up in self-defense.
“I told you I didn’t like hospital beds.”
Price actually rolled his eyes. The effect was such a drastic softening from the stare she’d just been given. It made JJ wonder if she was being overly paranoid.
It was true that she had been around both break-ins and attacks, but hardly anyone could accuse her of being involved. Only two groups seemed to know the possible connection between Josiah and Jamie.
And it seemed that they had already ruled both men out.
Which meant Marty Goldman might be next.
That’s why, instead of staying beneath the Seven Roads radar, JJ had accepted the favor asked of her by Corrie. Marty Goldman would be at the small business networking event that night.
Another reason why JJ was more than ready to leave the hospital, and its beds, behind. Winnie, having already talked about the event the night before, waved her cell phone at JJ and tapped its screen. She was already on the same page.
“I’ll text you the hair tutorial link that I talked about when I find it again,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure it’s deep in my Pinterest board but I’ll find it before you have to leave tonight.
And, again, if Janie from third period can do it by herself and look like she did at last year’s homecoming dance, I’m sure you’ll really nail it. ”
JJ smiled at that.
“Much appreciated.” She touched her hair. It still smelled softly of smoke. “I’m sure my hair could use the confidence boost.”
“Before you leave tonight? You’re still going?”
They turned to Price. His carefree attitude was gone again. She had a feeling he was about to give her a speech about taking it easy or more resting, but Winnie stepped in with the assist.
“We already talked about it and decided that JJ could use a little fun after the last week or so,” she said. “Plus, it’s also for work kind of and if she doesn’t go then you’ll have to take me and I don’t want to be my dad’s plus-one. So don’t try to talk her out of it.”
“The doctor also cleared me during the last round,” JJ added in. “He said I’ll probably be sore but nothing some Icy Hot or some ibuprofen can’t help.”
JJ and Winnie were standing almost shoulder to shoulder across from Price now. His gaze moved between them, slow. JJ was momentarily reminded of her own father. She oddly felt like she was also waiting for his approval.
Then, she remembered it wasn’t all about her.
Before the fire had broken out, Corrie had changed the plans yet again to include Price as JJ’s plus-one to the event.
Mostly because he had been unlucky enough to walk inside of the coffee shop after needing a substitute partygoer.
Partly because Price seemed to be a man who liked to help out, especially when it was within the realm of his daughter’s life.
Since then, neither had had a chance to speak about it though.
JJ felt guilt pulse through her.
“But I definitely understand if you’re not feeling up to going,” JJ said hurriedly. “You probably are hurting more than me and, well, I guess might need to work overtime? I really don’t mind going alone. It’s not that far and—”
“I’m going.”
Price’s words were undeniably concrete.
Three syllables that held power.
Not even his daughter made a quip about it.
Instead, JJ simply nodded.
The rest of their time in the hospital room consisted of packing, going over their schedules for each other and then signing JJ out. There was enough time to take Winnie to school and even a spare twenty minutes to drop JJ off at home before Price had to go to work.
There, in her driveway, Price confirmed his pickup time for that night.
Then, as she was opening the passenger’s side door, he threw her off one last time.
“By the way, were you adopted?”
The question came out of nowhere. Normally, that wouldn’t matter. JJ had spent years learning how to control her surprise.
Yet, right then and there, she faltered.
“Am I adopted?” she repeated.
Price didn’t backtrack the somewhat invasive question. Instead, he explained.
“Yeah. I only ask because you seemed really interested about Jamie being adopted.” A beat went by, then he added, “And Josiah. So, I was just thinking that maybe you might be too.”
JJ was lagging.
She felt her smile slide, but she couldn’t decide if it seemed natural or not.
She had an entire backstory, locked and loaded for JJ Shaw.
Adopted as a baby by her godfather.
Grew up with him, happy and healthy.
After he married a nice, decent woman and moved up north, JJ decided to come here for a slower pace of life than the city.
She knew what to say and had said it all before.
But there was just something about Price that pulled at her in a way that was wholly uncomfortable.
She wanted to lie; she wanted to tell the truth.
And, for the first time in a long time, she couldn’t stop herself from doing both.
“I wasn’t, but my brother was.”
Price looked like he wanted to say something more, but JJ needed to end the conversation there. So, she did.
“I’ll see you tonight, Price.”
And with that, she walked away without looking back. If Price wanted more, he didn’t get it.
* * *
Winnie took more pictures of Price than he had taken of her before the last school dance.
“You’re in a suit,” she’d said after batting away his complaints. “If I don’t document this, then how will future generations know that you had clothes other than your uniform and jeans?”
She’d posed him in front of the fireplace, the bookcase his father had built by hand, on the front-porch stairs, and—his favorite—looking all dramatic getting into his truck.
When he rolled the window down after the photo shoot had ended, she prescolded him for not taking a picture with JJ at the actual event.
“I know you aren’t going to do it, but you need to,” she had said, finger pointing with purpose. “She already sent me a picture of her hair—which she absolutely nailed—but I want to see the full thing. You two being fancy and awkward at a social event neither one of you wanted to go to.”
Price would have normally laughed—said something snarky about being awkward—but he’d spent most of the day at work tired and growing even more so.
The department was frustrated. Price especially.
The sketch artist had come in that morning and done a workup on the man in the hood at Jamie Bell’s.
No one had recognized him and, as of that afternoon, nothing had popped in any of their law enforcement databases for him.
Detective Williams had said he had a potential lead, but hadn’t been back to the department all day.
Then there was the part of Price that had branched off during his idle time and done a little digging himself.
Both Jamie and Josiah had in fact been adopted. Though, at different ages and in different circumstances. Before, during and after the legal paperwork had been done, they had seemingly led completely separate lives other than the occasional support group meeting.
That, and their attacks, would have been enough to draw his attention.
But then Price had seen another similarity that he couldn’t ignore.
Josiah Teller and Jamie Bell were the same age.
“That was one reason our parents really wanted us to see each other,” Josiah had said on the phone earlier.
Price had called to check up on him but also to mention his conversation with Jamie the day before.
“They thought we could relate more to each other since we were in the same grade too. Everyone else in the group was younger or older by a few years.”
After that, Price couldn’t help but pivot to JJ.
Her social media presence was barely there and, of the accounts, there were no family ones attached. Price started to put her name into a more involved search but stopped himself again.
Just because JJ was hiding something didn’t mean it was his business.
It didn’t mean it was bad.
Price held onto that thought with new resolve. He held it fast as he parked at the curb outside of her house and then went to the front door to knock. He held it true as he waited for her to open the door.
Then he didn’t have to work hard at all to keep his thoughts from wandering.
Price didn’t know much about hair tutorials or fashion, but he believed in that moment that JJ Shaw had indeed nailed it.
The dress code for the event was cocktail; JJ Shaw was devastating.
She wore a black dress that cut above the knees, dipped down the chest and matched up nice with a pair of ankle boots. There was a small leather jacket hung over one of her bare arms, and the purse she wore across her body had a gold chain the same color as the hoops in her ears.
As far as hair went, his daughter had pulled through. Half of it was pinned back in a braid, the rest curled and falling across her shoulders like some kind of movie star readying for a premiere.
JJ caught his reaction easy enough.
She smiled uncertainly.
There was no recovering.
“I think I might be underdressed.”
JJ waved her hand at him.
“Stop it. Don’t go making me feel any more self-conscious than I already do.
Corrie already made me video chat while I was getting ready and that was enough to make me rethink going at all.
” Price stepped back as she started to shut the door behind her.
She stopped and patted at where a pocket might have been had her dress had one.
“Ugh. Speaking of, I left my phone in my room. Let me grab it really quick.”
She turned, jacket still over her arm, and stepped back into the house.
That’s when he saw it.
A scar shone across a stretch of JJ’s back, uncovered by her hair that had parted just so.
Scars were nothing new to Price. He’d seen his fair share—big and small and everything in between—and even had a few of his own.
Yet, maybe it was because he’d already felt off about the woman, this scar seemed different.
It seemed angrier than most he’d seen before.
And he had a feeling JJ hadn’t wanted him to see it.
Her jacket was on when she came back but Price took extra care not to glance down regardless. He also worked to keep their small talk on the drive to the venue in the city away from any topics that were less than ideal. A move that she also seemed okay with following.
They talked about the coffee shop, about Corrie and her sister Cassandra, and touched on some fun stories about Winnie as a little kid. No one went deeper than that and talk about the recent violent attacks stayed out of the cab of the truck entirely.
When they parked across the street in the public lot from the venue, that small talk went to a plan of action for them to do their best at networking for the Twenty-Two Coffee Shop.
“Are you ready?” Price asked, holding his arm out once they had made their way to the outside of the building. There were a few other guests coming up behind them, also dressed to impress. He could also hear the consistent chatter of several people inside.
JJ nodded.
There were no nerves showing from her.
Instead, she seemed oddly focused.
If Price had known that the next time he’d come back through the doors, everything would be different, he might have changed his mind.
But there was no way to know.
So, he held onto JJ and went inside with a smile, oblivious to the domino effect they were about to set in motion.