Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Maverick
What the ever-loving fuck was Jo thinking?
I tossed the newspaper on the table and stormed out to the reception area.
"You should probably calm down before you go see her?"
I turned on my heel and stared Annalee down. "What are you talking about?"
"You're headed over to Jo's house to confront her about the newspaper article. You should probably calm down before doing so."
"How do you know where I'm going?"
Annalee scoffed, "Oh, please. You expect me to believe you've just randomly taken a liking to the diner's food that you need to have it every day. Sometimes multiple times a day."
I hadn't thought much about it at all except to watch over Jo and make sure she was taking care of herself.
"She could be in danger. That's all. And now that her secret is out in the world, she's even more in danger."
"You keep telling yourself that."
Damn women. Why did that have to know everything?
"And just what exactly do you think is going on?"
"I know you watch her when you think no one else is looking."
Well, son of a bitch. It would appear Annalee saw more than I wanted her to.
"Why is it you haven't said anything up until now?"
"Because it's your business, and I'm not in the habit of butting into it. Plus I like my job here, and that seemed like a surefire way to get booted."
I laughed at her assessment. "I wouldn't have fired you for saying something."
"I'll keep that in mind for the future."
"Do you think I'm calm enough now to go speak with her?"
Annalee looked me up and down. "I would say so but remember to be nice. It's not going to help your cause if you go in there like a caveman beating on your chest."
That was probably the most accurate description of what I planned on doing, so instead I took a few deep breaths and drove over at a reasonable speed. My plan went to hell when Jo opened the door with fire in her eyes.
"If you've come to give me hell, you can turn your ass right back around."
I did the opposite of what she said and marched up the steps and straight past her.
"I didn't say you could come in."
She might not have said it, but she also closed the door behind me, so I took that as permission to be there.
"I think you've said enough for one day."
Jo planted her fists on her hips. "And what exactly does that mean?"
"I warned you someone wanted to find out your identity, and you went and handed them the answer on a silver fucking platter."
"I did what was right for the people of Willow Creek. My secret was about to be exposed, and I felt they deserved to hear it from me rather than through the rumor mill."
"And what about your safety?" I crossed my arms over my chest and widened my stance ever so slightly. I was in fight mode, and unfortunately the only person I could fight with was the mother of my unborn child.
That seemed to give Jo pause. "You didn't think about that, did you?"
"Of course I thought about it," Jo snapped. "I just figured the good outweighed the bad. And besides, you've placed so many damn security measures in place that I'm sure I'll be perfectly fine."
"Well, I'm about to place one more."
Jo tensed, and I knew she wasn't going to like what I had to say, but that was too damn bad.
"What can you possibly add except invading my house?"
I gave her a slow smile.
"No! Absolutely not."
"Oh, yes. You will have a permanent roommate for the foreseeable future until we find the guy after you."
"I didn't agree to this."
"Sure you did. When you put a big ole target on your back while carrying my child."
I loved saying that. There was something immensely satisfying about reminding Jo that she was the mother of my child. That I was the one to put a baby in her belly. I might not have wanted it when I was younger, but I sure as hell was happy that it was happening now.
"This is ridiculous. You can't just move in."
"And why not. We're going to have to live together once the baby is born anyway."
If looks could kill, the one Jo was giving me would've stopped my heart.
"Says who?"
Apparently we were going to have this argument now. "Do you really think I'm just going to sit by and not see my child every day?"
"We live in a very small town. You can see the child as much as you want, but that doesn't mean we need to live in the same damn house."
It sure as hell did. I wasn't sure how exactly it would work between us, but we were about to find out.
"I'm not having this argument with you now. Just know that I plan to be there for everything, so you better get used to it."
Jo huffed and stormed further into her house.
I followed right behind and got my first look at her living space.
It was a little boring and not at all what I expected from her.
There were no pictures hung up, nothing that screamed personal.
In fact, it almost looked like the house was staged rather than lived in.
"Why are you looking at my place like that?"
"I just expected to see pictures of you and your grandmother or at least some of when you were a kid."
Jo shrugged. "I was never big on adding personal touches to the place. It's not like you have a lot of your family either."
"No, but I do have pictures of me with the guys. They're my family."
"Well, good for you, but that's not the kind of person I am."
"What about when we have our child? Are you going to put up pictures of him or her?"
I was pushing her out of her comfort zone. I could see it written all over her face. "I don't know. I guess. I haven't really had the chance to think about it. This is all still really new to me."
It was new to me as well, but they were the things I was thinking about.
"You never thought about having kids before?"
Jo shook her head, and then she nodded ever so slightly.
"Is that a yes or no?"
With a heavy sigh, Jo started to explain, "I thought about them once but never again. I swore that would never be in my future."
"What happened?"
I didn't expect her to answer, but Jo surprised me. "Freshman year of college happened."