Unexpected Love (Jo's Story) (50 page)

“I think I can handle that.  See you guys in a little bit.”

“Ok,” I laugh and hang up.

“I like her,” Lisa smiles.  “She is so nice; I know why you keep her around.”

“Yeah, she’s nice, but sometimes I think we know each other way too good.”

“That’s what happens when you have a lifelong friend.  I don’t have any of those left, they all got jealous when I married Mark.”

“Well, they aren’t true friends then are they?”

“No, they aren’t.  That’s why I am glad that Jake found you.  I consider you my closest friend now.”

“I'm glad, because I think the same about you.  I'm sure you have a good friend in Annie too, she really likes you.”

“I like her too,” she smiles.  “I will go down and wait for her while Melissa starts on your hair.”  She gets up and goes out the door.

“Alright, ready?” Melissa smiles at me.

“Sure,” I laugh and sit where Lisa just was.  She starts taking the curlers out of my hair and lets it hang.  I looks good curly like she has it right now but she isn’t done.  She works for a while putting some of them up and leaves half down.  I hear Lisa and Annie coming down the hall.

“I'm here,” Annie smiles when she walks in the door.

“You look better than you sounded on the phone,” I smile at her.  She sticks her tongue out at me.

“Annie this is our Nanny Melissa, she takes care of the girls, and mom once and a while too.” Lisa laughs.  “Melissa this is our friend Annie.”

“Nice to meet you,” Melissa smiles at her.  “I would shake your hand but they are full.”

“I see that.  Jo I love your hair curled like that.  Maybe you should take lessons.”

“Yeah, when was the last time you saw me spend this much time on my hair,” I laugh.

“Probably you’re wedding.”

“Yeah you’re probably right.”  I smile at her as she hands me a glass of champagne.  Melissa also takes one now that her hands are less busy.

“To the girls,” Lisa lifts her glass.  We all cheers and take a drink.

“That is delicious,” I say as I take another drink.

“My in laws got it for me,” Annie smiled.  “I always knew her taste in booze was a good thing.”  I laugh.  We sit and talk as Melissa finishes my hair and Lisa does her makeup.  Once Melissa is done with my hair I start working on my makeup.  I go light on the makeup because I am already looking all dolled up and the dress is going to add to it.  I turn and look at Lisa.

“Looks perfect,” she smiles.  “You’re getting nervous about seeing Jake aren’t you?”

“I am.  I don’t know why, but this feels like our first date all over again,” I laugh.

“Probably because he has never seen you dressed up this much,” Annie smiles.  “I think you look great just like that, maybe you should make a statement and go in jeans and a tank top.”

“She may be a little underdressed if she does that,” Lisa laughs.  I look at the clock and it is 3:30.

“We should get moving, the guys are going to be here soon,” I look at Lisa.  “I'm sure they are itching to leave Jake’s place and get here.”

“I actually think they are up looking at the house,” Lisa smiles.

“Figures,” I shake my head.  “He is going to show up early because he is so damn impatient.”

“Most likely,” Lisa laughs.  She goes out of the bathroom and walks down the hall to a bedroom.  “Here you go,” she hands me my dress.  “You can change in the bathroom if you want.”

“Ok,” I smile and walk back down the hall to the bathroom.  I shut the door and take the bag off of the dress.  It is just as pretty as I remember it.  I can tell that Regina pressed it and it looks amazing.  I take my tank top and jeans off and slip it on over my head.  The strap covers my scar from where I got shot perfectly and just as I remember the back is beautiful.  A single shoulder strap glitters with chunky rhinestones that also adorn the amazing cut out strappy back that cuts across just above my low waist.  I zip it up and turn around.  Fits perfectly.  I grab the shoes and slip those on and that gives me just enough height to take it off the floor.  I take one more look in the mirror and smile.  Jake is going to love it.  I hope his tux fits well color wise.  I am sure that Molly or Lisa made him aware of a color to go with that would look good.  I open the door and walk out.  Annie is standing down the hall outside Lisa’s room looking in.

“Wow Jo, you look amazing,” she smiles.  “I love that dress.  Think I can borrow it someday if I ever have anything fancy to go to?”

“Sure,” I laugh.  I walk over and see Lisa standing in front of the mirror.  Her dress is beautiful.  A dark purple with rhinestones accenting under her bust.  In the front she has a slit up to just above her knee.  “Looks amazing,” I say to her.

“Thanks,” she looks at me.  “Still not as amazing as yours though.  God I cannot wait to see Jake’s face.”

“Lisa, you guys up there?”  I hear Mark yell from downstairs.

“You’re early,” she yells back.  I hear him laugh.

“I know, but you know Jake, when he wants something he is impatient.  Can I come up?”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah, Jake is still across the street talking to the contractor.”

“Sure,” she smiles at me.  “He is going to flip when he sees you to I bet.”

I walk in by her and help her adjust her dress a little when I hear Mark walk down the hall and he stops in the door.  “Holy shit,” he just stands there in awe.  “Jake is going to flip out when he sees that dress,” Mark laughs.

“In a good way or bad?” I look at him.

“He isn’t going to want to go anymore, he is going to want to take you home,” he looks at me.  “You have no idea how gorgeous that is.”

“I told her the same thing,” Lisa smiles.

“You look amazing to babe,” he walks over to her and smiles.  “As usual,” he kisses her.

“Jo, Jake is walking over right now,” Annie pokes her head in.  My heart starts racing and I look at Lisa.

“Meet him outside,” she nudges me out.  I walk down the steps and get to the front door.  I can see him walking up the driveway.  Annie has followed me down the steps and is standing next to me.

“Go for it,” she smiles and pulls the door open.  I take a step out and Jake doesn’t see me at first.  I start toward the steps and he looks up at me.  He stops in his tracks and just stands there with his mouth open.

“What do you think?”  I smile and twirl around like I did when I showed him my new dress when we were in Virginia Beach.  He doesn’t say anything and doesn’t move but I see a smile form on his face.  “Speechless I see.”

“Baby you have no idea,” he finally says then starts walking toward me.  “You look absolutely amazing Jo.  Holy shit.  I never thought you would blow me away like this with one dress.”

“So you like it?”

“I love it,” he stops in front of me and bends down and kisses me.  “Who picked it out?”  He asks when he backs away.

“I did.  I had five to try on and this one I just couldn’t pass up.”

“I'm glad you didn’t.”  He smiles, “I have never seen anything like it before.”  I smile up at him.  “I like your hair too,” he grabs one of the curls and pulls it lightly and it bounces back into place.  “You do well in this life,” he smirks.

“Ok, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I laugh.  “Let’s get through this night of crazy and go from there.”

“Sounds perfect to me,” he runs his fingers up my arm to my shoulder then up my neck to my chin and pulls me in to kiss him.  “I don’t want to take you to dinner, I want to take you home and keep you to myself.”

“I thought you wanted to show me off?”

“I do, but you looking like this is, it is going to be a long night of me wanting to be alone with you,” he gives me that smile and instantly I blush.

“Amazing isn’t she?” Annie pokes her head out the door.

He laughs, “You could say that,” he never takes his eyes off mine.  “Well we had a deal right?  You could pick out the dress and shoes and purse but I got to buy the jewelry?”

I look up at him and wonder what he has planned, “yeah, I think that was the deal.”

“Ok then,” he grabs my hand and starts toward the house.  I follow him in and we walk to the kitchen.  He stops at the counter and opens one of the doors and pulls out three boxes.  “I had a little help, since I had no idea what your dress looked like,” he smiles.  I see Lisa and Mark come around the corner and stand not far from us.  He puts the first box down in front of me and opens it.  Inside is a pair of diamond hoop earrings.  They are beautiful.  The diamonds are outlined in what looks like black gold.

“Jake these are amazing,” I smile as I run my finger down one of them.

“Well, if you like that then you will love this,” he grabs the biggest box.  “This one I picked out on my own after I got the other one and sort of stayed with the same color concept,” he smiles.  He is always so proud of his choice in jewelry, not that I can blame him; he picks out some amazing things.  “Please don’t get mad about this one,” he opens it.  Inside is a black pearl necklace.  It has three rows of pearls and has diamonds holding the rows together to the chain.  I just stand there looking at it, it is so pretty.  I can see why he told me not to get mad; this necklace probably cost a fortune.

“Jake, it’s amazing,” I smile up at him.

“You’re not mad?”

“I know you spent too much on it, but I have learned there is no point in fighting with you about it.” I smile.

“About time you realized that,” he smirks at me.

“Now I have something for you,” I smile up at him.

“What do you mean you have something for me?”

“I bought you something.” I look at Annie and she hands me a little bag.  “I knew you had no idea what my dress looked like, and although you look handsome as always, I thought I would help you out a little bit,” I smile and hand him the bag.  He opens it and pulls out a tie.  It is a dark orange that matches pretty close to my dress.

“You don’t like my black tie?”

“I think this will match a little better,” I smile at him.

“Thanks baby,” he kisses me and takes off his other tie and puts the new one on and starts to tie it.

“So what is in the last one?” I look at him.  It is the smallest box of them all.

“I haven’t decided if I should give this one to you yet,” he gets serious.  “This one might get my ass kicked.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, plus I was thinking maybe it would make a good birthday present.”

“Didn’t you already give me my birthday present last night?”

“That could have been a congratulatory gift for your award,” he smiles.

“Pretty expensive gift to say congrats,” I laugh.  Everyone else laughs also.

“Not really,” he smiles.  “Let’s put this on,” he takes the necklace out of the box and puts it around my neck.  He gets it on and I run my fingers down it.

“Its amazing Jake,” Lisa walks over to me.  “Good pick.”

“Thanks,” he smiles.

“So she helped you pick out the earrings and that’s all?”

“Yeah, once I knew black would look good I was good to go,” he grabs my hand.  “I pride myself in picking out jewelry Jo; you will never have anything ugly.”

“Well that’s always good to know,” I look at him. 

“That is beautiful with your dress Jo,” Annie gets closer to me.  “Put the earrings in.”

“Ok,” I grab them and walk down the hall to the bathroom that is off the kitchen.  While I am in there putting them in I wonder what is in the other box.  What else could he have gotten me, and why is it so small.  The only thing I can think of is a ring, and there is no way he is thinking about that already.  I have heard him tell people that would be too fast for us.  I smile, would it though?  If he asked me to marry him would I say yes?  I probably would, because I love him and I know it will happen eventually.  I just think people would look at it in a bad light with him being who he is.  They would all think I am a gold digger then.  I open the bathroom door and Annie is standing there.  “Hi,” I smile.  She has a serious look on her face.

“What else did he get you?”

“What do you mean?”

“What is in the other box?”

“I have no idea Annie.”

“It’s small,” she smiles at me.  I know she is thinking the same thing I am.

“I know, I saw.”

“You don’t think he would yet do you?”

“I don’t know what to expect out of him sometimes,” I laugh.

“What would you say if he asked you to marry him right now Jo?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I cannot answer that question because I don’t know what I would say.”  She shakes her head.  “So what do you think?”  I point to the earrings.

“They look good.”

“You didn’t want me to put them in, you were trying to get out of him what else he got me,” I laugh at her.

“And he is stubborn and wouldn’t tell me.  He said I have to wait and see just like everyone else.”

“So no one knows what it is?”