Page 18 of Jaime's Story
“I will. She and Zack have been staying with us at Mom and Dad’s, but it might be a good idea to make sure her place stays clean for when they’re ready to go back,” Jaime assures her and I wait until we’re alone to pull Jaime even closer, holding her tight for several long minutes before we’re interrupted.
I’m heading back towards her a bit later with a cup of hot tea when the chief steps into my path and I stop, giving him a nod of greeting.
“Bryan, I didn’t expect to see you here,” he states, and I realize I’d already left the house with Ethan and Jesse before he got there on Sunday. We’d stopped by the morgue for them to do the official id that was merely a formality, and get Troy’s personal effects, including his work laptop that Ethan said he’d return to the office so Jennie wouldn’t have to worry about it.
“Well, I’m actually…” My words trail off as Jaime slips up the other way, settling into my arms not seeing Aaron there.
“Ah, now I know why you weren’t so eager to do the Heart Ball assignment,” he states looking from Jaime to me with a smile. “How are you doing, Jaime?”
“Better than Jennie by miles right now,” she says gently, and I hand over the tea getting the sweetest smile from her that fills me with more than just the immense desire that’s always there when I’m with her. “Thank you for getting me this. Uncle Aaron and Chase just got here so I stopped to talk to them for a minute.”
I try not to tense hearing the man’s name. I don’t need to make a scene at the visitation. That’s likely to send her running from me—especially after being an ass and ignoring her for two weeks.
“How is your uncle?” the chief asks and I chuckle silently realizing they have the same name. It makes sense now why even Annie called the chief, Chief Davidson rather than Aaron, when we spoke.
“Good, Chase just started a new position at Brannigans so he’s back home, which makes Aunt Nora happier than ever, even if he is still single,” Jaime adds and my brow lifts in surprise as I look down at her.
“Chase is your cousin?” I question, and a little smile slips onto her lips as she nods. “So at the ball…”
“He wanted to surprise us with the news all at once, so he used Jesse’s invitation to get in the door since he and Maddie were at home with Tabby. He ran into some delays due to roadwork and was too late to surprise Uncle Aaron and Aunt Nora the dance, but he still wanted to let us know before he stopped by to see them. Victor came by asking me to dance again so Chase cut in to help me out because he always hated the guy,” Jaime says, and an immense sense of relief floods me.
“No wonder you were so annoyed at having to take Ms. Elliott to the hospital to ensure she was just drunk that night, let alone why you raced over to the house to let Jennie and her family know about the accident instead of having me do it.”
“I didn’t want anyone else breaking the news to them before we could,” I state as Jaime leans further into my hold. “If Ms. Elliott hadn’t passed out at my feet, I certainly wouldn’t have stuck around that night. Not when I knew I was going on night shift come Monday.”
“Well, I’ll make sure to not ask you to work any major events around holidays…or Sundays,” he adds with a wink at Jaime, and I can’t stop the slight chuckle as he walks away, leaving me with my girl who’s looking up at me curiously.
“Were you jealous of Chase?” she asks, and I hate having to admit it, but I nod. “I told you he was family.”
“Yes, but I didn’t realize you meant blood family, princess. I saw how relaxed you were with him, how he fit right in, and how your dad accepted him…”
“Accepted…” she says breaking in as her brow lifts in surprise. “Bryan, what are you talking about?”
I guide us out of the middle of the room, over to the side so we don’t draw attention, especially not negative attention. “I’m talking about the fact that I’m nowhere near being in the same circle as you and your family, princess. Not in social standing or wealth. I don’t fit with your family as much as I wish I did so they would accept me as yours because it’s the only thing I want, Jaime. You as mine—us together.”
“Are you crazy?” she asks quietly, her eyes wide as she stares at me in shock, and I feel like a bit of an ass seeing that in her eyes. “Let’s put aside the wealth thing for a minute and focus on the first ridiculous thing you just said.”
“Okay,” I agree waiting for her to try and make me feel better because I’ve learnt that’s who Jaime is. She’s sensitive to others’ feeling and I pretty much just made an idiot out of myself.
“For your information, my dad has no problem with you. In fact, it’s the opposite. He likes you and thinks you’re a good man, Bryan. The only thing negative he might say is regarding the fact that you basically ignored me for two weeks making me feel like crap.”
It hurts me to hear she was upset but part of me is relieved by it as well. “I’m sorry about that. Between thinking you deserved someone that fit into your world better, seeing you with Chase, and covering the night shift, let alone covering the night shift for the traffic division, I was an ass I know and I’m sorry, princess. I promise, I won’t ever push you away again.”
“Good, because the truth is, I don’t like ninety percent of the men from that social circle. The only ones with money I’ve ever been comfortable around are those that are related to me, Bryan. Mom and Dad never wanted us to grow up thinking we were better than anyone else just because they had money. It’s why we went to public school. Why Dad made us work at least two summers during high school for the company. Why he pushed us to go to college even if we didn’t wind up using our degree in the end. He wanted us to know what it was like in the real world, to see how others had to or even just wanted to work to appreciate the fact that if we really didn’t want to, we didn’t have to, and see that it was a privilege not our right.
“He’s never looked down on anyone coming into the family with nothing to their name,” she adds, and I lift a brow at her in surprise. “You’ve seen Dad with Natalie and Maia, does he act any differently with them than the rest of us?”
“No,” I admit, “but it’s different with accepting women into the family versus men. You’re his daughter he wants to protect while he’s raised your brothers to be strong and do the protecting.”
“And if my brothers, especially Jesse, thought you weren’t good enough for me, they would have come to you directly after we had our first true date. Which yes they all knew about the second we had it, because Jillian brought it up at Sunday dinner that week asking about what we had to eat at the theater. And that’s after her already mentioning that we had dinner at Gilbert’s together to everyone that was there the Sunday before,” she adds, surprising me that they knew that long but not one of them said a word about it.
“None of them called me to say a thing.”
“Because they trust you with me and they just want me to be happy, Bryan,” she states and I pull her into my hold, unable to resist having her closer. “As far as the guys coming into the family thing, the only one that’s had money, is Adam.”
“What?” I ask, holding her gaze and she nods sending my brow up a bit.
“Ethan was working for the same company he’s currently with when he and Jackie got together. He was in Sherman where she going to school, and he transferred to the office out here so Jackie would be closer to all of us. The only reason they have the house they do is because Ethan knew Jackie wanted a big family and to be close to us. The house they found was perfect, except for the fact that it cost more than he could afford. He didn’t want Jackie to use her trust fund on it, because then it would mean less to use for the kids out of it. So, Dad offered him a loan that had very little interest with payments he could afford with just his salary,” Jaime says and I’m not surprised Jake would do that for his daughter but it’s a little shocking that Ethan would agree to it. “Ethan wanted to take care of his family himself, so he and Jackie agreed that most things would come from a budget that he could afford. Jackie’s trust covers the big things but for the most part, beyond the house itself being grand, they live a very normal life. Dad didn’t care whether or not Ethan could pay off the house in his lifetime. He just wanted to know that Jackie was taken care of, and she is with Ethan. He loves and adores her and makes her just as happy as Mom is with him.”