That night Jake requested that he get to take Jolie out to dinner without Warren. Jolie was reticent but assured Warren that she could handle it just fine.
"Are you okay with it?" She looked up at him with those depthless green eyes searching his face for the answer.
"Do I like it? No, but if it's what you want to do then it's what is going to happen." He cupped her face in his hands. "I care about you, a lot, but I am not your boss. You make your own decisions."
Jolie stared up Warren's handsome face with gratitude. "Honestly, it will be wierd I'm sure but I can handle it. I won't be out late that is for sure." She rolled her eyes. "We are just going to the diner and I"m driving myself so I can cut out whenever I want. It should be fine."
Even to herself she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than him. "I guess I am most concerned that he is going to want to talk about Luke and the olds day or he'll profess his feelings for me."
"I doubt he'll try to talk to you about Luke if he intends on spilling the beans. Reminding you of the love of your life before announcing his would be a stupid move." He moved his hands so that he could gently massage the base of her spine. Across the room he could see the clock and that she had twenty minutes until her dinner arrangement.
"It's wierd but you are the only person I've been able to really talk about Luke with. Maybe it's because you shared more about him with me than anyone else has." She sighed. "Or maybe it's just time. Maybe I'm healing. I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders.
"I'll always listen, know that. Whatever you feel, just notice it, feel it and then let is pass. Feelings don't have to take over if you don't let them." He continued to knead the top of her shoulders. "I hate to say it but if you are going to be on time you have to go."
She let out a heavy sigh and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him in for a long hug.
"I'll have my phone right beside me. If you need me just call." He rubbed slow circles into her back. Finally she disengaged and picked up the keys from the counter they were leaning on.
She kissed him softly. "Be back soon."
She drove with the radio on low and tried not to allow her thoughts to get out of hand. Warren was right that she was likely imagining things to be a lot worse than they actually would be. If she just relaxed and let it be it might even be enjoyable.
Every since Warren had revealed Jake's apparent feelings for her she'd been on edge. In truth, after thinking about it more, she should have suspected it of him right after they'd met. After she'd met Luke she hadn't had eyes for anyone else.
She remembered the night she'd met Luke. It had been a casual department Christmas party so she'd worn her new silver cashmere sweater and jeans. She and Marie had been swapping stories and downing cosmopolitans at the bar when Dustin came through the door with the hottest guy ever beside him.
"Sorry I'm late babe. I had to finish up a report that is going to court tomorrow." Dustin pulled his wife in for a kiss.Then turned to the handsome man beside him. "You remember Luke of course? Poor guy had to sit and watch me type for an hour. He needs a drink."
Jolie watched Marie hug the man. He was taller that she was and he lifted her up as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Of course I remember Luke! How are you?" She didn't wait for an answer but turned to Dustin. "Baby go get you guys some drinks."
Marie turned back to the man waiting for her answer.
"I'm great. Just home on leave. I visited my parents and then came here to see you guys. Dustin said I'd have a good time here and he had a friend I just had to meet." Dustin reappeared and handed him a beer.
"I do and here she is." Dustin pointed at Jolie with the neck of the beer. The man turned and looked shocked to have missed her until now. Dustin spoke again. "Luke, this is Jolie the most awesome dispatcher we have. Jolie this is Luke my best friend and squad leader in the marines."
She was embarassed to find herself blushing profusely as she stood up from the bar stool to shake his hand. "Hi, nice to meet you." It was loud in the bar and she had to practically shout to be heard.
"Yes ma'am it is very nice to meet you." She noticed he had light dimples when he smiled and large strong hands that completely eclipsed hers.
From that moment on they'd been attached for the night. Talking, dancing and playing pool. When Dustin and Marie expressed the intent to pack it up for the night Luke had asked her to coffee and pie at the local all night diner.
By five that morning she'd been well on her way to being in love. At six thirty when he'd kissed her goodnight-- goodmorning beside her car in the parking lot she'd been lost.
Jolie shook herself to attention and found herself in yet another diner parking lot. Through the large glass window she could see Jake waiting for her. She climbed down from Warren's truck and walked briskly through the drizzly evening to the bright lights of the restaurant.
She shook the moisture from her jacket and slid into the booth across from Jake. He smiled brightly and waved the waitress over to get her a cup of coffee.
"Hey." He chirped as he slid her the menu.
She was pretty sure she'd memorized everything on it in the time she'd been there but still scanned it for something to distract her. "Hey." She returned trying to sound chipper.
They successfully made it through the meal on small talk and old stories from when they both started at the police department back home. By the time Jolie's piece of strawberry rhubarb pie and vanilla ice cream arrived she could think of nothing more to drag the conversation on. She found herself deeply involved in swirling her ice cream through the pink pie filling as artfully as possible.
"So you and Warren are together huh?" Jake's voice broke through her concentration and startled her a little. The question was so abrupt, launching into the silence.
"Ya." It was all she could muster on such short notice.
"For how long?" He mopped up some whipped cream with a piece of crust from is pie. He didn't make eye contact.
"Since before Christmas. He's a really great guy." She took a large bite of pie and chewed quietly.
"Why him? Why here?" His eyes came up and fixed on hers. "All the people at home-- me, but you take off and end up in Oklahoma. Then you go and decide he's the guy you'll accept?"
Jolie swallowed and sat in silence. She didn't know what to say. She put down her fork and picked at a bubble in the formica table top as she thought how she could possibly explain to her hurt friend.
When she looked up he was watching her intently. "He didn't ask. He didn't demand. He didn't stare at me like I was some creature in a jar and I could break free any minute. Just like you are doing right now."
"That isn't fair. I care about you." His voice conveyed his wounded pride.
"Warren cares about me too. He just goes about it differently. He understands what its like to lose someone the way I lost Luke." She picked up the fork again to take a bite but thought better of it and pointed it at Jake. "He shared with me first. He volunteered stories of Luke when they were in the service together. I felt like he could understand and truly appreciate the man I was missing."
"We were all afraid to talk about Luke around you. You looked like you'd crumble any minute!" He was frustrated now and it was coming across as anger against her. "You can't blame me for trying to respect your grieving process. Then you took off anyway."
She reached across the table and touched his hand. "I don't blame you. I don't hold anything against you or anyone else. It was all me. I was selfish, I needed to get away."
"I hate to say it but it was selfish, it really was." He pulled his hand from hers and slumped back against he vinyl seatback.
"I know. I'm sorry for any distress I caused you or anyone else back home. All I could feel was my own pain. I couldn't see past that to see any of my friends. I know you meant well though, I never doubted that." She resumed her picking of the bump on the table.
"So are you staying here?" He sounded petulant like a child.
She straitened in her seat. She wasn't going to get into a sparring match with him and he seemed to be willing to degenerate into one. "I don't know."
"So you take off and abandon everything you know, your home, your friends, your career and drive around aimlessly for months. Then you crash in the middle of no where, fall for the guy who picks you up off the pavement and shack up to live happily ever after? Seriously? Is that how this is going to go?" His voice had been steadily increasing as he'd barreled down the path of his anger.
The waitress watched wearily from behind the counter, Jolie tried to give her a sign that everything was fine but didn't think she'd been successful.
"Jake, I don't have an answer for you. I know you think I owe you one but I don't. I'm figuring things out as I go. It's the only way I know how and Warren seems okay with it so I'm not too worried about it." She was tired and she didn't want to fight anymore. Jolie stood and put her napkin on the table. "Thank you for dinner. I'm going to head home now. I'll see you tomorrow after we've both had some time."
She placed a $10 on the table and held it down with the salt shaker before turning on her heel to leave. She gave a brief reassuring nod to the waitress on her way out the door. By the time she hit the pickup her mask of anger had some definite cracks in it.
The rain had picked up as the hours had passed and it was not falling steadily. She drove a couple of blocks down the road before she pulled to the side. It was too hard to see the road between her tears and the rain and she had no desire to wreck Warren's truck.
After a couple of minutes she was pulled together enough to finish the drive home. She trudged through the garage and into the house. She briefly considered bolting for her room so as not to bother Warren with more drama but she realized that would alarm him more than anything and he'd seek her out. Secondly, being held by him sounded damn good right now.