“Hey, we helped get that food. Don’t we get any credit?” Andrew asked gesturing to him and Jack.
“You guys are still in the dog house for starting this whole mess. I’ll set Jennie on you when she gets out of here and you can beg her forgiveness for getting her into all this with your scheming and lies.”
Andrew and Jack shifted on their feet, looking sufficiently chagrined. Chad figured he’d draw this out a bit longer before letting them off the hook, but Jennie’s parents came out, interrupting Chad’s fun.
“Where are Kelly and Maddy?” Chad asked.
“They went back to the house with Mrs. Poole. Maddy needed to nap and Mrs. Poole wants to start cooking. I think her plan is to fill your freezer with enough food to last you and Jennie the next year or so,” Jack said with a grin.
Mrs. Poole was officially Jack and Kelly’s housekeeper, but she acted as mother hen to all of them. Chad knew Jack wasn’t exaggerating about the amount of food headed for his freezer.
They all talked for a few more minutes and then hugged Chad good-bye so he could go back to sit with Jennie.
She’d fallen asleep so he ate the take-out food quietly and then turned out the light. He knew the nurses would be in to check her and the fetal monitor the doctor wanted Jennie hooked up to for a while longer. They both needed to sleep while they could.
Chad lay his head down on the edge of Jennie’s bed and put one arm over her legs. He’d slept in a lot worse places than this and he wasn’t leaving Jennie’s side until it was time to take her home.
Chapter 41
Jennie was released from the hospital four days later. They didn’t go back to Chad’s condo. He had a cleaning company come in and clean up the crime scene and he told Jennie he planned to put it on the market.
They’d stay in her house for now, where she was comfortable and Zeke had a backyard. She insisted Chad could only stay until his condo had been cleaned unless he planned on marrying her.
Of course, this news was delivered with her good fist on her hip and as much fire as she could muster with a bullet wound keeping her mildy subdued.
Jennie had seen all of her friends in the hospital but only in groups of two for short visits at a time and she was anxious to see them all again.
A week after leaving the hospital, they headed into the offices of Sutton Capital, but it wasn’t for work.
Jennie’s arm was in a sling and she was still taking pain medicine on a round-the-clock schedule. Not to mention moving a little stiffly.
Chad, of course, wouldn’t leave her side. And there had been more than a few never-take-a-bullet-for-me-again speeches in the last week.
Jennie couldn’t regret anything she’d done, though. She loved Chad with everything she was. It wasn’t more or less than she’d loved Kyle. It was different. Different but no less whole and deep and profound. And she was grateful for having found the love of two men in her lifetime.
The elevator doors slid open on the twenty-sixth floor revealing a large banner hanging in the Sutton lobby that read “Kill it, Sam!”
The right side of the banner boasted the logo for Sam’s game, Tangled Legacy, with the dragon wings and a fairy dagger that one of Sam’s friends had drawn for her. The man was a talented graphic designer and the logo looked slick.
Jennie grinned. “Congratulations would have been too boring.”
Chad kept a hand on her back as they wove through the crowd, saying hello and hugging coworkers and friends. When they got to the main floor of the office, they found many of their coworkers planted in front of computers, all waiting for the release of Samantha’s game.
Others were out on the rooftop patio where a fire crackled in the firepit and Sam stood with Jill and Andrew.
They were watching a tablet Andrew held, but Samantha had covered her face with her hands.
“I can’t watch. What if there are glitches?”
Andrew laughed. “I doubt that.”
Jill put an arm around Sam. “You’ve checked everything several thousand times. There won’t be any glitches.”
Jill looked up and saw Chad and Jennie, waving with her hand. “Come on, it’s almost time.”
Samantha leaned in to hug Jennie, careful of her arm.
“I’m so proud of you, Sam,” Chad said, taking his turn for a hug.