It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,72

patiently. “My wife did what she thought she needed to do. If I hadn’t kicked the woman in reaction to her stabbing me, she would’ve only sustained a flesh wound. My wife is a highly trained individual. She aimed for the woman’s shoulder.”

“I don’t know…” Rolf said. “Pending further investigation, I do believe it’s safe to say that you will not be allowed back to work until…”

“You can’t suspend him,” Luke, the chief of police, said as he walked into the room. “He’s one of my best officers. He also wasn’t involved in the shooting, his wife was. And, from what I’ve been hearing over the last five minutes, you’ve got nothing to hold them on. They’re free to go. Jonah, see you at work tomorrow.”

I looked at the clock and winced when I read that it was two in the morning.

“I think I might need to take the day off seeing as my shift starts at eight,” I said, sounding just as tired as I felt.

“I’ll find someone to switch with you,” Captain Morgan said. “Your nephew has already offered.”

I looked over at the doorway.

“Go,” Luke said. “But you will be back on your regular shift the day after tomorrow.”

I grinned then. “I will, sir.”

With that, I took my woman home.

She didn’t wake up when I put her in the car.

She didn’t wake up when I took her out of the car.

And she didn’t wake up when I tucked her into our bed.

She did wake up when I pressed my body against her, but only long enough to say, “Love you, Jonah.”

I thought I’d be wide awake after the day that I’d had.

I thought that it’d take me hours to go to sleep.

I was wrong.

I slept like a baby and didn’t wake up until the next morning when my wife woke me with her mouth.

Definitely the best way to wake up, hands down.

Epilogue

Before you marry a person, you should first make them drive you somewhere in the middle of rush hour traffic. That’s how you really get to know a person.

-Jonah’s secret thoughts

Jonah

I pulled into the parking lot where the girls were going to gymnastics and grimaced at all the cars that filled almost every available parking spot.

Literally, the only thing open that was anywhere close to the gym itself was a handicap spot.

Just when I was about to pull out and go further down the lot into the next business over’s parking area, my wife started to back out of her spot in our Suburban.

I grinned and pulled into the spot moments after she pulled out, then swung out of my truck.

“You’re going to walk them over to the hospital to get it?” she asked.

I nodded.

One of the reasons that we’d chosen this particular gymnastics facility was due in part to the nearness of the hospital.

Since it was so close, it meant that when I got off my shift, I could come straight here, and we could do the handoff.

“Are they already inside?” I asked, my eyes flicking to the empty seats in the Suburban.

“Yeah,” she answered. “I would’ve just left it here, but for some reason, everybody and their brother has decided to show up today. I’m fairly sure I saw about eight grandparents in there.”

I snorted. “They’re proud.”

She shrugged, then sighed. “Speaking of grandparents, my mom and dad are in there, as well as Hoax, Pru and their kids.”

I snorted. “You mean everybody and the girls’ grandparents.”

She shrugged. “They talked them into it. We were having Andy’s ice cream with my parents when Pru and Hoax showed. The girls asked them to come, and they did it in those sweet little voices of theirs so they couldn’t say no.”

I scoffed.

I knew better than anyone what those sweet little voices did.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll come switch vehicles with you when I’m done here. Are you sure that you’re wanting the dogs groomed?”

Piper rolled her eyes and puckered her lips. “Give me a kiss and get in there. You know that they’re waiting for you.”

I knew they were waiting for me, but I wanted to enjoy my wife for a whole five seconds before she had to be at work for twelve hours and we had to do it all over again the next day.

Though, tomorrow wasn’t gymnastics. Tomorrow was kids’ CrossFit.

I honestly wasn’t sure what the hell Piper was doing trying to keep them as busy and active as she was, but I wasn’t going to argue with her. I loved that she was so active