I head towards the front door. I want to greet him first and get him the hell out of here. I’ve been giving him the brush off, but who knows what he actually knows at this point. He can be a persistent bastard. When I swing open the front door he’s parking his car right out front.
“I’m busy,” I tell him. Of course, he ignores me.
“I hear you got that missing girl in there. I’m guessing she’s the same girl you called me about then told me she left the next day.” He gives me a hard look, clearly as pissed as I am. Only about different reasons.
“Fucking hell, you guys are worse than old church ladies on Sunday afternoon,” I grit out.
I may not be as close to my old unit as I used to be, but the rest of them are all solid. Not to mention they are good with my parents, too, having spent time with them before I dropped off the map. Either Mic or my mom could have told John.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“How about you take your ass out of here?” I throw back.
“O.” John puts his hands up. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. I mean, you don’t even like people and now you’ve got one holed up in your house? A missing one, at that.”
“John,” I warn, keeping my voice low when I hear feet on the steps behind me. I give him a hard look that says shut the fuck up. Then I school my face.
“Orlando.” I turn, giving my girl a warm smile. “Who’s here?” She peeps around me at John, and for the first time I actually turn to take John in, wondering if she finds him attractive. Jealousy takes hold of me.
He had always been a ladies’ man. He’d smile and tell them he was a doctor in the army and the women would fall all over him. I used to think it was funny. Not so much anymore.
“Hey there, Lucy. I’m Doc John Fredrick.” I glare at him as he steps towards us with his hand out. Lucy goes to step around me, but I move to stand in front of her, blocking her from Doc.
One of her hands goes to rest on my back. John shakes his head and I see him fighting a smile. “Orlando?” Lucy says, a question in her voice. I take a deep breath and get it together. I don’t want to scare her. She might be thinking he means harm with the way I’m acting. She doesn’t know this is pure jealousy. It’s a feeling I’m not used to.
“Sorry, little one. Still a little on edge with the accident and all,” I tell her, stepping to the side only a little. She slides one of her arms though mine and locks herself around it. She extends her other hand to greet John.
“Lucy.” They shake hands, and John drops her hand quickly, understanding I’m on edge. He’s one of the best at reading me. Right now, I’m thankful for it. Normally it pisses me off.
“Just came by to check on you. Heard you’re not remembering much.” Lucy just shrugs as if she doesn’t care, and to be honest, with how she’s been acting, I don’t think she does.
“I’m sure it will come back,” she says absently, resting her head against my arm and leaning into me.
“That’s a pretty ring you got on there.” John smiles at her.
“John,” I warn.
“I think my husband is a little possessive and wants everyone to know I’m his,” she laughs. She has no fucking idea how true that is, or she likely wouldn’t be laughing about it.
“Husband, is it?” John’s eyes lock on me. Now I’m guessing it was Mic that told him, because he didn’t know that little tidbit like my mom had.
“He’s about to take me out to dinner.”
Johns eyebrows rise. “As in, out of this house to mix with the general public?” I think he finds this more shocking than the husband thing.
“Yeah,” I answer. “So you should probably get going.”
John only smiles bigger. “I think I will do that.” He looks over to Lucy. “Glad you talked him into getting out of this place for a while. It’s good for him. I’ll be seeing you later, O.” I hear the warning in his tone. He’s not done with the subject of me having Lucy here under false pretenses.
“Bye,” Lucy calls as John gets back into his car and takes off down the long driveway.
“He a friend of yours? You seemed tense,” she asks, pulling at my arm so I look down at her.
“I’m noticing I don’t care to share your attention,” I admit to her. I wait to see horror on her face, but she only giggles and smiles up at me.