five: when you have to steal your stuff back

"Queenie, she said yes. Where and when is there an office...mmmhmm....should do. OK, text me, thanks."

He ended the call. "Monday morning we can head over to the county clerk's office."

"OK," I exhaled like I'd just landed a big jump.

"Tuesday, we can pick up Levi. I'll make arrangements with his grandmother. Do you want to walk through the details?"

"OK. Look, my mind is mush. It's been a long day and I'm still wearing this dress and... a scary spider bit me."

"Fair," he nodded and texted Queenie back. "I suppose you need your paperwork. Your stuff. And the license. Does shower guy have that?"

"Yeah. And are you gonna keep calling him shower guy?"

Jeb looked at me over the top of his phone. "It's the most polite of my options. Do you still have a key?"

I thought about it. "I can't remember. It would be in my..."

He handed me my muddy purse from the shelf.

10 seconds later, I was holding up the shiny duplicate key.

"Give me the address," he ordered.

A doctor stepped around the curtain. "Alicia? I need to take another look at that bite. If it looks like you're tolerating the venom fairly well then we'll probably be able to discharge you now."

Jeb raised his eyebrows at me as though he'd magically made it happen. Soon enough I was in a wheelchair heading out the glass double-doors to Jeb's pick-up truck. I tried climbing up to the passenger seat myself but failed. Jeb stepped forward and put his hands on my waist to lift me.

Whoa. Fizzles. Sparkly tickling fizzles where he touched me.

"Alice? You OK?"

I shook my head.

"Those pain meds causing you trouble?"

I nodded. "Fizzles."

"Those bad?"

I blushed. "No."

He searched my expression for a moment and turned away and passed the wheelchair off to an aide.

He climbed in and we began driving. Twenty minutes later, he double parked in front of the apartment complex. There were four guys gathered, including a police officer. What the...?

Jeb helped me down and practically carried me to the sidewalk.

They all gave me funny looks and I realized what I probably looked like.

"Why are police here?" I whispered.

"It's called Civil Standby," the officer nodded. "When a situation has the possibility of needing an officer to keep the peace."

"Oh. Like if I see Finn and decide to..."

Jeb stopped me. "Just a precaution. Captain Kingsley's idea. These three guys work for me at the company and they are here to move your stuff."

"Could you describe your belongings?" the first guy asked me.

"Uh," I had to think for a long moment. My only furniture was a hot pink bistro table and two chairs that folded and a bookcase. I had my books, clothes, and stuff in packing boxes. There were some suitcases and my laptop bag. The guys listened and nodded.

Jeb helped me lead the way up to the second floor. The hospital had given me an ugly cane but agony ripped at my leg the moment I put my foot down on the staircase. I could tell it wasn't going to take the weight. "Help."

"Yeah, it's looking swollen," Jeb nodded. He turned around and told me to climb on.

"Are you serious?" I looked down at my dress and shook my head. I tried with my new cane again and practically fell backwards. Damn it.

I threw away my modesty and climbed on Jeb's back. I should have been too heavy but he practically jogged me the rest of the way.

The potted plant with my vomit was gone. Probably for the best.

Jeb got me back on my feet and I pulled the key back from my purse. I was trembling as I turned the knob. "Hello? Finn?"

I hobbled in. "Helloooo? Finn, it's me. Are you there??"

The police officer looked around and shook his head. I was so relieved I practically fainted.

Jeb helped me limp to the bedroom and I began packing the few things that were actually hanging up. Everything else was still in labeled boxes and Jeb's guys made quick work of it. It took less than 30 minutes to get it all into Jeb's truck.

The whole time, I listened for Finn's footsteps. My heart skipping at each noise.

Our wedding license was missing from where it had hung under a magnet on the fridge. We were supposed to have been married 3 hours ago. Funny it seemed like a so long ago now.

Had I already suspected? Deep in my unconscious mind? It was like my memory of it all was a movie I was watching....

As we left the apartment, I locked the deadbolt and then gave Jeb the key. The cop watched as he slid it forcefully under the door back into the apartment.

He carried me back to the truck and we pulled away. I looked up the sidewalk towards the Starbucks but no Finn.

As we turned the corner, out of sight, I finally exhaled comfortably.

Jeb's phone rang and it was integrated into his truck system.

"Queenie, Alice is listening," he warned her.

"This affects her, too...a guy came in claiming to be Alice's husband and wanted to file a missing person report."

I gasped. "What?!"

"He has a completed marriage license."

Jeb shot me a dark look.

"No. NO. NO! I never got married. I never signed it. We were going to be married today by a pastor who comes to Finn's coffeehouse a lot."

"Do you have the name of the pastor?"

"Give me a second," I pulled out my phone and opened Finn's Instagram feed - we'd taken a picture together with the guy the week before. Scrolled, scrolled - there it was, uh 'the caffeinated cleric' ha ha. OK, clicking his page and... "the pastor is Gary Rohmson, The Holy Grapevine Church on west Addison."

"Queenie, is Alice an official missing person?"

"No, I already closed it."

"But isn't there a waiting period to even file? On TV..." I asked.

Queenie's laugh echoed from the speakers of the truck's cab. "This is the real world and there is no waiting period. The reporter was...Finn Levitt."

"Yeah," I growled. "I am TOTALLY not married to him."

"Well, even if you had filled out the license..."

"I DID NOT!"

"It wouldn't be official until it was filed by the County Clerk's office."

"Wait, can he do that?"

"Well, first we'll contact the pastor who officiated..."

"HE DID NOT..."

"All right, Alice, I hear you. I'm just telling you what could happen."

"Are you going to tell him where I am?"

"No. Since we know you are all right, we will simply report your safety to the reporter. Does he have permission on your phone GPS?"

"No. I removed him from that along with unfriending him on my apps, blocking his calls and texts, and marking his email address as spam."

"Alice, that's excellent. What would really help me is if I could just have a quick overview of the last day or so of your life."

I winced to remember that Naomi had been at the farewell party with me the night before. Two-faced bitch. The rest of the day had been pretty banal, I suppose, for a bride. Mostly packing and cleaning and doing my nails and hair.

The sun was setting by the time we pulled up at Jeb's cabin. I was surprised how modern it was but I didn't have a chance to see much. Jeb's guys were waiting for us so Jeb quickly helped me out and into the main part of his house.

It was gorgeous. I sat on a couch with my mouth open while they carried my stuff into the bedroom on the other side of his office. Jeb helped with the stuff and then saw the guys off before he ducked into his bedroom and came out in a fresh shirt and damp hair.

"You like the place?"

I nodded, emphatically.

"You should probably take your meds with food, right? I can make us scrambled eggs and bacon."

"That would be great," I was suddenly starving. "So, you built this?"

"It's what I do."

"But...." I waved a hand around. "This place is just nothing like I would have expected from seeing the other house. It's...amazing, Jeb."

"Thanks. This land came to us a little over 5 years ago. This was an old barn and cabin that my dad - I mean, my stepdad...

"He was your dad, though?"

Jeb sighed. "Yes, he was. And we had always meant to fix this up. I guess became obsessed with finishing it. My brother-in-law came down and we looked at what we had and what could be done on my complete lack of funds. After he left, I just took the plan and made it happen."

"Just 'made it happen' huh?" I looked around a bit stunned.

"Well, I started working for BestTek doing builds and then I'd travel back here on weekends. Almost all my pay went towards hiring services like plumbing or supplies. Jay helped sometimes. Marco - my brother in law - came back a couple of times and helped too. It took the better part of 18 months."

"Those counters..."

"Poured cement. Cheap as hell, actually."

"The beams?"

"Original to the house. Most of the wood is reclaimed from the original buildings. The steel roof is industrial, real cheap. Super loud when it rains, too."

"I like the sound of rain. You know, when I'm not actually standing in it."

"Fair," he gave me a tiny flash of a real smile.

"So you own this and the other place?"

"No. This is a separate lot and it's all mine. We own the other place as a family and I take care of it."

"So, wait a minute. No one lives there?"

"Not now. I lived there while I was working on this place. After I moved out last year, we rented it but they moved when the lease was up. You are crazy lucky, you know? Jay and I were only there today to check on the place and try and figure out what to do with it. Any other day and..."

"Yeah. I feel super lucky," I said with a straight face.

Jeb lifted an eyebrow and stopped stirring the eggs.

"I mean it."

"Mmm," he shook his head. He brought me the food on a small tray and I fell on it like a starved person.

"Do you have any questions for me? About Levi or anything?"

"I have all the questions.  I want a flow chart of the people and what about emergency stuff like insurance for him and permissions? Oh, and where's he gonna sleep? There isn't one kid thing in this house that I can see. And, Jeb, these eggs are fabulous."

"Glad you like them because that's all I know how to cook. Glad you're thinking that way because it's good to plan."

"And you like plans."

"I'm in construction. I don't move without one."

"Fair," I conceded.

"You're right about the place. I guess I need to go shopping. Queenie and Jay were gonna help me order stuff but even with 2-day shipping, I'm not sure it will be here in time."

"I'll help. Just name the budget."

"That would be...really cool. Thanks."

"So, Queenie and Jay are here. Marco and Maggie are in New York."

"Actually, they are in London at the moment. I've got a little sister, Laurie, in law school."

"Here?"

"Connecticut," He dug through his phone and came up with a picture. "This is her and Grandma Mary. She's an honorary grandma. This is Rafael and Lucy, friends. This is my sister, Maggie, yeah before you ask - she was really pregnant at the wedding, and that's her husband, Marco."

"They look nice."

"They are," Jeb tucked his phone away in his back pocket. "So what do you need for tonight?"

"Just help getting to the bedroom, I think."

He fetched my crutches and led the way. As he said goodnight, I called out a thank you. He turned at the door and gave me a long look. "Alice, I'm glad I found you today."

"Me, too."

"You seem like a good person and I'm...I'm just making a leap of faith here. Anything happens to Levi's grandmother and I am not here then...he'd get pulled into foster care. I know, from experience, what it's like and I do NOT want that for Levi. We should talk, tomorrow. Make plans..."

I made a small groan. More plans?

He lifted an eyebrow. "Plans," he repeated. "and back-up plans. I don't want to intrude on your private business. I just ask you to let me know if something would interfere with Levi's security. Like if it turns out that you really did marry the shower guy, then all this falls apart."

"I didn't."

"Hmm. Well, sleep well."

"You too."

I pulled the covers up to my chin and stared at the ceiling for a long time, listening to the small bedside clock tick softly.

It was the end of the longest day of my life. I was exhausted and hurting.

But it was after midnight before my eyes finally drifted close.