Chapter 20

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When I followed Jay out of my house, a cool breeze of fresh air tickled over my face and stirred up my hair. I stayed on the top of the stairs for a moment and briefly closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation. Jay stopped on the step below me and watched. When I opened my eyes again, he had a fond look on his face and reached out to grab the front of my jacket and pull me towards him. Even though I was a step higher than him, he was still slightly taller than me. But he didn't have to bend down when he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. I still got a fluttery feeling in my stomach every time I felt his lips on mine, no matter how many times it happened.

Without pulling back, he wrapped his arms around my waist, turned on his heels, and carried me down the steps to the pavement where he plopped me down.

I chuckled and grabbed his hand as we began our walk. It was already a few minutes past the time we were supposed to be at Molly's, but we were in no rush.

"Do you have to work tomorrow?" I asked Jay as we strolled down my street.

"Yeah, I do. More paperwork for the part of the case that took place in Chicago," he told me. "But Voight promised to give us the weekend off. I hope that works out. I can't remember the last time I've had an entire weekend off," he sighed. "Are you working tomorrow?"

"I have plans to continue teaching my mum and Zoe. But I'm hoping that we'll be done after tomorrow. If not, we'll have to finish on Saturday. I might head in that day anyway because of Martha."

Jay looked at me questioningly.

"Martha is an old lady who comes to the restaurant every Saturday to have dinner. I usually join her to chat," I explained. "I told her about you. She said you sound like an honourable young man," I grinned.

"You must have put me in a very favourable light then," Jay concluded with a small smile.

"Well yeah. But I also think her characterisation is spot on," I said. "She would like to meet you."

"In that case, maybe we should join her for dinner one day," he winked. "She sounds lovely."

"Yeah, one day," I agreed. "What are your plans for this weekend?"

"I'm thinking of driving up to Wisconsin on Sunday to visit the kid again. He'll be home by then, and I want to check in on him. Would you like to join me for that?" he asked glancing down at me.

"A road trip with you? Yeah, I'd be up for that," I agreed happily. "That's a good opportunity to get out of town for a bit before my training at the academy starts on Monday."

"Oh right, that's next week. Are you excited?"

"Very much, yes. I can't wait," I grinned and Jay smiled back at me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder squeezing me against his side.

He stared off into the distance, lost in thought for a moment. "That just gave me an idea. I know something we can add to the road trip agenda that you might enjoy," he noted.

"What is it?" I inquired curiously.

"Nope, I'll keep it a surprise," Jay concluded.

I wanted to argue, but he shook his head.

I studied his face, trying to guess what he'd thought of but drew a blank.

"My interest is piqued," I chuckled.

The last ray of the sun of that day set behind the buildings at the end of the street and the streetlamps came on. I was glad that I wore my leather jacket as the air was becoming chilly. Seeking more warmth, I slid my hand around Jay's waist under his jacket and snuggled against his side.

When we turned the last corner of our walk, we could see the lights at Molly's illuminate the pavement at the end of the block. Roughly 100 feet ahead of us, a car pulled into a parking spot and two people got out. The woman waited on the pavement for the man to walk around the car. They were deep in conversation. When the man reached the woman, she looked up at him and he brushed his hand over the side of her face affectionately and squeezed her hand before they started walking in the direction of Molly's.

I thought nothing of it until they walked through a cone of light from a streetlamp and I recognised them. I shot a glance up at Jay who had seen the intimate interaction between Kim and Adam too.

"Are they dating?" I asked surprised.

He shrugged casually. "I don't know. They were engaged a few years ago but broke up."

I raised a brow at that revelation.

"Not sure if they're back together. I haven't noticed anything at work, but they've always kept things professional there," he added. "I'm the wrong person to ask, though. Kevin might know more. Or Platt. She's weirdly up to date on those kinds of things at all times," he chuckled.

I thought about it for a second. Based on the interactions between Kim and Adam I'd witnessed, the thought that they had or were dating had never even occurred to me.

"Hey, Kim, Adam!" Jay called out to them and they stopped in their tracks and turned around.

When they recognised us, they waited as we walked up to them.

"Hey guys," Adam greeted us and shot a nervous glance at Kim, "where did you come from?"

"We walked here from Hailey's place," Jay told them, pointing behind us while I stepped towards Kim to greet her with a hug.

"Hey, Kim. Good to see you," I said and gave her a knowing half-smile.

"You too, Hailey," she replied with a simper as I moved over to Adam to give him a quick hug too.

Whatever Jay and I had witnessed between them, they wanted to keep it a secret.

Kim cleared her throat and shifted her weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably. "Should we go inside? I think Kevin and Vanessa are already here," she said quickly and linked her arm with mine to pull me towards the entrance of Molly's.

When we entered the bar, we were surrounded by a warm waft of air, the sparkling fairy lights on the ceiling tinged the room in a cosy, warm light, and the muted murmur of a few dozen voices created an inviting atmosphere. My eyes scanned across the room. Several men were drinking beers at the bar, talking with a middle-aged bartender with greying hair. A group of women in heels and short dresses chatted in the corner by the windows next to the door and most tables were occupied by two or three people immersed in conversations.

A lot had happened since I had last been here. I smiled up at Jay standing next to me and grabbed his hand. He squeezed it back.

Kim was the first to discover Kevin and Vanessa sitting next to each other at the same table we'd sat at two weeks ago and darted towards them after unhooking her arm from mine. They were in the company of the young woman who had served us drinks last time. Jay had called her Stella.

"Hey, guys," she greeted us and got up from her stool as we crowded around the table.

"Hey, Stella," Kim smiled back at her. "You don't need to leave on our account!"

"No, that's okay. I've let Herrmann fend on his own long enough now," Stella waved off Kim's objection.

I glanced over at the bartender who was hastily filling up beer glasses while being hassled in a playful manner by a few of the guys at the bar.

"For some reason, half of firehouse 51 decided to have a drink at Molly's today," Stella told us. "Can I get you your first round?" she asked, looking around the group.

Everyone settled on beers to start with. As she left to get our order, Stella's eyes fell on Jay's hand intertwined with mine and shot a quick smile my way. She had witnessed the very beginning of our relationship and now saw what it had turned into. I returned her smile and watched her walk off to the bar where she slid her hand across the back of the neck of one of the men before ducking behind the counter.

I took a seat between Jay and Kim across from Kevin and Vanessa and Adam sat down next to Vanessa. Jay and I exchanged a quick grin, both noting that Kim and Adam couldn't have sat further away from each other if they'd tried.

"Feels great to be back in Chicago, doesn't it?" Kevin sighed when I had said a quick hello to him and Vanessa.

The members of the unit didn't have to greet each other as they had been together only a few hours earlier. I was impressed that they didn't seem to get sick of one another and had proposed to spend the evening at Molly's even after having spent nearly two weeks with each other in Wisconsin.

"Feels good to wear some of my own, clean clothes again!" Vanessa chuckled.

"When we drove up, we thought we'd be there for one, maybe two nights tops and packed accordingly," Kim explained.

"We had to do a Walmart run on the third day," Kevin added quickly. "We didn't wear dirty clothes for over a week," he clarified.

"I actually really like the jacket I bought there," Vanessa noted, patting the sleeve of her light grey bomber jacket. "But I agree, it's good to be back. That case was taxing on all kinds of levels."

"I'm surprised you suggested doing Molly's right away on your first night back instead of wanting a break first," I said, noting that they all looked somewhat depleted.

"After that case, I just need some fun. I'll take my break on the weekend," Kim responded.

"Same," Vanessa agreed.

Kevin nodded and Adam stared at the empty tabletop, lost in thought. Apart from the accident, I didn't know about anything that had happened during the case. I didn't even know what type of crime they had investigated, but I decided not to ask about it because I knew that they weren't allowed to tell me and they seemed like they needed to enjoy themselves and get some distraction from their work.

"So, how many of you believed in cooties growing up?" I blurted out to change the topic.

Jay's eyes shot up at me and his hand rushed to my thigh under the table. I apprehended his intention to pinch me as punishment for bringing up the topic and as a warning to not tell them anything. To avoid the pinch, I jerked my knee up and trapped his hand between it and the table. My knee connected with the table with a blunt thump and the table rattled slightly.

"Ouch," Jay grunted and snatched his hand back, kneading his squished fingers with his other hand.

I grabbed his hand and held and patted it apologetically but couldn't suppress a chuckle.

We received a few confused looks in response to our interaction.

"Cooties came up in a recent conversation I had, and it got me thinking about what a weird idea and game it is," I explained my reasoning for bringing up such a random topic.

Jay's posture relaxed slightly.

"You know, before cooties became imaginary or invisible bugs or germs spread by children, that's what body lice would sometimes be called," Kim told us.

"Of course you would know that," Adam remarked with a grin.

Kim shrugged in response.

"I mean, yeah," Kevin spoke up. "I remember a phase in kindergarten where cooties went around. If you came too close to someone from the opposite gender, everyone would point and yell 'Cooties!'. So I just kept my distance from all girls to be on the safe side," Kevin remembered and the corners of his mouth quirked up.

"And you still do," Adam stated bluntly.

Stella brought a tray with our beers and distributed them on the table.

"I ain't even mad you just said that, bro," Kevin said and took a sip from his beer after Stella had left. "It's true. I'm going through a really long dry spell at the moment. And with how much we've been working, I don't see it ending any time soon…" he trailed off and his eyes fixed on something behind us. "Maybe I was wrong," he reconsidered quietly.

Kim, Jay, and I all turned around to see what everyone on the other side of the table was looking at.