Chapter Four-Well Hello, Sergeant

Jenna had just finished putting fresh sheets on her bed when her phone started to ring. She smiled when she realized it was a FaceTime call from Hank. She leaned back against the headboard and answered the call.

"Well hello, Sergeant," she said.

"Jenna. How's your day?"

"Long and busy, but good. Even better now," she said, blushing a little. "How about you?"

"We caught a new case today, so we're working through that. My day is definitely better now that I'm seeing your pretty face."

They chatted for awhile, just making small talk. They were very quickly reaching a comfort level with each other, and they both decide to share a little more detail about their personal lives, things they wanted out of the way before their date.

"Tell me more about your family," Jenna said.

"I'll do the best I can. I was married for 24 years. Camille. We met during her senior year of college, I was on patrol. We had a son, Justin. Then 15 years ago, we took in a teenage girl, Erin, one of my CIs. She works for me now in Intelligence."

"She does? I've met her?"

"You have. Detective Lindsay."

"Oh really? Wow!"

"Yeah. She's a good kid and a great police officer. She's...my world."

"So you're not married anymore, I assume."

"Yeah. Camille, she...ovarian cancer. Six years ago."

"Oh Hank. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you. It's been…difficult."

"I can't even imagine. My divorce was hard, but if I'd lost him...I don't know how I'd breathe again."

"It was hard to breathe, and honestly, some days I didn't want to anymore. What's worse is that two years ago, Justin got mixed up in some things, and he was murdered."

Jenna covered her mouth with her hand, unable to stop her tears. "Oh no."

"Erin and I found him in the back of his truck. He still had a pulse at that point, but by the time we got him to the hospital, there was no brain activity, nothing they could do."

"I'm so sorry Hank. That breaks my heart for you," she whispered, wiping her tears and trying to compose herself.

"Thanks. It's been a tough few years. There's more that I want to tell you, that I need to tell you, but this is enough heavy stuff from me for now. Erin, she...she's pulled me through to the other side. I didn't know how I'd recover, but I'm feeling like myself again." He gave a small smile. "And now I've met you."

She smiled a little, wiping at her tears. "Thank you for sharing that with me."

"I feel comfortable with you, sharing my life with you. It's not something I do. I talk a little bit with Erin, and Al, another detective in my unit, close friend for years, I can confide in him. But I don't talk about it with other people, especially people I've just met. But you...somehow I know that it's safe with you."

"It means a lot, Hank. I feel that same comfort level with you too."

"So now it's your turn," Hank said, anxious to hear more of Jenna's story.

"Ok." She took a deep breath. "I was married for 21 years. Jake. We met in high school and fell in love HARD. We got married during the summer after our senior year of high school, two days after I turned eighteen and then had the first of our five kids very quickly after that."

"Five? Really?" he asked, a shocked look on his face.

She giggled at his expression. "Yep. Stair-steps. Four daughters and a son, Nick, that you met at the hospital."

"Oh yeah."

"I grew up in Texas, my dad left when I was nine, my sister left when I was thirteen, and my mom moved us to Oklahoma when I was sixteen. My mom blamed me and my sister for my dad leaving, so when I was able to get away from her, I never looked back. Jake and I lived in Oklahoma until four years ago. We moved out to California where our one of our daughters was living. The other girls are all out there now too."

"So how did you end up here? Especially if most of your family is out there?"

Jenna sighed. "Two years ago, my husband had an affair."

"Oh Jenna."

"It was a friend, someone who used to be a close friend, but she and I had grown apart. It was just once, and he came to me right away to tell me what he did. We tried to work through it, took some time apart, gave it a second try, and ultimately decided that separating would be the best decision for our family. We just couldn't get that trust back to where it was before. It nearly destroyed our family. As much as we tried to keep things calm, the kids took sides and fought more than Jake and I did. We worked through it and put our family back together, except for the marriage. We've managed to stay friends, and that's helped the kids a lot. It just got really hard, for both of us, seeing each other so often. We were having trouble moving forward, so I decided to move out here and give us both a chance to start over."

"I'm sorry Jenna," Hank said. "I'm so sorry. I don't know how he could do that to you."

"He was just lost for awhile. We both were. The girls were all going through things, school, jobs, relationships, and they needed my attention more than they had since they were kids. My focus was there, and I wasn't giving him what he needed. I just didn't know how bad it was until I found out what he did."

"But still. You don't deserve that."

"Maybe. But I'm ok now. I'm moving on, and for the first time since then, I feel good about where things are headed, and I'm ready to start a new life."

"I'm glad. I'm really glad I met you. I'm just sorry it took a robbery for it to happen."

Jenna shrugged. "Yeah, it wasn't fun. But I'd do it again if it meant that I'd get to meet you."

Hank looked down for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "I'm really looking forward to Saturday, spending the day with you."

"Me too. I can't wait."

Hank looked at the clock. "I should let you go. You have an early morning tomorrow."

Jenna looked over at her own clock. "Wow. Yeah, I should get to bed."

"I'll try to call or text tomorrow if I can, depending on how the case goes."

"That would be great. If not, I'll see you on Saturday."

"Yeah. Saturday."

Jenna smiled at him. "Tonight was really great."

"For me too, Jenna. I really enjoyed getting to know more about you."

"Same here. Have a goodnight Hank."

"Sleep good Jenna. Goodnight."

When they hung up, Jenna dropped her phone and grabbed a pillow, covering her face to muffle her squeal. She grabbed her phone again and FaceTimed her best friend Addison.

"Jenna! What on earth are you doing calling this late? You have to be at work in like five hours!"

"Addison, I just got off of a four hour FaceTime call with a boy."

"A boy?! The sergeant?!"

"Yeah. He called me last night when he got home from work, and then he FaceTimed me tonight. Addi, I'm crushing hard on this guy."

"I'm so excited for you! So what did you talk about for four hours?"

"We started out just talking about our days and then went into life stuff. We ended up talking about my divorce and his wife and son's deaths. It got really deep, but I felt so comfortable sharing all of that with him. He said he felt the same about me. It was...it was good, Addi. I haven't felt like this in a long time, not since Jake."

"This is good, Jenna. You deserve this. He sounds great. It also sounds like he's been through a lot."

"He really has. It's amazing he's even still breathing."

"Well get some rest, if you can calm down," Addison said through her giggles. "You've got a long day to get through tomorrow."

Jenna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I wish you were here Addi."

"I wish I was too. But I expect you to call the second you get home on Saturday and tell me all the things."

"You bet. Goodnight Addison."

"Goodnight Jenna."

Jenna slipped under the covers, trying hard to turn off her brain and get some sleep, but the butterflies in her stomach were keeping her awake. Saturday couldn't come soon enough.