Free Brothers in Blue: The First Love Match by Jayna Concepcion Page B

meet you at the house to open the front door.  If you want you could email me a grocery list and I can pick up the things you’ll need tomorrow, I have to pick up some dog food in the morning.”
                  “No that’s ok; when we finally have a night off together you can pay for dinner.”
    John laughed and nodded his agreement.
                  “I’ll stop and pick up a movie on my way home from work.  You can stay the night again if you want.”
                  “I’ll think about it.”
    John pulled the truck up in front of Ariel’s house and leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek.
                  “Thanks for accepting my apology, I’ll see you soon.”
    Ariel got out of the truck smiling.  The hot guy in that big truck was her boyfriend.  All hers and she couldn’t get the smile off of her face. 
     
    Wednesday at work crawled by and she was only there for a few hours.  She had decided to make something fragrant for dinner, baked country style pork ribs in the oven.  They were simple to make and the smell they emitted would have John running in his front door.  She picked up the few things she needed and some potatoes to make some mashed potatoes and called John.  Apparently he was busy again because Jeff was at the house waiting for her when she arrived.
                  “Hi again, he’s out on a call so I came by for him.”             
                  “Thank you.”
    Jeff o pened the door and she let Bruno inside returning to her trunk to gather the bags.
                  “Want me to get that for you?”
                  “No thank you, I can manage.”
    She didn’t want Jeff peakin g in the bags and then telling John what she was going to make.  John was going to be home in about an hour and a half so she pre heated the oven and got the ribs ready to go in.  Her method of preparation was simple, seasoning on both sides of the ribs, an entire large white onion sliced thin on top and below the ribs and then a bottle of bar b cue sauce on top after they had cooked for 45 minutes.  She peeled the potatoes and left them soaking in the large pot of water, she would boil them around 11 so they would be hot when John got home and he could do the mashing for her.  Looking at the clock on the stove it was almost 11 so Ariel decided to turn the pot on and add the sauce to the ribs.  Then she would take a shower.  She wasn’t sure whether she was going to spend the night or not, but John had asked, although it seemed like he just assumed that she would.
     
    Taking a quick shower to clean up in the guest bathroom Ariel decided to wear something that could double as pajamas when she got out.  She had brought her panties into the bathroom with her but forgotten to move the bag with her clothes into the guest room where she would be changing.  Heading down the hall into the living room she had on panties and her bra, she heard the TV was on but she had left it on when she went to shower.  She had left her bag on the dining room table so walking past the living room she saw John in his recliner, in uniform with a shocked look on his face and two other officers, one standing near the front door that she didn’t know and Jeff sitting on the couch.  Everyone was silent staring at her.  She heard muffled voices and the front door opening. Ariel rushed into the kitchen grabbing her bag off of the table.  She heard John call her name from around the corner.             
                  “Ariel?”
    How mortifying two basic strangers had just seen her barely dressed.  At least everything important was covered, if she had thought about it, it was sort of like being seen in a bikini at the beach, right? And John had felt parts of her unclothed recently. Why hadn’t he mentioned his co workers were stopping