Bless the Broken Road that Lead Me Straight to You

Chapter 9

Now that Jay was trying to formally become Grace's foster parent, Erin had to resume the normal protocol. She wanted to make sure everything was by the book, it was the only way to give Jay his best chance. She submitted his background check, sent him instructions to file his tax returns, and then sent Hank an email requesting a formal letter verifying Jay's status in the department and reports on his yearly income. The busy work was always a headache, but it was always completely worth it.

She hadn't seen Jay since the kiss in her office, but with his name on every file at work and his face gracing all of her dreams at home, he was never far from her mind.

She knew from living with Hank that the Intelligence Unit had caught a big case Tuesday morning, and so Wednesday afternoon when she went for her third home visit, she met Jay's babysitter Samantha. She learned that Samantha was originally from Maryland, but was currently a junior at University of Chicago. When she was a freshman, she had witnessed a murder on campus, and Jay had been one of the detectives that interviewed her. She had been Maddie's babysitter ever since.

She had stacked all of her classes in the middle of the day while Maddie was at school, in order to be available in the early morning or into the evening. It suited Jay's unpredictable work schedule, and in return he covered the total cost of rent for her apartment on campus.

Grace seemed to get along well with Samantha, and Maddie's ringing endorsement left her feeling comfortable with the arrangement. Erin hadn't been expecting to see Jay, and she had needed to interview the babysitter, but she was nonetheless disappointed, and was happy to hear that the case was solved later that evening.

She found Jay's cell phone number on one of the forms she had asked him to fill out and called him first thing Thursday morning from her office, "Detective Halstead speaking." It was in that moment that she realized she had never given him her number. No wonder he hasn't called.

"Hi Jay, it's Erin." She stopped for a moment before adding, "Lindsay." Just for clarification purposes.

He didn't need it. The minute he had heard her raspy voice say his name, he knew exactly who was on the other line. He had missed that raspy voice. "Hey, stranger." He tried to keep his voice calm, and leave the excitement out of it. He was smiling like an idiot, and since she wasn't there to see it, he didn't even try to stifle it. He had just been sitting at his desk at work, completing paperwork from the case that had ended late into the night last night, and thinking of her.

"Hey." She couldn't help the way her heart fluttered at the sound of his voice. "So, I know I outlined a lot of the protocol with you the first night that I came to your apartment." That night seemed like weeks ago, not merely a few days. It seemed impossible that she hadn't even known Jay a week yet. "But now that you want to formally foster Grace, I have a few more things I need to discuss with you."

"Want to discuss it tonight, after dinner with the girls?" He really wanted to know if Erin would be coming by tonight. He had been more than a little disappointed when he learned from Maddie and Grace that he had missed her last home visit.

She smiled at his invitation, "I would love that, but that's actually why I'm calling." She had to keep reminding herself that she needed to follow her usual protocol with Grace. She may be going out on a date with Jay tomorrow night, but tonight was going to be about business. She had to keep it professional. "When I place a foster child in a new home, I like to take them out to dinner about once a week in the beginning. Just to check in and see how everything is going." Sometimes it was breakfast or lunch, sometimes it was even in a group, but she liked to get the kids out of the foster homes at least once a week for the first month to make sure everything was going well. You would be surprised what kids would tell you over ice cream. "I was going to see if I could take Grace tonight."