Starting Over (A Linstead Story)

Chapter 12

A few days after the party at Kevin's house, Jay had been over to Adam and Kim's place for dinner. Since his return to Chicago and Intelligence, he felt closer to everyone on the team, even Voight to an extent. He had missed them while he had been away, and they had missed him. That was why they were now spending a little more time with each other outside of work.

There was a second reason that Adam had made the invite though. He had overheard Erin talking about going to a mall with Jess, where they planned to have coffee and go over some interior design ideas for her apartment then go and do some browsing around the stores afterwards.

The fact that Erin and Jess had followed up on their plan to get together and talk about the apartment made Jay happy. Assuming they both enjoyed the evening, it would be the start of them bonding as friends. A good friendship, if it could be built, would be important for both women.

It hadn't escaped him that since Jess had tracked him down and they had connected, she had started having a much more active social life. Working all the time might be good for the bank balance, but it wasn't for mental healthy, especially for someone who was still grieving the loss of her mother.

Jay was sitting on the couch at Erin's place, relaxing with the hefty meal and a few beers in his system. It was a pleasant feeling. How long would this be considered Erin's place, he wondered. He was basically living there already. The arrangement had just happened rather than being discussed and agreed upon, so it somehow didn't feel formal as yet.

The sound of the front door opening. Erin was home. He got up and went to greet her.

"Hey. How long have you been home?" she asked when she saw him.

"About fifteen minutes. How was your evening?"

They greeted each other with a long, full kiss that made Jay feel more than ready for some more 'baby trying'. There was a reason for it of course, but he had never had as much sex in his life as over the past few weeks, the rationale being that the more bullets fired at the target, the greater the chance of hitting it. They only needed to get lucky once, and Erin would fall pregnant.

"It was nice. Jess wasn't lying when she said she knows her stuff about interior design. Couple that with her knowledge of cleaning, I think she was raised to be very house proud, and she adapted the cleaning knowledge to a career where she can make a lot of money. You've got to respect that."

"Definitely," he said. "So you've got a bunch of ideas to consider for this place?"

"I do. Let's go sit down."

"Of course. Shall I make us a drink first?"

"Thank you, but I'm okay."

Jay decided he was okay too in that case, so they went through to the living room and settled down together on the couch.

"There's something I've been thinking about, Jay," Erin said, looking him in the eyes. "I'd like you to look at the interior design stuff with me because I'd like you to have a say in it. What I mean is I want you to move in with me, properly. I know you're stuck with your apartment and that sucks..."

"Forget my apartment," he cut in. "I barely use it now anyway. Yeah, wasting money on it sucks but it is what it is. I'd love to move in here with you. As for the interior designing, you and Jess can handle that. I'm a man after all."

"Yeah, you are. A very manly man, and that fires me up like crazy. Do you want to go to bed?" It was blatantly obvious that she didn't mean to sleep.

"You already know I do," he said, getting up straight away.

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A couple of days later, Jay and Erin were getting ready to go out. The occasion was dinner at Jess's place. Neither of them had been there yet, other than the time Jay had made it as far as the front door when picking her up to go van hunting.