“Sounds good.”
Dr. Navarro came in, a tablet tucked under his arm. “Deputy, Chief. Since you’re both in here, I’ll tell you at the same time. Unfortunately, the tests have been inconclusive. You’re both discharged, though, so you’re good to go. Please rest as much as possible. If the abdominal pain reoccurs, please don’t hesitate to call or come back in.”
“Thanks,” Jenna said. “Do we have to wait on wheelchairs again?”
Dr. Navarro’s sympathetic smile answered her question. “The orderlies will be along shortly.” He gave them a wave and left.
Titus put his hands on his hips and huffed out a breath. It was a very wolfy sound. “A wheelchair. Can you believe that?”
His words held the kind of attitude she’d felt earlier. “I know, right? It’s regulation, though, and there’s no use arguing.”
He glanced at her. “Because you tried?”
“I did. Got nowhere.”
He sighed. “Waste of time and money. I’m—that is, we’re both perfectly capable of walking ourselves to the parking lot.” He made a face. “Hey.”
“What?”
“I just realized we have no vehicle. And no one here to give us a lift.”
“You want me to call the station? Have them send a squad car?”
“No, we shouldn’t pull them off duty.” He reached into his pockets but came up empty-handed. “I don’t have my phone either.”
“I have mine. Tessa had it. But I know our uniforms have to be cleaned. Maybe your phone needed to be cleaned too?”
His brows rose. “We’d better call a nurse.”
Chuck the orderly showed up with a wheelchair. “Your ride has arrived.”
“Hi, Chuck.” Jenna got up. “Is there a second one behind you? Also, do you have any idea where Titus’s phone is? We need to call for a ride.”
“I was about to give it to you.” He pulled Titus’s phone out of his pocket and handed it to him, then hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Ben has the other wheelchair. Nurse Lawrence took the phones earlier to the nurses’ station to disinfect them, but she forgot to bring the chief’s back.”
“No worries,” Titus said.
“Yeah, thanks.” Jenna climbed into the wheelchair he was driving and opened up her Ryde app to call for a car.
Titus was still muttering about the whole wheelchair thing even as he sat in the one meant for him.
She was having a hard time not laughing. She completely understood his grumpiness about it, but having been through it once, it was funny watching him. Maybe a little distraction would help.
She held up her phone with the Ryde app on the screen. “A car will be here in six minutes.”
He stopped muttering. “Good. I’m ready to get out of here.”
The ride down to the exit seemed to take forever, although Jenna remained amused by Titus’s grumblings about having to go in a wheelchair.
The ride to her house took about the same amount of time. The driver was chatty, talking about the weather and how nice it was for picnicking, so they were saved the need to make polite conversation, something neither was much in the mood for.
Their driver pulled away as they walked up the steps of her front porch. Jenna went to stick her hand in her pocket, only to realize she didn’t have any pockets in her yoga pants. She’d been tucking her phone in the waistband. No pockets meant she also didn’t have the keys to her house. They were in her squad car. Which had probably been driven back to the station.
What was wrong with her? Not only was this not like her, but she was making herself look incompetent in front of a man who didn’t need any more ammunition against her. She sighed, frustrated with herself. “Today is not my day.”
“What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t bring herself to look at Titus. This was definitely going to get her mocked. “I don’t have my keys. They’re in the squad car, which I’m sure was driven back to the station. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Well, it has been a long day. Also, the doctor told us to expect some memory loss, remember?”
“I…think I do.”
He had the nerve to look amused. “Don’t you have a spare for the house hidden around here? One of those fake-rock things?”
She gave him a sharp look. He might be the fire chief, but he was still a civilian to her. “Are you kidding? Do you know how unsafe that is? That’s the first thing burglars look for.”
He was struggling not to laugh. “Do we have a lot of problems with burglars in Nocturne Falls? Also, who would be dumb enough to break into your house?”
“No. And true. But still, I can’t get into my house.”
He was looking over her shoulder. “Don’t you have a keypad on your garage door?”
She really was losing it. She sighed. “Yes. We can get in that way.” She didn’t wait for him, just went straight to the garage and punched in her code to lift the door.
It went up, revealing her tidy garage. She liked things neat. She also didn’t like a lot of stuff. An abundance of clutter, especially the useless kind, stressed her out. All those knickknacks and decorative things other people filled their homes with? That wasn’t ever going to be her.
What she had in her house and what she decorated with all had a purpose. Or in some rare cases where there was no obvious purpose, they were things she found beautiful or that brought her joy.
Less was definitely more to her.
A new thought struck her. What if Titus was a slob? Or just a really disorganized person? How long could she put up with someone else’s mess? Not long. She might be batty in less than a week.
“Wow,” Titus said. “This is one of the cleanest garages I’ve ever seen.”
“Thanks.” She watched his face closely. “So is your garage
