Page 75 of Justice for JoElla

“For you these days, that’s dressed up.”

“Okay, well, I guess I’m dressed up. We’ve got somewhere to go.”

“Is this the celebrating we’re going to be doing?”

“It is. And I think you’ll be surprised.”Iknowshe’ll be surprised!Brandon told himself. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“You just drive and I’ll tell you where to turn.”

Ten minutes later, they stopped in front of a small house. “Come on.”

JoElla stared at him. “What are you doing?”

“We’re looking at houses. I told you I couldn’t live at Landon and Jerrica’s forever, and we can’t live in that tin can of an apartment either.”

“But?”

“No buts. Come on.” He knocked on the door and a very professional-looking realtor opened it.

They spent forty-five minutes looking around before the woman said, “I’ll meet you at the next one.”

Once they were in the car, JoElla turned to Brandon. “What the hell is going on?”

“You ask too damn many questions.”

“But we can’t?”

“Just drive. Over on Nash.”

That time, it was a neat two-story bungalow with a cool balcony and mission-influenced architecture and décor. “I love this bedroom,” Brandon said as they stepped out onto the balcony.

“It’s really nice.”

“So you like this one?”

“How many more are we looking at?”

“Just one.”

“I’ll give you my verdict after we finish.”

Brandon nodded. “Fair enough.”

The third one was almost magical. It had a huge, recently-renovated kitchen, a pool, and four good-sized bedrooms, along with an attached two-car garage. There was a nice flower garden out back. “We could plant butterfly bushes out here.”

JoElla smiled. “We could.”

Brandon thanked the realtor and they made their way to the car. “I’m hungry. Let’s have a nice dinner, whaddya say?”

“You’re still on the disabled list. You’re drawing short-term disability. You don’t need to be spending money on dinner.”

“You let me worry about that,” Brandon told her, wondering how long it would take before she told him he was losing his mind.

They pulled up in front of the steakhouse and JoElla put the car in park, then sat there. Brandon knew what was about to happen, so he asked, “Are we going in or not?”

Without looking at him, she asked, “What the hell was that about?”

---