A little visit with Holly and Jordan

     Jordan ducked from the chilly fall drizzle into the lobby of JGH Investigations. The sunny September day had collapsed into a gray sky and cold rain that made him long for the fireplace in his house back in Kansas.
     Nothing dispelled a damp chill better than a crackling fire.
      “I’m back,” he called out. He swiped a hand through his wet blond hair and shook a soggy orange leaf from the heel of his shoe. “Holly?”
     “In my office!”
     He frowned at the muffled sound of her voice. He had left her alone for a whole two hours while he finished up a case. What had she gotten herself into during that time? He crossed the lobby to her office and stalled in the doorway.
     In the center of the room was a rolling desk chair topped with several binders and an overturned trash can. On top of the precarious stack of office supplies was a pair of fuzzy slippers attached to a petite body whose head disappeared into the drop ceiling tiles.
     “Uh, Holly, what are you doing?”
     “Hunting.”
     “For what? Dust bunnies? You’re certainly not gonna find any ducks or deer up there.”
     “I’m hunting for a mouse,” she clarified.    “I think I heard him skittering around up here.”
       “So you built a Jenga tower and climbed on top?”
     “We don’t have a ladder.”
     “Are we pretending you would actually drag a ladder in here and set it up instead of climbing up this heap of dangerous clutter?”
     She peeked down at him from the ceiling, a tuft of dust clinging to her carrot red hair. “It’s not dangerous.”
     “No, it looks perfectly safe.”
     Jordan glanced at Riley, who sprawled on the carpet in front of Holly’s upholstered chair with a look on his face that said, “I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen.”
     “She never does,” Jordan muttered.
      Holly squinted at him. “She never does what?”
     “He knows.” Jordan nodded to Riley.
     “All he knows is that I love him very much, and he’s my favorite boy in the whole world.”
     “Ouch.”
     Holly grinned. “Don’t worry. You’re in the top five.”
     “There are only five males on this planet that you trust. Two of them are animals. At least tell me I rank above your overweight, grouchy cat.”
     Her mischievous snicker made him smile. He loved the sound of her playful happiness.
     “He’s only grouchy when he’s hungry,” she clarified.
     “Then a mouse for dinner should cheer him right up.”
     She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t love that idea. Besides, he’s on a diet.”
     He inched closer to the desk chair, prepared to catch her when this situation went south. And it would. Inevitably. “If not food for the cat, what’s your plan if you catch the mouse?”
     “I haven’t worked that part out yet.”
     “And you couldn’t wait for me to handle the mouse in the ceiling because . . .”
     She pointed toward her desk. “Because he’s a thieving little terrorist, and he needs to be stopped.”
     Jordan glanced at the desk littered with chocolate bars, noting the nibble marks out of each corner, and bit back a laugh. “I see he found your sweet stash.”
     “Destroyed my sweet stash, you mean. He could’ve at least had the decency to choose one bar instead of sampling them all. I’m happy to share one, but not my entire snack drawer.”
     As she poked her head back into the ceiling, the chair beneath her moved the barest inch.
     Jordan tensed. “It’s time to come down. Before gravity brings you down. I don’t want this day to end with you in the hospital for another broken bone.”

     He’d seen her with enough broken bones to last ten lifetimes.
     “He’s not getting away with . . . with . . .” she sneezed and then coughed, “Dust bunny.”
     Her sudden movement caused the trashcan beneath her to shift. She gasped and caught the metal framework of the ceiling to steady herself.
     “Holly . . .” Jordan reached for her on instinct, his hands hovering around her waist without touching her.
     “Whoooo,” she exhaled. “Maybe this wasn’t my best idea.”
     “Your hindsight is on point, but we need to work on your foresight.” The ceiling groaned, and Jordan’s eyes darted above her head. “That framework isn’t meant to hold a person’s weight. Let me lift you down before the ceiling caves in.”
     The hesitation on her face at his suggestion caused a twinge in his chest. She had been hurt so badly and so often by men that the idea of a man putting his hands on her body spooked her.
      He wanted to scoop her up and out of harm’s way, but he waited patiently for her decision. He didn’t have to wait long.
     Holly’s hesitation barely lasted a heartbeat—a testament to her healing and the trust growing between them. “Sure. If it makes you feel better, you can . . . help me down.”
     “That’s very thoughtful of you.”
     She let the ceiling tile drop back into place and slowly bent her knees. The trashcan shifted and tipped off the edge of the binders toward the side of the armless chair.
     A frightened squeak escaped her, but Jordan caught her waist before the crumbling tower could send her falling backwards into the bookshelves.
     He lowered her feet to the floor and released her. “Next time you get the urge to mound your office supplies and climb on top, call me so I can talk you out of it.”
     She cleared her throat and straightened her rumpled layers of shirts. “I’ve decided, for no particular reason, that I’m gonna let you handle the mouse in the ceiling.”

**This is part of a short story I intend to someday finish! I hope you enjoyed it!