At Peace (26 page)

“You did the cherry thing with him?” he
growled.

“No!” I cried again. “He just told me about
it, that, um… men even at a hundred and two, would… um, like
that.”

“You know men like that.”

“I’ve been with the same guy since I was
fifteen. Tim liked it. I just thought he never grew out of it since
he’d been with me since he was sixteen. I mean, it’s not hard,
doing that with a cherry stem. It isn’t like pole dancing or
something.”

Joe was silent.

“Anyway, I’ve never had to flirt,” I
continued. “Tim asked me out in the lunch line in the cafeteria in
high school. I was buying bad pizza and chocolate milk. Do you get
what I’m tellin’ you?”

Joe remained silent.

“
Joe,” I whispered, my hands sliding up to
his neck, “I didn’t play you. I don’t know how to play
anyone.”

“He ask you out?”

Oh shit.

I closed my eyes.

“He asked you out,” Joe said softly.

I opened my eyes and whispered, “Joe –”

“And you’re goin’.”

“Joe –”

“When?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“I leave Sunday.”

“For how long?”

“
A week, maybe two, meetings are pilin’
up.”

“Oh.”

His hands slid down my ass to my thighs as he
bent slightly then I was going up, he pulled my legs apart and I
wrapped them around his hips as his hands slid back to my ass and
my arms went around his shoulders. Carrying me, he started walking
down the hall.

“I’m not leavin’ for two weeks not gettin’ my
fill of you.”

“Joe –”

“You come to me after he’s done with
you.”

Oh God, why was this so fucked up?

“Joe, I don’t –”

He put a knee to his bed and then my back was
to it and he was on me.

“You come to me or I come to you. Buddy, you
want me fuckin’ you with your girls in the house then you stay
home. You don’t, I hear your feet on the steps of my deck.”

His hand pulled my blouse from my jeans as I
asked, “You’re not askin’ are you?”

His fingers pulled down the cup of my bra
when he answered, “Nope.”

“
Joe –” I whispered when his thumb swept
over my nipple and I felt only that and forgot what we were talking
about.

“Vi,” he called and I realized I’d closed my
eyes so I opened them and focused on him. “There’s five hundred
dollars on my nightstand, when you go home in the mornin’, you take
it.”

My body stilled under his.

“What?”

“It’s for Keira’s dog and food.”

“The dog only costs two hundred dollars.”

“Then you can buy a lot of food.”

“Joe, you can’t do that.”

“You don’t buy her the dog, I talk to her
tomorrow, find out where the dog is, I buy it and the food.”

“You can’t do that.”

His thumb did another swipe and I bit my
lip.

“She wants a dog,” he stated.

“But –”

“Baby, she lost her Dad, she should get a
fuckin’ dog.”

I swallowed and my body relaxed under
his.

“I know,” I whispered and I did know, I’d
known since the minute she brought it up.

“So take the money, buy her the fuckin’
dog.”

I put my hand to his scarred cheek and ran my
thumb along his cheekbone.

“I’ll pay you back,” I promised.

“That’s for Keira, there’s no payback for
Keira. You need somethin’ from me, we’ll discuss payback.”

“Joe –”

His mouth came to mine. “Done talkin’
now.”

“Joe –”

“Might be gone two weeks, we need to
fuck.”

“Joe, please.”

“What?”

I dropped my head and slid my nose along his
jaw until my mouth was at his ear and I whispered, “Thanks for the
dog.”

With my mouth at his ear, his mouth was at
mine when he whispered back, “Shut up, buddy.”

Then his finger met his thumb and he pinched
my nipple and my mind went blank again.

Visitor

I lay on my back on my bed staring at the
ceiling and hearing the TV in the other room. Kate, Dane and Keira
were watching a movie that, from what I could tell, had a lot of
explosions.

My cell phone was on my stomach, my hand
curled around it and I had two choices. Either I
needed
to make the call to end things
with Joe or I
wanted
to make
the call just to talk to Joe.

I closed my eyes.

Things couldn’t get weirder or more messed
up.

It was now Thursday.

On Saturday, during the day, I’d had to
have the talk with the girls, telling them I was going out on a
date. I couldn’t just trip out the door with an unknown man and
call, “See you later!” as much as I wanted to. I had to do what I
could to make this transition from Mom and Dad, to Mom no Dad, to
Mom dating as smooth as possible even though that was
im
possible.

I still had to try.

So I stood at the kitchen counter while they
both sat on stools at the bar opposite me and I told them I met a
man named Lieutenant Mike Haines and we were going out on a
date.

I expected they’d both be pissed. They loved
their Dad and I couldn’t imagine that, the time having come when I
was moving on with life, dragging them with me, they’d be thrilled
to bits.

What I didn’t expect was Kate to say, “That’s
great, Mawdy.”

But I kinda expected Keira to snap, “What
about Joe?”

Which was what she did.

I closed my eyes but opened them when Kate
asked Keira, “What
about
Joe?”

“Joe’s a hottie,” Keira replied to Kate.

“Yeah, he’s a hottie, so? Mom likes the clean
cut guys,” Kate returned and this was true, Tim was a clean cut guy
and Tim had been the only guy who I’d liked. Then again, it was
kinda untrue, Joe was anything but clean cut.

“Joe bought us dinner, told Mom she looked
great in her Lucky’s and gave us electric eyes,” Keira retorted and
when Kate opened her mouth to speak, Keira finished, “and he likes
her cupcakes.”

“Maybe this Mike guy’ll like her cupcakes
too,” Kate suggested.

At this point, I was feeling weird about my
girls talking about the men in my life liking my cupcakes so I
waded in. “Girls –”

Keira looked at me and declared, “I like you
with Joe.”

Kate leaned into Keira and declared,
“She’s not
with
Joe.”

Keira’s head twisted around to Kate and
she returned, “She
could
be. He
likes her, I can tell.”

“All right,” I cut in, “enough. This is a
date, just a date, with Mike. Joe, Keira baby,” I looked at my
youngest, “let’s just let that lie for now.”

“He likes you,” Keira stated stubbornly.

“I like him too,” I agreed and it was the
truth, surprisingly. “He’s been good to us but I’m kinda takin’
this one day at a time and I need you girls to let me do that.” I
leaned both forearms on the counter and finished, my voice quieter.
“I’ll do my best to make good choices, for you and for me, but I
also need you to trust me to do that. Can you trust me to do
that?”

“Yeah, Mawdy,” Kate said instantly but she
would say that instantly. She trusted me, like she trusted her Dad,
she trusted us both implicitly.

Keira glared at me. “I like Joe.”

“Can you give it up with Joe?” Kate cried and
Keira transferred her glare to her sister and then she said
something that hit me like a punch in the gut.

“He needs Mom and us more than we need him.
He needs a family. He’s over there, all by himself, he has nobody.
We have each other.” She looked at me and stated, “He needs
somebody. I can tell.”

“Baby,” I whispered, feeling the sting of
tears in my eyes.

She threw up a hand as she hopped off her
stool. “Go off with your Mike guy, I’m cool with that,” she looked
at me but her body was turned away, “but I still like Joe.”

Then she walked down the hall to her room and
I heard her close her door.

I looked at Kate who was staring after her
sister, her face thoughtful.

“Katy honey?” I called and she turned to me.
“Are you really cool with me goin’ out with Mike? I mean, you girls
and your Dad –”

Kate cut me off. “Can’t say I don’t wish you
were goin’ on a date night with Dad to Rico’s and we were in our
old house and Grams and Gramps were just down the street but…” she
shook her head and looked away but I saw the tears glistening in
her eyes before she finished, “whatever.”

“Katy.”

She slid off her stool not looking at me and
muttered, “Gotta get ready for work.”

“Kate –”

She stopped and turned to me. “Can Dane come
over while you’re out with Mike?”

“Sure, baby.”

I mean, what else could I say?

“Thanks,” she mumbled and then headed down
the hall.

I dropped my head and looked at my midriff
through my arms thinking that could have gone better.

I was also thinking about what Keira said
about Joe.

Then the phone rang. I straightened, happy to
have something to take my mind from my thoughts, walked to it,
picked it up and put it to my ear.

The minute I said “Hello,” whoever was on the
other end hung up.

* * * * *

Mike called while I was at the garden center
and told me that he got reservations at Costa’s and I should dress
nice.

This was a miracle. I’d heard about Costa’s,
a lot about it, and everyone said it was great (Feb especially
loved it, she’d mentioned it more than once, but then I noticed Feb
liked her food) but it wasn’t easy getting a table there,
especially at short notice.

This was also nice, Mike thinking to call and
tell me to dress up. He’d obviously had a wife and knew the drill
(this was something I suspected that Joe didn’t know, considering
Bonnie was his ex and they’d been over for at least seventeen
years, if I read it right, though he could have five ex-wives as
far as I knew). I was already panicking about my double decker
night starting with Mike and ending with Joe. I didn’t need to
worry about my outfit.

And it felt good, going home, getting gussied
up to go out on a date. I’d never actually done that as an adult,
it was kind of exciting and scary at the same time. I wore my
clingy lavender dress that Tim thought was hot and my new
high-heeled sandals that hadn’t until then made it out of the box.
I liked having a reason to wear them, it felt good.

Even so, I’d kind of been hoping that the
date would suck, which would make my life easier since I could call
things off with Mike if it didn’t work out.

But the date didn’t suck. Mike picked me up
and I noticed yet again he was very good-looking but this time I
also noticed that he dressed well (blazer, shirt and jeans, casual
for what was supposed to be a dressy night but he pulled it off
because he had a good body, broad shoulders, lean hips, long legs,
he wasn’t as tall as Joe but he was taller than me, even in my
sandals and that was saying something). And the date was good
because Mike was like he was at the bar, easy to talk to, he smiled
a lot, he teased, he flirted, he laughed and he made me laugh. He
was into me and made no bones about it, which felt better than
having a reason to wear high-heeled sandals.

And the food was amazing.

As easy as Mike was to be with at the
restaurant was as anxious as I got on the drive home, which was to
say by the time I got home I was a wreck. First, he told me he
would kiss me which meant, second, I had kids at home who I didn’t
want to see me kissing someone and, last, I had a booty call next
door who I also didn’t want to see me kissing someone.

But Mike had an answer for that too. He got
out of the car and came to my side as I got out then he took my
hand and he didn’t lead me to the door. He led me to the open
stretch between my house and garage, out of sight of anyone but
someone who really wanted to look.

Then he took me in his arms and he kissed
me.

At first I was disappointed. Not long
after, I realized that Mike didn’t kiss like Joe, hard and
demanding right off the bat. He also didn’t kiss like Tim, hot but
sweet and familiar. Mike was a stealth kisser. It started slow and
soft and he built the heat. Before I knew it, his hand was at my
ass, pulling me into his hips, his other arm was wrapped around my
shoulders and I was plastered against him, feeling his hard body,
his kiss, his arm and hand and what his tongue was doing in my
mouth and I was feeling it
everywhere
.

He pulled away and I noticed my hands were in
his hair, both of them, behind his ears and I didn’t realize I’d
put them there to hold him to me.

“Not gonna thank Colt,” he muttered. “After
that, gonna buy him a bottle of bourbon.”

“Mike –”

“Wanna see you again, sweetheart.”

For some reason I replied instantly,
“Okay.”

He smiled and he had a
great
smile, even greater close up.

“When?” he asked.

“What?”

“When can I see you?”

“Um… when do you want to see me?”

“You’re comin’ to my house, Wednesday night.
I’m makin’ you dinner.”

“Okay,” I said again and again I said it
instantly, even though it was beyond crazy talk to say okay to
dinner at his house after a first date and with Joe on the
hook.

Then I stopped thinking of all this when he
kissed me again. The second time, the fire only banked, he was able
to build the heat a lot faster and he did.

Then he walked me to my door, came in long
enough to meet Kate (who tried to be nice and succeeded), Dane (who
thought Mike being a cop was “
way
cool, dude”) and Keira (who studied him like he was a
specimen under a glass and not a very interesting one).