At Peace (37 page)

“Christ, don’t do that. Fuck knows what
they’ll come back with.”

I gathered my clothes, tucked them in my arm
and looked at him in bed, scarred belly and pectoral on display,
but then so was his chest. It was nice, all of it, very nice, even
though the sheet was pulled up to his waist. If it wasn’t then the
view would have been nicer.

“They take direction,” I told him.

“When I was at the mall with you, Keira
picked a bunch of shit for me. One of the shirts had fuckin’
flowers on it.”

A little giggle escaped me at the idea of Joe
wearing a shirt with flowers on it.

“And it was pink,” Joe finished and a much
bigger, louder giggle burst out of me.

“You’d look good in pink,” I told him when I
stopped giggling.

“
Lucky you’re outta arm’s reach, buddy, or
I’d smack your ass.”

I grinned at him then I blurted, “It’s
Sunday.”

“So?”

“Sunday’s pancake day.”

His face closed down and he muttered,
“Buddy.”

“
Offer’s on the table, Joe. That’s all I’m
sayin’,” I told him quickly, got close, put a hand in the bed and
touched my mouth to his but when I pulled slightly away, I
finished, “and I make fucking good pancakes.”

Then, fast as I could, I straightened and
moved out of the room.

There it was again, me acting stupid, trying
to fix Joe.

I tried not to look at his house as I moved
through it but even though I tried, I saw that it was likely he
hadn’t changed a thing. It was tidy, even clean, though the thought
of Joe cleaning was worthy of another giggle, it was true. But it
was dated and drab, much more dated than seventeen years ago. I
figured the house hadn’t changed since Joe’s Mom died, whenever
that was but by the looks of things it was a long time ago.

I went to his sliding glass door and out,
hustling across the deck, down the steps but I caught movement. I
looked across Joe’s yard, my yard and I saw Tina Blackstone in her
yard, wearing a nightie and a robe, watering the flowers in her
big, half-barrel, wooden tubs on her deck.

She was watering her flowers but her eyes
weren’t on her flowers, they were on me and even a yard away, I saw
her mouth hanging open.

Shit!

I waved casually to her, rethinking way too
late wearing Joe’s tee seeing as, if I was in my clothes, she
wouldn’t know that I was over at Joe’s house, having sex with Joe,
but now she couldn’t help but know. She couldn’t miss it.

But who would have thought Tina would be out
in her yard on a Sunday morning before eight o’clock watering her
flowers?

Her flowers were nice which was surprising,
she didn’t seem the type to have a green thumb or even give a shit.
They weren’t as nice as mine but they were nice. Still, it was
Sunday. Even I, before Joe, wasn’t out on a Sunday before eight
o’clock watering my flowers.

I headed to my side door, fumbling with my
jeans skirt to pull out the key and remote, hitting the remote so
my sensors would go off and then struggling with my key. Seeing
Tina had weirded me out and right then I was certain everyone would
see me.

I got into the house, rearmed the alarm and
shot to my room.

Then I took a shower and got ready for my
day. I had the afternoon shift at the garden center and I needed to
talk to Bobbie about changing the schedule so I could have next
weekend off for Sam and Melissa.

After a load of laundry went in and I’d
checked my e-mail, Kate and Keira got up. They were still in their
pjs on the stools at the bar. Kate was wearing a big t-shirt and a
pair of slouchy pajama bottoms. Keira was wearing a camisole and a
pair of slouchy pajama bottoms. Kate’s hair was down and partly
tangled from sleep. Keira’s hair was in a messy ponytail at the
very top of her head. I was at the stove, flipping the first batch
of pancakes when Keira made a strange gurgling noise.

Thinking she was choking on orange juice, I
turned to her but she had an alarm remote in her hand and her eyes
on the side kitchen door.

She jumped off her stool, hit some buttons
on the remote and screeched, “Joe!”

I whirled to the door and stood staring at
it, spatula in hand as Keira unlocked it, yanked the door open and
Joe was standing there. I’d seen him through the window of the door
but seeing him standing there, full-body, my breath, already
stopped, escaped me.

“
I don’t know why you’re here but
you
have
to have
some of Mom’s pancakes. They’re better than her cupcakes,” Keira
announced.

“That good?” Joe asked, his eyes on me.

Keira grabbed his hand and tugged him in,
lying, “Yeah, definitely.”

“Hey Joe,” Kate greeted.

“Hey girl,” Joe greeted back.

“You can sit on my stool,” Keira offered.

“We should sit at the table, seein’ as
there’s so many of us, I’ll get the plates,” Kate decided.

“Girl –” Joe started but Kate was on the move
and Keira had dropped his hand and was charging into the kitchen to
help Kate.

I was still staring at Joe.

The girls exited the room balancing plates,
cutlery, napkins, butter and maple syrup as Joe came to me.

“Can your girls take over pancakes?” he
asked, his face serious and seeing it, something ugly slid through
me.

I nodded.

“
Kate,” he called, looking into the dining
area, “take over here, yeah?”

She looked through the opening of the bar at
Joe then at me then she nodded to Joe.

Joe took the spatula out of my hand, put it
on the counter and then he took my hand and dragged me to my
bedroom.

He closed the door and looked down at me.

Then he lifted his hands, both of them, and
settled them where my shoulders met my neck.

“I’m not here for pancakes,” he told me.

I nodded, staring up at him.

“But I’m stayin’ for pancakes.”

I nodded again, still staring.

“Went out, looked to your house, you had a
box at the steps to your front door.”

Damn. I knew it.

“White?” I asked. “Big purple bow?”

I watched as his face went hard then he
nodded. “Big bow, big box.”

“Did you get it gone?”

“Yeah, it’s in my house. Called Colt.”

I nodded again.

“That his thing?” Joe asked.

“Yeah.”

“It’s Sunday,” he told me.

“Yeah.”

“He ever do his thing on Sunday?”

“
No.” His hands gave me a squeeze and I
asked, “What’s that mean?”

“Don’t know.” He was watching me closely then
he asked, “How solid are you right now?”

“Not very.”

He hesitated then nodded and said, “All
right.”

“Why?”

“Later.”

“No, I need it to hit me all at once so I can
deal with it and move on, not spread it out. Spreading it out is
bad so, even though I’m freaked, I want to know.”

“Sure?”

I nodded.

His hands at my neck slid up to my jaws and
he pulled me close, dipping his chin so he was close too.

“Box was just out of sensor range,” Joe told
me.

“What?” I asked.

“Box was out of sensor range. I got sensors
set so even if someone approaches the door, you know in the house,
a preliminary alarm goes off so you’re aware. Remember, I told you
that.”

I nodded, I remembered.

“You set the alarms for sleep, which I’m
guessing you did when you came to me last night…” he let that hang
and I nodded again.

He had bunches of settings for the sensors,
including one for when we were awake but in the house so, say, the
postman came, or perhaps Kenzie Elise, we didn’t jump out of our
skins because the preliminary alarm went off. But, in the middle of
the night, no one should be lurking at our doors, so we had what he
called a sleep setting too. It set off an alarm that we could hear,
and Joe and Colt could too so they could investigate (and the bad
guy could get the hint and go away), but only sent a message to
dispatch if the doors and windows were breached or one of us didn’t
turn the alarm off before the timer ran down on the message being
sent to dispatch.

Joe went on. “Anyone got close, the sensors
would trip. Whoever put that box out there knows how the sensors
are set.”

“But you can see them,” I reminded him.

“Box was just out of sensor range,” he
repeated.

“You said that.”

“You can see them, buddy, but you can’t see
the range.”

I sucked in breath, realizing what this
meant.

“It’s a message, Vi,” Joe whispered, like
whispering would soften the blow. “He’s tellin’ you he knows my
system.”

In other words, Daniel Hart was telling me he
could get to me.

“Joe,” I whispered.

“He can’t bypass it,” Joe stated.

“He knows it then he can bypass it.”

“He can’t.”

“But, Joe, he knows –”

“Vi, he’d have to shut down the electrical
grid for the entire fuckin’ county to bypass my system.”

I blinked at him then I asked, “Really?”

“Yeah. That wirin’ Chip fucked up?” he asked
and I nodded yet again. “There you go,” he finished secretively,
not enlightening me any further to the method to his madness that
made him Security to the Stars.

“Why has he not done anything for weeks and
now a box?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Joe answered.

“Should I tell my girls?”

“Don’t know.”

He was full of it, he might not know but he
had an opinion.

“You never know what’s right with kids, you
just wing it so what do you think? Should I tell the girls?” I
pressed.

He sighed and his hands slid from my jaw to
my neck and down my back so he was holding me loosely in his
arms.

“They’re smart, they’re aware of the
situation, they love you. Think they’d be pissed, buddy, you didn’t
clue them in.”

I nodded. He was right, even though I wasn’t
certain I’d do it seeing as I was a Mom and didn’t want to freak
them out more than they already were.

“What was in the box?” I asked.

“
Didn’t open it, Colt’s comin’ to get it.
You got a restraining order against him; he shouldn’t be sendin’
you gifts. You got the RO in Illinois, I need to check with Colt to
see if the RO is in effect in the State of Indiana, likely is.
We’ll be havin’ a conversation about that later and they’re gonna
go over the box, maybe they can lift a print, lean on him for
breaking the RO.”

“Hart wouldn’t make that mistake with the
prints.”

Joe sighed, his arms gave me a gentle squeeze
then he said, “I know.”

I stood in his arms, feeling both pissed
that this had started again and it just never seemed to
freaking
go away and feeling scared
because this was back, it was here, in this safe little town and it
just never seemed to
freaking
go away.

“I’ll be over for your seafood, buddy,” he
said.

I focused on Joe and blinked.

“What?”

“Your brother and his woman, you’re making
your seafood shit, I’ll be here.”

Was he inviting himself over for a family
dinner?

“Um…” I mumbled.

“I get to know him at dinner, we have a nice
night, move it to J&J’s. I ask him to play a game of pool, have
a word.”

Oh. He wasn’t wanting to be part of the
family dinner, he was thinking about doing the favor I asked him to
do.

This was both nice and disappointing.

“Okay, we’ll be doing that Saturday.”

“I’ll be here.”

I nodded again and told him, “Tina Blackstone
saw me coming out of your house this morning.”

He stared at me a second then he muttered,
“Great.”

I tilted my head to the side and asked,
“Thought you didn’t care?”

His eyes locked with mine and he said,
“Don’t, but you do and that means I gotta walk over to that bitch’s
house and lay it out for her. Don’t like her, don’t wanna walk over
there and lay it out for her.”

“Lay it out for her?”

“Tell her she keeps her mouth shut or it’ll
piss me off. Lay it out for her,” he explained.

I stared at him, feeling his hard, warm chest
under his tee where my hands were resting thinking that it was a
miracle how he could be so detached and so involved at the same
time. Protecting me and the girls in a variety of ways, taking care
of us in other ways and yet, at the same time, in a weird way,
holding himself apart and not really being there.

Suddenly he asked, “Your walls thin?”

“What?” I asked back, confused at his strange
question.

He tipped his head to the wall that connected
my room to the rest of the house. “At my place, buddy, the walls
are paper thin. Same here?”

I looked over my shoulder at the wall.

My room had been built as an extension so the
side wall used to be the back wall of the house. The rest of the
house the walls were paper thin. If I was in the kitchen or living
room, I could hear the girls in their rooms. If I was in my room,
nothing, as evidenced when Kenzie Elise rang the doorbell.

“This is an extension,” I told him.

“Know that, Vi,” he told me.

“That wall is pretty solid.”

He looked at the wall then back at me and he
nodded.

“Why?”

“
Don’t want your girls to hear me comin’
in.
Really
don’t
want them to hear me fuckin’ you.”

I felt my breath catch.

Then I whispered, “What?”

“He’s playin’ his games with you, first, you
aren’t gonna wanna leave your girls here alone, second, I don’t
want them here alone. So, I gotta come to you.”

And there it was again, detached but
involved.

A miracle.