At Peace (57 page)

“Say it,” he demanded.

My fingers went back and clenched in his
hair. “I belong to you.”

Then I came, slamming down, my back bowing,
my moan escaping my mouth to be absorbed by his.

I was astride Joe but he was sitting up which
made it easier for him, mid-orgasm, to flip me to my back and drive
in harder which he did until he came right in the middle of giving
me a deep, brutal kiss.

When he was done, his mouth left mine and
slid to my neck and, as his cock glided in and out of me, my
fingers moved through his hair.

We kept doing this awhile before his tongue
ran the length of my jaw and then he pulled out, rolled off, leaned
down, yanked the covers over us and settled me into his side.

Joe was silent, as usual.

I couldn’t be silent, as usual.

“School starts soon,” I whispered.

Joe didn’t respond.

“Back to school clothes,” I went on.

The tips of Joe’s fingers slid randomly
around my hip and ass but he didn’t speak.

“You goin’ to the mall with us when we go
shoppin’?”

Finally, Joe spoke.

“Hell no.”

I smiled into his shoulder then my smile
died.

“What should we tell them?” I whispered.

“The truth,” he answered, knowing I meant the
girls.

“That being?”

“I’m here now.”

I gave his waist a squeeze and informed him,
“It’s not that easy.”

“Only hard you make it hard.”

“Joe –”

“Vi, I told you, I walked outta your room and
the girls didn’t blink.”

“They were probably tired and they’re
emotional.”

“They know the way it is between us.”

His words shocked me so much I lifted my head
and looked at him. “They have no clue.”

“Buddy, Keira invited me to the mall and Kate
brought me a Coke while I fixed our garage door opener and offered
me a sandwich and that was before the scene when your Dad and Mom
came callin’. They know.”

“They don’t.”

“They aren’t dumb.”

“I know that.”

“Okay, they don’t know we’re fuckin’, but
they know we mean something to each other.”

He was right, they knew this, I knew they did
with the way they acted the second time Joe turned.

Still, I stared at him and asked, “Do you
think?”

He grinned at me. “Baby, clue in, the whole
block knows.”

“That’s probably because Tina’s big
mouth.”

“It’s because I installed your system at no
charge, I fixed your garage and your daughters used to come over
daily to talk to me. Been livin’ here a long time, buddy, my whole
life and haven’t done that kinda shit for anyone and no one came by
to talk to me, ‘specially not two teenage girls.”

I stared then asked, “They came over
daily?”

“Yeah, right before I fucked you over the
second time.”

I didn’t know that Kate and Keira did
that.

But I liked it.

“Oh,” I whispered.

“So they get home, I take Dane out, you sit
‘em down, tell ‘em I’m here now. Ask ‘em if they got questions,
answer them. Done.”

He thought it was that easy?

Obviously, he hadn’t lived with the likes of
Keira.

However, by all accounts (including my own
experience with her) Bonnie was far more unpleasant.

“What if they don’t like it?” I asked.

“We deal.”

“How do we deal?” I pushed.

His hand flattened on my ass. “How ‘bout we
find out if they don’t like it before we get wound up about it?” he
suggested.

This sounded like good advice, simple,
logical but totally impossible.

If Joe thought that simple and logical was
going to work, he was in for a world of hurt living for two months
with three females.

I didn’t share this with him and, since he
was out of town most of the time, maybe he wouldn’t notice.

I put my head to his shoulder and said,
“Okay.”

His fingertips went back to their random
patterns and we were both quiet, me because I was in my head
thinking about the million things there and Joe because he was
Joe.

Suddenly he said, “Don’t take the job.”

I lifted my head again and looked at him.
“What?”

“Manager at the garden center, don’t take
it.”

I’d told him about Bobbie’s promotion at
dinner. Obviously he’d been thinking about it.

I pushed up to an elbow and looked down at
him. “Why?”

“Money’s the same as you’re gettin’ but it
comes with headaches, headaches you don’t have now. You won’t be
doin’ what you like to do, you’ll be doin’ shit you don’t like to
do, workin’ the same hours, gettin’ the same pay. You want to
advance, you ask her to make it worth your while. You like what you
do, do what you do, fuck the promotion.”

There it was again, simple, logical and, this
time, doable.

I smiled at him. “You’re right.”

Joe didn’t reply verbally. His other hand
came up, slid into my hair at the side of my head, pulled my mouth
down to his for a light kiss then he pressed down until I came off
my elbow and my cheek was to his shoulder again. Then he reached an
arm out and switched off the light.

But not before I saw the picture of Tim and
me on my nightstand.

I pulled in breath through my nose; Joe’s
fingers came back to the side of my head to glide through my hair,
pulling it back. He repeated this then his fingers slid behind my
ear, down my jaw then his hand went away.

I exhaled.

“’Night, baby,” I whispered into his
shoulder.

His response was again nonverbal. His hand
squeezed my ass then went back to its random patterns.

This felt nice and it was amazingly relaxing.
So much so, I didn’t realize that there weren’t a million things
tumbling around in my head.

Instead, I drifted right to sleep.

* * * * *

Cal woke when Vi’s body jolted violently.

His eyes opened when he felt her go rock
solid in his arms.

He waited as he listened to her breathing
heavily and was about to call to her when she slid out of his arms
and across the bed.

He watched her shadow move around the bed and
he rolled to his back as she walked to her dresser. She opened and
closed drawers, doing it quietly. She thought he was asleep.

She closed a drawer and he watched her shadow
again, this time she was pulling one of his tees over her head.

Maybe he should go to the mall with her and
the girls when they went back to school shopping. He didn’t, the
way she was going, he’d run out of tees.

This thought made him smile.

She came to the bed, his side, and again he
was about to call her name when she reached out a hand to the
nightstand. Then he watched her shadow move out of the room into
the study. She turned and disappeared.

She’d been carrying something.

The photo of her and her husband.

Cal closed his eyes and opened them again
when he heard her back in the room. He watched her shadow walk to
the dresser and she stood at it, her hands lifted in front of her.
He couldn’t see what she was doing but she was holding perfectly
still.

She stood that way awhile before she moved,
her hand went to the top of the dresser and he heard her drop
something that made a soft clink.

Fuck.

Her wedding rings.

He’d noticed she still wore them. He’d seen
them the first time he took her in fully in his living room when
she was wearing those ridiculous boots and that sexy nightgown.
Weeks after that, he’d thought Sam was her husband, a travelling
man, the way she greeted him and he greeted her when he came to
visit. He’d not thought much of her rings after their first time
together but he noticed them and he didn’t like her wearing them.
Never did. It might make him a dick, but he didn’t.

Now he liked that she’d be with him in bed
without them on which also might make him a dick but he didn’t give
a fuck.

Because now she really was all his.

She walked back to the bed and carefully slid
in, obviously still thinking he was asleep, she turned her back to
him and curled up her legs.

Cal rolled back to his side, his arm moved
out, hooked her around the stomach and he pulled her into his body,
feeling hers was tight.

“I’m awake, buddy,” he whispered into her
hair.

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought, while you were asleep, I’d –”

He cut her off, not about to make her say it.
“I know, honey.”

She was quiet.

Cal spoke. “You came awake hard, Vi.”

She stayed quiet then said, “Nightmare.”

“Sam?”

“Yeah,” she whispered and her body started
trembling.

Cal curled his arm tighter.

“Why is it harder in the dark?” Her voice was
shaking like her body when she spoke.

“Demons in the dark,” Joe replied.

“Yeah.”

She was quiet again and Cal held her until
the tremors subsided then she called, “Joe?”

“Yeah, buddy.”

“I miss him.”

His arm got tighter and he buried his face in
her hair. “I know you do.”

“Did you like him?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“He liked you,” she whispered, Cal’s arm
tensed then he forced himself to relax and she said, “Wish you
could have known him better.”

“If I did, figure I woulda liked him
better.”

“Yeah, you would.”

“Tell me about him, baby.”

She was silent then she asked, “Now?”

“It’ll beat back the demons.”

She again was quiet then she whispered,
“You’re right.”

Then she nestled her ass in his groin, slid
her arm along his and linked their fingers.

Then she talked about her brother, sometimes
laughing soft, sometimes crying softer and she did this, and Cal
listened to it, until she trailed off to sleep.

Cal held her tight even after she’d drifted
off then his fingers slid from hers but curled around until his
thumb found the naked base of her ring finger. It glided against
her skin then he set her hand against her stomach and sighed into
her hair, thinking, not for the first time, he really fucking liked
the smell of Vi’s hair.

Then he fell asleep.

I’m Yours

I stood at the mirror in my bathroom gunking
up my hair.

I saw movement and turned to the right.

Joe was there and I watched him lean his
shoulder against the doorjamb, his eyes at my hands in my hair.

For some reason known only to Joe, he’d gone
with us to the mall back to school shopping and because of this, he
was wearing a shirt Kate and Keira had bought for him. It wasn’t
pink with flowers on it. It was black, tailored down his ribs, a
straight hem and he wore it untucked but you could still see his
heavy belt buckle which had caught at the bottom flap under the
buttons. It looked good on him, making his shoulders seem broader,
his midriff leaner, his hips narrower.

My girls had an eye.

His eyes came to mine and he said softly,
“They’re here.”

I pulled in both my lips.

“They’re here!” We heard Keira shout.

“Oh shit,” I whispered, Joe grinned, pushed
away from the jamb and came to me.

He positioned himself behind me and slid one
arm along my belly, one across my chest. He pulled me to his body,
dipped his head so his jaw was against my hair and he caught my
eyes in the mirror.

“Relax,” he said into my ear.

“Right,” I said back.

He kept grinning then he dropped his head,
kissed my neck, let me go and walked out of the bathroom.

Joe was quickly becoming accustomed to the
fact that his ordering me to relax didn’t mean I would and,
apparently, he was good with that.

I looked back at myself in the mirror and
took a deep breath.

Then I washed my hands in preparation to go
introduce my dead husband’s parents to the man who replaced their
son.

* * * * *

I couldn’t say the last week with Joe in the
house was uneventful.

It was eventful.

Very eventful.

First up was telling the girls.

* * * * *

They’d called the morning after Joe had moved
in, waking us both up.

Joe, closer to the phone, rolled away from me
and tagged it as I shook off sleep and rolled toward him.

“’
Lo?” his deep, rumbling,
sleepy
voice growled.

I blinked sleep away.

“Yeah, girl, she’s right here.”

Girl.

Shit! He’d answered the phone, sounding
asleep and told one of my daughters I was
right there.

Joe calmly offered the phone to me and I got
up on a hand and stared at it as if it had a mouth, that mouth was
open, baring fangs and it was going to bite.

“Baby, it’s Keira,” Joe murmured his prompt
and I blinked again then got up to sitting and snatched the phone
from his hand.

“Hi honey,” I said into it, trying not to
sound sleepy and worrying that I failed.

“Hey Mom,” Keira answered, sounding awake and
bouncy like always, not traumatized in a way that meant, sometime
in the future she’d enter a mall and mow down innocent bystanders
with a machine gun because her Mom’s new boyfriend answered the
phone first thing in the morning, sounding sleepy and definitely
being in bed with her mother. “We’re packed up and just about to
leave.”

“Okay, baby,” I said, curling my knees to my
chest and wrapping an arm around them. “You want anything special
when you get home?”

“A hot fudge sundae, your hot fudge,
Fulsham’s frozen custard,” she replied instantly and that was my
Keira, always knowing exactly what she wanted, how she wanted it
and not afraid to say it.

“I can do that,” I told her. “What about Kate
and… um… Dane?”

“Hang on a minute,” she said into my ear then
I heard her shouting to Dane and Kate as I looked at Joe who was
lying on his back, watching me talk to my daughter.