At Peace (68 page)

I watched as Gary came forward and clapped
Joe on the shoulder. “Saw that,” he muttered. “Liked it,” he went
on, looking at his wife not at Joe and my heart turned over with
happiness. Joe had Gary’s seal of approval or at least it was
heading that way. “Hon, could seriously use another cup,” he said
to Bea.

“Right, love,” Bea whispered and moved to the
kitchen, Theresa on her heels.

Joe was looking out the sliding glass doors,
seemingly oblivious to everything going on around him, his mind on
what was happening on the back deck. I walked to him, put my hands
on his chest and pressed him down in the armchair. He resisted but
not much, especially when I climbed into his lap once I got him
seated. Maybe sitting in his lap was a bit too much but I figured
since we’d already had a variety of dramas, the best way forward
was just to be ourselves.

If Bea and Gary didn’t like it, I couldn’t
help that.

Then again with all the dramas, I reckoned
they wouldn’t have any problem with it.

“We don’t eavesdrop,” I told him as his arms
came around me.

“Don’t have to, buddy.”

I cocked my head to the side. “We don’t?”

“Dane isn’t stupid. He’ll do right by Kate.
He doesn’t, Kate isn’t stupid. She’ll dump his ass,” he paused
before finishing, “again.”

I got closer to his face and whispered, “You
ready for at least four straight years of teenage girl boy
drama?”

Joe’s face shifted to tender then his eyes
moved to Keira and I saw humor light them.

Then he looked at me. “Keira’s up next so we
might need to talk to Doc about Valium.”

“You think you’ll need Valium?” I asked,
surprised.

“Was thinkin’ for you.”

“I’ll be all right.”

“Keirry’s a bit wild, baby.”

I got closer. “That’s okay, I’ve got you to
help me deal.”

The humor left his eyes and they went
intense. I held my breath because I was certain he was going to
kiss me and do it hard. I was certain of this because he’d looked
that way before, right when he kissed me and did it hard.

To stop Joe kissing me hard in front of
Gary and Bea (and Theresa), something I figured they
might
have a problem with (especially
the way Joe did it), I continued. “And to scare the bejeezus out of
any boy who gets ideas.”

Joe grinned at me right when we heard Gary
ask, “What in
the hell?
”

I looked in his direction. He’d moved to
stand at the back of the couch by Keira but he was looking out the
window.

“Granddad!” Keira shouted and jumped off the
couch as I stared through the window at my father walking along the
front of the house.

“
Oh my God,” I whispered, my body solid,
hoping my mother wasn’t with him and also wondering what was next.
The sky falling? The earth standing still? Perhaps a meteor would
crash into the Atlantic Ocean and a tidal wave would wash half of
the continental United States into the sea.

“What the fuck?” Joe muttered tersely but his
body was not solid. He was not thinking of meteors. His thoughts
were something else entirely.

He surged up, his arms still around me taking
me with him. He planted me on my feet, let me go and stalked to the
door.

By the time he got there, me hot on his
heels, Keira had it open and she was giving my father a big
hug.

“
It
is
a
family reunion!” she cried with excitement then asked, “Did you
bring Mel with you?” and she looked beyond my father out the door.
I noted she didn’t ask if Dad brought my Mom but instead she asked
after Mel. My girls weren’t big fans of my mother. No one was, of
course, since my Mom was a bitch. But Madeline Riley had been a
cold, hard, disapproving mother and she was no less of any of those
things as a grandmother – even not having been around very
often.

Joe came to stand behind Keira and the second
she cleared my father, his arm hooked around her chest and he
stepped back, taking Keira with him and not letting go. His eyes
were on my Dad and they were far from welcoming.

I moved to stand by them. “Dad, what’re you
doin’ here?”

Dad was looking at Joe then his eyes came
to me and I noticed belatedly that something wasn’t right about him
as in
really
not
right. He didn’t seem to process that Joe was looking unwelcoming
and pretty much no one but a blind person could ignore Joe’s
unwelcome look.

Therefore, I braced.

“Left your Mom,” Dad announced, straight
out.

“What?” I whispered.

“Fuck,” Joe muttered.

“What!” Keira shouted.

Dad yanked an agitated hand through his
hair, shaking his head from side to side, not even aware he had a
further audience than just Keira (who shouldn’t be hearing this),
Joe, (who he didn’t even know) and me (who didn’t
want
to hear this).

“
I… I can’t take it anymore, Vi. She… with
Sam… and when Tim…” His eyes shot to Joe then came back to me and I
watched as his face crumbled and he whispered, “Jesus, sweetie, I
lost
my
son.
” Then his hands
covered his face and he dissolved into shoulder shaking
sobs.

My heart right back in my throat threatening
to choke me, I moved forward and wrapped my arms around my
father.

“Dad,” I whispered.

“
I lost him, I lost Sam,” Dad moaned into
his hands, not taking them from his face. “And because of
her
I didn’t have you, I didn’t
have the girls, my boy was gone and I didn’t have
anything.
” His
head came up and his watery eyes caught mine. “You kids, both of
you, living with that woman, you were my shining lights. The way
she was when you… with Tim…” His breath hitched. “Then you were
gone and my world dimmed but I still had Sam. Now I don’t have Sam
and you come to the funeral and you don’t even look at me and my
grandchildren are nearly grown and
I barely know them!
”

He ended on a shout and ripped out of my
arms.

“
Dad,” I muttered, trying to get close
again but he took two angry steps into the house and turned with a
jerk to face me.

“
This morning she found out about the
money, that money I gave Sam to give to you and she went
berserk,
” Dad
yelled. “Sam’s dead not even a month and she finds out I gave you
and the girls a little something and she acted like I sold State
secrets!”

“Dad,” I put a hand to his arm but he
shrugged it off and walked further into the house then started
pacing.

“
Who does that?” he shouted. “Her son is
dead and what? What’s important to her? How obvious could it be
that you’d made the right decision just at the wrong time? Tim was
a good kid, he became a good man. He took care of you, the girls.
How much proof did she need that she was wrong and you were right?
How hard is it, when what lies in the balance is something you
love, to admit you’re wrong? How much more proof does she need that
life’s too damn short to be such a ridiculous, screaming
bitch!
”

“Pete,” Joe said coming close to me but Dad
stopped pacing and glared at him.

“
And you! Who
are
you?” Dad bellowed, throwing an arm in Joe’s
direction.

I heard the sliding glass door open but
couldn’t tear my eyes away from what was happening in front of
me.

Keira burrowed into Joe’s side as she
answered, “Granddad, he’s Joe.”

“
I know he’s
Joe
, sweetie,” Dad yelled at Keira and at my father’s angry
words aimed at her, Keira burrowed closer to Joe and when she did I
watched with no small amount of concern as Joe’s face went so hard
it looked carved from stone but Dad was on a tear and he kept
talking. “My daughter has a new man in her life and all I know is
that he’s
Joe.
” Dad looked
at Joe and demanded to know. “Where do you come from? What do you
do? How did you meet? Can you provide for my daughter? Can you take
care of her? Protect her? Protect my grandchildren? The only
ones
I’ll
ever have!
” He was
shouting when he was done and Kate, in from outside, edged around
him and pressed into my side as he did it.

I put my arm around my daughter and opened my
mouth to speak but Joe got there before me.

“
I appreciate this is an intense time for
you, Pete, but you do not come into this house and shout, not in
front of the girls and definitely not
at
the girls. Not during an intense time, not…
fucking…
ever.
” Joe still
had Keira at his side, his arm was around her and he was holding
her close but he was leaning threateningly toward my father. “You
need to go somewhere and pull yourself together and you need to do
it now or you’ll find yourself not in this house. Do you get
me?”

Dad stared at Joe, tardily realizing that he
should have paid closer attention and I opened my mouth to speak
again but Vinnie was there.

“
Pete?” he asked, his hand on my father’s
back, “I’m Vinnie, Cal’s uncle. Let’s you and me take a
walk.”

Dad looked at Vinnie in confusion as Vinnie
pushed him toward the door, Dad resisted (but feebly) and Kate and
I moved to the side to let them pass.

“Who’s Cal?” Dad asked, looking around, his
face having lost its anger, he was now full on perplexed with a
little hint of lost mixed in.

“I’ll explain on the walk,” Vinnie muttered,
opened the front door and shoved my father through it before he
could utter another sound then he shut the door and I watched him
half-push, half-guide Dad down the walk.

I looked at Joe who still had Keira tucked
close to his side. “Can we call Doc now?” I asked then in an effort
to lighten the mood went on to joke. “I could use that Valium and,
maybe, a shot of tequila.”

Joe’s eyes sliced to mine. I noted that he
didn’t look amused, Kate giggled nervously and Joe’s eyes moved to
her.

“Dane’s shit sorted?” he asked in an almost
bark.

Kate didn’t even flinch before she replied
quietly, “He burned her phone number.”

“He know he does that shit again I’ll break
his neck?” Joe went on.

“Joe!” I snapped and this time Keira giggled,
not nervously at all.

“I kinda alluded to that,” Kate answered on a
grin.

Now it was me who was not amused.

“Joe, I’m not gonna say it again. Stop
threatening to break Dane’s neck!” I snapped again.

Joe looked at me. “All right, buddy, there’s
a next time he acts like an ass, I’ll threaten to rip his head
off.”

“Joe!” I cried angrily.

Joe ignored me and looked back at Kate.
“Where is he?”

“
He left. I asked him to go home so we
could have our family drama and he wouldn’t know we were all crazy,
change his mind and want to break up with
me
,” Kate replied.

Joe’s arm curled Keira in an even closer
sideways hug. “Thinkin’, girl, he already gets that.”

“Yeah, that cat’s outta the bag,” Keira
agreed, her arm snaking around Joe’s middle to hold on and Kate
laughed.

But I didn’t.

Bea, Gary, Theresa and Vinnie were there,
as was my father who had left my mother, at long last, but this was
still a shock. My father had also shouted at Joe
and
Keira. Before that emotional
scene we’d had another emotional scene which necessitated a timeout
where we all cuddled in bed with Joe which was, frankly, a weird
thing to do no matter how natural it felt. My eldest daughter was
taking relationship advice from my boyfriend who wasn’t all that
great with relationships or at least it took him awhile to come
around. And both my daughters were acting like my live-in boyfriend
of one week had been around for the last year.

“I need to go to the liquor store,” I
announced.

“Buddy –” Joe started to say, his lips
curving into a grin.

“No, we have wine and we have beer but we
don’t have tequila. I need tequila.”

“Vi, baby, it’s not even noon.” Joe said.

“I need tequila.”

“Relax.”

“I need tequila.”

“Honey, relax.”

“I need tequila!”

Joe’s hand whipped out, tagged me at the neck
and I fell face forward into his chest. As I had my arm around
Kate, she came with me so we ended in a four person huddle.

I pulled my face out of Joe’s chest and
looked up at him.

“Tequila,” I muttered and I heard Keira and
Kate giggle.

“
Baby,” Joe muttered back and touched his
mouth to mine before he finished, “relax.”

I was about to explain, again, that Joe
telling me to relax didn’t mean I’d do it when I felt a presence
and I turned my head to see, shockingly, Bea had come close.

“Vi, sweetie, I’ll make my sangria later. We
can have it with dinner. How does that sound?” Bea asked.

Bea’s sangria was brilliant. Way better than
her chocolate cream pie.

And Bea getting close to our huddle even
though she still looked timid, she nevertheless was close, was the
best.

“We’ll go to the grocery store when we get
school supplies,” I said to Bea.

“Perfect,” Bea replied quietly then she
smiled at me.

Then I watched as she smiled at Joe.

It was then I relaxed.

* * * * *

Storms in the Midwest, bad ones, had a way of
announcing their arrival well before they arrived. You could feel
them and you could see them as the air went still and took on what
I could swear was a tinge of yellow. You could even smell them.