At Peace (69 page)

Considering the emotional start to the day,
the emotional months that had preceded it and the fact that it
looked and smelled like there was going to be a storm, a bad one,
maybe even one that heralded a tornado (tornados being something
that scared me shitless), it maybe wasn’t so surprising when I lost
it on the sidewalk outside the store.

See, making matters worse, I’d had nothing
but a corn dog and a Slurpee for lunch and I was starving. Further,
I saw the lightning and heard the far away thunder. The time
between lightning flashes and thunder rolls was dwindling, the
storm was fast approaching and I was getting antsy because I didn’t
want to be at a strip mall, a veritable magnet for tornado activity
(in my storm fevered imagination). I wanted to be home.

What made matters even worse was Dad, Gary
and Uncle Vinnie decided to come with us and Joe came along too,
likely to play his self-appointed role of emotional bodyguard. I
was very aware of the facts that Dad and Gary weren’t the best of
friends; Bea was still stinging from had happened nearly two
decades ago with Mom and Dad was a stark reminder of that; Dad
wasn’t Joe’s favorite person at that moment; the girls were with a
bunch of people they loved, their favorite thing in the
world
and
in full on
shopping mode, their second favorite thing in the world and
something which nothing penetrated, even if they were only buying
notebooks and pens; and I was a walking emotional zombie, barely
holding it together. Therefore, Vinnie and Theresa were working
triple time to keep our troop from descending into
madness.

That said, Vinnie and Theresa, just being
Vinnie and Theresa, weren’t the best choices for this job
considering they were naturally pretty bonkers.

Even so, we were somehow making it through
the day. We’d been to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for
sangria, it was closing in on Sangria Time and I’d started to count
down the minutes.

After the grocery store, the girls got their
stuff and they’d scored huge what with Gary and Bea, Vinnie and
Theresa, Dad, and lastly Joe vying to spoil them rotten so they had
enough school supplies to last them until they were eighty. They
also had new CDs by their favorite bands (Joe’s contribution though
he flatly refused in a teasing way to buy Keira any boy band music
to which Dad stepped in, thinking he was doing something good, and
bought them which ticked Joe off for reasons only known to Joe and
Keira had to play peacemaker). They also had new brushes, combs,
shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, makeup and enough hair
accessories to service the entire freshman class (Theresa’s
contribution on a smile and a vague “All girls need a little… you
know,” when I tried to intervene).

Joe was loading their multitude of bags in
the trunk of the Mustang while both girls were close, gabbing at
Joe. Dad was trying to help at the same time looking like he was
going to burst into tears. Vinnie was trying to distract Dad and
failing which meant Dad was getting in Joe’s way. Gary, Theresa and
Bea were down the sidewalk looking into the windows of the bakery,
Theresa exclaiming loudly, “They have no cannoli!” to which Bea
nervously giggled. And I was standing alone and slightly removed
from the rest of them.

This made me the bizarre target for a
beautiful blonde who walked right up to me and started
speaking.

“Rumor’s true. You broke him,” she said, her
eyes on Joe who was grinning down at Keira and ignoring Dad as he
slammed the trunk of the Mustang.

I turned my head to look at her, seeing
firstly that she was beautiful and secondly that she had bitch
written all over her.

“Sorry?” I asked.

“
Cal,” she tipped her head toward Joe but
kept her eyes on me, “you broke him.”

“What?” I asked.

“Tina told me,” she went on and I felt liquid
steel injected into my spine at the mention of Tina’s name. “I had
a taste of him,” she shared, smiled and the way she did it I knew I
was right. Total bitch. “Delicious,” she finished.

I turned fully to her.

“Who are you?”

“Susie Shepherd,” she answered. I vaguely
knew her name from somewhere but I didn’t have time to figure out
where since I was focusing on her smile getting bitchier, this
didn’t give me a good feeling and I’d shortly find out why it was
doing that. “You’re done with Mike, you won’t mind I have a
go?”

That steel in my spine solidified.

“Are you kidding me?” I whispered.

“
Or, my preference, you get done with Cal,
I’d like another taste. More accurately, I’d like to give
him
another one.”

“You’re kidding me,” I whispered
hopefully.

She leaned in, dashing my hopes. “Best head I
ever had. Cal works miracles with his tongue, sheer talent. He made
me come so hard, I thought for a second I died and I didn’t mind
one fucking bit.”

I leaned in too and hissed, “My daughters are
five feet away.”

She leaned slightly back. “No worries. They
get a bit older, he’ll do them too. They got something to look
forward to.”

“
What?
” I shrieked and she grinned a catty
grin.

“Nails everything in town, don’t you know?”
she informed me. “We’re all just wondering when he’ll get done
playin’ with you.”

“Susie –” I heard Joe say, his voice sounding
supremely scary, even scarier than a very scary Joe could sound but
I’d had enough.

I was done.

There was a huge clap of thunder that
rumbled through the air like a physical thing and this was
accompanied by a streak of bright lightning.

The storm was there. The heavens opened and
the rain poured down.

This all drowned out my scream as I took
Susie Shepherd down right there on the sidewalk.

I found quickly that she’d grown up without
brothers because she fought like a girl which was why I was able to
start beating the crap out of her.

That was until Joe pulled me off of her, set
me on my feet, wrapped an arm around my chest, one around my ribs
and backed us away several steps all the while I struggled in his
hold.

“Get the girls in the car.” Joe ground
out.

“Cal –” Vinnie said.

“
Car! Now!
” Joe barked and this time it was an
actual bark. “Get them outta here!”

“Mom, you okay?” Kate asked with worry in her
tone.

I was so out of it, Kate’s tone didn’t
register as I was still struggling to get at Susie Shepherd, a
woman I did not know but I didn’t care. I was going to rip all her
now sodden golden tresses out by the roots.

“
You
bitch!
”
I shrieked.

She was pulling herself to her feet and
wiping blood from her lip. She looked at the blood mixed with
raindrops on her hand then she stared at me.

“You busted my lip!” she squealed.

“I’m gonna bust more than that!” I screamed
then demanded, “Joe, let me go!”

“
Come on, girls,” I heard Dad say, “get in
Vinnie’s car.”

“Mom –” Keira called.

“Car, Keirry, sweetie. Please.” Bea said.

“I’m gonna sue!” Susie shouted.

Joe was trying to move me toward the car but
was having trouble since I was fighting like a she-cat to get at
Susie. Fighting so hard even big Joe Callahan couldn’t subdue
me.

“If you’re gonna sue then I best give you
something good to sue me for!” I threatened.

“Cal, everything all right here?” a man
asked, running up and holding a jacket over his very blond head and
I saw it was Chip Judd, the man who put in my security system and
screwed up the wiring so Joe had to fix it.

“
You let
her
break you?” Susie asked Joe, ignoring Chip and pointing a
finger at me. “
Her?
” she
repeated, her voice filled with disgust, her mascara melting down
her face and another rumble of thunder filled the air accompanied
by a flash of lightning.

“Vi, quit fightin’, get in the car,” Joe
muttered in my ear.

“You once were magnificent. You’re nothin’
now. The whole town’s talkin’ about it,” Susie insanely taunted
Joe.

“Shut your mouth, Susie Shepherd,” a woman
with long dark hair and a fabulous figure (and I knew this because
her sundress was plastered to her body by the rain and the wind
which had sprung up and was lashing all around us) rushed forward
to stand by Chip. “No one’s talkin’ that trash but you and Tina.”
The brunette turned to Joe and me. “We’re all real happy for you
Cal.”

There you go. Explanation of why everyone
kept staring at us and mostly Joe.

“Josie, do me favor, babe, don’t get
involved,” Chip said to the woman.

“
Like she’ll listen to you,” Susie’s voice
was dripping with derision, “you’re so pussy whipped you’re not
even a man.”

Acting on manly instinct at such a slur
uttered at one of his brethren, Joe stopped moving. Chip pulled
himself up to his full height which was pretty tall and he dropped
his arms and the jacket but it was Josie who acted.

“
You
bitch!
”
she shrieked, lunged forward and shoved Susie in the chest causing
Susie to step back on her foot. “Don’t you talk about my man that
way.”

“Don’t you touch me!” Susie shrieked
back.

“Susie, get gone,” Joe warned.

“Fuck you, Joe Callahan!” Susie snapped.

“You wish!” Josie yelled. “Everyone knows you
tried to get in there and nothin’ goin’. Now everyone knows you and
Tina are talkin’ trash about Cal and Violet because you made your
play and he didn’t like what he got when he had his piece of you so
he threw it away and Tina’s been livin’ by him yonks and couldn’t
catch his eye.” She looked at me. “Can’t deny, we’re all real
curious, the whole town is, but it don’t take a psychiatrist to see
you’re hot, Cal’s hot, hot attracts hot so, you know, hot moves in
next door, shit’s gonna happen.”

I’d stopped struggling because I was staring
at Josie and now trying not to giggle as I got the rest of why
everyone kept staring at Joe, me and the girls and I found it
didn’t annoy me anymore. It would hit me much later that Susie
Shepherd was one of Joe’s ex-lovers but when it did, it didn’t hit
me hard. She was gorgeous for one so that explained that. She was a
bitch for another and that explained why Joe took what he wanted
and then didn’t come back for more. Therefore it wasn’t worth
discussion, something which I decided Joe and I would never have
and we never did.

“
Um…” I started, “you know me but I
don’t…”

“
Josie Judd,” she said, coming forward
seemingly impervious to the rain, hand extended, “Chip’s my
husband.” I shook her hand and shoved wet hair out of my face while
blinking against the fat drops of rain hitting my eyes as she
stepped back and kept talking. “Sorry Chip fucked up your wiring.
He tried real hard to figure that shit out, spent all night goin’
over Cal’s plans but Cal’s a security genius. My Chip, he’s good
but he isn’t a genius or I’d be livin’ in LA gettin’ a pedicure
every week.”

“Oh, please, this is gonna make me sick,”
Susie griped and Josie whirled on her.

“
Then go away and by the way,” Josie said,
“Chip likes my pussy but it’s my mouth he loves and that’s
because
I
love his big,
gorgeous
dick.
You stop
bein’ such a bitch, Susie, and use your mouth for good not bad, you
might get a man with a beautiful dick who’ll give you some on a
regular basis instead of runnin’ as fast as they can to get away
from you. Only man you could hold onto was Colt and he was only
fuckin’ you ‘cause you reminded him of Feb.”

“Oh Jesus,” Chip mumbled.

I was thinking this was a lot of
information most of which I didn’t want to know but I
really
didn’t want my daughters to
know it.

I twisted my neck slightly and whispered over
the wind to Joe, “Please tell me my daughters are no longer
here.”

“Gone, buddy,” Joe muttered and he didn’t
sound pissed, he sounded like he wanted to laugh.

“Bea?” I asked.

“Gone,” Joe answered.

“Thank God,” I murmured.

“
He likes your
trashy
mouth,” Susie shot back, my eyes turned to see she
looked fit to be tied but she was also not stupid enough to go so
far as to make it get physical again. She’d learned that lesson
twice in the last five minutes. Now she was just trying to save
face.

“
Only one’s got a trashy mouth is you,
Susie Shepherd,” Josie retorted and put a hand to her hitched hip
and threw out a foot and I tensed because this stance boded bad
tidings in Catfight Land. Josie didn’t seem at all fazed by the
fact that it was pouring buckets and the wind was whipping her hair
and dress all around, she was in the zone. “I don’t know what you
said to Violet to make her take you down like that but I do know
you better watch your ass. You got enemies and we’re not talkin’
enemies like Denny Lowe. We’re talkin’
women
who are up to
here,
” she lifted a straightened out hand to her chin and
continued, “with your and Tina’s shit and we ain’t takin’ it
anymore.”

She’d mentioned Dennis Lowe, the serial
killer that made Feb and Colt’s life a living hell and that was
when I knew who Susie Shepherd was. I’d read about her in the
articles about that whole mess. At the end, Dennis Lowe had held
her hostage and shot her.

This shocked me. Something like that happened
to me, I would likely not be wandering strip malls, randomly
picking fights with my ex-lover’s girlfriends. Hell, I’d never do
that.