For A Good Time, Call... (29 page)

“What
kind of fetishists?” Shane asked, smirking.

“Panty
sniffers.”

Helen
was the first to laugh. “Oh, Fiona,” she said, putting an
arm through mine. “I think you and I are going to get along
perfectly. Why don't we take a little walk? Get away from all these
men for a while...”

“Sounds
good,” I said, letting her lead me away, out the side door and
into the back lot where there were a few old picnic tables. “So,
Fiona,” she said, letting my arm go.

“Is
this the part where you ask me my intentions toward your son?”
I asked, climbing up on the top of the picnic table. “It would
be only fitting. My brother attempted to do the same kind of thing.”

“Actually,
no,” she said, sitting down next to me. “I am more
curious about why you are here.”

“To...
meet all of you?” I said, turning my head to look at her.

“Right,”
she agreed, looking off toward the bar. “But why? I'm sure Hunt
told you what he was running from... what happened when Shane brought
him back.”

“Yeah,”
I agreed. “Did Hunter tell you about my family?”

“Yeah,
honey,” she said and I fought the urge to tell her not to feel
sorry for me.

“Well...
you guys might not be perfect, but I think you all really care about
each other. I just... I don't know. I wanted him to keep in touch
with you. And I wanted to meet you myself.”

“For
any particular reason?” she asked and I had the feeling she
knew what I was getting at. Even though that was impossible.

“Yeah,”
I said, smiling at her. “I just needed to make sure first.”

“So
we passed the test?”

“So
far, so good,” I agreed.

“What
is the plan from here?” she asked.

–

“This
is your place?” I asked as we climbed the steep stairs up the
side of my building. Anyone below could see right up my skirt. I
tried not to focus too hard on that fact as my heels kept getting
stuck in the grates.

“Yeah,”
he said, opening the door and flicking the light on.

“It's
very... you,” I said, looking around. If things worked out like
I planned, we would be spending quite a bit of time here.

“You're...
off,” Hunter said, dropping my luggage off next to the
bookshelves. “Everything alright? We can leave if you need to.”

“No,
actually,” I said, turning back to him. “I want to talk
to you about something.”

“Alright,”
he said, looking terrified. “What's up, Fee?”

I
walked over toward his table and sat down, resting my arms on the
top. “I have an idea.”

“Spit
it out, baby. You're killing me here,” he said, resting his
hands on the back of the chair across from me.

“Well,
first. Let me ask you something. Why are you in the city?”

“That's
a stupid question,” he said, rolling his eyes. “For you.”

“No
other reason?”

“No.”

“Okay.
So if... I didn't want to live in the city anymore...”

“We
can go anywhere you want to go, baby.”

“Good,”
I said, looking around his apartment. Soon to be our apartment. “I
want to move here.”

“What?”
he asked, looking down at me like I had just said the most ridiculous
thing he had ever heard.

“I
want to move here. I want to leave the city and come here. Be by your
family. You can open a tattoo shop. I can open... something to keep
me busy.”

“Are
you crazy?” he asked, laughing humorlessly and sitting down.

“Maybe,”
I smiled, shrugging. “Look, Hunter... I don't have much family
left. You have this huge gaggle of people here who love you and want
you to do well...”

“Fee,
have you forgotten that they beat people up for a living?”

“I
sell my dirty underwear for money I don't need,” I laughed.
“None of us are saints, Hunter.”

A
part of me had expected him to jump at the opportunity. Now that he
didn't have to work with them, I figured he would want to be around
them in his more independent capacity. And yet he was acting as if I
had suggested we go live in my old childhood home.

“Have
you really given this thought?” he asked after a few minutes.

“Yeah,”
I said, getting up and wrapping my arms around him. “I talked
to your mom about it too.”

“What?”
he asked, his brows drawing together.

“Well
I needed to work some things out logistically. You'll keep a
thirty-percent share of the liquor store. And your tattoo shop will
be completely your own thing. They wont have any part in that. We can
live here for a while,” I said, gesturing out into the
apartment. “Until we decide on something more... house-like.”

“A
house, huh?” he asked, wrapping his arms around my ass. “You
feeling an urge to nest, Sixteen?”

“I
did sort of promise your father a grand baby.”

“Oh,
did you now?” Hunter smiled, leaning down to plant a kiss on my
lips.

“Mmmhmm,”
I said, resting my face against his chest. “I told him to give
us a couple years.”

“Good
plan,” he said, squeezing my ass. “But you know...”

“Hmm?”

“We
really should probably practice making one. Just so when we are
ready, we do it right.”

I
smiled, tilting my head up to him. “That's probably for the
best.”

“I
love you, Fee,” he said and my insides did a little flip-flop.
I hoped I never got used to hearing that.

“I
love you too, Hunter.”

Epilogue

I
walked into Chaz's bar with an arm full of take-out food and a
bursting baby bag. All of the Mallick men were congregating in a
circle on the floor around a little black-haired, green-eyed two year
old. Her hair was braided down the back even though I had left it
wild when I had dropped her off. I wondered which one of the huge,
hulking men had fumbled with her delicate baby hair to get it so
perfect.

Becca
sat in the center of their little circle in her bright pink sundress
with her little plastic tea set all around her. She had all the
Mallick men eating out of the palm of her pudgy hand and she knew it.

“Mama!”
she yelled, pushing herself up off the floor and rushing over toward
me, toppling forward and all five of the men yelped and lunged to try
to break her fall.

“She's
fine,” I said, shaking my head at them. “You cant protect
her from every scrape and bruise.”

“Hell
we cant!” Shane insisted, scooping her up off the floor and
booping her nose.

“Help
me out here, Helen,” I said, looking over at her as she walked
up, shaking her head.

“Girl,
give it up. This is the first Mallick girl in five generations. She's
going to be spoiled rotten.”

“One
of you needs to find yourself a girl,” I said, trading Shane
the food for my daughter. “and make some new babies for this
family to fawn over.”

“Hey
she's two now,” Hunter's dad said, nodding his head at me. “I
think it's time for her to get a little brother or sister.”

I
laughed, rubbing a smudge of purple icing off her cheek. Someone had
given her sweets before dinner. Again. There really was no talking to
them. “Daddy?” she asked.

“He's
coming from work,” I said, putting her down and patting her
bottom as she took off toward the closest of her uncles.

I
stood back and watched my new family mull around, Helen taking the
food out of the to-go bags and piling it on the table. Shane and Eli
were grabbing beers. Mark was talking to his father. And Ryan was
tossing Becca up and down in the air above his head, making her
shriek and giggle.

It
was hard to believe that just over three years ago, I was living in
the city, alone. Afraid to get too close to anyone. Still completely
consumed by my past. Cutting into my skin. Drinking myself silly
every night. And that was okay. At the time, that seemed like the
best I could get. And, coming from what I came from, it was pretty
damn good.

Sometimes
it's crazy how much can change when just one thing changes.

Hunter.
Hunter came into my life and changed everything.

As
if I had called him, he came in through the door, moving beside me
and wrapping an arm around my waist. We stood there silently a long
time, watching everyone.

Just
over three years ago, Hunter was running like hell away from these
people. And yet here we were: all together. One big, happy, crazy,
dysfunctional family of loan sharks, and phone sex operators, and
tattoo artists.

“Daddy!”
Becca yelled, trying to wiggle down out of Ryan's arms and he fumbled
to catch her as she started to fall. That was my daughter, completely
unconcerned with danger and consequences.

Next
to me, Hunter stooped down and grabbed her, settling her on his hip
and leaning back into me.

“Funny
how things change, isn't it?” I asked him, laying my head on
his shoulder.

Who
would have thought that fucked up little Fiona Meyers would have a
family and a husband and a perfect little baby? All those years that
I had believed in my uselessness, my brokenness... all those years I
punished myself for things that had been out of my control. All those
years of pain and misery so deep I could fucking swim in it. All of
that had somehow led me to this.

I
still had my phone sex business. But I wasn't the one taking calls
anymore. No, I had an office in town with little cubicles and I
employed other women who needed a leg up in life. I trained them. I
offered them the tricks of the trade. I paid them well. I helped them
up on my feet because it would have been nice to have had that help
when I was struggling on the streets. When I had no where to turn.
Maybe it wasn't the kind of community service the bible and the
church suggests we should do to help our neighbors, but it was doing
good. It was giving back for all the amazing things I had gotten out
of my life.

Hunter
worked in his tattoo shop, kept busy with all the biker traffic and
his own brothers as well as a fair clientele of his own. He was happy
there, his little tattoo gun buzzing in his hands. He did one weekend
a month of free tattoos to cover scars. It was a tribute to me and
the tattoo he had given me to hide the “wicked” I had
been living with for fourteen years. We had spent endless hours
looking at images online, trying to find the right cover up.
Eventually we had decided on a floral and vine design that wrapped
around my body, dipping low down toward my groan then up toward my
hipbones and around my lower back. Like panties. Like super fancy
underwear.

I
thought it had a fun sort of irony.

“I
wanna see Pop Pop,” Becca grumbled and Hunter put her down on
the ground.

I
watched her barrel away. Our little energizer bunny. Always on the
run.

“Hey,
Fourteen,” I said, wrapping my arms around him.

“Yeah,
Sixteen?” he said, burying his face in the hair at my neck. We
were good at this. We were so good at being in love it made me sick.
Even after years. Even after a baby that sucked all of our energy.
Even bone deep exhausted, we loved so deeply it was almost painful.

“You
know that spare room of ours?” I started, smiling because he
couldn't see me.

“Yeah?”

“I
think it's time to get some new furniture for it.”

“Okay...”
he said, sounding confused.

“Yeah,”
I said, pulling back slightly so I could look in his face. “You
have about... eight more months to build a nice nursery set.”

He
stared at me uncomprehending for a moment before breaking into a
huge, dopey smile. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,”
I smiled back. I had known the next morning. Like I had with Becca.
The morning after brought on a wave of nausea that could only be
explained by one medical condition. I waited to tell him, just to
make sure. Just in case. But five weeks in, there was no denying it.
I was gonna be a big fat pregnant lady again.

Hunter
leaned forward and kissed me until my toes tingled, then squeezed me
tight, lifting me up off my feet. “That's great, Fee. You're
amazing.”

“Daddy
is kissing Mommy,” Becca declared, her baby voice high pitched
and everyone turned to look.

“Damn
straight,” Charlie nodded, planting a kiss on Helen's cheek.

“Pop
Pop said damn,” Becca yelled and everyone laughed.

It
really was too much to ask in this family to have a kid that didn't
repeat cuss words. If I could keep the word 'fuck' out of her mouth
until she was at least fourteen, it would be a miracle.

“I
think Mommy and Daddy have something they want to tell all of us,”
Helen announced, looking at me with knowing eyes. The woman was
downright freaky with how she knew things sometimes. Maybe it was
just because she herself had been pregnant five times. Maybe she
picked up on how green I looked some mornings. On how my nose spread
ever so slightly. She was the kind of person who would pick up on
small things like that.