At Peace

Chapter Eighteen Pie

I exited the bedroom to see Joe coming toward me, his manner was urgent and there was a strange light to his eyes and set to his mouth. I wasn’t sure but I could swear he looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or shout.

He opened his mouth to speak but before he made a noise, Keira shrieked, her voice chock full of pure glee, “Mom! You won’t believe this! Uncle Vinnie and Aunt Theresa are here too!”

I stopped walking and Joe stopped in front of me so close we were toe-to-toe. I tipped my head back to look at him and I could actually feel my eyeballs bugging out of their sockets.

“Cool!” Kate yelled and I heard her scrambling toward the door, following, I knew because I heard her shouts outside, Keira.

Then I heard the door close. Then I heard both the girls shouting outside.

The mingling of family wasn’t supposed to happen, not now, not until Joe and I were having, say, our peony festooned engagement dinner somewhere fancy and close to water (I was thirty-five and this was the second time around but that didn’t mean I didn’t have fantasies), when Bea was comfortable with Joe; Theresa and Vinnie could be briefed about Bea’s delicate disposition; and the situation could be contained.

“Joe –” I whispered and his hand came to my neck.

“Relax.”

“Bea’s shy.”

“Buddy, relax.”

“She spooks easy and Theresa and Vinnie are –”

He dipped his head and kissed me lightly.

When he was done, he asked, “Baby, what’d I say?”

I stared into his blue eyes.

Then I nodded.

His hand slid from my neck to around my shoulders and he walked me through the study, the living room and out the door.

The vision that assaulted us was Kate, Keira and Mooch jumping around Bea, Gary, Uncle Vinnie and Aunt Theresa, Mooch yapping, the girls giving exuberant hugs and kisses.

Then Kate stopped and grabbed Bea’s hand, introducing, “Gram, Gramps, this is Uncle Vinnie and Aunt Theresa, Joe’s folks. They’re awesome!”

Bea started to take a step back but Kate, knowing how her grandmother was, clutched her hand and she got close as Gary’s arm went around Bea’s waist.

“Yeah, they’re awesome!” Keira concurred, her arm around Vinnie, her smile so big, it had to hurt her face.

“This is great, isn’t it Mawdy?” Kate called to me, “like, most of the whole family together.”

“Yeah,” Keira agreed. “All we need is Mel, Benny and Manny and it’d be like a family reunion.”

Theresa and Vinnie were beaming. Gary looked confused. Bea looked scared out of her brain.

One thing was good, the girls were thrilled and I liked it that they already thought of Joe’s family as theirs. I thought it was a little weird, we’d only met them once, but I liked it.

The rest of it was bad.

I disengaged from Joe and walked forward as Kate announced to Theresa and Vinnie, “We so have to do that!”

Oh Lord.

I ignored the reunion planning and went to Bea first. “Hey Bea.”

Kate and Gary let her go and Bea walked into my arms. I gave her a hug and she gave me one back. When she did, I forgot the current drama and felt Tim’s Mom’s arms around me. They’d been around me before, hundreds of times through laughter, through tears and just because. My eyes stung as the memories assailed me and I pulled her closer.

“Honey,” she whispered.

“I’m okay,” I whispered back but my voice was hoarse.

I didn’t let her go and shoved my face in her neck, smelling her perfume, the same scent she wore since forever, and the tears spilled over.

“Oh, my precious girl,” Bea murmured.

“Missed you so much,” I choked.

“Me too, sweetie.”

I pulled my head away and looked at her to see tears in her eyes and I shook my head and laughed, not because it was funny, just because it was so us.

“We’re the pair, aren’t we?” I asked.

She smiled at me and I felt Gary get close.

“Lemme have a bit of that,” Gary demanded, Bea let me go and turned me into Gary’s arms.

“Hey Dad,” I said into his ear.

“Hey there, my beautiful flower.”

His words, words he meant, words I liked, words said so often to me, made me choke again and I shoved my face in his neck. He held tight until I pulled in a steady breath then he let me go and turned us to the rest of the gang. Kate, Keira, Bea and even Theresa had wet eyes. Vinnie was studying his shoes. Joe’s eyes were on me.

Gary’s gaze went to Joe.

“This your new fella?” Gary asked, his voice studiously friendly.

Before I could answer, Keira did. “Yeah, Gramps, that’s Joe. He’s the bomb.”

Gary gave his granddaughter a small smile that I could see he didn’t fully commit to and then he let me go and offered his hand to Joe.

“Joe, I’m Gary.”

Joe took his hand and said, “Pleasure.”

They dropped hands and Gary looked Joe up and down. “Pam didn’t lie, you’re a big guy.”

“Yep,” Joe agreed and said nothing else for this was true, Joe was a big guy.

Gary turned and pulled Bea to his side. “My wife, Bea.”

Joe pulled me to his side as he dipped his chin to Bea and murmured, “Bea.”

“Am I gonna get a kiss or what?” Theresa demanded to know, getting impatient and butting in. Then she bustled up and grabbed Joe’s face, yanking it down to hers, kissing his cheek then his other cheek then back before letting him go and coming to me to do the same thing. When she jerked my head around I understood why Joe didn’t protest. She was jerking my head around, sure, but the affectionate way she did it felt good.

“Cal, son.” Vinnie shoved in, giving Joe a back pounding hug then he turned to me and whispered, “Cara mia,” then he gave me a tight hug, released me and turned to Bea and Gary and asked, “So, momentous occasion, you meetin’ your daughter’s new man.”

“Um… Vinnie,” I said, “these aren’t my parents. They’re Tim’s parents.”

“Tim?” Vinnie asked me.

“My husband,” Vinnie’s eyes got big and I finished quickly, “he died just under two years ago.”

I could swear Vinnie’s face grew knowing and he looked at Joe.

Before I could assess what Vinnie’s knowing look meant, Vinnie said, “Right,” clapped his hands and finished in a booming voice, including Bea and Gary in his announcement, “family’s family, always is, always will be, thank God. Now, I need coffee. We been on the road since six and road coffee is shit.” He leaned into Bea, who leaned back as he said, “Pardon my French.”

Theresa slapped him on the arm and snapped, “Vinnie, the girls. They don’t need to hear your foul mouth.”

“That’s okay, Aunt Theresa, Joe cusses all the time and he says much worse stuff, like the f-word and the c-word.” Keira, doing her best to make Vinnie and Theresa feel better, threw Joe right under the bus.

I groaned because Bea, nor Gary, would shine their light on Joe cursing in front of the girls. The f-word, Gary would accept on occasion, but not in front of the girls. Never Bea, she went to church every Sunday and taught Sunday school for thirty years. The c-word for both, never, ever. Tim didn’t shy away from swearing but he never did it in front of his Mom or the girls and I wasn’t certain I’d ever heard Tim use the c-word.

Joe slid his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. I looked up at him and he definitely looked like he was fighting back laughter now.

I couldn’t see what was funny.

Joe looked down at me, squeezed my shoulder and prompted, “Coffee, buddy.”

“Right,” I whispered, Joe turned me and we led the way to the house.

“Gram, this is my new dog, Mooch,” I heard Keira announce and then I heard Mooch yap his hello.

“He’s cute, honey,” Bea replied quietly.

We hit the house and the minute we did, Joe turned Dad.

“Keira, babe, show Theresa and Vinnie around. Katy, help your Mom with coffee. Yeah?” Joe ordered.

“Sure, Joe,” Kate smiled at him and skipped to the kitchen.

“No probs, big man,” Keira stated on a grin. She dropped Mooch and linked her arms with Vinnie and Theresa, tugging them through the living room into the hall.

I was staring at my youngest daughter, thinking, Big man?

Then I looked at Gary and Bea whose heads were swinging back at forth between the girls.

“Why don’t you guys sit?” I suggested. “Coffee’s fresh. Joe brewed a pot not ten minutes ago.”

Gary started then looked at me. “That’d be fine, Vi.”

Bea looked up at Gary. “I need to get my pie out of the cooler, hon.”

“Yeah,” Gary muttered, “right.”

“Pie?” Kate asked from the kitchen where she was taking down mugs.

“I, uh… made, um… Joe here a chocolate cream pie,” Bea answered shyly.

“Killer!” Kate shrieked then screamed, “Keirry, Gramma made Joe a chocolate cream pie!”

“No way!” Keira’s voice shouted from down the hall.

“Way!” Kate shouted back.

“Phenomenal!” Keira yelled.

I looked at Joe and explained, “Bea’s chocolate cream pie is really good.”

Joe’s mouth was twitching before he stated, “I’m gettin’ that.”

“I’ll go get it,” Gary muttered, his mouth also twitching which I hoped was a good sign.

I went to the kitchen. Joe moved to Bea.

“Sorry, Bea, didn’t know Vinnie and Theresa were comin’. You want, I’ll take ‘em somewhere, give you some time with Vi and the girls,” he offered, my stomach melted and Kate leaned into me, bumping me with her shoulder.

“I’m fine, Joe. It’ll be okay but… uh… thank you,” Bea said softly.

Joe wasn’t done. “They can get loud and in your business, it gets too much, just give me the sign, yeah?”

I was worried this was too honest. Being honest was, of course, Joe and it was also sweet but I didn’t want Bea to think I was telling tales out of school.

I held my breath and she looked up at him, not quite meeting his eyes then she lifted a hand. I thought she’d touch him but she dropped her hand and spoke.

“I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

“Right,” Joe muttered and Keira, Vinnie and Theresa came into the room, Keira playing tour guide.

“So this is the living room which comes complete with dining area and views of our sparkling kitchen which I cleaned.” She threw an arm out and sashayed around the room as if she was a paid model, showcasing a luxurious suite before she went on. “And next, you’ll see our fabulous study.”

Joe grinned at Keira, hooked her around the chest as she sashayed passed him and pulled her back to his front. Then he bent and kissed her hair. He let her go and she turned a radiant smile on him before sauntering into the study.

Bea watched him do this then her eyes came to me. I saw the sheen of tears but I also saw her smile.

I smiled back, thinking maybe it all would be okay and then I began to get down to the task of seeing to the coffee but before I could my eyes caught on Theresa.

She was staring at Joe, tears in her eyes too. She seemed locked in place even as Joe moved toward the kitchen, her eyes stayed glued to where he was when he kissed Keira.

“Aunt Theresa!” Keira called. “You’re missing the fabulous study!”

Theresa’s body jolted, her gaze moved swiftly to me then she looked away, swiping her fingers under eyes before turning toward the study.

“Can’t miss the fabulous study,” she called back, forced cheerfulness in her voice.

Vinnie gave her a look then he gave me a look then he gave Joe a look. When Theresa got close, he pulled her into his side. Keira strolled around the study, bringing their attention to the “top-notch, state-of-the-art computer system that Mr. Joe Callahan recently installed” (her words). As Keira spoke, Theresa put her head on Vinnie’s shoulder and I felt a lump of tears hit my throat.

My eyes moved to Bea who was studying these goings-on closely, her face thoughtful.

Joe got close to me and whispered, “First shock of it, baby, they’ll get used to it and it’ll all be good.”

I looked up at him and nodded. He touched his mouth to mine. Gary walked in with the pie.

“And now, Joe and Mom’s phenomenal boudoir!” Keira announced.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Joe grinned.

Theresa, Vinnie, Bea and Gary all looked at Joe and me.

Joe remained silent.

I resisted the urge to kick him and announced, “Um… by the way, Joe moved in last week.”

Kate came up beside Joe and me and unusually declared very publicly and with a drama that would make Keira proud, “Yeah, and thank God he did, seein’ as my ex-boyfriend, Dane, the Jerk, was a jerk and since Joe was here, he took me for a ride in his Bullitt car.” She looked at Bea and explained like she knew everything about the history of Ford Mustangs (which she might, who knew what she and Joe talked about when I wasn’t around). “That’s a 1968 Mustang GT, Gram,” then she went on to everyone, “and Joe told me that we Winters girls were the best women he’d ever met and if Dane didn’t get with the program he was gonna lose his chance because I shouldn’t put up with anything less than my man handin’ me the world.” This was okay, until she finished. “And, he said if Dane ever hurt me again, he’d break his neck!”

“Oh shit,” I muttered but before I could intervene, Keira skipped toward the living room and carried on with the storytelling.

“Yeah, and when our mean, nasty, loud neighbor bleached Mom’s yard with a dirty word, Joe and me fixed it and Joe said I was the best assistant he ever had and he’s gonna teach me security so I can install systems like he does for people like Nicole Bolton and Jarrod Francis.”

Kate looked at Joe and breathed, “You installed Nicole Bolton and Jarrod Francis’s systems?”

“Not Bolton, babe, but Francis, yeah,” Joe told her.

“Wow! Is he as hot as he is in the movies?” Kate asked.

Joe grinned. “Can’t make that call, Katy.”

Kate grinned back and suggested, “Maybe next time you do a job for him, you can take me along and I’ll let you know.”

Joe shook his head, still grinning then changed the subject. “You called Dane your ex.”

Kate’s grin faded and she said, “Yeah.”

“You make that decision?” Joe asked as if he and Kate didn’t have an audience of six.

“Yeah, last night,” Kate answered, also not concerned about her audience of six.

“You tell him?” Joe asked.

“Texted him,” Kate answered.

“He text back?” Joe went on.

“I turned my phone off,” Kate told him.

Joe wrapped his hand around her neck and stated proudly, “Good play, babe.”

“I can’t wait to get a boyfriend,” Keira sighed dreamily and I heard Bea laugh.

This startled me and my eyes went to Bea to see she was looking at Keira.

“Don’t grow up too fast, honey,” Bea said softly. “It’s not near as fun as it seems.”

“Dane’s hot, Joe’s hotter. I wanna be just like Mom and Kate, lassoing all the good ones in and wrapping them around my finger,” Keira replied ingenuously.

“Someone kill me,” I muttered and Joe burst out laughing, dropped his hand from Kate’s neck, turned to me and wrapped it around mine. Then he pulled me to him for a quick kiss.

Then he turned to Keira. “Finish the tour, Keirry.” His eyes went to Kate. “Get the pie from your grandfather.” Then he turned to the coffeepot and grabbed the handle.

The next ten minutes were spent with Keira finishing up her tour; Kate engaged in the impossible task of finding space in our fridge for the pie; Joe and me handing out coffees; me cutting up a coffee cake, putting it on a plate and setting it on the coffee table; and everyone settling in the living room.

Vinnie and Theresa sat on the couch, Gary with them. Bea sat in an armchair. The girls sat on the floor. Joe sat in the other armchair and I perched on the arm.

Everyone stared at everyone else and sipped their coffee.

Vinnie had eaten two pieces of coffee cake before I said, “Bea, the girls need to go to get their school supplies. We waited for you to get here because we thought you’d like to come with.”

“Yeah, we need notebooks and pens and rulers and stuff. You always came with us to get our school supplies,” Keira reminded her and Bea smiled at her granddaughter.

“That’d be just fine.” Then she pulled in a visible breath, her smile turned timid and looked at Theresa. “Theresa, would you, uh… like to come with us?”

Theresa glowed. “I’d love to.”

“Good,” Vinnie declared, “gives Cal and Gar and me a chance to do man stuff.”

I bit my upper lip, wondering how Gary would take to being nicknamed “Gar”, not to mention being sucked into “man stuff” with two men he didn’t know when he’d come down to see the girls and me.

“Like what?” Kate asked.

“Anything that doesn’t include shoppin’,” Vinnie answered and Kate giggled.

“You can look after Mooch,” Keira suggested, Mooch in her lap squirming to get out in order to lay waste to something. “He doesn’t like to be in his box much.”

“What kind of dog is that?” Gary asked his granddaughter.

“American Husky,” Keira answered and Gary’s eyes came to me then they went back to Keira.

“What else?” Gary asked and Keira tipped her head to the side.

“What else?”

“Yeah, he got anything else in him?”

“Nope, pure bred,” Keira replied proudly and Gary looked back at me.

“That’s luck, Vi, finding a pure bred puppy at the pound,” he commented, knowing I didn’t have the money to buy a pedigree dog.

“We didn’t get him at the pound. Keira’s friend’s dog had a litter. She fell in love with them so Joe bought him for her,” I blurted, not thinking, too freaked out by the morning to watch my words.

“What?” Kate and Keira asked in unison.

“Shit,” Joe muttered as my body tensed and I looked at my girls.

“Um…” I started.

“Joe bought him?” Keira asked and the look on her face was a look I’d never seen before on my daughter. She had a great number of expressions. Her face always spoke volumes most of which I was fluent in. This one I was not.

“Um…” I repeated trying to read her expression and Keira looked at Joe.

“You bought him?” she whispered.

“Vi,” Joe murmured on a prompt, clearly not wishing to wade in this time.

I made a split second decision and it was the same decision I almost always made with my girls. Complete honesty.

“I, honey… I didn’t have the money. I knew you wanted him really badly but I couldn’t afford him. I told Joe and he thought you should have a puppy so he gave me the money so you could get Mooch,” I admitted, wishing this wasn’t playing out there, in the living room with Tim’s folks and Joe’s folks looking on. In fact, wishing it wasn’t playing out at all.

Keira and Kate were both staring at Joe.

Then suddenly Keira surged up and I jumped at her movement then froze, wondering what she was going to do. Mooch yapped and ran away and I watched in stunned silence as Keira threw herself full body at Joe. She ended with her knees to the floor, her body between his legs, her torso in Joe’s lap, her face in his chest, her arms wrapped around him and, before I could open my mouth or even move, she burst into tears.

“I knew you were always lookin’ out for us,” she cried into his chest, “I knew it!”

That lump hit my throat again but it was so big this time, it choked me.

Joe’s hand dropped to Keira’s hair and he bent forward. “Baby, hey,” he whispered.

“I knew it!” she sobbed into his stomach.

What I knew was this wasn’t about Joe and the dog. This was about my sweet, crazy, strong, beautiful daughter losing her Dad and losing her uncle and living in a world that was uncertain, being afraid of that world and needing something to hold onto. They’d been strong a long time, both my girls had. And I was proud of them. But even the strongest person in the world needed something to hold onto.

And the man who bought you the dog you always wanted was the perfect choice.

Further, my daughters’ sudden connection with Aunt Theresa and Uncle Vinnie wasn’t weird. It was them grasping onto any family they could get as the bedrock of their own kept shifting. It was just pure luck that Joe provided such excellent additions.

When Keira kept sobbing into Joe’s chest, I blinked away my tears as Joe twisted and handed me his coffee mug then he put his hands in her pits and hauled her up into his lap.

“Keirry, honey, what’s this?” Joe whispered into her ear when he had her in his arms and she’d burrowed in closer. He, too, knew it wasn’t about the dog.

She yanked her head out of his neck, looked at him and demanded in a fierce tone, “Don’t ever go away, Joe.”

At my daughter’s words, I felt my breath choke me so hard I heard it too and that choking sound wasn’t just coming from me.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere, honey,” Joe replied gently.

“Promise!”

I hiccoughed with my effort to swallow back my tears and heard Kate’s small whimper in an effort to do the same.

“I promise,” Joe said, his tone just as fierce then he put an arm behind her knees and he straightened from the chair, Keira held to his chest.

I straightened too, murmuring, “Joe.”

“I got this, buddy.”

“Joe –”

“Got it,” Joe repeated and walked from the room down the hall.

I stood there, staring down the hall. Then I turned and stared at our group, seeing Bea and Theresa flat out crying. Gary and Vinnie were both looking at their laps. Vinnie had his arm around Theresa.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice sounding suffocated. Kate’s arm wrapped around my leg and she pressed in tight.

Bea got up and walked to me. Taking the mugs out of my hands, she said gently, “Nothing to be sorry for, Violet,” she gestured to a chair, “sit down, honey.”

I didn’t sit down. Instead, I bent down and pulled Kate up to her feet.

Then I told everyone, “Please, I’m sorry, we need a minute.”

“Anything you need,” Bea replied instantly.

I nodded, put my arm around Kate’s waist and led her down the hall to Keira’s room. Joe was in bed with a still crying Keira tucked into his side. His eyes came to us as we entered the room. Without hesitation, we all crawled into Keira’s double bed and curled into Joe.

It would be much later when I wondered why my girls and I did this and why it seemed so comfortable. Me, maybe, my girls, no.

And when I thought about it later, I would come to the conclusion that it just came natural because it was us and it was Joe.

In other words, the new us.

So when a situation became emotional, what else would we do?

After awhile, when the Winters girls got their shit together, I took my cheek from Joe’s shoulder and looked at his face.

“That didn’t go as planned,” I told him.

“Far’s I can see, buddy, it couldn’t have gone better,” Joe replied.

I looked at him and saw he believed what he was saying and his belief made me smile at him. Even so, my smile was shaky.

When Joe leaned into me, his kiss was firm.

When Joe was done kissing me and I was feeling a lot less shaky, Keira’s head came up from Joe’s other shoulder and she looked at him.

“Sorry I went all wussy on you,” she whispered, her eyes not quite catching his, her voice trembling and I realized that she was worried she’d disappointed him and my stomach lurched.

Joe’s arm went from around me and he turned toward Keira. Kate (who was tucked in front of me) and I came up on our elbows. We watched Joe put his hand to Keira’s jaw to tip her face up further toward him.

“Never bury somethin’ deep, baby,” he murmured. “Takes twice as much courage to be who you are, say what you think, feel what you feel and let it show then it does to bury it. That shit you been holdin’ onto will destroy you. You got a safe place to get rid of it, and you do, then you get rid of it like you just did. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Keira whispered, a shaky smile on her lips too.

I stared at Joe thinking maybe he was Superman.

There was the sound of a throat being cleared and we looked to the door to see Gary standing there.

“Um… sorry to interrupt, Joe, Vi, but… there’s a young man at the door. Says his name is Dane. I tried to –”

My body jolted when Kate screeched, “Aiyee!” and leaped from the bed, ran passed her grandfather and then disappeared.

Keira sat frozen against Joe for half a second then she followed her sister with just as much energy. Joe was not far behind but he was hindered since he was dragging me with him.

“I thought I told you!” we heard Kate shout as Joe hustled us down the hall.

“Katy –” we heard Dane.

“No!” Kate interrupted him. Then she asked a very familiar question. “Do you have your head sorted out?”

Oh shit.

There it was. Proof that my daughters were soaking up all things Joe.

We hit the living room and Theresa was standing behind Kate like a sentry. Bea was close too, though not as close as Theresa. Vinnie was standing by the television, his eyes on the scene playing out in front of him. Keira was sitting on her knees in the couch, facing the door. I felt Gary come up behind Joe and I but the minute we hit the room, Dane’s eyes shot to Joe and his face paled.

I was thinking there were a lot of good reasons to have Joe around but at that moment his putting the fear of God into pipsqueak boy-men (no matter how cute they were) who hurt my daughter was at the top of my list.

I crossed my arms on my chest and stared at Dane as he swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Then Dane plucked up the courage and stepped forward.

“Mr. Callahan,” his eyes came to me, “Miz Winters, I need to talk to Katy.”

“You need to talk to Kate, why you talkin’ to us?” Joe enquired and I looked at him to see his arms crossed on his chest in a new sinister, scary pose. This one was both alpha-male and man-of-the-house-slash-father-figure-you-did-not-mess-with.

“Uh…” Dane muttered, struck dumb by Joe’s sinister, scary pose.

“Your girl’s standin’ right in front of you, kid,” Joe prompted when Dane seemed frozen to the spot and this lasted awhile and that while included a number of people as his audience, all eyes on him. “You came to make a move, make it.”

Dane swallowed again, nodded and looked at Kate. “Can we talk?”

“Only one thing I want to hear you say,” Kate replied and I was proud of my girl for sticking to her guns and not letting some boy-man (no matter how cute he was) treat her like dirt.

“Can I say it out on the back deck?” Dane asked.

Kate looked over her shoulder at Joe and Joe tipped his chin at her.

This was when I realized that I’d lost a little bit of both my daughters. They’d taken it from me and given it to Joe.

Other women might be jealous of this or they might be alarmed.

I wasn’t.

Joe had given us everything. It was just our way of giving back. Not a lot of men would appreciate the gifts Keira and Kate were giving him and doing it so freely, but I reckoned Joe did.

“Back deck,” Kate agreed and turned, leading a flush-faced Dane through the living room and study and out the back sliding glass door.

“That’s Dane,” Keira announced to the room unnecessarily when the sliding door closed. “He’s Kate’s boyfriend and he’s in the dog house.”

Vinnie chuckled in the direction of Gary who was pressing his lips together.

“I need more coffee,” Theresa declared. “Bea, do you need more coffee?”

“Yes, yes, I think I do,” Bea said softly.

“I’ll make another pot,” I offered.

“No, cara mia, you sit, relax or better yet, find a place to eavesdrop.” Theresa’s eyes went to the back deck. “I’ll make it.”

“I’ll help,” Bea moved with Theresa to the kitchen.

“I can make it, that’s okay. I don’t eavesdrop on the girls,” I told them and Theresa and Bea stopped dead and turned to me.

“You don’t?” Theresa asked, her voice horrified.

“I trust my girls,” I said carefully, not wanting to be insulting by intimating she hadn’t done the same with her children.

“Well,” Theresa threw a hand out, “I guess I can see that, bein’ girls and all. My Carmella was an angel but I also had three boys. Three hot-blooded Italian boys with more hormones than the Chicago metropolitan area could contain. If they weren’t gettin’ in trouble with girls, they were fightin’ with boys. Bloody knuckles. Bras in their beds. Did my head in.”

Bea just stared at me, knowing that hormones weren’t exclusive to hot-blooded Italian boys. Hormones went both ways and they didn’t discriminate by culture, they just ran rampant through teenagers as a whole.

“It’ll be okay, Bea,” I assured her. “I had a talk with Kate and Joe had a talk with Dane.”

“Yeah,” Keira put in, “and Joe scares the crap outta Dane.”

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.

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.

That was just me though. Maybe she was experiencing post-traumatic stress or something.

“Josie –” I started.

“You the one toilet papered Tina’s yard?” Susie, eyes to Josie, asked over me.

“Nope but I’ll give you ten guesses as to who did it and I’ll bet you still won’t figure it out ‘cause there’s probably a hundred women in this town who’d do it,” Josie answered. “Both of you tryin’ to cozy up to our men, talkin’ shit about what we do and wear, makin’ trouble,” Josie said. “You know, Susie, anyone shot me because I was a bitch, I’d learn my lesson. Maybe you should take some of your Daddy’s money, go somewhere quiet and reflect. For, I don’t know, say,” she paused then finished, “a hundred years?”

Susie paled and whispered over the wind, “I can’t believe you’d say that to me.”

“And I can’t believe you’d get in Violet’s face when her brother was murdered three weeks ago!” Josie snapped. “Let me set things straight for you, Susie. Your Daddy’s money didn’t give you carte blanche to traipse around town bein’ like you are and you can’t trade on the tragedy of what happened with Denny Lowe to be like you are. We all know you sold Colt and Feb’s story to that reporter. We didn’t think much of you before, now we don’t think anything at all.”

“Josie –” Chip started, Josie jerked her head to look at her husband and lifted a hand.

“I’m done,” she stated, turned to me, switched topics and turned off her attitude so quickly I wasn’t keeping up. “You two come over for dinner. Maybe I’ll get Colt and Feb to come over too. I’ll make my pot roast. That’s a winter dish but my pot roast kicks ass. I’ll call,” she offered this invitation again like she wasn’t standing in the pouring rain and like she hadn’t just laid it out for Susie Shepherd in an extremely brutal way.

She came up to me and gave me a cheek kiss even though Joe still had me in his arms and I didn’t resist and cheek-kissed her back mostly because I was a little scared of her. Then she moved away, smiled at Joe and trotted over to her husband while I could do nothing but stare.

“Sorry, Cal,” Chip muttered.

“Nothin’ to be sorry for,” Joe replied and since his arms had loosened, I pulled a bit away and looked up at him to see he was looking at Susie.

“Later, Vi,” Chip called.

“Bye Chip,” I said and Chip and Josie moved away.

“You done or is Vi gonna have to put up with your shit every time she sees you?” Joe asked and I looked to see he was speaking to Susie.

“You gonna threaten me like you did Tina?” Susie sneered and I stared again since I couldn’t believe after that scene that she still had a sneer left in her.

“Nope, just not gonna pull her off you next time,” Joe replied.

“Whatever,” Susie muttered and started to turn away.

“Why?” Joe asked and Susie stopped.

“What?” she asked back.

“Why are you such a fuckin’ bitch? Honest to God, I don’t get it. You have everything and you always had.”

Susie’s face twisted briefly, a flash of pain then gone.

Then she snapped, “Not everything, Cal. Didn’t have a Mom.”

I almost felt sorry for her before Cal replied, “No excuse, woman, I didn’t either.”

They locked eyes and I was acutely aware that I was enduring their staring contest while standing in the wind and rain with a possible tornado approaching.

“Joe,” I whispered and Joe’s arms tensed around me.

“Learn from today, Susie,” Joe advised.

She rolled her eyes, flicked out a hand and repeated, “Whatever.”

“She won’t learn from today,” Joe muttered, let me go, took my hand and turned us toward the Mustang.

I noticed Vinnie and Gary’s cars were gone. We’d had to take three to fit everyone in what with Dad coming along, we were one over. This turned into a good thing as they had plenty of room to get everyone in and they’d all disappeared.

Joe moved me to the passenger side, bleeping the locks as he went.

He had the door open and I was about to fold in when we heard Susie call.

“Cal!”

We both looked at her.

“Don’t piss me off, Susie,” Joe warned.

She pulled her wet hair from her face and held it at the back of her head. Her eyes moved to me then back to Joe.

“I can make a man happy,” she announced.

“Seriously?” I whispered, my body getting tense and Joe put pressure on my back to push me in the car.

“I don’t mean you!” she shouted and her head jerked to the side and back to the front swiftly, reflexively, making her look like she’d suffered an invisible blow and something about that made me get even tenser but not with anger, with surprising compassion.

She was struggling with something and whatever it was, it was big.

“Why can’t I –” she started but Joe interrupted her.

“Jesus Christ, it’s rainin’, Susie. What the fuck?” Joe asked.

“Joe, listen to her,” I whispered urgently, my eyes glued to Susie.

But at Joe’s impatience she’d lost it. Her face closed down and she turned away.

“Forget it,” she shouted over the wind. Lifting a hand and dropping it in a weirdly defeated way, she jogged away, her ruined-sandaled feet making splashes in the puddles as she ran until she was under the awning that came out over most of the sidewalk in front of the strip mall and then she kept running until I lost sight of her because Joe pressed me into the car.

He slammed the door behind me, jogged around the hood as I wiped wet off my face ineffectually since my hands were just as wet and he folded in beside me.

“We’re goin’ to Florida, buddy, first fuckin’ chance we get,” Joe declared the minute he slammed his door. He hadn’t even put the key in the ignition and we were both dripping rainwater into the seats and carpet.

“Joe –”

He turned to me and cut me off. “Fair warnin’, there’s nothin’ there. Just the house and the beach, a coupla houses either side. Nothin’ to do but fish, cook, sleep, eat, fuck and read.”

“Can the girls come?” I asked and watched his face darken to a scowl.

“You ask shit like that again, I’ll turn you over my knee.”

I felt my stomach flutter. He’d turned me over his knee the night before, part of him being creative, and I’d liked it.

I smiled, leaned into him and whispered, “Joe, not sure that’s a deterrent.”

His eyes dropped to my mouth and he didn’t answer though his lips twitched.

“Still think the day couldn’t go any better?” I asked and his eyes came back to mine.

“Your mother-in-law make good sangria?” he asked back.

“The best,” I whispered.

“Then let’s get the fuck home,” he growled.

I laughed so hard, I had to close my eyes.

This meant I missed the first part of Joe coming in to kiss me.

But I didn’t miss the rest.

“Therefore,” I finished as the girls sat at their stools in front of me, “getting physical is never the way to go.”

I was giving them the hardest lecture in a parent’s arsenal. The lecture where you try to teach them not to do something you yourself had done.

These lectures, by the way, never worked.

Kate and Keira’s eyes went over my shoulder. Then they both fought smiles.

I was standing at the kitchen counter in front of them and I turned around to see Joe behind me, his hips leaned against the back counter, his arms crossed on his chest, his feet crossed at the ankles, his head bent and he was looking at his boots.

“Joe?” I called, his head came up and I saw he was biting his lip and he was doing this in a clear effort not to laugh. “Joe!” I snapped.

It was relatively late. We’d come home, changed clothes, dried off and I’d done needed repair work on my hair and makeup. We’d had sangria. We’d had steaks Joe braved the storm to cook on the grill and loaded baked potatoes. And we’d had chocolate cream pie (Joe had two slices, partly because he was being nice, mostly because it was the bomb).

The tornado warning turned to a tornado watch and then the storm became rain.

Everyone was gone. All of them, even Dad, were staying at the hotel by the highway overnight and were coming over for pancakes tomorrow morning. Everyone had avoided discussion of me jumping a blonde woman on the sidewalk for no apparent reason for all they knew. Everyone that was except Uncle Vinnie who every once in awhile when he looked at me would snicker and twice he out-and-out laughed.

Now it was just us, I needed to address the issue with my girls and I didn’t need Joe mucking up the works.

“This isn’t funny,” I hissed at Joe.

“Baby –”

“It isn’t!”

“Vi –”

“Stop laughing!” I demanded because he wasn’t laughing but he was smiling big and I knew, inside, he was laughing. “This is serious!”

“Buddy,” Joe’s voice sounded strangled, “fuck me, baby, but you took her down.” He uncrossed his arms, lifted a palm ceiling up and smacked his other hand down on it making a huge clapping noise before the heels of his hands went to the counter and he burst out laughing.

So did my girls.

“Joe –”

“In the rain,” Joe choked out.

“Joe!”

“Both of you wet,” Joe continued.

“Joe!”

“You coulda sold tickets to that shit,” Joe went on.

“Joe!” I shouted.

“Word gets around, honey, gonna have to beat the men back,” Joe finished.

I glared at him and then I swung my glare to the girls who were both giggling their asses off. Keira had her elbows to the counter, her face in her hands. Kate had collapsed onto her bent arm on the counter.

“I’m glad you all think this is so funny!” I snapped and then moved to flounce out but I was caught at the waist and pulled into Joe’s arms. My head jerked back and I demanded, “Let me go, Joe.”

“Baby –”

“Let… me… go!”

One of Joe’s hands curled around the side of my neck and his grinning face got in mine.

“Vi, honey, shit happens, you gotta laugh. You can’t laugh, you’re fucked.”

“You don’t know what she said,” I whispered, hoping the girls were still giggling so hard they couldn’t hear.

“I heard enough to know she deserved a busted lip and then some and any woman talks to Kate or Keira like that, I hope they got enough attitude to do the same fuckin’ thing.”

My body got tight and I informed him, “Girls don’t do that.”

“Maybe they should. Tina and Susie had that lesson taught to them a long time ago, maybe they wouldn’t be such bitches,” Joe replied.

This, I had to admit, was a point to ponder.

“Okay, I don’t want my girls doin’ that,” I amended my statement.

“You’re tellin’ me, some woman comes up to them and treats them to what Susie did to you, you want them to walk away?”

“Yes,” I kind of lied.

“What’d Susie do to you?” Keira asked from behind me and I turned in Joe’s arm but didn’t move away because his arm was now around my belly and it tightened, pulling my back into his front.

“It doesn’t matter. I was hungry and emotional but I still shouldn’t have acted that way,” I told Keira. “The better woman turns the other cheek.”

“Then she gets the upper hand,” Joe put in, I got tense and twisted my neck to look up at him as he kept talking. “Maybe wrestling with them on the sidewalk in the rain isn’t the way to go but don’t let anyone treat you like shit. No woman and especially no man. Anyone talks trash to you, you walk away. It follows you, you deal with it. You wanna know how, no matter where you are, you call me and I’ll tell you how.”

“Okay, lecture over,” I announced before Joe got on a roll.

“Thanks, Joe,” Keira said and I sighed because I had a feeling everything I’d said to her during my ten minute lecture about how physical violence was never the way was totally forgotten but Joe’s last words about getting the upper hand were etched into her brain.

“Yeah, Joe, thanks,” Kate said and added, “And thanks Mawdy, we’ll start with turnin’ the other cheek.”

“Great, start with that. Makes me feel better,” I muttered.

Kate smiled at me then said, “I’m gonna listen to music and put my new CDs on my MP3. Is that cool?”

“Sure, baby,” I answered.

“I’m goin’ to my room to get on Messenger and tell all my friends my Mom got in a catfight at the strip mall today. Is that cool?” Keira asked, Joe chuckled, Kate giggled and I looked at the ceiling.

Then I looked back at my daughter. “Laptop confiscated, you do that.”

“Right,” she muttered and grinned, “then I’ll put my new CDs on my MP3 player.”

“Good call,” I told her.

They moved off to their rooms and Joe’s mouth moved to my neck where he kissed me then said in my ear, “You know, even if Keira doesn’t share, that shit’s gonna get around. Josie Judd’s got a big mouth.”

I sighed again then turned back to face him. I put my hands on his chest and leaned in deep.

“I know.”

He grinned. “You’re gonna be a local hero, buddy. Susie isn’t real popular.”

I bit my lip, lifted a hand to fiddle with the collar of his tee and watched my fingers doing this.

“Joe,” I called and stopped speaking.

“Vi, you’re pressed up against me, baby.”

I looked up at him. “What happened to Susie’s Mom? Do you know?”

Joe’s head tilted slightly to the side and he answered, “More ‘burg lore. Drunk driving accident.”

“Oh,” I whispered, thinking that was awful.

“The person drivin’ drunk was her Dad.”

I felt my eyes get huge and I repeated, “Oh.”

“He walked away without a scratch. She broke her neck.”

“My God,” I breathed.

“Spent the rest of his life makin’ it up to Susie by spoilin’ her rotten,” Joe continued.

This explained a lot and it also made me feel extremely guilty for busting her lip.

“Get that shit outta your head, buddy. It sucks that happened. But it doesn’t excuse bein’ a bitch,” he said.

He was right, it didn’t. Or at least not that much of a bitch.

“Life’s pretty fucked up for everyone, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” Joe answered.

“You think,” I pressed my lips together then went on, “the girls… Sam, Tim, what happened today?”

Joe’s brows went up. “You think they’ll turn into bitches?”

I shook my head. “I just worry that all of this –”

Joe cut me off. “Look at you.”

I blinked and asked, “What?”

He didn’t repeat himself. He gave me a squeeze and said, “Look at me.”

“Joe, I’m not following.”

“You lost your husband and your brother and you got some asshole fuckin’ with your head and you keep on keepin’ on. My wife killed my kid and my Dad died and the last thing he knew in this life was that shit went down. It took me awhile but now I’m here. You think Katy and Keirry won’t make it through?”

“But –”

“Susie’s weak because her Daddy was weak. That’s what he demonstrated when he got behind the wheel of a car smashed. That’s what he taught her then and kept teachin’ her. With what I’ve seen of your Dad and Mom, got no idea where you learned yours from but I got mine from Vinnie and Theresa. Bonnie didn’t have a moral compass and didn’t pay attention when I tried to give her one. When Nicky came into this world she should have automatically found one and she still didn’t. Weak.” His arms gave me a squeeze and his face dipped to mine. “Your girls have one, buddy, one they’ll never lose. They aren’t weak, never will be. You got nothin’ to worry about.”

“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” I whispered the words Feb said to me days ago.

“Yeah,” Joe whispered back, “at least for some of us.”

Suddenly I smiled and I felt something light and golden bubble up in me. Something I used to feel a lot, almost every day. Something I hadn’t felt in nearly two years.

“Shit, Joe,” I was still whispering, “I got in a catfight today on the sidewalk at a strip mall.”

Joe smiled back. “Yeah, honey, you did.” I felt my body start shaking and Joe’s smile got bigger. “In the rain,” he reminded me.

“In the rain,” I repeated on a suppressed giggle.

“In a skirt,” he went on and my giggle erupted. “That might be my favorite part, outside you bein’ wet,” he continued and my giggles took control and I collapsed into him, my cheek to his chest, my arms tight around his waist and I laughed out loud.

When I got control of my mirth and was back to quiet giggles, I moved my head so my forehead was pressed against Joe’s chest but I didn’t release my arms.

“Worth the wait,” Joe muttered and my head tipped back.

“What?”

“Every bit of it. Every day, every week, every year, every fuckin’ second, buddy,” he kept muttering, his eyes intense, his face serious and my breath caught, “this. All of it. Worth the wait.”

“Joe,” I whispered.

His hand moved to my jaw and his thumb stroked my cheekbone. “Love you, Violet. Even when you’re bustin’ some bitch’s lip open.”

I smiled, pressed even deeper into him and whispered, “I love you too, Joe.”

His head dipped, his mouth captured mine and he started to kiss me hard but our lips broke when Keira called, “Yeesh! Get a room!”

Joe’s arms didn’t move from around me but he looked over my shoulder and I did too to see Keira walk into the kitchen and direct to the fridge.

“I’m havin’ more pie. You guys want pie?” she asked.

“No,” I answered.

“Yeah,” Joe said.

“Katy!” Keira shouted, “Joe and me are havin’ pie! You want pie?”

“Yeah!” Kate shouted back.

Keira got out the pie. Joe’s arms gave me a squeeze. I put my cheek to his chest and squeezed him back. Music hit the house then Kate opened the door to her bedroom and it got louder. Keira got the pie cutter. Kate came in and got plates.

I held onto Joe, Joe held onto me, the girls dished out pie and I concentrated on really listening to Kate’s music for the first time ever.

It was great.