At Peace (14 page)

Cal parked, switched off the ignition, opened
his door, unfolded his body from the Mustang and pulled the seat
forward for Keira.

“Thanks Joe!” she hopped out and tipped her
head back to look at him. “And thanks for dinner.”

Cal didn’t reply verbally, just dipped his
chin.

She leaned into him and whispered
conspiratorially, “Told you it would be fun.”

Cal couldn’t say it was fun but he could say
it was far from boring, except the movie.

Keira didn’t wait for him to respond, she
turned and bolted to the side door.

Kate followed her, carrying her mother’s
shopping bags and calling, “Thanks for dinner, Joe.”

Cal lifted his chin to her, she waved then
jogged to the side door and disappeared through it behind her
sister.

Violet came to stand in front of him.

She lifted her hand, palm up. “My keys.”

Cal didn’t give them to her.

Instead, he looked her in the eyes and told
her, “What I’m gonna say is gonna piss you off.”

He watched her press her lips together as she
braced her body then she asked, “What?”

He didn’t delay. “Colt’s gonna talk to you
about your security system. Man named Chip, good guy, is gonna
update it. Chip can’t do what I designed for your system, I’m gonna
do it.”

Her lips parted and she stared at him.

Then she leaned forward and hissed, “You
are
not
.”

“Buddy, I am.”

“
No, you are
not
.”

“You can stand there and snap at me all you
want. It’s gonna happen.”

“I can’t afford a new security system.”

“No one said you’re payin’ for it.”

Her mouth clamped shut and she took a step
back on her foot like he’d shoved her.

Then she came back in close, tilting her head
way back, her eyes narrow. She was, as he suspected, seriously
pissed.

“You’re not payin’ for a new system for
me.”

“I am.”

“It isn’t gonna happen.”

“It is.” She opened her mouth to speak but
Cal angled his head so his face was in hers and he got there first.
“Be pissed at me ‘cause I fucked you over, that’s cool, you got a
right, I fucked you over and it was a shit thing to do. But you got
two girls to look after and neighbors who’re willin’ to wade in to
help. It’s not that you’d be a fool not to take the help. It’s that
you’d be a shit Mom if you didn’t do all you could to keep
yourself, and them, safe. What happened with us happened. It’s
over. Now I’m bein’ neighborly, Colt and me are willin’ to help
keep you and those girls safe, and, buddy, you got no choice but to
accept that and you know it.”

She stood there, not moving, not blinking,
just staring straight into his eyes.

Then she whispered, “What happened with us
happened?”

“Violet –”

“
You’re right,” she said quickly and
softly. “You’re security to the stars and if you’re willin’ to
help, I should take it. But I’m gonna tell you even though I figure
you know, I think you’re an asshole. I don’t only not like you,
I
hate
you.
I
hate
how you
played me. I
hate
that I was
so fucking stupid, I let myself get played. I
hate
that you know about this because I
hate
that
you
know
anything
about
me
. And I
hate
that I have to accept help from
you.” After she dealt her lethal succession of blows, she finished
with, “But I’ll do it… for my girls.”

And before he could speak, she reached in,
yanked her keys out of his hand, turned on her sandal and walked
swiftly away.

Cal watched her go, listened to her side door
slam and dropped his head to study his boots.

Then he walked to his house, let himself in
and went directly to the fridge to get a beer. He twisted off the
cap, flicked it into the trash bin, lifted the bottle to his lips
and took a healthy pull.

Then he held the bottle in front of him,
studying the label without seeing it.

Then he threw the bottle through the doorway
of the kitchen. It flew into the living room and smashed against
the wall.

Daniel Hart

I was running late and that
sucked
.

Chip hadn’t been able to install the full
system that Joe had designed and Joe hadn’t been able to get to it
before he had to leave so now that it was a week later and Joe was
back, he was coming over to see to it.

Feb and Colt were having a barbeque and I’d
promised Feb I’d go over and help before everyone showed up. I was
supposed to be over there fifteen minutes ago which was fifteen
minutes before Joe was supposed to show.

The girls were off as usual. Keira was coming
back with her friend Heather to go to the barbeque. Kate was at
work at Fulsham’s Frozen Custard Stand. Dane who, regardless of the
fact that Kate had a car, took her to work and picked her up, was
going to go and get her and they both were also coming to the
barbeque later. I’d told Colt to tell Joe I’d leave the side door
open for him and Colt had obviously done this because now I heard
the side door open.

I ignored this and finished gunking my hair
up with the goo that made it look so good and then rinsed my hands.
Then I walked from my bathroom into the bedroom to put on my
jewelry, stacking on the silver bangles, putting in my silver hoop
earrings, clasping on my silver watch. I spritzed with perfume and
turned to the bedroom door.

Joe was leaning in the frame watching me.

At the sight of him, my stomach tied into an
instant knot.

I had no idea why he was standing there
watching me. I felt all that needed to be said was said so I
glanced into his eyes briefly and headed his way expecting, since I
said all that needed to be said and I was pretty honest about it,
he’d move out of mine.

He didn’t.

I stopped and looked up at him.

His rumbly voice was low when he said, “We
should talk, buddy.”

I didn’t want to talk so I replied, “Please
move.”

“Violet –”

“Move.”

“We live next door to each other, woman,” he
pointed out.

“Yes and you get this done, that’s all there
is,” I returned.

He straightened from the frame but stayed in
my way and his voice was soft when he said, “It was good.”

I felt my mouth fill with saliva and my
sinuses tingle with tears and I swallowed them both down.

“Get out of my way, Joe.”

“We both know we couldn’t take it there.”

I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything
about him. It was only him that knew that.

I didn’t tell him that, I said, “Out of my
way.”

“Shit, Violet, it doesn’t have to be like
this.”

I felt my head jerk but my eyes stayed pinned
to his.

“
No? You don’t think so? Well, that’s where
you’re wrong.” I leaned into him slightly and went on. “Not man
wrong, men think they can fuck anything that moves and just carry
on. Let me educate you, Joe, even though you had that scene with
Kenzie then weeks later you went through Nadia and God knows who
else then moved on to me so you should know but, just in case you
haven’t figured it out, women aren’t built that way.”

“That’s your world, buddy, lotsa women are
built that way. Nadia for one.”

I didn’t believe that for a second.

Therefore, I said sarcastically, “Right.”

“Right,” he replied.

“You think that but trust me, you’re done
with her, she goes home and cries into her Oreos.”

He shook his head. “You don’t know her.”

“Okay, well, I know Kenzie wanted more.”

“Kenzie wanted what Kenzie wanted and she
thinks she’ll get it, no matter what it is and she acts out when
she doesn’t. Christ, the bitch is thirty-two years old and she’s
been married four times.”

This was true, I’d read all about it in
magazines.

“
Listen,” I told him, deciding it was time
to end this conversation and move on, “I was supposed to be at
Feb’s twenty minutes ago.”

Joe wasn’t done with the conversation. “It
was sex. It’s always sex, just sex. With you, it wasn’t that. I
didn’t know you lost your husband. I didn’t know the shit that was
goin’ down with you.”

He was making it worse, telling me it was
just sex. I knew he thought that, of course, I just didn’t really
need it confirmed.

“Now you know, so get out of my way.”

His hand came up, his fingers curling around
my neck and he leaned his face into mine.

“Woman, in this life, you have to have
learned, you need all the friends you can get. That’s what I’m
offerin’, okay?”

God, now he wanted to be my
friend
. It was
like he was reading this shit out of a book, how to be the most
insulting you can be without even trying.

I yanked my neck from his hold.

“Fuck off, Joe.”

He shook his head, still didn’t move out of
the way and I noticed he looked like he was getting a little
angry.

“Joe –”

“You know where I live. The offer’s on the
table when you wanna grow up and put it behind you.”

I let these words bounce around in my head
for several seconds.

Then instead of letting those words make my
head explode, I decided to let them go.

Though, I decided not to let it go
graciously. “Don’t hold your breath while waiting for that to
happen. Now could you get out of my way?”

He watched me, that something, whatever the
hell it was (and I told myself I didn’t care what it was), working
behind his eyes. Then he stepped out of my way.

It took a lot out of me and I struggled to
keep it together but I managed to walk by him, through the study,
into the kitchen to grab my keys and the plate of cupcakes I’d made
for the barbeque and out the door without running.

I was pretty proud of myself.

* * * * *

“
Okay, so,
that
, I’ll come out of man hibernation for,” Cheryl
announced.

I looked at Cheryl and followed her eyes to
see that Joe had joined the barbeque.

Shit.

Cheryl and I were sitting in the grass in the
sun in Feb and Colt’s backyard. My legs were out in front of me and
I was wearing my little army green skirt and my violet tank top I
bought at Lucky with Joe and the girls. I’d helped Feb for a few
hours before people showed, making macaroni salad, whipping up
devilled eggs, cutting up tomatoes and onions, forming hamburger
patties, dumping chips into bowls and then carting it outside to
sit on a table under a sideless tent that Colt set up. We did all
of this while looking after Feb’s beautiful baby boy Jack and her
cat Wilson alternately raced around the house or meowed for the
treats Feb refused to give him and also while trying not to trod on
the adorable German Shepherd puppy Feb bought Colt for his
birthday.

This was their once a year barbeque, marking
the coming of summer where they closed down the bar and had a good
day with family and friends. All their employees were invited
including Darryl who was a bartender, his wife Phylenda and their
kids; Ruthie, a waitress; Fritzi, who cleaned the bar in the
mornings; and Cheryl who worked behind the bar sometimes but was
also a waitress and Cheryl brought her seven year old son, Ethan.
Also there were Feb’s brother, Morrie, his wife Dee, their kids
Palmer and Tuesday and Feb’s parents, Jack and Jackie. Our
neighbors Jeremy and Melinda, Myrtle and Pearl were invited too
(Tina and Cory were not but, according to Feb, Cory was on the outs
with Tina, on the ins with his wife Bethany, and Tina was nursing
her snit, not to mention Feb hated Tina because she was a bitch).
Feb’s best friends Jessie (and her husband Jimbo) and Mimi (and her
husband Al and their kids) and Colt’s partner Sully (and his wife
Lorraine) were also there.

And now, so was Joe.

I watched him walk up to Colt who was manning
the burgers, dogs and brats at the barbeque, baby Jack held to
Colt’s hip. They did man nods and then Joe leaned down to the
cooler by the grill and nabbed himself a cold one.

I guessed he was done with my
super-sophisticated alarm system. He must be good. It didn’t take
long; he was only working at it a few hours.

I sipped my margarita, glared at him and told
Cheryl, “Don’t go there.”

“Hunh?” Cheryl asked.

I didn’t know her, I’d seen her at J&J’s
a couple of times, she’d made me a drink or two. However, we’d been
sitting out in the sun together drinking margaritas for at least
thirty minutes. In some circles of American females, this meant you
were automatic BFFs.

Therefore, I repeated, “Don’t go there.
Player.”

“And you know this…?” Cheryl let that hang, I
turned my head and just gave her a look.

Her eyes got wide then she noted, “I didn’t
peg you as the type.”

“What type?”

“The type to get played.”

I shook my head. “Seein’ as I’ve had two men
in my bed, my husband, who took my virginity when I was seventeen,
and him,” I tilted my head toward Joe, “I’m not.”

At this news, Cheryl’s eyes got even wider.
“No joke?”

I shook my head again. “No joke.”

“Wow,” she whispered.

“Wow is right,” I returned.

“What happened to your husband? Divorce?”

“He was shot in the head by a gangster.”

Her mouth dropped open, her face went pale
and I felt like a shit, telling her like that. I’d never told
anyone like that, hell, I didn’t think I ever told anyone. Barry,
Tim’s partner, and Pam, Barry’s wife, had made all the calls.