At Peace (15 page)

“It was awhile ago,” I explained, my voice
gentler. “He was a cop.”

The surprise slid out of her face, her hand
came out and she gave my knee a quick squeeze before it moved
away.

“Rough,” she murmured and I nodded to that
understatement. “How long ago?”

“Year and a half.”

“
Then not
that
long ago.”

I looked at my feet. “Nope.”

“You wanna talk?”

I looked at her and repeated quietly,
“Nope.”

“You do…”

Seriously, the folks in this ‘burg
were
so
nice.

It was my turn to squeeze her knee so I did
and muttered, “Thanks.”

She turned her head and her gaze went to Joe.
My gaze went to anywhere but Joe.

“Was he good?” she asked curiously.

Good wasn’t the word for it, in fact, there
were no words for it.

I decided not to tell her that, instead I
said, “Yeah.”

Her head turned back to me and softly, she
said, “Be fun to play, hon, been awhile for me and let’s just say
I’ve had a few more boys in my bed than you. But only…” she paused,
“you done with him?”

I wasn’t done with him, he was done with me
which totally made me done with him.

“Oh yeah, I’m done.”

“You mind?” she asked.

“Have at it,” I invited, though I had to
admit it hurt, thinking of Joe moving on even though I knew it
shouldn’t and I didn’t even know why it did.

It was sex, just sex, he told me so his
damned self. I was an adult, I knew the score. My girlfriends who
hadn’t found the man they adored at fifteen years old had been
telling me stories like this for ages. Apparently, since Tim was
dead, it was my turn to get fucked over by an asshole.

However, since I liked Cheryl, I added, “But
check your heart at the door.”

Her brows went up. “You didn’t?”

“What?”

“Check your heart at the door.”

I shook my head again. “I didn’t fall for
him but I thought there was something there. I was an idiot. It had
been… losing Tim…” I licked my lips and Cheryl waited silently
while I pulled it together, took a deep breath and finished. “Let’s
just say, he made me feel like a moron because there wasn’t
anything there. Nothing. Just sex. He was done with me fast, it
lasted only a coupla days and he’s my next door
neighbor.”

Cheryl was staring at me when she said,
“Jesus.”

“Yep.”

She looked back at Joe, mumbling, “Maybe I’ll
steer clear.”

“That’d be my advice.”

“Still, he’s hot,” Cheryl was still mumbling
and I forgot about Joe and me and looked at her.

She was very pretty, a lot of blonde hair
cut to hit her shoulders, fake boobs, long legs, attractive meat at
her hips. She dressed kind of slutty but she worked it and it
looked good on her. Her black skirt was super short, her white tank
was super tight, she had on a black bra you could see through the
tank and she was wearing high-heeled silver slut sandals even
though we were at a backyard barbeque.

But the look she was giving Joe after what I
told her made me think she might not be so good at picking men.

This was confirmed when she asked curiously,
still checking out Joe, “You know how he got those scars?”

“Nope. Don’t know much about him. We didn’t
talk.”

She looked at me and grinned. “Action
man?”

More like Superman but I didn’t tell her
that, I just said, “Yeah.”

She leaned into me. “My advice, though you
didn’t ask for it, I’m still givin’ it to you, enjoy it for what it
was. It was obviously good and a girl needs to get her some.
Nothin’ wrong with that.” Her eyes went back to Joe then came to
me. “He reopens that door, Vi, walk through it and take what you
want. You find another man who’s good to you and wants more, you
can walk away. But
that
was my
booty call and he lived next door?” She paused, her head having
jerked toward Joe and she grinned again. “I wouldn’t waste that
opportunity.”

This idea was so preposterous, I laughed out
loud.

She laughed with me and when we were done
laughing, she lifted her margarita glass.

“I’m dry, babe, you want another?”

I handed her my glass. “That’d be cool,
thanks.”

Her eyes slid across the yard to the grill
again and she went on. “I’m thinkin’ I want a brat.” She looked
back to me and her look was wicked when she suggested, “Maybe you
wanna come with?”

I shook my head.

“You look hot in that tank,” she
encouraged.

“Joe’s seen the tank. He was at my house this
morning and he was with me when I bought it.”

Her head tilted to the side in confusion. “He
was at your house this morning?”

“He’s installing a security system at my
house, not by my choice.” I sighed when she looked even more
confused and explained, “It’s complicated.”

“I thought you said it was a couple night
thing. He took you shopping?”

“Shopping was after he was done with me,
before the security system.” When she just stared at me, I
finished. “It’s a long story, also complicated.”

She nodded and got up, saying, “I’ll get our
margs and my brat then come back and you can tell me.”

“It’s not interesting,” I warned.

She looked down at me on the grass from her
slut shoes, high-heeled height and remarked, “Known a lot of men,
mostly assholes and players, so got some experience, so much you
could pretty much say I’m an expert. Don’t know a single player who
takes a woman shoppin’ and installs a security system in her house
after he’s done with her.” She leaned down a bit and smiled,
saying, “So, babe, gotta say, this complicated business sounds all
kinds of interesting.”

Before I could reply, she walked away,
somehow managing to walk through grass in high, spiked heels
without looking like a fool and I decided Cheryl was very cool.

“Momalicious!” I heard shouted from beside me
and I turned to see Keira running into the yard, her arms wheeling,
her hair flying, her face in a full-on smile.

She threw herself at me and I caught her
because I had no choice and went down on my back. She slid off my
side and got up on a hand to look down at me.

“
Get
this!
”
she shouted.

“Hello, my darling Keira,” I cut her off and
my eyes went up to see Heather, Keira’s friend (who, incidentally,
looked exactly like a Heather, petite, tons of curly-to-frizzy red
hair and about seven million freckles all over her body). I came up
on both elbows and said, “Hey Heather.”

“
Hi Miz Winters,” Heather smiled at
me.

“Mom!” Keira called my attention to her.
“Guess what?”

“What baby?”

“
Heather’s dog had
puppies!
” she shrieked.

Oh fuck.

Keira had always wanted a dog, always.
She’d been at Tim and I since the minute she knew dogs existed and
she could speak intelligent English. Tim had wanted a dog too. It
was me who held back because I loved dogs and my Dad got me one
when I was nine and she’d been run over when I was fifteen and that
had been the worst day of my life, losing my dog (until two years
later, when I found out I was pregnant and Mom and Dad had thrown
me out of their house). I didn’t want that for my daughter (or Tim,
for that matter), the inevitable day when your beloved family pet
would go away. I wanted to shield Keira whose heart, like mine and
her sister’s, was too big for her own good, from that
hurt.

Now it seemed ridiculous, she’d lost
something far more precious than the family pet.

“They’re all white and so fluffy and cuddly
and Heather’s Dad said they’ll give us one for only two hundred
dollars!” Keira went on.

I stared at her.

Two hundred dollars?

The money situation had settled, mainly
because Bobbie still hadn’t found anyone part-time and she didn’t
seem to mind paying me overtime. It was high season for her
(outside of Christmas, Bobbie put on a whale of a Christmas at her
shop, her displays were extravagant and you could buy anything
Christmas there, she was known for it, people came from neighboring
states just to shop at Bobbie’s for Christmas crap or simply to
wander around). I was getting five to ten hours a week on time and
a half which helped loads.

But she could find someone and things
would change. I didn’t need an extra mouth to feed, even a canine
one and
especially
a
canine one that cost two hundred dollars.

“That’s a lot of money for a dog,” I told
Keira.

“They sell them for a lot more than that,
he’s gonna give us a deal,” Keira replied.

I was acutely aware of Heather standing there
so I said to my daughter, “Let’s talk about this later, honey.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” she told me.
“But we can’t have the puppy for a couple of weeks and I thought I
could save my allowance until then and talk to Kate. She and I can
go halves.”

There was no way in hell Keira was going to
save her allowance for however many weeks it took to wean a
puppy.

Kate saved her money and spent it frugally.
She got the job at the Custard Stand for the summer for extra cash
and because it was the cool place to work. It was a coup she got
it. Everyone who worked there did it because most of the kids hung
out there so she was essentially making cones and sundaes during a
summer-long party. But with Dane carting her everywhere her Fiesta
barely ever left the drive, she was depositing her money in her
account and not even paying for gas.

Keira, on the other hand, went through money
like water. With my overtime and Kate’s work, Keira’s household
chores had increased. She’d complained but she did it because I
upped her weekly allowance from ten dollars to twenty. But it was a
wonder, with the way Keira was with money, that her allowance
didn’t go up in a poof of smoke the minute I handed it to her.

“We’ll talk about it later,” I repeated.

“Mom –”

I lifted up a hand and put my fingers to her
lips, saying quietly, “Later, baby.”

She emitted a heavy sigh and said against my
fingers, “All right.”

I moved my fingers from her mouth to slide
into her hair and I pulled her forehead to my lips and kissed her
there. When I let her go, I knew there were no hard feelings
because she lifted up and kissed me back the same way.

God, I loved my daughter.

Her head turned, her eyes caught on
something, her face went bright and she shouted, “Joe!”

I looked across the yard and saw Joe, Cheryl
holding a brat in a bun standing next to him, watching us.

My stomach again tied in knots.

Keira scrambled up, jumped over my body and
grabbed Heather’s hand. Then she dragged Heather across the yard
straight to Joe.

Okay, so I loved my daughter but she was a
nut and I hoped she didn’t have some kind of teenage girl crush on
Joe. That would suck, for Keira and for me.

“
I have
got
to take a load off,” I heard Feb say from my side and I
tore my eyes away from Keira skidding to a halt in front of Joe,
bringing Heather up beside her, tipping her head back and saying
something to him. Mostly, I had to admit, I tore my eyes away from
Joe dipping his chin to stare down at my daughter, his face going
soft when he did.

I looked up at Feb, who had a Diet Coke in
one hand and baby Jack at her hip. I sat up and lifted my arms.

“Give him to me.”

She handed Jack over to me, mumbled,
“Thanks,” and collapsed into the grass beside me.

I settled Jack into my lap or, more aptly,
I let Jack squirm and play in my lap. The kid was active. Feb
pulled her hair out of her face and lay back on an
elbow.

“How’re the wedding plans goin’?” I asked her
and her eyes came to me.

“
Something I’ve learned,” she said. “When a
man tells a woman he wants the wedding
big
, the
biggest
, the woman should tell him he has two choices, either he
plans it or she’ll buy the tickets to Vegas on the
internet.”

I smiled at her. “Hard work?”

Her eyes went to baby Jack doing baby squats
in my lap while holding onto my hands then they moved to Colt who
was smiling at Morrie while Morrie told a story then they came back
to me and she grinned.

“Not really.”

I looked at Feb then I looked at her yard
which was filled with food and drink and sunshine and people she
cared about. She and Colt had been through the ringer, even made
national news and here she was with her baby and her man and her
family and friends, living a good life.

Hope. There was always hope. Losing Tim, I’d
lost sight of that. I’d thought I’d found it, stupidly, but then
I’d been played by Joe and made too much of it. My daughters were
healthy and happy and moving on to boyfriends and dogs. Tim was
gone but there were still sun and friends and life.

“
You need any help,” I said to Feb, “I’m
right across the street.”

“Thanks but with Mimi, Dee and Jessie in the
mix, I got all the help I need,” Feb replied, baby Jack lurched
forward and grabbed onto my hair, yanking hard. “God, sorry, Vi,
he’s strong like his Dad.”

I extricated his baby fingers from my hair
and smiled at her. “Not a problem at all, forgot how this was,” I
looked down at Jack. “Sounds stupid but, remembering, it feels
good.”

“Only a Mom would say that. He pulls Jessie’s
hair, she freaks.”

I kept smiling at her and as I did so, I
watched her face change.