At Peace (54 page)

Cal mattered to her.

Haines knew that.

So he was standing down.

“Fuck,” Haines muttered.

Cal didn’t reply. There was nothing to
say.

Haines studied Cal then said, “Anyone else,
I’d be fuckin’ over the moon for you, Cal.”

Cal remained silent but that didn’t stop him
from thinking that Mike Haines was a good man.

“Now, I’m not,” Haines finished.

Cal lifted his chin.

The muscle jumped in his jaw again, Haines
nodded then he moved to turn away.

For some fucking insane reason, before he did
Cal said, “She’s out there.”

Haines’s eyes locked on his. “What?”

“Whoever she is for you, she’s out
there.”

“Fuck me,” Haines muttered.

“Mine moved in next door, man,” Cal pointed
out.

Haines turned fully to Cal and his mouth was
twitching when he mumbled, “Joe Callahan, romantic.”

Cal shrugged. Haines wanted to see it that
way, fuck if Cal cared.

He pushed away from the truck, dropping his
arms and turned to the door. He caught sight of Colt as he did it
and Colt wasn’t fast enough to hide his smile.

Crazy fuck.

Cal looked back at Haines as he pulled
himself up into the cab.

Haines gave him a nod. Cal nodded back,
slammed the door, buckled up, hit the ignition and pulled out of
the Station.

His phone rang as he drove down Grant. He
yanked it out of his back pocket, looked at the screen, flipped it
open and put it to his ear.

“Yo, buddy.”

“Joe.”

Hearing her say his name, he grinned at the
windshield.

“That’s who you called, baby.”

“Where are you?”

“In the truck.”

“Okay, but where?”

“On my way to your garden center to buy a dog
bed.”

He listened to silence.

This lasted awhile.

Then he called, “Vi?”

“Yeah?”

“Honey, you called me, you actually gonna
speak?”

“
I, um… need you not to come home, I mean,”
she said the last two words quickly then kept talking fast, “to the
house for awhile.”

“Why?”

“I’m having an impromptu girl’s afternoon
in.”

He’d left her on her belly in bed after
making her sit on his face until she came then fucking her until
she came again. She didn’t even twitch when he bent in, kissed her
neck and whispered in her ear that he’d be back in awhile.

He hadn’t been gone an hour. Now she was
having a girl’s afternoon in.

This meant she was going to tell her friends
everything which didn’t make him happy because he didn’t like
anyone in his business. Then she was going to get shit advice.
Then, maybe, she was going to do something stupid.

“Who’s comin’?” he asked.

“Cheryl…” she answered.

Not good, that bitch was hard as nails.

“Feb…” she went on.

That was okay, Feb was cool.

“Dee…” she continued.

Wildcard. Dee Owens called ‘em as she saw ‘em
and Cal had no clue how she’d see him.

“Jessie…”

Fuck, Jessie Rourke was a nut.

“Mimi…”

Christ, he’d fucked two of Mimi VanderWal’s
close friends.

“And Jackie.”

Cal relaxed.

Jackie Owens was Feb’s Mom, salt of the
earth. Even with the rest of the hens in that coup, Jackie’d be the
voice of reason and not many people were stupid enough not to
listen to Jackie’s reason, including Cheryl Sheckle and Jessie
Rourke.

“Then, um… after, I’m goin’ to Mike’s,” Vi
said in his ear.

Cal didn’t speak.

“Then, um… we need to talk,” she
finished.

“I’ll go into the office after I get the dog
bed. If I gotta stay gone, you need me to pick anything up?”

She didn’t answer his question, she asked,
“The office?”

“Yeah.”

“What office?”

“My office.”

“You have an office?”

Had he been closed that tight? Christ, he
had.

“
Yeah, baby, I have an office in town. Got
a girl named Lindy, schedules my meetings, my walkthroughs, sends
invoices, does the books, arranges travel, orders the equipment if
I do the install myself, shit like that.”

“In town? You mean, the ‘burg?”

“Yeah.”

“Lindy?”

“Yeah?”

“She live in town?”

“Avon.”

“Oh.”

“Take you to meet her,” Cal offered.

“That’s okay,” Vi replied quickly.

Cal sighed then let it go and repeated, “You
need me to pick anything up?”

She hesitated then repeated, “Pick anything
up?”

“Coffee, milk, beer, pick anything up.”

“
Groceries?
” she breathed, like the concept of
groceries was foreign to her.

“Yeah, Vi, unless Armageddon hit while I was
fuckin’ you this morning and we missed it, I’m thinkin’ grocery
stores still exist and they’re all still stocked.”

He heard her soft giggle before she swallowed
it.

His woman, Cal realized, was a nut.

“Vi?” he prompted.

“I don’t drink beer.”

“I do so we need it.”

“Do you have some in your fridge?”

“Buddy, my fridge is at the dump.”

“But wasn’t it a perfectly good fridge?”

“Yeah, but my Dad bought it at Sears thirty
years ago so I don’t think Katy and Keirry are gonna dig on it
bein’ in the kitchen they design.”

“Oh,” she said in a soft, sweet way he felt
in his dick just like when she said his name.

He ignored it and asked, “So we need
beer?”

“Um… yeah.”

Christ, that was a long conversation to get
down to needing beer.

“Okay, stick with me here, buddy, and
concentrate. Do we need anything else?”

“I don’t know, what do you eat?”

“Anything.”

“We don’t have Power Bars or Gatorade or
anything like that.”

“Vi, I’m not in training for the Super
Bowl.”

“Right,” she whispered.

Cal started laughing.

“What’s funny?” Vi asked over his
laughter.

“You are, baby.”

“How’s that?”

“Gatorade?”

“Well, I saw you working out,” she defended
herself.

“So I’ll buy water. You got eggs?”

“Yes.”

“Bacon?”

“Yes.”

“Oatmeal?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m set.”

“Okay.”

He pulled into the garden center parking lot
and found a spot.

“I’m at the garden center.”

She sounded distracted. “And Cheryl’s just
pulled into the drive.”

Great, Cheryl got there first.

“Vi,” he called.

“Yeah?”

Before Cheryl unleashed her claws, Cal
decided now was the time to tell her.

“You know that hole?” he asked.

“What?” she asked back.

He didn’t repeat himself, he said, “You were
right. You and the girls plugged it.”

He had her attention, he knew it because she
was whispering when she repeated, “What?”

“I’m not empty anymore.”

Silence then, “Joe –”

“Full to bursting, buddy.”

A breathy, “Joe.”

That made his dick twitch.

“Gotta go, baby.”

“Joe –”

“Later.”

He flipped his phone closed, jumped down from
the truck and went into the garden center to buy a dog bed.

* * * * *

“And that’s um… it,” I finished my long story
and looked around my living room.

I was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Feb
was sitting by me, leaned back on her hands, her legs stretched out
in front of her, baby Jack crawling all over her like she was a
human jungle gym. Dee, Mimi and Jessie were on my couch. Jackie was
in one armchair, Mooch, exhausted from eating dog beds and running
around the yard with me in it for an hour, was flat out asleep on
her lap. Cheryl was in the other armchair.

“Let me get this right, hon,” Jessie said
softly. “You’re brother was killed, what? Three days ago?”

“Six,” I answered. “They found him five days
ago.”

She nodded. “And since then Joe Callahan and
Mike Haines have been goin’ essentially head-to-head, no pun
intended, to get at you?”

“Um… kind of but not exactly,” I told
her.

“
Babe, Cal’s forcin’ a meeting with all
your loved ones by hornin’ in on the funeral, not to mention you’re
meetin’ his family in Chicago, and it’s
the family
. And Mike’s goin’ for the gusto, makin’ certain,
if you pick him, that you don’t forget about the family house, the
six thousand dollar bed and the family pet, doin’ it by givin’ you
the business in that bed
with
dog in attendance. They’re definitely head-to-head,” Cheryl
informed me.

“Holy crap,” Jessie whispered.

“Gotta say, livin’ in this ‘burg my whole
life and knowin’ Cal the length of it, there’s a lotta gals, a
number of them in a one mile radius of this house, who’d give their
eyeteeth to eat pizza at Vinnie’s Pizzeria and get a go at havin’
their photo on the family wall,” Mimi remarked.

“
Gotta say, livin’ in this ‘burg my whole
life and knowin’ Mike the length of it, there’s a lotta gals, some
of them
next
freaking door
, who would
give their eyeteeth to have a shot at showin’ Mike Haines that all
women are not selfish, greedy, materialistic bitches like Audrey,”
Jessie noted.

“Same could be said for that girl next door
wantin’ Cal,” Mimi told her.

“I think it can be taken as read that Tina
Blackstone would just about jump anyone and it’d be difficult for
that woman to prove anything against bein’ selfish, greedy and
materialistic,” Jackie pointed out. “She’s hardly a good example
for debate.”

“Cal,” Feb spoke up, putting in her vote.

“Mike,” Cheryl shot back.

“
Cal’s hot, but, seriously, he’s a dawg,”
Mimi put in, looked at me and voted, “Mike.”

“My guess is, Dawg Days are gone so my vote,
Cal,” Dee added.

“
Put their names in a hat,” Jessie
suggested, “you can’t go wrong.”

“Jessie!” Feb hissed.

“What?” Jessie asked, looking around. “Am I
wrong?”

“Joe Callahan,” Jackie stated in a voice
heavy with maternal authority and life experience and all eyes
swung to her.

“Seriously, Jackie?” Cheryl asked.

“Seriously, Cher,” Jackie replied, her voice
no longer heavy but gentle, she looked at me and asked, “You wanna
know why?”

I nodded.

“’Cause, when you talk about Mike, you look
like a woman who’s talkin’ about a guy she likes. You talk about
Cal, you look like a woman who’s talkin’ about the man she needs to
breathe.”

At her words, I stopped breathing.

“Jackie,” Dee whispered.

“You do,” Jackie told me. “Feb lost the man
who helped her breathe, didn’t take a full breath for twenty years
until she got him back.”

My eyes moved to Feb and she smiled at me
then she pulled Jack off her legs and into her arms, making a
nonverbal point that spoke such volumes, it was a wonder I wasn’t
swept away in its waves.

I looked back at Jackie and told her, “He’s
turned on me twice.”

“Even tough men get scared,” Jackie
replied.

I felt my eyes get wide at the thought of Joe
scared of anything and asked, “Scared of me?”

“
Honey, the last woman he loved killed his
child.” I sucked in breath and she asked, “Wouldn’t that scare
you?”

“
Yeah,” I answered, “but he slept with
someone else when he was with me.”

“Told you he did,” Jackie put in.

“Even if it was a lie, why would he lie,
knowing how much that’d hurt?” I pressed.

“To make you hurt. Didn’t have the strength
in him to let you go, forced your hand so you’d do it,” Jackie
explained. “Man’s strong so I reckon that’s sayin’ somethin’ about
what he feels about you.”

“That’s crazy,” Cheryl muttered.

“
You ever do anything totally irrational
for self protection?” Jackie shot her question in Cheryl’s
direction and she wasn’t done. “Or for Ethan’s?”

Cheryl bit her lips which was her nonverbal
answer.

Jackie’s eyes came back to me. “He’s a big
guy, a scary one, fierce, tough and because all that while he’s
been puttin’ you through the ringer, you had no idea you’ve been
doin’ the same damn thing to him.”

“But –” I began but Jackie shook her
head.

“You lost your man, your brother and honey,
my heart’s with you, that’s awful. He lost his Mom, Dad and son;
the last two because of the woman he chose, one he brought into his
father’s house, one he let bring his child into this world. That’s
a burden he’s carried awhile and my guess is that burden is heavy.
You two come with so much baggage, it’s a wonder you don’t get
crushed. And that’s the thing, neither of you did. And you found
each other. It’s time to unload that burden and find some joy,”
Jackie advised.

“What if I can’t help him find his joy, what
if I fail?” I whispered.

“Girl, you keep givin’ up. The only way sure
to fail is to give up,” Jackie whispered back.

“He wants a baby with me,” I told Jackie and
I heard some indrawn breaths at this piece of news (the only one) I
had not shared.

“Give him one,” Jackie returned as if it was
simple as that (and, I had to admit, thinking about it made my
belly flutter again).

But even so, I suggested, “Maybe he just
wants me to have a baby.”

“Oh crap, now she’s makin’ shit up,” Jessie
muttered.

“Babe, your shit’s already confusin’ enough,
you don’t need to make stuff up to make it more confusin’,” Cheryl
advised.

“
This is true,” Mimi said, “if Cal wanted a
kid, he’d have about six dozen of them all over town.”

“Unh-hunh,” Jessie agreed on a nod.