Beast of Venery (21 page)

              “Well, Jonathan's ex threw a rock through the windshield of his car once, while he was still in it, demanding he walked her to the door after a date in high-school.”

              All eyes in the room were immediately directed on Andy's sister Annie who pointed her fork, with the piece of chicken still dangling on it, at her boyfriend sitting at her side. Although they had only been dating for a few months, she seemed to know him and his past pretty well already.

              “Thank you sweetheart for sharing that lovely memory.” Jonathan smiled. “Oh, the joys of previous relationship and exes. Seriously, Danielle,” Jonathan continued, and moved his hand over hers, squeezing it a little. “In this family you're in the best of hands, and if I know Andy correctly, which I think I do, he would probably kill Brian before he ever got close to you again. There are many ways to do that too.”

              “What about you,” Danielle needed to aim the focus onto something else but herself and her problems. “The three siblings Drew, have you ever had a problem at all in life, or is it just us, your other halves that have had our fair share of relationship drama?” She blurted out as she'd heard both Sara's and Jonathan’s confessions but nothing from the family members themselves.

              “It never got that far.” Vernon said. “I would always stand on the front porch with my rifle when Annie came home from a date, and both Andy and Greg would have had to sleep outside, or find another family to board with if they treated a girl in any way that wasn't respectable. Right Jo?” Vernon's voice boomed through the air as he turned to Jo, who patted his hand, which still hovering over hers, and smiled.

              “If either one of my two boys made a girl cry they were not allowed back in the house until the problem was fixed. Greg once stayed out for two days, sleeping in his car, when he broke up with a girl but she refused to leave the seat until he took her back.”

              “Did you? Did you take her back?” Now Danielle was intrigued turning to her brother-in-law next to her side. The two goodhearted brothers obviously hadn't always been so grounded and mature as they gave a hint of today.

              “Well, at first I was considering taking her back so I could just get her out of my car and drive home, because it was getting really late. But then I figured that the same problem would keep repeating itself every time I would try breaking up with her, so I told her this romantic story about our family heritage being Native American, even though we're all blonde haired with blue eyes, and being Native American you had to figure out if we were really destined to be with each other or not. So,” He continued, all eyes glued on him. “I would flip this medallion in the air to then see which side it would land on. One side was a rose, the other a skull. Hint the turnout of each picture.”

              Greg's comical story made the tension around the table evaporate and having Jonathan fill up wine glasses for everyone, the dining room seats suddenly seemed exceedingly comfortable and a roaming giggling erupted to the stupidity of the tale.

              “Yeah, well, she didn't by my bull-shit romance story at all, so I simply pushed that cheap, toy medallion back in the pocket of my jacket and told her I had actually gotten an STD from sleeping around on her at camp that summer.” Insane laughter spread through the dining room, watery eyes being wiped down. “She got furious at first, telling me she would spread the rumor to everyone at school, but then suddenly her fury kind of just disappeared and out of nowhere she punched me right between my legs, really hard too, fisting her house keys into my jeans, before leaving the car. The window on the passenger side was rolled down and the last thing I heard her say when I drove off was how disgusting I was putting my junk into random people at camp, and that I needed to grow up.”

              The giggling around the table didn't stop when Sara squealed about the odds of him still having an STD that she didn't know about. When she shockingly realized where the scar on his upper thigh came from, the giggle around the table turned into pure outrageous laughter.

              The combination of wine, good company, and watching Greg trying to defend himself and his made-up STD to Sara made that Sunday dinner into one of the best Danielle could remember.

              Andy later defended himself against all kinds of acquisitions regarding a few girlfriends in high-school and college who had called the house demanding to speak with him when he had left them hanging. Some had even come stomping angrily up the steps to the house, wondering why he hadn't showed up to certain dates, or movie theaters, or picked them up in different places.  Poor girls.

              “At least I never had an STD.” It was the last thing he said holding up both his hands in defeat, looking jokingly at his brother, who innocently turned back to face a worry-looking Sara, pleading her to believe that he was telling her the truth.

              At that point, barrels of belly laughter exploded around the table, and Jonathan raised his glass for a cheer to romance among exes, and smilingly told Sara that she should probably hold off on Greg until he got himself checked out for that illness that might still be lurking in his pants.

              “I'm calling Dr. Stanton tomorrow morning and you better go unless you want to move back in here with your mom and dad.” Sara said angrily, devastating Greg, but making everyone else wheeze with laughter.

              “Damn it Jonathan, now I have to go get checked!” Greg cursed. “Do you know what they do down there when they test you? Ah, man, damn it. Damn you.”

              Jonathan just returned the accusation with a grin, a swig of wine going down his throat. “You started it man, telling us about your days as a hot stud making out with girls in cars.”

              “Well, I once got sent to the doctor, by my lovely Jo here, in an attempt to check my hearing, as she said I never seemed to listen to what she was saying.” Vernon blurted out in an attempt to save his son from falling further down the latter. “But it turned out my hearing was perfect and I just tuned her out when she was talking, so I had to bribe the doctor into writing me a note saying my Eustachian tubes were swollen from a bad cold.” He continued. “I guess we're all accused of something. But at least I didn't have to pull down my pants in front of the pretty female doctor I had at the time, only let her shine that little pretty flashlight in my ear. I wish you good luck with your pants tomorrow, son.”

              And with a little nod aimed at Greg, he raised his glass and downed the red liquid to everyone's enjoyment.

Chapter 13

              “This is so embarrassing”.  A quiet whisper slipped out of Danielle's swollen lips, where she sat with closed eyes on the couch next Jo, who kept rubbing and patting her hand gently. The birthday guests had left the party leaving them to themselves.

              Jo was the perfect mother. Danielle wished she was hers. But marrying Andy made Jo's hers in one way, and she knew she would never find a better motherly figure even if she kept searching for the rest of her life. Perhaps her own mother could take some lessons from Jo, and actually focus more on what a family should be like, and what a child deserves from a family, instead of running off after another companion as soon as the bank account seemed to dwindle into the low numbers.

              “Sweetie, there is nothing to be embarrassed about here, please tell me what happened.” She said softly.

              Andy parked his rear on the coffee table and let his elbows lean forward on his knees and placed his warm hands on Danielle's legs. Vernon locked the door and was already busy in the kitchen making them all warm, dark, vanilla scented coffee. Just the way he knew Danielle loved it.

              “I'm not even quite sure how he found me. Maybe he followed me throughout the city, or maybe he's been watching me for, who knows how long?”

              “Where were you today when he met you?” Jo's fingers intertwined with Danielle's while asking all the right questions trying to make out what her day could have possibly been like.

              “I...” Danielle took the wet towel away from her left cheek and rubbed it slowly down over the side of her arm that was resting against Jo. A purple bruise already appeared just beneath the shirt sleeve of her blouse, and Jo and Andy could almost trace four fingers and a thumb print where Brian had held her tightly, shaking her from left to right telling her to be aware of what to come.

              “I had just texted with you on the phone, Andy, before I put all the paper stuff I had just bought into the trunk of the car.” She continued. “I've always loved that park right next to the building so I decided to just take a quick stroll before I headed back home here. While I was standing there on the path just enjoying the moment I guess, I noticed someone walking lazily on the same path, not rushing against me, or trying to look intimidating, so I didn't really bother looking twice.

              At the same time I decided to head back to the car since I wasn't alone anymore and accidentally bumped my shoulder against his when I turned around. At that point I guess we both stopped and before I even realized who it was he had already grabbed my arms. God, he held me so tight, just squeezing his hands around my arms.”

              Three pairs of eyes looked straight down on the bruise which Danielle tried to blot gently, cooling down the still stinging sensation of the skin.

              “I had no chance to push away, and when the first few slaps came over may face, I guess I was just too stunned and scared to fight back. He always made me feel so weak, and for some reason all those feelings came rushing back when he hit me. I mean, it should have been obvious to hit him back and struggle a little to get away from him, but... I couldn't do anything. I just figured I was used to him hitting me that I just wanted to wait him out until he was finished. His hand eventually got tired I guess, and instead he... tried to kiss me. At that point I tried to get the hell away but to keep me in place he bit my lip. Ahh... this is nuts.” She closed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

              Andy's hands left her legs to cover his face. His strong fingers rubbing up and down his forehead and up into his blonde locks on the top of his head. Man was he gorgeous to look at. Even in shock and pain, sitting on the table in front of her, watching him in despair, he was gorgeous.

              What had she done to deserve him? She brought nothing but trouble and pain to the table, and why he still stayed by her side after all these years was just a mystery.

              His hands dropped down and join into a big fist between his legs. He leaned even further into her legs and ran a finger in circles over one of her knees.

              “Alright, here's what we'll do,” He started. “We'll have to go to the police with this again making sure they know how the whole system fucked up and that there is documentation that he is not sane to be out on the streets, and that he probably has been following you without your knowledge for a while. Why else would he know where to find you and pounce on you in the park?”

              “Oh, he also told me that you might want to check the security around your work site in West Ashley... I'm sorry.”

              “Oh, so he's keeping tabs on me now as well. Great. Just fucking great. Alright, I have to go make a phone call and tell the crew not to come back on Monday until I've sorted it out making sure everything is fine over there. I can't have my crew fall off things, or cranes breaking hurting people.”

              “Because of me...” Danielle watched the frustration and anger build inside Andy's chest. His eyes became thin as needles and he was nervously chewing on the inside of his mouth.

              “No, not because of you. Because of him. Alright. I'm just surprised that he never fucking gives up. When will enough be enough?”

              With that statement he slammed his hands on his legs and pushed himself up to head out of the living room and disappeared around the corner to the kitchen.

              “Do you really think Andy will stick around, or do you think he might leave me if nothing changes?” She said nervously to Jo still sitting next to her.

              Jo still held her hand tight and brought it to her mouth to give the outside a slight peck before she tilted her head and looked adoringly into Danielle's red streaked whites.

              “Darling, Andy loves you more than anything in the world. Even more than he loves me, his mom, and that should say something! Your past may be violent, and frankly quite disturbing, but we will fix this. We all will help you fix this. I've raised my boys and my little girl to not give up just because the going gets tough, and now here we are, it's tough but we'll fix it. Don't worry about Andy's love for you. He might be angry right now when things seem to affect him directly, but he'll come around. Flames might be high or low but the burn and glow will always be there, never really fading away.”

              “Ha, now I know where Andy gets all his fancy talk and romantic smooch from.” Danielle finally released the tension building in her shoulders and let out a cathartic laugh.