Wild Child (A Soul Sister Novel Book 1)

by Audrey Carlan

  She ran the flat of her hand over it lovingly then looked up at me. Her eyes were filled with tears when she said, “Thank you.”

  I handed Blessing’s to her. She reached for it, saw her beautiful name, and held it against her chest as she looked up at the ceiling. “God dammit, Tabby, why did you do this to us! I miss your face. I miss your awkward hugs. I miss your bony white ass dancing around Mama’s house taking pictures. I miss my sister!” She sucked back a sob. Sonia got up and pulled Blessing into her arms.

  “Me too, Bless, me too.” She cooed over her shoulder.

  “We didn’t get enough time with her.” Blessing sobbed which truly was a miracle. The woman was such a hard ass, she rarely shed tears. Her response to emotional conflict was usually to get mad and get even. There was no getting even when the person you’re mad at was no longer living.

  “Sister, it would never have been enough time.” I ran my hand down her back as Sonia served as her rock, holding Blessing up while she gave in to the grief.

  Addison gave the other girls their books and I went back, got Genesis’s and Mama’s, and brought them to where they were boxing up Tabitha’s small bedroom items. I handed the respective books to Gen, then to Mama.

  Mama put her hand over her heart and sighed, then took the book and immediately opened it. The first page was of course an image of Mama Kerri. It was a candid shot of her dancing in the yard. I remember exactly when it was taken too. Mama Kerri had just turned fifty. Tab would have been just hitting twenty. That had been a great party because we were all mostly old enough to enjoy it. I was around eighteen, and Addison, the youngest, was seventeen. Mama Kerri wore a bright yellow dress with flowers and vines running all over it. She was spinning around, her hair aloft, and the dress was flowing with the breeze.

  I ran my finger over the image as Mama Kerri stared at it. “She was extremely talented. I wish she’d known that,” I confided.

  Mama nodded. “I tried to tell her. Get her to enter photo competitions but she said her images were for her and her alone. To capture the good she had in her life, because it was too easy to focus on the bad.” She sighed, turned the page, and traced an image of Tabitha’s pixie-like features. There was no smile there. Tabitha had never been known for her smiles, but there was awe and wonder in her eyes as Mama Kerri had hugged her from behind and smiled into the camera that Tab must have been holding up.

  “You know, she once told me every beautiful picture she took she felt as though she’d covered up a negative moment in her life with something positive. I guess the only things she truly saw as positives were us.”

  I nodded.

  Mama Kerri stood up and looked around the now empty room. The bed had a few small boxes on top but that was it.

  “I’ll check on the girls, but I think we’re done here. I’ll meet the charity on Monday to ensure they pick up everything and I’ll leave the key with the manager.”

  With my mother and sister Gen in tow, we entered the living space. About twenty boxes were stacked up against the long kitchen wall. The rest of us had one box each with a few mementos and keepsakes.

  I laid my photo book inside the box where I’d put a few pieces of clothing and jewelry that reminded me of Tab as well as the framed picture she’d taken of the woman and child.

  In a little over two hours and we’d packed up our sister’s entire life.

  Two hours was all it had taken.

  I couldn’t say a weight was lifted off my chest or my grief suddenly disappeared, because it didn’t. What I did know was that after spending time there, seeing the photobooks she’d made of each of us, was that Tabby loved deep. Far deeper than we could have imagined. She didn’t always know how to share it or even how to say it most of the time, but she sure as hell showed it.

  Through these priceless books.

  Though her sacrifice.

  One by one, each sister walked out of the door until Addison and I were the last ones standing. The others already making their way back down the stairs to their cars.

  Addison took my hand and we looked around the empty space. It didn’t feel like Tabitha had ever lived there in the first place.

  Probably because she hadn’t.

  Tabitha’s true home wasn’t a place.

  It was us.

  Soul Sisters forever.

  And that’s how it would always be.

  One month later…

  Jonah pulled up in front of A+ Construction, got out of his car, and sauntered to the front door. I watched all that sexiness in a black suit with a crisp white dress shirt open the door. He’d already removed his tie, which was something I found fascinating because he told me it was the first thing he did when he got in the car after work each day. Apparently, it was his way of mentally shutting off work. Me, I just really appreciated the generous expanse of supremely yummy olive skin that showed through the two buttons he’d undone.

  He had his aviators on, and his dark hair was slicked back and to the side in a trendy but hunky hairstyle I loved on him. My man was the epitome of a hot FBI guy.

  “Um, I think you’ve got a little bit of drool there at the corner of your mouth,” Luca teased and chuckled. We’d been going over the company’s outstanding invoices.

  I nudged his shoulder hard and he side stepped playfully as Jonah approached. “Shut up! I can gawk at my man all day long. Look at him!” I gestured with the file I had in my hand toward Jonah.

  He pulled off his aviators and grinned. “Gawk away, baby.”

  Luca groaned and lifted his hands. “I’m going to go back to my desk. Just remember, these walls are glass. No hanky panky out in the open.”

  My mouth dropped open and if he hadn’t escaped, I would have smacked his chest with the file. “Can you believe that? Suggesting I’d get freaky at work. Pah-leese.” I narrowed my gaze and watched Luca head back to his office until I was hauled into the arms of my favorite guy.

  He tucked his head against my neck and kissed my neck. “I’d get freaky with you in a heartbeat. Glass windows be damned.” He grabbed my bum and ground against me.

  I let my head fall back and laughed at his shenanigans. “Cool it, buddy. We can hit Ryan’s place and have a little fun of our own. But what are you doing here? I thought you were picking me up at Kerrighan House to have dinner.”

  He smiled and looped his arms around my waist. “I have a surprise I want to share with you. Are you done here?”

  I glanced at the clock and noticed it was five-fifteen in the evening. “Heck, yeah. Let me grab my purse and tell the guys I’m out.”

  Jonah pecked me on the lips and then left me alone to go through my shutting down the office routine. Even if people stayed, I still made sure that the doors were locked, everything with personal information about clients was locked away, and any staff that were hourly left on time. Jonah busied himself shooting the breeze with his dad and brother.

  Over the last month a lot had changed. Jonah and Luca had made amends and the Fontaine clan were back to having dinners every Thursday together. His parents were ecstatic and gave me all the credit.

  After we’d cleared out Tabby’s house, I started that very next week working at A+ Construction. I’d been there three weeks now and it felt as though I was in the perfect place for me. I had only a month more to work on my coursework and I’d be done. Marco and Luca were thrilled with my skills and the rest of the staff had been giving them a thumbs up about my performance so far. All in all, it was awesome. I’d never been happier at a job and I couldn’t wait to learn more and work my magic wherever I could.

  Since I was too freaked out to go in my old apartment, and I wanted absolutely none of my sisters or Mama Kerri in that place, Jonah, Luca, his dad, and his mom went and packed up everything that was salvageable. It wasn’t a lot, but at least I didn’t have to buy a new wardrobe, books, CDs, and replace some of the special items I’d saved over the years from my family. The furniture was all gone, and I couldn’t have cared less. What the
y could save was currently all boxed up and in Jonah’s storage unit where he kept the few things he’d taken from his time with Helen.

  We still slept at Mama Kerri’s most nights. The first two times we tried to sleep at Ryan’s I ended up waking up Jonah and making him take me to Mama Kerri’s so I could check on Addison. I didn’t need to crawl into bed with her in order to sleep anymore, but the need to physically see her alive was still wearing on me. Jonah, Mama Kerri, and Sonia were openly worried about this coping mechanism so last week I started therapy. I’d only had one session so far, but I told the therapist what was happening and how it was a bit disrupting and she told me it was perfectly normal. She also gave me tips on how to slowly minimize the issue. The first was not getting into bed with her. Which was why I was now able to just peek in, see that she was breathing, and feel more comfortable. According to her, this would take time because my brain had created some connection to the trauma with Addison in a way that manifested itself in this need to see her alive.

  Jonah left the back just as I put my purse over my shoulder.

  “Ready?”

  “Yep.” I put my hand in his and let him lead me out to his car. I still hadn’t gotten a vehicle yet. It was on the list of things to do but I had Jonah bringing me to and from work which he told me flat out he needed to do in order to cope with his fear for my safety.

  Basically, we were all a little messed up but working through it and getting healthier every day.

  After twenty minutes I realized he was heading to Mama Kerri’s neighborhood. “I thought we were going to dinner?”

  “I have a surprise, remember?’

  “Oh yeah. Is your surprise at Mama Kerri’s?” I laughed.

  He shook his head. “Nope, but close.” He reached over and put his hand on my thigh where he gave me a little squeeze.

  I rolled my eyes and sighed overly dramatic. “FBI hot guy and man of mystery. You sure you don’t have a big red S and a blue spandex suit hiding under those government threads, mister?” I prodded at his ribs and he laughed.

  Randomly he put on a blinker and turned down a street two blocks from Mama Kerri’s. Then he pulled to a stop alongside the front curb of a pretty two-story house. It had a single big oak tree to the right of it that would give the house awesome shade in the dead of a humid Illinois summer. It looked like a quaint doll house with wooden slats in a slate-grayish seafoam green color with pristine white trim around the windows, the door, and the fencing that surrounded the open porch that ran the length of the house. There were white stairs that led up to a dark forest green door with four cute little window cutouts at the top half.

  The grass ran the entire front yard with a concrete path up to the stairs. The garage and driveway must have been in the back like many of the others in this neighborhood.

  “Wow, this is beautiful. Who lives here?”

  Jonah ignored the question or maybe didn’t hear it as he got out of car and opened my door. I shifted my booty to the side and took his outstretched hand as it wasn’t super easy to get in and out of a car in a tight-fitting pencil skirt, and I always dressed up for work. I had a serious job and I dressed as though I felt that way. Even though almost everyone there wore jeans and polo shirts with the company name embroidered on the chest.

  I followed Jonah’s quick movements up the stairs as a woman I’d never met before exited the front door. “It’s all set,” she said and handed him a set of keys. She looked at me and smiled huge. “You must be Simone.”

  I nodded. “And you are?”

  “Deni. Nice to meet you, but I have to run!” The woman of about sixty or so moved quickly down the stairs and around the corner where I assumed she drove off in the sweet Cadillac I’d seen parked on the other side of the house.

  Jonah opened the door and took my hand, tugging me inside.

  “What in the world?” I breathed as I tripped on my tall heels.

  “Surprise!” He said it with such joy, I smiled but had no clue why.

  I glanced around at the empty open living room. Everything was painted bright white. You could still smell the hint of fresh paint in the air.

  I shook my head as I walked around the empty living room. “I’m not sure I understand.”

  He grinned and then turned me around in the entryway to face the opposite wall. There in plain view was a series of four pictures. Two side by side and one on each of the other walls in the U-shaped space. Front and center was Tabitha’s picture of the woman and her child. Next to it was the first image of Tabitha and me as kids. The one to the left was the picture of all of us sisters and Mama Kerri in front of Kerrighan House that he must have got from one of the girls. The other wall had a candid shot of Jonah and me his mother had taken a week or so ago at dinner. I was sitting in his lap and he was cuddling me and making me laugh.

  I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.

  “Why are these pictures here?”

  He wrapped his arms around me from behind and put his chin to my neck. Together we looked at the images. “Because I want this to be our home. I bought it for us to start our life in. It’s twenty minutes from work for you, not far for me, and super close to your mother and my parents.”

  Tears filled my eyes. “You bought this for us?” I choked out and spun around, clamping my hands to his shoulders.

  “Want to build a beautiful life with you here, Simone. Marry you and have babies and bring them home here.”

  I covered my mouth and trembled. “It’s all too soon. Marriage? Babies? Oh my god!”

  He chuckled. “We have time for all of that. For now though, I thought we could start out in our own place and take it one day at a time.” His words reminded me of the promise that Addy and I had made in the hospital a month ago.

  “Really?” I let the tears fall. “But what if…” I swallowed against the emotion clogging my throat. “What if I can’t be away from Addy?”

  He wrapped his hands around my waist and pressed his forehead to mine. “Sweetheart, you’re working on that. And Addison has no desire to leave Mama Kerri’s any time soon. Now if you feel the need to check on her, she’ll be only two blocks away.”

  I smiled. Loving this man so much more for understanding my issue and not making me wrong for it. He wanted to help me through it but continue moving our lives forward.

  “How did I get so lucky that you were the man that saved me that night? The man just for me?”

  He kissed me softly. “The universe works in mysterious ways.”

  “I love you,” I whispered against his lips.

  “And I love you.” He kissed me for a long time as we stood in our new home together. He kissed me for so long we both became breathless.

  “Come on, let me show you the house.” He interlaced our fingers. He led me through the incredible open kitchen, the three empty bedrooms and two baths, including the awesome master suite with a killer shower that had these amazing white subway tiles. Everything was bright, white, and ready to move in.

  “This is the most amazing house.” I started to worry he’d spent way too much. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms in Oak Park wasn’t exactly cheap.

  “Room to grow into.” He waggled his brows. Jonah had been talking a lot about our future and having children. We both wanted a good-sized family. Him because he was Italian, and his mother wanted lots of grandbabies, which she talked about nonstop at every family dinner. Me because I had a ton of sisters and wanted to always be surrounded by the people I loved.

  He brought me down to a huge basement that was entirely empty. Meaning it literally had no walls.

  “Unfinished basement.”

  “Now I know why you could afford this place,” I teased.

  “My father, brother, and woman work at the best construction company in the state. They could whip this into something amazing so we have a big lounge area, another bathroom, maybe even a small kitchenette and another bedroom for guests.” He curled his arm around my back as we faced the large spa
ce. “It’s as big as the top half. It would double our square footage and my brother and father would do it at cost for materials. It’ll take a while. Probably six months or more as they’ll have to do it when they have time. Of course I’d help, plus Ryan will pitch in. We don’t need it right away so it’ll be no bother to have it in a state of disarray until it’s done.”

  I nodded, seeing his vision. “True. And we’ll have pride in it because we’ll make it our own.”

  He kissed my cheek. “Exactly. Now, I have one more surprise.”

  “More? You bought us a house!”

  He grinned wildly. “Something tells me this next surprise is going to be even better.”

  I scoffed. “Not possible. Did you see where I’m going to be living? It’s a palace compared to my old tiny apartment, your one room at Ryan’s, or even my old room at Kerrighan House.” I started to hop up and down as the reality set in. My man not only asked me to move in with him, he bought us a freakin’ house to build a life in. I squealed like a little girl.

  Jonah smiled so wide I had to wrap my arms around him and kiss him silly.

  After I’d shown my man my gratitude, he led me back up the basement stairs, through the house, and out into the yard.

  Oddly, he whistled and from around the corner came a bouncing, auburn-colored golden retriever puppy.

  Chills raced over the surface of my skin as I kicked off my heels, dashed down the stairs, and fell to my knees in the grass. The adorable puppy jumped all over me.

  “Oh my goodness, you are the most beautiful thing in the entire world, yes you are.” I put my face to the dog’s and she licked me like crazy. I snuggled her close and pressed my nose against her soft fur. “Who do you belong to, sweet girl?” I asked the puppy who wiggled all around until I let her go. Then she scampered around my form, jumping at me then running in a circle, then pouncing back. She had the most stunning auburn coat and dark amber eyes.

  “She’s ours, sweetheart. Well, our first baby.”