Dynamite (Stacked Deck Book 10)

by Emilia Finn

  “Coming right up.” Sonia jumps to her feet and immediately begins plopping plates into a pile.

  Since I think I need a minute, I stand too, and follow her around the table to collect used dishes. I pass Christopher, and smile when he winks, and the second I’m in the kitchen and Sonia pulls a fresh apple pie from the oven, I say it. I say the words that can’t be contained any longer.

  “I want to see pictures of when you and Christopher married.”

  “You…” Stunned, Sonia turns to me and tilts her head to think. “Huh?”

  “Pictures.” I storm across the kitchen and snag a framed photograph from a cabinet that holds fancy plates. “I need younger. Do you have something from his twenties?”

  “Um… sure.”

  Sonia sets the pie on the stove to cool for a moment, and leaves the kitchen. She comes right back with a silver frame with beveled edges. She passes it over, and smiles when I hold it the way a woman might hold a newborn baby.

  I turn the frame over and catch a glimpse of their wedding day: a heavy veil sitting atop Sonia’s head, the tulle tickling the bottom of her new husband’s chin. My eyes go to him, naturally, since he was the one I asked about, and I’m not left wanting. Handsome as the devil himself, roguish and, dare I say, a little dangerous.

  “He was bad, wasn’t he?” I look up and study my great grandmother’s twinkling eyes. “He was daring and dangerous and kept pushing you out of your comfort zone. Right?”

  She smiles and goes back to the pie to begin serving. “Yes. He was a very dangerous man, from a very dangerous time. He fought in the war, Allyson, and he was hurt. He came home to me, but he wasn’t the same. He’d lost some of his innocence, some of his easygoing manner.” She places a slice of steaming pie into one bowl and works on the next. “Christopher was young when he went away. Very, very young. And though we knew each other from school, we were not yet together. Perhaps he was too shy to ask, or maybe he wasn’t sure I returned his feelings. Regardless, he went away to fight, and when he came home a few years later, he was a changed man.”

  “That’s really sad.” I clutch the framed photograph, and exhale a sad sigh. “The things he must have seen, and done…”

  “Back when I was young, it wasn’t all that proper for young ladies to have an extended education. Rather, we were to be seen and not heard, if you get my drift. But during the war, manufacturing plants still needed to run, so that was the start of a revolution for women. We were allowed to work, and we showed we could work hard. We were strong, and smart. As for me…”

  She serves the next slice into a delicate bowl. “Well, I was still young, I had no children yet, unlike most everyone else I knew. So I had spare time when many others did not. I worked during the day, and I studied at night. My career was calling to me, so I pored over textbooks ad nauseam, I studied people around me, I helped women inside those factories when they thought they might go insane from the pressures from all around them. Their husbands were away, and they had no clue if their men would be okay. It was horrible. These women were raising children during a conflict that could have potentially ended the world, and they were working in a sweatbox in the summer, a frozen building in the winter. We worked, and we talked. So by the time Christopher came home, I guess I was more inclined to listen, truly listen when he spoke.”

  Sonia places the third and final piece of pie into a bowl, then she moves to the freezer and takes out a tub of ice cream. “I didn’t make this,” she sheepishly admits. “But it’s creamy and delicious.”

  “I believe you.”

  Smiling, I lean against the counter and study the picture of my great-grandparents. She’s dainty in front of him, small and perfect. And he’s possessive but adoring. He’s large, and holds her close with worn and scarred hands. His eyes glint with danger, but the smirk, the ‘I got her, and I’m never letting her go’ is what makes him personable again.

  “So, he came home to you?”

  “Yes. I guess he’d had a little time to think things over, so when he came back, he told me we were together, and that unless I had any true objections, we would marry that month.”

  “That month!” I clap a hand over my mouth. “He just makes a decision, and that’s that?”

  She snickers and shakes her head. “He gave me the out. I could raise an objection. And I did, don’t you worry, I did. Christopher was troubled, his eyes weren’t the same as they were before the war. He had scars that reminded me over and over how close to the end he’d come while away. We… uh….”

  She leans back and makes an effort to look toward the room we came from before continuing. “Back then, a man and a woman were to marry before they engaged in…” Her lips crinkle the way mine do when I’m embarrassed or mad. “Um…”

  “Sex,” I blurt out. “You had pre-marital sex.”

  “And it was so good,” she blushes. “I was not yet ready to marry, but we were moving forward anyway. He had ghosts, Ally… Christopher had his demons. But after years and years of working with those women while they thought they couldn’t go on another day, I guess I was able to take the same approach with him.”

  “You became his therapist?” I squeak out. “Seriously?”

  “Well…” She shrugs. Then she nods. “Sure, in an unofficial capacity, I guess. I was not yet qualified, but I’d worked hard over the years. And he only needed someone to talk to about it all. So we spent time together, we talked, and as the year went from cold, to hot, back around to cold again, he and I had built the foundations of what would be the life we now live.”

  “And you were having sex.”

  She snorts and places the lid back on the tub of ice cream. “You certainly know how to take out the passion and romance, and leave us with the physical act.”

  “But the physical act felt goooood.”

  She laughs. “Yes, it felt very good. So his proposal that we would marry the year before went without agreement, but as the year progressed, and I was introduced to and got to know this post-war version of him, I found myself very much in love. He was devilish and dirty, he was dangerous and wild, but he was the best thing I ever said yes to in my whole life, and I say a prayer every single night, a thank-you for allowing us to grow old together.”

  She meets my eyes and lets her smile drop. “Not everyone gets that, and that might be the biggest injustice in this unjust world.”

  “I’m in love with your husband,” I sigh. “He got me with the slippers, and then he winked.”

  She allows her smile to grow again, to take over her whole face. “The wink gets me too. He knows he looks so silly when he does it. Which, I guess, is much of the charm.” She glances to her right and squeaks, “Oh!” when a long-legged spider trots out from beneath the kitchen cabinet as though he’s merely out for a stroll. “Scared the effing life out of me.” Then she turns to the doorway that leads to the dining room. “Chris—”

  “Here. I’ve got it.” I go to the doors beneath the sink and search for a can of bug spray, but instead of spraying him white and leaving him to die, I uncap the can and scoop him up into the lid.

  There’s a line when it comes to these pests that I stick to with firm belief. The horrible killing kind are to be ruthlessly murdered and tossed into the trash. But the harmless kind who eat other bugs and leave us alone, I can afford a little mercy as I scoop them up and place them in the garden.

  Coming back inside and closing the door that leads out back, I go to the sink and wash my hands. “I have shivers all down my spine now.”

  “Girl!” Sonia remains paralyzed by the counter. “I can’t even… You just…. You picked the damn thing up! What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Snickering, I dry my hands and pass the framed wedding photo as it lays discarded on the counter. “You look just like my mom, by the way.”

  Spiders forgotten, Sonia’s eyes snap to mine. “Huh?”

  “Or, I guess I should say she looks like you. That wedding picture…” I smile and grab tw
o plates of pie and ice cream. “Mom has one just like it. With the handsome man, the devilish eyes, the big hands.” I meet Sonia’s eyes and let myself fall just a little deeper into this family I never knew. “You and Mom look almost like twins, and the irony is, you married similar men. Not the same, but similar.”

  We walk into the dining room where Christopher remains exactly where we left him, and with that smirk he does, he watches us serve him. I set his plate down by his hand, smile when he looks up into my eyes, then I shake my head and walk away, because there’s at least a tiny part of me who is crushing on my great-grandfather. And another part of me, a much bigger piece, sees another person in my mind. Another dangerous man, another misunderstood soul who only needs someone to listen to him.

  “You should call your mom when you go home,” Christopher says around a mouthful of pie. “Get her here and let a man see you all in one room.”

  “It’s a bit like a time lapse video, right?” Sonia eats her ice cream and studies me with smiling eyes. “Three women who look eerily similar, all at different stages in life.”

  “It’s too bad you never had a daughter,” I say. “You had a son, which broke the chain of women.”

  “I told them at the hospital I ordered a girl.” Sonia shrugs and tries to speak without laughing. “I got that boy, and he was sweet and all, but I was so sure I ticked girl on the order form.”

  “You win some, you lose some.” Christopher sits back and eats while studying us with a distinct air of ‘I’m the king of this castle.’

  It makes me think about our brains, versus our bodies. One ages, but does the other? Is my great-grandfather still that twenty-year-old, pre-marital-sex fiend who demanded a bride, but now he lives inside an eighty-year-old’s body?

  And if so, that seems such cruel punishment from the universe, after surviving so much beforehand. A war, and separation, demons and death, marriage, children, then a son who didn’t want to be part of the family anymore. Birthdays and Christmases, anniversaries, and so much more. A person can work through it all, survive it all, only to then be rewarded with a body that will eventually fail.

  It all seems so cruel.

  “The chain was broken,” Christopher murmurs seriously and studies me from under thick, dark lashes. “But then we got a phone call, a request for you to sit in on your Gigi’s sessions, to learn from her, and we knew…” He smiles and sets his spoon down. “We knew the chain would be repaired.”

  Luke

  Back in therapy

  “Good morning, Luke.” Sonia sits on her fancy chair, with her fancy suit, and her fancy heels, with her fancy hair tied back, and a fancy new manicure tapping the outside of her fancy teacup.

  And right beside her, my fancy friend who is yet to acknowledge she wants to fuck me until we pull a hamstring.

  “Morning.” I close the door with a soft snick and make my way inside the room. “You ladies feeling frisky today?”

  Allyson closes her eyes and moves her head in an almost imperceptible shake of disapproval.

  “I feel wonderful,” Sonia answers, then she looks to Allyson and says, “And word on the street is Ally is good too.”

  At that, Allyson’s cheeks warm, and her eyes pop open. “Um…” She lets her gaze flick between me and her boss. “Sorry. Yes, I’m good. Thank you for asking.”

  “You tired?” I sit on the couch opposite the fancy women and lean forward. “Late night?”

  “Uh…” Sonia looks between me and Ally with a narrowed gaze. When neither of us break or spout off about spending a night together recently, she clears her throat and goes into her practiced spiel. “Firstly, I must ask again, like I must ask each time we’re here. Luke, Allyson would like to sit in on my sessions, to learn and observe. It is your decision completely, without pressure, if she can stay. It will not—”

  “She can stay.” I study Ally’s eyes. “Why are you tired? It’s Monday. Were you out late last night?”

  “Err…” Lost, Sonia tries her damnedest to pull my attention to her. “Why don’t we start with you, Luke? How have you been? How are things with your family?”

  “Things are good. Dad misses you, but he’s too shy to say so. You should maybe call him and tell him you adore him.” I smile for just a moment. “He would love that.” Then back to Ally. “Why are you tired?”

  “I had dinner last night at… uh…” She hides something. She’s omitting information. “With people very special to me.”

  “A man?”

  Ally’s eyes flash wide with shock. “Luke, I don’t– Can you—”

  “Did you have dinner with a man?” I press. “That’s all I’m asking.”

  “Oh… dear.” Sonia grits her teeth and fusses with her teacup. “I see.”

  “No!” Allyson jumps like someone poked her with a cattle prod. “You don’t see. He’s just being Luke, and Luke never minds his own business. He’s mad because I was getting into his head last week, so now he’s going to try to—”

  “You left your bobby pins at my place the other day.” I smile when Ally groans and Sonia jolts. I look to my therapist and let my smile grow. “Friday night was a night for the books, doc. Your girl was at Rhino’s. She wanted a little of the nightlife, I guess.”

  “Luke! Stop.”

  “And you know Rob and I like a night out just as much as the next guy.”

  “Luke! Are you trying to get me in trouble?”

  “I saw her from across the room, I saw her hair. It’s hard to miss.”

  “Stop it.”

  “So I excused myself from the woman I was previously speaking with, trotted my ass across the club, and oh boy, was I rewarded when I got there.”

  Past her shock, and straight into intrigue, Sonia swaps her teacup for a notebook, and presses pen to paper. “You were speaking with someone else? A romantic entanglement?”

  “Well,” I smirk just to piss Allyson off. “She wanted to get tangled. But it didn’t go there yet. Then I saw Ally, and it was all over for me.”

  “You saw Allyson at Rhino’s?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And so you decided to drop one entanglement in hopes to gain another?”

  “Well, mostly I just wanted to hang out and get drunk with her. But sure, I dropped one so I could hang out with—”

  “My great-granddaughter.”

  “Your great—” My voice cuts off on a painful gurgle.

  Shit just escalated, and although I’m normally the guy holding the lit fuse, this wasn’t one I willingly put fire to. I came in here planning to put Ally on notice – my messed-up way of telling her I kinda missed her since she left – but now I look like she does, like someone ran over my dog.

  “Come again, Miss Rivera?”

  “Are you happy now?” Ally snaps. “You did not have to imply something that did not happen. But no, you push, push, push, because you enjoy making people sweat. Now you’re probably going to get me fired, my great-grandmother assumes I’m a jezebel who sleeps with her clients, and you’ve got her beady eyes burning the side of your skull.” She pegs a pen cap at my face while Sonia only watches in shock. “I hope it was worth it, you jackass.”

  “I, uh…” Sheepish, I look between the two women, and desperately search for any resemblance. “Are you punking me? Is this some twisted part of my court-ordered therapy?”

  “We do not punk in this office, Luke.” Sonia places her unused notebook back on the table and takes her tea. “Allyson is my son’s daughter’s daughter. My great-granddaughter. How does that make you feel?”

  “Um…” I swallow and accept the smackdown I was too arrogant to expect before I walked in here. Ally sits back with an almost silent groan. “I guess I feel a little stunned. I didn’t realize you had kids. Honestly?” I meet Sonia’s eyes. “I kinda thought clients like my dad were your kids.”

  “Perhaps there’s truth in that,” she concedes. “My son left us a long time ago. We had a difference of opinion about a lot of things, s
o he preferred to be someplace else. That left me here, in this town. It would be a lie if I said I didn’t then put my energies into other people’s children.”

  “Now it bothers me that my dad loves you.”

  Sonia frowns. “Explain.”

  “Well, he’s been seeing you since before I was born, so by the time Rob and I arrived, you were very much a part of my family’s life. That makes you my family. Which makes Ally my long-lost cousin.”

  Sonia laughs. “Well, not really, but I follow your intent.”

  “I don’t want Ally to be my cousin, because I’ve had some seriously unholy thoughts about her. A lot. And this morning, I touched my—”

  “Wow,” Ally groans and presses the heels of her hands to her eyes. “He’s just throwing it all out there.”

  “I’ve thought naughty things about your great-granddaughter, Sonia. I saw her first at the bakery, and damn if her eyes didn’t send a jolt straight down to my—”

  “Luke!” Ally practically shouts. “Stop it.”

  “Then I found her in here, and now she’s the sexy woman with the nice eyes… and a brain! And she does this thing with her lips when she’s mad.” I look to her, point. “Like that. I’ve hit the jackpot.”

  “Oh my god. Ya know what?” Ally stands and looks to Sonia. “I’ll see myself out. I’ll probably quit my degree now, too, since it’s apparent that I’m not a therapist, but rather, I need a therapist.” Then she turns and burns me with her glare. “You’d better tell her the damn truth about Friday night. We did not have sex, and it pisses me off that you’ll let people think we did.” With that, she smacks me on the forehead with her palm and walks away. “Asshole.”

  Then she slams the door on her way out, and leaves Sonia and I sitting in a tense standoff of silence.

  “So…” I rub my forehead and try my best not to smile. It would be a bad move on my part to smile right in this moment. “It’s probably best that I tell you the actual truth about Friday night before she comes back in here with a flamethrower.”

  “You slept with my great-granddaughter?”