“Smartass and bossy, what got into you today?” he asked.
“I’m just handling my man,” I answered.
His lip quirk turned into a full-blown laugh as his arms convulsed around me and he roared with his amusement.
I watched, nestling in and enjoying it.
I enjoyed it more when he noticed me doing it, dipped his head and kept doing it but with his mouth on mine.
Oh yes.
I enjoyed that more.
A great deal more.
And I showed him how much by sliding my arms around his neck.
At that, Jake got serious and I let him.
I enjoyed that even more.
So in the end, not only Amond but his crew and several of the members of Jake’s club got a good view through Jake’s office windows of just how much he liked my mouth.
And I didn’t care.
Not one bit.
* * * * *
“Okay, beautiful, this is what I see and what I see I’m gonna tell you and you gotta work some freakin’ magic or I’d say in about a week, a month or, from the way of Jake’s boy, a day, you’re gonna face Armageddon.”
This was whispered to me from Amond who’d leaned into me from his place at my side at the big rectangular table we were all sitting around in the function room at The Eaves.
I looked to him and raised my brows. “Pardon?”
“Right, you got a lot goin’ on so I’ll break this down. See your girl’s girl, she shows at your place, all tricked out and I mean tricked out, lookin’ good like she wants someone’s attention. But your man’s boy treats her probably like he’s treated her since they were kids seein’ as he’s probably grown up with her.”
My eyes drifted around the table, slightly confused at his words, until I put it together that “my girl’s girl” was Sofie and “my man’s boy” was Conner.
Then my eyes darted to Conner.
“Now, sweet Sofie, she didn’t like that seein’ as she tricked herself out for Conner,” Amond continued. “And after he was all friendly but nothin’ else, when he wasn’t lookin’, her face looked like the world was about to end.”
Oh dear.
“Then,” Amond went on, “we get to the restaurant and we’re walkin’ through and he just happens to be walkin’ behind her. He also just happens to see that there was not one but a fuckin’ slew of males, old and young, who got off on watchin’ the eye candy parade walk by. You. Your girl. Your man’s girl. And your girl’s girl.”
I looked from Conner, who was cutting his steak, to Sofie who let out a giggle at something her father said at her side. Then I swiftly looked back to Conner who was now very much looking at Sofie.
“Oh dear,” I said out loud this time.
“Yeah,” Amond agreed. “Your boy caught that girl gettin’ attention and suddenly the blindfold was yanked off. And she ain’t stupid. She’s noticed it. She just doesn’t know what to do with it. But what she does know is how to be goofy, cute and sweet and your boy Con is clearly all about that because he went from mildly interested to all over that shit in about ten minutes.”
“Damn,” I whispered.
“Now, I got three kids and all three of them are girls and I’ll tell you this, your boy even looked at them, I’d lose my mind. That Junior guy loves his wife. He loves his family. He’s all good. But he’ll stop bein’ all good when he cottons on to this shit. And the ones who talk soft are the ones to look out for ‘cause you don’t know what’s hit you when he explodes.”
I looked to Amond and declared, “Conner is a fine young man.”
To which Amond smiled a big white smile and replied, “You can say that, not bein’ a sixteen year old girl whose ass he wants to tap.”
I felt my eyes get wide, leaned in, and hissed, “I’ll have you know, Conner has abstained from sexual intercourse with at least two of his girlfriends.”
His brows shot up and his grin turned wicked when he asked, “A whole two?”
I harrumphed and settled my behind more firmly in my seat as I turned deeper to him and stated, “And one of them was quite shy and very lovely, just like Sofie.”
His head cocked to the side. “Jesus, you that tight with him?”
I took in a breath and shared, “Circumstances were such with one of his ex-girlfriends that this news came to light.”
“I bet,” he muttered, still smiling.
“He’s quite protective and thoughtful with his girlfriends,” I informed him.
“I bet,” he repeated, still smiling.
I started to get a niggle of anxiety and murmured, “Though he’s completely unattached now.”
“Won’t be for long,” Amond murmured in return.
I took in another breath and looked to Conner. Alas, when I did this I saw him smile. It was directed at Sofie so my eyes moved to her. I knew she caught it because her cheeks were becomingly pink and she was staring at her lap even as she reached for her water glass. This was a doomed endeavor, I knew too well, and I was right. She knocked it over and thus shot out of her chair, her father doing the same, both of them tossing their napkins to the spill.
My gaze went back to Conner to see him grinning rather knowingly and somewhat alarmingly handsomely at his plate.
Blast.
Amond chuckled.
I turned to glare at him.
At that point, I felt Jake lean into me on my other side and, lips to my ear, he said, “We’re fucked. Con’s on the prowl. Target: Sofie. Junior gets wind of that, he’s gonna lose his mind.”
I turned my head to him, lifted my brows with fake innocence, and murmured, “Hmm?”
Jake took in my expression, shook his head and declared, “You are so full of shit.”
“All right, so I noticed,” I admitted. “But only because Amond just pointed it out.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Noticed that’s been his entertainment all night but he doesn’t have to deal with a kid he wants to have everything he wants and a friend who wants to rip his kid’s head off.”
Although the situation was possibly dire, Jake’s words made me stifle a giggle and I repeated my advice of much earlier that day, “Why don’t we see how things play out?”
“I know how they’re gonna play out, Slick,” he returned. “See, I got klutzy and cute sleepin’ beside me at night so I know it’s sweet. And I got a boy who’s just like me. So I know what he’s gonna go for and now I gotta make certain he doesn’t go for it in the backseat of his car. I like my son. I want him on this earth awhile. And I like Junior. I don’t want to have to beat him to death in an alley for takin’ my son out.”
“You’re being very dramatic, Jake,” I pointed out. “I think should something happen, they’ll be quite sweet together.”
“You got the mind of a once sixteen year old girl. I got the mind of a once seventeen year old boy. And newsflash, Slick, so does Junior.”
I bit my lip.
Jake watched me do it then his eyes came back to mine and he said, “Right.”
I turned my attention back to the halibut on my plate but felt something strange and looked across the table.
Alyssa was sitting there between Amond’s bodyguard and his “other manager” and her eyes on me were huge as was the smile on her face. I watched as they darted comically and quickly to her side then she jutted her chin out and they darted across the table and back. She repeated this four times before she lifted a hand in a thumb’s up gesture then curled it in a fist and pumped it up and down three times before she turned her attention back to her plate.
I stared at her, nonplussed, until Jake again put his lips to his ear.
“Well, we got that goin’ for us. Alyssa’s fired up about her girl landing the high school big man. My son makes his move, you play that angle. I’ll keep an eye on Junior.”
Ah.
So that was what that was all about with Alyssa.
I turned to Jake. “Deal.”
He grinned at me, leaned in and touched
his mouth to mine.
“Gross!” Ethan shouted and both Jake and I looked at him in time to watch him announce to the whole table. “They do that all the time.”
“Just you wait until you get your turn, little man,” Amond advised.
“I’m not kissin’ Josie,” Ethan returned, looking a little sick.
“No, boy,” Amond replied. “When you get a woman of your own.”
“She’s gonna cook like Josie. She’s gonna dress like Josie. She’s gonna talk like Josie. But we’re just holding hands,” Ethan informed Amond superiorly and my heart jumped as my belly melted.
“At least you got good taste, even though I’m makin’ a pact with you that I’m callin’ you in fifteen years and we’ll see about that holdin’ hands business,” Amond replied.
Ethan grinned, likely only hearing that Amond was calling him in fifteen years, and agreed, “You’re on.”
Amond threw him a smile.
I reached out for my glass of champagne.
Jake reached for his beer and as he did so, slid an arm around the back of my chair, leaned behind me and said something to Amond.
But I wasn’t listening.
I was looking.
And I was feeling.
A table of friends from two different worlds, talking, eating, laughing and making a beautiful memory with me smack in the middle, able to drink it all in even as I felt my man close, his arm on my chair, claiming me.
And it was then I knew.
It wasn’t Jake Gran wanted me to have.
It wasn’t Jake and his kids.
It was this.
It was a good life. A happy life. Safe with people I cared about and trusted.
And in giving me Jake, this was what she gave me.
I felt my eyes sting, put my champagne back and focused again on my halibut.
After I took a bite, chewed and swallowed, I took up my champagne again and looked to the ceiling that was painted an attractive wine color that had a lovely wash to it that made it look like undulating satin.
I didn’t see the lovely paint job.
I wasn’t seeing.
I was speaking.
Silently.
Thank you, Gran, I said, lifted my glass minutely then took a sip.
I put it back to the table and turned my attention to the halibut.
* * * * *
The next afternoon, I watched Amond and his posse hand out hugs and handshakes around the Escalades making note that when Jake and Amond clasped each other’s forearms, they kept hold and leaned into each other, talking in ears.
I decided to ignore this. They were bonding and it wasn’t lost on me they were bonding over my troubles with my uncle and Boston Stone. But they were bonding, that was what was important.
I gave out my own hugs to Amond’s crew and he was the last for me.
He pulled me in his arms; he did this close, his arms going tight.
And he shocked me, honored me and wounded me when he whispered in my ear, “This is precisely what I wanted to give you, beautiful.”
I said nothing, just held on.
“Even not givin’ it to you, sure as fuck am glad you got it.”
I closed my eyes and held on tighter.
“Love you, Josephine,” he finished.
I opened my eyes and turned my head so my lips were right at his ear.
“And I love you, too, honey.”
He gave me a squeeze, pulled back an inch, looked deep in my eyes and smiled.
I took in a breath through my nose and smiled back.
He let me go and got in the back seat of one of the Escalades. As he was doing this, Jake got close and claimed me with an arm around my shoulders. The kids then claimed me just by huddling close.
Thus Jake, Conner, Amber, Ethan and I stood and waved Amond and his crew away.
And when we lost sight of them, we all walked together back into Lavender House.
* * * * *
The next morning, I followed Jake and Ethan out of the kitchen, pad of paper and pen in hand, scribbling.
“Babe, just give it to me and text me if you forget anything,” Jake ordered impatiently.
“Just a second,” I murmured, hurrying after them and still scribbling.
“It’s a grocery list, not the Magna Carta, Slick,” Jake noted. “Just give it to me. I gotta get my boy to school and then I got a session at the gym.”
I looked up and narrowed my eyes, reminding him, “I don’t understand why you’re going to the grocery store when I’ve got nearly all day to do it.”
He stopped at the door. “’Cause I’m gonna be in Blakely to meet my liquor distributors and no reason for you to go over there when I’m already over there. And anyway, you got a boatload of laundry the kids dumped on you last night.”
“I can do laundry, grocery shop and, FYI, also drop Ethan.”
“I’m already out on the road to get to the gym. No reason for you to be too.”
“Okay then, I—”
He cut me off to ask, “Babe, you ever done five people’s laundry?”
“No,” I gave him the answer he already knew.
“I haven’t either. But I’ve done four. Trust me. It seems the machines do all the work but that shit sucks your time. You got dishes in the sink and Pearl to take to Alyssa’s and it isn’t me who fired your cleaning service because they missed polishing the fuckin’ door.”
Ethan giggled.
I glared at Jake and I did this mostly because I hated it that he was right.
“That wood is over one hundred years old, Jake. It needs constant care,” I informed him haughtily.
Jake sighed before he replied, “Are you gonna give me the list or what?”
I tugged off the sheet on top of the pad and jerked it his way.
He took it, shoved it in his back pocket then asked, “Now you gonna give me a kiss or what?”
“I’m going out to the truck,” Ethan announced at this point.
But I was considering my options of kissing Jake or what.
Ethan went out the door.
“Baby, get your ass over here,” Jake ordered.
“I’m supposed to be helping,” I told him.
“Tonight, I get home, you get the fifty loads of laundry you’re facin’ done, I sit my ass down with my kids and eat the dinner you cooked, we’ll talk about how you aren’t helping.”
Hmm.
Well, the way he said that seemed helpful.
“Babe. Kiss,” he growled impatiently.
I moved to him. He swept his arms around me, dropped his mouth to mine and I didn’t give him a kiss, he took one.
And it was a lovely one.
When he was done, he ran his nose alongside mine and whispered, “Later, Slick.”
“Later, darling.”
I watched his eyes grin then I watched him go.
When the door closed behind him, I turned and tripped, nearly going down on my hands and knees. I caught myself just in time and looked at the floor to see what caught at my foot.
It was a tennis shoe.
I also saw its mate to the side and another pair of shoes. High-heeled boots.
Not mine. Amber’s.
I looked up and on the sturdy, handsome coat tree by the door I saw jackets and scarves thrown over it, only two of them mine.
I turned and wandered down the hall and took in an iPad, Ethan’s, sitting on the table in the hall, plugged in to charge under it.
I kept wandering and hit the family room. A laptop on the couch, Amber’s. Some discarded papers on the table by the armchair. I didn’t know what they were but I knew they were put there by Conner who did his homework there last night.
I moved to the kitchen and stopped, taking in the skillet on the Aga, the dishes in the sink, the juice glasses and coffee mugs beside it.
I wandered to the kitchen table and looked out the window at the gray blustery day, taking in a stormy sea, the fenced garden put to rest for the winter, the wiste
ria around the arbor cut back and ready to grow in and bloom come spring.
Next year, I’d plant pumpkins in that garden for Ethan and tomatoes in hopes I could get Conner to eat them.
I knew this.
I loved this.
This was the life I’d wanted since I could remember, the dream I thought had died that night my boyfriend sent me crashing down the stairs. The beautiful bubble of that dream had popped the instant I heard my shoulder crack and the pain radiated out, obliterating the dream to the point I didn’t even remember I had it.
But I remembered it right then.
That was why I stood looking out a window I’d looked out hundreds of times in my life. Perhaps thousands.
But this was the first time I did it at the same time I started laughing.
Which was the same time I began to cry.
* * * * *
Just after noon the next day, I stood in the pharmacy by the Redbox, jabbing my finger on the screen to make my selection. Or, more accurately, Ethan’s selection since his friends Bryant and Joshua were coming over that night for a sleepover and a video orgy (Jake’s words) was on the agenda.
I managed to get one DVD to spit out just as my phone rang.
I dug it out of my purse, saw the name on the display and took the call.
“Young Taylor, how are you?” I greeted boy Taylor.
“Update, Josie,” was his greeting to me.
I had learned since he got my number that boy Taylor was a bit of a gossip. A fair bit of one.
This was not unwelcome. In fact, it was always interesting and quite often amusing.
“Fill me in,” I ordered, jabbing the screen on the Redbox to make my next selection.
“Con’s having a time of it,” he shared readily. “Sofie is not shy. The girl is uber freaking shy. Every day this week he tried to execute an approach at lunch but she sees this and takes off running, even leaving her lunch tray on the table to do it.”
“Oh dear,” I murmured as the box spit out my second DVD.
I kept jabbing the screen as boy Taylor kept speaking.
“Today it was worse.”
“Oh dear,” I repeated.
“Yeah. She tripped when she took off. Took a header right in the cafeteria. Splat!”
I winced.
Poor Sofie.
Boy Taylor went on.
The Will Page 52