It Wasn't Me

by Vale, Lani Lynn

She shrugged.

  “I’m just glad that he’s getting to go home,” she murmured, bringing her hand up to rub her face.

  My eyes caught on the healing tattoo on her finger and something possessive inside of me had me stiffening my spine in resolve.

  If she wasn’t pregnant…she would be soon.

  Because I was going to make it so.

  Her eyes slid to the side, and her face lit up.

  “There!” She pointed to the counter.

  My eyes went where she was pointing and sure enough, under a stack of mail, sat the shining sparkle of my keys.

  “Whoops,” I said as I walked toward them. “I remember doing that now.”

  She snickered.

  With them in my hand, I was about to say ‘let’s go’ when my phone rang.

  I sighed when I saw my brother’s name on the screen.

  “Yeah?” I answered.

  “You need to come pick up your uniform at the house,” he said. “I was going to try to drop it by, but I didn’t get the chance. Plus, I need to talk to you about something.”

  I looked over at Piper who was gathering her purse up into her arms.

  “Okay,” I said softly. “We’ll be there in a little while. We’re running by the grocery store first, then we’ll stop by there on our way home.”

  “Our?” Downy rumbled into my ear, catching on my slip.

  “Yeah, our,” I confirmed.

  Then I hung up.

  “Who was that, and where are we going?” she asked softly.

  I shoved the phone back into my pocket and pocketed my keys as well.

  “That was my brother,” I said. “He has my new uniform for work.”

  “New uniform?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed. “Apparently I’m in some new department that they just opened up. And it requires a new uniform.”

  She frowned.

  “Well, okay then.”

  ***

  Piper

  I’d found a few things out about Jonah today that I didn’t like.

  Like the fact that he wasn’t a junk food addict like I was.

  He didn’t like anything sweet, and by anything, I mean nothing. No ice cream. No cookies. No snack cakes or bakery items. Every single item that I put into his cart he had something to say about.

  Meaning, by the time we were done wandering through the aisles, I was fairly sure that our marriage wouldn’t last.

  “This isn’t going to work,” I found myself saying. “We’re going to have to file for divorce.”

  Jonah’s amused eyes met mine as he started to unload the stuff that we’d bought onto the conveyor belt behind an elderly man that looked like he was moving at the speed of a sloth.

  “Why is that?” he asked.

  I gestured to his pile of food, and then to mine. “Do you see the difference here?”

  “Yeah,” he grunted. “Your stuff will cause you to have diabetes later in life, and mine won’t.”

  I flipped him off. “I feel like I’m getting reprimanded every time you look at me when I put something into the cart.”

  “That’s because you’re eating unhealthy. Your body needs proper nutrition to run at optimal performance. You’re feeding it junk,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m doing just fine. But, just to let you know, I have a sweet tooth. It’s something you’re going to have to get over. And if you give me that judgy look every single time I eat a Twinkie in your presence, I’m going to have to throat punch you.”

  The chuckle that left him was sexy as hell.

  I crossed my arms and glared at him.

  “That was lazy,” Jonah muttered.

  At first, I thought he was talking to me, but then I turned to find him staring at the woman that had been perusing the shelves behind me.

  “What?” the woman hedged.

  I could tell that she was embarrassed by the way her face was flushing with guilt.

  “Walk your happy ass back to the cold section and put that back,” he ordered. “It doesn’t take much time or skill. You should be fine with the IQ you obviously bring to the table.”

  My mouth thinned as I tried to hold the laughter at bay.

  In the time that I’d been married to Jonah—a whole, blessed five days—I’d learned a lot about him.

  One, he snored. Loudly.

  Two, he was short with everyone and everything—even me in the mornings. But only in the mornings when he first woke up and didn’t have his coffee. Nine times out of ten, or the five out of seven days that I’d woken up next to him, he’d been in a bad mood until he’d either A, gotten his coffee or B, gotten his other fix—me.

  Three, he was honestly one of the greatest men that I’d ever met in my life, and that was saying something because I’d grown up with some great ones.

  The woman sneered and snatched up the meat that she’d tried to stick on the shelf with the candy and stomped away.

  Jonah turned to start pushing our items closer to the cashier who was finally able to help us.

  And when we got out to Jonah’s truck, I was chuckling softly to myself.

  “You just say what you mean, don’t you?” I teased. “Am I going to have to learn how to protect myself?”

  He scoffed and started to put the groceries into the backseat of the truck.

  When everything was in, he turned the cart around and shoved it hard in the direction of the cart return.

  It traveled all the way across the parking lot, into the cart return, and slammed hard into the poles that were made to contain the cart. The entire cart return clanged with the metal meeting metal with such force.

  I snickered and rolled my eyes.

  “You’ll never have to learn something like that,” he said. “Because I’ll always be there to protect you. But, I highly doubt that you’ve grown up with who you did without soaking up a few moves.”

  That was truer than true. My father had made sure that we all knew how to protect ourselves and damn well at that.

  I couldn’t count the number of times he’d put us in a choke hold and say, ‘Get out of it.’

  At the time it’d been play. It’d been something fun he would do with us, and us girls would laugh and squeak and try to get out of it and never accomplish it. At least at first.

  But then we’d gotten older.

  We’d gotten smarter.

  We’d also gotten more observant.

  If he was able to get the drop on us—which was rare—then we knew exactly how to get out of it…and quick.

  Quick enough that eventually he’d started to find new and inventive ways to try to trap us.

  Tickling was his favorite form of torture, and since I hated torture, aka tickling, I was very careful to pay attention and be ready for anything.

  And then the Army had happened.

  I’d also taken quite a few self-defense classes and had trained for a year and a half in Jiu-Jitsu before I’d quit when I’d been stationed overseas.

  “You’re right,” I admitted. “Dad taught us everything he knows.”

  The drive to Jonah’s brother’s house was quiet and short.

  After announcing that his mother was going to meet him there with the animals that she’d been watching for him, he hadn’t said another word as he’d driven through the quiet city streets.

  I’d sat quietly as well, worried and overthinking things as I tried to think about how I was going to respond to the questions I knew were about to be thrown our way.

  When we arrived, I was surprised to find that we were at a house not far from Jonah’s. Though, saying that, it was in a neighborhood and not with nearly the same amount of land that Jonah had.

  “This is nice,” I said softly.

  “Downy has three kids,” he said. “They’re not at home anymore, all of them off at college or beyond, and they’re considering downsizing. He said he wants to find a place on the lake, s
o this may not be theirs much longer.”

  That was a shame.

  It was beautiful.

  “Are you close to your brother?” I questioned.

  Jonah grunted out an ‘I guess’ and got out of the car.

  My lips twitched as I followed behind him, making my own way out onto the road and staring nervously at the number of cars that were in the driveway.

  I wasn’t sure what I expected when I walked up the path to Downy’s house with Jonah.

  But I hadn’t expected to see a dog that looked to be older than dirt to growl at us from its position on the pathway.

  When Jonah continued to walk toward the dog without a care in the world, I squeezed his hand.

  “Umm,” I said. “That dog isn’t going to bite you, is he?”

  “She,” Jonah muttered. “And Mocha is so old that I highly doubt she could even muster the strength to bite. At this point, she’s almost decoration. She gets up to pee. Walks to this spot right here, and then lays down for most of the day. If it gets hot, she walks to the shade and lays down.”

  “She looks very old,” I admitted.

  “She is,” he confirmed. “Downy probably should’ve put her to sleep a long time ago. At this point, he’s feeding her soft dog food out of a can because she has barely any teeth. But the vet says she’s healthy, so he doesn’t do what I recommend every time I see her.”

  The door opened and an older red-headed man that had quite a bit of gray rolling through his beard and hair opened the door.

  The dog turned her head and growled at him, too.

  “So, the dog isn’t picky about who she growls at,” I said, sounding amused.

  “Nope,” Downy confirmed. “Who are you?”

  Jonah, who I assumed would say ‘Piper Mackenzie,’ said exactly the opposite of what I expected him to.

  “This is my wife, Piper Crew,” Jonah rumbled as he pushed past Downy into the house.

  That left me standing there, Mocha in between Downy and me, staring at Downy with a look of shock on my face.

  His eyes moved down my body to where I was wringing my hands, and his gaze settled on the scabbing tattoo on my finger.

  His eyes flared and he blinked rapidly at me.

  “Did you just say your wife, Piper Crew?” he asked his brother.

  His brother who was already gone.

  His brother who was somewhere deeper inside of the house, leaving me outside with his brother staring at me.

  Mocha got up, and I heard her claws clicking on the concrete as she walked toward me.

  Desperate for a subject change, I looked down at the dog who was now staring up at me with something in her eyes that I couldn’t quite process.

  Then she walked up to me, gently grabbed me by the hand with her mouth, and started walking in the other direction toward the house.

  My mouth fell open when she stopped directly in front of Downy.

  When Downy didn’t move, she let my hand go, then barked ferociously at Downy.

  Downy, startled—and I didn’t know if it was due to the fact that he was startled at her barking at him, or startled that she’d actually moved—backed up.

  Mocha nudged me with her nose and kept doing so until I squeaked and made my way into the house.

  The first thing I saw was the younger version of Downy standing in the entryway, staring at me in shock.

  “You’re married to Jonah?” he rumbled.

  I looked back at Downy, who was a sexy older version of his son, then back to the younger version of him.

  “Yes,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m Piper.”

  The younger version held out his hand and said, “I’m Lock. Jonah’s my uncle, and I’m this one’s son.”

  I looked over at ‘this one’ who was shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose.

  I felt my lips tip up at the corner.

  “If it makes you feel better,” I said with a grin. “It was just as much of a surprise to us as it is to you.”

  Lock chuckled and wrapped his arms around my shoulder as he guided me into the living room where Jonah was.

  Jonah had his arm wrapped around a very beautiful red-head with long, wavy hair. She was laughing at something that Jonah said, and she was squeezing him tight, her head resting on Jonah’s chest.

  Rationally, I knew that the woman was likely also part of the family. But irrationally, I didn’t like that Jonah was hugging some other woman. Some other woman he’d left me outside for.

  My presence made itself known when a much younger German Shepherd came up to me and barked.

  Mocha, who I hadn’t realized had followed me in, walked up to my side and barked at the other German Shepherd, letting her support of me be known.

  “Uhhh,” Lock said. “I think Mocha actually likes somebody.”

  I looked down at Mocha, who’d parked her behind right next to me and leaned against my leg, and then I petted her.

  There were gasps throughout the room, even from my husband.

  I looked up, blinking when a woman came in from the kitchen and stopped in her tracks looking poleaxed.

  The woman was small like me. She had brownish hair that was streaked stylishly with silver. She had an athletic build, and she was holding a dry-cleaning bag with what looked to be a set of uniforms in it.

  I licked my lips when I saw her drop them on the ground in surprise.

  “Uhhh,” she said, sounding surprised. “What the hell?”

  I looked over at Jonah, who was staring at me in awe.

  “Behold,” he teased. “Piper Crew, my wife, the dragon tamer.”

  “Are you referring to yourself as the dragon, or Mocha?” Lock teased.

  I watched as he walked up to me out of my peripheral vision.

  “What’s so surprising?” I wondered. “She’s sweet.”

  The woman that’d come in the room last, who was obviously Downy’s wife seeing as he walked up to her and pulled her into his side, started to explain.

  “Mocha is very protective of her family,” she said softly. “But Mocha also doesn’t really like anybody. She’ll deal with us. She’ll even be affectionate every once in a while…but that’s just with us. A stranger is danger to her. She’s never met anybody that she liked…until you.”

  I licked my lips and continued to rub my hand between the dog’s ears.

  “And she sure as fuck doesn’t allow anybody to touch her, not even us,” Lock said as he reached down and tried to do the same thing I was doing.

  Mocha snapped at him, biting him on the hand.

  He laughed and wiped the drool onto his pants.

  “You’re lucky she doesn’t have any teeth,” Jonah admitted.

  That was true.

  If she’d had teeth, she would’ve hurt him.

  Speaking of teeth…

  “Where is your dog?” I asked.

  “That’s one of them standing in front of you,” a third woman said.

  I blinked, turned only my head seeing as Mocha was still leaning on me, and found a much older version of the men, only in feminine form, standing behind me.

  I inwardly winced.

  “Ummm,” I said.

  “Jonah, did I hear you correctly when you introduced her as your wife?” the older woman asked.

  “Yes,” Jonah didn’t beat around the bush. “You did.”

  I cleared my throat.

  The woman’s eyes returned to me.

  I held my hand out to her awkwardly. “Piper Mack…Piper Crew. Formerly Piper Mackenzie.”

  “Mackenzie…” Lock said. “Any relation to Sam Mackenzie?”

  Jonah’s mother took my hand as I answered. “Yes, Sam Mackenzie is my father.”

  Lock made a whistling sound with his tongue pressed to his teeth, then looked at Jonah. “Does Sam Mackenzie know you married the prodigal daughter yet?”

  I felt a nervous titter in my belly when I
thought about having to tell my father the big news tomorrow.

  He’d called when he’d gotten home from the hospital not too long ago announcing that he wanted a day before all the girly squeals returned to his home. I’d granted him that and told him that he had no choice about me coming to see him tomorrow, though.

  Then commenced a group chat with my mom, sisters, and reluctant father as we discussed what we were going to have for dinner.

  It was still on-going. I could feel the vibration of the phone in my pocket even now.

  “Macey,” Jonah’s mother introduced herself. “And obviously you’ve met my sons and Lock. The woman over there with Downy is Memphis, his wife. Their kids are Lock and Ares. Rune isn’t just left.”

  “Rune’s probably not coming back,” Ares announced. “She’s studying for her final nursing exam.”

  I winced. “Ewwww.”

  Macey’s eyes came to me. “You commiserate?”

  I nodded. “Yep. I’ve been a nurse now for years, but I still remember the awfulness that was nursing exams. Find the best right answer. The bad thing was, all of the answers were right. You just had to find the answer that was most right for the situation. It’s definitely a Catch-22.”

  “Here’s your uniform, Jonah.” Memphis held out her dry-cleaning bag to Jonah. “I had them dry-cleaned for you.”

  Jonah frowned when he saw it.

  “What the fuck is this supposed to be?” he asked, glaring at the bag.

  I looked more closely and saw that the uniform looked small. Very small.

  “The chief also texted me telling me you weren’t answering your phone. You have a meeting today at 1500.” He looked over at me. “If you can pull yourself away, that is. But make sure you actually go. I think you need to be there for this important stuff.”

  Jonah sighed, then looked at me. “I was going to go with you to meet with your sisters, but I have a feeling I’m going to want to go to this meeting.”

  I felt my lips twitch. “It’s okay. You can come afterward.”

  My sisters and I had agreed to meet up at Pizza King, the best pizza place in town, for an early dinner to catch up.

  I was going to use that time to tell them what had happened the past week, and also recruit their help in keeping my father calm.

  “That’s fine,” I said as he started to lift the plastic bag covering the uniforms to get a closer look.