by Mia Malone
“Uh-huh,” Paddy grunted.
He felt someone sit down next to him, and then a strong hand took hold of his neck and shook it a little. It made his insides turn, and he had to swallow a few times to keep the contents of his stomach where they were.
“Exercise is good,” Joke said with the same glee as Gibson. “How far did you go, Sis?”
“Up to the tree line, there, by Wilson's old farm,” Jenny said, and Paddy assumed she was pointing although he honestly didn't care.
“You’re training for another marathon?” Gib asked.
Another what?
“Nah,” Jenny said. “Don’t have the time for it.”
Paddy wheezed out air and promptly started coughing.
There was a short silence, and then the morons laughed again. His heartbeat had slowed down to where he felt it was safe to try to move, so he twisted his head a little to glare at them under his brow.
“Maybe you wanna come next time?” he rasped out.
“Real men don’t run,” Gibson said coolly.
“You did good, Paddy,” Jenny protested, but added, “You look a little tired.”
“Not at all,” he said calmly.
“Excellent,” she said. “I really have to go, Mae’s going to need help serving breakfast in a little while, and I need to shower and bring the deliveries in first.”
He blinked.
“Okay,” he said after a while. “See you later, Jenny.”
“Okay,” she said and straightened. “Later, Paddy.”
Then she jogged away toward her home.
Jogged. Away.
He turned toward Gibson.
“She runs marathons?”
It took them a while to stop laughing and then Gibson left to get supplies he'd ordered. Joke remained next to him on the steps, and they sat in silence for a while.
“Fuck it,” Joke murmured after a while.
“Huh?”
“Didn't want you and her to do whatever it is you're doing. You've known each other for a long time, Pad. Couldn't see it happening.”
“Joke –”
“And then I come here and see you, dying on your front porch because she asked you to go running with her.”
Paddy smiled a little and murmured, “Yeah.”
“And I realized that you might know her, but there’s a lot you don’t know about her. I’m gonna laugh myself silly watching you trying to figure this out,” Joke said calmly.
“Can’t believe I didn’t know she runs marathons.”
“She hasn’t run one in years, man. Only did two.”
“Okay.”
“Aren’t you going to the office today?”
“Yeah,” Paddy said but didn’t move.
“You can’t get up, can you?”
“I’m not sure,” he confessed but had to grin when Joke’s laughter boomed.
“Come on, old man, I’ve got you,” Joke said, put a strong arm around his torso and got him up on his feet.
Everything hurt.
“Take a hot shower,” Joke said, jogged down the steps and called out with a grin over his shoulder, “Don’t mess with my sister, she’s a badass.”
Then he was gone, and Paddy stood there staring after him. He wasn’t going to mess with anyone in the next few days. He wasn’t even sure he’d manage to walk inside.
***
Jenny
After my shower, I went into the restaurant where Lee was already busy together with Mae. They both started laughing when I walked through the door, and I stopped to stare at them.
“That was just plain mean, Jenny,” Lee said as Mae pushed past me to get tables ready for customers.
“What?”
“Gibson called, and he was laughing so hard he almost drove into Mrs. Peters on Lowe’s parking lot.”
“What? Why?”
“Jenny…”
She looked at me with a grin I couldn’t interpret, and I didn’t even try.
“Lee, what are you talking about?”
Her grin faltered, and she slowly put down the bowl she had in her hands.
“You didn’t know?”
I growled a little, and she walked over to me.
“Jenny, you almost killed Paddy today.”
I blinked.
“Gib said he hasn’t run since high school.”
Oh, God.
“But he's doing yoga, and he's really…” I trailed off when I saw the look on her face and remembered how pale Paddy had been when I left them in front of his house. “Why didn’t he say something?”
“Probably because he’s got a dick?”
“Stupid fool,” I murmured, and started to get my diner in order, but I couldn’t help smiling a little.
I waited an hour, and then I called his cell. He didn't pick up, so I sent him a text, asking if he was okay. When another hour had passed he still hadn't replied, I started to worry. Maybe I had killed him. Then I cursed a little because I should have asked him if he was okay. He was lean and fit, and since he didn't say a word, I'd just assumed he was okay but what if he'd had a heart attack?
When my phone rang, I snatched it up, but it wasn’t Paddy. It was his daughter.
“Hey, Annie!” I said.
I loved Annie Callaghan and always had. When I saw her for the first time, I had expected to hate her. I'd always disliked her stupid, whining mother, because of who she was to Paddy but even more because she was such an intensely dislikeable woman. Joke had asked me several times if I thought Paddy had gone insane, and when Gibson came home for a visit, he tried to talk to Paddy about it. Their talk had ended in a fight, and it had taken weeks for the bruises to fade. And Paddy had stayed with Marybeth.
When I couldn’t put it off any longer without being rude, I’d gone for a visit, with a present and a wide smile firmly in place on my face. Martin had been away for a few days, and Marybeth had been in her room or something, so it had been just Paddy and me. Annie was sleeping in her father's arms, and he looked down on her with so much love on his face that my eyes burned. I walked over to look at her, mostly because it was expected, but then she opened her eyes and smiled at me. People said babies didn't smile, but I knew, and Paddy knew it too. He handed her to me, and I felt her small, warm body against mine, and fell in love.
Marybeth had not been a good mother. She'd done the bare minimum of what was needed and not one thing more. Why the woman even stayed in Wilhelmine was beyond me, and when she'd left, she made Paddy pay for Annie to visit each summer. Two weeks was all she wanted to see her beautiful girl, and I hated her for it.
I’d always loved spending time with Annie, so when she started coming to the restaurant after school, I let her. I talked to Marybeth, and she said she didn't mind, so Annie sat at the table in a corner where I'd done my own homework, and started helping me when she got older. I babysat and went to school events when Paddy had to work. I cried when she left to study in Paris, and even more when she settled in New York.
“Jenny,” she said. “I tried calling Dad, but he didn’t pick up, do you know if he’s away?”
“No, sweetie, he’s probably busy,” I said. “He’s here, we went running this morning.”
There was a long silence.
“Hello?”
“Dad went running?”
“Yeah,” I said and heard her laughter.
“He’s probably dead,” she snorted.
“Annie…”
“Look, when you see him, can you get him to call me?”
“Sure.”
“I –”
She stopped speaking, and I raised my brows.
“Is something wrong?”
“No,” she said, and my belly clenched because I heard she was lying.
“Annie,” I said softly.
“It’s nothing, Jenny,” she said quietly. “I’ll come home for a visit in a few weeks, we can talk then.”
“You’re sure? Either of us can fly out if –”
“No,” she
said, and she sounded like herself again. “Work trouble, boy trouble. And I miss you guys.”
It was clear that she didn't want to share whatever was going on over the phone, so I gave her that, and we chatted about other things for a while. When we'd hung up, watched my phone for a while. Then I called Paddy again, and this time, he picked up.
“Are you crazy?” I asked without preamble.
“You could have told me you run marathons,” he retorted, and I heard someone laugh in the background.
“It’s been seven years, and I thought everyone knew.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“You should have just told me to turn around,” I snapped.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I should have, Jen. I thought downhill would be easier, and then I just…” He was silent for a while, and I heard him moving. “I didn't want to look like a wuss.”
The way his voice had softened got to me, and him admitting he’d been a fool was sweet.
“How bad do you hurt right now?” I asked, turning away from Lee and Mae as if that would prevent them from hearing me.
“Pretty bad,” he answered, and I could hear the wince in his voice.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured. “I should have –”
“Jenny, no,” he cut me off. “This one’s all on me. You’ll pay for it in the next few days, but it was my stubborn pride that got me to where I can’t tie my own damned shoes.”
I’d pay? And what the hell was he wearing if he –
“Sneakers,” he said, knowing where my mind would go. “Eddie laced them up for me.”
I started giggling at the thought of his elderly receptionist and pseudo-grandmother making little bows on his shoes, but also because he’d told me. That was him swallowing his pride, or part of it, at least.
“I’ll pay?” I whispered.
“Had plans for you, Jen,” he murmured, and the way his voice deepened and became more intimate told me exactly what those plans were. “For us,” he added as clarification.
“Oh.”
“You with me on those plans, baby-girl?”
I swallowed and murmured hoarsely, “Yeah.”
“Good.”
We were both quiet for a while, and I stared blankly at the wall in front of me.
“I could give you a massage tonight,” I said. “I have a fantastic lotion. It helped me many times when I overdid it.”
He was silent, and I wondered if he was insulted.
“Or I could just drop it off,” I added. “But I know how hard it is to reach everywhere, Paddy, so if you want me to –”
“You had no one to help you?”
“Joke,” I told him. “Except, most of my pain was, um… very high on my thighs. Neither of us was comfortable with his hands being there.”
He chuckled, and I relaxed. Had he thought I’d had someone on speed dial to come and give me massages? He probably had, though.
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s where it hurts the most, and I’m pretty sure I’ll like having your hands there, so yes, please. Your place or mine?”
“Your place. You might fall asleep, so –”
His loud laughter surprised me.
“You’re telling me you think your hands on my ass will make me fall asleep?”
Oh. When he put it like that then, maybe it wouldn’t.
“Annie called,” I said instead.
That got his attention, and I told him about his daughter's call, and he said he'd call her, see if he could get her to come for a visit soon. I was smiling when I put the phone back in my pocket and turned to find Lee watching me with a grin.
“He’s okay?” she asked.
“He will be after the massage he’s getting tonight,” I shared.
***
Padraig
He stood for a while with a broad smile on his face, looking at the fantastic view the house they were building would have once it was completed. She’d called him, and he’d get a massage that evening. His near-death experience had been worth it, he decided. He wasn’t going to run with her ever again, but it had been worth it. Then he turned and spent the rest of the day with his grinning foreman.
When he was getting ready to leave for the day it was a lot later than he'd expected, his whole body ached, and all he wanted to do was fall face first into his bed and never move again. He'd have to call Jenny and let her know he wouldn't be good for anything that night, which was not what he wanted to do one fucking bit. Limping up the steps to his front door, he felt something smell heavenly and wondered if he'd have the energy to walk over to his neighbor to see if he could mooch some. He decided he didn't and walked into his own home instead.
Jenny was in the kitchen, she was putting food on two plates, and she threw a quick smile over her shoulder.
“Hey,” she said. “Heard the car, the food's ready.”
He didn’t say anything because a lump had formed in his throat and he couldn’t seem to swallow around it.
“I hope you don’t mind that I just let myself in. Gib came over with the key,” she said, turned with the plates, and saw his face. “Is something wrong?”
He felt like a pathetic fool suddenly and shook his head, swallowed and put his bag down on the floor.
“Nothing, I’m just tired. Achy.”
He wasn’t going to tell her he’d felt like crying like a fucking baby just because he’d come home to a house that smelled of food and had a smiling Jenny in the kitchen. He was just tired. And hungry.
“That smells great,” he said, and when she told him to sit and eat, he did.
The food was fantastic and even better was that once they’d eaten and he’d forced his aching limbs to help her clear the table, she told him to strip down to his briefs and go lie on his bed and she’d give him that massage she’d said would make him better.
Her fingers were magic. The lotion warmed his skin, and as she moved her hands higher and higher on his legs, he felt how his whole body relaxed.
Except for one part of him. He tried to will it to behave, but the way her hands moved over his hips, not exactly massaging his ass but skimming it with her fingers, made his brain lock on what they would have done if it just hadn’t hurt so much to move even a little.
“There,” she said. “Roll over, and I'll do the other side.”
He almost started laughing but swallowed it when he saw her face.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he murmured.
“Why?” she asked and leaned closer into him.
He felt her breasts against his shoulder, and her hair tickled his neck and ear in a way that made him want to groan.
“Jenny,” he said and turned a little, so he could look at her. “Remember how we talked about me not needing any chemical help?”
“What?”
“Right now, I really don’t need any of that.”
Her eyes widened, and he felt like laughing when she blushed.
“Oh,” she said, and her pretty mouth pouted in a way that made his cock twitch, and he had to move his hips a little. His plans to seduce her into his bed had been pushed forward by his stupid pride, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t seduce just a little anyway.
“Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “And any other day I’d love for you to rub down my other side.” He leaned forward and put his mouth by her ear. “All of it,” he murmured. “But because of this morning, that would be good only for me. So, we won’t.”
“Paddy,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if it was a protest, but he didn’t wait for her to continue.
“We’re not going to go down that road when I can’t make it good for you. Not when I can’t play with you the way I want to.”
He felt her stiffen and waited, hoping she wouldn’t bolt out his bed because of what he’d just said.
“I’ve seen erect penises before, Paddy. I think I can control myself long enough to rub down your thighs.”
Erect penises. Jesus.
“Okay,” he said and
turned slowly to lie on his back. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Her eyes darted over to his crotch, and then her lips twitched.
“Guess you weren’t exaggerating,” she said calmly, although with a faint blush on her cheeks.
“I warned you,” he repeated, and their eyes met.
There was humor in hers suddenly, and laughter bubbled up his throat.
“I planned to tell you to just relax and I’d massage you to blissful sleep,” she said. “That’s gonna sound wrong on every possible level.”
He choked out a mix of laughter and frustration, which turned into a groan of pain when she put her hands on his thighs.
“Ahhh,” he hissed before he could stop himself.
Her hands gentled but only a little, and she kept her hands moving over him until the warmth from her touch and the lotion had taken away most of the pain. And all of his hard-on, he realized.
She realized it too, and that damned lip-twitch happened again.
“I won’t ever run with you again,” Paddy muttered sourly. “You get that, right?”
“That’s probably wise,” she said.
“Smartass,” he growled. “Will you lie here with me for a while?”
“Yeah,” she said and pulled up the sheets to cover him.
He rolled to his side, and she lay down, facing him.
Without thinking it through, he leaned forward and kissed her gently on the mouth.
“Padraig,” she murmured.
“One step at the time, baby-girl,” he murmured against her lips.
“Okay.”
He grinned then and settled back on his side.
“Can I ask you something?” she whispered.
“You can ask me anything.”
“We’ll go to the Wolves this weekend. You know I’ve been there. There are men there that I’ve slept with. Will it bother you?”
“Yeah,” he said immediately and heard her inhale. “But I'll hide it. And Jenny… I've been there too. So there’s gonna be women there that I’ve slept with. Will it bother you?”
She was silent for a while and then she sighed.
“Yeah, but I’ll hide it too. And I’m more used to that.”
“What?”
“You slept with my whole class the last year I was in high school.”
“I did not,” he snorted.
“Most of them.”