At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

  “We ready?” Cal asked the Winters girls.

  “I am,” Kate announced, hefting up the cooler.

  Cal carried his travel mug to Kate, took the cooler from her and walked out the side door.

  Kate followed.

  Keira glared at me then she followed.

  I stood there a few seconds then I went to the door, armed the alarm, closed it, locked it then limped to the Mustang.

  The girls were already in the cramped back, the cooler between them, Cal was bent double, adjusting the driver’s seat, my door was open.

  I limped to the car, got in and slammed my door.

  Cal folded himself in beside me and slammed his.

  Keira shoved my travel mug between the seats and snapped, “Here.”

  I took it, muttering, “Thanks, baby. You take Mooch over to Pearl’s?”

  “Yeah,” she replied then sat back on a verbal huff.

  Cal hit the ignition and the car roared to life.

  His arm went around my seat as he backed out and I kept my eyes glued to the windscreen as he did this.

  He twisted the car into the road, took his arm from my seat, changed gears and we were on our way.

  Well, one thing I could say about this, the only thing, was at least I didn’t have to drive.

  * * * * *

  Violet fell asleep the minute they hit I-65 outside Lebanon.

  The girls had their sandwiches just outside Merrilville, Kate unwrapping his in a way he could eat the massive creation without half of it falling in his lap. She handed him his Coke, she opened a bag of chips for him and she half unwrapped a candy bar to finish his enormous lunch (he’d had to refuse candy bar number two).

  Keira, when he caught her eyes in the rearview mirror, glared at him or, when he didn’t catch them, he saw she was staring out the window, her expression set to sad.

  Both girls were quiet, maybe because they were deep in their thoughts but probably because their mother was sleeping.

  As they hit the affluent area of Chicago where the service was being held, Kate gave Cal quiet directions.

  He turned in, the lot already mostly full, mourners looking their way as they pulled in, eyes staying glued to the Mustang as he found a space.

  Cal got out, pulled forward his seat and looked in the back.

  “Both of you, out this side,” he ordered quietly.

  Kate scrambled out. Keira threw some attitude with her eyes then scrambled out after her sister.

  Cal put the seat back and got in the car. Then he leaned into Vi and put a hand to her knee.

  “Honey, wake up.”

  He squeezed her knee as her eyes fluttered then she came to with a start.

  She straightened in her seat and looked around.

  “We’re already here?” she asked softly.

  “Yeah, baby.”

  Her head slowly turned to him and she blinked. Then her chin tipped and she looked at his hand at her knee.

  Cal gave it another squeeze but didn’t move it.

  “You want a sandwich before we go in or do you just wanna go in?”

  Her confused eyes came back to him and she said, “I have to put on my shoes.”

  He looked at her feet in flip-flops and then back to her.

  “You have them on.”

  She shook her head, unbuckled her seatbelt, reached an arm to the floor and came up holding a pair of spike heeled, sexy black pumps.

  Cal’s eyes went from the shoes to her face. “Buddy, you’re not fuckin’ wearin’ those shoes.”

  “Yes I am.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “But, I am.”

  “You aren’t.”

  She leaned toward him and whispered, “I can’t wear flip-flops to Sam’s funeral.”

  “You got stitches in your foot,” Cal pointed out.

  “So?”

  “Vi.”

  “Cal.”

  He felt his mouth go tight as he squeezed her knee again.

  They needed to have words, he knew that, not now, later, when she was herself again. When this shit didn’t weigh heavy on her mind. When he could tell her the state of play had changed pretty fucking significantly. It had changed in a way that Haines’s fucking SUV wouldn’t stay parked in her drive all night. It had changed in a way that her ass would never be in that SUV again. It had changed in a way that she’d stop fucking calling him Cal and use his goddamned name like she used to.

  But they’d have words later.

  Now he needed to get her to her brother’s service.

  “Put ‘em on,” he gave in, taking his hand from her knee, “let’s go.”

  “I’ll be out in a second,” she replied.

  “What?” Cal asked as he buttoned the collar of his shirt.

  “I’ll be out in a second.”

  “Vi, just get a move on.”

  “Cal, I said, I’ll be out in a second.”

  Cal sighed and knifed out of the car. Then he threw the door to.

  He made short work of knotting his tie, something he hated, preferring to have his fingernails torn out at the roots. Not that that had ever happened but he was sure he’d prefer it. The minute he was done, Kate moved into him and shoved a shoulder under his arm so he had no choice but to slide it around her shoulders.

  Another thing that Kate did that she got from Violet.

  Keira took a step back and looked away.

  His brilliant idea with Nadia clearly didn’t go down so well with Keira, exactly as he’d intended.

  Jesus, he wasn’t a dick, he was an asshole and he had some serious fucking work to do.

  “She okay?” Kate whispered, peering into the window to look at her Mom.

  “No,” Cal told her the truth.

  Kate’s arm around his waist flexed and he gave her shoulders a squeeze.

  Then he saw through the window why Vi wanted him out.

  She was sliding up a pair of black, lace-topped, thigh high stockings.

  He tore his eyes away.

  He’d had two and a half months without her, without any woman, and it felt like two hundred fucking years.

  Minutes later, her door slammed and she limped around the car, going to Keira and putting her arm around her. Cal studied her as she did this. Only Vi could go to a funeral looking like a classy sex kitten. The jacket was sweet, the tight dress sweeter and those fucking heels were unbelievably hot, even though it pissed him off she was wearing them.

  Before he got his head sorted, Kate hustled Cal toward her mother and sister and she slid her arm around her Mom’s waist. This meant while they walked up to the front doors with a number of people watching to the point they were staring, they did it in a row, arms around each other.

  Score one for Cal and Kate.

  In order to get through the door, Kate had to let her mother go which she did.

  Vi mumbled greetings as she went through the people, her arm was touched, she shook hands, had her cheek kissed. The girls were touched, gentle eyes falling on them as they moved through. Kate didn’t let go of him as Vi let go of Keira when she entered the building. People were forced to move out of their way so they could both fit through the door together.

  Once they made it inside, Cal was not surprised to see the place was packed and nearly every face was stricken. Sam was a well-liked man, he had a lot of friends and this was a shock to all of them.

  Those friends closed in on Vi and the girls, sweeping him up with it as Kate held fast. There were tears, hugs, kisses and a number of curious glances in his direction.

  “Oh, Joe!” he heard a familiar voice cry and he and Kate turned to see Melissa, Sam’s woman, moving quickly toward them.

  When he met her he thought she was pretty, light brown hair she’d had streaked, blue eyes, good body, not tall, not short.

  Now she was a mess.

  Her hand fell on his arm and she squeezed. “I’m so glad you drove Vi and the kids up here. I was worried when she said she’d drive herself.�
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  Then without waiting for a response she turned to Kate, pulled Kate into her arms and burst into tears.

  Vi glanced at him as he stepped away so Keira could force herself into Melissa’s embrace and finally Vi entered it.

  Cal looked at the group who were now all crying then he looked over heads and scanned the room.

  He found them standing up front by the closed casket, Vi’s parents.

  The father, looking frail and ravaged and a million years old, the mother, looking cold and staring at Vi, Melissa and the girls as if she was watching something disgusting.

  Cal leaned in, his mouth at Vi’s ear and he whispered, “I’ll be back.”

  Her head came up and she nodded then she tucked her face into the huddle again.

  Feeling the eyes following him, Cal walked straight to Violet’s parents. They were standing next to an uncomfortable looking black man and woman both about Cal’s age.

  He made it to her parents and glanced at the man.

  “I need a word,” he told him, noting he, like everyone else, was staring at Cal but his gaze was sharper, shrewder, Cal smelled cop all over him.

  Even though Cal thought he made his point, the man and woman didn’t move away.

  So be it.

  Cal turned to Vi’s parents. “I’m Joe Callahan, I’m with Violet.”

  Violet’s father was staring up at him, his mouth open, surprise mingling with the pain etched in his face. They hadn’t met, not officially and by the look of him, Cal’s being with Violet came as a shock though, Cal sensed, not an unwelcome one.

  Her mother was staring at his scars, her eyes cold, the skin of her face indicating she’d had it lifted. Unlike her husband, it was clear she didn’t think much of Cal.

  “I’m Pete Riley, this is my wife, Madeline,” Vi’s father introduced himself and his wife.

  Cal nodded and said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you,” Pete replied but Madeline again didn’t speak.

  Trying his best give it to them gently, Cal stated, “I know this day is difficult for you, it’s also difficult for Vi and the girls. Don’t make it more difficult for her or the girls by gettin’ in their space unless they make it clear they want you there. Yeah?”

  The black man and his woman made noises, the man’s low, guttural, the woman’s high, almost sounding like a strangled giggle but Cal didn’t take his eyes from Vi’s parents.

  “I… you… I don’t believe –” Madeline started, her eyes going from cold to furious in a heartbeat.

  Cal cut her off. “You turned your back on her, her man and then those girls seventeen years ago, you should believe.”

  Madeline’s eyes turned to slits and she opened her mouth to speak but Pete got there before her.

  “We’ll steer clear,” Pete announced quickly, still staring up at him.

  “Peter!” Madeline hissed and her husband leveled his eyes on her.

  “We’ll… steer… clear,” Pete repeated in a firm, irritated voice.

  Madeline’s head jerked back in shock and Cal got the feeling the woman didn’t often get spoken to like that.

  It was too bad. Pete might have saved a lot of heartbreak if he’d brought her into line a long time ago.

  “Appreciate it,” Cal muttered, said not another word, turned and walked away.

  “Callahan,” he heard when he was five feet from Vi and the girls and Cal turned back to see the black man and woman had followed him.

  “I know you?” Cal asked the man, his eyes moving to the woman and then back.

  “Nope, but I know you. Alec Colton’s told me about you,” the man said.

  “You know Colt?” Cal asked.

  “Nope again, talked to him on the phone,” he stuck his hand out, “I’m Barry Pryor, Tim’s partner.”

  Fucking great, the dead husband’s partner.

  Cal took the man’s hand and shook it, Barry going for the gusto; Cal giving it back and then Barry broke it off, suddenly grinning.

  “This is my wife, Pam.”

  “I think I love you,” was her totally bizarre greeting.

  Cal didn’t respond but took her offered hand and shook it too.

  “Tim wanted to say that to them for, freakin’, ever,” Pam told him then went on. “Well, not that, what he wanted to say would’ve had a whole lot of f-words but that did the trick.” She leaned into him. “If I didn’t think I’d get stoned by all Sam’s friends, I’d have laughed myself silly.”

  “They wouldn’t stone you, baby, Sam would retch at this scene,” Barry told his wife and then looked at Cal. “You told Sam he was gonna buy it, he’d tell you to cremate him, take his ashes to Rico’s or Hoolihan’s, pour a Guinness in it and dump it in Lake Michigan. That was, after everyone got blitzed out of their fuckin’ brains.”

  Pam leaned to her husband and whispered, “Barry, don’t say fuck in a house of God.”

  “Pam, this isn’t a house of God, it’s a fuckin’ funeral parlor.”

  Pam gave Barry an irate look then rolled her eyes at Cal and Cal decided he liked Barry and Pam.

  “Uncle Barry! Auntie Pam!” Keira cried loudly, rounded Cal and threw herself at Barry.

  Barry’s arms went around the girl and he bent his head so his lips were at her hair. “Hey, little donut.”

  “Auntie Pam,” Kate came around his other side and walked into Pam’s outstretched arms.

  “Hey, shug-shug-sugar,” Pam whispered in Kate’s ear.

  Violet, limping but trying to hide it, moved awkwardly to Cal’s side and stopped several feet away, standing, favoring her foot and waiting her turn. She got it after Kate and Keira changed arms then Vi moved in for a big hug from Barry then a longer one with some swinging back and forth from Pam.

  Then she stepped back, Cal leaned in, caught her with a hand at her hip and pulled her into his side. Her head snapped up to look at him as her body pressed against his hand to get away but he held her firm and he held her close and looked down at her.

  “Take your weight off that foot,” he ordered.

  “Cal –”

  “Weight off that foot.”

  “Cal –”

  “Buddy, take your fuckin’ weight off that foot before you tear the stitches.”

  Violet glared at him and he heard Barry speak.

  “What stitches?”

  “It’s nothing,” Vi answered.

  “Vi got emotional when she heard about Sam, threw around some shit, glass broke, she cut her foot,” Cal answered.

  “Cal!” Violet snapped and Cal looked down at her, brows raised.

  “Stitches? Oh Vi, does it hurt? You need to sit down, baby,” Pam advised.

  “I’m fine,” Vi lied.

  “Take a load off then, got a tall drink a’ water beside you, girl, use it,” Barry put in, nodding his head to Cal.

  “Really, like I said, I’m fine,” Vi repeated.

  “Stubborn,” Pam shook her head at Cal.

  Cal didn’t reply and didn’t take his arm from Violet.

  “Hey guys,” Melissa joined their group, sliding arms around both Keira and Kate. “They want to start. Let’s get his stupid head trip of Madeline’s over with so we can go to Hoolihan’s.”

  “Mel, honey, I told you yesterday. We can’t go to Hoolihan’s with you, the girls can’t come in,” Violet told her.

  “Oh yeah, right,” Melissa whispered, looking startled for a second that this hadn’t sunk in then she kissed the side of Kate’s head then Keira’s.

  “I want you to come down soon, be with us for a weekend or for awhile, get away from here, get away from –” Vi started but Melissa interrupted her.

  “Soon’s I can, Vi-oh-my.”

  At Melissa using Sam’s nickname for his sister, Violet finally gave him her weight, so much of it, her hand came around and she clutched his shirt at his stomach to remain standing. Part of this was good, her doing it, part of it was bad because she didn’t notice she was.

 
“Good,” Vi whispered but her voice sounded choked.

  Cal watched Melissa swallow and both Vi’s girls pulled in their lips.

  “This sucks, doesn’t it?” Melissa whispered back to Vi.

  “I still can’t believe it,” Vi whispered to Melissa.

  “Wake up and reach for him –” Melissa stopped, Kate dropped her head but Pam pulled her in her arms as Keira moved around and hugged Melissa front-to-front.

  Barry cleared his throat.

  “Callahan, let’s get our girls to their seats,” Barry suggested to Cal, Cal nodded and they herded the women to the front row, opposite the aisle from where Pete and Madeline were sitting, the whole row to themselves. Sam’s friends clearly weren’t big fans of Pete and Madeline.

  Kate maneuvered the seating arrangement so it was Keira, Melissa, Violet, Cal, Kate, Pam and Barry.

  “I still can’t believe they planned this ridiculous farce,” Melissa hissed when they were seated, her eyes cutting to Madeline then back to Violet. “Shoulda married him, Vi, woulda had my say how the funeral would be.”

  “We’ll get through this then the burial then you can get to Hoolihan’s, honey,” Vi returned.

  “They even get near me, I’ll rip their heads off,” Melissa threatened and Pam leaned forward and into Kate.

  “No worry with that, Joe here warned them off,” Pam informed Melissa.

  Violet’s body jerked and Keira, Melissa, Violet and Kate’s eyes all jerked to Cal.

  “What?” Vi asked Cal but Pam answered.

  “Told ‘em not to get into your space, ‘less you invited them. Sorry, Mel, but I swear, I nearly pee’d my pants laughing. Then when your Mom got all,” she whirled her hand in the air, “and said, all snooty, ‘I can’t believe…’ Joe said he didn’t know how she couldn’t believe since she turned her back on you, Tim and the girls. I’m writin’ that shit in my diary. Crap day, the worst, but always a little light shines through. That’s my light today, seeing Madeline Riley’s face when Joe was through with her.”