by Mae Martini
“I know this is awkward. I’ve been there too. So, no pressure.” He set down her bag and held his hands up, palms out. “The spare bedroom is down the hall on the left and is set up for you. I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable.”
She looked up to him and smiled nervously and bit her lip.
“Come on,” He picked up her bag and grabbed her hand at the same time and walked her to the spare room. “Why don’t you freshen-up, get comfortable and I’ll meet you on the back porch in, say, twenty minutes? I’d like to take you to lunch on the pier.”
“Thank you.” She nodded, and he smiled before he walked out and closed the door.
The gentle wind picked up the scent of sunscreen and fish, along with the sound of laughter coming from below the pier as a family sat near the shore and ate their lunch.
Joan looked to the left and saw a swarm of gulls dive bombing near that family and watched as a young girl threw what looked like cheese doodles to them.
“I had to tell my daughter I was coming out here this weekend,” Joan said, soon after the waitress brought them a cold soft drink.
“Of course. I would only expect you do. Tell me, how did she take it?” He was eager to know.
“Oh, she was fine with it. She’d been bugging me to go out and date.”
“How do you think the other two will take it?”
Joan let out a breath. “I really don’t know.” She looked from Luke to a surfer in the water who had just popped up, then back to Luke. “I think they are cute together. You have a wonderful, respectful daughter with a good head on her shoulders. You and your wife did a good job growing her up.”
“Thank you. My wife gets most of the credit, and I have to say the same to you. Your kids are good kids. Smart, friendly, respectful.”
Joan let out a little laugh. “Doting, are we?”
Luke smiled and nodded.
The waitress came back with their meals and they ate and talked. It was amazing how much they had in common. They grew up in the same era and had the same values.
That night, Luke and Joan attended the fundraiser. He introduced her to his colleagues and friends, and they laughed and danced most of the night.
And, still, later that night, Luke helped Joan move her bag from the spare bedroom to the master bedroom.
Chapter 26
One Tuesday, Jake was at Cord’s place waiting for the foreman of the dude ranch nearby to come and pick up the horse he had trained. Cord was gone most of the day, hauling Rebel, a bull he and his father owned, to a local arena for a rodeo.
Before heading out, Jake texted Cord.
Finishing up early, then heading to old place.
Storm was acting up, took him for a ride to stretch.
By: Jake
Sent: Tue. 2:44 pm
A moment later a reply came in.
Lol. Still trying to learn phone?
By: Gia
Sent: Tue. 2:46 pm
Even though it was not meant for her, she got a kick out of it.
Lol. Dang, this phone. That was meant for Cord.
What’s up, baby?
By: Jake
Sent: Tue. 2:51 pm
In a meeting and bored out of my mind.
By: Gia
Sent: Tue. 2:54 pm
How bout a little sex text…
Touch that sweet little pussy of yours and pretend it’s me touching you. Tell me what I’m doing to you.
By: Jake
Sent: Tue. 2:56 pm
Geez, your finger feels like sandpaper, you pervert, and you can’t even find my clitoris. Hahaha.
By: Rory
Sent: Tue. 3:01 pm
“Ohhhh, fuckin’ phone.” Jake said all frustrated. He shoved the phone in his pocket, snickering at Rory’s text as he drove away from Cord’s house. He quickly thought he dodged a bullet. That text could have easily landed in the hands of his sister or Annie. Even worse, his mother. His phone buzzed again and he took it out to read the text.
And if I had a pussy, I wouldn’t let you anywhere near it.
By: Rory
Sent: Tue. 3:06 pm
“Asshole.” Jake said to himself as he shook his head laughing. He’s never gonna let me live this one down.
That night when Jake crawled into bed, after taking care of what needed to be taken care of at the B&B, he called Gia. She told him the transfer came through. They were desperate to have her there.
“I’m waiting on the date, but I’m told by a confidant that it should be by the end of the month, which is only two weeks away.”
“Baby, that’s fantastic. How did they find you a place so fast?”
“I work for a big corporation, Jake. They constantly move people around, and there were actually two properties I was able to choose from. I took the newer townhouse that’s closer to you.”
“Oh, sweet. Give me the address. I’ll have the gang come over and help with the move.”
“Thank you. The bulk of my stuff will be packed up and shipped, but I will have some boxes and stuff. That would be great. Oh, before I forget, I can’t make it in this weekend. I have a tight schedule next week and this would be the only time I can sort through stuff here.”
“Oh man, that sucks… what am I gonna do without you?”
“I’m sorry, I’m going to miss you, too.”
He told her about the mix-up with the phone and they both couldn’t stop laughing. He missed her. He couldn’t wait to see her more frequently. He hoped she would stay at his place a few nights out of the week.
It was luck on his part, but he didn’t have any more work at Cord’s that week, so after he worked around the Elm, he made his way over to the property he now owned, and planned out and dove in to fixing it up.
On Friday evening Rory and Cord, along with Dan, and Logan and Richie showed up. With a little beer and a lot of laughs they managed to repair the barn and put a fresh coat of paint on it.
Annie, Calista, and Melanie and Kara showed up with food and folding chairs. When the work was done they sat around and finished off the beer and ate.
Jake’s phone buzzed.
Hi, I messed up. At Doug’s. Can you come get me again, tomorrow when he’ll be out? I need to get away. Sorry.
By: Jennie
Sent: Fri. 8:37 pm
Jake reread the text, as he picked a hand up and scrubbed his face.
****
On Saturday afternoon, while Jake was cleaning up the yard, he received a text from Rory.
Going to Roxy’s tonight. You coming?
By: Rory
Sent: Sat. 1:03 pm
Jake replied.
Can’t. Gia’s not here this weekend. Going to see Jennie.
By: Jake
Sent: Sat. 1:27 pm
****
As Gia was going through her clothes in her walk-in closet, she heard her phone chime, indicating a text had come in.
She strolled out of her closet with a wrinkled see through black blouse she had forgotten she had, and threw it on the bed. She picked up her phone and read the text.
Can’t. Gia’s not here this weekend. Going to see Jennie.
By: Jake
Sent: Sat. 1:27 pm
Her stomach fell. She found it hard to breathe as she reread the text. Instead of fidgeting and running around like a keystone cop and getting all worked up like she was known to do, she just sat down on the bed, stared at the text message and cried. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t focus on anything but the text. Whenever the backlight on the phone would dim, she’d touch the phone to bring it back on.
When the phone rang, she almost dropped it. On the screen was Jake’s picture. A picture she took of him when they were horsing around one afternoon. She’d captured that charming grin of his on her cell phone and she assigned it to his phone number.
She stared at the phone until it stopped ringing and waited to see if he left a message. He didn’t. She looked up and noticed the sun ray that had been by the foot of her
bed was now by the head of the bed. Did she really spend the whole afternoon sitting there and staring at the phone?
She got up and started to walk to her bedroom door. She sighed, stopped and turned around and went right back to the bed. This time she lay down on her side amongst the clothes she had thrown there when cleaning out the closet. Cookie jumped up on the bed and curled up next to her belly.
Chapter 27
While at Doug’s door, Jake’s thoughts turned to Gia. He felt wrong about being there. He tried calling her to tell her what he was going to do and was a bit relieved she didn’t answer, knowing she’d probably misconstrue the reason. He wanted nothing and no one to mess up what he had with her. She was the one. The one he wanted to be the mother of his children, the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He had a lot of women in his day and none of them, not one, aside from Gia, moved him the way she did. He gave a little chuckle remembering when she had said the same thing to him a while back.
His gaze swept the area. Jennie said Doug wouldn’t be home, but he was being cautious. He knew that Doug would be gunning for him and in hindsight he should have brought Rory or Cord with him, but he didn’t want to get them involved.
He rang the bell and after a few seconds Jennie opened the door. Jake noted the bruise on her cheek and there was no light in her eyes. If that motherfucker hurt her again, I’m gonna kill him.
“You okay, baby?”
She put her head down as she stepped aside to let him in and as soon as she shut the door, Jake saw Doug standing behind it with a gun in his hand.
“Well, well, who do we have here?” Doug looked from him to Jennie. “Your knight in shining armor coming to save you again, huh?” He gave a little chuckle. “Not this time. Move.” He nodded his head in the direction of a kitchen chair that had been moved to the middle of the living room.
Jake hesitated and Doug shoved his gun into Jake’s stomach.
“Stop it, Doug. You might accidently shoot him.” Jennie said, her eyes wide.
“Shut up, bitch.” He went to smack her with his other hand and she flinched.
Jake threw out his arms in an attempt to shield her, and this time Doug shoved his gun into Jake’s temple, cocking it “Give me a reason, motherfucker.”
Jake stopped moving.
“That’s better. Now go sit your ass down.”
Jake walked to the chair and sat.
“Hand me the rope, baby,” Doug said, not taking his eyes off of Jake.
Jennie hesitated.
“Now!”
She jumped, then did what he asked. When she gave him the rope he gave her the gun.
“Just keep it trained on him and if he moves… shoot.” He grinned like he was enjoying himself.
Jake knew he was set up, and couldn’t believe Jennie was a part of it. He stared into her eyes, searching for any sign of remorse or innocence as Doug was yanking his hands and tying them behind him. He winced when Doug tightened the rope, and at the same time he came to the realization that he was looking into a set of lifeless, haunted eyes.
Smack! Jake didn’t expect it, it happened so fast. Doug cracked him one in the face and the impact forced his head to the side. Before he could recover, Doug hit him with a punch to the eye, sending his face to the other side.
“Hahahaha. It seems it’s my turn, now. You think you were so cool coming into my home a few weeks ago taking what’s mine. He punched Jake in the mouth and split the bottom lip. Blood began to trickle down his chin.
“What? You got nothing to say?”
“Fuck you, assh-”
“Shut up, Fuckwad.” He gave Jake another punch in the mouth.
But Jake knew it was coming and he moved his head back to ease the impact. Still, blood splattered out from the split lip and Jake could feel it swell up. Even the eye that Doug punched had begun to throb.
Doug quickly spun around, bringing his leg up and out, nailing Jake in the side of his head with the heel of his work boot. The impact of the kick sent the chair and Jake to the floor, on his side.
Jennie gasped.
With ease, Doug picked the chair up, but was caught off guard when Jake picked up his feet and shoved Doug backwards; the force teetered the chair back, and landed Doug on his ass in front of the couch. He laughed and shook his head.
“You got balls, Jake.”
As he rose up and walked back to Jake, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a switch blade and flicked his wrist, flipping up the blade. In a swift movement he squatted by the chair and gave Jake a wicked laugh, then rose up and grabbed Jake by his hair and brought his head back, exposing his neck.
Menacingly, with an evil grin, he brought the knife up and lightly ran it across Jake’s neck. Jake flinched when he felt a pin prick on the left side. A moment later he felt liquid drip from there.
“Doug!” Jennie said, but he paid her no mind.
By Jake’s ear Doug said, “You know, you fucked my chick. I think it’s only right I get to fuck yours.”
Jake turned his head and spit on Doug’s face.
Doug picked up his other hand, wiped his face and cleaned it on Jake’s jeans. He pursed his lips and wrinkled his nose. He brought the knife up to the right side of Jake’s face and carved a C in his cheek as he laughed.
Jake, mentally hissed in pain. He cowboyed up, not wanting to give Doug any satisfaction.
“She’s got a tight little body there… I know where she works.” He briefly looked to Jennie. “Good work, baby.” He looked back to Jake, whose eyes shot to Jennie.
“Doug. No!” Jennie shrieked, wide eyed, when she saw the blood on Jake’s cheek. Her eyes grew wider when she registered Jake’s steely, cold eyes on her. She shrugged her shoulders in hopeless despair.
Doug looked over to Jennie. “Shut up, skank.” He turned his attention back to Jake. “I’m gonna fuck her hard, while you wa-”
Again, Jake surprised him by bringing his head down low and throwing his shoulder into him, but Doug only faltered and righted himself quickly. He punched Jake in the nose and then he flipped the knife around in his hand, and, with the hilt, hit Jake in the temple.
By that time, Jake’s face was a bloody mess. His head flopped backwards before his chin landed on his chest as darkness from the outer corners of his eyes threatened to consume him. He fought it but lost. He vaguely heard Jennie yelling.
“Stop it! Stop it! You said you were just going to talk to him. You’re killing him. Stop it!”
“Shut up!”
“No! Ge- get away from him.”
She’d never defied him before. He did a double take, looking from her to Jake, then back to her again. With two shaky hands, she had the gun pointed at him.
“Baby, put the gun down before you hurt yourself.” He left Jake’s side to walk to her.
“Don’t come any closer. I- I’ll shoot.”
“He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. “Don’t be ridiculous. Give me the gun.”
Just as he closed the distance between them and reached out to take the gun from her, a shot rang out. She fell backwards, not expecting the kick from the gun. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out as he clutched his chest with his hands. His eyes grew wide as his countenance changed to a deathly pallor. He lurched forward and then hit the floor, face first.
****
Relaxing in the sand, Gia kept swiping at her ear; certain there was a fly near it. She had just calmed down, yet not understanding why she was anxious in the first place. The buzzing continued and she opened her eyes and jumped. She was in her bed, she knew, but it was dark, and the buzzing wasn’t a fly, it was her cell phone, on her night table. She reached for it and when it lit up, she noted the time being 1:15 am. The buzzing was a reminder she had a text message. Adjusting her eyes, she hit a few buttons to bring up the message. Her heart skipped.
Jake’s been hurt. He’s in the hospital
By: Calista
Sent: Sun. 12:07 am
Sh
e sat up, breathing heavily, and Cookie got up, stretched her little body, jumped down from the bed and walked out of the room.
Not knowing the right thing to do, she panicked. She got up and turned the light on. She went back to sit down on the bed only to get up again. She paced, stopped and read the text, then paced again. At that point she made up her mind to hop on a plane to Texas. She wasn’t going to waste time trying to find a flight so she called her brother. Yes, she woke him up, but he understood. As soon as she zipped up one of her rolling luggage pieces, her brother called back with the flight and time. She thanked him, hung up and walked out the door.
Chapter 28
Jake sighed. His face hurt. He couldn’t see out of one eye and only slightly out of his other due to the swelling, and his nose had so much bandage on it and stuffing inside it that he felt like it took up his whole face, and his cheek and lips were throbbing. He didn’t want to stay in the hospital one more minute, but he had to wait for a doctor to release him. It would be, he was told, sometime in the afternoon. His family and friends had just left and Cord would go back later, to take him home.
He was lying on his side. Not comfortable because his face was resting on a pillow, he turned over on his back, sighing loudly as he did. Turmoil went through his mind. Hearing Jennie scream, vaguely hearing a shot, Jimmy telling him that Doug had been shot and Jennie did the shooting. He couldn’t remember if Jimmy said Doug was dead or not.