Memphis

by Kelly A Walker

  Grabbing his face I let him kiss me like only my sometimes too serious CFO can. When Jasper kisses me it's always slow and toe curling.

  Jasper finishes our kiss with a soft nip to my bottom lip. Just when I think he’s about to come back for more, there's a knock on Tanner’s door. “Are we expecting anyone?” I ask.

  Jasper lowers us onto the couch with me still in his arms. “Not that I know of. Jim isn’t supposed to come by until tomorrow night for dinner.” He looks up at Cain. “Do you see who it is?”

  Cain curses. “It’s Arthur.”

  “Why is Arthur here?” The words barely leave my mouth before I see him trailing behind Tanner.

  Arthur stops when he sees us and narrows his eyes at me sitting in Jasper’s lap. “Memphis. I came to check on you. I heard today was your final check-up and I wanted to see how it went.”

  I’ve seen Arthur a handful of times since I left the hospital. One of them was at Gretchen’s hearing before the trial date was set. The other times were when I would meet with Jim and he would happen to show up. Jim never let Arthur interrupt our time and Arthur finally stopped trying. “Everything went good. He’s released me to go back to my normal life.”

  “And what exactly is that now?”

  “Excuse me?” I ask him.

  “It’s almost the end of August, surely your school back home has already started. I’m just curious what your plans are now. Are you staying here? If you do are you going to try and teach again? Can’t I be curious about my daughter's life.”

  “I’m not your daughter, Arthur. You’ve made that abundantly clear.”

  “Memphis,” Arthur runs his fingers through his hair, “I’ve tried to tell you how sorry I am about everything that happened before and with Gretchen. Are you really going to hold that over my head for the rest of my life?”

  I sigh. “No, I guess not.” I may not hold it over him, but I sure as heck don’t trust him.

  “Good. That’s good.” He wrings his hands, almost like he's nervous to be here. “I came by to see if I could take you to dinner tonight? I figured we have quite a few things to talk about and I’d like to clear the air and try to have a relationship with my daughter.”

  I search the faces of my guys to see what they think. Jasper grabs me a little tighter, Cain shrugs his shoulders, and Tanner looks like he wants to take Arthur out back and punch him. So much for their help. “Thank you for the invitation, Arthur. I would love to have dinner with you.” I can’t believe I agreed to this. “Where and what time?”

  “I can pick you up at seven, if that's okay?”

  Before I can answer, Cain butts in.“She can meet you there. I need to run to my restaurant and she can swing by to see me when she's done with you.”

  “Fine,” Arthur grits out. “How about Roxy’s then?” I nod my head, and make a note to ask the guys where it is. “Great. I’ll see you there at seven.”

  Arthur turns and marches out of the room. I hear his car driving over the gravel as he leaves and I breath a sigh of relief. Something about meeting him tonight is making me feel very uneasy.

  “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, pretty girl,” Jasper assures me.

  “It’s fine. I can handle Arthur. I’m just trying to figure out what game he’s playing right now.”

  “I don’t know, baby, but I want you to be extra careful tonight. If he says or does anything that upsets you, I want you to leave immediately then call one of us.”

  “I can do that, Cain. He won’t hurt me. He just makes me feel, I don’t know, icky is the best way I can describe it.”

  “Icky works for us,” Tanner says. “Why don’t you go ahead and hop in the shower. You have to be there in a little over two hours.”

  Jasper smacks my butt when I hop up. I give him my evil face that he laughs at and I head for the bathroom. A shower does sound amazing. I know not to hope for much where Arthur is concerned, but I really do hope that tonight goes off without any issues. Maybe this is him extending an olive branch. If he is, then I will do my best to accept it.

  I should have known not to expect anything different from Arthur. How’s the saying go? Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice?

  Shame on me.

  Arthur, my sperm donor, did not just call me what I think he did. “Did you seriously just call me a whore?”

  “Did you seriously just tell me you were in a relationship with three men? At the same time?”

  “It’s not even your business, Arthur. I thought you wanted to share things and get to know me. Instead you tell me once again, that I need to accept Jim’s offer after I continue to tell you that I will not. Then you sit here and belittle me because I haven’t gone back home and I quit my job. To finish off this amazing evening,” I snort at that one, “you finish up by calling me a whore. I tell you what, Arthur, when you asked me to dinner you forgot to mention there would be a show.”

  “Memphis, listen to yourself. You sound like a petulant child. You're being unreasonable. Accepting the offer from Jim is the right thing to do. What I’m willing to offer you will go a long way in helping you do whatever you need to in order to get back to Wisconsin and it will hold you over until you get your job back.”

  “Why would I want to go back to Wisconsin? The guys are here, Jim is here, I have nothing waiting on me back there. Nothing but a house I can easily get rid of. Why are you pushing for this, Arthur? Tell me the truth now or I walk out that door.”

  Arthur narrows his eyes at me and you can see the waves of frustration coming off of him. “Fine.” He takes a deep breath then exhales slowly. “I borrowed a lot against the business. Enough that I’ve about put it completely in debt and I’m in risk of losing it.”

  “What would the percentage Jim wants me to have do for you? Would you gamble them away as well?” I know I’m coming off as uncaring, but this man needs some tough love and obviously no one is giving it to him.

  “No, I won’t gamble it away. Jesus, Memphis. You don’t think much of me, do you?”

  “Are you serious?” I snort out a dark laugh. “You haven’t given me one thing good to think yet, Arthur.”

  He waves his hand like the thought of being decent to me just once is an outrageous idea. “With your part, and since I would be buying it outright, I could use it as collateral to the bank, and get the business running in the black again.”

  “Why do you want me to leave and go back to Wisconsin so bad?” I cut in.

  “Why wouldn’t you? It’s your home, isn’t it? What’s keeping you here? Jim? Please, the old man would probably spend more time up there with you. Tanner and his merry band of misfit friends? The novelty of that will wear off quickly. Not to mention it’s sick. You and three men.”

  I hold up my hand to stop him. “Think very hard about what you’re about to say. I’m two seconds from walking out the door. And I happen to love those three misfits.”

  “Love? You barely know them. What could you possible love about them?” he scoffs.

  I lean over and pick my purse off the floor. “I’m tired, Arthur. I’m going home, and home is Tanner’s. Thank you for dinner.” I turn and walk like the hounds of hell are on my heels. I don’t want to give him a chance to stop me. I have too many things in my head and I need to be far away from Arthur before I do something stupid. Like punch him in the throat.

  I sent a text to Jasper and Tanner, letting them know I was fine and headed to Cain’s restaurant. I’m not surprised to find Cain slinging drinks behind his bar. That seems to be his happy place.

  “What can I get ya?”

  I sit myself on a stool right in front of him, but he’s too busy mixing drinks to look up. I attempt to sound sexy when I order. “I’d like a cranberry vodka and a strip tease, please.”

  Cain’s hand still and I can see his nostrils flaring. “Baby, don’t you know not to tempt me like this? Especially here? I may be working, but I still own this place and have a big office in the back and the only key to t
he door.”

  He finally looks up at me and I get lost in his deep blue eyes.

  “If you don’t stop looking at me like that, baby, I may take you right here on my bar. Audience be damned.”

  I use my hand to fan my face. Did it just get hot in here? “Cain, you can’t say things like that!”

  “Oh, baby, I can do a lot more than say things. If you give me five minutes to find someone to throw back here, I’ll show you.”

  I feel the tension from my dinner with Arthur fall away as I start laughing at Cain. The lift of his eyebrow tells me it wasn’t a joke, but I can’t stop now. The laughter continues to bubble out of me until I can no longer breathe. “Thank you, Cain.” I stand and lean over the bar. “Give me some sugar.”

  “I’d like to give you more than sugar,” he utters under his breath before reaching for me and kissing me. I expected something quick, but what I got about made me throw myself over the bar. Cain chuckles when he finally lets me go. “Go home, baby. You’ve had a long night and I have a few more hours before I can leave. You can tell me all about your dinner in the morning.” He smacks a kiss on my lips. “Me and you, tomorrow. I want to spend some time with you.”

  Nodding my head, I grab my purse and head out, and point my Bug towards home and my other two men. No, our relationship isn’t conventional and there are a lot of things for us to work out, but if there is one thing I do know, it’s that I have fallen completely and unequivocally in love with the three of them.

  Some people may not agree with the type of relationship we have. Some will be supportive, some will be judgemental jerks. The ones who love and support us, they will always be welcome in our home and lives. The ones who will judge and condemn us? Know what they can do?

  Kiss my grits.

  “Tell me again what he said to you,” Cain demands. Again.

  “I’ve already told you three times, Cain. Last night I told Tanner and Jasper half a dozen times before they’d let it go. I don’t want to rehash it again.”

  “Then why is he calling you this morning, asking to see you again?” Jasper the voice of reason pipes up.

  I turn and look at him. “I have no idea. Maybe to apologize for being such a jerk last night? I already told you I don’t know. You heard his message just like I did.”

  When I woke up this morning, there was a voicemail waiting for me from Arthur. He asked that I stop by his office this morning. I personally think this is his last ditch effort to get me to agree to accept Jim’s gift and pass it on to him. What he can’t seem to grasp, is that I am not taking anything from Jim. Even if I did, I would never let Arthur get his greedy hands on it.

  “I’m going with you,” Tanner says. “I need to drop off some paperwork Danny dropped by last week anyways. Two birds, one stone.”

  Two birds my butt. “I’m leaving in ten minutes if you’re coming with me.”

  “You sure you want to see him again, pretty girl?”

  “No, I’m not,” I answer Jasper honestly. “I just want this all over with. If he won’t listen to me then I can have Tanner smack some sense into him.”

  “Baby, you don’t need Tanner. Arthur is a pansy-ass. You can take him.” Cain grabs my hand and makes a fist with it. “Just remember to hold your thumbs in tight, and don’t tuck them.”

  I reach up and kiss his beard covered cheek. “No thumb tucking. Got it.” I walk over to Jasper and place a kiss on his nose. “Be careful and don’t let him upset you, no matter what he says.”

  I wink and see Tanner walking back toward us. “I’ll be fine,” I tell Cain and Jasper as I walk out the front door.

  Tanner grabs my hand and holds it the entire drive to the Peterson offices. Once we park, he brushes his lips against my hand. “You ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  "What do you want from me, Memphis?" My father, no Arthur, asked me in an exasperated voice. "I'm trying here. I don't know what more I can do."

  I shake my head at the man who once was a piece of every dream I had. All the times I asked my momma about him and she wouldn't tell me, I completely understand now. He was nothing but a selfish bastard to her back then, and he's nothing but a selfish bastard to me now. I look directly into Arthur's eyes so he will not only hear the truth, but see it as well. "All I ever wanted was for you to want me, Arthur. I wanted a father more than anything."

  "Memphis..."

  I cut him off before he can say another thing. "No, Arthur. No more. I'm tired and frankly sick of you and your excuses. Yesterday you called me a whore for loving Tanner, Jasper, and Cain. Now? What changed all the sudden, Arthur? You think apologizing and attempting to act fatherly is going to get me to agree to what you want?”

  "I didn't mean it when I called you that, Memphis. I was just caught off guard is all."

  "That's all? You sure about that? Because from what I can see, you need me, Arthur. It's not about me, it's about what you think you can get from me." I throw my hands up in frustration and take a deep breath. I would hate to knock this man out. Prison orange is so not my color. "You asked me yesterday why I love the three of them. Do you really want to know, Arthur?" I turn and face him once again. "They love me, all of me. They love me just as I am. A simple, pink haired kindergarten teacher from Wisconsin. They don’t want me to change and fit some mold. They want me, unlike you. I have access to something you need, but before now I was worthless to you. You broke me, Arthur. They picked up the pieces and showed me what it is to be loved without any expectations. Your love and acceptance was never free and I refuse to pay the price for it."

  I walk back to the hard couch in his stuffy office, and pick up my purse and head for the door. When my hand touches the knob, I turn around and face my father one last time. "They will never walk away from me, Arthur. They restored my faith that a man can be true, loyal, and stay without being begged or having to barter for their time and attention. I've watched you walk away too many times, Arthur. Now it's your turn to watch me go."

  Goodbye and good riddance.

  Epilogue

  “Are your eyes closed?” Jasper pushes my hair off my neck and kisses me behind my ear. I shiver every time and he loves it.

  “Yes, Jasper, I already told you I can’t see anything. Not with the black blindfold Cain tied over my eyes before we left Tanner’s house.”

  One of them chuckles. I can’t tell who it is, but I’m pretty sure it was Cain.

  “Baby, I told you the other night I’d tie you up and blindfold you again as soon as I could.”

  “Can we please not discuss that right now? We have something to show her and I’d like to not do it with blue balls.”

  “You weren’t complaining the other night, Tanner.” I hear something and then someone suck in a breath. “Damn it, Tanner. You didn’t have to elbow me in the ribs.” So that’s what that sound was. Tanner hitting Cain, again. I almost roll my eyes but remember that no one can see me and that’s half the fun. All three of them hate when I roll my eyes.

  “Come on, pretty girl. I’ll help you since these two are too busy acting like toddlers.” Jasper takes my hand and we begin walking. He stops me and I squeak when he picks me up bridal style.

  “Jasper! What are you doing?”

  A pair of lips surrounded by a scruffy beard kiss me on the temple. “It’s okay, baby. We’ve got you. Tanner? You want to do the honors?”

  Jasper puts me down and I feel a pair of calloused hands run down my arm. Tanner whispers in my ear, “Never doubt how much we love you, Memphis. The three of us are better men because of you. Also, if you hate it, it’s all Cain’s fault.”

  “Tanner.” Cain growls. “Just take the damn blindfold off.”

  “You ready?” I nod my head and Tanner laughs. He begins to untie the blindfold but stops before it drops off my face. “Welcome home, Memphis,” he says, then lets the thick fabric fall from my face.

  “What am I looking at?”

  Tanner looks confused. “What do you t
hink you’re looking at?”

  “I know what I’m seeing.” In front of us is a beautiful two story home with a wraparound porch along the first floor. It’s white with black trim, gorgeous hostas and colored flowers fill the flowerbeds. If I ever dreamed up what my home would look like, it’d be this. “I just don’t understand why we’re here. Are we visiting someone?”

  “Not exactly,” Jasper answers. Now I’m more confused.

  “Guys, seriously. What are we doing here?” I’m beginning to get irritated. When they told me they were taking me somewhere for a surprise, I was thinking of the middle of the farm for a picnic or something. I’m not in the mood to visit someone today.

  Cain grabs my hand and tugs me along. “Just be patient, baby. I promise you’ll like it.”

  “I’m sorry. I know I’ll love whatever it is. I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. I seem to be more moody and emotional all the sudden.”

  “It’s okay, baby. You have an appointment Monday with the doctor. Maybe it’s just stress from finally moving everything here and closing up on the house in Wisconsin. We know it was a hard decision for you.”

  “You’re probably right,” I tell Cain. “Alright, let’s get this surprise going.” I give my guys a happy smile. It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve let go and smiled at them. The move was difficult. Not from leaving Wisconsin and moving here. That was an easy decision. No, it was leaving Momma there. I know, it’s only her body, but it still felt like I was leaving her behind.

  The four of us step onto the porch and I stand back and look out into the front yard, waiting for one of them to knock. After a moment and I don’t hear anything, I look back to the front door and my guys in front of it. It takes me a second before I see the red ribbon tied to a key in Tanner’s hand.

  “What is that?” I point to the key like it’s a snake about to bite me.

  “It’s exactly what it looks like.” Snarky Jasper.

  Tanner steps over to me, lifts my hand and drops the key into it. “Welcome home, Memphis.”