Bounty

by Kristen Ashley

  “And Deke’s a mellow guy, so he’s always laidback, so I can’t tell from him if you were cool when you met him,” Jussy went on.

  Joss’s eyes narrowed on her daughter. “We’ve barely been here five minutes, girl, and I’ve barely said five words to him.”

  Jussy lifted her brows to her mother, not missing a beat. “And were those five words cool?”

  Joss seemed like she was fixing to blow when Rembrandt skirted the couch, put his back to the arm, and collapsed into it, still wearing his shades, announcing, “Took the redeye here. Got fuckin’ six fuckin’ suitcases, four of ’em filled with your shit, Jussy, in that SUV. Wrangled that crap myself because your mother wanted to arrive without an entourage,” he said the last like this was a sticking point on a variety of things between Joss and Roddy. “Now I’m bone-tired, need coffee, food, to bonk my wife and then pass out.”

  “Rod!” Joss snapped.

  “What?” he asked, looking up at her through his shades from his position on the couch. “That’s not all gonna happen?”

  “All of it would have happened if you hadn’t announced in front of Jussy’s new man that you were gonna bonk your wife. Now that particular part is not gonna happen,” Joss returned.

  “The dude’s a dude,” Rembrandt shot back, turning his head on the couch to look at Deke. “A big dude.” He aimed his shades back up at his wife. “We dudes don’t get offended by that shit. He’s cool.”

  “So, say, Jussy doesn’t feel like carrying the knowledge her guest room bed is gonna get broken in by her stepdad bonking her mom,” Joss retorted.

  “Jussy’s cooler than her dude, I know that for sure,” Rembrandt muttered, something that was absolutely correct, and he did this folding his hands on his chest like he was a vampire in a coffin except his coffin was a couch his legs were dangling off the side.

  Deke was having a fuckuva time controlling his need to bust out laughing.

  He looked from Rembrandt to his gypsy and found that effort easier when he saw her neck bowed, shoulders slumped, head shaking side to side.

  “Baby,” he called softly.

  Her head came up and she turned her eyes to him.

  “I am a dude but you know I’m cool.”

  “I need coffee,” she replied.

  “Gotcha,” he murmured, turned and moved into the kitchen.

  “Did I hear pancakes?” Rembrandt called.

  “Those are coming after coffee, Roddy,” Jussy declared, and when she did, Deke knew she was on the move toward him.

  “Rod, get your ass up and go bring in the suitcases,” Joss ordered.

  “Fuck that,” he replied. “Nothin’ in them is gonna go bad. They can wait until after my nap.”

  “Rod—”

  “After pancakes, I’ll get ’em,” Deke injected into their exchange, fingers through one of Jussy’s new mugs, other hand reaching toward the pot.

  “I’ll help,” Jussy decreed.

  “No you won’t,” he told her.

  “Yes, I will,” she returned.

  “Justice,” he said low.

  She looked into his eyes, sighed and shifted to the fridge, undoubtedly to get her creamer.

  “I take mine dollop of cream, no sugar,” Joss announced.

  “I take mine black and I hope like fuck that shit’s strong,” Rembrandt called from the couch.

  “Rod, you wanna cut back on the language?” Joss suggested, sliding her firm ass on a barstool, doing this with torso twisted to the couch.

  Turning his shades his wife’s way, Rembrandt fired back, “Babe, the dude is a dude. Relax.”

  Joss twisted to her daughter, sharing, “I knew I shouldn’t have brought him.”

  Deke handed Jussy her mug, seeing by her profile she agreed.

  He beat back a chuckle and reached for another mug.

  “You think I’m gonna get left out of lookin’ over Jussy’s boy, think again, somethin’ I told your ass when you tried to elbow me outta this trip,” Rembrandt said.

  Deke was pouring and through it he heard Jussy’s audible sigh.

  Christ, he hadn’t been called a “boy” since his mother’s dickhead employer referred to him only that way from the time he could understand English to the day the motherfucker fired his ma.

  He had this thought and still, Rembrandt doing it, Deke felt his mouth twitch.

  “Just so you don’t get peeved, I’m officially ignoring you for the next half an hour,” Joss told her husband.

  “I’m down with that,” her husband muttered.

  Deke couldn’t beat back the strangled noise that was a swallowed laugh.

  “We’re so totally going to need more coffee,” Jussy mumbled.

  He turned a smile to her.

  She caught it, her face softened and she gave him a small smile back.

  “Girl, get your ass over here,” Joss ordered. “Sit by your momma. And tell me about this place which…is…fine. The dining room, baby girl…inspired.”

  Jussy’s look to him lingered before she moved to her mother.

  A minute later, Deke was sliding her mug across the island toward Joss, who now had Jussy on a stool by her side, when she aimed her eyes to his.

  “She wouldn’t let me come. We had to surprise her. She asked for some time. We gave her some time. Time was up. I’m sure you get it.”

  It wasn’t asking for a confirmation. She was telling him he’d better get it because it was the way it was, for more reasons than the fact they were actually there.

  “I get it. And it’s all good. Soon’s she gets some coffee in her, she’ll beat back her morning mood and she’ll get it too,” Deke replied, pulling away from the island to go back to the mugs.

  “He’s good-looking,” Joss shared openly.

  “Please don’t talk about him like he’s not here,” Jussy returned.

  “You’re good-looking,” Joss stated loudly, this Deke knew was aimed at his back.

  “Gratitude,” he muttered, the word sounding tortured because it was torture trying not to laugh.

  “And he’s big,” Joss went on. “You’re big,” she called immediately so Jussy wouldn’t get in her shit about it. “Though I already told you that.”

  He turned and looked at her. “You did.”

  Then he started to walk a filled mug toward Rembrandt on the couch.

  “You told him he was big?” Jussy asked.

  “Baby, he was standing in the door when we got here. I couldn’t miss that. There are people in the space station who didn’t miss that.”

  He had Rembrandt’s eyes on him so he caught the big, professionally-whitened smile the man returned to the one Deke could not bite back.

  “No, you’re right. It’s impossible to miss. But that doesn’t mean you should say something about it,” Jussy retorted.

  “I did, and he doesn’t care.”

  Jussy’s tone tightened when she noted, “So you weren’t cool in those five words you gave him.”

  “Justice, drink your coffee. We’ll resume communications in five minutes when the caffeine has started working its way through your system,” Joss declared.

  Deke thought this was a good play.

  “Thanks, dude,” Rembrandt muttered as Deke handed him his mug.

  He didn’t wait to watch after the man started curling up to take a sip. He turned back to the kitchen.

  He’d poured his own cup by the time conversation resumed.

  “How long are you staying?” Jussy asked her mother.

  “I have a client to see Monday afternoon. Rod’s got shit on too. So we have to leave Sunday, late afternoon.”

  He watched his woman do another shoulder slump. Now that they were there, she was getting past the surprise, her irritation they showed and why they did, she didn’t like the short visit.

  “Though, this place is the…fuckin’…shit,” Rembrandt decreed from the couch. “We’re totally coming back.”

  “Next time, though, we’ll let you know,”
Joss said to her daughter quietly.

  It was and was not an apology.

  And while Deke watched her, moving back to his bowl, he saw his gypsy accept it, doing this inaudibly.

  “Dude, you’re hittin’ the pancakes, just to say, I like mine doughy, by that I mean, medium rare on the inside,” Rembrandt placed his order.

  Deke looked to Jussy and grinned.

  She grinned back, shaking her head.

  Joss twisted toward the couch.

  “First, Rod, his name is not dude, it’s Deke. Second, you aren’t in a restaurant. You’re in Jussy’s home.”

  “Thought you were ignoring me,” Rembrandt noted.

  “Fuck, I forgot,” Joss muttered.

  Deke couldn’t help it. His shoulders shaking, he failed in holding it back and released the chuckle.

  “Just so you know, I’m normal,” Joss stated. “He’s not, but I’m so normal, I can often balance us out. I’m unable to do that right now since his not normal is in overdrive due to the fact he’s tired, hungry and horny.”

  Jussy looked to the ceiling.

  Deke’s shoulders kept shaking as his laughter got louder.

  Through it, he looked at Joss and saw a beauty that hadn’t even started fading in a way she’d be that kickass bitch at seventy that twenty-year-old girls looked at and vowed they’d be like her when they got that age.

  This boded well for him because he could tell already she’d passed that down to his girl.

  When his laughter died down, he said, “No offense but you aren’t normal either, Joss. But just to say, that’s good. Normal sucks.”

  Joss took him in and she took her time doing it before she turned to her daughter and said, “I give preliminary approval.”

  “He can make a doughy pancake, I give full approval,” Rembrandt called from the couch.

  That was when he heard it, Jussy’s giggle, starting the way it always started, with a tinkling sound, before it became full-throated laughter.

  And then Deke watched her fall forward into her mother, who caught her in her arms as Jussy wound hers around Joss.

  “You’re a pain in my ass,” she said in her mom’s neck, voice muffled by a shit ton of auburn hair that was second only to her daughter’s. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

  Deke kept watching and while he did, Joss Rembrandt did not get his preliminary approval.

  She got it full, the way her profile gentled, love saturating her face, her eyes slowly closing in a way that looked like she needed to do it in order to fully focus on a moment of bliss, her arms visibly tightening.

  “Missed you, baby girl.”

  “Missed you too, Joss.”

  They held on to each other.

  Deke turned from mother and daughter to find the measuring cups.

  * * * * *

  Late that afternoon, the countdown at two hours before everyone was going to get there, Deke sat at the end of one of Justice’s denim couches, Jussy curled up to his side.

  Rod and Joss sat across from them in the middle of the couch. Rod slouched into the side of his wife, his stocking feet on the edge of the fireplace, legs at an angle. Joss was slouched too, down in the seat, her legs in front of her bent, soles of her feet to the fireplace.

  It was after pancakes, Rod and Deke hauling in the suitcases, Joss and Rod disappearing upstairs for their nap and possibly other activities, which fortunately, if they happened, he and Jussy didn’t hear.

  With Deke helping, Jussy got on starting Steph’s chicken. And with Deke lazing on the bed he’d helped Jussy make, he kept her company while she unpacked a variety of shit from the four suitcases. Most of it was clothing, some shoes, sandals and boots, some small cases of jewelry, all of it a headache-inducing variety of colors, patterns, feathers, metals, beads and tassels, and she put them away.

  After that, they took a shower, and just in case the distance and shower sounds didn’t muffle it, Deke did so her family couldn’t hear their activities.

  When Joss reemerged from the guest room, leaving her husband up there, Deke took stock of the situation in fridge and cupboards that Jussy had already covered at the market. And even though it was unlikely they needed more due to two extra people considering the slightly alarming amount of provisions Jussy had already stocked, he headed to town to augment it.

  He did this so his gypsy princess had time with her mother and because Joss had explained both she and Rod were also bourbon drinkers. So even though they had two bottles, he figured another two wouldn’t hurt.

  He came back and found Rod had roused. Jussy made them all grilled cheese sandwiches, which were the best he’d ever tasted. Simple flavors, three different types of cheese melted together, the fresh bread coated in real butter that crisped and flavored the bread.

  Now they were kicked back, Steph’s chicken not labor intense, only needing to pour out chips, nuts, fill dip bowls and start the rice since Shambles said he and Sunny were bringing dessert.

  Conversation was mainly about the folks Joss and Roddy would meet, folks Jussy had spent time texting to share the heads up that they’d be at a housewarming party that included a famous member of a metal band and her mother.

  The mood was easy. It was as he’d told her it would be, all good. Joss and Rod had come to look him over, but more, they’d come to be with Jussy and they were tight. They settled into that quickly, clearly happy to be spending time together, especially after all that had happened from losing Johnny to Jussy getting attacked.

  Unfortunately, although that ease seemed stamped on where they’d fallen into after an unexpected arrival, Joss was Joss, Rod was Rod, so in a way Deke figured it frequently was, that ease evaporated.

  It did this when Rod suddenly twisted his neck to look at his wife and stated, “We should tell her. Talk about it now before her friends show.”

  Jussy’s loose body lost some of its looseness at his side as Joss looked at her husband, declaring inflexibly, “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

  Rembrandt either had a habit of ignoring or not caring about his wife’s inflexibility, even when it pertained to something that had to do with her daughter.

  “We should get on it now so she can think about it. I gotta tell Ricky. He’s taking this on. More time he has to deal with shit, the better and, baby,” Rembrandt’s voice had dipped to quiet, “even if it’s only a day, with this kind of shit, you know that.”

  “She doesn’t need to have it on her mind when she’s looking forward to a good time with her friends,” Joss returned.

  That made Jussy’s body lose all its looseness and tighten at his side.

  Which made Deke straighten in the couch and pull her closer.

  “Shit needs to get done, Joss, and she’s not gonna think it’s a bad idea,” Rod retorted.

  “We can talk about it tomorrow,” Joss stated.

  “We should talk about it now,” Rembrandt fired back.

  “You’re gonna talk about it now,” Deke cut in after feeling Jussy get more and more tense. “Now that it’s out, she needs to know. And whatever it is, she’s Jussy, you know better than me that she’ll deal.”

  Both Joss and Rembrandt looked to him, Rembrandt nonthreateningly.

  Joss’s face was getting hard.

  “My daughter can speak for herself,” she snapped.

  Deke felt Jussy turn to stone.

  He strengthened his hold on her and said to her mother, “She can. But she isn’t ’cause you two are doin’ your thing, and I can feel it’s tweaking her. So just say it so she can have it and do whatever she needs to do with it.”

  Joss opened her mouth to say something but Jussy got there before her.

  “Not another word.”

  That made Deke’s body tense and he looked down at his woman to see her face was as rigid as her frame.

  “Do not ever speak to Deke that way again, Joss,” she ordered, her voice firm, authoritative, not like a daughter talking to a mother, but like a friend laying out to
a friend what needed to be laid out, something important to her, something she wanted to make sure wasn’t missed.

  “Justice—” Joss began.

  “Not ever again,” Jussy whispered angrily.

  Deke looked from her to her mother to see Joss’s face was now also stiff. He also saw the one thing other than the man’s clear affection for Jussy that made Deke know he was not only going to like Rembrandt, but respect him.

  Rod had straightened, shifted, took hold of Joss, and was now offering her what Deke was offering Justice with his arm around her.

  The men remained silent as mother and daughter went into staredown and Deke was not even a little surprised when Jussy came out the winner, Joss turning her attention to Deke and saying, “My apologies, Deke.”

  “No worries,” he murmured, gave his woman a squeeze and looked down at her. He waited until she aimed her irate eyes to him and he repeated, “No worries, baby. Yeah?”

  She studied his face and must have gotten what she needed because she mumbled, “Yeah.”

  “Dana called,” Rembrandt put in and both Deke and Justice turned surprised eyes to him.

  Deke didn’t miss that Joss noted both their expressions, which communicated to her all Jussy had shared with Deke, the breadth of it and the depth.

  With his look, she knew that Deke was fully aware that there were four people in her parents’ separate relationships, two who didn’t belong, these two being the ones who belonged to the wrong people. It was fucked. It was sad. But the ones who didn’t belong loved the ones who belonged to each other so much, in a sad, fucked-up way, it worked.

  So Dana, who they all knew had no business being with Johnny when he belonged to Joss but the man died with her as his widow, calling either Rembrandt or Joss was news.

  Surprising news.

  “Dana called?” Jussy asked.

  Rembrandt nodded. “She had an idea, darlin’.”

  “You don’t have to do it,” Joss put in quickly.

  “You don’t,” Rod confirmed. “And you decide that way, girl, that’s the way it’s gonna be and it’s all cool.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jussy asked.

  Rod looked to Joss, she looked back, and Rod got more respect from Deke when he took the reins.