I'll Stand By You
Page 27
She looked up, her eyes swimming with tears. “If it didn’t mean a big ugly trial, yes.”
“So what if it did? So what?” Johnny asked.
Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Then everyone will know Luther’s father was a bad man.”
Johnny shook his head. “Honey, look at my life. Look at my brothers. Both of our parents were losers. It’s not a baby’s fault or responsibility how they get here, and if it will make you feel any better, we’ll get Butterman on the job and file papers for me to adopt Luther right away. I planned to anyway, and this is a good reason not to delay.”
Dori crawled into Johnny’s lap and put her arms around his neck. “Thank you. Thank you for being understanding. Thank you for not being mad at me.”
“The only person I’ll ever be mad at is him. He made your first experience with a man frightening, painful, and humiliating. I would give anything if it had been me making sweet love to you. Then you wouldn’t be afraid.”
Dori laid a hand on his chest, then on his cheek. “I’m not afraid of you, Johnny. I swear. I am not afraid of you. Do you have any condoms? Are the boys asleep?”
His heart fluttered to a stop. Two questions that absolutely made his day, and she was so calm, she might as well have been asking if there was any milk. It was all he could do to spit out an answer. “Yes, and I can check. Why?”
“I want to be with you, Johnny. I don’t want this marriage to be in name only. I want to grow old with you. I want your face to be the last face I see before I die. I want to do this right.”
“God in heaven, Dori. Don’t talk about dying before I’ve held you naked in my arms. I’m going to check on the boys.”
“I’ll be in your room, just in case.”
Johnny bolted down the hall with his heart in his mouth. “Please, please, please be asleep,” he muttered. And they were.
He made a U-turn and saw Dori slipping into his room. He followed her inside and turned the lock, then stood there shaking. He wanted this so bad, he could hardly think. Their first time had to be perfect.
Dori was nervous, but this felt right. He was her husband and this was the way they should begin their life: with love. When she started to undress, Johnny stopped her with a touch.
“Let me,” he whispered, and then he cupped her cheeks and brushed his mouth across her lips—not really a kiss, but a promise of what was to come.
He could see the rapid thud of her heartbeat in the pulse at the base of her throat.
“No fear, baby. No fear. Not with me, not ever.”
“I’m not afraid,” Dori said. “Today I became a bride, and now I want to be your wife.”
Johnny slid his hands beneath her shirt, then around her waist, and then carefully lifted the shirt up and over her head.
She looked fragile, but he knew how tough she was. He slid his fingers beneath the waistband of her jeans and popped the snap, and the zipper followed. When he started to push them down her hips, they fell too easily, a reminder of what life had put her through. Now she was standing in her underwear, her jeans down around her ankles. He picked her up and laid her down on his bed and then stripped without ceremony until he was standing before her, naked as the day he’d been born and seriously erect. He looked quickly at her face. If this didn’t scare her, he was good to go.
Dori sat up on the bed and undid her bra, then tossed it aside. Johnny groaned as he crawled onto the bed and pulled off her panties.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You’re not afraid?”
“Only that I’ll disappoint you,” she said.
“Not in this lifetime, you won’t.”
He put on a condom then stretched out beside her. The first place he kissed her was at the back of her ear. From there, he moved to the curve of her cheek, down to her lips and points south, all the while making sure he wasn’t going too fast.
Dori had been anxious, even embarrassed when he began, but had long since lost her inhibitions in the feel of his mouth on her body, then rolling her nipples with his tongue and trailing kisses from her breasts to her belly. When his fingers slid even farther, she opened her legs and closed her eyes.
Johnny wanted to be inside her so bad, he thought he would die, but she needed to know what this was about before he went there. And when he slid his fingers between her legs and began to massage the little nub, he heard her sigh and kept on rubbing. When he saw her shudder and then heard her groan, he knew it was good, so he didn’t stop. When she arched her back and then bit her lip to keep from crying out, he knew she was close. He increased the pressure, moving his fingers a little faster, and when he did, she grabbed the bed and held on, as if she were about to take flight.
“Look at me, Dori. Look at me. You need to see the face of the man who loves you when you come.”
She opened her eyes as the climax hit and then abruptly lost her mind. The blood was still surging through her body when he slid inside her. She wanted to watch him, to see the passion in his eyes, see the lust wash over his face, but the rhythmic motion of him deep within her was a feeling too intense. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t form a conscious thought. And when the second rush began, she wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes, waiting to take flight in his arms—and she did.
Johnny couldn’t think. The blood was hammering so hard inside his head that he thought it would explode, and then the climax washed over him and he fell apart. Moments passed as he lay weak and spent upon her body, and yet he knew he had to move or he would crush her. He rose up on his elbows just enough to roll over and took her with him.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” he whispered and buried his nose beneath the curve of her chin.
Dori rose on one elbow to look down into his face. The word husband was still spinning in her head as she accepted the truth of what she felt.
“I love you more.”
Johnny groaned as he kissed her nose, then her lips, and then wrapped his arms around her neck.
“Oh, baby, thank you. I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear you say that. This is true wealth, and I will never take it for granted.”
Chapter 21
Once the kids woke up, the newlyweds spent the afterglow of making love putting her clothes into Johnny’s room and turning the other room into a nursery for Luther. Dori was a little anxious about leaving the baby in a room on his own, but Johnny solved the problem by making a run to Walmart and getting baby monitors, so she could hear even the tiniest of peeps. Once Dori realized how well they picked up noise, she was relieved.
Neither of the boys thought a thing of her moving in with Johnny. Their biggest concern was what to call her now that they all were married, and the issue arose as they sat down to supper.
Luther was in his high chair, talking to the rooster clock and gnawing on a teething biscuit. Dori had already fed him, so he was happy just being where the action was.
She had kept supper simple by making baked beans and wieners, then frying up some potatoes and heating a can of corn. The boys were in their chairs, waiting for the food to get to the table when Beep introduced his problem.
“Hey, Johnny.”
Johnny was putting ice in glasses and answered absently. “Yeah?”
“So now that we got married to Dori and ole Joe, how does that work?”
Johnny paused and turned around.
“How does what work?”
“Well, you’re my brother and Marshall is my brother. So what is Dori and ole Joe?”
Dori winked at Beep as she set the casserole of baked beans and wieners on the table.
“You can call me Dori,” she said.
“But what are you? Are you my mother now?”
The intent expression on his face nearly broke her heart.
“No, sugar, I’m not your mother. I would never pretend to take her place.”
/> “I don’t mind. She wasn’t a very good one,” Marshall said too fast.
Johnny was stunned. He hadn’t seen this coming.
“Look, guys, technically Dori is now your sister-in-law and the baby, well, the baby is going to be your brother because we’re going to adopt him. He will have our last name.”
Beep frowned. “Dori is my sister now?”
Dori could tell he was still confused.
“What do you guys want me to be?” she asked.
Beep dug a booger out of his nose and blithely wiped it on his jeans.
“Me and Marshall talked, and I was thinkin’ I might call you Mama,” he mumbled.
Breath caught in the back of Dori’s throat as she looked at Marshall.
“What do you think, Marshall? What do you want to call me?”
He glanced at Johnny, trying to gauge his mood, and then shrugged.
“I guess me and Beep already got ourselves a brother. What we need is a mama.”
Johnny shook his head. “I did not see this coming,” he said softly, but Dori was already in fix-it mode.
“Seeing as how I already know how to be one, and seeing as how ole Joe is going to be your brother too, and when he learns to talk, he will call me Mama, I think it’s a good idea that you guys call me Mama too.”
Beep sighed loudly. “Boy, that’s a relief! I’ll sleep good tonight.”
It was all Dori could do to keep a straight face.
“So will I, guys, and thank you very much. Me and ole Joe were sure needing a family. We really appreciate that you came to our rescue and married us.”
“No problem,” Marshall said.
Johnny grinned. “Yeah, no problem. We were happy to do it.”
Dori gave him a look, which made him laugh, which made Luther Joe laugh too. He was accommodating like that.
Supper came and went, and they moved into the business of getting back into the normal bedtime routine. Tomorrow was a school day and Johnny would go back to work.
By the time they got all three kids in bed and sound asleep, they were exhausted.
“You shower first,” Johnny said. “I need to call my boss and see what’s up for tomorrow. Unfortunately for us, the honeymoon is over.”
“I hear honeymoons are highly overrated,” Dori said.
“You are my favorite wife. One day, I will take you on a honeymoon of exaggerated proportions.”
“Along with three boys? Then start thinking about Disneyland,” Dori said.
Johnny swept her up into his arms and kissed her soundly, then set her back down on her feet.
“Go take your bath. We still have tonight.”
And they did.
When the alarm went off the next morning, it was a quick hug and kiss good morning before Dori flew across the hall to the bathroom and then went to tend to Luther as Johnny slipped into the bathroom behind her.
By the time he left for work, the boys were eating breakfast and Dori was making lunches.
Johnny didn’t take a daily paper, and so Dori didn’t think about their wedding becoming the headlines in the Blessings Tribune, or the fact that the story, as Peanut had predicted, was making national news. She dropped the boys off at school and decided to stop at the supermarket. It wasn’t until she saw the headlines on the different papers on the newsstand that she realized shit was about to hit the fan. Their picture, the one of all five of them taken right after the ceremony, was splashed all over the papers, each with their take on the headlines:
Married to Save Their Families
DFCS Called on the Carpet
Hero Marries Secret Heiress—Surprise of His Life
Blessings Come from Blessings
“Dear Lord,” she mumbled as she fastened Luther’s car seat into the shopping cart and took off down the aisles. She needed to get out and get home and then call the police station. The sooner she filed that rape report, the better she would feel.
* * *
Ethel Carter was wishing Pansy Jones to hell and back for setting her on that witch hunt while refusing to admit it was her prejudice against the family that had put Ethel on the hot seat. She’d already endured a stringent slap down by her boss and knew he was writing her up and putting it in her file. Because of this, she would never see another step raise on her paycheck. It was a good thing she was retiring in the fall.
* * *
Johnny’s morning wasn’t any better. He’d reported in at the garage long enough to get his work orders and then headed out for the job site where he’d spent the morning shoring up a pond dam that had been destroyed by muskrats. The owner had drained the pond to kill the last of them and needed it repaired before it was viable again. He got in the truck cab to call Dori when he stopped for lunch, but the call went to voice mail. Because she was always busy with the baby, he didn’t think much of it, ate his lunch, and went back to work.
Back at home, Dori and Officer Pittman were at the kitchen table as she retold the incident of her rape. She’d heard the phone ring but let it go to voice mail and kept answering Lon’s questions. She had already gone through the part where she began feeling dizzy and disoriented, and how she’d been looking for her friend, and was at the point in the story when she said someone took her by the arm and told her she needed to get some air.
“I remember walking from the light into the dark, and I wanted to sit down on the bench outside the gym, but he kept pulling me farther into the shadows.”
“Did anyone see you?” Pittman asked.
Dori shoved her hands through her hair in frustration.
“I don’t know. I could barely focus.”
“And you stated you didn’t know him.”
“I’d never seen him before. He didn’t fit. He didn’t belong.”
“What do you mean?” Lon asked.
“He was too old, way too old to still be in school. I told him I needed to go home. I was sick. I couldn’t think.”
“Sounds like someone slipped something in your drink,” Lon said.
She shrugged. “I didn’t see it happen, but I think so.”
“What else do you remember?” Lon asked.
Dori ducked her head. “I felt him pulling at my clothes. Then I passed out. I came to and saw his face above me and knew what he was doing, but I couldn’t move. I passed out again, and when I came to, he was gone.”
“Did you ever see him again?” Lon asked.
“Yes. I was about seven months pregnant and was walking out of the pharmacy when I saw him coming out of Granny’s restaurant across the street. I didn’t know the people he was with, but they were getting into more than one car. I heard one of them call him Frankie.”
“What did you do?”
“I got in the car and drove home as fast as I could go.”
“Why didn’t you tell someone?” Lon asked.
Dori shuddered. “Granddaddy would have killed him. I didn’t want him in jail, and I guess I was afraid the law would find the guy and I wouldn’t be able to prove anything. It was my word against his, and I felt like a fool, like it was somehow my fault.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m sorry you were afraid to tell, but I understand.”
“So what now?” Dori asked.
“I have your statement on video, and I have the written statement you gave me, as well. I understand why you felt the need for this to be on record, but without a last name, I doubt this investigation can go much farther.”
“I don’t want to find him. I’m doing this in case he comes looking for me,” Dori said.
“I understand,” Pittman said. “I can do some preliminary investigating and then bury the file. It will be there if the need arises.”
Dori sighed. “I’m not even going to ask if this is proper police procedure. I’m just grateful.”
“They had already assessed us before Granddaddy died. We hadn’t suffered smoke inhalation and weren’t burned. They wouldn’t let me ride in the ambulance. No one could have predicted what happened that night, but I am forever grateful Johnny and his boys came to my rescue. Look how it all turned out.”
Pittman smiled. “I’d say Johnny’s pretty happy about it too.”
Dori nodded. “You should have seen the look on his face when he found out about the money.”
“It’s not a bad thing to hear,” Pittman said. “However, I’m very sorry you had to lose your grandfather to get it. You take care, and I’ll see myself out.”
Dori heard the front door open and close, and then he was gone. For better or worse, she’d done it. If the story came out later, then so what if it did? She refused to worry about it any longer. She went to get her phone to see who’d called, and when she saw it was Johnny, she sent him a text.
I talked to the police. The report has been filed. Making beef potpie for supper. I love you. Be safe.
She glanced at the clock. She’d missed lunch and started to ignore her hunger pangs, then changed her mind. Johnny had told her to quit skipping meals, and he was right. She had punished herself long enough for becoming a victim. She made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and poured a big glass of milk. Instead of eating it standing up, she sat down in Johnny’s recliner and turned on the television while she ate.
It was later that afternoon when Johnny saw the text. Satisfied all was well, he read it twice just to reread “I love you,” then loaded up the dozer and headed back to town.
* * *
Frankie Ricks was drinking beer in a bar in Savannah and waiting for a friend to show up. The television was on over the bar, and every now and then, he’d glance up, waiting for the weather report to see if it was a good day to go fishing. He had just signaled the bartender for a refill when a picture of a man and woman and three kids flashed on the screen. Beer slopped out of his glass as he recognized the girl, and when the story popped up on the crawl beneath the picture, he nearly fell off the stool.