by L. C. Giroux
"That was... wonderful. I... I should go." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. If she needed space then he'd give her space. He had no intention of letting her get away. Last night and this morning had convinced him that if he wanted to do this right he needed to get some professional advice. So she could go back to the pleasure dome but that didn't mean he was giving up on her.
"Do you have everything you need?"
"I think so, if not I'll call you or, you call me."
"Evie, I'm willing to give you some space but I'm not saying good bye."
"I... I don't want you to say good bye. I just... this week has been crazy, not wrong but..."
"Intense. Like a hurricane."
"Yes. I feel like I need to process it all. Does that make any sense?"
"Sure, I kind of feel that way too. But I want you, er, us to still be good together."
"I do too." She was looking at her feet when she said it. Cam tilted her face up to look at him. She gave him a quick smile and then a kiss and walked out of the kitchen. He heard her car start and then she was gone. His chest ached and the house was too damn quiet. He needed to start getting things in motion. First, he needed to do a little detective work.
"Sal?"
"Cam? Is Delia okay?"
"She's fine, off raising hell as usual."
"Nobody's dead?"
"No! Geez, a brother can't call his sister?"
"You can, you just don't."
"Sorry, how are things going out there? You still cooking at that ranch?"
"Yeah, I'm still stuck in Salvation, the land time forgot. Thank God for cell phone towers and Amazon." She started laughing. Cam realized it had been a long time since his sister had laughed like she meant it.
"You sound good, relaxed. How's the writing going?"
"Actually I haven't been writing much. Mostly just recharging the batteries but it has been good. It has been interesting here. I get the feeling my writing will have changed when I get back to it, in a good way. So you didn't call to find out how many words a day I'm pumping out so spill it little brother."
"I met this woman..."
"Don't tell me the Casanova of Jamaica Plains is looking for relationship advice?"
"Shut up. Seriously she's... special. Delia's met her, the little witch even liked her and you know how she is."
"This woman would have to be something else for my child to not make her life miserable for dating her Uncle Cam. Delia likes her and you are calling me for advice? Does this woman have any idea she has the world tipped off its axis? Seriously, what do you want to know, though I don't know how I can help all the way out here."
"I need to sweep her off her feet, without using my usual talents, if you know what I mean."
"So no dumping on your bed and having your wicked way with her."
"You know sometimes I hate that you write romance novels."
"Nah, you just hate that I model all the rakes after you. You do know the first rule of romance novel rakes don't you?"
"No."
"The more jaded the rake, the harder they fall and usually for the most innocent miss too."
"Shit. That is not funny."
"Oh God, is it true?" She started cackling over the phone.
"Shut up or I'll throw your daughter out on her ass." She laughed harder if it was possible.
"You wouldn't dare, you love that kid like she was your own and it is a good thing too, she is a piece of work."
"Sal, I'm serious here. Evie is, hell, I want to marry her but she's...
"Wait, you can't use your usual seduction talents, she's different, you want to marry her... Holy hell, she's a virgin isn't she? Cam, if you are robbing the cradle here..."
"No! We went to high school together, but yeah she's..."
"Wow, no wonder you're freaked out. That is just so not your regular cup of tea. Well, do you know why she's never..."
"No. She said it wasn't about waiting till she's married and um, we haven't exactly been sitting around holding hands so I don't think its fear of actually having sex."
"How well did you know her in high school? Did something happen that scared her off relationships?"
"She went through a rough couple of years during high school, glasses, braces on her teeth and legs. She was one of those girls that came in to their own later. I suspect she was gorgeous by the time she graduated from college but by then she was so introverted..."
"Wow, you weren't kidding. She is different for you. So maybe she is waiting till she falls in love. Not such a bad thing."
"But I want her to fall in love with me." His sister laughed and he wanted to hang up on her. "Look if you aren't going to help..."
"I'm thinking! How into you is she? Are you starting from scratch here or do you think she feels the same way about you that you do about her?"
"well, I've already told her I love her but..."
"Damn, you're serious. Okay, there are lots of reason she might not say it back. The first being you caught her off guard and she wasn't ready for it yet."
"It was pretty fast and we were, ugh, in the middle of..."
"Okay, spare me the details. So lets assume she feels the same way but she's shy or unsure of how to tell you or hell Cam, you can be pretty over the top when it comes to stuff like this."
"I know that is why I'm calling you! My caveman instincts are no good here."
"So go the other way. Try being the courtly gentleman."
"How?"
"Go the old fashioned route. Ask her parents to court her. Be the romantic I know you keep buried under your caveman exterior. Whisk her away for a romantic weekend that doesn't include sex, well knowing you that may not be a good idea."
"If I talk to her parents first, what do you think about eloping?"
"Ugh, a little fast don't you think?"
"Sal, she stayed here for a week, mostly in your old room. When she left this morning to go back to her place, suddenly the house was vacant and I mean totally and completely absent of life. I feel like an old dog who's lost his home. I realized this is just a house but where ever Evie is, is home. I know it sounds corny and I fucked with Michael when he would say shit like this about his wife but I get it now. I'm in deep here."
"Yes, you are little brother. I couldn't be happier for you. I'm so happy that if you elope I won't even hold it against you, Mom and Nana on the other hand may cut your heart out and hand it to you."
"If I promise grandkids?"
"That may save you, just!"
"I want pictures if I can't be there! That any help?"
"Yeah, I miss having all my girls around me."
"Loser! I miss you too."
"You always were the least sentimental of us. Bye."
"Remember I want pictures!"
"Yeah, yeah. Bye!" The line went dead. Old fashioned gentleman? He could try it, hell if it didn't work he could always revert back to caveman and drag her down to city hall by her hair. Either way they were getting married and she was gonna be sleeping in his bed permanently.
***
She parked her car and grabbed some of her stuff. When she got to her door she dropped some of the bags to dig through her purse to find the code she'd written down for the alarm. Once she was inside she disarmed the system and set up a new code. She punched up her phone and brought up the app they had her download and watched as her four different point of views showed up on the split screen. Now she could monitor her place at any time from her phone. She hit a button on the screen and the image changed to just outside her door. That would be nice when she didn't want to get out of bed to answer the damn thing.
Hell, she was in a lousy mood and then some. She was exhausted from not getting any sleep last night and crying most of it besides. Joseph's backrub, those hands should be registered as dangerous, had left her aching. Why, when she was finally ready to tell him she loved him and finally ready to give up her vaunted God-damned virginity did he freak out and send her away like she wa
s some naughty school girl. He'd said he loved her. Did he know she was a virgin? Had she tipped him off somehow? Did he think she'd want to get married first? Did she want to get married first? She had always thought she would 'give it up' when she found a guy that she truly loved.
But she'd loved Joseph forever. Oh crap! Was that it? Had she been waiting for a guy that could measure up to the guy who actually saw her in high school? That was a sobering thought, had she subconsciously been waiting for Joseph all this time, what if he'd never shown up? Thinking like this was going to make her crazy. She needed to haul her stuff in and then she was going to take a long hot soak. Except being in the tub made her think of Joseph washing her hair and how much she had wanted him in there with her.
Hell, everything upstairs made her think of him because now she saw everything through his eyes. Their own little pleasure dome, except she was here and he wasn't. Maybe she should call him, just to let him know she was okay. No. She needed to get through the next couple of hours at least on her own. Get her stuff in, take a long hot bath, get some dinner, then she could call him without sounding like a desperate twit that couldn't function with out him in her life. If nothing else this last week had taught her she was capable and she would be okay on her own. Okay maybe, but it would be a whole lot nicer if he were here.
Chapter Seven
He hadn't been back to the old neighborhood since Mom and Nana moved to Florida. Sal and Delia had moved in with him so there really hadn't been much need. Mac's hadn't changed a bit. It even smelled the same which was a little weird, stale beer and fried meat. He supposed the menu hadn't change in the 7 years since he'd been here so it shouldn't have been that odd. When his eyes got adjusted to the lack of light he scanned the room. Mostly empty, since it was Sunday. What he imagined were regulars up at the bar and a couple of the booths were full.
He could tell which was the couple he was meeting almost immediately. Right age, both sitting on the same side of the booth. He had his arm draped around her she was holding his other hand in her lap. They had their heads bent toward each other. The jukebox was too loud to tell if they were talking or if that was their natural posture. Years of being a cop had taught him to read body language and theirs said lovers. Even if they had had Evie right away that meant they had been married for thirty-six or more years. He smiled to himself. He and Evie might be getting a later start but he wanted to believe that they would still be sitting that close, curled up around each other, heads together when they were old and gray too. He rolled over to them.
"Mr. and Mrs. Tolland?"
"Yes," they sat up straighter and pulled away from each other a little, though Cam noticed that he didn't take his arm away from her shoulders. "Are you Joseph Camenitti?"
"I am, I wanted to talk to you about Evie."
"She's alright isn't she?"
"Yes ma'am she's fine, I..." He took a deep breath and stared at his knees. "I faced a hail of bullets and was less nervous than this. Sorry, I wanted to tell you that, actually I wanted to ask you, hell, I want to marry your daughter."
They both smiled back at him. "Are you asking for our help? Evie is a wonderful girl but she tends to keep her head down to the point that she can't see if someone wants her attention."
"I think I've managed to get her attention. I have to be honest we haven't been dating long, actually we only met again about two weeks ago but we went to high school together so..."
"Wait, Joseph, not THE Joseph?"
"Excuse me?"
"Everyday of her sophomore year she would come home raving about a boy named Joseph. She would tell me about every single thing that boy did, all the athletic accomplishments, the girls he flirted with," Cam felt himself start to turn red. "Even what he wore. The sun and moon set on that boy for her. Then by junior year I never heard about him anymore."
"I would have graduated by then. Did she mention that Joseph ever kissed her?" The woman smiled at him and it was easy to imagine what Evie would look like in forty years. Her mother was still a beautiful woman.
"I seem to remember one week in particular, where there were a lot of breathless sighs and some girlish screaming. It was so different from her usual manner. That girl was so serious all the time. By junior year she started doing more with her art stuff so boys kind of got pushed to the back of her thoughts."
Now he felt himself relax. "I would like a little of your help, Mr. and Mrs. Tolland."
"If you're going to be our son in law, I think you can call us Evelyn and Walter." Walter's voice made it clear that Mr. and Mrs. Tolland were much too formal for them."
"Thank you, Walter. I would like it if you could keep this to yourselves for a while. I haven't actually asked Evie yet but she is kind of old-fashioned, and I love that about her. I wanted to tell you what I planned before I asked her. Like I said I know it hasn't been very long but I don't want her to get away again."
"I have a question I want to ask even though it is none of my business. If the answer is no, that is fine but I want to know the truth. Can I expect grandchildren?"
"Evelyn!" Walter yelled. Cam laughed hard and long.
"Oh don't Evelyn me! I have three grown children and no grand babies, heck none of them have settled down long enough to even try. If he can't, he can't, then I'll have to bug the other two but... well?"
"Ma'am, I may be in a wheelchair but um, as far as that goes, everything seems to work like it is supposed to. I haven't actually fathered any children so I suppose I could be shooting blanks but I hope not. Even though we haven't been together very long I've already told your daughter I want kids. She didn't start telling me I was crazy so... sorry that is about the best answer I can give you." Now Evelyn blushed which made her look twenty years younger. "I'd like to marry her as soon as possible but that would mean eloping. If you aren't okay with it then we could wait and just live together I suppose but I'd rather do this the right way."
"Her mother and I eloped, broke Evelyn's mother's heart but her father gave us the money he would have spent on a wedding to buy a house. Said it was the best idea I ever had."
"Walter!"
"Okay, the best idea I ever had after I picked you."
"We won't need your money for a house. We will have one too many as it is. I own my house in JP outright."
"Good to know. What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a cop, I got shot on duty. I get a disability pension but I still work for victim's services. We try to help people get their lives back together when something bad has happened. I've been lucky with my investments too so I am pretty well off, not rich, but more than comfortable and able to pay for a couple of grand babies to go to college." He grinned at Evelyn and she blushed again. If he couldn't spend time with Evie right now, her parents were pretty good company. "So there won't be any hard feelings if I take your daughter to Vermont and marry her."
"As long as there is a party back here afterward I think we could live with that." Walter said more to Evelyn than Cam.
"There would have to be something to celebrate or my mother and grandmother will, in the words of my sister,'cut my heart out and hand it to me'."
"Glad to hear you are used to strong women, I always thought that when Evie got the attention she deserved she'd become a force to be reckoned with. Consider yourself warned."
"Appreciate it, sir." Cam tried to hide his smile. Evie had started coming out of her shell and he'd loved her even more for it.
"Have you picked out a ring for her?"
"No, I haven't yet. I wanted to talk to you first." Evelyn twisted her engagement ring off her finger and put it in Cam's hand. It wasn't the biggest stone but it was beautiful just the same. Simple, almost plain but even in the dimly lit tavern you could see the fire in the stone. It was funny how it reminded him of Evie, all that fire beneath a simple exterior. He tried to give it back. "I couldn't, I can afford a ring for her, really."
"This isn't about what you can afford. She's the first to get a proposal and th
is was her grandmother's ring. Walter gave it to me when we got engaged. If Eden ever settles down then she can have my mother's ring. This is to continue the line. You can go buy her a knockout wedding band then she'll have the something old and something new taken care of." Cam leaned over and kissed his, hopefully soon to be, mother-in-law on the cheek.
"What do I do with it if she says no." He didn't even really want to think about it. Damn, would she shoot him down?
"You give it to her to bring back to me and I'll tell her she's a damn fool!" Both Walter and Cam tried not to laugh because neither wanted her to line up against them.
"Yes, ma'am, I'll let her know. Do you have anymore questions for me?"
"I expect we'll get to know you better over the next couple of months. I appreciate you coming to talk to us. Can't be easy when you're a grown man. I hope everything goes the way you want. I do expect to see you and Evie for dinner occasionally." Walter gave him a stern look, letting him know that it was not an idle request.
"And grand kids, I expect you to give me a couple of grand kids!"
"Yes, ma'am. Should I put in an order for one of each?" Cam liked teasing her mother almost as much as teasing Evie.
"That would be lovely! A boy, handsome like his father and a girl like her beautiful mother would be perfect." Damn if the woman didn't make him blush like he was a school boy.
"I'll see what I can do."
He put the ring in his pocket struck by the trust and generosity of Evie's parents. Half and hour ago they hadn't even heard of him and now they were giving him a family heirloom. Somehow asking her to marry him with her mother's ring made all of this even more right. Now he had to go down to the jeweler's and pick out the perfect band to go with it.
***
Evie wrapped her head in a towel when the phone rang.
"Eric?"
"Eves, Mom told me about you getting some of your chisels stolen. You need a loan from your rich brother?"