by KT Morrison
“Rocco, I—”
His head had turned, cocked like he was hearing something. He frowned. She heard it too now, a motor, a resonant buzz, a small sound that cut through the big wide space of sky and water. Next to the chair he had binoculars set, lens down on the deck beside his phone and his rye and coke and he reached for them.
“Hang on,” he grumbled.
“Is it a boat?” she said.
He put the glasses up to his face and she twisted in his lap, a hand up on his dragon covered shoulder, watched where he was looking. There was something coming, a small white dot out there in the sunny haze.
“Rocco, what is it, baby, is it Geoff? Is it Geoff?” she said, feeling an excitement race her heart.
“I don’t fuckin believe it,” he said.
GEOFF
When he saw her his heart leaped in his chest, a smile broke his beard wide and his eyes filled with tears. He was exploding with joy inside, his breath chugged against Dino’s back where he had his face pressed. She was slim and she was pretty and she looked so frail. She was his Nia and he would never stop loving her. She was his best friend and the mother of his child.
She was on the back of the boat in a long grey T-shirt, loose baggy sleeves, it came down to her knees and her legs were bare. She stood, weak and languorous, her posture slack and her brow worried. Her shoulders drooped and she clutched an elbow. She was tanned. Her hair was in a ponytail and her black mane danced buoyantly at her shoulder.
“Oh, Nia,” he sighed into the wind and he pressed his cheek to Dino and closed his eyes. The ride was making his stomach flip and watching his wife at the back of the houseboat had jostled his seasick brain. He clenched his eyes shut and pictured her in the sparkling starlit black the way he’d just seen her. He was going to hold her in minutes. He excised Rocco standing next to her from that vision.
The motor’s roar dwindled, came down to a rattling idle. He bobbed on the waves and he pushed himself back from Dino. They were about ten feet from the boat now. Nia was gone. Rocco watched, his elbows on the guard rail, big hands draped. He was shirtless; bulk and muscle, and covered with dragons, and he watched Geoff and Dino from behind black sunglasses. Anger and jealousy whipped up inside him and he wrestled it. It would consume him if he wasn't careful. He didn’t want that. He wanted happiness. So he pushed away the dark thoughts of his wife alone on this boat for almost a week with her dream man. His freakish cock, his strength and power and his tattoos. The horrible sexual capacity he had. Fuck, he pushed it away with great force.
“Just throw me a fuckin rope,” Dino said.
Rocco stared at them and didn’t move.
“You think we’re not going to get on the boat? Throw me a rope, asshole.”
Rocco’s eyebrows raised up over his sunglasses and he smirked. But he bent down and grabbed a worn looking old rope loosely hooped in his fist and he walked to the open gate off the back deck and stood on the edge. He tossed the bundled rope holding on to one end and it scattered across the nose of the jet ski. Dino had it and he bundled it up in his hands and pulled them against the boat while Rocco tied it off on a cleat.
Geoff looked around over Dino’s shoulders to get a glimpse of Nia but she wasn't there. She’d gone back inside the houseboat. He was soaking wet, his chinos uncomfortably wedged in his creases as he stood.
He was the first one off the jet ski. Jumping to the back deck and pulling himself to stand while Dino still tied the wave runner secure. He brushed underneath Rocco who didn't move for him and he went to stand at the open sliding glass door.
She was sitting at a booth much like their own kitchen. She was facing away, her back to him. He saw her narrow shoulders in grey cotton, saw her tanned knee and her calf, looked at her little toes clutching the glossy imitation wood floor. Her head was in her hands, her ponytail unbound, her hair hanging around her.
“Nia?” he said.
He saw her shoulders and her hair shaking. His heart broke for her. The last time he saw her, she’d turned from him like this, her face beaten. She’d left her blood in their hall, called him a coward. He wanted to scoop her up in his arms and carry her off but real life reunions were far more complicated. So he came to the edge of the table to stand and she didn’t look up.
“Nia,” he said again. She nodded her head yes like he wasn't sure he’d found the right person. He sat in the booth, put himself down on the bench opposite her, clasped his hands together on the table and he watched her. Happy just to be in the same room with her after all this time, after all his worry.
She was hidden behind her hair, and her hands were clasped over her face. He was brightened to see her Goddess stone and her wedding ring.
“Nia, please, baby...look at me...”
Her hands moved slowly up her forehead, her fingers combing into her hairline. She smoothed her own hair back, pulled it and held it behind her ears and her head raised, her wet trembling eyes rolled up and to the right. She couldn't look at him. She had dark half moons scooped under her eyes. A mottled but fading bloody purple, edges blossoming to an ochre. Her nose was slightly swollen, her lips puffed, and a raised red line was scratched from her cheek to the curl of her upper lip.
“You look beautiful, Nia,” he said.
She chuckled once and a wet tear splashed from an eye and rolled down her cheek. “God, I can always count on you,” she said, her eyes still afraid to meet his. Her fingers came up and dried her tear from her cheek. “How’s Odie?” she whispered.
His jaw trembled and his teeth chattered, “She’s good...tough...tough kid,” he said, his throat tightening as he tried not to cry.
Nia’s tears came again and she said, “Did she get to school okay?”
There was shouting behind her and over her shoulder he could see the two Dragonieri brothers face to face in the sunlight on the back deck. She closed her eyes, and her lips pursed.
Dino was mad, angry face to angry face with his bigger and taller brother. He gestured with his hands, saying, “You fuckin brought her out here...”
Rocco said, “Keep her safe.” His mouth was turned down and he glared at Dino. He’d taken his sunglasses off and they stared into each other’s eyes.
“No one fuckin knew where she was,” Dino shouted.
“I did.”
“We were all fuckin out of our minds.”
“So?”
“So? Her daughter, her husband, me...you can’t fuckin call me?”
“What do you care?”
“You’re a fuckin asshole. Fuckin top shelf asshole. You know I fuckin care.” Dino thrust his hands against his brother’s chest, knocking him back on his heels, but barely.
Rocco’s arms whipped up and he grappled to seize Dino’s wrists, grab him and get a hold of him. Dino kept him away and shoved him again, knocking him back on one leg, the other coming up for balance.
Dino thrust a finger at him, “You know I fuckin care.”
Rocco smirked and Geoff couldn't imagine a more arrogant and mean face. He shrugged, gestured with his hands out to the side with complete disregard. “The fuck you want from me,” he laughed.
Dino turned and loomed now in the open sliding glass doorway. Both hands came up to grip the edges and he glared into the cabin, his eyes getting adjusted.
“Nia,” he said and he barged into the kitchen area and he fell to his knees at her feet. He took her and she fell to him. His hands went around her and she buried her face in his shoulder. “Fuck, Nia, baby, you had me so fuckin worried,” he said. He squeezed her, made her look so small.
“Nia, look at me,” he said but she pressed herself tighter to him. He held her head now, his big hand cradling the whole back of her skull. Slowly she exposed herself to him, her face coming up, her trembling eyes watching his. Dino saw her face, saw the marks left by Rocco’s angry wife. He smiled. “You’re okay,” he said, genuine relief in his voice. “Baby, you’re okay,” he said again, and he held her head against him. He kissed her ear.
And there he was, this big handsome perfect man taking his homecoming from him. Robbing him.
Or was he?
Was he taking anything from Geoff, or was this just a by-product of his love for Nia? Wasn’t he just doing the thing Geoff should have done? Instead of taking, maybe he was showing. Showing Geoff how to do it right. He was giving. Giving Nia what she needed. Fuck, he was doing the right thing.
He got off the bench and he came to her feet, pressed himself against Dino. He took her hand from Dino’s chest and he pressed it between his own. He brought it over his heart. She looked to him. Her eyes quivered, her mouth fell agape with fearful anticipation. Dino moved himself from between them but he kept his hand on her back.
Nia whispered, “I’m so afraid you hate me.”
“Never Nia,” he said and he clutched her to him. She fell on him, heaved herself off the bench and collapsed on him with all her weight. And he held her tight, she slid and fell to her knees and he would never let go of her. He would hold her to him forever on this houseboat floor.
“He doesn’t hate you, Nia,” Dino said, rubbing her back.
Rocco’s footsteps thumped through the floor as he boarded the cabin and he felt it in his knees. “Well, looks like everybody is here,” he grumbled. “Geoff,” he said, “guy that likes to watch.” He leaned against the kitchenette counter across from them all. “You got great timing. I just came in her mouth ten minutes before you got here, why don’t you give her a kiss...”
Nia whimpered. “Don’t Rocco. Don’t do that. You’re not funny.”
“Have you been sleeping with him?” Geoff asked her.
“Baby, he’s kidding. He’s trying to bug you, he thinks it’s funny, but,” she looked over his shoulder and into the kitchenette, “it’s not funny, Rocco.”
Rocco said, “Tell him the truth.”
“Nia...” Geoff said.
“One time...we slept together one time. I don’t know...yesterday, days ago...”
Rocco couldn’t let it go, he grumbled to himself, “Not a lot of sleeping. You were screaming too loud for anyone to sleep.”
“Fuckin class act,” Dino said as he stood up. His boots scuffed past Geoff and Nia on the floor, and he walked to the other side of the booth and dropped himself onto the bench.
“Whatever,” Rocco said.
“Are you with Rocco now?” he whispered to her.
“No, Geoff, no, baby...”
“It looks like it.” Stop it, he reminded himself. Trust her.
“Don’t,” she said, and she stroked his beard.
“What the fuck is this?” Dino said.
There was a small china saucer that Geoff had noticed but disregarded. It had a straw on it and a powder that Dino had dabbed his finger to and tasted. His brow pinched low and he held his hand poised with his pinky out.
“Fucking coke? Are you kidding me? How fuckin old are we?”
Nia said, “For my nose.”
Geoff said, “You’re snorting coke for your nose?”
“It’s broken,” she said.
“Oh Nia,” he said, and he held her head in his hands looking at her swollen face.
Dino pushed the plate away, disgusted, said, “It doesn’t help your fuckin nose.”
Rocco laughed, said, “So sounds like you don’t want any.”
“I get drug tested,” he said, “Fuckin great, Nia. I can get it in my blood...from your fuckin pussy.”
She snorted, frowning and looked at him, “Who says you’re touching my pussy?”
He sunk back into the bench and rolled his eyes.
She struggled to stand, her long legs folded up beneath her. Geoff rose and he helped her up. “Geoff,” she said, looking between the brothers and then over her shoulder to the outside, “Talk to me in private, okay?”
“Where are you going to go?” Rocco asked, looking around at the small space they were in.
“I don’t know,” she said, “Geoff, come to the roof with me.”
NIA
The sun was climbing and the forecast warned it would be a hot one. Geoff climbed the ladder to the roof ahead of her and she tugged on her T-shirt, pulled it away from her skin. It was sticking against her body from the wet it had pulled off Geoff when he held her. She climbed up behind him, found him waiting at the top, took his hand he’d held out as she got close and he helped her right up. As soon as she had a foot on the deck she continued with his pull, falling into his arms, her legs climbing up his hips, her weight making him sag. She kissed him, felt that flood rush through her again. Warm bubble gum happiness. Blankets and snuggles and fires on a snowy day. Geoff made her fuckin heart sing. He stumbled back with her and she wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight, her kisses taking his lips and his tongue. A tear streamed from her squinted eye. They collapsed on the bench, Geoff banging his back on the aluminum handrail and grunting into her kiss. She laughed with him, through the painful lightning bolt that shot from her broken nose. Hugged his head to her, a sudden sadness washing back like the tide. He let her sit on him—him slumped on the bench, her straddling, her knees out on either side, planted in the cushion.
“You’re soaking wet,” she said finally, looking in his eyes and running her fingers through his hair.
“Jet ski,” he said and shrugged.
“I was so happy to see you.” She unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.
“You can’t even imagine, Nia.”
“I thought you weren't coming,” she said, moving down to the next button.
“I was on TV,” he said.
It hit her. She flattened her palms on his chest and closed her eyes, resisting an overwhelming vertigo. “Oh fuck, Geoff, what did I do?”
“It’s okay.”
“I should have been home.”
“Come home now, Nia. It’s okay. You can always come home.”
“Fucking asshole,” she cried and laughed, his kindness making tears stream from her eyes. She worked on his buttons again. “How did it go?”
“Terrible. Rocco called just before I went on. I was...I wanted to be anywhere but there.”
“I’m...Geoff, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all worth it, Nia. I’m here now. Why are you taking my shirt off?”
She laughed and sniffed, kept unbuttoning. “You’re so wet, Geoff. You're making me wet. I only have one shirt. His other shirts are way too big...”
“You don’t have any clothes?”
“No. Well, yes, but they’re bloody.”
“This is all you have?” he said, holding her dampened T-shirt out from her body.
“Yeah.”
“Nia, you’ve been here six days...”
“It didn’t seem that long.”
He looked at her, and she saw a twinge of anger. She thrust his shirt open and she kissed his pale chest. His arms went around her.
“Geoff?”
“What?”
She sat up, scratched her nails over his skin, watched her hands work over him. “What did Odie see?”
He sighed and she felt the dread before he spoke. “She saw it all, Nia.”
“How is she?”
“She...you should have come home, Nia. Fuck...make me come all the way out here...you should have been home,” he said, tears coming down his twisted face. He turned from her again, couldn't look at her.
“I know, Geoff, I know, I’m sorry,” she cried with him.
“We cried for days, Nia, she wouldn't stop, I couldn’t...”
“I’m so sorry...”
He wiped his face with both hands and she clung to the open ends of his shirt. He said, “She’s so tough, Nia. She’s a Giannoppoulos. She’s so strong. She went to school today. She’s smiling now, I told her I found you. Told her you were coming home tonight. Nia, it’s okay. Everything will be okay.”
“Are you sure?” she said.
“I am, baby. Come home.”
“I will,” she said. “I can’t wait.”
She saw Dino standing on the back deck of the boat by himself. He had his shirt off, standing only in his jeans and his boots. He was hanging his shirt out to dry.
“Hey,” she shouted down to him, fishing Geoff’s wallet and keys out of his damp pockets.
“Yeah?” he said, turning and covering the sun from his eyes.
“You hang these up?” She lifted Geoff’s bundled things to show him.
He held a hand out for her to throw them and she did. “You okay?” he said.
She nodded for him, covering her own eyes, looking down at him. “You guys okay?”
Dino looked into the cabin of the boat, towards where Rocco would be. He nodded. “Yeah. We’re talking.”
“You send up some dry shorts? A T-shirt?”
He grunted and clipped his shirt to the railing.
Geoff said, “It’s going to be too big for me...”
She turned to him, seeing him sitting on the bench, white and thin but looking like the best thing in the world to her heart. He sat bare, in his white briefs, his hand held over his bulge.
She smiled for him, every minute she spent with him healing her, making her whole. “I know,” she said, “Look at this,” and she held her T-shirt out to show him. It was Rocco’s. Long, almost to her knees, the short sleeves down to the middle of her forearms. She walked to him and climbed into his lap again, mounting him, her knees out on either side. She lifted the shirt and put it over his head, felt his beard between her breasts. Pushed her shirt down until his head poked through the neck hole with hers. They were face to face and she kissed his lips sweetly. Held them and felt him against her, heard their breaths coming through their noses. Geoff’s hands stroked her bare body, tickling tentatively up her sides. Her kisses went to his forehead.