“Okay, beautiful, this is what I see and what I see I’m gonna tell you and you gotta work some freakin’ magic or I’d say in about a week, a month or, from the way of Jake’s boy, a day, you’re gonna face Armageddon.”
This was whispered to me from Amond who’d leaned into me from his place at my side at the big rectangular table we were all sitting around in the function room at The Eaves.
I looked to him and raised my brows. “Pardon?”
“Right, you got a lot goin’ on so I’ll break this down. See your girl’s girl, she shows at your place, all tricked out and I mean tricked out, lookin’ good like she wants someone’s attention. But your man’s boy treats her probably like he’s treated her since they were kids seein’ as he’s probably grown up with her.”
My eyes drifted around the table, slightly confused at his words, until I put it together that “my girl’s girl” was Sofie and “my man’s boy” was Conner.
Then my eyes darted to Conner.
“Now, sweet Sofie, she didn’t like that seein’ as she tricked herself out for Conner,” Amond continued. “And after he was all friendly but nothin’ else, when he wasn’t lookin’, her face looked like the world was about to end.”
Oh dear.
“Then,” Amond went on, “we get to the restaurant and we’re walkin’ through and he just happens to be walkin’ behind her. He also just happens to see that there was not one but a f*ckin’ slew of males, old and young, who got off on watchin’ the eye candy parade walk by. You. Your girl. Your man’s girl. And your girl’s girl.”
I looked from Conner, who was cutting his steak, to Sofie who let out a giggle at something her father said at her side. Then I swiftly looked back to Conner who was now very much looking at Sofie.
“Oh dear,” I said out loud this time.
“Yeah,” Amond agreed. “Your boy caught that girl gettin’ attention and suddenly the blindfold was yanked off. And she ain’t stupid. She’s noticed it. She just doesn’t know what to do with it. But what she does know is how to be goofy, cute and sweet and your boy Con is clearly all about that because he went from mildly interested to all over that shit in about ten minutes.”
“Damn,” I whispered.
“Now, I got three kids and all three of them are girls and I’ll tell you this, your boy even looked at them, I’d lose my mind. That Junior guy loves his wife. He loves his family. He’s all good. But he’ll stop bein’ all good when he cottons on to this shit. And the ones who talk soft are the ones to look out for ‘cause you don’t know what’s hit you when he explodes.”
I looked to Amond and declared, “Conner is a fine young man.”
To which Amond smiled a big white smile and replied, “You can say that, not bein’ a sixteen year old girl whose ass he wants to tap.”
I felt my eyes get wide, leaned in, and hissed, “I’ll have you know, Conner has abstained from sexual intercourse with at least two of his girlfriends.”
His brows shot up and his grin turned wicked when he asked, “A whole two?”
I harrumphed and settled my behind more firmly in my seat as I turned deeper to him and stated, “And one of them was quite shy and very lovely, just like Sofie.”
His head cocked to the side. “Jesus, you that tight with him?”
I took in a breath and shared, “Circumstances were such with one of his ex-girlfriends that this news came to light.”
“I bet,” he muttered, still smiling.
“He’s quite protective and thoughtful with his girlfriends,” I informed him.
“I bet,” he repeated, still smiling.
I started to get a niggle of anxiety and murmured, “Though he’s completely unattached now.”
“Won’t be for long,” Amond murmured in return.
I took in another breath and looked to Conner. Alas, when I did this I saw him smile. It was directed at Sofie so my eyes moved to her. I knew she caught it because her cheeks were becomingly pink and she was staring at her lap even as she reached for her water glass. This was a doomed endeavor, I knew too well, and I was right. She knocked it over and thus shot out of her chair, her father doing the same, both of them tossing their napkins to the spill.
My gaze went back to Conner to see him grinning rather knowingly and somewhat alarmingly handsomely at his plate.
Blast.
Amond chuckled.
I turned to glare at him.
At that point, I felt Jake lean into me on my other side and, lips to my ear, he said, “We’re f*cked. Con’s on the prowl. Target: Sofie. Junior gets wind of that, he’s gonna lose his mind.”
I turned my head to him, lifted my brows with fake innocence, and murmured, “Hmm?”
Jake took in my expression, shook his head and declared, “You are so full of shit.”
“All right, so I noticed,” I admitted. “But only because Amond just pointed it out.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Noticed that’s been his entertainment all night but he doesn’t have to deal with a kid he wants to have everything he wants and a friend who wants to rip his kid’s head off.”
Although the situation was possibly dire, Jake’s words made me stifle a giggle and I repeated my advice of much earlier that day, “Why don’t we see how things play out?”
“I know how they’re gonna play out, Slick,” he returned. “See, I got klutzy and cute sleepin’ beside me at night so I know it’s sweet. And I got a boy who’s just like me. So I know what he’s gonna go for and now I gotta make certain he doesn’t go for it in the backseat of his car. I like my son. I want him on this earth awhile. And I like Junior. I don’t want to have to beat him to death in an alley for takin’ my son out.”
“You’re being very dramatic, Jake,” I pointed out. “I think should something happen, they’ll be quite sweet together.”
“You got the mind of a once sixteen year old girl. I got the mind of a once seventeen year old boy. And newsflash, Slick, so does Junior.”
I bit my lip.
Jake watched me do it then his eyes came back to mine and he said, “Right.”
I turned my attention back to the halibut on my plate but felt something strange and looked across the table.
Alyssa was sitting there between Amond’s bodyguard and his “other manager” and her eyes on me were huge as was the smile on her face. I watched as they darted comically and quickly to her side then she jutted her chin out and they darted across the table and back. She repeated this four times before she lifted a hand in a thumb’s up gesture then curled it in a fist and pumped it up and down three times before she turned her attention back to her plate.
I stared at her, nonplussed, until Jake again put his lips to his ear.
“Well, we got that goin’ for us. Alyssa’s fired up about her girl landing the high school big man. My son makes his move, you play that angle. I’ll keep an eye on Junior.”
Ah.
So that was what that was all about with Alyssa.
I turned to Jake. “Deal.”
He grinned at me, leaned in and touched his mouth to mine.
“Gross!” Ethan shouted and both Jake and I looked at him in time to watch him announce to the whole table. “They do that all the time.”
“Just you wait until you get your turn, little man,” Amond advised.
“I’m not kissin’ Josie,” Ethan returned, looking a little sick.
“No, boy,” Amond replied. “When you get a woman of your own.”
“She’s gonna cook like Josie. She’s gonna dress like Josie. She’s gonna talk like Josie. But we’re just holding hands,” Ethan informed Amond superiorly and my heart jumped as my belly melted.
“At least you got good taste, even though I’m makin’ a pact with you that I’m callin’ you in fifteen years and we’ll see about that holdin’ hands business,” Amond replied.
Ethan grinned, likely only hearing that Amond was calling him in fifteen years, and agreed, “You’re on.”
Amond threw him a smile.
I reached out for my glass of champagne.
Jake reached for his beer and as he did so, slid an arm around the back of my chair, leaned behind me and said something to Amond.
But I wasn’t listening.
I was looking.
And I was feeling.
A table of friends from two different worlds, talking, eating, laughing and making a beautiful memory with me smack in the middle, able to drink it all in even as I felt my man close, his arm on my chair, claiming me.
And it was then I knew.
It wasn’t Jake Gran wanted me to have.
It wasn’t Jake and his kids.
It was this.
It was a good life. A happy life. Safe with people I cared about and trusted.
And in giving me Jake, this was what she gave me.
I felt my eyes sting, put my champagne back and focused again on my halibut.
After I took a bite, chewed and swallowed, I took up my champagne again and looked to the ceiling that was painted an attractive wine color that had a lovely wash to it that made it look like undulating satin.
I didn’t see the lovely paint job.
I wasn’t seeing.
I was speaking.
Silently.
Thank you, Gran, I said, lifted my glass minutely then took a sip.
I put it back to the table and turned my attention to the halibut.
* * * * *
The next afternoon, I watched Amond and his posse hand out hugs and handshakes around the Escalades making note that when Jake and Amond clasped each other’s forearms, they kept hold and leaned into each other, talking in ears.
I decided to ignore this. They were bonding and it wasn’t lost on me they were bonding over my troubles with my uncle and Boston Stone. But they were bonding, that was what was important.
I gave out my own hugs to Amond’s crew and he was the last for me.
He pulled me in his arms; he did this close, his arms going tight.
And he shocked me, honored me and wounded me when he whispered in my ear, “This is precisely what I wanted to give you, beautiful.”
I said nothing, just held on.
“Even not givin’ it to you, sure as f*ck am glad you got it.”
I closed my eyes and held on tighter.
“Love you, Josephine,” he finished.
I opened my eyes and turned my head so my lips were right at his ear.
“And I love you, too, honey.”
He gave me a squeeze, pulled back an inch, looked deep in my eyes and smiled.
I took in a breath through my nose and smiled back.
He let me go and got in the back seat of one of the Escalades. As he was doing this, Jake got close and claimed me with an arm around my shoulders. The kids then claimed me just by huddling close.
Thus Jake, Conner, Amber, Ethan and I stood and waved Amond and his crew away.
And when we lost sight of them, we all walked together back into Lavender House.
* * * * *
The next morning, I followed Jake and Ethan out of the kitchen, pad of paper and pen in hand, scribbling.
“Babe, just give it to me and text me if you forget anything,” Jake ordered impatiently.
“Just a second,” I murmured, hurrying after them and still scribbling.
“It’s a grocery list, not the Magna Carta, Slick,” Jake noted. “Just give it to me. I gotta get my boy to school and then I got a session at the gym.”
I looked up and narrowed my eyes, reminding him, “I don’t understand why you’re going to the grocery store when I’ve got nearly all day to do it.”
He stopped at the door. “’Cause I’m gonna be in Blakely to meet my liquor distributors and no reason for you to go over there when I’m already over there. And anyway, you got a boatload of laundry the kids dumped on you last night.”
“I can do laundry, grocery shop and, FYI, also drop Ethan.”
“I’m already out on the road to get to the gym. No reason for you to be too.”
“Okay then, I—”
He cut me off to ask, “Babe, you ever done five people’s laundry?”
“No,” I gave him the answer he already knew.
“I haven’t either. But I’ve done four. Trust me. It seems the machines do all the work but that shit sucks your time. You got dishes in the sink and Pearl to take to Alyssa’s and it isn’t me who fired your cleaning service because they missed polishing the f*ckin’ door.”
Ethan giggled.
I glared at Jake and I did this mostly because I hated it that he was right.
“That wood is over one hundred years old, Jake. It needs constant care,” I informed him haughtily.
Jake sighed before he replied, “Are you gonna give me the list or what?”
I tugged off the sheet on top of the pad and jerked it his way.
He took it, shoved it in his back pocket then asked, “Now you gonna give me a kiss or what?”
“I’m going out to the truck,” Ethan announced at this point.
But I was considering my options of kissing Jake or what.
Ethan went out the door.
“Baby, get your ass over here,” Jake ordered.
“I’m supposed to be helping,” I told him.
“Tonight, I get home, you get the fifty loads of laundry you’re facin’ done, I sit my ass down with my kids and eat the dinner you cooked, we’ll talk about how you aren’t helping.”
Hmm.
Well, the way he said that seemed helpful.
“Babe. Kiss,” he growled impatiently.
I moved to him. He swept his arms around me, dropped his mouth to mine and I didn’t give him a kiss, he took one.
And it was a lovely one.
When he was done, he ran his nose alongside mine and whispered, “Later, Slick.”
“Later, darling.”
I watched his eyes grin then I watched him go.
When the door closed behind him, I turned and tripped, nearly going down on my hands and knees. I caught myself just in time and looked at the floor to see what caught at my foot.
It was a tennis shoe.
I also saw its mate to the side and another pair of shoes. High-heeled boots.
Not mine. Amber’s.
I looked up and on the sturdy, handsome coat tree by the door I saw jackets and scarves thrown over it, only two of them mine.
I turned and wandered down the hall and took in an iPad, Ethan’s, sitting on the table in the hall, plugged in to charge under it.
I kept wandering and hit the family room. A laptop on the couch, Amber’s. Some discarded papers on the table by the armchair. I didn’t know what they were but I knew they were put there by Conner who did his homework there last night.
I moved to the kitchen and stopped, taking in the skillet on the Aga, the dishes in the sink, the juice glasses and coffee mugs beside it.
I wandered to the kitchen table and looked out the window at the gray blustery day, taking in a stormy sea, the fenced garden put to rest for the winter, the wisteria around the arbor cut back and ready to grow in and bloom come spring.
Next year, I’d plant pumpkins in that garden for Ethan and tomatoes in hopes I could get Conner to eat them.
I knew this.
I loved this.
This was the life I’d wanted since I could remember, the dream I thought had died that night my boyfriend sent me crashing down the stairs. The beautiful bubble of that dream had popped the instant I heard my shoulder crack and the pain radiated out, obliterating the dream to the point I didn’t even remember I had it.
But I remembered it right then.
That was why I stood looking out a window I’d looked out hundreds of times in my life. Perhaps thousands.
But this was the first time I did it at the same time I started laughing.
Which was the same time I began to cry.
* * * * *
Just after noon the next day, I stood in the pharmacy by the Redbox, jabbing my finger on the screen to make my selection. Or, more accurately, Ethan’s selection since his friends Bryant and Joshua were coming over that night for a sleepover and a video orgy (Jake’s words) was on the agenda.
I managed to get one DVD to spit out just as my phone rang.
I dug it out of my purse, saw the name on the display and took the call.
“Young Taylor, how are you?” I greeted boy Taylor.
“Update, Josie,” was his greeting to me.
I had learned since he got my number that boy Taylor was a bit of a gossip. A fair bit of one.
This was not unwelcome. In fact, it was always interesting and quite often amusing.
“Fill me in,” I ordered, jabbing the screen on the Redbox to make my next selection.
“Con’s having a time of it,” he shared readily. “Sofie is not shy. The girl is uber freaking shy. Every day this week he tried to execute an approach at lunch but she sees this and takes off running, even leaving her lunch tray on the table to do it.”
“Oh dear,” I murmured as the box spit out my second DVD.
I kept jabbing the screen as boy Taylor kept speaking.
“Today it was worse.”
“Oh dear,” I repeated.
“Yeah. She tripped when she took off. Took a header right in the cafeteria. Splat!”
I winced.
Poor Sofie.
Boy Taylor went on.
“Then, swear to God, it was like a teenaged Nicolas Sparks movie. Con moved in, picked her up, asked her if she was okay and she burst into tears right on the spot and took off. The whole school is yammering about it.”
This might not be good news.
“Good talk or bad talk?” I queried.
“Uh…Josie, Con’s hot, he got screwed over by Mia and Ellie so everyone’s thinkin’ he’s the misunderstood hero with a wounded heart. And Sofie’s pretty, sweet and far’s I know, never been kissed. Every girl who keeps a diary is going to be chronicling this story in pink ink with loads of hearts drawn around it.”
“I’ll take that as good,” I stated as the last DVD regurgitated itself from the tall red box.
“Yeah,” he replied and I could hear his laughter. Then he went on, “Oh, and Amber’s waving and yapping at me. She wants you to tell Mr. Spear she’s gonna be late tonight. She and Alexi are going to a movie after school then he’s taking her out to dinner.”
This was a smooth maneuver a la Amber, giving me this information to give her father who was resigned to his daughter dating but that didn’t mean he liked it.
“Tell her I’ll handle that,” I said.
“Cool,” he replied.
“Now, you have a good afternoon, young Taylor. Stay alert in class.”
“Will do. You have a good afternoon too, Josie,” he replied.
“I will. Take care and say hello to Amber and girl Taylor for me.”
“Consider it done. Later,” he bid his farewell.
“Good-bye, Taylor,” I bid mine, added the last DVD to my pile, turned and stopped dead.
Then I took a step back and ran into the Redbox.
“Stupid little bitch,” Uncle Davis hissed, leaning into me threateningly.
I stared at him, my body frozen, but my heart was slamming in my chest.
I’d taken him in that night he’d made his surprise and unwelcome visit but that night was dark.
Now, it was a shock to see what the years had done to him.
When I was young, he seemed so powerful, so threatening, so fearsome. He terrified me, even more than my father. I knew my father had violence in him, I’d witnessed it and experienced it from the moment I had memories.
But Uncle Davis somehow was worse.
Now he was a shell of his former self. A fragile, chipped one that appeared easily crushed should you trod on it.
I had these thoughts in a blink of an eye.
And in that same blink, Uncle Davis got close.
“A*shole who found me and told me about the wad Ma laid on you had that attorney’s firm on retainer. Now, seein’ as he has to pay for that shit outta pocket, he don’t feel like ponying up. Especially when that stupid bitch who told him she had it all covered and…f*ckin’…didn’t then told him it wasn’t gonna go easy. She also laid that shit on my door when the first judge she was tryin’ to get to fast track me to my rightful inheritance refused the case since he said me and Chess played some f*ckin’ prank on him a half a f*ckin’ century ago and he’s not over it so he can’t be impartial.”
I blinked as all this information, and there was a good deal of it, processed through me.
Uncle Davis seemed not to know, or possibly care, how much he was giving because he kept giving it.
“Now, that a*shole Stone says it’s up to me. I got me a lawyer who’d take the case for a percentage of what he gets me and then your”—he jabbed a finger at me so close to my face, I made a futile attempt to press further into the Redbox—“lawyer buried him under so much shit, now he’s sayin’ he needs a retainer from me to stay on the case.”
I swallowed.
Uncle Davis’s eyes narrowed and he got closer, his mouth opening to say more but he didn’t get it out.
This was because someone close ordered, “Step away from Ms. Malone.”
I looked to my left to see Magdalene’s tall, handsome sheriff there, wearing a sheriff-style shirt but with jeans and although tall and handsome (something I noticed when I met him several days ago, seeing as he was that tall and that handsome, it was hard to miss—something I noticed even more now for that sheriff shirt was quite something on a man like him). However, tall and handsome he was, he was not happy.
“What’s goin’ on here?” I heard at that point and looked to my right to see Mickey bearing down on us.
But, alas, Uncle Davis was focused.
On me.
Thus I had no choice but to focus on him.
“I’m not payin’ for this shit, shit I shoulda got straight from Ma,” he announced.
“Sir, I asked…step away from Ms. Malone,” the sheriff repeated.
Uncle Davis again ignored him.
“That house and that money are mine, bitch, and the half I was willin’ to give you outta the goodness of my heart is really Chess’s and since I didn’t f*ck Chess over like you did, I figure that’s mine too.”
The sheriff and Mickey were much closer when the sheriff reiterated, “Sir, I will not ask again. Step away from Ms. Malone.”
He didn’t get the opportunity to comply. Mickey wrapped his hand around my bicep and slid me out from in front of Uncle Davis then he pressed me behind him as he stepped between me and my uncle.
Uncle Davis glared at Mickey. “I wasn’t done talkin’ to my niece.”
“Oh yeah you were,” Mickey replied quietly.
Uncle Davis’s brows shot up. “You takin’ on an old man?”
“Just tellin’ you whatever else you gotta say to Josephine, you’re not gonna say it,” Mickey returned then shifted slightly my way and ordered, “Get to your car, honey.”
“Don’t you move a f*ckin’ muscle,” Uncle Davis commanded, again lifting a hand and jabbing a finger my way.
Mickey stepped to the side, between me and my uncle’s finger, at the same time shielding me from view.
“Sir, calm down and move away from Mr. Donovan and Ms. Malone,” the sheriff demanded.
Uncle Davis leaned to the side to catch my eyes. “This is not done, bitch. I’m gonna get what’s mine, however I gotta do it.”
“Now I gotta ask you to stop threatening Ms. Malone and remind you that not only are you doin’ that in front of witnesses but an officer of the law.”
Uncle Davis turned to the sheriff. “You think I give a shit?”
“I think you aren’t very smart if you don’t,” the sheriff returned.
Uncle Davis opened his mouth to speak but I did it before him.
“Bring it on.”
I felt all attention come to me and stepped from behind Mickey so Uncle Davis could see me clearly. Mickey wrapped his fingers around my wrist but that was all he did before I started talking again.
“Do you honestly think I’m still frightened of you?” I asked.
“I think you never learned that lesson from your father like you should,” he answered.
Highly inappropriate.
So Uncle Davis.
“Yes, I did, Uncle Davis,” I told him. “I absolutely did that last time when he put me in the hospital.”
I felt Mickey and the sheriff go alert but I wasn’t done.
“But I’m older now. Wiser. And you’re older too. Weak. And not very smart. And all this is just what you do. Making people’s lives miserable because you’re a sociopath and you enjoy it. I think it’s only fair to warn you that you can put a good deal of effort into trying to make me miserable but you won’t succeed. It will end being quite frustrating so I’d advise you to cut your losses now.”
“I got a hankerin’ to put a fair amount of effort into it, Josephine,” Uncle Davis replied and I shrugged when he did.
“My invitation still stands. Have at it. It’ll be your time and money that you lose.”
His eyes narrowed on me, something shifting in them before they did, and he offered, “Make things easier for you. You give me a check, I’ll get outta town.”
And I knew precisely what that meant. I remembered the way I grew up. I remembered the way he and my father were. How they lived. How my father living that way meant I lived. Even as I kid, I knew it because, especially as a kid, you couldn’t miss it.
“What you’re saying is, Boston Stone paid for your trip here and now he’s washed his hands of you, you don’t have the money to get wherever home is.”
He glared at me but shifted on his feet.
This meant I was correct.
“You won’t get a penny from me,” I told him.
“Then I’ll get it all from you by takin’ that house and Ma’s money,” he fired back.
“If you honestly think you can win that fight, bring that on too,” I retorted. “It’s not me who’s seventy-two years old and out of money in a place without a friend.”
“We’ll see,” he returned.
“We most certainly will,” I agreed. Then I dismissed him and looked to the sheriff. “Lovely to see you again, sheriff.”
“Coert,” he corrected, grinning at me.
Another unusual name. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but it was better than Boston.
“Coert.” I smiled at him then looked up at Mickey. “Thank you, Mickey.”
“No problem, babe,” he replied.
“Maybe you’ll come to dinner soon?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Good,” I murmured then looked between the two men, ignoring my uncle, and decided to get on with my day. “Later, gentleman,” I said as I started toward the door.
“Later, Josie,” Coert called.
“Later, darlin’,” Mickey said.
I lifted a hand in a wave and walked out the door.
I was halfway back to Lavender House when my phone rang. I took the chance to glance at the screen as it was sitting face up on my passenger seat. When I saw who was calling, I broke a rule I normally always kept, grabbed my mobile and put it to my ear.
“Hello, darling,” I greeted.
“Seriously?” Jake replied.
Again, I thought this word was overused, and further, particularly in this instance, I didn’t understand it.
So I asked, “Seriously what?”
“Just got off the phone with Mick.”
“Oh,” I said.
“Oh?” he asked. “That a*shole pins you against a Redbox, you don’t call me? Then I call you and all you say is ‘oh?’”
“Jake, darling,” I started soothingly. “He’s quite elderly. Boston Stone has withdrawn his assistance. I’m relatively certain he’s destitute. Although that encounter was unpleasant, he’s hardly a threat and anyway, Mickey and Sheriff Coert were there.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t and that shit happened to my woman. And I gotta know when shit like that goes down.”
“You can hardly beam yourself to me on a whim should you get a sense I’m in danger,” I pointed out.
He said nothing so I went on.
“And furthermore, it’s over. I’m fine. And he did impart on me a good deal of news that was not good for him but is very good for me, that being that Boston Stone has washed his hands of Uncle Davis and Arnie is on the case so he’s finding it difficult to hire alternate representation.”
“Babe,” he said low and not soothingly. “Hear me. Shit goes down with you that’s unpleasant, I don’t care how unimportant you think that unpleasant is, you tell me.”
“I dislike speaking on the phone while driving,” I shared. “But just so you know, I did plan on sharing this with you over dinner.”
“Dinner is five hours away.”
I said nothing for there was nothing to say. This was true.
Jake, however, said something.
“Remember what I said about you even feelin’ funny about a look you get in the grocery store?”
Oh dear.
I did remember that.
“Yes,” I answered quietly.
“So, next time something unpleasant happens to you, what are you gonna do?”
Apparently, I was going to share this with Jake without delay.
“Contact you,” I replied.
“Good answer, Slick.”
I gave it a moment, kept driving and when he said nothing more, I shared, “I was able to acquire all Ethan’s viewing selections for him and his friends this evening.”
His voice was a strange combination of exasperated and amused when he replied, “Excellent news.”
“I was worried at least one would be checked out but that’s not the case,” I informed him.
“I’ll bring the champagne.”
I grinned at his quip.
Since he was quipping, I decided to share news he would like much less than me getting all the videos his son wanted for that evening.
“Amber has a date with Alexi that starts after school. She’ll be home late.”
“Great,” he muttered unhappily.
“And reportedly Conner behaved like the hero from a romance film when Sofie dashed away from him, took a tumble and he picked her up off the floor.”
There was a moment of silence before, “Jesus, boy Taylor’s got a big mouth.”
“He keeps me informed.”
“He f*ckin’ does,” Jake agreed before querying, “Con get in there with Sofie?”
“Alas, she burst into tears and ran away.”
“Good for him to have a challenge,” Jake murmured as if to himself. “Don’t appreciate it unless they make you work for it. You win it, you know what you got, you know to take care of it.”
This was when I was silent but I was this way with my belly feeling very warm.
Jake broke into my silence to say, “Right, see you later.”
“Okay, darling. See you later.”
“Bye, Slick.”
“Good-bye, Jake.”
He rang off.
I tossed my phone to the passenger seat when he did and finished driving home.
* * * * *
The mattress moved and I felt a blast of cold as I lost Jake’s body because he was exiting the bed.
I turned and called out sleepily, “Jake?”
“Do not turn on the lights. Get your phone. Listen. You call 911, you hear something you don’t like.”
My heart shot to my throat so I had to push through it, “Pardon?”
“Motion sensor light, baby. Back door. Phone. Now,” he said into the dark then he was gone.
I lay on the bed frozen for a moment before my body became a flurry of movement. I threw back the covers, grabbed my robe from the end of the bed and tugged it on. After that, I reached out and grabbed the phone and, fumbling but succeeding, I tied the belt on my robe once I got the phone in my hand.
My eyes went to the alarm clock, which told me it was 4:12 in the morning then they moved to the window. I could see dim illumination coming up from the light at the back door and I stared out the window wondering how on earth Jake sensed that when he had to be dead asleep.
That was when I heard the faraway crash of a window breaking.
My heart seized but my thumb flew over the keypad of the phone which fortunately lit up the instant I pressed a button.
I hit the three numbers as I dashed to the table by the window where I knew an antique bank made of iron and shaped like the Empire State Building sat. I grabbed it and ran to the door as the 911 operator answered.
I hit the hall and said, “This is Josephine Malone at Lavender House in Magdalene. Ten Lavender Lane.” I stopped dead in the hall, tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder and lifted a hand sharply when I saw the shadow of Conner coming out of his room and kept talking. “We’re experiencing a break in and my boyfriend is downstairs.”
Conner heard me, moved swiftly my way, which meant toward the stairs, and the 911 operator spoke to me but I hissed to Conner.
“Con, no!”
He ignored me but grabbed the iron bank out of my hand before he moved past me and disappeared down the stairs.
I followed him and interrupted the operator to say, “Now Jake’s seventeen year old son is going down there.”
“I’ve dispatched a unit. Please get to a safe place and lock yourself in if you can.”
I hesitated at the top of the stairs and looked down the hall.
“We have three eight year old boys in this house and a sixteen year old girl,” I told her.
“Assemble them and lock yourself someplace safe. A unit is on the way.”
I dashed down the hall to Amber’s door, asking, “What about Jake and Conner?”
“Ma’am, take care of the children.”
Blast!
Of course!
I threw open Amber’s door, raced to the bed and put a hand to her, shaking.
She turned, murmuring, “Wha?”
“Up, honey, hurry. We need to get to Ethan.” She didn’t move for a moment so I ordered urgently, “Up, Amber.”
She threw the covers off and had her feet on the floor when we both shrieked as the lights went on.
Conner in a pair of sweats with a bare chest stood in the door.
Vaguely I noted I was correct upon seeing him some time ago at Gran’s funeral. He’d inherited much from his father, including his physique.
“Josie, Dad’s got your uncle in the kitchen. He says to call 911 and get Coert out here to take him away,” Conner announced.
“Ma’am, what’s happening?” the operator asked in my ear.
But I wasn’t listening.
I was fuming.
And thus I stomped to Conner and handed him the phone, ordering, “The 911 operator is on the line. Inform her of this news.”
I then stomped around him, down the hall, the stairs and into the fully lit kitchen.
There I saw Jake in pajama bottoms and nothing else towering over my uncle who was sitting at the kitchen table.
I watched as my uncle tried to stand and Jake put a hand on him and shoved him back in the chair.
“Sit. Stay. Do not try to get up again, old man. I don’t give a f*ck I could break you in half. Give me a reason to do it and I’ll take it,” Jake growled.
“Jake,” I called, advancing into the room.
Jake sliced angry eyes to me and asked immediately, “You call 911?”
“Yes. Conner’s on with them now,” I answered, my eyes going to my uncle who was glaring up at Jake.
My words were proved true when Conner came in behind me still on the phone. “Yeah. It’s okay. The guy who tried to break in is about seven hundred years old. He’s not a threat. He’s sitting at the kitchen table. Okay. Thanks.” He beeped off the phone and looked to his father. “Police are on their way.”
“God damn it,” Uncle Davis muttered.
And that was when it happened. That was when it came right out of me. I couldn’t stop it.
And I totally understood it.
I looked to my uncle, brows raised, hands lifted up at my sides, and I asked, “Seriously?”
“Josie—” Jake started but I cut him off.
Still addressing my uncle, I asked, “Are you whacked?”
“Girl—” he began but I cut him off too.
“What did you think you were going to accomplish?”
He didn’t answer my question.
He groused, “Stupid motion sensor lights. Dark day they were invented.”
“Uncle Davis!” I snapped loudly. “What did you think you were going to accomplish?”
He glared at me but said not a word.
“God, you’re an idiot,” I shared.
“Respect your uncle, girl,” he bit out.
“I would, if you’d ever given me one, single, itty, bitty, miniscule reason to do so,” I fired back, then huffed, “Yeesh.”
He glared at me again.
I rolled my eyes and looked to Jake. “Are you all right?”
“I am but the window to the greenhouse door isn’t,” he answered.
I cut my eyes to my uncle. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“How?” he asked back. “Givin’ blood? Girl, I broke in so I could get some shit to pawn ‘cause I can’t even afford the gas money to get home.”
“Well, a better solution to your problem was to give blood to get your gas money because you’re not getting a thing from this house or a dime from me,” I told him then kept at him, “The good news is, at least you have a free place to sleep tonight because I’m so totally pressing charges.”
He glared at me again.
I decided I was finished with him so I moved to the coffeepot and announced, “I’m making coffee. Jake? Coffee?”
“Yeah, babe,” he replied but his voice was trembling with something I knew very well.
Humor.
I hit the button to start the brewing process and looked to him.
“Are you amused?” I asked.
Even through his very large grin, he lied, “No.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “That’s the right answer even if it’s a false one.”
His voice was still filled with his amusement when he replied, “It’s still the answer I’m givin’ when you’re this pissed and this cute.”
“Angry is not cute, Jake,” I educated him.
“It is the way you do it, Slick,” he returned.
I shot him a look but rearranged my face when I looked to Conner. “I woke your sister and possibly frightened her. Perhaps you could tell her all is well and she can go back to sleep.”
“You got it, Josie,” Conner murmured, grinned at his dad and took off.
“And put on a sweatshirt!” I yelled at his back. “You’ll catch a chill!”
That was when Jake burst out laughing.
I again cut my eyes to him and asked an exasperated, “What’s amusing now?”
He didn’t answer me.
Instead he declared, “If it wasn’t sick, I’d totally make out with you right now in front of your shit for brains uncle.”
Alas, that was sick and perhaps one of only a handful of times I could conjure in my head where making out with Jake would be unwelcome.
“We’ll make out later,” I told him.
“You bet your ass we will,” he muttered.
“Someone get me a bucket,” Uncle Davis begged.
“That’s enough out of you,” I snapped.
Jake burst out laughing again.
I rolled my eyes and went to the cupboard to get mugs for I needed to prepare. I had a feeling it was going to be a long morning
* * * * *