It couldn’t be Hix. I’d given him a key. He’d come right in the side kitchen door and shout, “Babe!” to let me know he was there seeing as that’s what he always did when he showed and I wasn’t on my porch.
But I was expecting Hix. We had a reservation for Jameson’s that night. It was Tuesday, a kickoff to a big week that included Thanksgiving Thursday.
And I couldn’t wait to have what was really our first, official, just-him-and-me romantic date (we’d been to the Harlequin together repeatedly, we went out with the kids and/or Andy also repeatedly, we met his friends at the Outpost often, and once we went to a movie together, but that was just a date, not a romantic one).
I was totally looking forward to it.
But what I really couldn’t wait for was Thanksgiving.
The kids were spending the morning and early afternoon with Hope and her family at her mom and dad’s ranch, and then they were coming to my place for pie and more football. In the meantime, Andy, Toast, Tommy, Lou, Maple, Snow and Bill were coming over, and obviously Hix would be there, and we were doing dinner together with the added goodness of the kids being there in the evening.
This was a bigger occasion than just our first family holiday together, because in all this time, the kids had never been to my house. Hix and I had talked about me making them dinner but with them at their mom’s half the time, games, dates, practices, me singing at the Dew Drop, we could never get anything scheduled (ditto that for our date at Jameson’s).
As much as I’d wanted that to happen, things worked out the way they should and I loved it that the first time they’d be in my house, at my table, was Thanksgiving. A family day. When Andy and Hix’s friends, and Lou and her family would be there.
But right at that moment, I loved that Hix had made reservations at Jameson’s for a special date for just him and me where I could wow him with my new dress (forest-green, chunky cable-knit, slinky, clingy sweater dress with a cowl neck).
I’d ordered an amazing pair of fawn suede booties to go with it. I had big hair and smoky eyes. I knew Hixon was a sure thing, but I also knew that he thought I was beautiful and loved the way I dressed, so I was hoping that sure thing would get (even more than usually) inspired after sitting through dinner that night with me wearing that dress.
What I didn’t love was having an unknown caller when Hix was due any minute and I hadn’t put on the finishing touches.
Since they were unknown and Hix was due, I decided to go through those finishing touches, hoping it was someone who wanted to guide my path to Jesus or something like that, and who would take a hint when I didn’t open the door. But I did it in a hurry just in case it was something else.
So when the doorbell rang again, I was putting my gold hoop earrings in at the same time zipping up my booties, going back and forth between each.
I finished with the last earring after I got the second bootie on and hurried down the stairs toward the door.
When I hit the bottom, I became confused. Through the sheer curtain, silhouetted by the outside light, I could see a hulking frame that could be Hix’s but also couldn’t because he’d come right in.
Maybe he’d lost his keys.
Though if he did that, he’d phone me.
I hastened to the door, pulled the curtain aside and stared in shock up at Keith who had noticed me and was staring down at me.
What in the hell?
In that moment of surprise, I took him in. His brown hair. His beautiful straight nose. His big, brown eyes. His square, clean-shaven jaw. His broad shoulders.
He was maybe an inch taller than Hix, but though his build was strong and could not be described as lean, it was somehow less substantial than Hix’s. Hix had slightly more bulk, but since it was all muscle, it gave his frame that nuance of added power.
Keith had the body of a tight end.
Hix had the body of a linebacker.
“Greta,” I heard him clip, and it was then I saw he was not only surprisingly there, standing on my porch, unexpected, at six twenty-seven at night, two days before Thanksgiving, he was doing it pissed.
What in the hell?
I quickly unlocked the door, pulled it open and only noticed then he’d already opened my storm door and was standing in it.
I then immediately scuttled back because he was forcing his way in.
“Keith, what . . . I . . . hey. What are you doing here?”
He looked me up and down and he did it seeming strange, like he was holding himself in check and the effort to do that was immense.
Suddenly, he lost that battle and reached out with both hands, yanking me to him and wrapping his arms around me tight as I stood in them, my hands held slightly out to the sides because I didn’t know what to do with them and I had no clue what was going on.
“God, God, God, honey,” he whispered into the top of my hair. “God. Okay. I’m here. It’ll be okay. I’ll make you safe.”
I stared at his jacket in my face and it took a few seconds before I pushed out, “What?”
“He won’t hurt you again. I’ll get you safe. I’ll get Andy safe. We’re going home.”
Safe?
Home?
I was home.
I blinked at his jacket and repeated, “What?”
He transferred his hands to either side of my face, tipping it back and coming right in.
I stiffened entirely as his mouth brushed mine and I hadn’t recovered from the shock as he pulled back, and that shock deepened when he spoke.
“I fucked up. I knew it then,” he whispered. “I just couldn’t see past it. It tore me apart but I couldn’t see past it. Then Tawnee called me. Told me what was happening. Showed me what was happening. And I saw past it. Now I’m here. I’m here to make it all better. I’m here to get us back to where we’re supposed to be.”
Oh no.
What had my mother done?
I carefully tried to pull back, starting, “Keith—”
And then it happened.
Coming from the direction of the kitchen, we both heard, “What the fuck?”
It was Hix.
I tore myself from Keith’s hold and turned to Hix, watching him prowl down the hall from the kitchen, past the dining room, his eyes darting from me to Keith, his face carved from granite, his gait beyond aggressive straight to hostile.
I began to move to him, opening my mouth to speak.
But Keith hadn’t needed a chance to recover.
He was approaching Hix in the same manner and doing it talking.
“You are no longer welcome here.”
That jolted me out of my inactivity, that and the fact that Hix’s face changed to incredulous fury, not to mention they were about to connect in a way it looked like both of them would be thrilled to start brawling in my living room.
I ran directly to them, shouting, “No!”
They had fists raised, torsos twisted to put power behind whatever they were going to do, but I shoved in between them, hands to Hix’s chest, pushing him back (he wouldn’t budge), so I twisted my torso and kept one hand in Hix’s chest and added a hand to Keith’s chest and shrieked, “Stop it!”