Johnny tensed when Addie got in his space.
“I know how it’ll go so listen up,” she hissed. “I’ll work until I drop to fight for what’s right for my son. I’ll sell my body if I need to, to give him not only what he needs but even just a little bit of what he wants. And I’ll bleed my last drop before I let you fuck him up. You know me, Perry,” she stressed. “You know what makes me. You know every word I say is true. And you know you don’t have what it takes to fight that. I’ll do whatever it takes to beat you, to give my son what he deserves. I was taught how, day in and day out by my mother so I know the way. And I’ll take it if you make me and I’ll die knowing I gave my boy happy.”
“You’re gonna have to fight it,” Perry hurled at her.
“Only because you’re intent on proving how big of an asshole you are and you’re gonna make me,” she returned.
Perry glared at his wife. He then glared at Izzy, Johnny, Charlie and he turned, stutter stepped when he saw Toby but recovered quickly and started to stalk off.
“Just to let you know,” Addie called after him. “My attorney already has three appointments to get sworn affidavits next week. And that bitch you were banging while my son was in the next room got served a subpoena, so she’s one of them.”
“Kiss my ass, Addie,” he yelled toward his car, not breaking stride.
“The time you get that from me, baby, is long gone,” she returned in a loud drawl.
They all watched him slam into his car, make it roar and then reverse and peel out in a shower of gravel and a cloud of dust.
“Addie—” Izzy started gently.
But Addie turned and raced down the side of the house, disappearing at the back.
Izzy raced after her.
Johnny looked to Charlie and then he looked to Toby.
“Welcome home, brother,” he said.
Inside his thick, black beard, Toby’s lips hitched.
“I’m Johnny,” Johnny said to Charlie.
“Charlie,” Charlie replied, lifting his hand.
Johnny shook it, let go and introduced, “This is my brother, Toby.”
“Toby,” Charlie said, offering his hand to Johnny’s brother.
“Charlie,” Toby replied, taking it.
When the two were done shaking, all three men hesitated, then when Johnny started down the side of the house, the two others trailed with only one dog trailing them seeing as Dempsey and Swirl had raced after Izzy.
They walked in the back door hearing Addie saying, “No, Iz. Just put the queso under the broiler and let’s get this party started.”
But her eyes hit Johnny when he entered then they went behind him after he cleared the door, and the two other men crowded with him into the small kitchen.
She was again holding Brooks tight to her but now she was hovering in a corner of the kitchen like Izzy and Deanna had her blocked in when they were both keeping a distance.
It was then Addie said, “Great. As if that drama being played out in front of Clubber McHotterson,” she indicated Charlie with a flick of a hand, “and Magnus McHotterson,” she indicated Johnny with a jerk of her head, “wasn’t bad enough, now we got Talon McHotterson here to enjoy the show.”
She was cracking jokes.
Johnny thought that was good.
“Maybe we should go upstairs and talk, baby girl,” Deanna said softly.
“About what?” Addie asked. “About how Johnny’s changed more of Brooklyn’s diapers after knowing him for a week than his father has after knowing him seven months?”
Deanna closed her mouth and looked to Izzy.
“Doll, how about you let Johnny and Charlie look after Brooks and we girls get a bottle of wine and—?” Izzy tried.
“I saw you two,” Addie said, her voice hoarse, and Johnny went on the alert. “In the stable. I saw Johnny doing you against the wall.”
“Oh Lord,” Deanna murmured.
“Shit,” Charlie muttered.
“Hell,” Toby mumbled.
Johnny just watched Addie closely.
“He never gave me that, what you two had in that moment,” Addie told her sister. “I could have walked right up to you and neither of you would have seen me. I didn’t exist, nothing existed. Nothing but him for you and you for him. He never gave me that, Iz. How did I never see that?”
And there they had the answer to why Adeline had been degenerating, outside of the fact that she’d learned without a doubt that her husband was a motherfucking pissant.
She’d had to watch while Johnny and Izzy built all they were building at the same time coming to understand she’d never had anything like that, no matter how new it was for Johnny and Izzy, or worse, precisely because of how new it was.
She’d not even come close.
“Addie, sweetie,” Izzy whispered.
“He gave me this.” She cuddled Brooks closer. “That’s all he ever gave me. But he gave it to me getting himself an orgasm and honest to God, that was all he was thinking about.”
“Addie, please, baby, let’s go upstairs,” Izzy coaxed.
Addie reared her head like a stubborn mare and snapped, “No. This is a party. We’re having a party.”
She forged past Izzy, by Johnny, straight to the door where Toby was standing.
“Out of the way, Talon,” she ordered.
“Name’s Toby,” Toby said gently, but he’d read the situation and didn’t move.
Addie had been staring at Johnny’s brother’s chest but her head jerked back. “You’re his brother, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, darlin’,” he replied.
“Of course. You’re perfect, so of course. You’re probably taken too, aren’t you?”
“I—”
“Not for me,” she cut him off. “Man like you. Man like Johnny. Man like Charlie. Not for me.”
“Honey,” Toby whispered. “How ’bout we get you—?”
She tossed her hair and looked over her shoulder at her sister. “I did it, Iz. I did it. What I swore to myself I’d never do. Not the same, but a version. I found Dad. I found a man who was good for nothin’ except to break my heart.”
And that was when her face dissolved and she started to go down.
“Tobe,” Johnny growled, on the move, but Toby was on it.
He caught her in his arms and sank down to the floor with her. Addie’s ass hit his inner thigh with Toby’s leg at a bad angle, and Johnny saw him wince but he didn’t do anything but put his arms around her and tuck her and Brooks close to his chest.
She sobbed into his neck.
Brooks fretted in her arms.
Toby lifted his gaze to Izzy. “Where you want her, babe?”
“My bedroom,” Izzy whispered. “Upstairs. I’ll show you the way.”
Toby nodded, got his feet under him and lifted Addie and Brooks cradled in his arms, walking behind Izzy as she hurried into the hall.
Johnny, Deanna and Charlie watched them go.
When they heard footfalls on the stairs, Johnny turned to Deanna.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Johnny Gamble and that was my brother Toby.”
She stared into his eyes.
And then, very slowly, she smiled.
Johnny sat in the wooden chair at the head of the table in Izzy’s backyard, staring up at the windows of Izzy’s bedroom.