And she would have been right.
Johnny sat in the grass by Izzy the next morning while they ate the pancakes he’d made for them over the fire.
She was staring at the fire, quiet.
He kicked her sock-covered foot with his.
She turned her head to him.
“Happy?” he asked.
“I have pancakes and Johnny, you have to ask?” she answered.
He felt his face get lazy and he bent in to kiss her.
When he turned his attention back to his pancakes, she whispered, “It’s just that . . . I was thinking . . . it’s not that I’m sad even though it’s sad but it’s a sad I’m used to. That is, I wanted something for her. Something she didn’t really get. A long stretch of time when she didn’t have to take care of us. Time when she could just be Daphne. Time when me and Addie could worry about the kids in our lives and she could just spoil them. Time when she could find a man and not have to worry about whether or not he wanted a readymade family, just know in her heart that he wanted Daphne. Time to ride my horses and tend her tomatoes. Time to help Addie show Brooks how to be a good man and time to teach my daughters how to make her facials. Time when she could just be happy.”
Johnny didn’t look at her.
But he did tangle one of his legs with hers.
She kept whispering.
“She shouldn’t have looked for the dreamers. She should have found a man who knows all the different types of motor oil.”
Christ, they’d had sex before he made her pancakes and now he needed to fuck her again.
“Iz?” he called.
“Yes, Johnny.”
“So I have the strength to hike outta here, stop being sweet.”
There was a smile in her voice when she said, “Message received, Ghostrider.”
He gave a soft laugh.
“Johnny?” she called.
“Yeah, Iz.”
“Can we come camping again?”
He looked at her and caught her eyes.
“Absolutely.”
Fruit-Infused Vodka
Johnny
“GOOD CHRIST, WOMAN! What’s on your face?” Dave shouted half a second after he walked into Izzy’s dining room.
Johnny followed him in, Charlie behind Johnny, Toby coming in after Charlie.
Once in, he saw Iz, Addie, Margot and Deanna sitting around Izzy’s round white table, their asses on distressed white chairs. There were two weathered barn doors resting against a wall for some reason and a huge chandelier that was almost bigger than the table hanging low over it that you’d have to look close to see the crystals that were missing.
Johnny had looked close.
There were fifteen crystals missing.
He moved around the table to give all the men room to join them, but also to get to his woman, and he did this with his eyes on Izzy’s face, a big smile on his mouth.
Her face was covered in goo.
White goo with bits in.
“This, my girls, is why the magic happens without the man in your life bearing witness to it,” Margot drawled to the women around the table. She turned to Dave. “And David, please, I beg you for the five hundred and fifteenth time in our marriage, do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”
“This is not an answer to what you got all over your face, Margot,” Dave replied.
She swept a hand along the air at the side of her white goo slathered face like she was a model demonstrating high-end facial care. “It’s a facial mask as concocted by Adeline that her mother taught her to make that I already can feel wrings miracles.”
Johnny made it to Izzy and he bent toward her as she twisted her neck to look up at him, getting a whiff of yogurt and honey when he got close.
He then made a remark out loud that he thought in his head on more than a rare occasion.
“I don’t know whether to kiss you or eat you.”
She rolled her eyes.
He decided to kiss the top of her head.
After he did that he looked at her again.
“I’m gooey and you’re filthy,” she murmured.
It was three Saturdays after their camping trip.
Three Saturdays with three good weeks in between of family and friends, and them just being together punctuated only by the need to sleep in order to keep going and work in order to afford to eat (or Izzy’s work was that, Johnny was stinking rich and could have quit but then he’d be bored stiff and working on cars anyway so he might as well do it and make his garage more money).
Addie was off work at the grocery store that day so the women decided to have a girls’ day out, which meant the men could have a boys’ day.
They’d all started it meeting at Izzy’s and going their separate ways with the plan to meet back and mix genders for dinner.
Brooks was the odd man out, considering he couldn’t reach the grips on an ATV, so he had to stick with the women.
“Too bad with all this company we can’t take a shower,” he murmured back.
“Johnathon, please. No sexual innuendo at a lady’s dining room table,” Margot scolded. “It’s crass.”
Johnny straightened and looked at her. “It wasn’t innuendo, Margot. It was just sexual.”
Toby busted out laughing. Charlie chuckled. Dave shook his head at him, but did it grinning. Deanna and Addie smiled at each other.
Margot’s eyes narrowed. “We’re sampling Eliza’s excellent infused vodkas and I’m in a chipper mood. I’d thank you not to upset that.”
“I’d thank you too. My woman’s gonna feel good about her skin and be drunk, this bodes good things,” Dave delivered his own sexual innuendo, leaning into the table, grabbing the bottle that was closest that looked like it had strawberries and mint leaves in it, pouring a healthy dose into the glass in front of Margot and then he leaned back and shot the whole thing.
“David, you sip,” Margot snapped.
Dave put the glass down, ignored his wife and winked at Izzy. “I don’t even know what that was but you got my approval, child.”
Izzy beamed at him.
“I hope you all have changes of clothes seeing as you all need showers before we feed you,” Margot declared. She then turned to Izzy. “Take note of this, darlin’. In case you weren’t aware, ATV stands for all-terrain vehicle, and when they’re on one, they attempt to discover every type of terrain they can, the muddier, the better.”
Izzy, apparently unaffected by her man having dried mud caked up to his hips, just nodded and replied, “So noted, Margot.”
“I’m gonna go home and shower,” Charlie said then bent and kissed Deanna under her ear. “I’ll be back for dinner.”
“Iz, can I jump in your shower?” Toby asked.
“Sure,” Izzy answered.
“It’s my shower at this juncture so you should ask me,” Addie put in. “Unless you’re going to the master.”
“I’m in the master,” Johnny stated.
“Adeline, can I use your shower?” Toby asked.
“Sure,” she answered on a big grin.
He shook his head at her and strolled out, Charlie following him.
Dave took a chair that was against the wall and started twisting it to the table.
“Halt!” Margot shouted.
Dave froze.
“Do you think you’re sitting in your muddy jeans in Eliza’s chair?” she asked.