Kristen Ashley - At Peace

“And, by the way, all women like designer handbags,” I told him, grabbed my drink and took a sip then finished, “Just to warn you. If you’re lookin’ for a woman who doesn’t like them, well… you’re kinda screwed.”

He grinned and asked, “They all need one a month?”

I choked on my drink again, luckily not to the point I had to lean over and deep breathe then asked, “She bought one a month?”

“I won’t get into the shoes.”

“Sure, I’d like one a month, if I was Ivana Trump.”

“I ain’t Donald.”

“They’re divorced too.”

He burst out laughing and I laughed with him, this laughing felt good, I hadn’t laughed like that in awhile nor smiled that much. The laughing was especially good since his face was even more handsome when he was laughing.

We talked awhile then Cheryl came back, coming up empty on her cruise. She started to relay the information about how all the men in the bar were losers and Mike wisely decided it was time to move on. He got my address, my phone number and told me he’d be at my house the next night to pick me up at seven thirty.

He also leaned in, his hand curled around my neck and he touched my mouth with his then his lips went to my ear and he whispered, “It’ll be better tomorrow night, sweetheart, promise.”

Then before I could say a word, which I didn’t get it together to do since I was concentrating on a little flutter in my stomach, he let me go and left.

“I’m livin’ in this town a year, I got nothin’. You’re here a few months, you got two hot guys all over you,” Cheryl bitched while sitting down then she shouted, “Dee, I’m dry!”

“Cheryl, I’m screwed,” I told her. “Joe was here.”

Her eyes came to me and she said, “Sure thing, babe, saw him, why you think I tagged Mike? Mike comes in all the time, totally knew you were his type. That works out I should sell my services as a matchmaker.”

I was still letting the first part of what she said sink in. “You saw Joe?”

“Yeah, he came in while you were in the bathroom.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“And miss my chance at forcin’ the come to Jesus? No way!”

Dee put Cheryl’s drink in front of her and moved away. Cheryl put the straw to her lips and sucked up a huge sip.

“A come to Jesus?” I asked through her sip.

She put her drink on the bar and turned to me. “Yeah, he sees you gettin’ flirted with by a hot guy, he either moves to protect his property or he steps aside. Either way, you know where you stand and you know what you gotta do. Come to Jesus.”

“So, you orchestrated that?”

“Am I your friend?”

“I don’t know, it depends on if Joe’s head explodes.”

“Don’t you want it to?”

“Cheryl, you haven’t been around him when he’s pissed, he’s kinda scary.”

“He get physical?”

“Not really, unless you mean sexually physical then the answer is yes, a lot, but that’s the good part.”

She grinned. “I hope it does. If it doesn’t, Mike’s cool, he’s also nice, he’s also hot and hopefully sex with him is the good part too, so you win either way.”

She wasn’t wrong about that but somehow, it felt like she was.

I sucked back more of my drink, looked where Mike looked when he saw Joe and I saw someone I didn’t know sitting on the stool next to Colt’s. I thought about Joe and going over in his t-shirt that night and I thought about Mike and our date.

And I thought about how my life was a lot less complicated before Daniel Hart blew it to pieces by ordering a hit on the man I loved who was the father of my children.

Then I sighed and sucked back more drink.

* * *

Even though we were both only slightly tipsy, being good citizens (and imbibing in a bar that did indeed get frequented by cops) Cheryl and I took a taxi home. I got dropped off first.

I pulled my remote out of my purse, disarmed the alarm, went in the side door, locked it and armed the alarm again. I checked on Keira who was sleeping then Kate who was also sleeping.

As I was heading to my room, my cell in my purse started ringing.

I walked to it on the kitchen counter, pulled it out, saw the display said “Joe’s Cell” and my breath caught in my throat.

Then I slid the phone open, put it to my ear and forced out, “Hello.”

“Get your ass over here.”

“Joe –”

“Now, buddy.”

Then I heard nothing, he’d disconnected. I stood frozen in the dark of my kitchen with a dead phone to my ear and I was thinking maybe Cheryl’s come to Jesus idea wasn’t such a good thing.

I was also thinking maybe I should hole myself up in my bedroom but Joe not only knew where I lived, he lived next door and he’d installed my alarm system and most likely had the knowledge of how to bypass it so I was pretty much screwed.

And what was I worried about anyway? These were his rules. I’d asked him to dinner, he’d told me he was done with me. What? I couldn’t go to dinner when someone asked me because Joe, apparently, wasn’t done with me?

I hit the buttons on the remote to disarm the alarm, grabbed my keys, unlocked the door, exited my house, locked the door and armed the alarm. I walked between my house and my garage and turned right toward Joe’s deck.

I got into his yard and nearly tripped.

He was standing in the dark on his deck, his hip against the railing, his foot crossed at the ankle, his arms crossed on his huge chest, waiting for me. He was wearing what appeared to be a black t-shirt (he didn’t seem to have anything else), jeans (he also didn’t seem to have anything other than jeans either) and boots (probably his motorcycle boots, which was all I’d ever seen him wear).

I walked up two of the four steps before he moved, leaning down to grab my hand then he dragged me up the two remaining steps so fast I almost tripped again. Then he swung me into his house and let me go, turning to slide the glass door shut then turning back to me.

“Joe –”

“You play that game often, buddy?”

“What?”

“On your stool, drunk and cute, suckin’ on your straw?”

“You have the wrong idea.”

“Yeah? You played me the same, exact, fuckin’ way.”

I felt some of my fear sliding away as anger replaced it.

“I played you?”

“Felt like I was watchin’ a movie after a rewind.”

I leaned forward and hissed, “You dick!”

He moved and Mike was right, he was fast. I was backed up against a wall before I knew what was happening.

My anger died an early death and I was back to scared.

“Joe –”

His hands were sliding around my back and down to my ass as he said, “I play you tonight.”

“No!” I cried. “Joe, listen to me, I’ve never flirted.”

“Baby, you’re the best fuckin’ flirt I’ve ever met.”

“Yeah, I know, I found out tonight,” I told him, putting my hands to his chest and getting up on my toes. “Listen, Mike told me about the cherry thing and the straw thing. With you, I was just drunk. With him, I was just sipping my drink.”

“You did the cherry thing with him?” he growled.

“No!” I cried again. “He just told me about it, that, um… men even at a hundred and two, would… um, like that.”

“You know men like that.”

“I’ve been with the same guy since I was fifteen. Tim liked it. I just thought he never grew out of it since he’d been with me since he was sixteen. I mean, it’s not hard, doing that with a cherry stem. It isn’t like pole dancing or something.”

Joe was silent.

“Anyway, I’ve never had to flirt,” I continued. “Tim asked me out in the lunch line in the cafeteria in high school. I was buying bad pizza and chocolate milk. Do you get what I’m tellin’ you?”

Joe remained silent.

“Joe,” I whispered, my hands sliding up to his neck, “I didn’t play you. I don’t know how to play anyone.”

“He ask you out?”

Oh shit.

I closed my eyes.

“He asked you out,” Joe said softly.

I opened my eyes and whispered, “Joe –”

“And you’re goin’.”

“Joe –”

“When?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“I leave Sunday.”

“For how long?”

“A week, maybe two, meetings are pilin’ up.”

“Oh.”

His hands slid down my ass to my thighs as he bent slightly then I was going up, he pulled my legs apart and I wrapped them around his hips as his hands slid back to my ass and my arms went around his shoulders. Carrying me, he started walking down the hall.

“I’m not leavin’ for two weeks not gettin’ my fill of you.”

“Joe –”

“You come to me after he’s done with you.”

Oh God, why was this so fucked up?

“Joe, I don’t –”

He put a knee to his bed and then my back was to it and he was on me.

“You come to me or I come to you. Buddy, you want me fuckin’ you with your girls in the house then you stay home. You don’t, I hear your feet on the steps of my deck.”

His hand pulled my blouse from my jeans as I asked, “You’re not askin’ are you?”

His fingers pulled down the cup of my bra when he answered, “Nope.”

“Joe –” I whispered when his thumb swept over my nipple and I felt only that and forgot what we were talking about.

“Vi,” he called and I realized I’d closed my eyes so I opened them and focused on him. “There’s five hundred dollars on my nightstand, when you go home in the mornin’, you take it.”

My body stilled under his.

“What?”

“It’s for Keira’s dog and food.”

“The dog only costs two hundred dollars.”

“Then you can buy a lot of food.”

“Joe, you can’t do that.”

“You don’t buy her the dog, I talk to her tomorrow, find out where the dog is, I buy it and the food.”

“You can’t do that.”

His thumb did another swipe and I bit my lip.

“She wants a dog,” he stated.

“But –”

“Baby, she lost her Dad, she should get a fuckin’ dog.”

I swallowed and my body relaxed under his.

“I know,” I whispered and I did know, I’d known since the minute she brought it up.

“So take the money, buy her the fuckin’ dog.”

I put my hand to his scarred cheek and ran my thumb along his cheekbone.

“I’ll pay you back,” I promised.

“That’s for Keira, there’s no payback for Keira. You need somethin’ from me, we’ll discuss payback.”

“Joe –”

His mouth came to mine. “Done talkin’ now.”

“Joe –”

“Might be gone two weeks, we need to fuck.”

“Joe, please.”

“What?”

I dropped my head and slid my nose along his jaw until my mouth was at his ear and I whispered, “Thanks for the dog.”

With my mouth at his ear, his mouth was at mine when he whispered back, “Shut up, buddy.”

Then his finger met his thumb and he pinched my nipple and my mind went blank again.

I lay on my back on my bed staring at the ceiling and hearing the TV in the other room. Kate, Dane and Keira were watching a movie that, from what I could tell, had a lot of explosions.

My cell phone was on my stomach, my hand curled around it and I had two choices. Either I needed to make the call to end things with Joe or I wanted to make the call just to talk to Joe.

I closed my eyes.

Things couldn’t get weirder or more messed up.

It was now Thursday.

On Saturday, during the day, I’d had to have the talk with the girls, telling them I was going out on a date. I couldn’t just trip out the door with an unknown man and call, “See you later!” as much as I wanted to. I had to do what I could to make this transition from Mom and Dad, to Mom no Dad, to Mom dating as smooth as possible even though that was impossible.

I still had to try.

So I stood at the kitchen counter while they both sat on stools at the bar opposite me and I told them I met a man named Lieutenant Mike Haines and we were going out on a date.

I expected they’d both be pissed. They loved their Dad and I couldn’t imagine that, the time having come when I was moving on with life, dragging them with me, they’d be thrilled to bits.

What I didn’t expect was Kate to say, “That’s great, Mawdy.”

But I kinda expected Keira to snap, “What about Joe?”

Which was what she did.

I closed my eyes but opened them when Kate asked Keira, “What about Joe?”