Kristen Ashley - At Peace

“Joe –”

He turned to me and cut me off. “Fair warnin’, there’s nothin’ there. Just the house and the beach, a coupla houses either side. Nothin’ to do but fish, cook, sleep, eat, fuck and read.”

“Can the girls come?” I asked and watched his face darken to a scowl.

“You ask shit like that again, I’ll turn you over my knee.”

I felt my stomach flutter. He’d turned me over his knee the night before, part of him being creative, and I’d liked it.

I smiled, leaned into him and whispered, “Joe, not sure that’s a deterrent.”

His eyes dropped to my mouth and he didn’t answer though his lips twitched.

“Still think the day couldn’t go any better?” I asked and his eyes came back to mine.

“Your mother-in-law make good sangria?” he asked back.

“The best,” I whispered.

“Then let’s get the fuck home,” he growled.

I laughed so hard, I had to close my eyes.

This meant I missed the first part of Joe coming in to kiss me.

But I didn’t miss the rest.

* * *

“Therefore,” I finished as the girls sat at their stools in front of me, “getting physical is never the way to go.”

I was giving them the hardest lecture in a parent’s arsenal. The lecture where you try to teach them not to do something you yourself had done.

These lectures, by the way, never worked.

Kate and Keira’s eyes went over my shoulder. Then they both fought smiles.

I was standing at the kitchen counter in front of them and I turned around to see Joe behind me, his hips leaned against the back counter, his arms crossed on his chest, his feet crossed at the ankles, his head bent and he was looking at his boots.

“Joe?” I called, his head came up and I saw he was biting his lip and he was doing this in a clear effort not to laugh. “Joe!” I snapped.

It was relatively late. We’d come home, changed clothes, dried off and I’d done needed repair work on my hair and makeup. We’d had sangria. We’d had steaks Joe braved the storm to cook on the grill and loaded baked potatoes. And we’d had chocolate cream pie (Joe had two slices, partly because he was being nice, mostly because it was the bomb).

The tornado warning turned to a tornado watch and then the storm became rain.

Everyone was gone. All of them, even Dad, were staying at the hotel by the highway overnight and were coming over for pancakes tomorrow morning. Everyone had avoided discussion of me jumping a blonde woman on the sidewalk for no apparent reason for all they knew. Everyone that was except Uncle Vinnie who every once in awhile when he looked at me would snicker and twice he out-and-out laughed.

Now it was just us, I needed to address the issue with my girls and I didn’t need Joe mucking up the works.

“This isn’t funny,” I hissed at Joe.

“Baby –”

“It isn’t!”

“Vi –”

“Stop laughing!” I demanded because he wasn’t laughing but he was smiling big and I knew, inside, he was laughing. “This is serious!”

“Buddy,” Joe’s voice sounded strangled, “fuck me, baby, but you took her down.” He uncrossed his arms, lifted a palm ceiling up and smacked his other hand down on it making a huge clapping noise before the heels of his hands went to the counter and he burst out laughing.

So did my girls.

“Joe –”

“In the rain,” Joe choked out.

“Joe!”

“Both of you wet,” Joe continued.

“Joe!”

“You coulda sold tickets to that shit,” Joe went on.

“Joe!” I shouted.

“Word gets around, honey, gonna have to beat the men back,” Joe finished.

I glared at him and then I swung my glare to the girls who were both giggling their asses off. Keira had her elbows to the counter, her face in her hands. Kate had collapsed onto her bent arm on the counter.

“I’m glad you all think this is so funny!” I snapped and then moved to flounce out but I was caught at the waist and pulled into Joe’s arms. My head jerked back and I demanded, “Let me go, Joe.”

“Baby –”

“Let… me… go!”

One of Joe’s hands curled around the side of my neck and his grinning face got in mine.

“Vi, honey, shit happens, you gotta laugh. You can’t laugh, you’re fucked.”

“You don’t know what she said,” I whispered, hoping the girls were still giggling so hard they couldn’t hear.

“I heard enough to know she deserved a busted lip and then some and any woman talks to Kate or Keira like that, I hope they got enough attitude to do the same fuckin’ thing.”

My body got tight and I informed him, “Girls don’t do that.”

“Maybe they should. Tina and Susie had that lesson taught to them a long time ago, maybe they wouldn’t be such bitches,” Joe replied.

This, I had to admit, was a point to ponder.

“Okay, I don’t want my girls doin’ that,” I amended my statement.

“You’re tellin’ me, some woman comes up to them and treats them to what Susie did to you, you want them to walk away?”

“Yes,” I kind of lied.

“What’d Susie do to you?” Keira asked from behind me and I turned in Joe’s arm but didn’t move away because his arm was now around my belly and it tightened, pulling my back into his front.

“It doesn’t matter. I was hungry and emotional but I still shouldn’t have acted that way,” I told Keira. “The better woman turns the other cheek.”

“Then she gets the upper hand,” Joe put in, I got tense and twisted my neck to look up at him as he kept talking. “Maybe wrestling with them on the sidewalk in the rain isn’t the way to go but don’t let anyone treat you like shit. No woman and especially no man. Anyone talks trash to you, you walk away. It follows you, you deal with it. You wanna know how, no matter where you are, you call me and I’ll tell you how.”

“Okay, lecture over,” I announced before Joe got on a roll.

“Thanks, Joe,” Keira said and I sighed because I had a feeling everything I’d said to her during my ten minute lecture about how physical violence was never the way was totally forgotten but Joe’s last words about getting the upper hand were etched into her brain.

“Yeah, Joe, thanks,” Kate said and added, “And thanks Mawdy, we’ll start with turnin’ the other cheek.”

“Great, start with that. Makes me feel better,” I muttered.

Kate smiled at me then said, “I’m gonna listen to music and put my new CDs on my MP3. Is that cool?”

“Sure, baby,” I answered.

“I’m goin’ to my room to get on Messenger and tell all my friends my Mom got in a catfight at the strip mall today. Is that cool?” Keira asked, Joe chuckled, Kate giggled and I looked at the ceiling.

Then I looked back at my daughter. “Laptop confiscated, you do that.”

“Right,” she muttered and grinned, “then I’ll put my new CDs on my MP3 player.”

“Good call,” I told her.

They moved off to their rooms and Joe’s mouth moved to my neck where he kissed me then said in my ear, “You know, even if Keira doesn’t share, that shit’s gonna get around. Josie Judd’s got a big mouth.”

I sighed again then turned back to face him. I put my hands on his chest and leaned in deep.

“I know.”

He grinned. “You’re gonna be a local hero, buddy. Susie isn’t real popular.”

I bit my lip, lifted a hand to fiddle with the collar of his tee and watched my fingers doing this.

“Joe,” I called and stopped speaking.

“Vi, you’re pressed up against me, baby.”

I looked up at him. “What happened to Susie’s Mom? Do you know?”

Joe’s head tilted slightly to the side and he answered, “More ‘burg lore. Drunk driving accident.”

“Oh,” I whispered, thinking that was awful.

“The person drivin’ drunk was her Dad.”

I felt my eyes get huge and I repeated, “Oh.”

“He walked away without a scratch. She broke her neck.”

“My God,” I breathed.

“Spent the rest of his life makin’ it up to Susie by spoilin’ her rotten,” Joe continued.

This explained a lot and it also made me feel extremely guilty for busting her lip.

“Get that shit outta your head, buddy. It sucks that happened. But it doesn’t excuse bein’ a bitch,” he said.

He was right, it didn’t. Or at least not that much of a bitch.

“Life’s pretty fucked up for everyone, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” Joe answered.

“You think,” I pressed my lips together then went on, “the girls… Sam, Tim, what happened today?”

Joe’s brows went up. “You think they’ll turn into bitches?”

I shook my head. “I just worry that all of this –”

Joe cut me off. “Look at you.”

I blinked and asked, “What?”

He didn’t repeat himself. He gave me a squeeze and said, “Look at me.”

“Joe, I’m not following.”

“You lost your husband and your brother and you got some asshole fuckin’ with your head and you keep on keepin’ on. My wife killed my kid and my Dad died and the last thing he knew in this life was that shit went down. It took me awhile but now I’m here. You think Katy and Keirry won’t make it through?”

“But –”

“Susie’s weak because her Daddy was weak. That’s what he demonstrated when he got behind the wheel of a car smashed. That’s what he taught her then and kept teachin’ her. With what I’ve seen of your Dad and Mom, got no idea where you learned yours from but I got mine from Vinnie and Theresa. Bonnie didn’t have a moral compass and didn’t pay attention when I tried to give her one. When Nicky came into this world she should have automatically found one and she still didn’t. Weak.” His arms gave me a squeeze and his face dipped to mine. “Your girls have one, buddy, one they’ll never lose. They aren’t weak, never will be. You got nothin’ to worry about.”

“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” I whispered the words Feb said to me days ago.

“Yeah,” Joe whispered back, “at least for some of us.”

Suddenly I smiled and I felt something light and golden bubble up in me. Something I used to feel a lot, almost every day. Something I hadn’t felt in nearly two years.

“Shit, Joe,” I was still whispering, “I got in a catfight today on the sidewalk at a strip mall.”

Joe smiled back. “Yeah, honey, you did.” I felt my body start shaking and Joe’s smile got bigger. “In the rain,” he reminded me.

“In the rain,” I repeated on a suppressed giggle.

“In a skirt,” he went on and my giggle erupted. “That might be my favorite part, outside you bein’ wet,” he continued and my giggles took control and I collapsed into him, my cheek to his chest, my arms tight around his waist and I laughed out loud.

When I got control of my mirth and was back to quiet giggles, I moved my head so my forehead was pressed against Joe’s chest but I didn’t release my arms.

“Worth the wait,” Joe muttered and my head tipped back.

“What?”

“Every bit of it. Every day, every week, every year, every fuckin’ second, buddy,” he kept muttering, his eyes intense, his face serious and my breath caught, “this. All of it. Worth the wait.”

“Joe,” I whispered.

His hand moved to my jaw and his thumb stroked my cheekbone. “Love you, Violet. Even when you’re bustin’ some bitch’s lip open.”

I smiled, pressed even deeper into him and whispered, “I love you too, Joe.”

His head dipped, his mouth captured mine and he started to kiss me hard but our lips broke when Keira called, “Yeesh! Get a room!”

Joe’s arms didn’t move from around me but he looked over my shoulder and I did too to see Keira walk into the kitchen and direct to the fridge.

“I’m havin’ more pie. You guys want pie?” she asked.

“No,” I answered.

“Yeah,” Joe said.

“Katy!” Keira shouted, “Joe and me are havin’ pie! You want pie?”

“Yeah!” Kate shouted back.

Keira got out the pie. Joe’s arms gave me a squeeze. I put my cheek to his chest and squeezed him back. Music hit the house then Kate opened the door to her bedroom and it got louder. Keira got the pie cutter. Kate came in and got plates.

I held onto Joe, Joe held onto me, the girls dished out pie and I concentrated on really listening to Kate’s music for the first time ever.

It was great.

Vinnie preceded Cal out to the back deck and as Cal slid the door closed behind him, he looked through the window at Vi, Theresa and Bea in the kitchen vying for maternal supremacy thus control over the pancakes.