“Are you listening to me?” He looked at Mars when he spoke. Smiling at him, he told him he’d been thinking about other things. “I can tell. You were thinking of Rayne again, weren’t you?”
Looking around the table, he realized it was only him and Mars. Wats started to ask where the others had gone but didn’t want to embarrass himself any more than he already had. Instead, he told him he was thinking about her.
“She’s looking for a part-time job. Know of any that she can work around her school schedule?” Wats asked him why he didn’t hire her. “I thought you needed someone to answer phones and make appointments. That would be a good job for her, don’t you think? Not too stressful, and she could work with you on her degree.”
“She is studying to be a nurse. I might be able to hire her for that too when she’s finished up.” Mars said that was what he’d been thinking too. He also pointed out that he’d not answered his question. “I like her. Very much. I’ve been working up to asking her on a date. Don’t tell the others.”
“Why do you have to work up to it?” Wats explained it to him. “I can see where that might be an issue. You told her no strings until the house was finished when she moved into your condo. But that should be soon, right?”
“Yes. North said they were out today to inspect the place before they could hook it up to the power or water. I’m not sure which one, but you get it.” Mars told him he understood as he stood up to go. “I need to talk to you about something. It’s important to me, anyway. What would you do if you and I were to switch situations with my mother? I’ve been bothered by it for a few nights, and I’m kind of losing some sleep over it. She wants me to go there and speak to her. Actually, she would be speaking at me—that’s the way it has always been with her. Mother wants me to get her an attorney that will get her out of prison. I don’t want that. Ever.”
“Then I think you have your answer. As for going to see her, do you remember how she spoke to you this morning? How she told you she was gunning for you when she got out? Not that she is ever getting out, but you do remember that, don’t you?” Wats said he did. “What more would you say to her if you were face to face that you need to say to her? Anything at all? I’m not telling you not to go. I’m just pointing out a few things for you to think about if you do go.”
“Closure? Tell her how much I dislike her? I don’t know. Nothing comes to mind that I know she’ll hear when I say it to her.” Mars nodded and asked him again if he thought he had his answer. “I do. Thanks, buddy. I knew you’d be the one to tell me to go or not. I just needed to see if I was being—I don’t know, stupid or something, thinking I had to go. Understand?”
“Yes. I believe it will take you some time to get over that feeling of having to do whatever you’re told by them. I know it would for me as well.”
Wats wondered if Aunt Holly had ever whipped Mars. She would have, he realized then, if she thought he needed it. But neither of them, he knew, would feel good about it. Her for having to do that, but Mars would have been devastated if she’d had to do it too. They all missed their aunt as much as Mars did his mom. She was mother to all of them.
“Now, I have a favor I need from you. I’d very much like to get something for the baby’s room that will be his or hers forever. I know you’ve been around a lot of new families, but I want something so much better than that for my child and wife. If you could give that some thought, I’d be ever so grateful.” He paused. “Also, something very nice for my wife. I would absolutely love to be able to show her how much I dearly love her.”
“No spa or chocolate.” Mars asked Wats why not. “I’ve heard that women, after having a baby, do not want you to think of them as fat or out of shape. That’s what they think when you give them the spa. And like you said, everyone gives chocolates. I’d skip that too. You really need to start taking Abby out more. Think of it as pre-baby dates. Because after it comes, you’re not going to have a lot of time for that sort of thing. At least that’s what I’m to understand.”
“I like that idea. Both of us have been working from home a lot, and it’s getting to the point that when my phone rings, I dread it. Something else I have to make a decision on. It’s wonderful having all this money, but I don’t think anyone knows how much work it is to keep it coming in. I guess I could just live off the interest from everything, but that would really drive me nuts. Not knowing if there was going to be another income.” He laughed with Mars. “I’m too much of a ‘saving for a rainy day’ sort of person. Also, I wanted to tell you that I’m opening the shop next week. I’m getting excited about that.”
“I will be there daily for lunch.” Mars told him he was hoping so. “Have you found someone to come in and serve your customers?”
“Yes. I hired a few high school kids to help out. Abby came up with the idea of telling them if they were to save at least twenty-five hundred dollars before they went to college, we’d match whatever they had saved up.” Mars laughed. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to meet it anyway, but it’s nice to make them have to work for some of the cash.”
“I like that idea. I thought for about ten seconds of hiring some high school kids that might be thinking about going into medicine, but I don’t want to put any pressure on anyone. There are just too many drugs and information that they could easily get into. Not that I’d not trust someone, but kids and peer pressure can be terrible.” Wats was surprised when he was told the bill had been paid. “I guess I owe someone lunch.”
The courtroom was full, he could see as he made his way into the building. They were all in the same room, the cousins and their dads, in the sub-levels of the courthouse. The women on trial wouldn’t know they were there and cause some trouble, and all of them felt much safer than they would if they had to be in the courtroom with them. They were all insane.
~*~
Rayne looked around the condo once again. It had been really nice staying here—she was going to miss it. Not that Grandda having a new place to live wasn’t going to be great, but she knew this place. She also had liked the smell of the place.
It was silly, she knew, that she had washed up Wats’s laundry and put it away for him, with the exception of one of his shirts. She’d been wearing it to bed nightly. Glancing at her bag of stuff that was going to the new place, Rayne wondered if he’d miss just one shirt. He did have a great deal of white shirts, she told herself. Then it occurred to her that he might just miss one of his shirts—she would. But she didn’t have a lot of stuff in the first place.
As she was going to her bag, Wats and his brother came into the living room and announced that they were there to get them moved. Mars moved into the kitchen, and Rayne’s face heated up when Wats smiled at her.
“You look like you’ve been caught at something bad.” He couldn’t have said anything else, could he? she thought. Her face heated up more, and he grinned at her just a little more. “Now I have to know what you’ve been up to. Did you rob me blind, my dear?”
“It was only a shirt. You’d never miss it. I can give it back, but it’s been so comfy to sleep in. I’ll give it back to you. After I wash it. Yes, after I— Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked her how he was looking at her, his voice deeper than before. There was also a cadence that she’d not noticed too until right now. “Like you’re going to taste me. Or something.”
“I want to. Right now, I want nothing more than to ask you to put on my shirt and nothing else and let me taste you.” Her body warmed, her lips felt dry. Licking them, giving them just a little moisture had Wats groaning deeply in his throat. “I’ve been thinking about you a great deal, Rayne. Not sexually—not until now—but how it would feel to kiss you. To take you on a date and have some— Would you go out with me?”
“Yes.” When Wats turned from her and looked in the doorway, she did as well. It was difficult, she thought, to pull her glance from the man. When he asked his cousin
what he wanted, the laughter set off her temper, and she found herself standing in front of the big man poking him in the chest. “What did you want that was so important that you had to interrupt our conversation? Was it that important?”
“No, not really.” He laughed again. “Wats, I like her. She’s a keeper. If I’m right on this, and I think I am, she’ll fit right in with the rest of the group. I was just asking Wats here if he wanted to get some lunch on the way over to the new place. I missed my breakfast, and he’s had me running him around all morning.”
“Oh.” Again her face heated up, and she felt herself feeling stupid and awkward. Instead of letting her mouth get herself into more trouble, she looked at Wats again. “I’m not sure what’s going on here. I don’t have any idea why I want you to take me into your arms and make me feel like I’m something special. I’ve never felt that way with anyone before. I don’t know you well enough to have those feelings for you. I just find myself feeling stupid all the time.”
Instead of telling her she was being stupid, Wats pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. Every insecurity she had about herself, all the doubts that anyone would or could love her, seemed to just melt away. Closing her eyes against all the emotions that were pinging all over her mind and body, Rayne just let herself enjoy being held. It might well never happen for her again.
“I’ve been thinking that you could come and work for me. Answer the phone, let me help you with your education into becoming a nurse. But right now, all I can think about is chasing you around my office and having my way with you.” She pulled back enough to look up at him. “We’d never get anything accomplished, I’m afraid.”
“This is really strange for me.” He said it was for him as well. “I haven’t dated all that much. Rarely a second one if I do go out with someone. I’m probably the world’s oldest virgin at twenty-six.”
He laughed. It didn’t feel like he was making fun of her, nor did he tell her that her being a virgin was shocking to him. No, it felt like he was laughing because he was enjoying himself. Smiling at him, she asked him if he was as loony as he seemed.
“More than likely, I think. But I would love for you to come by my offices and see if you could perhaps work for me. I don’t have a great many patients as yet. Just enough to keep me on my toes. I seem to take care of the family injuries more than I do anyone coming into the offices.” She asked him about the filing. “I do have a sort of system in mind, but if you could figure out something, I’d be glad to have it. I just came from a large practice with about a dozen other doctors and nurses, and this part is all new for me.”
He picked up her bags when Mars asked him from the other room if they were ready. She took the smaller bag that was her grandda’s and took it out to the truck too. There, sitting in the driveway, was a brand new car. It even had a large bow on it. She dropped everything and wanted to get a closer look at it.
“North bought it for you and your grandda. He said he noticed that you didn’t have a very reliable vehicle, and he didn’t want to make you unable to go to class or take James to the doctor—us, I would guess—if your car didn’t start.” She told Mars that was just too much. “Not to him, it’s not. He feels terrible that you had to live in that other house. I do as well. Someone should have fixed it for you rather than just blowing you off when you needed at least a new furnace. Those are necessities, and the bank should have made sure they were in good working order.”
“I’ll be ever so careful with it. And I won’t put any more miles on it than necessary.” Wats asked her why she thought she had to not put miles on it. “I don’t know. To resell it, I suppose.”
“I’m sure he means for you to use it as much as you want. There isn’t any reason that he’d not want you to be doing that.” Wats kissed her on the mouth as he handed her the car keys. “You drive it over to the new house to see if it’s something you can get used to. It has a full tank of gas, and there is a standing order at the local gas stations for you to fill it up whenever you need to.” She started to complain that it was too much. “Before you say something like you’re not going to do that, it’s not just for you, Rayne, but for your grandda as well. We’ve all gone to college, so we know how tight things can be when you’re trying to get an education. Just think of this as we’re helping you graduate without any worries.”
It was too much. Not just the car and the house, but her feelings for Wats. Instead of saying something else about it all, she got into the car and waited for them to do the same. Rayne’s emotions were too new, too everything right now, and she didn’t want to do or say something that she might well regret later.
Grandda rode over to the house with her. He was playing around with the glove box, he called it, and the dials on the radio. When they were coming up on the pharmacy, he remembered he had a prescription to pick up. Wondering how she was going to afford that and pay for her late book fees, she went inside while Grandda told Mars what they were doing. Waiting in line, she thought of all the things she still needed to finish up before the end of term.
This was her last term in college. It was so close that she could almost taste it. Of course, she still would have to take her state boards, but she’d been studying for that since the beginning and hoped that she’d not have any trouble with it. Three more weeks of classes, and she’d be ready to sit in a room with other nurses to be and take the test. Christ, it had been a long road, but she was so happy that she’d been able to finish it in a reasonable amount of time.
It was her turn next in the line.
“Hello, Rayne. How’s the new home? I bet your grandda is loving all the rooms on one floor.” She told the pharmacist they were headed out there now to see it. “I got a call from Wats. He said you were going to be working for him in the office. He couldn’t get a better nurse to work with him. How much longer do you have to go, honey?”
Mr. Windle handed her the bag with her grandda’s prescription in it as she told him how long she had to go. He asked her if working with him over the summer had gotten her the credits she’d needed last year.
“Yes. They were impressed with how much you were able to help me with. And when I took my test on pharmacology, I aced it.” She looked for the price on the bag and couldn’t find it. “I don’t know how much I’m going to need to pay. I mean, I know Brenda will need to ring me out, and I don’t want to cause her any undue trouble.”
“No charge.” She asked him what he meant. “Wats is a good man and a great doctor. He’s also helping my daughter out with her summer camp needs. I know you’ve met my daughter. She is going to a special ed camp this summer and spring that Wats was able to get her into. I owe that man more than I can ever repay him. I don’t charge them for any meds they need, and since you’re going to be working for him, I don’t want to charge you either. Call it a perk.”
“But I know that Grandda’s meds are expensive, Mr. Windle. That’s too much for someone that hasn’t even worked yet.”
He told her it wasn’t to him. Nor for what the Wilkersons, the younger generation anyway, had done for him and his family. She didn’t know what to say, so Rayne thanked him profusely for the perk and made her way out to the car.
Grandda was talking to Wesley Wilkerson, father to Wats, just as she came out of the pharmacy. She was unsure how she felt right now and had to have her grandda repeat with he’d just asked her. Mr. Wilkerson got into the backseat of the car and told her it was all right. He’d just hitch a ride over to the restaurant with her.
Rayne had always been a very careful driver. But having a car that not only stopped when you pushed on the brakes just a little but would leap forward when the gas pedal was engaged made her a nervous wreck. Neither of the men said a word to her when she started out with a jump and stopped hard enough to nearly toss them out of their seats. She’d never been so happy to pull into a parking lot as she was when she got to the place to meet the others for
lunch. Grandda went in, but Mr. Wilkerson stayed behind with her.
“You all right, honey?” She said she was just a little on the nervous side. “I spoke to Wats just now. He invited me to meet you. He said that you and he were going to be seeing each other. I don’t know how much you know about the wives of the family, but we’re trying very hard to get to know our sons. I won’t be intruding, will I?”
“Goodness no. I’m not sure of a lot of stuff going on right now.” She told him everything, including the need to have Wats hold her and the prescription perk. “It’s too much. And this car? While I really appreciate it, I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. Not on top of them putting in a home for my grandda.”
“You know my family, don’t you? I mean, the fact that we’re wealthy in our own right. Not to be rude, but I know that buying this car for you and putting in a better house for your grandfather isn’t going to hurt them at all. They’ve been good boys all their lives—no thanks at all to myself and their parents, but because of my sister. You let them do this for you, Rayne. Please. If it worries you too much thinking that they want something else from you, then you’d be wrong. They all just see something they can fix, and they do it. I’m very proud of them for that.”
She turned and looked at the man. “When I was ten years old, I saw your wife berating Wats for helping my grandma to her car when it was snowing. He’d gone out and started it for her so that it would be warmed up when she got out there.” Mr. Wilkerson said it sounded like something he’d do. “Not only did Tina slap him, but she kicked him when he slipped and fell on the ice. I hurt for him then. But you know what? The very next day, he did the same thing, helping another person out to their car that he’d warmed up for her as well. I think a part of me fell in love with Wats that day. Not just for helping out two women that he more than likely didn’t know all that well, but because he didn’t not do it even after being hurt and humiliated by his own mother.” Rayne wiped at a tear that had fallen. “I’m sorry. I have no idea why I told you that. You must think I’m a ninny.”
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