The pop of the piercing gun snaps in the air, jostling me out of my thoughts. Sonny’s wail follows not long after. Pivoting toward the sound, I shoot my venom at Lisa again as the piercer retreats, weapon in hand. The mother seems unfazed, of course, swiping through her phone as always. I steal the bawling child out of her arms. I bounce the little boy, rocking him until his screams subside into quiet whimpers.
Lisa gives me a wide smile. “So…engagement rings, huh?”
I roll my eyes. Her kid is shrieking his head off and all she can think about is gossip. “Don’t start…”
Lisa’s eyes go dreamy. “Vivian Hartley…she’s so damn classy. Like a ballerina. Or a Hollywood star.” She sighs. “Of course a girl like her gets the happily ever after, right?” The jeweler rings up the total and Lisa pulls out some crumpled up fives. “A girl like me, a recovering crack head, what do I get? A bunch of babies with no daddy. Babies I’ve got to take care of on my own while I watch their sperm donor running around with some pretty, classy, respectable woman. Goddammit, my life is shit…”
As we step out of the jewelry store, into the bustling shopping center, Lisa looks like she’s about to cry. “You went into the situation with your eyes wide open,” I tell her. “You don’t get to play the victim now.”
She physically recoils at my words, almost like I slapped her across the face. I probably shouldn’t be so tough on her. She’s never had it easy. She spent most of her childhood being passed around like a volleyball between a handful of drunk family members who split custody. As a teen, she got involved in drugs and gangs. And when she finally got the courage to turn her life around, she was faced with a massive betrayal of her trust. Yes, Lisa has had it hard but she told me she was ready to get herself on track for her children’s sake. That’s why I promised that I’d be there for her and the kids. It’s just that she makes it so damn hard sometimes.
Laying a hand on her shoulder, I slow her stride. She turns to face me. “Look—things weren’t always easy for you, but you’re making progress now. You’re doing better.”
She pulls in a deep breath that makes her narrow shoulders heave.
“You’re out of the trap. There’s nothing that can pull you back into that life. Right?” I look her dead in the eyes, searching for some confirmation. “Right?”
She can’t meet my gaze. Instead, she takes off at a brisk pace, her heels clipping on the shopping center’s tiled floor. I feel panic rise inside of me. No, Lisa. No…
Man, she’s been doing so good. She’s come so far. Don’t tell me that she’s backsliding. I jog to catch up with her. “You aren’t using again, are you? You aren’t back on drugs?” I adjust the whimpering toddler’s weight on my hip.
Lisa scowls at me and spits out. “No, of course not.”
Relief sweeps over me. Thank god…
But when her eyes go watery, I know that celebrated too fast. She looks off to the side and hisses. “I don’t take drugs. Especially not when I’m pregnant.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vivian
From the moment I look up from the cash register and see Ernie tiptoeing into the bakery, I smell trouble. Oh crap…
When he sees me, a nervous, tentative smile spreads across his lips. “Vivian...” My gaze moves over his shoulder, searching for his wife. She’s nowhere in sight. That’s bewildering. She never lets him off his leash.
“Hi, Ernie.” I focus on his face. He’s as pale as a ghost and there’s this wild look in his eyes that makes me unsettled. I try on a smile. I’m not sure that it fits. “Are you okay?”
He glances out through the front window then he yanks up the collar of his felt jacket to cover half of his face. The Becker for Mayor pin on his lapel disappears from sight. “Yeah—I’m okay.” He wipes sweat off the top of his lip with the back of his trembling hand.
Okay, I’m officially spooked out. What’s going on with him?
Then it dawns on me. Oh my god. I look for traces of blood. “Ernie, did you commit a crime? Did you kill your wife?” My voice comes out a little too loud. Sadie looks over at me from the other end of the counter where she’s boxing up some cakepops for an older lady. She gives me the do-you-need-to-borrow-my-pepper-spray? look. I shake my head, silently telling her to stand down. For now.
Meanwhile, Ernie glances around surreptitiously, paranoid as hell. “What? No? Keep your voice down.”
“Sure,” I say as I take a cautionary step back from the counter. “C-can I help you with something?”
His eyes flit over the cupcake display. “Can I get a chocolate cupcake? And a lemon and a peanut butter, too. Maybe throw some sprinkles on them. And I also want an extra-large cappuccino with chocolate and caramel. Extra whipped cream. And if you could spike that with some whiskey—”
“Ernie, where’s Mandy?” This is becoming a bit troubling.
He glances at the window from over the top of his stiff collar. He shoves on a huge pair of aviator sunglasses. “Can we sit over there for a minute?” He jams his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the tables at the back.
I hesitate, not sure I want to get tangled up in whatever it is Ernie has going on. But he has this puppy dog look on his face that makes me feel bad for him. “Sadie, you’ve got it covered back here?”
She looks Ernie up and down before giving me a skeptical nod. I lead the guy to a table and he sits opposite me.
“Okay, am I gonna need to get a lawyer before talking to you?” I demand. I’m not even joking.
Without warning, he reaches across the table and grabs my hands. “I’m leaving Mandy!”
The hinges in my jaw give out and my mouth falls open. “What?!”
He lurches across the table and cups my cheek in his hand. “Vivvy, you’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“Ernie! What the hell are you talking about?” I drag my chair away from the table and his hand falls away.
“The bitch is crazy! She snoops through my emails, she checks my phone, she goes through my pockets. She’s convinced that I’m cheating on her. Plus, she has me on this crazy, no-calorie diet that has my blood sugar in a ditch. I’m losing my mind!” His eyes are bulging and deranged. “I need you back, Vivian!”
I have never rolled my eyes so hard in my life. “She thinks you’re cheating because when she stole you from me, you were a cheater. As for the diet, that might be a good idea because if I remember correctly, you have a real talent for clogging a toilet after you eat Italian.”
He scowls. “Vivian, now is not the time for jokes. You wanna be with me or not?”
My eyes move to the parking lot and I see Mandy’s minivan stalking by in slow motion. She’s leaning through the open window, squinting into the cupcake shop.
Ernie mutters under his breath. “I swear to god she put a tracking device in my underwear.”
I stand up from the table. “Okay, Cowardly Lion. I think that you and your marital drama need to exit stage left. I have work to do and you need to not get your butt kicked by your wife inside of my place of business.”
“Vivian, please…” His eyes beg for mercy.
I round the counter and glare at him. “You made your bed, Ernie. Now go lie in it with your controlling, psycho-stalker wife.” I don’t wait for any more of his begging. I disappear down the hallway, into the office.
My bizarre conversation with Ernie is quickly forgotten. I finish up the day ordering stock and handling some bookkeeping tasks. Sadie and I say our goodbyes and I lock up the shop around 7:00. As I climb into my car, I’ve got Clinton on my brain for sure. I cut a quick right at the intersection where I should have turned left and a few miles down the road, I’m swerving onto a now-familiar street.
There’s no use fighting against the smile on my lips when Clinton throws open the door to his basement apartment. He leans his arm on the doorframe above his head and looks down at me with a half-smirk, his inked chest spread out before me like a canvas. He runs his thumb across the frown on m
y forehead. “Hey, Sunflower. You look like you could use a good fuck.”
I sigh. “You know me so well.” He reaches out and grabs my hand. Giggling, I stumble inside. Before he can even kick the door shut with his foot, he’s got me pressed up against it as he rains kisses down on my neck.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Clinton
Vivian has no idea how much I needed her tonight.
Finding out that Lisa is pregnant again…Fuck! How could a person be so stupid? Making the same mistakes over and over again has to get old at some point, doesn’t it?
Anyway, my beautiful Vivian is just the distraction that I needed. She cooked me dinner and then we snuggled up on the couch. She talked a mile a minute, with her phone in one hand and a pen in the other, drafting a business plan for me in her pretty notebook. She says I need to hang a traditional spiraling red, white and blue barber pole outside of my shop. She also promises to help me build a website where customers can book their appointments online so they don’t have to spend hours sitting in my shop, waiting for service. She recommended a chalkboard sign too of course but I had to draw a firm line in the sand at that suggestion.
After a while, my brain got tired from all her excited babbling but I couldn’t get her to shut up so I pinned her down with my weight and licked her pussy until the only word she could say was my name. Now, she’s here in my arms, lying next to me on my narrow bed, back rising and falling as the light from the street lamp spills across her smooth skin.
She makes everything better. She soothes all the rough edges.
I’m going to give her all the things she dreams of. I’m going to give her the world. Just you wait and see, Vivian.
Her hair is a sexy mess, all spread out on my pillow. I brush it off of her neck and place a kiss on her shoulder. “I love you…” I whisper into her ear.
And I swear, I see her smile.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vivian
I’m pretty sure it was the bacon that woke me up.
The gorgeous, greasy, mouth-watering smell of bacon wrapped in a subtle hint of maple. The soft sizzling sound that carries the promise of salty, fatty, breakfast bliss.
A smile crawls slowly across my lips as I inhale deeply and pull the covers back. I swing my legs over the side of Clinton’s sofa-bed and slowly rise up off of the mattress. Except when I sit up, it isn’t my muscular, tattooed lover I see standing by the stove.
It’s Lisa.
Yelping, I pull the blankets up over my breasts. She looks at me with her shoulders hunched all the way up to her ears. “Oh, did I wake you? I’m so sorry,” she whispers. Because whispering makes it all better after you’ve already woken someone up. “You were out like a light. I thought I could make some breakfast for the kids real fast and you’d never notice.”
I really don’t mean to be rude but this is just messed up, waking up to find my boyfriend’s landlord barefoot in his kitchen, helping herself to breakfast while I’m fully naked and smelling like sex. That’s just—no!
“Where’s Clinton?” I croak out, pushing dark tufts of messy hair from my face.
“Not too sure. Heard him jump on his bike a few minutes ago and I figured I’d come in here and use his stove while he was out. I wasn’t expecting to find you in here but you were sleeping so…”
I probably shouldn’t yell at her but she seems to have no sense that this—barging into someone’s apartment when they’re not around—might be improper.
“You can’t just come into a person’s place and start cooking whenever you feel like. It’s a complete invasion of privacy. What kind of landlord does that?” My gaze roams over her features and I think hard. I’m know her from somewhere. I’m sure of it.
She cocks a hip and chuffs incredulously. “Landlord? Clinton told you I’m his landlord?”
I blink a few times. “Yes, that’s what he told me…”
“So, I’m guessing he didn’t tell you who my children are to him?”
My lips tremble but I don’t have an answer for her.
Shaking her head, she turns back to the stove and flips the bacon angrily. “He is the most secretive motherfucker I’ve ever met,” she mutters in irritation under her breath. “If he’s embarrassed by me and these kids, he doesn’t need to be here. I don’t need him here.”
What the hell is she talking about?
A trillion questions are swirling in my head. But before I can commence my thorough cross-examination, the door opens and Clinton strides in with a carton of eggs in his hand. The smile slowly slides from his face when he sees Lisa standing at the stove.
“What are you doing here?” he snaps.
“I’m just getting some food for me and the kids.” She snatches the pan off of the stove, bacon sizzle and all. “Don’t worry. It won’t happen again. Now that I know I’m just your landlord. Nothing more.” She stomps out, slamming the door behind her. Bye bye, bacon…
Clinton’s attention turns to me as he sets the eggs on the counter. I’m already getting dressed.
“Are you okay?” he asks me.
I fasten the clasp of my bra and yank my shirt over my head. “What the hell is going on between you and that woman?”
He looks flustered which is totally out of character for him. “Nothing. Nothing’s going on between me and Lisa.”
I plant my hands on my hips. “So you’re telling me that she’s just your landlord? You’re sticking with that story?”
He takes a step closer. I match it with a step back. He pauses, jaw clenching, chest heaving in frustration. “Vivian…”
“I won’t have you lying to me, Clinton. I’ve asked you about her before and I let you give me the runaround but I won’t accept that anymore…” My eyes tingle with tears as I struggle with whether or not to add the next part. “…because I’m in love with you.”
His whole expression softens when I say the words. I’ve already laid myself bare to him physically, allowing him to have my body without protection. That may have been a stupid move but now, I’ve got to protect my heart. It’s the very least I can do.
He reaches to cup my cheek in his hand but I move out of his grasp. “Please…” His eyes beg me for understanding.
“You can say it’s none of my business. You can totally choose not to answer. But if you care about me at all, tell me the truth. What the hell is going on between the two of you?”
He sighs and rakes a tense hand through his hair. “I don’t want to talk about this. I can’t talk about this.”
“Fine.” I don’t waste one more second. I grab my coat and yank the sleeves up my arms. I am so done with this shady situation.
“Don’t go.” His words are pleading but his voice is a firm command.
I ignore him. Now, I’m roping my scarf around my neck.
“Vivian. Don’t you leave! Don’t!”
I slide my feet into my flat leather loafers and reach for the doorknob. I feel him come up behind me. His presence weighs down on my body. He grabs my arm and gently snatches my fingers off the handle. I’m trapped between the door and his hard chest.
I feel his restrained strength in each shaky breath that rattles his ribcage. All I want is to turn around and brush my lips across his skin, to drop to my knees and take his shaft in my mouth. All I want is for things between us to be good. But he’s keeping a secret and I’m not willing to be his fool just so I can have his arms around me as I fall asleep at night.
He drops his forehead to the door, his stomach pressed against my back. “I’m taking care of them. Okay?”
I struggle to turn around. “What do you mean, you’re taking care of them?” Pushing him back softly, I look up into his eyes, trying to read his expression.
He shrugs roughly, becoming more upset. “I don’t know. I pay the bills. I buy the food. That sort of thing.”
My eyes squint in confusion. “Why would you do that?” My stomach twists into a tight knot. “Wait—are those your kids? Are you the father of
Lisa’s babies?”
“No. God, no.”
“So, you’re having sex with her? That’s why you’re paying her way?”
“No, never! I’ve never had sex with her. You don’t honestly think I’m sleeping with Lisa. You know that I’m crazy about you. There is no other woman who could get me to look their way. I’m all about you Vivian.”
“I don’t know what to think. I mean—is she family?”
“Vivian, stop!”
I won’t. I need answers. “If they’re struggling, there are resources in the community to help them. There are places where Lisa could apply for work. They’re always hiring at the factory just off the highway. And there’s a farm in Reyfield that’s always looking for helpers. And if for whatever reason she can’t work, there’s a food bank at Pastor Becker’s chur—” My words cut off. That’s when I remember exactly who Lisa is.
I met her a few years ago when I was volunteering at the women’s shelter. She’d come after a stint in rehab to deal with a drug habit. She gave birth to a little girl. The sweetest baby. Lisa was having a hard time finding her footing so the Beckers allowed her to stay. They were convinced that she’d get herself together with a little more time and care. But then, she fell pregnant again and Pastor Becker was so disappointed in her. He started making arrangements to have her transferred to a facility that was more appropriate for women who were struggling with their addiction issues. That’s when she disappeared. I remember Blythe being devastated when it happened. She was inconsolable for days. But apparently things worked out relatively well for Lisa. Well enough that she has a home for her kids now.
“Fucking stop it, Vivian!” Clinton explodes. “Why are you doing this? Why are you asking all these damn questions? And making all these suggestions? And complicating things?”
The Blue Collar Bachelors Box Set: The Complete Blue Collar Bachelors Series Page 57
