by Cee Bowerman
“Hi,” Reba smiled at me and then looked down at her daughter. “Did you find a new recruit, Vada?”
“He’s my friend. I helped him fix a car and our hands are filthy. Look.” Vada let go of my hand and held both of hers up so her mom could appreciate her hard work.
“The dirtier your hands the harder you worked?” Reba questioned me with a smile.
“If you happen to get some on your face, you get bonus pay,” I deadpanned. Reba glanced down to see that Vada had engine grime on both cheeks, her forehead, and her nose. “She’s set for her first year of college at least. I’ll help her wash up.”
I took Vada’s hand and walked over to the kitchen sink. Once my hands were clean, I picked the little girl up and sat her on the counter beside the sink so I could work. We quickly got her hands clean and I wiped her face before she jumped down and headed back outside.
“Your kid is hilarious,” I told Reba as I took Bella out of Lena’s arms and then walked around the table to sit down.
“I don’t normally let them run the neighborhood alone at their age, but Lena assured me it was safe out here.”
“Yeah, it’s just family,” I shrugged as I looked down at the little girl in my arms. “Someday, these two will see it as their own personal playground. Did Finn go pick up dinner?”
“Yeah,” Lena nodded. “I need to run to the restroom. Will you two put the babies down for a quick nap?”
“Sure,” Reba answered as she watched Lena stand. Lena was having a rough day today with her leg and it was all I could do not to offer to carry her. “You holler if you need me and I’ll come running.”
“Will do,” Lena assured her as she adjusted her crutches under her arms.
Reba and I sat in silence as Lena made her way out of the kitchen toward the master bedroom.
“Come on,” I told her softly as I stood up from the table. “I’ll tell you where to put the little monsters for a recharge.”
Reba chuckled and stood up. I heard her following me as I crossed the living room toward the nursery. Once we were inside, I leaned over the side of the crib to lay Bella down. When I turned around, Reba was in the middle of the room looking around.
“Can you put him down or do you need me to take him?”
“Oh, he sleeps in here too?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “They share a crib. It’s how our mom did it with all of us and it seemed to work out okay.”
“Are all these pictures of your family?” Reba asked as she stood up from leaning over the crib.
We had decorated the kids’ nursery with pictures of our family, but especially pictures of their parents and grandparents that they would never get to meet. It was so easy to get lost in the memories the pictures held as I sat in the nursery rocking one or both babies to sleep.
“Yeah.” I smiled and walked toward a cluster of pictures on one wall. I pointed out the different members of our family and laughed with Reba at the story behind some of the funnier pictures.
“What was it like to grow up with so many siblings?”
“We fought like cats and dogs most of the time, but if someone crossed one of us, they got the whole group after them.”
“My kids do that. They can’t seem to stand each other, but when one of them is in trouble, they band together.”
“That sounds about right,” I chuckled.
“They need to be close just in case my ex or his family ever gets their hands on them,” Reba said sadly as we walked down the hall. “I didn’t realize it when I was younger or when we first got married, but they take dysfunction to another level.”
“That bad, huh?” I was curious about Reba’s ex, especially after Vada’s comments earlier.
“Oh, yeah,” Reba laughed bitterly. “His poor dad is a doormat who has just given up on life. He has resigned himself to leave his wife in charge of his life. She thinks her baby boy can do no wrong and I’m the evil bitch who took his kids away for no reason.”
“But there was a reason?”
“Oh, yeah,” Reba nodded. “I had some reasons. Anyway, enough about me. Thank you for letting Vada help you. I’m sure whatever you were doing probably could have gotten done a lot quicker without her input.”
“Nah, she helped. I promise. If nothing else, she made it entertaining.”
“Well, thank you again,” Reba sat down in her seat at the table and reached for her tea glass. “It’s funny that you mentioned my ex in-laws since when I drove past my house earlier they were parked in my driveway.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I decided to drive past and figure out something else to do until they gave up when Finn called about Lena.”
“How will you know if they’re gone?”
“I called my aunt and uncle and they went over to the house to run them off,” Reba laughed. “My Aunt Sandy is not a woman anyone should tangle with and that includes my ex mother-in-law.”
“She’s why you moved here instead of your hometown?”
“Yeah,” Reba smiled. “My aunt and uncle are great and I’m close to my cousins, too, so I’m not totally without family.”
“That’s good. I can’t imagine not having any family to fall back on.”
“Food’s here!” Finn yelled from the front door. “I found some vagrants on my front porch and they’re coming in to eat with us.”
“What’s a vagrant?” I heard Vada ask my brother. I smiled as I watched Finn come inside followed by Reba’s kids. While he explained what a vagrant was and answered at least five more questions, I got out plates and napkins for the pizza.
“What do they drink?” I asked Reba as she put the plates around the table.
“Water is fine,” Reba smiled. “No ice though. They’re weird like that.”
“Who’s weird?” I heard Vada ask as I turned toward the sink. “Cyrus, huh?”
“You’re weird,” Cyrus grumbled.
“And both of you will get nothing but crusts if I hear another word,” Reba said firmly. I glanced over my shoulder and saw her staring at both kids and could see just how hard the kids were working to keep their mouths closed.
I wiped the smile off my face before I turned around from the sink, laughing to myself when I realized I’d seen that same look from my mom a million times as a kid. When I put Vada’s glass down in front of her, I leaned down and whispered in her ear.
“Word.”
It was hard for her to hold back a smile as she rolled her eyes, but she managed.
4.
“Can I take a bath with you?”
Mace
REBA
“Thank you so much for your help, Aunt Sandy.” I flopped down onto the couch, exhausted after my long day and the stress from this evening.
Even though I had spent the afternoon and evening after work at Lena’s house and enjoyed dinner with her and her family, my ex mother-in-law’s appearance at my house had been right there in the forefront of my mind, pulling me down.
Mace had helped with that, though, making me laugh more than once over dinner and amazing me with his easy rapport with my kids.
“I don’t know for sure that we got our bluff in this time, baby.” Aunt Sandy sounded worried and that worried me. “She insisted that she needed to talk to you. She said that Travis was out of jail again and no one had seen him in weeks.”
“Ugh,” I groaned. Travis had been in and out of jail since I’d left him. He’d been picked up for public intoxication a few times and possession more than once. He had spent at least half of the five years we’d been divorced in jail for one thing or another. “Why does she think that’s my problem?”
Since we split, Ellen had blamed me for Travis’s downhill spiral into drugs and alcohol. She insisted that if I had stayed with him and supported him like a good wife should that he would have never let his addiction take over his life.
I had supported him. I had tried to get him help and help him myself. And I’d done that while finishing school, going through
two pregnancies, and raising our children. When Travis was home and sober, our lives were great. He was a good father, a great friend, and a wonderful husband. But then he would spiral out of control and stay drunk and high for days at a time, leaving me alone and worried.
The final straw was his neglect of our babies. I finally took the blinders off and left him knowing that it wasn’t going to get any better. It was my job to protect our children from him and his lifestyle choices.
“You know her,” Sandy huffed. “It’s never Trav’s fault or hers for enabling him. It’s gotta be someone else’s and she’s chosen you as the winner of that contest.”
“So you’re sure she’s going to show back up, huh?”
“Yeah,” Sandy said sadly. “But I’ve talked to your Uncle Tink and he’s called in a few favors. We’ve got someone watching you and your house for a while, just in case she does something or Travis shows up.”
“I don’t even know for sure that Travis has our address,” I laughed bitterly. “The last contact I had with him was when I received the signed divorce papers and I’ve moved since then.”
“I would guess his mama passed that information along, honey.”
“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out, but I don’t think we need protection from any of Uncle Tink’s friends.”
“I do and so does your uncle.”
“Okay.” I smiled to myself. Aunt Sandy was not one to mess with. If she had her mind made up, it was just easier to let her have her way. “I’m so lucky to have you, Aunt Sandy.”
“We’re lucky to have you, sweetheart.” I could hear the smile in Sandy’s voice. “Your uncle says to be safe. You try not to worry, but keep your eyes open when you’re out and about in town, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am. I love you.”
“I love you too, honey,” Sandy said before she hung up the phone.
I let my head flop back onto the back of the couch. I did not want to have a run in with Ellen and I damn sure didn’t want to see Travis.
I had loved that man with all my heart. He was my best friend for years and we’d grown into adulthood together. We’d scraped by with very little money through college and then we’d lived it up when his NFL contract came in. And then, because of his bad choices and his addictions, he’d almost dragged me and our children down into poverty again.
Ellen had quite a bit of money and I couldn’t really figure out where it came from. Her husband worked a factory job and she was a bookkeeper for a paper company in our hometown. They lived in a very nice house and drove cars that seemed to be well beyond their means.
Any time Travis had asked for something, whether it was new shoes or a new vehicle, he’d received it within just a few days. She’d helped me when Travis asked her for something specific and showered me with gifts when I got pregnant with Cyrus and then Vada.
I knew that there would be hard feelings between me and Ellen when I left Travis, but I had no idea she’d abandon her grandchildren in favor of their father. I’d also not realized the lengths she’d go to trying to manipulate me into getting back with him.
One morning, about a month after I’d moved to Rojo, I woke up to take the kids to daycare and head off to work only to find that she’d had a towing company come and take our car. The car was in her name and not Travis’s, but I’d never even thought about it since I’d been driving the vehicle and paying the insurance for years.
Luckily, my uncle was a mechanic and he had contacts all over town. Within just a few days he’d found me a good, reliable car and he and Aunt Sandy had helped me buy it. Aunt Sandy had insisted that the car be listed in her name because she didn’t trust that Ellen and Travis wouldn’t try to get their hands on it somehow.
And, of course, Aunt Sandy had been right. In our divorce, Travis’s lawyer had asked that I sell my car so that the money could be split between us. Thankfully, I’d followed Aunt Sandy’s advice and left the car in her name so Travis couldn’t get his hands on it.
But he’d tried. Probably with encouragement from Ellen.
The five years we’d been apart had wiped away all the love I had for Travis when we were married. He’d never once tried to contact his children and only called me when he was drunk and emotional. I’d blocked his number, not willing to listen to him cry about how I’d ruined his life when he was the one that had done exactly that.
Ellen showed up now and then, usually about twice a year. Every time she did, Aunt Sandy had run her off. My Uncle Tink had hit a gold mine when he married that woman. We all knew she was a force to be reckoned with. I was lucky to have her on my side and Ellen was very unlucky to have crossed her more than once in the last five years.
My phone rang in my hand and I jumped and tossed it into the air. Once I’d scrambled to catch it, I glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was my cousin. I flipped it open and heard his laughing voice on the other end of the line.
“Good catch, sis,” Sonny laughed at me.
I glanced around the room wondering how he knew what had happened.
“I’m on your porch and you need to close your curtains.”
My eyes shot over to the picture window and I saw his face in the gap between the curtain panels. I snapped my phone closed and hopped up to open the door. He walked into my living room along with another man and pulled me into a big hug.
“Hi, kiddo,” Sonny laughed as he squeezed me tight. “Aunt Sandy called and told me about your mother-in-law. I assured her that I’d have eyes on you and the kids for a while until we know she’s really gone.”
“Ex mother-in-law,” I growled, but smiled up at him as he let me go. “I don’t know that we need someone watching us day and night, but maybe just drive by occasionally to check in?”
“No,” Sonny shook his head. “You’re only a few blocks from me and one of my brothers from the club lives just up the street from you, but I want to make damn sure no funny business happens while you’re asleep. I brought Jace Duke over to make sure of that.”
I glanced at the man who’d walked in with my cousin and smiled.
“Reba,” Jace nodded.
“Guys, I don’t think all this is necessary.”
“Let me have one of my brothers look into things and see if we can find out where Travis is and what’s going on in his life. Until then, Jace or one of the other guys from the Kings or the Knights is going to be your companion until you get the kids dropped off at school and you walk into work. Someone will be back in the afternoon when you leave work and so on.” Sonny put his hand up when he realized I was about to argue with him. “Aunt Sandy requested this and I don’t have a death wish or the balls to try and go against her. Neither do you.”
I laughed and shook my head at Sonny’s words, but realized he was right. It wasn’t healthy to go up against Aunt Sandy when she had an idea in her head.
“Okay, but I’m going to make up the couch for you,” I smiled. “And don’t give me some shit about how he needs to stay awake and stand guard, Sonny. The couch is right between the front and the back door, so if something happened he’d be the first to know.”
“Okay,” Sonny shook his head and then glared at the other man. “Don’t get too comfortable.”
“I won’t,” Jace smiled. “I’m a night owl anyway. I brought a book to read.”
“That works,” Sonny nodded. “Call me if you need me. I’m not far away.”
“Will do,” I smiled. Sonny gave me a hug and then shook Jace’s hand before he walked out the front door. Jace walked behind him and threw the deadbolt as soon as the door was shut firmly. “Have you eaten? Would you like a snack? How about a drink?”
I’d never had a protection detail before and wasn’t sure how all of this went. I’d known Jace forever, although not well at all, and honestly I did feel a little better knowing he would be in the house with us.
“I’m fine,” Jace smiled. “I’ll just grab a glass of water if I get thirsty. I’m going to sit over here and start on my book. It’s the
second one in the series and I’m anxious to see what's going to happen.”
“You sure you don’t need me to get the couch ready for you?”
“No,” he shook his head. “If I do nap, I’d prefer the recliner anyway.”
“Well, okay,” I looked around the living room, a little unsure how to proceed with him in my house.
My phone rang again and this time I managed to keep it in my hands. I glanced down and saw that it was Mace.
“I’ll take this in my room,” I told him. Jace smiled at me as he used the crank to pull up the leg rest on the chair next to my couch. “Good night.”
“Night.”
I flipped my phone open and put it to my ear as I walked across the living room toward my bedroom.
“Hello.”
“Did I catch you in the bath again?” Mace asked hopefully.
“Not yet,” I smiled as I walked into my bedroom, making sure to close the door behind me. “I was just about to start my water.”
“Can I take a bath with you?”
“Sure,” Reba laughed. “I suppose you can.”
◆◆◆
MACE
I glanced around the living room of my little sister’s house and was impressed with the progress I’d made. After Reba and her kids left Finn’s house, I’d come back over to Greer’s to pack some more of her things. The pile of stuff for donation was huge, but there was a stack of boxes full of things I didn’t want to part with.
The boxes had pictures, albums, knick knacks and other items from the shelves that I knew had meant something special to Greer. I had a separate box of stuff that held items I’d given Greer, just a few little things that I wanted to keep in my house to help remind me of her.
It hadn’t been as difficult as I’d thought it would be, going through her things. There had been a few moments where the grief had just crashed into me like a wave, but those only seemed to happen when I came across something sentimental that had a memory connected with my sister.
