Irons 3

by Mj Fields

  “I know, Angel-”

  “No, you don’t know. If you did, you’d know that you can’t do anything. No one can do anything that would ever make me not want the most amazing man, you, Jax, to have fallen in love with a girl, no matter what her age, that has loved him forever.”

  I feel him beneath me and smile. “Add to that the most incredible sex life, and-”

  He flips me on my back and pulls himself free, shoves my pajama shorts to the side and slowly enters me. “Incredible.”

  I MESSAGED COLONEL SMITH TO let him know that the first two days here at the cabin it would just be my family and myself. Frankie messaged her friends the same thing. We needed this time to relax, enjoy and let Lily know that she was, in fact, a priority. Something simple, but meaningful.

  The first night she picked out her room, and it was the one that was once William’s. It would always be hard, losing someone who brought so much into your life, much more than I ever realized until I lost him. Frankie, Lily, Rosa and William, Senior would never doubt that they were my priority.

  It rained that night, so we played board games that Rosa had brought along. Battleship became Lily’s favorite and she never caught on that I kept asking for the same coordinates over and over, because if anyone needed a win, she did. She needed seven years of wins.

  Frankie and Rosa both fell asleep with her, and I didn’t wake them. Seeing three generations of women sleeping in the bed of someone they loved, and who loved them, was touching to say the least.

  When I woke to Frankie throwing up, I held her hair, rubbed her back, and sat with her. How someone could smile after that and truly seem delighted in the fact that she was getting sick should have been a concern, but it wasn’t because I was just as happy as she was that we would have a child someday soon to add to our rapidly growing family.

  On the second night the weather cooperated and we had a campfire and made s’mores.

  “They’re so good,” she smiles as she sits between Frankie and I, licking her sticky little fingers.

  I look up and see her look in wonder at the sky.

  “They’re beautiful,” she says, pointing to them.

  “Fireflies,” I tell her.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Would you like to catch one?”

  “Won’t that hurt them?”

  “No, we just have to be careful.”

  Rosa went inside and grabbed a jar with a lid while Frankie, Lily and I ran around laughing, trying to catch the damn things.

  Lily was the first one who does. I cup my hands around hers.

  “Don’t squeeze because you’ll squish them,” I tell her.

  “Okay,” she says with her voice full of the wonder a child feels when they do something extraordinary for the very first time.

  “You ready?” Frankie asks as she holds out the jar in one hand, the cap in the other.

  “Yes,” she says, smiling.

  When she releases the bug, Frankie quickly caps it and we sit it on the wooden picnic table and wait.

  “Did we kill it?” she whispers.

  “No, give it a minute,” I whisper back.

  “Are you sure?” she asks seconds later.

  Before I have a chance to respond, the greenish-yellow light shines in the glass jar and she giggles. It’s contagious because we are all laughing.

  “It’s wonderful, beautiful, it’s… alone. We need more bugs Daddy Jax, can we get them?”

  My heart stops for only a few seconds. “Yeah we can, we can catch as many as you want. How many do you want, Lily? Ten, twenty, a hundred?”

  Frankie laughs at the way I react, but it’s soft and loving and she knows exactly how I am feeling.

  We run around like fools, well I hop, they run, and we fill the jar with at least twenty more before she finally seems satisfied.

  She is grinning from ear to ear as she carries her fireflies, in their jar, into the house, up the stairs and to her room, where she sits it on the nightstand while she brushes her teeth and washes her face before bed.

  Frankie grabs a book and Lily has the jar on her chest, staring at it. Her eyes grow sleepy and she looks at me and yawns while she says, “Daddy Jax, do you think they like it in here?”

  “I think they like to make you happy.”

  “But do you think they will die if they stay in here? I had a caterpillar once and he didn’t live very long.”

  “I really don’t know for sure.”

  “Well, I think we should let them go.”

  “Now?” I ask.

  “No, when I fall asleep.”

  “Okay. I will do that then.”

  “Thank you.”

  After she is asleep, Frankie and I decide to finally watch the interview we had almost completely forgotten about.

  ‘Jonathon Irons has now been gone for two weeks. The future of the Republican Party and its race to win the Governorship for the state of Virginia, has been a question many have been pondering. When we caught up with Jaxson Irons, outside of the cemetery the day his father, Jonathan, was buried, he didn’t have any answers for us. We turned to Arthur Deveroux for information after his daughter Mimi was laid to rest, he also declined comment. Two devastating losses in such a small circle. Until two days ago, we hadn’t heard anything. We caught up with Arthur who told us that he was waiting to hear from his constituents and the family of Jonathon Irons to make a statement. A few hours later, he gave a statement.’

  Arthur appears on screen. ‘Jonathon’s wife, Helen, wants you all to know that she trusts in her husband’s judgment and his vision for the great state of Virginia. She is grieving the tragic loss of her husband and waiting for more information about the events that led up to the accident that killed him, and their long time housekeeper. She has asked that I do my best to continue leading the party in the direction Jonathon wanted it to go in while I try to help my wife and I get through the loss of our daughter, Mimi. Mimi was proud to be part of the campaign; she and Jonathon’s son both supported us. We will get through this, all of us, together, but it will take some time.’

  ‘Will you be considering a run for governor?’ Maria asks him on the split screen.

  ‘I am waiting to see what the people of this great state want. If they believe in what Jonathon and I wanted, I want to give that to them.’

  ‘Who would you consider as a running partner, as your lieutenant governor?’

  ‘I really have no idea right now. I haven’t had a chance to think about it.’

  ‘How about Jaxson Irons? He seems like the obvious choice to fill his father’s shoes.’

  Arthur nods, ‘I’m not really sure. Again, I would like the people to decide.’

  The screen goes fully to Maria, ‘I tried to contact Jaxson Irons to see what he had to say. To see if he would consider throwing his hat in, picking up where his father left off that same day. Our camera crew found him coming out of a hotel with his new wife, her parents, and a little girl.’

  The video clip of us getting into the vehicle comes on.

  ‘Further investigations uncovered that the little girl was the daughter of Mimi Deveroux and Jaxson Irons’ best friend, his wife’s brother; a child, who, until recently, was not known about by the Cruz family. Even further investigation uncovered that Jaxson and Francesca Irons adopted the child with no contest from the adoptive parents or the Deverouxes.

  ‘Jaxson Irons and his wife finally allowed me to sit down with them, in their home. Neither the Cruz family, nor Jaxson, knew that the child ever existed but when they did, they took immediate action to gain custody. I reached out again to Deveroux for comment and he explained that he, too, was unaware, and admitted his daughter had gone away and hid her pregnancy from them. She had mental health issues and he didn’t realize how serious they were. He felt it best to allow the Cruz family to have full custody of the child but wants to have the chance to get to know her someday when she is older and has been given the opportunity to be raised by a family who
is young and will be able to give her a stable life.’

  ‘After speaking with Deveroux, he further informed me that his wife also had some minor mental health concerns and he thought, after the loss of their daughter, this would push her into a manic state. After the tragic loss of his daughter, he began questioning some of the same behaviors in his wife. He has full-time assistance for her and knows she will regain her health if given the opportunity to heal from the loss of her daughter.’

  ‘I spoke to Jaxson again and hold onto your hats folks, he stated he would love nothing more than for his father’s best friend and political ally to run. Colonel Smith smiled when asked. ‘I’ve dedicated my entire adulthood to this country. If Jaxson believes in me and wants to come along on this ride, I’d give up retirement to further serve my country.’

  ‘So, people of Virginia, I want to know what you have to say. Who do you want to see on the ballot in November? Go online and vote now.’

  I look at Frankie and she is already grabbing her phone to check out the poll. She smiles, “Team Irons is ahead by thirty percent.”

  “Team Irons isn’t running, Team Smith is-”

  “Tied with Deveroux,” Frankie groans

  “What the hell is she doing?”

  ~*~

  The next few days were insane. Strategy, planning, and watching my name rise in that damn poll Maria had put up.

  Smith’s wife, Lily, and Rosa took turns teaching Frankie how to cook, and Lily brought cookie after cookie, pie after pie, crepe after crepe out to us.

  Frankie tried her best to stay awake with us as we strategized after Lily’s bedtime, but she was exhausted. Rosa and I let her fall asleep with Lily almost every night. It was a victory if she stayed in bed. I was very worried about her.

  The days that it isn’t raining are spent outside; Lily loves it. Fishing, running, skipping, jumping, bugs seem of great interest to her, and I love that she doesn’t get freaked out by them, neither does my wife.

  By the time everyone heads home, I have convinced both Smith and Maria that I missed many years of family vacations and so did Lily. I would be taking it easy over the next four years and lieutenant governor was more than enough for me. When they tried convincing me otherwise, I reminded them where I planned to end up, Pennsylvania Ave., not Capitol Square.

  When the news was ‘leaked’, by none other than Maria Sanchez, that Smith and I were, in fact, asking for our party’s backing for the gubernatorial election, my phone blew up. I ignored it until we headed back to Norfolk.

  Over the next few weeks I made sure that all the men, Russ, Johnny, and Odin were twenty four seven. Mother declined comment until she realized she would not get within three hundred feet of my family. She reached out to Maria Sanchez after many attempts to contact me, and gave her support to her husband’s best friend and her son.

  Smith took the majority of the calls, allowing me to spend the days with my family, and evenings on the phone talking to lobbyists and politically powerful men and women.

  We received so much support outside of father’s inner circle that the circle had little choice but to announce us as their chosen candidates.

  By the beginning of August, Lily was being tutored. We decided against sending her to school until January, when we would possibly be residing in the capital, Richmond.

  We had dinner at least three times a week with Laurie and Calee. Lily adored her little sister, and so did we.

  ~*~

  “Hello, Mother,” I said as I finally decided to answer her call after nearly a month.

  “Jaxson.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “At this point, there is little I can do for you,” she says in a tone that is far more sarcastic than defeated, which I had hoped for.

  “I’m a grown man. I really don’t need your protection, nor do I wish to be in the pockets of the men you seem to think could bring me down.”

  “You are in bed with them now. And you have them chasing their tails. They feel cornered; do you know what happens to men who lose control?”

  “Well, no Mother, I don’t. Having not been in the position myself, it’s even hard for me to imagine.”

  “You fear nothing, Jaxson, that is not always the best defense, you know,” her voice carries a cautionary attitude.

  “You should be proud to know I prefer playing offense, leading not following, is that not what you wanted for me? Is that not who you raised me to become?”

  “I am very proud of the man you are becoming-”

  “You should be proud of the man I have always been.”

  “I am going to ask you this once, don’t push Arthur out of this circle. He can be and always will be ,a great ally to this family.”

  “This family, Mother, consists of my wife and daughter, a child on the way, a niece and a whole lot more. Arthur took Lily away from it all. “

  “He had no choice, he did it to protect your future. The tape-”

  “Means nothing except I carried a girl who had too much to drink to bed.”

  “She was pregnant, the evidence was stacked against you.”

  “Asking me back then, drugged, drunk or otherwise, would have caused me to speak to my best friend about the situation. William would have told me it may have been his.”

  “If you believe that, you are fooling yourself. He would have never admitted to you that he had slept with a girl you did-”

  “News-flash, Mother, there were many women William and I both slept with.”

  I look up and see Frankie catching the tail end of the conversation and she shakes her head, rolls her eyes, and walks out the door.

  “He would have told me, and he would have been able to raise his daughter-”

  “And ruin his promising career? You give people too much credit.”

  “You certainly don’t,” I laugh out loud. “Hell, you sit in your little corner, amongst conspiracy theories and Bibles that talk about families who run the world, spending so much time playing defense that you have never really lived, have you?”

  She doesn’t say anything.

  “I’m going now, good chat.”

  “Jaxson, if you believe that, then why give me nothing to hope for?”

  “You’ve made your bed, Mother, and lost your shit when you realized that you couldn’t make mine. So lie in it.”

  “I gave you my support, do the same for me,” she cries into the phone.

  “I don’t trust you one damn bit.”

  “Then let me,” she pauses and I hear her breathing become erratic, “I have lived for you, for my son. Don’t take that away from me. Let me change.”

  “Permission granted, change away; is that what you needed?”

  “You’re being cruel.”

  “You’re asking too much. Walk the walk, Mother. I have to go.”

  After I end the call, I look up to see Frankie.

  “Eventually, you may have to let her in,” she smiles.

  “When she proves she is capable of being human, maybe. Then her every move will be under scrutiny and surveillance.”

  I AM A WIFE, A mother, a daughter, an aunt, a sister, and a student. Jaxson’s breakdown a couple months ago is evidence that he still, at times, feels he has robbed me of my youth and a chance at happiness. I know that fear. I also know that pain leaves him when he sees how happy I am. And I am happy all the time.

  It is October and Jaxson is a cast-free civilian. He is unbroken and unbreakable.

  Lily and I have started our own little scrapbooks. One is about who she is and who she wants to become, the other is baby and our immediate family wishes and dreams: our home, our vacations, our everything. She is a dreamer, and she gets that from me. The woman she calls Mama.

  At night, after Lily is in bed, I watch them all working together, our Norfolk beach pad has become an after-hours party spot, of the Republican nature.

  Renee, Mary, Smith, Mrs. Smith, as Jax calls her, Maria, Odin, Johnny, Russ, my parents and I are one
hell of a team.

  We females, Jax, and Smith have built a social media circle that grows by leaps and bounds. POTUS is even following us on Twitter. Each of us have a different reach. We interact three times a week. Maria’s master plan is taking the election to the people, reaching them where they’re most comfortable. We are not only hitting one party, which is kind of Jax’s dream, making politics about the people, not well… politics.

  The behind-the-scenes team of intimidating men keeps us well informed about any threats. I don’t hear about any of them, Jax ensures me that we are now in the light, shining, and it takes balls to attack in the light. The men who they watch, the ones Jonathon’s ‘Bible’ speaks about are entitled, old money, who seek power and prey on the weak.

  ‘We are not weak, they join us in support or they crawl back in the hole they came from, waiting for the next man who needs a set of balls and a backbone, fucking jellyfish,’ Jax said on the night he read all that Jonathon had left him with.

  Sex is hotter than ever. Jaxson’s confidence restored almost fully is hot as hell and I can’t seem to control my urges. I blame it on the bump on my belly.

  Jaxson watches the news every morning, afternoon, and evening. He has alerts on his phone, updating him about the war in the Middle East, or conflict as the media likes to call it. I tell him if he Google’s Isis one more time it’s going to raise a flag and Homeland Security is going to bust down the doors and take him away.

  “They’d have to get through Johnny and Russ first, and then me.”

  That statement said in the way Jax says it, ends with me in the bathroom bent over the counter or against the bathroom wall.

  We have Skyped with Shadows and Titan every couple weeks. They look tired. But Jax assures me they look strong. I know my worry burdens him, so I try not to let it show.

  They have already sent in their absentee ballots and we can’t wait to celebrate with him when they come home around ‘Turkey Time’.

  Mary is kept in the loop: however I think she is more informed than we are. Renee and Mary’s new living arrangement kind of floored me, but who the hell am I to judge?