by Freya Barker
The next door is also open and reveals a filthy bathroom. Empty, at first glance, but then I hear the faint ringing of a phone. It’s coming from the vanity underneath the sink, and I know I’ve found the younger boy when I crouch down and carefully open the cupboard. Sam is inside; his body curled into a tight ball, wedged between the side and a pile of old towels and cleaning products. Sam is small for his age and his head is tucked down, one arm covering the back of his head, a ringing phone clutched in his little fist.
“Sam?” I say as gently as I can make my voice go. “My name is Pam, remember me? I’m a friend of your mom. He’s gone, honey. He’s gone and your momma is here.”
Carefully I put a hand in the middle of his back and I feel him shift at my touch. I don’t expect to be knocked back on my ass as his little body comes flying from the cupboard and latches itself around mine. His arms are so tight around my neck, they’re threatening to cut off my air, as his legs wrap themselves around my waist. He’s clinging on to me like a little monkey, while I’m sitting on my ass on a less than hygienic floor, my back pressed against the wall.
“Oh, honey, it’s okay. It’s all gonna be okay,” I coo, stroking his sweaty hair as he sobs quietly with his face pressed in my neck. He freaks out when the phone starts ringing again, and I take it from his hand, pulling him close against me with my other arm. A quick look at the screen shows; Gina calling.
Say what?
“Gina?” I answer quickly, trying to figure out how the hell Dino’s daughter would be mixed up with this. Because there’s not a doubt in my mind that’s who is calling; I don’t believe in coincidence.
“Christ, woman,” I hear Dino’s deep bark instead. “The fuck are you doing answering that phone?”
-
I stood on the doorstep as the ambulance drove off with Benji and Sarah, Marianne following right behind in my car, with Sam buckled in beside her for the short trip to the hospital. Benji had managed to tuck his brother in the vanity with his phone, right before Phil had broken down the door and pulled Benji into the hallway. He’d been enraged, and by the boy’s own account, he’d endured the beating, staying mum about his mother’s whereabouts, in an attempt to protect her and his little brother, who’d heard the whole thing. The cops had barged in just as the bastard was slamming Benji’s head into the tile kitchen floor. He’d still been conscious and talking when the cops managed to subdue Phil and marched him outside. Still, because of the state of his face, an obvious broken arm, and the possibility of a head injury, the EMTs had loaded him up. Sam had still been clinging to me when I promised Sarah I’d look after things here, but the boy had been so distressed at the sight of his mother and brother heading to the ambulance, Marianne had offered to take him.
I turn back inside, where a familiar face had joined the responding officers. Detective Barnes had walked in, just as I was coming out of the bathroom with Sam, and had torn into the officers on the scene for not doing a better search of the place.
“Ms. Brunard, we meet again,” he says sardonically, as he looks me up and down. “I hope you’re alright?”
“We got here after you guys,” I assure him. “Trust me, had I gotten here before, it would be that motherfucker you’d need to be worried about.” He chuckles a little as he waves to a chair, indicating I sit down. To be honest, my knees feel a little wobbly suddenly and I sit down heavily. He’s not the only one who was worried about my well-being. Dino had just about blown a gasket when I told him why I was there. I gave him a quick synopsis of events and made him promise to stay with his daughter, who sounded very distraught at the news Benji had gotten hurt. I vowed I’d pop in and show him my face the moment I could get away, to keep him from rushing over. From what little I’ve been able to gather, Gina and Benji go to the same school and got to talking a couple of weeks ago. Maybe Dino can find out a bit more.
“What can you tell me?” Barnes asks me and I give him the sequence of events as I know them. I limit myself to telling him the boys’ mother and the asswipe have a history that caused her to run and hide from him earlier this year, and that she and the kids ended up at Florence House briefly. It’s up to Sarah to fill in the specifics, since I’ll only admit to our connection and my personal involvement this morning.
“Fair enough,” the detective concedes, after trying a few times to get me to give him more. “I’m heading over to the hospital to check on the boy—do you need a ride?”
“Actually, I think I should throw some necessities together for Sarah and the kids first. I have a feeling they’ll likely be staying the night there.”
A bag packed with whatever I thought they might need in my hand, I follow the detective to his car. The moment I sit back against the seat, I realize with a pang of guilt, I’ve not thought of Derrick once since rushing from Florence House much earlier today.
Dino
There hasn’t been a damn second this entire fucked up day I haven’t had Pam on my mind. When she finally walks in the kitchen at The Skipper, close to ten o’clock at night, I feel I can finally take a proper breath. She looks like shit; her eyes red-rimmed and dull, her features creased with fatigue, and her proud shoulders slumped with the weight of the world. She comes in, ignores Viv, who is giving me a hand cleaning up, and walks straight into my arms, leaning her full weight against me. I catch Viv’s worried eyes over her shoulder, who tilts her head in the direction of the exit.
“Go home,” she mouths for good measure, as I stroke my hand up and down Pam’s spine. I shift her body so I can push her down in a chair and grab my coat.
“Let’s go, Biscuit,” I tell Pam. “We’re going home.”
“Where’s Gina?” she asks, her voice sounding as tired as she looks. Fuck me. I almost forgot about my daughter upstairs.
“I’ll go get them,” Viv interjects quickly, hurrying out of the kitchen. She’d tried to get some more information from Gina when she’d gone to check on Francessca but hadn’t made any headway. Whatever is going on in my little girl’s head is locked up tight.
I’m forcing some food on Pam when she’s back just a couple of minutes later, with her daughter in her arms, and mine following closely behind. Gina stops in front of Pam, the worry of the day still on her face.
“Is he gonna be okay?” Her voice sounds so small, so childlike, it makes me want to wrap her up and keep her from all the fucked up mess that seems to have become part of her young life. She’d finally opened up earlier, she and Benji had become friends not that long ago. He’s a year older and a grade up from her, but had got to talking at lunch break one day. Or so she says—I have a feeling there’s something she’s hiding from me still, but nothing she’s willing to part with at this point.
“Yes, he is, honey,” Pam answers her as she stands, taking my daughter’s face in her hands. “He’ll be just fine, he just needs a night or two in the hospital to get back on his feet.”
“And Sammie?” For the first time since she walked in here, I see a smile pull at the corners of Pam’s mouth.
“He never touched him, baby. Benji did a great job looking after his brother.” Gina nods, swallowing hard as she tries to smile back at Pam. It’s a change from the almost hostile attitude she’d been throwing around Pam.
“Let’s get home,” I announce, tucking my daughter to my side and grabbing Pam’s hand with the other.
I’ve got two women in my life, who are my world—I’d better start taking care of them both.
-
“She’s asleep,” I tell Pam when I get back downstairs.
It’s not often that I tuck my kids in anymore, both are much too old, but tonight I felt the need. Jonas may not have been in bed yet, he’d been at his desk, but he didn’t object when I gave his shoulder a squeeze and kissed the top of his head. “Love you, Son.”
“Love you too, Dad.”
My step was decidedly lighter as I headed back down to where I left Pam on the couch with a glass of wine. She’d asked I drop her off at Floren
ce House, where Marianne apparently had taken her car, but I refused. I didn’t care Gina could hear everything from the backseat, and told Pam I needed her to let me take care of her. She didn’t object, but put her head against the headrest, her eyes fixed on me as I drove us home.
“Poor thing,” Pam says as she watches me approach. “She must’ve been exhausted.”
“I’m still not sure what’s going on with her, but at least I recognized my girl today,” I admit, sinking down in the couch beside her.
“Why did you want me to come back here?” she asks, as I tuck her into my shoulder, propping my feet up on the coffee table. I look down into her upturned face.
“Because I’ve missed you,” I tell her honestly. “Because, especially after today, I don’t want to miss out on any opportunity to look after the people I care about most. I’ve been too lax on that front and I know it.”
“Mmmm. Not sure if I agree,” she mumbles with her lips pressed to my neck. “At least not the last part. I’m grateful for the rest. Happy you’d consider me part of that group because I care about you, too.” I shift a little so I can look her in the eyes. I like what I see there.
“We seem to roll from one drama into another, but I have to tell you; if at the end I have you tucked close like this, you won’t hear me complaining. Much,” I add with a wink.
Pam’s hand comes up and strokes along my jaw. “I’m not complaining either,” she says, her eyes conveying what she’s not saying. I pluck her hand from my face and use it to pull her up with me. She follows me quietly upstairs.
“I love your body,” she mutters later, when she walks out of a quick shower, a towel wrapped around her torso, and finds me fully dressed in bed, my arms folded behind my head. I try not to chuckle, I know my body is no longer hard like a younger man’s. Sure, I’ve still got some shape to my chest and shoulders, but my middle has gone soft and the hair on my chest is going gray. I’m not a pretty boy, by any stretch of the imagination, but I like that she digs my body nonetheless.
Especially when she crawls up between my legs and starts pulling off my socks, making her intentions clear as she crawls up my body. Her moves are sure as she unbuttons the fly on my jeans, and I helpfully lift my ass off the bed as she pulls jeans and boxers down at once. My cock, already wide awake at the sight of her long legs teasing me from under the towel, slaps against my belly. I make quick work of my shirt as she drops my jeans on the floor, along with the towel that was covering her.
She’s not shy as she climbs over me, her ample breasts swaying hypnotically. Pam is all woman, with her dark skin, smooth as a good chocolate ganache, and her softened curves rich with age and experience.
“I love your body, too,” I mumble, just before she closes her full lips over mine for a long, languid kiss, slowly destroying my restraint. My hands come up, curve around the soft globes of her ass and pull her down to where my cock lies flat against my stomach.
“Na-ah.” Her lips curve in a smile against mine, before she pulls away completely. “I believe I owe you an outstanding Christmas present.” I growl low in my throat. That damn sultry tease from a couple of days ago has had my imagination working overtime. The promise of her beautiful mouth wrapped around my cock too tempting.
The reality, as she slides down, her ass up in the air as her lips skim my chest and stomach on her way down, is so fucking much better. Already I feel my balls starting to draw up tight and I frantically start ticking off baseball stats of the Red Sox roster in my head before I blow prematurely. Her tongue, much pinker than her lips, peeks out between and curves around the crown. All the skin of my body tightens instantly at her touch, creating goosebumps everywhere. When she flattens her tongue and sweeps it across the bead forming on the small slit at my tip, I can’t hold back the deep groan that seems to come from my toes.
With strong hands behind my knees, she opens me up and spreads me wide, using her hands as much as her mouth to have me mindlessly whimper under her assault. When she sucks me deep in her throat and swallows down on the crown of my cock, while simultaneously playing her fingers along the skin behind my balls, I arch my back off the mattress with the first surge of my release. She renders me mindless and spineless as she milks me with lips and fingers, leaving me the consistency of a jellyfish.
When I’ve regained some of my muscle control, I try to flip her over from where she’s snuggled her body against mine, to give her some attention, but she resists.
“No, honey,” she soothes, with her hand rubbing between my pecs. “You can have me tomorrow,” she promises.
A promise I am planning to keep her to.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Dino
“It’s coming down good out there.”
I turn around, from where I’m washing some dishes at the sink, to find Gunnar leaning against the doorpost. Because of the weather, tonight had been very slow. Much, much slower than we usually were on New Year’s Eve. Only five tables tonight, and they’d all been in early and left shortly after finishing their dinner in hopes of getting home safely.
The weather forecast had warned about a possible snow event, and it kept away the crowds. With good reason it looks, from the conditions outside. Thick snow covers the wharf, the wind blowing the white stuff sideways at times, causing a layer to stick even to the side of the sparse lampposts along the pier. It was going be a bitch to get home, where Pam was already preparing a late supper. It had been his idea she stay at his place again, just like she had the last few days, but it had been hers to prepare Soup JouMou, the traditional New Year’s soup. Normally served on January first, according to Pam, she’d opted to start the preparations last night, for tonight’s meal. Tomorrow we’re scheduled to celebrate New Year’s Day at Gunnar and Syd’s, a newer tradition forged over the past years, courtesy of Syd, who wanted an opportunity to give back to her friends, by cooking for them. She’s not allowed any of us to ever bring anything to contribute to the meal. So tonight, my kids and I will be introduced to Pam’s heritage, something I’m pretty pumped about. Mostly because it shows how far we’ve come; having her insist on including us in her traditions.
I love her.
I’ve known for a while, but with life throwing new roadblocks every way we turn, there hasn’t been a right time to tell her. I don’t want to just throw it out there. I did that once, to the only other woman I’ve ever said it to, and that turned out to be way premature, because what I may have ever felt for Jeannie doesn’t even reach the shadow of what I feel for Pam.
“It’s disturbing how I can tell from the look on your face that I don’t want to know what you’re thinking about,” Gunnar pipes up, startling me from my thoughts. Crap, I’d forgotten he was there. He’s not wrong; visions of Pam’s face when I bring her to climax, like I’ve done the last couple of mornings, put that satisfied smile on my face just now.
“Got me there,” I chuckle. “So what’s the plan? We have any stragglers left?”
“Nah,” he says, pushing away from the door. “Arnie was the last one, and he just left with Matt. He’s gonna make sure Arnie gets to his apartment okay before he heads home. I’ve just locked the front door and put the closed sign up.”
It takes us half an hour to clean up, stock the bar for January third, when we open up again, and make sure the washrooms are at least passable until the cleaning crew comes in Wednesday morning. Not my favorite job, but then again, I don’t think I know anyone who’d volunteer for that job. It still has to get done.
I wait on the step outside for Gunnar to do a last walk through. I pull my beanie down over my ears and flip up the collar on my jacket. It’s fucking freezing, with the wind blowing down the alley; the snow feels like razors on my exposed skin. I don’t have to wait long before Gunnar, similarly attired, steps out. Together we make our way to the parking lot through knee-deep snow, only to find there is no fucking way in hell we’re going be driving home tonight. Both our cars are virtually buried, and in their infinite wisdom
, the plows that went through earlier this evening have shoved a wall of snow across the exit to the street. If we want to get home, we’ll have to rely on our feet to get us there.
“Fuck!” The expletive from Gunnar’s mouth seems to stand out against the wind. I understand why he’s pissed, he’s got a longer way to go.
“Why don’t you crash at mine?” I offer before another thought comes to mind. “Or just crash above the pub? Not like we haven’t done that before.”
“Not letting my family go to bed without me on New Year’s Eve, goddammit,” he bites off, obviously irritated.
“I hear you man. I hear you.”
Doesn’t matter what the conditions, there’s nothing that would keep me from being with my family either. A family that now includes a hard-assed, smart-mouthed, incredibly beautiful, and soft-hearted woman I can’t wait to turn into a more permanent fixture.
“Happy for you, man,” Gunnar grunts, as we start making our way over the pile of snow to the sidewalk beyond. “Better call Bird and let her know I’m walking.”
I follow suit and dive into my pocket to grab my phone, only to find it missing. Damn, I must’ve left it on the kitchen table. At least I hope I did. I throw a quick look over my shoulder at the dark alley toward the pub. Nah, not going back there. I’ll be home in less than half an hour anyway, and besides, Pam’s not expecting me until around ten, it’s only eight-thirty now.
I chuckle as I listen to Gunnar trying to keep his wife from getting in her car and brave this weather to come get him. Another reason why I’m happy not calling Pam, she’d probably do the same thing. I’ll be damned if that doesn’t fill me with enough warmth to ignore the freezing cold creeping up through my inadequate shoes.
