Familiar Ground

by Michelle Lynn

  “Boys,” I say, nodding my head at them and walking into the house.

  Pete scowls at me, but the others acknowledge me back. It’s hard for Pete. He turned into Jimmy’s number one man after I left years ago, but I’ve been back for only three weeks, and Jimmy’s already shunned him back to porch duty.

  Since no one’s around, I take a deep breath at the top of the stairs, calming my racing heart. Repeating Leah and Dani’s names in my head numerous times, I focus my goal on them before jogging down the steps.

  Jimmy sits on the black leather couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table, and all I can think of is, enjoy your ass sitting on concrete in about four hours. Pasting a sly smile on my face, I greet him with a fist bump and mimic his position in the other chair. We bullshit for a few minutes about nothing important. Every word that I speak is like venom leaving my lungs.

  “Let’s get the boys together and get this hammered down,” I state, and Jimmy sits up straighter and types something in his phone.

  “You sure you don’t want to stay on after this?” he asks me, and since it doesn’t really matter, because if all goes well they’ll be nothing to stay on too I respond with the unlikely answer.

  “I think I may want to talk. I forgot how lucrative this business is,” I say, smiling, and he smiles back.

  “I was hoping once you got reminded, you’d come around again,” he says, clearly pleased with the outcome. Even though I want to say fuck you asshole, the cool Adam replies the way expected.

  “Let’s get this done, and we’ll talk.”

  “Yeah, let’s get this shit done. I’m ready to move up in this city.” He rubs his hands together, and my hands beg me to hit him but I clench them hard at my sides.

  We call the important guys down, and I practically snicker when the two cops come down. God, how I would love to see Jimmy’s face if I told him right now that he trusted two cops down in his sacred basement. Playing my part, I take the lead on the details and wait for Jimmy to fill in any parts.

  Once the plan is set, we all climb the stairs, practically in formation. Splitting up in two cars, Jimmy asks for me to join him in his, and I’m actually starting to become worried about why he’s keeping me so close. It could be from his stupidity, or he, in fact, does know that I’m in communication with the police. I could flip a coin with how half and half this could be. Everything tells me he’s trusting our friendship, or our past friendship more like it, but it could very easily be the other way around.

  My phone burns a hole in my pocket with the urge to text Leah one more time. Hear her voice before this all goes down, but I can’t let Jimmy know how much I love her. Strike that, he can’t know that I even love her. He asked me about her a week ago and tossed it out there like she was a girl who I fucked occasionally. Every untrue word that left my mouth made me hate myself a little more. But, it secures her safety that much more for me to pretend she means nothing to me.

  Jimmy’s head bobs to the music, and his fingers tap the rhythm on his leg. He’s cool as a damn cucumber, and I couldn’t be more thankful because all my worries were for not. He knows absolutely nothing. He stares out the window with a cheesy damn smile on his face. He truly believes he’s about to move up his claim in this city, and I can’t wait to see when he finds out he’s dead wrong.

  The two cars drive into the deserted industrial park. A large garage door opens, and we drive through. When the doors shut behind us, I struggle to even out my breathing and slow my heart. “Let’s do this shit,” Jimmy says, holding his fist out to me again.

  “We’ll definitely be celebrating tonight,” I comment and knock fists with him before opening my door.

  “Hell yeah, we will.” He opens his door, and two large men greet him. I steadfastly make my way to his side of the car, as well as Brent, police officer number one, and Ted, police office number two. Jimmy looks at all of us and is damn pleased with his protection or so he thinks. The two men, pat us all down and then begin walking away.

  Ushering us forward, the four of us follow them through two doors. The three of us stand in the back of a large room while Jimmy approaches a table with some older gentleman. They talk for a few minutes and then the bags from our trunk are brought in by Pete and a few others before they’re dismissed.

  Two of the guys take the bags and make their way to a folding table. Grabbing fists full of cash, they place it on the table and begin counting. Jimmy relaxes in the chair, already taking on the role, chief drug lord of the scumbags, shooting the shit with this man.

  The two guys come over and hand a piece of paper to the man, and he nods his head. He shakes hands with Jimmy and both stand to their feet. Following Jimmy out of the room, we make our back to the cars where bags of drugs concealed in dog food bags are already weighing down the trunks.

  As soon as the two trunks are shut, Jimmy shakes hands one more time, but the man twists his arms around his back and throws him to the floor. Before I can blink once, I’m thrown in the identical position, as well as Brent and Ted. A big black combat boot lands on my neck, keeping me in place. The garage doors open and sea of red and blue lights flash off every wall.

  “What the fuck?” Jimmy spouts.

  “Jimmy Schmidt, you’re under arrest…” the older gentleman who was just the drug dealer starts spouting the Miranda rights at Jimmy as does every other officer that has one of us on the ground.

  It’s the first time I figure out, I was only a pawn in a very well-oiled elaborate sting operation to take Jimmy down.

  My eyes have betrayed me so many times by peeking at the clock, Marcus took pieces of paper and taped them over every clock and grabbed my phone from me, too. We’ve already played two games of Monopoly. I’m not bragging or anything, but I did beat him, which may have made me slightly smug and pissed Marcus off entirely. The best moment of my night.

  “Come on, Leah,” he jokingly begs me to allow him to put on porn.

  “Give me a break, Marcus.” I roll my eyes, and he punches me in the arm gently.

  “Roll Eye,” he calls out like the damn game Beetle I played in the car when we’d pass a Volkswagen Beetle.

  “Will you please stop?” I take my hand and rub my shoulder. I hate to admit it, but Adam was right having Marcus keep me company. His annoying behavior has distracted me most of the night. It turns out he’s not only annoying; he’s pretty damn funny, too. His affinity for his friendship with Adam is clear as day.

  “Once you stop,” he says back, and I release a huff of aggravation. “What do you want to do? Monopoly? Boggle?” He’s bent over, looking through the shelves of games when I hear a key in the lock.

  I stand up, and Marcus’s head pulls out of his investigation of games. My heart completely stops, and I’m pretty sure my breathing halts along with it. When those honey-colored eyes walk through the door, my eyes close in response and I feel my lungs and heart kicking back into gear.

  Opening my eyes again, a small smirk is swiped across his face. “Come here, my angel,” he says, and my feet don’t betray me and before he can finish I jump into his arms, and he grabs a hold of me. My hands grip his face, and my lips sprinkle kisses across every inch of his skin. “Lock up after you leave,” he calls over his shoulder, carrying me down the hall.

  “You’re welcome,” Marcus hollers after us.

  “Thank you,” we both say in unison.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he replies.

  When we escape into the bedroom, Adam doesn’t put me down. “It’s over?” I ask him, keeping my hands on his cheeks.

  “It’s over,” he confirms, and I haven’t felt this free in years.

  “She’s safe?” I ask.

  “We’re all safe.” With that, my lips crash into his again.

  “Uncle Adam, take the blindfold off,” Dani says, jumping up and down. Leah can barely stop giggling while Shane waits patiently in the corner.

  “Are you sure you want to see your new room?” I tease her, and her hands pull
at mine holding the bandana in place.

  “YES!” she exclaims, and Leah loses it, bellowing out a laugh. “Aunt Leah’s here?” she asks.

  “How’d you guess?” I shake my head at Leah, and she smiles. I love that girl. “Okay, welcome home, Dani!” I release the bandana, revealing a very girly room for her. We’ve painted it purple and pink with a princess carriage bed and a closet full of clothes and anything else she might need.

  She doesn’t say much, running from spot to spot, picking up and hugging the item and placing it back down. Then she finally finds Shane standing patiently in the corner. Happily content to watch his daughter so excited over her new room. “Daddy!” She runs to him, and he picks her up. “I love it,” she tells him, and he holds her tight against his chest. Leah makes her way over to me, and we sneak out of the room to give them time.

  Shane’s finally done with The Meadows. He’s attending AA meetings every week, and he got offered a position with Thompson Contracting, since I finally found an engineering job. Turns out my dad was correct, a month after I paid off Cassi’s debt, I got a call from a small firm, and they hired me after the first round of interviews. So, now I work normal hours, allowing me to spend a lot of free time with my girls.

  Once we enter the kitchen, I grab the brown paper bag I brought over with me. “Time for your lesson,” I say, and she squints her eyes at me. “Chocolate chip cookies. My mom requested them, so I figured, I might as well show you how to make them.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders, and she kiddingly tries to pull away from me.

  “I can think of a lot better things I’d like a lesson in,” she flirts, her lips kissing my chin.

  “Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of time tonight,” I mention, and her eyes light up.

  “Yes, we do. Is it bad I’m excited?” Her face turns down, and I see the guilt already starting.

  “No, it’s not,” I say. “She’ll be fine—we’ll be fine,” I try to reassure her, but, honestly, it’s no use. As much as I hope tonight is what I’ve envisioned, I fear it might entail me consoling Leah instead.

  “Okay, well distract me from my rambling thoughts.” She peers into the brown bag.

  “I can always manage that.” I take her in my arms and begin kissing her neck, filling it with the goose bumps I love to elicit on her.

  “As much as I want to see where this is going, we have a three-year-old in the other room with my brother, and your parents are going to be over any minute.” She holds my head firmly against her neck, contradicting what’s coming out of her mouth.

  Just as my hands start roaming around her for a quick squeeze, the doorbell rings, and Dani runs into the room, straight to the door. “Times up,” I say, and Leah turns around, but I grab her hand and yank her back. She stumbles my way, and her hands land on my chest. “You’re mine tonight.” She giggles and rolls her eyes.

  “Can you two give it a rest?” Shane walks into the room, mimicking his sister by rolling his eyes at us. “Dani, do not open that door until I see who it is,” Shane tells her, and she waits by the door, jumping up and down.

  Shane reaches the door and looks through the peephole before unlocking the lock and opening it. Dani doesn’t allow my parents to come in before she’s hugging them.

  “Hi, Dani,” my mom says, placing her casserole dish on top of everything else my dad’s holding to scoop her granddaughter up into her arms.

  “Don’t worry, I got it, Jan,” he remarks before Shane helps him out. “Thanks, Shane. Good to see you. The place looks nice.” He shakes his hand.

  “Thank you, Steve. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s nice to have a place all my own,” Shane honestly says, and my dad smiles.

  “Grandpa.” Dani turns her attention to my dad, giving my mom the opportunity to say her own hello to Shane. They give an awkward hug, but a hug nonetheless.

  As Leah leans against my body, I wrap my arms around her waist, and we enjoy the sight we thought could never happen unfolding in front of our eyes.

  It’s still uncomfortable to the tenth degree, but it becomes easier with every visit. He spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with us, and my parents have even attended a few of the family meetings at The Meadows with Shane. They even embarked on one of the family weekends up in Minnesota and continue to talk to a few other family members often. We’ve all come a long away in seven months.

  “Hey, you two,” my dad greets us, wrapping his arms around Leah and shaking my hand. “I assume this is a sad but exciting time for you two as well?”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll just hand her a box of Kleenex tonight,” I joke, and Leah elbows me in the ribs.

  “Stop making fun, Adam. This is a hard adjustment.” My mom comes over and swings her arm around Leah. “It will be okay, I promise.”

  “Are you serious? We aren’t moving to New Zealand.” I counter, shaking my head.

  My mom waves me off and escorts Leah to Dani’s new bedroom, since Dani’s currently screaming for her to come in.

  Shane, Dad, and I stand around the kitchen island and start talking baseball while uncovering the dishes my mom brought with her. She still doesn’t trust us to take care of everything. “You have enough to feed the whole damn floor,” I comment, and Dad laughs.

  “Your mom is worried about Shane and Dani. She wants to make sure they have enough to eat.” He clasps Shane on the shoulder. “Sorry, she can be kind of overprotective.”

  “I have no problem with that,” he remarks. “But, I’m pretty sure Leah won’t let her starve.”

  We all laugh while getting the new plates and silverware Shane purchased. He’s furnished the place himself, no help from Leah. She tried to give him money, believe me, especially when it came to Dani’s room, but I was proud that he didn’t take one cent from her.

  After we eat, my parents play with Dani a little longer before eventually saying their goodbyes. My mom hugs Leah extra-long, and the tears are already starting to pour out from Leah’s eyes. I get it, this is hard for me, too, but it’s a good thing, as well. Shane has cleaned himself up and can now care for his own daughter.

  An hour later, I glance at my watch, not wanting to rush Leah to say goodbye. Shane raises his eyebrows my way, obviously thinking the same thing. It’s close to Dani’s bedtime, and I wonder if Leah’s going to stay here until she goes to bed. Then my sweetheart of a daisy shows her strength.

  Her chest rises and falls before peering over at me. “Okay, we’re going to say goodnight.” Her voice shaking the whole time. I try to encourage her with a smile, but her sole focus is on Dani.

  Shane gets to his feet automatically, clearly excited to have some alone time with his daughter. “Give me a hug, Dani,” she asks, and the little girl curls up in her arms. Leah closes her eyes as her arms squeeze her tight. Tears fall from her eyes, down her cheeks, and onto the floor.

  When they pull away from each other, Leah tries to wipe her tears before Dani sees them. “Why are you crying, Aunt Leah?” she asks, and Leah shakes her head, placing her hand up in the air.

  “Come here, Dani girl.” I distract her from Leah, swinging her around my body, making her laugh. By the time I finish, Leah’s as composed as she’ll ever be.

  “Okay…well…goodbye you two,” Shane hesitantly says. I smack his back and walk over to the door, waiting for Leah.

  Leah gives Shane a big hug and one last one to Dani before we grab our stuff and leave.

  We enter our apartment, and I realize I never made the chocolate chip cookies. Digging in the bag, I place all the ingredients on our kitchen counter top. “How about a naked baking lesson,” I say, and she snuggles into my arms, tears starting to stream down her face again.

  “I know, but she’s with her dad, baby. She’s happy,” I try to remind her of everything we discussed last night, but I knew I couldn’t prepare her for it.

  “It’s just, I already miss her. Let’s make the cookies, so we can go back and bring them to her?” She smiles up at me, but I
shake my head.

  “No, baby. She can have them when we see her tomorrow. You can last until then, baby steps,” I say, and she squeezes me tight. “I promise I’ll distract you tonight.”

  Her face turns up to me. “What did you have in mind?” she flirtatiously asks, and I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere.

  “I told you, a naked baking lesson. I’ll lick the cookie dough right off you. I know exactly where the chocolate chips could go.” I begin roaming my hands up her shirt before a knock comes across the door.

  Her body is away from me before I can round second, and she’s springing the door open. Shaking my head, I follow her to the door, and when it opens, Dani’s there in her princess nightgown. “I just wanted to say goodnight, Aunt Leah,” she says, and Leah bends down, giving her a hug.

  Shane stands in his own doorway across the way, resembling me with a look of disbelief. “Goodnight, sweetheart. I love you,” Leah says to her, and then Dani reaches over and pulls my legs into their hug.

  Before any of us can say anything else, she scurries across the hall, and Shane remains in the doorway. “I’ll drop her off in the morning for breakfast.”

  “We’ll be ready,” we say in unison.

  The End

  Thank you for reading, Familiar Ground.

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  Michelle Lynn

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