Jay's Salvation

by Rowena Dawn

  “I knew it,” Jay turned to Ellen again. “You have a big mouth.”

  Ellen looked at him with disbelief, and then, she merely turned his back at him. “Becka, do you think that you have a plastic bag around?”

  Becka’s eyes rounded. “I hope you don’t want to smother him even if he deserves it.”

  “I don’t care about him,” Ellen wave her hand with nonchalance.

  “Oh, yeah, sweetie, you do,” Jay intervened, and his voices sounded anxious.

  Still, Ellen didn’t pay any attention to him. She kept staring at Becka stubbornly and said in a flat tone of voice, “I was thinking of putting my things in a plastic bag and swimming back to the shore. I want to go home.”

  “Are you out of your mind, woman?” Jay burst furiously and grabbed her arm, turning Ellen to face him. “Who the hell is so crazy to cross the lake swimming?”

  “Please, let go of my arm,” she replied in a calm tone of voice.

  He shook his head. “No, sweetheart. I’ll handcuff you to me if I have to. I can’t let you do such a foolish thing. And for what? Just because I said that you had a big mouth? You do, so get over it.”

  “Jay,” Bryan warned him. “I’d shut up now if I were you.”

  “Why? I’m right. She’s crazy. Why should I shut up?” Jay shouted, and Ellen’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “Because it’s the smart thing to do,” Bryan replied in a calm tone of voice. “If you don’t want to lose her for good,” he advised Jay, tilting his head toward Ellen, who was about to knee Jay in his weakest spot.

  “All right, I shut up, but you stay put on the yacht,” Jay turned his eyes back to Ellen, just in time to see her knee jerking up. “What the heck?” he yelled and jumped back, stumbling over a coil of ropes.

  He fell down and pulled the woman with him. He had forgotten to free her arm. The man tried to cushion her fall, sliding his arms around her, and rolling on his back.

  “Are you all right, baby?” he started touching her everywhere with febrile movements, afraid that he had hurt her in the process. Ellen didn’t reply, and Jay panicked. “Sweetie, say something, please.”

  Bryan rolled his eyes and turned to his wife. “Have I ever been so pathetic?”

  Becka smiled at him, and to the man’s dismay, she nodded. “Once or twice. It seems to be a common affliction among men,” she laughed.

  “You’ll pay for that, little imp,” Bryan warned her with a meaningful look, and Becka’s grin widened.

  Then, the man turned to the couple still lying on the deck and sighed. Jay continued to talk a mile a minute, begging Ellen to talk to him.

  “Jay,” Bryan snapped. “Stop it, man. She’s just got the wind knocked out of her. She needs a bit of air, not your constant lament,” he scolded Jay and then returned to steering the yacht because they already were off course.

  Jay gathered Ellen in his arms and helped her to sit up. Indeed, the woman panted, trying to draw air into her lungs.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie,” Jay, stroked her jaw, turning her face to him in the process.

  Ellen recovered after a couple of minutes and shook her head at him. “You’re a wacky one, Jay.”

  “You’re the wacky one, Ellen,” Jay countered. “No one has ever thought of swimming across the lake,” he shook his head.

  “Yes, they have.”

  “Not this way,” he replied.

  “I know that. But sometimes, grave situations require out-of-the-box solutions,” Ellen explained, leaning back on him.

  “What was so grave, Elle?” Jay inquired with confusion. “I yelled at you, and you could have yelled at me. It was just a disagreement. If I had threatened your life, then yes, you’d have been right to think about jumping into the lake. But you know that I wouldn’t ever touch you in anger, baby. I’m not made that way,” he explained, stroking her arms.

  “I know that. You like slashing people with your tongue,” Ellen observed sarcastically.

  “Yep, sometimes,” Jay whispered in her hair.

  “Most of the time,” she retorted, shivering under his fingers.

  “And that makes you run away from me?” the man asked, brushing his lips along the line of Ellen’s neck.

  “Not really,” Ellen replied in a shaky voice.

  “Then why swimming, my love?” Jay lifted a hand and turned her face up to him, staring at her, and an intense light glimmered in his black pupils.

  “Honestly?” Ellen blushed. “Because I was feeling guilty. I don’t have a big mouth, but what Becka said made me open my mouth without thinking,” she confessed.

  “And you decided to brave the lake,” Jay shook his head in disbelief. “Sweetie, I roar, but only for a moment or two. What you did isn’t such a big misstep. It happens. You should have just waited for me to see the light. It shouldn’t have taken me more than a minute or two, even if I’m an idiot, as you always say,” the man explained in a severe tone of voice.

  “You’re not an idiot,” Ellen grimaced. “Just pigheaded,” she pressed her lips.

  Jay chuckled and leaned over her to kiss her lips. Bryan chose that very moment to say, “We’re at the island people. And next time, Jay, maybe you choose to have your private conversation somewhere else where I can’t see you,” the man continued in a dry tone of voice, and Ellen became scarlet.

  Jay shook his head and helped her to stand. “You have no tact, Bryan. You embarrassed Elle.”

  “Look who’s talking,” Becka burst into laughter.

  “Anyway, let’s get ready to get off the yacht,” Bryan said, gazing at Jay meaningfully.

  Jay led Ellen to the bench where Becka had already taken a seat and joined Bryan. They started working on the sails, and in a few minutes, the yacht was neatly anchored near the pontoon.

  Jay and Bryan gathered the bags and cooler to carry them to the shore.

  They had just got to a bunch of trees not far from the shore and arranged the blankets for their picnic when Becka’s cell phone rang. Bryan turned to her with inquiring eyes, and the woman shrugged, looking at the screen of the phone. “It’s my mom. I don’t know what she wants.”

  “And can’t you answer and see?” Jay asked with a pointed look at the phone in her hand.

  “Leave her alone,” Bryan snapped. “Answer the call, Becka,” he turned back to his wife.

  “Hi, mom, is everything all right?”

  She listened to her mother’s words, and her jaw dropped. “Oh, no. He’ll have my head, mom,” she cried out anxiously and then listened some more. “But I told you that in confidence,” she shouted furiously. “It will be a hell of a day,” she clenched her small fist, shaking her head impotently. “I don’t care how I talk. I’m furious,” she replied to her mother’s scolding. “We’ll talk later,” she ended her discussion and turned off the phone.

  “What’s going on, Becka?” Bryan came to her worried. He didn’t like to see his wife so distressed.

  Becka bit her lower lip and then lifted her eyes to Jay, who watched her with apprehension. The man had the feeling that the call concerned him. He wasn’t wrong.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “What the heck, Becka? Why did you have to tell her? You know that your mother gossips with everyone in the clan,” Jay threw his hands in the air furiously.

  “I don’t know, Jay,” Becka replied with tears in her eyes. “I just told her that you would come with your girlfriend on the lake. I didn’t think she’d tell everyone.”

  Bryan hugged his wife from behind and shook his head toward Jay, warning him to stop upsetting her.

  “Maybe, it is better this way, Jay,” he said quietly. “One day you needed to introduce Ellen to everyone. It seems that today is that day. Just get used to the thought, man. Everyone goes through that, and it goes well in the end.”

  “But the witch will come,” Jay practically roared.

  “You must be more specific,” Bryan grinned. “Which witch? Most of them are witches,” he pointed out.r />
  “Don’t play with me, Bryan. You know who I’m talking about,” Jay pointed his finger at the man.

  “I know, but we can’t do anything about it. Rebecca won’t do anything to Ellen,” Bryan tried to calm Jay down.

  Ellen just looked from one at the other with apprehension. She understood that she should expect a clan gathering, but didn’t know how she felt about it.

  “You know what she did to Nora,” Jay barked.

  Then, he noticed Ellen’s wide eyes, and he closed the distance between them with huge steps. He took her in his arms and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t let her touch you. And this is a promise, baby.”

  “What did she do to Nora? And who is this witch?” Ellen’s voice shook, and she drew back to look at the others.

  In the ordinary course of events, nothing would have scared the woman. Nonetheless, they were talking about witches now, and all sorts of horrible things popped into her mind.

  ‘How the heck can I protect myself from a witch?’ she wondered.

  “She just brought some rain, wind, and thunder over her head,” Bryan waved her anxiety away. “She got wet, that’s all. Jay exaggerates now because he worries about you.”

  “I can deal with some rain and thunder,” Ellen lifted her eyes to Jay.

  “You won’t have to, baby. I won’t let her touch you. Not even with a finger,” he replied with determination.

  “But maybe she’ll want to shake hands with Ellen,” Becka dried her tears and intervened in the conversation for the first time.

  Jay threw a dark look in her direction and shook his head. “No, she won’t touch Ellen,” he repeated stubbornly.

  Bryan shook his head and quieted his wife. Jay wasn’t rational anymore, and Bryan started worrying. Irrational men provoked chaos in their wake.

  “Let’s start our picnic,” Bryan proposed. “When did they leave?” he asked his wife.

  “They left about an hour after we left,” she replied in a small voice.

  “Eh, we won’t wait for them then. Let’s eat, people.”

  “I’m not hungry anymore,” Jay frowned.

  “This is the first time you’ve ever said that,” Ellen observed in bewilderment.

  “I’m worried, woman,” he snapped at her.

  “You can eat, if you want,” she replied calmly. “Look, Jay, I know that I don’t have all the information, and therefore, I shouldn’t open my big mouth, as you like to say,” she put up her hand to stop him when she saw that he wanted to say something. “But I know one thing,” she continued in a flat tone of voice. “If you show your anxiety to someone, that person will take advantage of you. You need to be aloof and show that witch, whom I don’t know, of course, that she can’t touch you.”

  “That’s the spirit, Ellen,” Bryan chuckled. “She’s right, you know,” he turned to Jay. “Rebecca would grab the opportunity with both her hands if you show that you’re afraid. Let’s eat, Jay. When they get here, they’ll find four people having fun, without a worry in the world,” he thumped Jay on the shoulder and discreetly made a sign to Becka to start unpacking the food.

  In the beginning, Jay just picked at his food, having lost any interest in their picnic. But then, Ellen drew him into their conversation, and the man started to be less tense and even enjoyed himself.

  Bryan knew that Ellen would eventually find out about his first day there on the island with Becka, so he chose to relax the atmosphere and told her about what happened when he brought Becka there for the first time. Ellen laughed so much that she had tears in her eyes, and Jay put his thumbs up to congratulate the man.

  Jay still worried about what Rebecca would do once she laid her eyes on Ellen. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something unpleasant would happen. In spite of that, he joined into the conversation, an arm around Ellen to keep her close to him.

  “Anyways, this remains my most favorite spot in the world,” Becka remarked, leaning on Bryan, and the man grinned. He knew what she was talking about.

  “You should take Ellen somewhere for a brief vacation,” he advised Jay with a meaningful look. “I’m sure everything will turn out perfect.”

  “I was thinking about that,” Jay nodded. “Ellen still has a couple of weeks until she gets her private investigator license so we could go on a brief vacation. What are you saying, sweetie?“ Jay asked Ellen, looking down at her face.

  Ellen nodded but didn’t have the time to reply. Becka’s eyes widened, and the woman tugged at Bryan’s hand. Ellen’s eyes turned to the lake because Becka was staring there. A yacht had just appeared in view and drew closer to the pontoon.

  “The vultures appeared,” Jay mumbled with annoyance.

  Bryan looked at him nonplussed, and then the man burst into laughter, shaking his head. “You’re so dramatic man,” he observed.

  Jay bad-mugged him and snapped, “Like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “Everything will be fine, Jay,” Becka intervened. “You’ll see.”

  But Jay knew she was wrong. When Rebecca’s voice reached his ears, he shook his head and grabbed Ellen’s hand.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Jay refused to move off the blanket and welcome the newcomers. With a negligent shrug, the man had decreed that no one invited them there, so he didn’t have to extend any courtesy to any of them.

  Bryan shook his head with disapproval and stood up with supple movements. He kept his eyes on the people striding toward them and noticed that Matt’s jaw was set.

  He concluded that Rebecca must have been in great shape that day. She was the only person in the whole world who would succeed in making Matt genuinely lose his temper.

  “Your brother doesn’t seem very happy,” Bryan observed, turning to Jay.

  “Of course, he isn’t,” Jay waved his hand with nonchalance. “He doesn’t like the witch. I don’t understand how she convinced him to bring her here,” he wondered and pressed his lips in dismay.

  “I understand that grandma threatened to hire a water taxi if Matt didn’t want to take her on his yacht. Of course, Aunt Marjorie intervened and persuaded him to sail the old bat here on his boat,” Becka replied.

  “Poor Marjorie,” Bryan shook his head. “She’s always caught between those two stubborn people,” he remarked ruefully.

  Jay merely shrugged and started munching on a cookie nervously. Ellen touched his chest, and when he turned his eyes to her, she whispered, “Don’t forget, Jay. Indifference is the best weapon.”

  Jay speared her with a black gaze but then nodded his agreement without much conviction.

  ‘How the heck can I be indifferent?’ he mused.

  His grandma always made him feel inadequate. The woman looked at him as if he had been a blemish on the clan’s reputation and disapproved of everything he did.

  “You know, I don’t get it,” Jay suddenly said, and the others gazed curiously at him. “The old bat hasn’t paid any attention to me for the last six or seven years,” Jay continued with a wave of his hand. “Why the heck does she care about what I’m doing now?”

  Becka shrugged. “Maybe she thinks that you hatched another scheme to get to the trust fund,” she said negligently.

  “Thank you, Becka,” Jay snapped at her when he noticed Ellen’s speculative gaze. “I haven’t gotten around to telling Elle about that. I should have told her about everything else, of course, and you know I am not allowed.”

  “What are you talking about, Jay?” Ellen narrowed her eyes and looked at him with suspicion.

  “Someone will tell her anyway,” Bryan observed and shifted his eyes toward the group of people coming from the pontoon. They didn’t hurry, and their strides matched Rebecca’s gait.

  “Remember that I told you not to listen to anything one of this bunch would say to you?” Jay said, tilting his head toward the group. “Well, this is the moment to show some confidence in me, sweetie. Just wait until I am able to tell you everything, all right?”

 
Ellen watched him pensively, and then she nodded. “I’ll trust you for the moment, Jay. Don’t make me regret it, though,” she added in a hard tone of voice.

  “You won’t, I promise,” he said quickly.

  The group of people was close now. He could even see the thunder in Rebecca’s eyes.

  “Hello, mother,” Jay said with a nod toward his mother, without abandoning his spot on the blanket. “Hey there, father. I didn’t know you decided to crash our little picnic,” he remarked in a mocking tone of voice.

  “Watch your mouth, young man,” Rebecca intervened harshly.

  “Wow, grandma. It’s been years you haven’t given a sign that you were aware of my existence. What’s with this change of heart you suddenly have?” the man replied in a hard tone of voice as well. But then, he didn’t wait for her answer and turned to Matt. “Thanks, brother. Nice to know you always have my back,” Jay said mockingly, although he knew that he was plain mean and unfair. Matt couldn’t have refused their mother. Jay wouldn’t have done it either.

  Matt pursed his mouth and clenched his fists, ready to give him a sharp reply. His wife touched his arm though, and the man shifted his inquiring eyes at her. Nora shook her head, and Matt frowned.

  “I see you haven’t brought Nat with you, Nora,” Jay noticed in a light conversational tone of voice.

  However, at the same time, he watched Rebecca from the corner of the eye. The old woman’s expression darkened more and more, and she watched Ellen as if she had been an insect.

  ‘Yep, she’ll explode any moment now,’ Jay thought with satisfaction even though he wasn’t sure that he had chosen the best course of action. He also didn’t like the way his grandma was staring at Ellen.

  “Nat is with his cousins,” Marjorie spoke for the first time, spearing her younger son with a warning gaze. Jay used to be more polite, and she didn’t approve of his behavior, although she understood why he reacted that way.

  Jay knew that his mother referred to Becka and Bryan’s twins, Leah and Sean. He guessed that they had left the boy behind so that he wouldn’t witness the ugly scene Rebecca was bound to make. It sufficed that the kid had seen part of the awful discussion between his mother and Rebecca.