He pulled a bottle of wine from the massive wall rack housed in the entryway we were currently standing in. He held it up as if toasting me and I gave him a thumbs up. I turned back in the direction of the study just as the door swung open and Tamryn and her mother came out giggling. They both froze when they saw me, and exchanged a knowing glance. Joe appeared a few moments later, his face pasty and pale. When he saw me, he practically flinched. That was a bit of a blow to the ego.
“Baby?” I stammered, truly disturbed by the look he wore. I hadn’t seen him look so troubled since the night he showed up on my doorstep the year before, covered in grass stains and damp with tears. “Are you alright?”
His only response was a curt nod. He looked nervous, and a little irritated. I reached out for him, but he didn’t seem to notice as he headed back into the kitchen.
I trailed after him and he took a seat by Mason at the bar. All the kids had apparently sweet talked my mom, Robbie and Robin into taking them back out to swim some more, because the kitchen was blissfully quiet. I decided it was time to grab some dessert. I’d dished it up for all of the kids, but hadn’t had a chance to taste it, and nothing relieves my tension like a bowl full of sugar.
“Careful of that sweet tooth, Molly.” Granny called from her seat at the table. “You’re already too big and you’re only halfway into this business. It’s not like Joe’s got a ring on his finger. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with a fat ass and lose that fine man. “
Mac’s laughter rang across the room and Mason joined in. I felt the blood rush to my face as I fought back the words that wanted to spill out of my mouth. Fighting with Granny was a no win situation, a bit like pissing into an industrial fan. Ever since I was little, the only thing I had been able to hope for was to distract her. This was not the first time her well-meaning advice left me emotionally battered and bruised. But something had changed that she hadn’t calculated into her lesson plans. Joe.
The sharp scrape of a bar stool on the hard wood floor sounded like fingernails down a chalkboard. It snapped everyone’s attention to Joe, who rose to his feet. No, that’s not quite right. He came up out of his seat like a monster stepping into the room. Somehow the anger radiating off of him made him seem bigger, almost superhuman. Red flushed his face, and when he spoke I expected to hear him yell. Angry Joe had a commanding presence that made even the strongest person present quail. When he opened his mouth though, the calm and measured delivery of his words was somehow far more frightening than if he had yelled.
“I’m sorry Elizabeth…what did you just say to Molly?” I had never heard Joe use Granny’s given name. The wide eyed, startled way that she gawked at him would have been priceless in any other circumstance. Mac and Mason both rose reflexively and took a step to place themselves between Joe and Granny.
“Joe,” I sat down my untouched bowl and started to tell him to leave it alone, but he chopped his hand down in the air, as if directing a symphony. I felt my stomach give a flip flop as my jaw clicked shut. Joe had never made a gesture like that to me before, and it was as much out of surprise as the force of his gesture that made me slump back against the counter.
Well, you did say you wanted him to stop bottling things up.
Joe’s fixed gaze never left Granny and I saw fire flash in her eyes.
“I told her that if she was smart she’d worry about marrying before those babies get here and less about dessert.” Joe gave a humorless grin and shook his head.
“That’s not quite right. I believe you said that if she wasn’t careful her fat ass would cost her a fine man.” Dead silence reigned as Granny squirmed under Joe’s heated glare.
Tamryn looked from Joe to Granny and then reluctantly stepped forward.
“Joe, is this really the time? Molly’s grandmother was just trying to help.” Whipping his head around in her direction, Joe glared at Tamryn. She actually took a couple steps back from him.
“Really, Tamz?” His tone hadn’t changed and the chillingly calm way that he was speaking made my skin crawl. It was like watching a volcano smoking silently right before it erupts. “Trying to help.”
Each word was annunciated distinctly and Tamryn took another step back. Joe turned his entire body in her direction, and this maneuver had a decidedly aggressive feel to it. I felt my pulse racing, and couldn’t decide what to do or say. He spoke again, and she actually shrank back at his words. “Kind of like you’ve been trying to help?”
“Joe,” his father called from the far end of the room, his voice as commanding as his son’s. “Can we step outside and talk?”
“Dad, you really don’t want to join this conversation right now. Things are about to get unpleasant. Shouldn’t you and mom scurry off to Florida about now?” His parents both reacted like he’d just slapped them across the face. His mother had tears welling in her eyes, but Joe turned away from them as if they didn’t exist.
“Joe, that’s enough!” Tamryn had recovered her footing and crossed to him, standing directly in Joe’s face. It was a comical sight, seeing her facing off against her gargantuan brother. Like a Chihuahua standing up to a St. Bernard. “I realize you’re under a lot of stress with everything going on, but you are way out of line.”
“Am I?” His head tilted slightly, and a malicious smile crept onto his face. “I can never tell. You know, with everyone giving me unsolicited advice on marriage, childbirth and how to run my life, I guess it’s hard for me to figure out where the line is. After all, everyone else seems to be able to say whatever the hell they want. You lecture me on how I should have a house by now when it’s about the biggest, most important purchase we’ll ever make. Granny says all sorts of awful shit to my girl…her own flesh and blood. She should be supportive to her but instead she gives her nothing but hell. It’s no wonder Molly ran off to school and didn’t come back for a decade.”
My mouth fell open and I gawked at Joe as if he’d just sprouted a tail. Evidently he’d bottled up his feelings for so long that the pressure had finally popped his cork.
“Now just a damn minute, boy!” Granny slowly rose from her chair and shook a gnarled, bony finger at Joe. “This little girl is the light of my life! I may not always do the best job of showing it, but the only reason I’m hard on her is that I want her to have a better time of it than I did.” The admission shocked me as much as anyone in the room. I never thought that Granny hated me, but I never would have considered myself all that important to her.
“You do a piss poor job of showing it.” Joe snapped. “I always envied my friends who got to know their grandparents. Now I think maybe I should count my blessings.”
Gran flopped down in her chair as if he’d kicked her in the chest. Actual fucking tears were swimming in her eyes. Mason and Mac stepped forward like two sides of the same wind-up toy.
“Hey! You can’t talk to Gran like that,” Mason scoffed.
“Where the hell do you get off talking to Granny like that?” Mac rasped out at the same time, their words tumbling over each other. Joe turned on both of them, seemingly unimpressed. Both twins stopped mid step as he unflinchingly met their gaze.
“You,” he spat, pointing to Mason’s hat. “Either get hair plugs or shave your head. You look ridiculous. And you…”
He turned to Mac. “Shit or get off the pot. If you like that girl, you should tell her. God knows you aren't getting any younger. And like it or not, your Grandmother is talking shit to the woman I love. No one does that...no one, without answering to me. Got it?”
I was shocked when both of them looked at each other, then at Gran and nodded. They moved back toward Gran’s chair but didn’t move to comfort her. They just stood uncertainly. Men…
Tamryn shoved Joe hard and he took a small step back. “All right. That’s it. Get out front. The girls are out back swimming and I don’t want them exposed to you right now. Are you drunk?”
Joe shook his head and gave a humorless laugh. “I haven’t touched a drop. Maybe if I
was, I would be able to put up with all of this better.”
Tamryn shot him a withering look that made me cringe. It seemed to roll off of him like water.
“Oh, because it is just so damn taxing to get together and spend time with family. Jesus wept, Joe. What exactly is your damn problem?”
“You want just the highlights? Hmm….let’s see. For starters, you regularly wake me up at 3 A.M. with a fucking text about the ideal house for us, all under the guise of ‘helping’. Then mom and dad show up to play the perfect parents and expect me to totally disregard the shit shaft they have given me over the last few years.” His voice caught just a tad and he took a deep breath before continuing. “Like they didn’t abandon me when I needed them the most. And on top of all that I’ve got this beautiful pain in the ass who’s the love of my life. She helped pull me out of hell and just when it looks like we might get to be happy, we accidentally get pregnant and she doesn’t want to marry me. She’s high risk and I’m terrified that I am going to lose her one way or another.”
It was more truth than I had heard out of Joe in months. His raw honesty was one of the things I loved most about the man. Seeing the pain flash across his face as he spoke nearly brought me to my knees. It was obvious to me that this was what he’d been holding in since we found out we were pregnant. I hadn’t realized how much my response had wounded him, even though I stood behind my rationale for not jumping into a wedding on the heels of the babies.
Pushing myself away from the counter, I crossed the room and put my hand on his shoulder. Turning him toward me, I cupped his jaw in my hand, forcing him to look into my eyes. For the first time since his tirade began, I saw him look unsure…hesitant.
I pulled him into a hug and held him. I felt his tension melting, and his musky scent fired my imagination. I was tempted to ditch them all and drag him away to bed. An urgent need simmered within me, spurred on by the decisive way he’d stepped forward in my defense. But now wasn’t the time. Instead we needed to deal with the elephant my lovely man had just dropped into the center of the room. Intertwining my fingers with Joe’s, I turned to face our combined family. Before I could say a word, Joe stepped in front of me and spoke once more.
“Molly’s mine. I don’t care if we’re married or not. She’s mine and I’m hers. I will not stand for anything less than each of you being respectful to her. Now y’all can be as pissed at me as you want. I can take it. But each and every one of you is going to make sure this little girl has the least amount of stress possible for the next few months. Or you can say goodbye until after the babies are born. Any questions?”
I WATCHED AS Molly waddled back and forth between our bedroom closet and the bed, quickly filling a large suitcase. We’d been arguing for hours, and I felt defeated and powerless. The air in my lungs burned as I finally managed to take in a breath. The situation had spun out of control and it looked like she was serious about leaving.
“Baby girl, please. Can we just sit down and talk?” My voice was strained from all the arguing and came out as a rough rasp.
“No. The last thing we need to do is talk more. All we’ve done since Friday is talk talk talk. I’m fed up with talking. It’s stressing me out. The sooner I get out of town the better.”
I froze at that, paralyzed with uncertainty. “Molly. Don’t do this.”
I tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it away. Acid churned in my stomach at her words. She went back into the bathroom and when she came out, she dropped a second bag of makeup and toiletries onto our bed. Giving a last look around, she nodded and then turned her eyes on me. Her confident and determined look wavered for a moment, and then she blew out a ragged breathe.
“Joe…look…I know that you don’t understand why you can’t come. You’ve made that pretty clear. And I know it’s driving you insane that I’m going without you. But I think once you have a little distance you’ll see that you need some down time and so do I.”
“I don’t want you driving all the way to Gal Island alone. Houston traffic sucks.” I tried a last ditch argument regarding the practicality of her going without me. She hated going out in the madhouse traffic of a major city, and Houston was legendarily awful. Maybe she’d rethink things.
“Luckily that is not even an issue. I’m not driving. Sanchez is taking me to the airport and David is flying us down on his private plane.” She replied, zipping a few plastic baggies into the outer pocket of her suitcase.
“Sanchez!” I exclaimed. “Why does he get to go?”
“What are you, five?” She graced me with a gentle smile. “He’s my sous chef, darlin’. If we sign a deal, he’ll do the demonstrations for David’s staff. I’m being practical. I’ll be banned from travelin’ soon, so I’ll have to work the truck and send Dirty S. down south. I want them to see us as a united front. Introduce him out of the gate as my right hand. I thought you’d appreciate me being responsible…you know, thinkin’ ahead.”
I dropped onto the bed and put my head in my hands. I probably should have gone to take a couple of the Xanax that Dr. Greene had prescribed for me for situations like these. My legs felt like jelly and I had serious doubts about my ability to make the seven foot journey into the bathroom. What she was saying sounded completely logical. The doc said it was safe for her to travel for at least another month, but after that we’d have to reassess week to week.
She was right to try to take care of the preliminaries of the deal all in one trip. But none of that logic and reason did anything to calm the monster in my head. And right now he was warning that if I wasn't there to protect her anything could happen. When I thought about her driving around a city without me, the specter from my past laughed at me chillingly. It made me start to wonder if it was us tempting fate. Logical? I don’t think I could even define the word right now.
I felt the bed dip and she was beside me, wrapping her arms around my waist and nuzzling her head against my upper arm.
“Baby.” She cooed, commanding me to look in her direction. “You cannot control every situation. We can’t be together every second of every day. I wish we could, but it’s not sustainable. I love that you want to be with me, but you really need to decompress. Go have a drink with the twins. They’re probably getting a complex from you bitching them out. Play some golf, darts, Xbox… whatever you used to do for fun before I moved in with you. Pretty soon we’ll have two little ones demanding every waking second of our time and you’ll have no time for you, let alone me.”
I didn’t think it would be a good idea to mention that before she moved in, all I did was get drunk and troll Sixth Street looking for an easy lay. Not that that appealed to me anymore. Dropping my gaze, I let out a breath and tried to get it together. She stood and wrapped her arms around my neck so that we were practically eye to eye. I asked the questions that loomed in the forefront of my mind. “What if something happens with the babies? What if you need me?”
“I’m twenty weeks along, Joe. If something goes wrong, there’s not a whole lot they can do.” She must have seen how deeply disturbed that statement made me, because her eyes softened and she kissed me delicately.
“I checked with Dr. Myers. There are a couple of hospitals on the island. And there is a center for women’s health. She gave me all the contact information and she even gave me a copy of my chart. I’ll take care of our precious cargo. Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I do.” I replied, realizing as I said it how true the statement was. It was my luck, fate, God, and the universe at large I didn’t trust. All the things that collectively enjoyed seeing me in agony.
“Good.” She kissed the tip of my nose and her finger tickled the back of my neck, which caused me to shove her suitcases aside and sweep her onto the bed. I captured her lips with mine and proceeded to kiss her with everything I had, as if it was the last time I’d see her. I knew it sounded irrational, but I worried that something would happen when she was out of my line of sight.
“I mi
ss you already.” I mumbled against the hollow of her neck as I trailed kisses over her collar bone and down the exposed flesh of her chest.
“I’ll miss you, too.” She sighed. “Please try to relax. Get your head together. Enjoy some alone time.”
“How long do we have till he gets here?” I asked, pressing my hard on against her thigh.
“About an hour.” She sighed breathlessly, scraping her fingernails across my shoulders.
“Good. I have a going away present for you.” I drawled, pulling her to me I lost myself in the heat of our embrace.
Molly had only been gone for a few hours and I was practically bouncing off the walls. I watched a movie she’d recorded for me, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you the plot. I kept checking my phone compulsively. Finally, she texted me to say that they’d landed in Galveston. Dan picked them at the airport and they were on their way to his house. Relief washed over me and the knots in my chest loosened. My entire body felt like I had been tensing for an expected blow. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to sit at home. Suddenly, the idea of going out with Mac and Mason sounded like a lot more fun. I decided to call them and see if either of them would answer when they saw the caller ID.
Mason’s phone rang until it flipped over to voicemail. I pursed my lips and tried to ignore the sting. Mason had always been my best friend, even the best man at my wedding to Jessica, but lately we’d had a Molly-shaped wedge between us. He’d totally lost it when he found out I was seeing his sister and though that had blown over, things had never quite gotten back to normal.
With Mac now working for me and far more philosophical in his approach to me dating Molly, we’d actually formed a tighter friendship. I had mixed feelings about this development, mourning my best bud, but none-the-less enjoying Mac’s no nonsense approach to things. I punched the call button beside Mac’s name and waited.
Mollywood (Carved Hearts #2) Page 16
