At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

  “They’re people Vi, they got two choices, they like me or they don’t. I deal either way. They’re good people, even if they don’t, they won’t make it your problem or the girls’.”

  He was right, they had two choices and, knowing Bea and Gary, they wouldn’t make it my problem or the girls’ if they didn’t like Joe.

  The girls came out and said goodnight, first Keira who patted Joe on the arm but gave me her usual kiss. Then Kate who gave me a kiss but didn’t touch Joe, she just said, “’Night, Joe,” to which he muttered, “Sweet dreams, girl,” which made her look at me in that startled way the girls looked whenever Joe did something affectionate but, startled or not, one day I figured they too would get used to being around an affectionate Joe.

  Joe and I sat quiet for awhile and this would have been nice if my mind didn’t wander to Mike wondering what he was doing, wondering if he was okay. I was also thinking how much it sucked that our situation wasn’t one where we could shift to friends and I could call him, just to talk. I liked talking to him (amongst other things) and I didn’t like that I no longer could do it. He didn’t say that wasn’t cool but I knew in my heart it wasn’t. I was happy with my decision and I knew I’d made the right one. But that didn’t mean I didn’t miss Mike.

  However, I didn’t share this with Joe.

  Then Joe and I went to bed and I figured, both of us being in a mellow mood, having a good night, he’d feel in the mood to make love and I was looking forward to it.

  He wasn’t. He was in the mood to fuck me, rough and hard, both of us on our knees, Joe behind me, his fingers between my legs, the fingers of his other hand working my nipple. I was mostly up, bent slightly, my hand holding onto the headboard, my other hand covering his at my breast and I was trying not to be too loud when he made me come. By some miracle, I managed this and luckily Joe had my neck to stifle his groan when he climaxed.

  After, Joe kept me where I was and stayed buried inside me.

  “You got the sweetest cunt I’ve ever had, buddy,” he whispered in my ear, sliding out and gliding back in.

  It wasn’t the most flowery compliment in the history of man but, from Joe, who stayed planted and was filling me with his big cock, it worked really well.

  “I like your cock too,” I whispered back and I felt him smile against my neck.

  “Know that, Vi. Every time I fuck you, you act like it’s been years since I’ve been inside you.”

  I twisted my neck to look at him and his head came up.

  “You don’t have to be conceited about it.”

  He pressed in deeper, heard my soft gasp and chuckled. “Baby, you don’t want me to be conceited, maybe you should stop doin’ shit like that.”

  I sighed, too mellow to have a tiff, even a light-hearted one.

  Joe kissed my neck and then he pulled out. We settled in our usual position, the one with my head in his chest, and his fingertips roamed my ass and hip while I listened to his heartbeat and fell asleep.

  * * * * *

  I didn’t have the nightmare that night either.

  * * * * *

  Thursday I got home from work and barely got inside the door before Joe and the girls hustled me right back out.

  Back to school shopping.

  I didn’t ask why Joe came with us, I was just glad he did.

  We had dinner at a restaurant outside the mall then we went inside the mall and the girls bought some new outfits for school; they bought Joe his new shirt (which he didn’t try on but luckily it fit him); and I bought gifts for Bea and Gary, some new frames to replace the ones I broke and a few little nothings to send up to Mel in an effort to brighten her day.

  Joe didn’t pay for the shirt or the gifts for Bea, Gary and Mel but he paid for some of the girls’ clothes and the frames even though I tried to pay. We had words right in front of the clerks in four different stores. Each time my fearless Keira waded in, twice taking my credit card and handing it to the clerk, twice taking Joe’s. Neither Joe nor I could protest because this was Keira, what could we say?

  While we were walking to the car, Joe used his arm around my shoulders to pull me close as he said in my ear. “Keirry’s a natural diplomat.”

  He sounded proud, so proud I couldn’t stop myself from turning my head and kissing his neck. He gave me a squeeze in return.

  When we got home, inexplicably, Joe slowed as we drove in front of the house then he stopped on the street.

  I looked at him and his head was turned toward the house.

  “Joe, what –”

  I stopped when I looked at the house too, saw my yard and gasped in outrage. In now dead grass, the word “bitch” could clearly be seen. I hadn’t driven in front of the house that day or the day before for that matter and obviously Joe nor the girls had seen it.

  Then Joe exploded, “That fuckin’ cunt!”

  Both girls gasped, I jumped and Joe accelerated the Mustang off the street and into our drive so fast I knew he was beyond pissed and it probably wasn’t the time to inform him that the c-word in front of the girls was an absolute forbidden.

  Joe stopped the car, killed the ignition, opened his door and surged out of the car, stalking straight to Tina’s.

  I realized at this juncture that I should probably have taken her some cupcakes.

  I turned to the girls and ordered, “Go into the house.”

  “Mom –” Keira started.

  “House!” I demanded and then opened my door, got out and ran to Tina’s, hoping my girls would obey (Kate would, Keira, it was a crapshoot).

  As I jumped the fence, Joe stopped pounding on the door, turned to look at Tina’s sporty, red Corvette in the drive then he turned away and stalked down her steps.

  As he got close to me, I assured him, “I’ll talk to her.”

  Joe didn’t look at me, he kept walking and I watched as he put a hand to the fence, threw his legs over it, landed on the other side, walked straight to his house, around it and then he disappeared, going to his garage.

  I didn’t know what Joe had in his garage, except his Bullitt car, the hood of which I knew intimately. But I didn’t figure Joe going there was a good sign.

  I also saw my girls didn’t obey, not even Kate. They were standing in the yard. Kate was staring at the grass, looking pissed. Keira was staring after Joe, looking worried.

  I jogged to Tina’s door and knocked, shouting, “Tina, really, you need to open up, we need to talk before Joe gets back.”

  She didn’t open the door. I knocked and called again. She still didn’t open the door. I was knocking again when Joe was suddenly there.

  He pushed me to the side and went into a squat. Then he did something with little tools at her lock, the door opened, he straightened and strode right in.

  I stood in stupefied silence not only because my boyfriend knew how to pick a lock but would and did until I heard Tina screech, “What the fuck? You can’t just walk into my house! I’m callin’ the cops!”

  “Call ‘em, I’ll wait,” Joe replied and I rushed in to see Tina at the mouth of her hall, Joe standing in the living room in his scary as shit, sinister, arms-crossed-on-chest, badass, alpha male stance.

  “You broke in!” Tina shrieked.

  “Yep,” Joe agreed.

  “What the fuck!” Tina repeated.

  “Okay, everyone just –” I started.

  Joe cut me off by ordering Tina, “Write a check. Five hundred dollars. Made out to Violet Winters and do it now.”

  “You’re fuckin’ crazy?” Tina screeched.

  “You do it, this is done, no more,” Joe stated. “You don’t, I’m in this war and, trust me woman, you do not want me in this war. I’m done with you, you’ll move to the next fuckin’ county.”

  “Are you threatening me?” Tina snapped, leaning forward, clearly having a death wish.

  “Yep,” Joe replied, calm as could be.

  “You can’t break in my house and threaten me!” Tina yelled.

  Jo
e looked around then back at Tina. “Pay attention, bitch, I just did.”

  Oh Lord.

  I walked across the room and got close to Joe, wrapping my hands around his bicep which was usually firm but now it was flexed and it felt like steel.

  “Joe, honey, go home. I’ll talk with Tina.”

  He twisted his neck and looked down at me. “Gave you that chance, buddy. I told you she fucks with your yard, we got problems.”

  “But, Joe –”

  “She fucked with your yard, we got problems.”

  “She toilet papered my yard!” Tina shouted. “It took me hours to clean that shit up.”

  Joe looked back at Tina and I could only see his profile and it scared me. She got the full face and shrank back.

  “She didn’t do that to your yard, woman, she was in bed with me. You shit where you live, pissin’ people off, you gotta expect retribution. And you make a habit of shittin’ where you live. Who fuckin’ knows who did that to your yard? All I know is, it wasn’t Vi. You retaliated against the wrong person that person is my woman and your retaliation crossed a line. She can’t clean that shit up without it costin’ her and you’re gonna fuckin’ pay for it.”

  “Fuck you!” Tina shouted and Joe shrugged, dropped his arms and turned away.

  “So be it,” he muttered, sliding a hand along my shoulders and moving me to the door where he stopped and turned back to Tina. “I was you, I’d think about it. You got until tomorrow mornin’ to put a check in Vi’s mailbox. You don’t, it’s on. You get me?”

  “I’m callin’ the cops,” Tina returned.

  “You think Mike Haines and Alec Colton and the boys who work with ‘em are gonna be fired up to help you?” Joe asked, this finally penetrated and Tina’s face twisted. “Yeah,” Joe murmured as he noticed Tina was realizing maybe she should have made some friends along with all the enemies she created along the way. “Five hundred dollars, Tina, in Vi’s mailbox by nine o’clock tomorrow morning,” he finished then he turned us again and walked us out the door.

  When we hit the fence, he picked me up and lifted me over setting me on my feet. Then he jumped it, took my hand and walked us to the dead grass in my yard where the girls were standing.

  “It smells of bleach,” Keira informed us, Joe’s mouth got tight, Kate saw it and shoved Keira’s arm.

  “All right girls, take the shopping bags in the house,” I ordered, wondering if I’d have time to do anything about my yard before Bea and Gary got there and thinking I wouldn’t considering I only had one day and I’d be working that day.

  “Should we –” Kate started and I looked at her.

  “House, baby,” I said softly, “we’ll worry about this tomorrow, yeah?”

  She nodded, tagged Keira, they went to the Mustang, got the bags and went into the house. Joe stood staring at the word in my lawn.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Hope that check isn’t in your box, buddy,” Joe said to the yard then looked at me. “Be my pleasure to fuck with that bitch.”

  I looked at his face and hoped the check was in my box. Tina was indeed a bitch and her writing the same with bleach in my beautiful grass proved it. But I reckoned no one, not even Tina, deserved the fury Joe looked ready to unleash.

  “You want a beer?” I asked and Joe stared at me.

  Then he shook his head but answered, “Yeah.”

  We walked in the house, my arm around his waist, his around my shoulders.

  “It’s just grass,” I told him softly.

  He stopped us at the front door and curled me into his front. “Yeah, Vi, it’s just grass. And your brother just died. I’d have a lot more patience with her shit if it was two months ago or six months from now. She’s not gonna change but she should be human enough to pick her times. She wasn’t so I hope that check is not in your box. She needs a lesson and I’m in the mood to give her one.”

  “Joe –”

  His head dipped down and he touched his lips to mine before saying, “Don’t worry, baby, whatever I do won’t blow back on us.”

  “But, she’s alone, Cory hasn’t been back for ages and she’s –”

  He interrupted me. “A woman who needs a lesson.”

  “Joe –”

  “Vi, beer.”

  I studied him and I knew enough to know Joe had made up his mind.

  Therefore, I sighed, walked in my house and got my man a beer.

  * * * * *

  It was dark, the girls were asleep and I was cuddled into Joe’s side.

  “Joe?” I called.

  “Yeah, baby,” he answered.

  “Scales are even,” I told him on a whisper.

  “What?” he asked.

  I closed my eyes, pressed closer, opened my eyes and kept whispering. “Missed Tim, missed a lot of things about him. One of those things was knowin’ there was someone who’d look out for me, the girls.” I pressed my lips together and bit them both as I felt his body grow tight then I continued. “Remember that night we met? I had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to ask Kenzie to turn down the music?”

  “Baby –”

  “Tim would have done that. I wouldn’t have had to put on those boots and go into the cold.”

  “Vi –”

  “I wouldn’t have had to leave our bed.”

  He rolled into me, murmuring again, “Vi –”

  “I wouldn’t have had to tromp through the snow, get cold or even get angry.”

  His hands started moving on me under his tee as he whispered, “Shut up, buddy.”

  “Tim always had our backs, he never let anything like that touch us. Never.”

  “Vi, shut it.”

  “You won’t either.”

  “Shut it, Vi.”

  “We had everything. Everything. Tim gave it to us. Having Nicky, you had a lot, Joe, but you never had everything so you can’t know how much it hurts to lose it.”

  Joe was silent.

  I kept talking. “Having it back, you giving it to us, the scales are balanced.”

  He didn’t tell me to shut up again. He kissed me, not hard and greedy and demanding. No, it was long and tender and beautiful.

  When he was done, he tucked my face into his throat and held me.

  “Love you, Joe,” I whispered to his throat.

  “Love you too, buddy. Go to sleep.”

  “Okay. ‘Night, honey.”

  “’Night, baby.”

  It took awhile for me to sleep. It took longer for Joe. I knew this because I fell asleep before him.

  It was strange I got to sleep because my mind was focused on wondering what was on his.

  But I got to sleep.

  And I again slept the night through without the nightmare.

  * * * * *

  The check was in the box the next morning well before nine.

  Tina was a bitch but she was no fool.

  Joe looked annoyed. I was relieved.

  The girls were both up early. Kate had her last shift noon to four at the Custard Stand before quitting to go back to school on Monday. Keira had a full day of sunbathing and pool frolicking ahead of her at Heather’s, her last hurrah before school started. I’d gotten them up because I needed to give them instructions before I left and they started their days.

  “Keirry, baby, can you clean your bathroom before you go to Heather’s?” I asked, though I didn’t expect an answer, I just expected her to complain about it then do it, so to avoid the complaining I hurriedly turned to Kate and went on. “And can you vacuum and dust before you go to work? I’ll mop the kitchen after dinner tonight but I’ll be late because I have to do the big shop for Gramma and Grandpap before I get home.”

  Before Kate could agree and Keira could bitch, Joe said, “Make a list, I’ll swing by the store after I deal with the yard.”

  All three pairs of Winters girls eyes went to Joe.

  It was me who spoke.

  “Deal with the yard?” I asked.

 
“Tim’s folks’ll be here tomorrow, buddy. Can’t have that word bleached into the lawn,” Joe answered.

  This was true but a quick fix was virtually impossible unless you, say, killed all the grass around the letters. This was an option which held merit since I didn’t want Bea and Gary to see the lawn like that and worry. But after the care I’d taken with my lawn, it wasn’t one I liked overly much.

  “How are you gonna deal with it?” I asked with curiosity.

  “Dig it out. I’ll be at the garden center sometime late mornin’ to pick up some rolls of sod.”

  I hadn’t thought of this option mainly because that was a lot of work, it would take a lot of time and it would cost some cake. The first one I could do, the second one, no way (making, for me, the task impossible, but not for Joe), the last one, since Joe was paying for everything, was also doable but I wasn’t used to having leftover money yet so it didn’t spring to mind.

  I had thought of watering the hell out of the yard to drain away the bleach and sprinkling grass seed then watering the hell out of the yard again. This would mean the word “bitch” would be in my yard for weeks, maybe months, which sucked.

  Joe’s solution was so much better.

  Before I could tell him that, Keira piped up. “I’ll help you!”

  My mouth dropped open. So did Kate’s.

  Keira giving up sunbathing and pool frolicking to help Joe in the yard was a miracle. Such a miracle, if I was a Catholic, I’d notify the Vatican, no joke.

  Again, before I could say anything, Joe, who was sitting on a stool next to Keira (Kate was behind the counter with me), reached out and wrapped a big hand around the back of her neck. Then he gently swayed her side to side.

  “You’re with me, honey, we’ll have it done in no time.”

  Keira beamed at Joe. Kate turned startled eyes to me. I wished I had time to lead Joe to our room and rip his clothes off.

  Since I had to go to work, instead I said to Joe, “Walk me to my car?”

  Joe’s eyes came to me, he nodded, gave Keira one last sway with his hand, let her go and walked me to my car.

  I unlocked it, opened the door and stood in it as Joe came to stand in front of me.