At Peace

by Kristen Ashley

  I put my arm around my daughter and opened my mouth to speak but Joe got there before me.

  “I appreciate this is an intense time for you, Pete, but you do not come into this house and shout, not in front of the girls and definitely not at the girls. Not during an intense time, not… fucking… ever.” Joe still had Keira at his side, his arm was around her and he was holding her close but he was leaning threateningly toward my father. “You need to go somewhere and pull yourself together and you need to do it now or you’ll find yourself not in this house. Do you get me?”

  Dad stared at Joe, tardily realizing that he should have paid closer attention and I opened my mouth to speak again but Vinnie was there.

  “Pete?” he asked, his hand on my father’s back, “I’m Vinnie, Cal’s uncle. Let’s you and me take a walk.”

  Dad looked at Vinnie in confusion as Vinnie pushed him toward the door, Dad resisted (but feebly) and Kate and I moved to the side to let them pass.

  “Who’s Cal?” Dad asked, looking around, his face having lost its anger, he was now full on perplexed with a little hint of lost mixed in.

  “I’ll explain on the walk,” Vinnie muttered, opened the front door and shoved my father through it before he could utter another sound then he shut the door and I watched him half-push, half-guide Dad down the walk.

  I looked at Joe who still had Keira tucked close to his side. “Can we call Doc now?” I asked then in an effort to lighten the mood went on to joke. “I could use that Valium and, maybe, a shot of tequila.”

  Joe’s eyes sliced to mine. I noted that he didn’t look amused, Kate giggled nervously and Joe’s eyes moved to her.

  “Dane’s shit sorted?” he asked in an almost bark.

  Kate didn’t even flinch before she replied quietly, “He burned her phone number.”

  “He know he does that shit again I’ll break his neck?” Joe went on.

  “Joe!” I snapped and this time Keira giggled, not nervously at all.

  “I kinda alluded to that,” Kate answered on a grin.

  Now it was me who was not amused.

  “Joe, I’m not gonna say it again. Stop threatening to break Dane’s neck!” I snapped again.

  Joe looked at me. “All right, buddy, there’s a next time he acts like an ass, I’ll threaten to rip his head off.”

  “Joe!” I cried angrily.

  Joe ignored me and looked back at Kate. “Where is he?”

  “He left. I asked him to go home so we could have our family drama and he wouldn’t know we were all crazy, change his mind and want to break up with me,” Kate replied.

  Joe’s arm curled Keira in an even closer sideways hug. “Thinkin’, girl, he already gets that.”

  “Yeah, that cat’s outta the bag,” Keira agreed, her arm snaking around Joe’s middle to hold on and Kate laughed.

  But I didn’t.

  Bea, Gary, Theresa and Vinnie were there, as was my father who had left my mother, at long last, but this was still a shock. My father had also shouted at Joe and Keira. Before that emotional scene we’d had another emotional scene which necessitated a timeout where we all cuddled in bed with Joe which was, frankly, a weird thing to do no matter how natural it felt. My eldest daughter was taking relationship advice from my boyfriend who wasn’t all that great with relationships or at least it took him awhile to come around. And both my daughters were acting like my live-in boyfriend of one week had been around for the last year.

  “I need to go to the liquor store,” I announced.

  “Buddy –” Joe started to say, his lips curving into a grin.

  “No, we have wine and we have beer but we don’t have tequila. I need tequila.”

  “Vi, baby, it’s not even noon.” Joe said.

  “I need tequila.”

  “Relax.”

  “I need tequila.”

  “Honey, relax.”

  “I need tequila!”

  Joe’s hand whipped out, tagged me at the neck and I fell face forward into his chest. As I had my arm around Kate, she came with me so we ended in a four person huddle.

  I pulled my face out of Joe’s chest and looked up at him.

  “Tequila,” I muttered and I heard Keira and Kate giggle.

  “Baby,” Joe muttered back and touched his mouth to mine before he finished, “relax.”

  I was about to explain, again, that Joe telling me to relax didn’t mean I’d do it when I felt a presence and I turned my head to see, shockingly, Bea had come close.

  “Vi, sweetie, I’ll make my sangria later. We can have it with dinner. How does that sound?” Bea asked.

  Bea’s sangria was brilliant. Way better than her chocolate cream pie.

  And Bea getting close to our huddle even though she still looked timid, she nevertheless was close, was the best.

  “We’ll go to the grocery store when we get school supplies,” I said to Bea.

  “Perfect,” Bea replied quietly then she smiled at me.

  Then I watched as she smiled at Joe.

  It was then I relaxed.

  * * * * *

  Storms in the Midwest, bad ones, had a way of announcing their arrival well before they arrived. You could feel them and you could see them as the air went still and took on what I could swear was a tinge of yellow. You could even smell them.

  Considering the emotional start to the day, the emotional months that had preceded it and the fact that it looked and smelled like there was going to be a storm, a bad one, maybe even one that heralded a tornado (tornados being something that scared me shitless), it maybe wasn’t so surprising when I lost it on the sidewalk outside the store.

  See, making matters worse, I’d had nothing but a corn dog and a Slurpee for lunch and I was starving. Further, I saw the lightning and heard the far away thunder. The time between lightning flashes and thunder rolls was dwindling, the storm was fast approaching and I was getting antsy because I didn’t want to be at a strip mall, a veritable magnet for tornado activity (in my storm fevered imagination). I wanted to be home.

  What made matters even worse was Dad, Gary and Uncle Vinnie decided to come with us and Joe came along too, likely to play his self-appointed role of emotional bodyguard. I was very aware of the facts that Dad and Gary weren’t the best of friends; Bea was still stinging from had happened nearly two decades ago with Mom and Dad was a stark reminder of that; Dad wasn’t Joe’s favorite person at that moment; the girls were with a bunch of people they loved, their favorite thing in the world and in full on shopping mode, their second favorite thing in the world and something which nothing penetrated, even if they were only buying notebooks and pens; and I was a walking emotional zombie, barely holding it together. Therefore, Vinnie and Theresa were working triple time to keep our troop from descending into madness.

  That said, Vinnie and Theresa, just being Vinnie and Theresa, weren’t the best choices for this job considering they were naturally pretty bonkers.

  Even so, we were somehow making it through the day. We’d been to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for sangria, it was closing in on Sangria Time and I’d started to count down the minutes.

  After the grocery store, the girls got their stuff and they’d scored huge what with Gary and Bea, Vinnie and Theresa, Dad, and lastly Joe vying to spoil them rotten so they had enough school supplies to last them until they were eighty. They also had new CDs by their favorite bands (Joe’s contribution though he flatly refused in a teasing way to buy Keira any boy band music to which Dad stepped in, thinking he was doing something good, and bought them which ticked Joe off for reasons only known to Joe and Keira had to play peacemaker). They also had new brushes, combs, shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, makeup and enough hair accessories to service the entire freshman class (Theresa’s contribution on a smile and a vague “All girls need a little… you know,” when I tried to intervene).

  Joe was loading their multitude of bags in the trunk of the Mustang while both girls were close, gabbing at Joe. Dad was t
rying to help at the same time looking like he was going to burst into tears. Vinnie was trying to distract Dad and failing which meant Dad was getting in Joe’s way. Gary, Theresa and Bea were down the sidewalk looking into the windows of the bakery, Theresa exclaiming loudly, “They have no cannoli!” to which Bea nervously giggled. And I was standing alone and slightly removed from the rest of them.

  This made me the bizarre target for a beautiful blonde who walked right up to me and started speaking.

  “Rumor’s true. You broke him,” she said, her eyes on Joe who was grinning down at Keira and ignoring Dad as he slammed the trunk of the Mustang.

  I turned my head to look at her, seeing firstly that she was beautiful and secondly that she had bitch written all over her.

  “Sorry?” I asked.

  “Cal,” she tipped her head toward Joe but kept her eyes on me, “you broke him.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Tina told me,” she went on and I felt liquid steel injected into my spine at the mention of Tina’s name. “I had a taste of him,” she shared, smiled and the way she did it I knew I was right. Total bitch. “Delicious,” she finished.

  I turned fully to her.

  “Who are you?”

  “Susie Shepherd,” she answered. I vaguely knew her name from somewhere but I didn’t have time to figure out where since I was focusing on her smile getting bitchier, this didn’t give me a good feeling and I’d shortly find out why it was doing that. “You’re done with Mike, you won’t mind I have a go?”

  That steel in my spine solidified.

  “Are you kidding me?” I whispered.

  “Or, my preference, you get done with Cal, I’d like another taste. More accurately, I’d like to give him another one.”

  “You’re kidding me,” I whispered hopefully.

  She leaned in, dashing my hopes. “Best head I ever had. Cal works miracles with his tongue, sheer talent. He made me come so hard, I thought for a second I died and I didn’t mind one fucking bit.”

  I leaned in too and hissed, “My daughters are five feet away.”

  She leaned slightly back. “No worries. They get a bit older, he’ll do them too. They got something to look forward to.”

  “What?” I shrieked and she grinned a catty grin.

  “Nails everything in town, don’t you know?” she informed me. “We’re all just wondering when he’ll get done playin’ with you.”

  “Susie –” I heard Joe say, his voice sounding supremely scary, even scarier than a very scary Joe could sound but I’d had enough.

  I was done.

  There was a huge clap of thunder that rumbled through the air like a physical thing and this was accompanied by a streak of bright lightning.

  The storm was there. The heavens opened and the rain poured down.

  This all drowned out my scream as I took Susie Shepherd down right there on the sidewalk.

  I found quickly that she’d grown up without brothers because she fought like a girl which was why I was able to start beating the crap out of her.

  That was until Joe pulled me off of her, set me on my feet, wrapped an arm around my chest, one around my ribs and backed us away several steps all the while I struggled in his hold.

  “Get the girls in the car.” Joe ground out.

  “Cal –” Vinnie said.

  “Car! Now!” Joe barked and this time it was an actual bark. “Get them outta here!”

  “Mom, you okay?” Kate asked with worry in her tone.

  I was so out of it, Kate’s tone didn’t register as I was still struggling to get at Susie Shepherd, a woman I did not know but I didn’t care. I was going to rip all her now sodden golden tresses out by the roots.

  “You bitch!” I shrieked.

  She was pulling herself to her feet and wiping blood from her lip. She looked at the blood mixed with raindrops on her hand then she stared at me.

  “You busted my lip!” she squealed.

  “I’m gonna bust more than that!” I screamed then demanded, “Joe, let me go!”

  “Come on, girls,” I heard Dad say, “get in Vinnie’s car.”

  “Mom –” Keira called.

  “Car, Keirry, sweetie. Please.” Bea said.

  “I’m gonna sue!” Susie shouted.

  Joe was trying to move me toward the car but was having trouble since I was fighting like a she-cat to get at Susie. Fighting so hard even big Joe Callahan couldn’t subdue me.

  “If you’re gonna sue then I best give you something good to sue me for!” I threatened.

  “Cal, everything all right here?” a man asked, running up and holding a jacket over his very blond head and I saw it was Chip Judd, the man who put in my security system and screwed up the wiring so Joe had to fix it.

  “You let her break you?” Susie asked Joe, ignoring Chip and pointing a finger at me. “Her?” she repeated, her voice filled with disgust, her mascara melting down her face and another rumble of thunder filled the air accompanied by a flash of lightning.

  “Vi, quit fightin’, get in the car,” Joe muttered in my ear.

  “You once were magnificent. You’re nothin’ now. The whole town’s talkin’ about it,” Susie insanely taunted Joe.

  “Shut your mouth, Susie Shepherd,” a woman with long dark hair and a fabulous figure (and I knew this because her sundress was plastered to her body by the rain and the wind which had sprung up and was lashing all around us) rushed forward to stand by Chip. “No one’s talkin’ that trash but you and Tina.” The brunette turned to Joe and me. “We’re all real happy for you Cal.”

  There you go. Explanation of why everyone kept staring at us and mostly Joe.

  “Josie, do me favor, babe, don’t get involved,” Chip said to the woman.

  “Like she’ll listen to you,” Susie’s voice was dripping with derision, “you’re so pussy whipped you’re not even a man.”

  Acting on manly instinct at such a slur uttered at one of his brethren, Joe stopped moving. Chip pulled himself up to his full height which was pretty tall and he dropped his arms and the jacket but it was Josie who acted.

  “You bitch!” she shrieked, lunged forward and shoved Susie in the chest causing Susie to step back on her foot. “Don’t you talk about my man that way.”

  “Don’t you touch me!” Susie shrieked back.

  “Susie, get gone,” Joe warned.

  “Fuck you, Joe Callahan!” Susie snapped.

  “You wish!” Josie yelled. “Everyone knows you tried to get in there and nothin’ goin’. Now everyone knows you and Tina are talkin’ trash about Cal and Violet because you made your play and he didn’t like what he got when he had his piece of you so he threw it away and Tina’s been livin’ by him yonks and couldn’t catch his eye.” She looked at me. “Can’t deny, we’re all real curious, the whole town is, but it don’t take a psychiatrist to see you’re hot, Cal’s hot, hot attracts hot so, you know, hot moves in next door, shit’s gonna happen.”

  I’d stopped struggling because I was staring at Josie and now trying not to giggle as I got the rest of why everyone kept staring at Joe, me and the girls and I found it didn’t annoy me anymore. It would hit me much later that Susie Shepherd was one of Joe’s ex-lovers but when it did, it didn’t hit me hard. She was gorgeous for one so that explained that. She was a bitch for another and that explained why Joe took what he wanted and then didn’t come back for more. Therefore it wasn’t worth discussion, something which I decided Joe and I would never have and we never did.

  “Um…” I started, “you know me but I don’t…”

  “Josie Judd,” she said, coming forward seemingly impervious to the rain, hand extended, “Chip’s my husband.” I shook her hand and shoved wet hair out of my face while blinking against the fat drops of rain hitting my eyes as she stepped back and kept talking. “Sorry Chip fucked up your wiring. He tried real hard to figure that shit out, spent all night goin’ over Cal’s plans but Cal’s a security genius. My Chip, he’s good but h
e isn’t a genius or I’d be livin’ in LA gettin’ a pedicure every week.”

  “Oh, please, this is gonna make me sick,” Susie griped and Josie whirled on her.

  “Then go away and by the way,” Josie said, “Chip likes my pussy but it’s my mouth he loves and that’s because I love his big, gorgeous dick. You stop bein’ such a bitch, Susie, and use your mouth for good not bad, you might get a man with a beautiful dick who’ll give you some on a regular basis instead of runnin’ as fast as they can to get away from you. Only man you could hold onto was Colt and he was only fuckin’ you ‘cause you reminded him of Feb.”

  “Oh Jesus,” Chip mumbled.

  I was thinking this was a lot of information most of which I didn’t want to know but I really didn’t want my daughters to know it.

  I twisted my neck slightly and whispered over the wind to Joe, “Please tell me my daughters are no longer here.”

  “Gone, buddy,” Joe muttered and he didn’t sound pissed, he sounded like he wanted to laugh.

  “Bea?” I asked.

  “Gone,” Joe answered.

  “Thank God,” I murmured.

  “He likes your trashy mouth,” Susie shot back, my eyes turned to see she looked fit to be tied but she was also not stupid enough to go so far as to make it get physical again. She’d learned that lesson twice in the last five minutes. Now she was just trying to save face.

  “Only one’s got a trashy mouth is you, Susie Shepherd,” Josie retorted and put a hand to her hitched hip and threw out a foot and I tensed because this stance boded bad tidings in Catfight Land. Josie didn’t seem at all fazed by the fact that it was pouring buckets and the wind was whipping her hair and dress all around, she was in the zone. “I don’t know what you said to Violet to make her take you down like that but I do know you better watch your ass. You got enemies and we’re not talkin’ enemies like Denny Lowe. We’re talkin’ women who are up to here,” she lifted a straightened out hand to her chin and continued, “with your and Tina’s shit and we ain’t takin’ it anymore.”