At Peace (13 page)

Cal didn’t tell her that either.

“
We’ll get through this…” her hand lifted
and she gestured at the mall, “and we’ll go home and you’ll
disappear like when we first moved in. You’ll be a shiny, Ford
pickup in your drive and that’s it. Yeah?”

“No.”

He watched her upper body jerk and she stared
at him.

Then she repeated, “No?”

“What Colt tells me, your situation is
extreme.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“You live next door.”

“It’s still none of your business.”

“You got two girls.”

He watched her swallow as something crossed
her face before she hid it.

Fear.

Cal felt that lock in his chest too.

“This is my business, buddy, people pay me a
lotta cake to keep them safe,” he told her.

“
It might be your business, Joe, but
this
is not your
business.”

He leaned into her and she held her ground,
glaring up at him.

Quietly, he reminded her, “I’ve had my dick
in you.” He watched the color hit her cheeks, she opened her mouth
to speak but he kept going. “That makes it my business.”

“That’s ridiculous,” she hissed.

“No, it sure as fuck isn’t.”

“I don’t want your help.”

“Too bad.”

“Joe –”

“Too bad.”

“Dammit, Joe –”

She stopped speaking because he grabbed her
hand and started walking, hauling her along with him.

Her girls were standing inside the mall doors
looking out at them and when they hit the sidewalk, Violet twisted
her hand out of his.

Cal allowed this. He was there looking out
for her and her girls. He wasn’t there to give them any ideas or
start anything up again with their mother.

They walked into the mall and
even though Violet said she
wasn’t going to Lucky that was the first place she directed
them.

She stopped just inside the store, looked at
her daughters and stated, “You both have one hundred and fifty
dollars to spend in here.”

Cal thought this would be met with shrieks of
joy but it was not. Both girls looked at their mother and didn’t
move nor speak. Keira even turned her ankle to the side with sudden
discomfort.

“Hello?” Violet called. “Did you hear
me?”

“That money’s for you,” Kate said to her
mother.

“Yes, and I’m giving it to you,” Violet
returned.

“Granddad gave that money to Uncle Sam for
you to use,” Keira put in.

“He gave it to me to do with what I wanted
and I’m doing that,” Violet told her daughter.

“We already spent our money,” Kate replied
firmly.

“So now, spend more,” Violet responded even
more firmly.

Neither girl responded nor did they move.

They all looked at each other, locked in
silent mother-daughter combat. Cal wondered who’d win but if he had
to put money on it, his money would be on Kate and Keira.

As he watched the silent showdown, he decided
he liked Violet’s girls.

“
I know!” Keira suddenly exclaimed,
breaking the tense silence. “I’ll be your personal shopper!” She
jumped forward, grabbed her Mom’s arm and, yanking on it, turning
to Cal and Kate. “You guys, go get coffees. I’m gonna find
Momalicious some
kick butt
Lucky!”

“Keira –” Violet began but Cal turned to
Kate.

“Let’s go,” he said, jerking his head to the
doors of the store and he waited while she glanced at him then
headed out.

Cal followed her then walked beside her as
she headed to the coffee place, making a bee-line straight to it.
She knew this mall like the back of her hand and she obviously
drank coffee.

She didn’t speak and acted like she was
uncomfortable though she wasn’t awkward. Cal was wrong that they
didn’t get anything from their mother. They had a hint of her
attitude and they had her natural grace.

When they got to the front of the line, Kate
ordered three complicated drinks and then glanced hesitantly up at
him.

“Coffee,” he said.

“Americano?” the clerk asked.

“Whatever, just coffee.”

This seemed to confuse the kid then he
rallied and asked, “Room for cream?”

Cal just stared at him, he grew flustered,
bent his head to the cash register and started pressing buttons.
Then he grabbed a paper cup and wrote something on it and set it by
the big coffee machine with the other three cups.

He heard Kate laugh softly and he looked at
her, seeing he was wrong again. Violet’s daughters weren’t just
pretty. With Kate’s face relaxed and smiling, she was more than
pretty. She wasn’t a knockout but she was something else and it was
all good.

Kate went for her purse but Cal murmured,
“No.”

She looked up at him and pulled her lips
between her teeth as he paid.

They walked to the other end of the counter,
waited for their coffees and nabbed them when they arrived.

Quietly and politely, Kate told him, “Cream
and sugar are over there.”

“I take it black.”

“Oh,” she whispered, nodded then turned and
led him back the way they came.

Halfway there, shyly she said, “I’m going out
with Dane Gordon.”

He knew she was. He knew the Gordon kid
too. Good-looking boy, kickass tight end. Rumor had it that
colleges were already scouting him even though he was a junior.
Kate had scored with him, then again, Gordon probably felt the
opposite and he wouldn’t be wrong.

“Yeah?” Cal prompted when she didn’t go
on.

“He, well… he thinks you’re the bomb.”

Cal didn’t reply. He knew the kids in town
thought this and they thought it because he knew a lot of famous
people but his job was far from glamorous.

She went on. “He says he wants to do what
you do, after school.”

“Someone gives him a full ride, he should go
to college.”

She nodded. “He’s thinkin’ he’ll do that too,
but, um… maybe do what you do after.”

“Smart.”

Her head jerked around and up, she smiled at
him and he found he was wrong again. She got her mother’s smile and
that locked in his chest too, also not in a bad way.

“Pays good, girl, I’m not complainin’, but
the folks I look after, they’re a pain in the ass,” he told her
truthfully.

“Would you talk to him?” she asked, she was
back to shy but she pulled up the courage to ask because she liked
this guy.

This was where he reckoned this was
heading and he shouldn’t do what he was going to do. Violet would
be pissed and he didn’t even
want
to
do it but he did it anyway.

“You see my truck in the drive and he’s
around, come over.”

This bought him another smile and she
whispered, “Thanks.”

The minute they hit the store Keira ambushed
them, her arms filled with clothes.

“
I’m gonna be
your
personal shopper too!” she told him, her eyes
bright and happy. “I found a bunch of clothes that would
look
killer
on you.”
She looked down at the pile in her arms and muttered, “I hope I got
the sizes right,” her head tilted back to him again, “the dudes at
the counter saw you and guessed.”

Jesus. He was not going to try on clothes.
Everything he owned he bought at the Levi’s store, except his
leather jacket which Bonnie bought for him. He went in, got it,
didn’t try it on and got the fuck out. He went shopping probably
once every three years.

“Keira, I’m not sure Joe’s into shopping,”
Kate wisely shared with her sister.

“
But these clothes are
awesome
. Some of the shirts will go with his
eyes,” Keira replied.

Cal looked down at the pile of clothes then
at Keira.

“Girl, I wear black and I wear Levi’s.”

Unlike any other human being on earth who
heard the way he spoke, Keira was not deterred. “But Lucky jeans
are
the
best
.”

“I wear Levi’s.”

“But you haven’t even tried Lucky.”

“Keira, he said he wears Levi’s,” Kate put
in.

“What’s going on?” Violet asked and they all
looked to the side.

He was wrong again, this time about the
clothes. Violet was standing there wearing a skintight, purple,
low-cut tank top and a pair of jeans that were so fucking sweet on
her, his hands itched again to touch her in order to peel those
jeans off her.

“
Oh my
God
, Momalicious!” Keira screeched. “We have to get you that
tank top in every color.”

She was not wrong.

“Those jeans are hot, Mawdy,” Kate noted on a
happy smile.

She was not wrong either.

Violet twisted and looked at a tag then back
at them. “I could buy a car for the price of these jeans.”

“
They last
forever,
” Keira informed her mother.

“Maybe so, honey, but –” Violet started.

“You don’t buy that outfit, buddy, I’m buyin’
it for you,” Cal entered the conversation.

All three females turned to stare at him,
Violet with color in her cheeks; Keira with a huge smile on her
face (also her mother’s, though Cal had never seen Violet smile
that big); and Kate with shock.

Violet shook off her response first. “Joe
–”

He cut her off. “It looks good.”

“But –”

“Get it.”

“I don’t think –”

He leaned into her and dropped his voice.
“Seriously, buddy, fuckin’ get it. It looks good.”

He watched as she closed her eyes and, the
look on her face, he wished he’d kept his fucking mouth shut.

When she opened them again, her eyes were
blank.

Her voice was soft when she asked, “Can you
try not to say the f-word in front of my daughters?”

Before he could reply, Kate spoke.

“It’s okay, Joe, kids at school drop the
f-bomb all the time,” Kate assured him and before Violet could say
anything, she turned to her mother. “Mom, Joe’s right, you should
get that. It looks really great on you.”

Violet drew in breath and nodded. “All right,
baby, I’ll get it.”

“I’m gonna go get more of those tanks,” Keira
said, dumping the clothes she picked for Cal in her sister’s arms
even though the girl was holding two cups of coffee. “Wardrobe
staples. Perfect, you can wear them all the time, in the summer, in
the winter under tops and cardigans…” her voice trailed off as she
took off on her mission to find more tanks.

“You want me to put these away, Joe?” Kate
asked him quietly and he nodded to her.

Then in an afterthought, he murmured,
“Thanks, girl.”

“No problem,” Kate whispered and took
off.

Violet looked up at him.

“This is yours,” he told her, handing her a
cup.

She looked down at it, seeming confused for a
second then she took the cup from him and muttered, “I’m gonna go
change.”

Then she took off.

Cal watched her move through the store.

Then Cal wondered if her husband used to shop
with her and his kids. He wondered if the man stood in some store
with a coffee waiting for his girls to do what they did. If he got
impatient with it because it wasn’t a whole helluva lot of fun
except when Violet walked out of a dressing room, looking so
fucking sweet she made the whole thing worthwhile.

Then Cal wondered if someone told him that
he’d eventually be whacked if her husband would ever get impatient
waiting for his girls to do what they did. Cal figured, unless her
husband was an asshole, he wouldn’t. He’d take his girls shopping,
to dinner and to the movies every fucking night.

Cal walked to the counter and leaned into
it to wait for Violet and her daughters. The kids manning it
scattered, something that happened a lot with Cal because he was
big and because he was how he was. This didn’t bother him. It was a
bonus with his profession.

He took a sip of coffee and he tagged where
both girls were in the store and Violet’s feet under the dressing
room door. He kept them tagged, though mostly with his ears,
listening for their voices, pinpointing the sounds they made as he
scanned the store and the mall beyond.

No threat, he would feel it, he’d had a lot
of practice.

Then he found them with his eyes again and
waited impatiently, because it wasn’t a whole helluva lot of fun,
for them to do what they did.

* * * * *

Cal pulled Violet’s Mustang into her
drive.

It was after she’d bought her jeans,
another short skirt Keira made her try on (and it was sweet too,
though nowhere near as good as the jeans) and four of the same tank
tops in different colors.

It was after her daughters dragged them to
a shoe shop which was torture compared to the jeans store
considering Violet tried on at least twelve pairs of shoes. She
eventually bought a pair of high-heeled sandals she swore she’d
never wear but both her daughters declared she had to have. Again,
her daughters weren’t wrong. They were sexy as all hell.

It was after dinner which was the only glitch
they had after his conversation with Violet in the parking lot
considering he paid and she made it clear she didn’t want him to.
She made this clear by having what could only be described as a
quiet tantrum right in front of her daughters and the waiter.
Keira, who should pursue a career as a diplomat, waded in and
suggested her Mom pay for Cal’s movie and popcorn to even things
out. Violet gave in and Cal allowed this but only because he had no
intention of eating popcorn.

And it was after a fucking boring romantic
comedy that both girls declared was
the best movie they’d ever
seen
. This was mostly
because they liked Nicole Bolton’s clothes and they thought the
actor who played her love interest was
gorgeous.
Cal and Violet had both stayed silent on the
subject, then again, they didn’t need to speak, even Kate went on
about it so there were no openings to get a word in.