At Peace (30 page)

She met him, their mouths and bodies
colliding, as hungry for it as he was. He moved her from the door
and shuffled her across the room to the couch, his hands on her
shorts, her hands on the fly of his jeans. Their mouths still going
at it, Vi didn’t waste time, pulled him free, her hand wrapped
around his hard cock and she was stroking.

He yanked down her shorts and underwear, she
stepped out of them and he shoved her back onto the couch,
following her down.

In order to distract him while she tried to
roll him, she used her tongue on his neck and her nails down his
back but he slid a hand from her ass, down the back of her thigh to
her knee, gripped it, pulled her leg out and wrapped it around his
hip.

“I want the top,” she said into his ear, her
voice was a demand which turned into a moan because his hand went
from her leg to between them so he could press his finger to her
clit. When he did, with the moan, she slid her other leg out from
under him and hooked it around his thigh.

“I’m ridin’ you, buddy.”

“No fair, you always get the top.”

“Not always.”

“Most of the time.”

“You can have the top tonight.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah.”

Her mouth came to his, her eyes smiling then
he kissed her and feeling her wet, as usual with Vi, his control
slipped and he replaced his finger at her clit with his dick in her
cunt.

“Joe,” she breathed against his mouth, her
breathing his name against his lips forcing him to drive into her
harder and she whispered, “I’m glad you’re home.”

Yeah, he was home and it felt fucking
great.

He rode her hard and she lifted her hips to
meet him, her legs tight around his hips, her fingernails digging
into his back and he rode her until she came and longer, until he
did.

He stayed buried inside her, his face in her
neck, her arms and legs wrapped around him and he listened as her
breath steadied.

Eventually, since Vi didn’t seem to be able
to be quiet very long, she asked, “How was your flight?”

“Early,” Cal said into her neck and went on,
“long.”

“I’ve never been to LA.”

“Not missin’ much, buddy.”

“I heard it’s fun.”

His head came up and he looked down at her,
her ponytail spread on his couch, her mouth swollen. Christ, she
was beautiful.

He pressed his hips into hers, got off on
watching her lips part and her eyelids lower and then he told her,
“Never been there for fun.”

She smiled at him and her arm left his back
so she could curl her fingers around his neck.

“You should try it.”

“Don’t do much for fun.”

“You should try that too,” she said softly,
her fingers coming up to stroke his jaw.

He didn’t reply, just let the tone of her
words and her touch settle in.

Yeah, he was home.

He never thought about it, it never entered
his mind. He lived his life and went where he needed to be.

But Vi on his couch, he realized for the
first time he could remember, it was good being home.

“Is most of your work out there?” she
asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you move out there?”

“’Cause LA is insanity, filled with fruits
and nuts. Indiana is sanity, meat and potatoes. I’m a meat and
potatoes man.”

She’d watched his mouth while he talked then
her eyes came to his when she said, “Yeah, fruits and nuts are good
on occasion, but you need meat and potatoes.”

He smiled at her, she smiled back then she
lifted up her head to kiss him gently which was good, saved him the
trouble of bending his head to do the same.

Then a phone rang and her head went back to
the couch but twisted to the side.

“That’s my cell,” she told him.

Cal reached out an arm, grabbed her shorts
and dragged them across the floor then he pulled her cell out. He
looked at it and the display said “Sam’s cell.”

“Sam,” he told her, her eyes got big, she
snatched the phone out of his hand, slid it open and put it to her
ear.

“Sam!” she cried loudly. “What’s up, baby
brother?”

The brother. The brother she obviously cared
about because she was still lying under him, his dick inside her
and she seemed to have forgotten.

He slid out, her chin dipped, her face grew
soft and her lips parted and he grinned at her because all of that
told him he’d reminded her and she liked him where he was.

“What?” she said into the phone distractedly.
“Sorry, yeah, I’m here.”

Cal moved down her body, pulling her tank up
under her tits and then he put his mouth to her ribs.

Her fingers slid into his hair.

“What?” she asked again, his mouth moved down
further and she said, “Yeah, things are good. You?” He circled her
navel with his tongue, she sucked in her stomach and her breath and
she said, her voice sounding choked, “Can you hang on a second?”
She tugged at his hair and he lifted his head to see she had her
hand curled over the phone and it was away from her face. “Stop it,
Joe.”

“You taste good, buddy.”

Her eyes got wide then they narrowed and she
hissed, “Stop.”

He slid down further, to between her legs,
she scrambled up to get away and he caught her hips, yanking her
under him while surging up and covering her with his body.

He put his mouth to hers and he whispered,
“All right baby, I’ll stop.”

“
Thank you,” she snapped, her eyes still
narrow, he grinned at her again and she put the phone back to her
ear. “I’m back,” she said and looked at him. “No, it’s nothing,
just an annoying neighbor.” Cal laughed softly and shoved his face
in her neck so he could run his mouth along her skin. “What?” she
asked. “No joke!” she cried. “Yes, definitely,
absolutely.
” She was silent a second then asked, “Mel
too? Oh, Sam, the girls’ll be thrilled to bits.” Another pause and
then, “How long?” His head came up, he shifted a bit to the side,
settling on an elbow in the couch to watch her talk while he
righted his jeans and she said, “That’s all?” Her eyes came to him
and she went on. “Well, we’ll take it, even if it’s only a
weekend.” Another pause then, “Yes.” Another pause. “You got it,
I’ll definitely make it. Kate’ll be beside herself, she hasn’t had
my seafood risotto in ages. Anything else you want?” She listened,
her face changed, her eyes went unfocused and a look settled on her
features, affection, plain as day, she loved her brother it was
obvious she didn’t try to hide it and she said, “Yeah, we can do
family time, you bet.”

Cal found his hand moving toward her face
then it cupped her jaw, his thumb moving out to stroke her
cheekbone and he watched her eyes shift to him, that love still
shining there and that contraction hit him in the left of his chest
again, this time stronger than before, nearly painful. She focused
on him but that look didn’t move from her face.

“Yeah, we’ll see you then,” she whispered,
her eyes still on Cal. “Can’t wait, Sam.” She paused to listen then
said, “Me too, love you… my love to Mel. Bye.”

She slid the phone shut and Cal asked, “Let
me guess, your brother’s comin’ to town?”

A smile split her face and she nodded. “Him
and his girlfriend, Mel. Next weekend.”

“Good news, buddy.”

“Definitely.”

She reached down, nabbed her panties from the
floor and he slid to the side as she lifted her legs then her hips
as she yanked them on. The minute her legs settled back to the
couch, he rolled his lower body over hers again and her eyes came
to his face.

“He close to your folks?” Cal found himself
asking and then watched as she burst out laughing. His question was
so hilarious, she rolled into him, sliding her arms around him,
holding on as her body shook with laughter at the same time she
shoved her face in his chest.

“Vi,” he called.

She pulled her face away and tipped her head
back.

“That was funny.”

“I could tell.”

She grinned at him. “The answer is no, Sam
is
not
close to my
parents. Neither of us are. Me because I got pregnant at seventeen
and married the baby’s father after which they disowned me. I think
it was less me getting pregnant and more me getting pregnant by
Tim. Tim was not my mother’s idea of a perfect match. Tim’s Dad was
a fireman, his Mom a nursing assistant. My Dad was an officer at a
bank and my Mom was, and still is, a lady who lunched.”

This surprised him. There was nothing about
her that hinted she came from money.

“Sam was a hellion,” she went on. “He started
rebelling when he was about five and didn’t stop until a few years
after he met Mel and she had enough time to calm him down. Still,
my transgression was apparently worse than Sam’s gazillion fuck ups
so, after I screwed up so royally according to Mom and she turned
her back on me, she made it her mission to stay in Sam’s life. He
puts up with it, mostly because he gets on with Dad. She does it, I
reckon, because she’s not stupid and she knows when she’s
slobbering in her jell-o she’ll need someone to come and visit her
so she’ll have someone to bitch to.”

Cal looked down at her and found his mind
moving to her at seventeen, pregnant and probably scared out of her
fucking mind and her mother turning her back on her.

Then his mind moved to the woman lying on his
couch who dressed like she dressed, worked like she worked, made a
house like she did and created and raised two girls like hers, now
carrying on alone. He couldn’t believe any mother wouldn’t be proud
of all of that.

“Musta been hard, buddy,” he said softly and
her head tilted to the side.

“What?”

“Makin’ a life at seventeen.”

She shook her head, her eyes drifted and her
face grew soft when she said, “Tim’s folks weren’t like my folks.”
She looked back at him and continued. “They loved him, they loved
me, they thought we did the right thing, just too soon. They took
me in when my parents kicked me out. We got married in their
backyard, sweetest wedding you’ve ever seen.” Her voice got quiet
when she said, “His Mom did that.” Her face was still soft with the
memories as she went on. “We moved into their garage while Tim went
to college. They’d done it up as a TV room and changed it to a
bedroom so we could move in, helped me, helped Tim, took care of
Kate, the whole shebang. A couple years later, they even built on a
big addition at the back where they had their own bedroom, bathroom
and living room and pretty much gave us the rest of the house. We
didn’t move out until a couple of years after Keira was born. Tim
had finished school, was in uniform and, by then, we had a down
payment for a house. We moved in down the block from them. They
were pretty much in our lives almost daily since I found out I was
pregnant.”

Although Cal was relieved she hadn’t had it
rough after her parents kicked her out, he didn’t want to talk
about this, about her husband, about her life and memories that
made her voice go quiet and her face get soft.

Even not wanting it, he still asked, “You
still close to them?”

She swallowed and sadness swept the softness
from her face. She looked like she looked when he first met her, a
look he hadn’t seen in awhile, a look he didn’t like. She missed
them being down the street but, mostly, she missed her old
life.

“They call, the girls especially, a couple of
times a week,” she answered. “I talked to them a lot when we first
moved, but not so often now that I’m working full-time. So, no,
we’re not close anymore. I’m not fired up to go to Chicago and they
aren’t big on travelling so they’ve visited only twice.”

“Chicago’s only four hours away,” Cal pointed
out.

“Chicago is where Daniel Hart lives.”

“I wasn’t talkin’ ‘bout you goin’ there,
buddy.”

She shook her head. “They go to Florida once
a year, Joe. Two weeks. In January. They stopped by on their way
there and back. That’s all they do. They’re both still working,
both full-time and they’re just not like that. They stick to their
‘hood, what they know. They were relieved when Tim and I moved down
the block instead of further away. Even fifteen minutes would be
out of their comfort zone unless Tim went to go get them. It’s not
so much his Dad, it’s his Mom. She’s quiet, really shy, she likes
what she knows, the rest I think scares her.”

This, Cal did not get. He couldn’t say he
knew much about families since his had died with his mother but he
spent enough time with Uncle Vinnie, Aunt Theresa and their kids
Vinnie Junior, Carmela, Benny and Manny to know they were loud and
in your business even if your business was six states away. Carmela
had moved with her husband to California and Vinnie Senior and Aunt
Theresa used every excuse they could to visit her. When Carm’s
first kid lost his first tooth, they got on a fucking plane.

And they’d taken him on when his mother died.
Even before that, they were down from Chicago visiting, Vinnie
Senior was close to his sister, he didn’t like to be away from her
long. But when Cal’s Mom died and they cottoned on to the state of
his Dad, their visits were more frequent and, eventually, they’d
come, get him and take him to Chicago. Vinnie Senior, with Vinnie
Junior in the car, driving down on a Friday to pick him up for the
weekend, bringing him back on a Sunday so he’d be home before he
had to go back to school.

“Is, um…” she hesitated, he focused on her,
she bit her lip and asked, “Your family close?”

“Mom and Dad are dead,” he told her and he
listened to her suck in a soft breath.

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“Joe,” she whispered.

He couldn’t handle that, hearing the sadness
in her voice when she said his name. He couldn’t handle it because
he didn’t fucking like it.