At Peace (32 page)

“
Buddy, that’s life. You always work to
balance the scales. You don’t wanna owe someone something, even if
it’s only in your head that you owe ‘em and they don’t give a shit.
It’ll fuck with you. So you give back to balance the
scales.”

He knew he had her with the way her face
changed, not that she nodded in understanding, instead she looked
more irritated because he was right.

“That said,” he went on, “I’d buy this and
install it for nothin’, you need to take care of your car and Kate
doesn’t need to be scrapin’ ice off hers either. I thought you’d
let me do that and know those scales stayed balanced, I wouldn’t
have said shit. But you wouldn’t let me do that, I know because you
asked how much the fuckin’ thing cost.”

She glared at him, even more irritated
because he was again right.

Then she changed the subject and he knew she
was trying to piss him off further too.

“If I’m not a booty call, what am I?”

He looked over her shoulder to see Keira
skipping across the yard, swinging her bags, going to the front
door of the house.

Then he looked at Vi and muttered, “Jesus,
Vi.”

“
No, I wanna know, what is it that we’ve
got?”

“What it isn’t is a booty call.”

“You said that already.”

Cal glared at her and she took it, waiting,
silently demanding an answer.

So he answered, “I enjoy you, you enjoy me,
for as long as it’s good.”

“That’s it?” she asked, her face carefully
controlled, her body tense, fighting to hide her reaction to his
words and, in doing so, not succeeding in hiding the fact that he’d
gotten under her skin too.

Shit.

He should have never fucking started this
again.

He forced his voice to soft when he replied,
“I thought we had an understanding, buddy.”

She held his eyes a moment then she stepped
away, murmuring, “Yeah, we did.”

The side door opened and Kate called out,
“Here’s your Coke, Joe.”

Cal looked from Vi to Kate and saw Kate also
got her mother’s walk, cool, calm, unconsciously moving her hips,
swaying her ass, in possession of her body in a way that no teenage
girl should be. Dane probably saw her walking down the hall and
knew he’d go for it.

Or he’d seen her smile.

First chance he got, he was having a
conversation with Dane.

She made it to him and handed him the
Coke.

“Thanks girl,” Cal muttered.

“You want a sandwich?” she asked. “We got
turkey and roast beef.”

Vi’s kids were polite. Cal wasn’t
surprised.

“I’m good.”

“You want one, just call,” she said, looked
at her Mom, gave her a small smile and then she walked away.

“I’ve got shit to do,” Vi mumbled but Cal
reached out a hand and grabbed her arm.

When she turned back to him he said, “We’re
not done, buddy.”

She looked at him and replied, “I don’t think
I’m comin’ over tonight, Joe. I got things to think about.”

He knew what she’d be thinking about, she’d
be thinking about ending it. He also knew she should and, she
didn’t, he knew he should but he wasn’t ready.

“Vi.”

Carefully, she pulled her arm from his hand
and asked, “You gonna be in town awhile?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll talk later,” she said quietly and
moved away.

He let her. He let her because Colt was now
with Feb and Myrtle across the street and he’d taken Jack from Feb.
He had the baby held close to his front, both arms wrapped around
the boy but his eyes were on Cal. So were Feb’s. Myrtle didn’t
notice, she was busy gabbing.

Cal opened the Coke, took a drink and set it
aside.

Then he went back to the ladder.

Fifteen minutes later, he was standing in
front of the garage door testing the remotes when a dark blue
Chevrolet Equinox pulled up to the curb and Mike Haines jumped
down.

Cal watched him, his mouth getting tight,
seeing Mike’s eyes on him as he walked up Vi’s drive and noting
Mike’s mouth was set tight too.

“Cal,” Mike greeted.

“Mike.”

Vi came out the side door, her eyes jumping
between them, uncomfortable and unprepared for this scene.

Mike turned to Vi, watched her walk up to
them and said softly, “Hey, sweetheart.”

“Hi,” she replied and Cal felt his gut get
tight.

“Got plans tonight?” Mike asked Vi and Cal
watched Vi’s eyes remain glued to Mike.

“No, why?” she asked back.

“Thought we’d reschedule dinner for tonight,”
Mike answered and Cal knew the asshole was making a point, doing
this with him standing right, fucking, there.

“Um…”

“My place, six o’clock,” Mike said firmly,
not waiting for her to reply. “You still got my address?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Mike said, again talking soft then he
lifted a hand to her jaw. “You have troubles findin’ it, you give
me a call, yeah?” She nodded, he leaned in and touched his mouth to
hers.

Cal locked his body to steel against the heat
burning in his chest.

When Mike’s head came up, Vi’s eyes slid to
Cal, she pressed her lips together and looked back to Mike. “Um…
Mike –”

“Six o’clock.”

“Um –”

He dropped his hand and cut her off. “See you
then,” he turned, nodded to Cal, Cal nodded back and Mike moved to
his SUV.

Vi watched Cal.

Cal went back to testing the remotes and the
door slid up.

Then he heard her shout, “Mike!”

Cal looked at Vi then at Mike who was
standing at the back of his car.

“Yeah?” Mike called back.

“Do you need me to bring anything?” Vi asked,
making her point too and that burning in his chest grew hotter as
Mike smiled.

“Just you, sweetheart.”

“Okay, see you later.”

“Later.”

Mike got in his SUV and drove away.

Vi watched the street.

Cal closed the garage door.

Then Cal said to her, “Buddy, your
remotes.”

She looked up at him and asked, straight out,
“You don’t even care, do you?”

Oh he cared, too fucking much.

“We’re not that,” he reminded her.

She stared at him and he saw it in the backs
of her eyes. Disappointment, even pain, and he nearly lifted his
hand to touch her but he didn’t have the time.

She stepped back and whispered, “Right.”

He was a dick, Christ he was a dick, he
should cut her loose.

For the life of him, he just fucking
couldn’t.

She started to turn but he called to her,
“Vi,” her eyes lifted to his and he held out the remotes, “door’s
workin’, these’re you’re remotes, one for you, one for
Kate.”

She stared down at the remotes in his hand as
if she had no idea what they were but whatever they were scared the
shit out of her.

Then taking the remotes, her voice flat, she
whispered, “Thanks.”

“Buddy –”

“See you later,” she said quickly.

“Vi.”

He could say no more, she walked away, cool,
calm, her hips moving, her ass swaying and he watched her until her
side door closed.

Then he looked at her garage door.

Then he walked to his house.

* * * * *

Cal was sitting outside on his deck at dusk,
his feet up on the railing, knees cocked, looking at his yard
without seeing it, his second beer in hand.

Vi’s Mustang was gone, she was at Mike’s.

He took a pull from his beer then looked to
the side hearing it and waited finally seeing Colt round the
house.

“Hey,” Colt called.

“Yo,” Cal replied.

“Mind company?” Colt asked, coming up the
steps.

Cal did. He didn’t want company. He also
didn’t want to talk about whatever Colt was over to talk about. But
he didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts, thoughts of Vi at
Mike’s, thoughts of Mike’s mouth on Vi, his hands, thoughts that
were fucking with Cal’s head.

“
Nope,” he said to Colt. “Beer’s in the
fridge,” he offered, “bring me one.”

“Gotcha,” Colt muttered, sliding the door
open and stepping inside.

Cal looked at his yard then he looked at
Vi’s.

He paid a service to mow his in the
summer, that’s it. It was green because this was Indiana and they’d
been having regular night rains and random day thunderstorms but it
was nowhere near as healthy as Vi’s.

Vi couldn’t afford to pay a service. But you
could see in the small ditch that delineated their property where
her lawn stopped and his started. Hers was greener, no weeds,
thick. Her deck had fancy garden furniture with an umbrella, not
white, plastic chairs, like his. She had little and big pots of
flowers all around, bright colors, vibrant, alive.

The Williamses who’d lived there for as long
as Cal could remember were house proud. They took care of their
place, built on the extension in the back, put in the deck, updated
the bathroom and kitchen, installed the alarm. When old Dec
Williams died, his wife Martha moved to Bloomington to be close to
her kids and grandkids, selling the house she’d lived in for fifty
years to Vi.

Even as well as Dec and Martha took care of
their house, Vi did it better.

Colt came back, scraped another plastic chair
next to Cal’s and handed Cal his beer. Cal took it, downed the
dregs of the last one and set the bottle on the deck as Colt sat
down and put his feet up on the railing, knees cocked, like
Cal’s.

“Weather’s good,” Colt remarked.

Cal didn’t answer. It was a warm evening but
no humidity, the day had been sunny, no clouds, a fair breeze.
There was no need to answer.

“You comin’ to the wedding?” Colt asked.

“Yeah,” Cal replied though he wanted to go to
a wedding like he wanted someone to drill a hole in his head. He
liked Colt and Feb enough to go, though. They wanted him there,
he’d be there.

“I’ll tell Feb, she’s livin’ and breathin’
this wedding, you show without RSVPing, her head might
explode.”

Feb, as far as Cal could tell, was pretty
laid-back. He showed and didn’t let her know he was coming, she
wouldn’t have cared less.

“You know Audrey?” Colt asked and, in the
middle of taking a pull off his beer, Cal’s eyes went to his
friend.

He swallowed and lowered the beer.

“Who?”

“Audrey Haines.”

There it was. Fuck.

“Nope,” Cal answered.

“
Total bitch,” Colt noted, “lazy bitch.
Mike ran himself ragged for years, used to do side work, security
for awhile then he made detective and started doin’ without, even
havin’ to make his kids do without so she could sit on her ass in a
designer track suit and watch soaps in that huge fuckin’ house. He
gave up; divorce was final two months ago. The whole department
celebrated. Good man like that doesn’t need to go home to that
shit.”

Cal didn’t reply.

“He’s into Vi,” Colt went on.

Cal took a pull of his beer. That didn’t need
a response either. Cal knew Mike was into Vi, he knew why, not to
mention, Mike had made a point of making that fact clear to
Cal.

Colt fell silent and contemplated Cal’s yard
while they both drank beer.

Eventually Colt continued. “You knew
Melanie.”

Cal did, he’d lived across the street from
her since Colt and she moved in. Colt’s ex-wife Melanie was pretty,
shy, sweet but shit scared of life. Cal never knew why they broke
it off, didn’t ask but he figured it was because it’d get old,
dealing with that shit, no matter how pretty she was.

“Yep, how’s she doin’?” Cal asked, since
Melanie had been caught up in that scene with Feb and Colt, Denny
Lowe kidnapping Melanie and holding her, Feb and Susie Shepherd
hostage.

It didn’t say much for him but Cal was glad
Susie’d been caught up in it. He’d fucked her, they had one night,
she was good but he was done and she’d almost acted like Kenzie
when he didn’t want seconds. Difference was, Susie wasn’t annoying
when she wanted something, she was a total bitch. How she thought
she’d get what she wanted acting like that, he had no idea. Likely
because her Daddy spoiled the bitch rotten. He thought that maybe
she’d take a look at her life when some psycho, serial killer shot
her. Susie didn’t. She was still a bitch, therefore, as far as he
knew, she was still alone.

“
Don’t know,” Colt answered his question.
“Took awhile but she pulled her shit together though I haven’t
heard from her for months. Don’t think I will, what with Jack bein’
born and the wedding comin’ up.”

Cal didn’t disagree. Melanie didn’t seem the
type to hang on. Cal wished his ex was the same.

“You know why we split?” Colt asked, Cal
looked at him, lifted his brows and Colt carried on. “Couldn’t fix
her.”

Cal pulled in breath through his nose and
looked away, muttering, “Colt.”

“Tried, man, years, fuckin’ years I tried.
She wanted a kid so fuckin’ bad, Christ, obsessed with it. And she
hated it when Feb would come into town, pissed me off, she’d get so
tense when Feb was here. Melanie thought I’d stray.”

Feb and Colt had been in item in high
school and after it. When they broke it off everyone, even Cal who
was young back then, maybe sixteen, had been surprised. They seemed
solid, more solid than anyone he knew. And Feb was
gorgeous.

On the one hand, he didn’t blame Melanie
with Feb being Colt’s ex, having their history. On the other hand,
Colt was Colt and that kind of shit was not Colt’s gig and everyone
knew that too, the person who should have known it most was
Melanie.

“Sucks,” Cal muttered.

“Nope,” Colt muttered back, his eyes on the
yard, he took a pull from his beer, then continued. “She didn’t
take off, I’d have a lifetime of that crap and I wouldn’t have
Feb.”