“That’s a gold card. Come on, let me
help you make the sucker cringe a bit.” Joey didn’t know what she meant, but by
the time she was finished, she thought maybe the sucker wasn’t just cringing,
but having a massive heart attack too. She only hoped that when they got the
bill, they didn’t make her pay it all back. Joey was hyperventilating by the
time she pulled into the lot at the site four hours later.
And it was well past three in the
morning when she staggered home after planting until she had to leave for the
bar then help Doyle close down. She was sure that there were parts of her that
didn’t hurt right now, but she didn’t know where that was. Exhausted and dirty,
she took a very cold shower in the empty building then crawled into her
sleeping bag. She was actually looking forward to more abuse like this in the
morning.
Chapter 11
Jesse was waiting in her driveway when
his mom got home. He needed to talk to her and for reasons he couldn’t begin to
understand, wanted her to tell him that every name he called himself throughout
the evening and all night weren’t half as bad as he thought they should be. He’d
been a total ass and he knew it.
“Jesse Michael Hunter, what have you
done now?” He raised a brow at her and she continued. “I’ve had four calls
today from your brothers telling me that you’re sporting two black eyes and a
busted lip. I can see now that they weren’t kidding. Is that the reason you
didn’t stay all day at work?”
“Yes and no. Can we take this inside? I
could use a drink and you might want one too. At least you might need it to
throw in my face.” She looked hard at him and he let her. He was sure she could
see what he’d been feeling all day.
They went to the den and sat down. The
cook, Lucy Mae, took one look at them, shooed off the maid, and took the tray
of crackers in cheese into the room with them. As she made sure they were all
served with drinks and food, she turned to him. “This girl, you hurt her like
she hurt you?” He winced at the direct question and shook his head. “Good for
you. And her. She needed a reason to hit you like she did, I’m guessing?”
“Yes, ma’am. I was an ass. Probably more
than that, but in mixed company, I’ll leave it at that.”
Lucy looked over at his mom. “You gonna
beat his bottom like I told you to do more’n one occasion when he was a boy?”
Jesse looked at his mom as she stared at
him again. “No. I think he’s doing that all by himself.” She looked up at her
and knew that the two women had always been more than simply cook and employer;
they were friends. “Lucy, could you add another plate to the table for us? And
we might be a bit. Will that be a problem with dinner?”
Lucy snorted indelicately. “No. You ever
have a bad dinner from here? I don’t think so. You mind your son and I’ll mind
my dinner.”
They both watched her as she huffed from
the room. She was still muttering about dinners and bad boys as she closed the
door behind her. Jesse turned back to his mom and apologized.
“I don’t think you should be doing that
to me, but I think I understand. Who is she?”
“Josephine Foster.” He got up to get
more ice in her glass and paced the room as he continued. “I was stupid. More
than that, I was hurtful to her. I never touched her, but—”
“I know that, son. I know you well
enough to know that you’d never hit. But she was mad enough at you to hurt you.
What happened, and don’t leave anything out. I’m not so old or stupid as to
think that my sons aren’t having sex.”
He nodded, knowing now why he’d come
here. He and his mom had always had a great relationship. He’d been able to
speak to her about anything and everything. Unlike his brothers, he wasn’t
afraid to tell her when he’d fucked up. And use that verbiage to tell her so.
“I should have taken her home. At least
somewhere to make sure she wasn’t as needy as I’d been. But I was embarrassed
at the way she’d dismissed me. As if she did that sort of thing all the time.”
“But you embarrassed her too, didn’t
you?”
He frowned at his mom, trying to think
how, when she answered her own question.
“When Conley came to the door, what did
you say to him? Did you tell him to go away, that you had unfinished business
to take care of? Or did you cover up what the two of you had been doing in
there in the first place? I’m sure he knew before he knocked. You said
you’d…err…finished.”
He sat down hard. Had they heard them? Probably.
If he thought about it, he’d never even tried to be quiet about his release. He
glanced at his mother who was blushing. He felt his own face heat up at what
they’d been talking about. “She probably thought that I was trying to hide the
fact that we’d just had mind-blowing sex. Or at least I had.” He got up to pace
again. “I didn’t even give her a chance to explain either, but got pissy about
her trying to ignore me.”
“Well, that’s nothing I want to know
about, honestly. The mind-blowing part. What I want to know is what you’re
planning to do about it. I guess you are right. Or do you not care about her
enough to want to fix this?”
He stopped pacing. That was where he was
having his biggest concerns. Not only did he want to fix this, but he needed
to. “I’ve only known her for a few weeks. Three actually, and I can’t seem to
find a way to stop thinking about her. I thought at first it was because she
saved your life, but that’s not it. Though I do thank her for that, but I—”
“Have you told her that? That you thank
her for saving me? I know that Royce did, as well as Kasey. Joey of course
brushed it off, but I know they did offer her anything that she wanted. Curtis
and Kylie offered to name their baby after her and she told them that that was
a horrible thing to do. Even Daniel has gone to her twice. She isn’t happy with
him, of course, but he did offer to go after her grandmother and get her money
returned. The old woman won the lotto a few years back and is living off it.” His
mom stood up as she continued and went to the small desk near the windows. “And
this is from the governor. He said she didn’t show when he asked to have her
picture taken for being a hero. He thought her ungrateful. Of course I didn’t
tell the pompous ass that she didn’t do it for him.”
It was a framed certificate that named
her honorary city employee. He looked up at his mother. “Honorary city worker? That’s
bullshit. Why didn’t he give her a real job?”
“You mean like you arranged for her?” He
flushed again. “What do you really want from this girl, Jesse? Sex? If so, then
there are any number of girls that would give you that. Do you feel like she
owes you or you her? I would think that you would feel that you’re both even on
that, wouldn’t you? My advice to you is this.”
He waited for her to continue. When she
didn’t, he knew she was waiting on him to ask, so he did. “I would like your
advice. That’s why I’m here. I like her. I don’t know why, but I do. We’ve done
nothing but fight since…well, I mean, we’ve done more than fight, but you know
what I mean.”
“Yes, I do. Date her. Take her out. Woo
her. You might find there is more to her than you first thought. I know I have
found that to be true. She’s something else and, well, I’m thinking I’d like
her to be my friend.”
“She’s not all that happy with me right
now. Neither is Wills. I’m pretty sure she knows where she’s staying and won’t
tell me.” He grinned a little. “I think Wills will dig a hole and bury me in it
with concrete if I go by her site again.”
“I bet she would too. Joey works for
Stone Construction. The building that Wills is currently working on is for sale
now and Joey is doing the landscaping so they can unload it.” His mom stood up
and moved to the door. “I don’t think you’ll be staying for dinner after all,
son. I think you should go buy you a new building for your new life, become a
landlord to the James boy, and find yourself a decorator for the place you call
home.”
“I like my old building. And what do I
want with a new one anyway? That one has charm.”
“Yes, but you might soften up Willow if
you buy that building from her, and that could go a long way to getting Joey on
your side if you have an ally in your court.” She stood in front of him and
kissed his chin. “Now get out of here. And don’t forget the flowers. Women love
having flowers on their desk when they come in in the morning.”
With that she was gone and he was left
standing in the middle of her den alone. He looked up when Lucy came in with a
list. He took it from her and, without a word, she left him. He looked down at
the neatly printed list and threw back his head in laughter.
Step one,
it read.
Tell
the girl you’re sorry every day for the rest of your life. Step two, take her
out to dinner without sex. Women like that
. By the time he got to number
twelve, he knew that Lucy was on the right path and pulled out his phone to
make some calls.
“Hello, Jared. How much you want for
that building on Hamilton?”
~~~
Joey was digging holes the next morning
when she heard the trucks begin to pull in. It had been a rough night for her
and she was sure she was coming down with something. First, there was her boss
yelling at her. Then there was the call from someone at the bar.
She’d put in another day like the one
before and Wills had yelled at her for over two hours. It might have been
longer, but her husband had picked her up and put her in the truck to go home.
Joey cried all the way to the bar.
Wills had thrown a fit because of her
hands. Joey looked down at them now and could still feel the sting of the
blisters that had burst. She’d been planting in the north garden when Wills had
come to tell her she was springing for lunch. Joey had just wrapped her palms
back up and Wills had seen her.
“What the fuck? Did you even wear
gloves?” Joey told her she had, but it was still nothing she’d been used to. “Come
with me.”
Joey thought about not following the
pissed off woman, but thought better of it. When this was finished she’d need a
reference if the job with Patty didn’t work out. So with heavy feet she went
into the trailer where not only Wills was, but her mother too. Both women had
cleaned the open sores and yelled at her for several minutes before they got a
look at her shoes. For some reason Wills seemed more pissed about her ratty
tennis shoes than the sore hands.
“Your feet will have to carry you
wherever you go. Those will heal,” she said about her hands. “But your feet get
sore, and you’re no good to me.”
Joey took it, sat there with a heavy
heart and sore hands, and let her scream and yell. When Wills stepped outside
for a minute her mom patted her on the hand and smiled.
“She’s mad at me. I told her today that
I thought she was pregnant and she’d wanted to surprise us at Thanksgiving with
the news.” Mrs. James handed her a bottle of open water. “If she didn’t like
you, she wouldn’t yell. Strange as that sounds, it’s the truth. You should hear
her with her brother.”
After that, Wills had made it a point to
come and check on her every half hour. By the time Jared carried her off Joey
was ready to murder the woman, damn the references. Then the call came at the
bar.
“You think you can hide from me, but I
know where you are. The empty building on Maple won’t be standing much longer
and you’ll be dust before they find your body under it.”
To say she’d been terrified would have
been an understatement. It had taken her twenty minutes to calm herself down
and all night, every time the phone rang, she’d been sure it was that person
again. Someone calling her at the bar wasn’t unusual, but that type of call had
her sleeping in a different building last night and she’d not gone to get her
blankets.
Looking around the area, she was
pleased. The fountain on the other side of the building was going to be
completed today if the concrete was cured enough. The water would be turned on
Friday. She reached down to get the next bucket of Canterbury bells.
These were the middle flowers in the
bed. The flowers were tall and the rest of the bed would fan out from them on
either side. The purple of the flowers would blend well with the other flowers,
poppies, and lupins. Then in the front of them, she’d planted petunias and
bellflowers to hug the ground.
Along the wall where the windows had
stopped she had planted tall grasses. Oriental fountain grass was going to be
beautiful from May until last frost, and the Japanese eulia grass was going to
bring the fall colors all together with its brilliant orange color. In the
front of this she’d planted hosta and Aphrodite, another type of flower-bearing
perennial that was sure to blend well into the years with little work.
Joey was putting the last of the second
row on both sides when she heard her name called. Looking up, she saw Kasey,
Royce’s wife, and Annamarie. Groaning, she told them she was nearly finished
and would be there in a few minutes, but the women came toward her, talking a
mile a minute about what she’d done.
The concrete for the walkways had been
deemed ready yesterday so all the barriers were gone. The woman walked along
them in much the way that Joey had thought the employees would, admiring the
color and the smells. She couldn’t wait to go and work on the last part of this
project, the fountain. All she needed to do there was hang the baskets from the
hooks she’d had installed before the walls had been set in place. Two weeks and
she was nearly finished.