“It’s been in his family for a long
while so I’m pretty sure if he gave it to you, he meant for you to keep it.” She
smiled again. “I take it he hasn’t popped the question that usually goes with a
ring like that, has he?”
“Popped? No. He’s ordered and told me
what he thinks he wants, but I think it was just the sex. He seemed to…” She
shut up, knowing that she was babbling and embarrassing herself. “I’m sorry. I
don’t know why I told you that.”
“You needed to, that’s why.” She looked
around and told Joey to follow her. She led her to another door and knocked
before going in. “Here. You need to speak to these ladies. I’ll tell the
gentlemen that you’re busy at the moment.”
Joey found herself inside the office and
the door shut before she could say anything. She turned to the room when she
heard a small laugh.
This room was vastly different than any
of the others she’d been in. this one was an office that she could work in if
she was an office sort of person. The plants were healthy and green. The
windows were huge and bright with sunshine, and the furniture looked like the
woman who came toward her. Well, both women. The younger Hunter women, as a
matter of fact.
“I heard you were coming in today. Annamarie
is upset that she couldn’t be here when you spoke to the Feds. She seemed to think
you were going to kick some ass and take names later. Have a seat.”
Joey didn’t want to sit. She wanted to
give someone this ring and leave before she did something really stupid like
tell Jesse Hunter she was in love with him.
“If you could please take this thing.” She
held out the ring again. “I’ll be on my merry little way and everyone can move
on with their lives.”
“It won’t work,” the other woman, she
thought her name was Kylie, said. “You can try to get away from the Hunter
family, but they keep coming back for you. I tried several times before I
finally admitted that I needed him in my life.”
“I don’t want him in my life. I was
doing just fine before. And I don’t want to talk any more about that stupid
cunt that…sorry, Mrs. Jennings anymore.”
Both women laughed.
“No, you had it right. Sondra Jennings
is a cunt.” This from Kasey, Royce’s wife. “You didn’t sit. I wish you would. I
just spoke to Royce and he said your grandmother is trying to bargain with them
about you.”
Joey sat. She’d assumed this was about
the other woman, not her grandmother. “What has she to bargain about me with? I’m
not going back there if that’s what he thinks. I’m going to move into my own
place soon enough and I’m never going to let her find me again.”
“Your own place? I thought you were
going to move in with Jesse?” Joey was shaking her head before Kylie finished. “Then
where are you two living? I assumed, well, we all assumed you and he were
getting married. Thus the ring.”
Joey put the ring on the table next to
her. “I can’t marry him and you guys know it. And since we’ve established that
I’m having sex with him, I can tell you right off that there is little sleep
involved. He is a lawyer, for Christ’s sake. What does he want with a college
dropout who doesn’t have two nickels, hell, not even two cents to rub together?”
She stood up again. “Tell him that he doesn’t’ have to listen to my
grandmother. She’s nothing more than a drunk and an abusive bitch.”
She was nearly to the door when Kasey
spoke again. “She told him that you beat her. That you were the abusive person
and that most times she feared for her life.”
She turned slowly back to the women. “Does
he believe her?”
“I don’t believe so,” Kasey said
quietly. “Why don’t you go and find out? Jesse Hunter is a good man, Joey, and
I believe he loves you a great deal. And if he doesn’t love you that much
already, then he is fast getting there.”
Her heart was breaking and she wasn’t
sure what to do. She knew her grandmother hated her, but had never known the
extent of it. She leaned her head against the door she’d turned back to. “I
love him. I think I…I think I was born to love him and now…I don’t understand
this.”
“Understand what, Joey? Why he can love
you? I’m sure any one of us could give you a starting list.” She shook her head
at Kasey’s question. “Then is it your grandmother? If so, then you can do
something about that right now before the old bitch dies. Ask her. When my
mother died, there was so much I wanted to tell her. I know what you have to
say to that old bitch isn’t the same, but if you can, say it now.”
Without turning around, she spoke. “When
my parents died it really didn’t mean all that much to me. It was more like I’d
lost a long lost uncle and aunt than my parents. They didn’t want me, I’m not
even sure why they had me, but they were so involved that they ignored me for
the most part. When it was beneficial to them they’d dress me up and parade me
in front of their friends. Then they were killed. I had to go and live with my
grandmother then. I was excited. I didn’t even know I had a grandmother until
the week before I moved in.” Joey laughed bitterly. “That lasted until I
crossed over the threshold. She hit me with her cane the second the man who’d
brought me there left. It didn’t get any better as the years went on.”
“Someone should have come back to ask
you if you were fairing alright. What did you tell them when they did?”
“What I needed to tell them to survive.”
She opened the door. “I’m going to do this, but not for her or him. I’m doing
this for me. Then I’m leaving and I want you all to leave me alone.”
She didn’t wait for them to speak, but
left the room. She thought she heard someone say, “You go, girl,” but couldn’t’
be sure. This time, when she went to the door that she knew belonged to Jesse,
she simply opened it on her own and slammed it behind her.
“You fucking bitch. How many times do I
have to tell you to leave me the fuck alone?”
Her grandmother stood up and raised her
cane up. Before she moved, though, she seemed to change her mind and sat back
down hard. She turned to the men sitting there and wiped at her cheek. Joey
didn’t think the woman could cry unless she heard the words “last call” at her
favorite bar.
“See what I was telling you? She’s so
abusive to me. But she’s all I have in my golden years and without her help, I
just don’t know…even with all her hurtful words and meanness, I need someone to
watch over me in the event I fall.”
Joey saw Mrs. Hunter roll her eyes and
Daniel cover his mouth. She thought maybe they were laughing. She didn’t look
at Jesse, not sure what he was doing. But Royce stood up and came toward her.
She flinched away when he reached for her.
“I’m going to show you to your seat,” he
said quietly. “I swear none of us Hunters will cause you any harm.” She looked
over his shoulder at Jesse.
“Are you sure about that?” Jesse looked
ready to kill and, since he was looking right at her, she thought maybe he was
mad at her. Royce looked at his brother then back at her with a wink.
“Right before you came in she was telling
us how you would take her pension checks and blow it on drugs. Want to come and
listen to the fairy tale with us?” He handed her off to Jesse, who took her
hand. “Let her sit next to you. Maybe between the two of you, one or both of
you won’t end up going to prison for murdering this lying bitch.”
Royce moved away as Jesse continued to
look at her. Before she could figure out what he wanted, he pulled her into his
arms. He only held her to him and it felt like nothing she’d ever felt before.
When he tilted her chin up and she looked at him, he smiled.
“I love you, Joey Foster. And will for
the rest of our days. I want to ask you something I should have days ago. And
even though now is not the time, I need to ask you now so that I can clear this
up before much more time goes by. Okay?” She nodded. “Joey, will you please run
our new green house? We were given an option to purchase Patty’s place and
we’ll do it if you’ll run it.”
She didn’t move. She could feel the
smile on her face start to slip and tried to bolster it up. When she looked
over at his family sitting there with her grandmother, she felt…she wasn’t
sure. But she knew that this wasn’t what she wanted.
“I can’t. I’m so sorry.” She walked past
him and toward her grandmother. It was all she could do not to break down and
start screaming. “Grandmother, you are not a part of my life. I’m over eighteen
and have no use for you. So I tell you this with all sincerity. Fuck off.”
Chapter 20
Jesse watched his mother walk in. It had
been two weeks since Joey had left the building, and today was moving day for
him. He sat down in the chair that he was taking with him as soon as the movers
showed up. And it couldn’t be soon enough.
“Mom. If this is about the merger deal
then I finished the paperwork this morning. Royce just has to sign off on it.” He
knew that wasn’t it. She’d been in here every day asking if he’d found Joey. He
hadn’t, and he didn’t want to talk about it again.
“Good. He’ll be happy. When are the
movers coming?” She picked up a picture frame out of a box and put it back
before she looked at him. “Jesse?”
“They’re on their way. We should be
finished up before end of day. Did you and Kasey get all the shopping
finished?” He remembered vaguely that they were going for something for another
thing, but he didn’t remember the details.
“Yes. We saw Joey too.” He didn’t want
to react, but his heart took a sudden skip and he felt like he was going to
pass out. “She’s working, she said. I guess she’s still living where she can,
though. When Kasey asked her where she was staying she said that she was still
working on that.”
He had to clear his throat twice before
he could get the lump there to move. “Did she get her check from Doyle? He said
he’d make sure she got it from the insurance company. That was really nice of
them to give her a finder’s fee, don’t you think?”
He snapped his mouth closed. He didn’t
like babblers and he wasn’t going to do it now that she’d ripped his heart out
and tossed it on the floor back to him. He reached down and touched the ring in
his pocket. He’d not been able to put it back in the safe since Kylie had given
it to him that day. She and Kasey were still mad at him and hadn’t spoken to
him since.
“I don’t think so. If he did, she didn’t
mention it.” She picked up another item off his desk and put it back. He had a
feeling she wanted to say something to him, but was sure he didn’t want to hear
it.
“Why are you here?” She turned to look
at him with a raised brow. He took several deep breaths while he pulled his
anger back to him like a shield. “You’ve been in here every day trying
something to get me to tell you what happened. I don’t know. She left me and
told Doyle to tell me to stay away. I’m staying just like she said.”
“What did you tell her that day?” He
rolled his eyes and sat down when she asked. “You said you offered her a job
and she walked away. What did you say to her exactly?”
“I told her that we’d been able to
purchase the greenhouse and that I needed to know if she’d run it.” She sat
down across from him as he continued. “She just looked at me then told her
grandmother to fuck off and left. I don’t know how many times—”
“Did you tell her that you loved her?” He
nodded. “So when you offered her the job, did she know that you were hoping
she’d take it as your wife and not an employee?”
“I’d already told her that we were
getting married. She isn’t that dense that she figured I was asking her to run
the place as my live-in girlfriend.” He stood up again and started taking
things off the walls. “She left and that’s all I know. If you wanted more
information then you should have asked her.”
“Take it down some, young man. You’re
still my son and I will hurt you in ways you can’t imagine.”
He turned to look at her, his heart no
longer able to just beat in his chest as if nothing had happened to it. “I
don’t think even you can hurt me any more than she did.” She walked over and put
her hands on his cheeks. “Mom, I love her so much.”
The slap to his cheek hurt and stunned
him. He took a step back when she looked like she was going to hit him again. Before
he could ask her what the hell that was about, she poked him in the chest. “You
told
her she was marrying you. You
told
her that you loved her.
You were awfully full of telling her what was what, weren’t you?” Before he
could speak, she held up her hand. “You didn’t ask her for her hand, did you? I
would bet that you didn’t even see if she loved you. Did she tell you that she
loved you?”
“No, but—”
“She did Kasey and Kylie.”
That shut him up. He looked at the door
and wondered if they were in their offices. He was ready to find out when his
mother spoke again.
“I don’t believe she’s ever said those
words to anyone, do you? And I doubt very much anyone ever said them to her
without making her feel like she should be grateful for the words.”
“I never said them to her for that. I
never…I never said them to her and had her believe me.” He sat down hard on the
couch. “I’m such an asshole.”