Page 25 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)
“How you doing, Siren?”
JD approached her in the kitchen just moments after she’d finished cleaning up.
“You’ve done well tonight,” she said. “I’m proud of you.”
“Me? They’re my family.”
“I see more of them than you do. And they like me more than they like you.”
Sliding his arms around her, he pulled her against him. “True,” he said, rubbing his chin side to side on the top of her head.
Sinking against him, she breathed out and slid her hands into the back pockets of his jeans.
Her drowsy eyes landed on the front door at the other side of the space.
“They’re playing board games?”
“In the living room,” he said. “I’m putting my money on Sky.”
“Kye will wipe the floor with them. But he’ll be so charming that your mom and Brenna won’t notice they’ve had their asses handed to them.”
He exhaled a murmur of a laugh and held her tighter, slowly beginning to move like they were dancing to an inaudible tune.
“You know…” she teased. “We have a clear shot at freedom right now.”
“We do?”
“The front door is right there. I bet we could be out of here for a half hour before they even noticed we were gone.”
“Plenty of time to get to the jet. Where would you like to go?”
“Venice,” she said. “Oh, or Monaco.”
“Monaco?”
“Sure. The kids couldn’t be mad about that because they’d hate it there.”
Still slow dancing, holding each other, every muscle relaxed while the smile in his tone grew.
“You don’t think we’d miss them?”
“We’d come back,” she stated like it was obvious. “Soon as I wipe you out in Monaco.” Breathing in, she sighed out her plan. “We come back, sell this place and use the money to buy ourselves a trailer in Michigan or Texas… You need to buy a wife beater and start drinking beer from the can.”
He laughed. “I do?”
“Sure. You can sit on a lawn chair wearing a ball cap making enemies of the neighbors by sleeping with their wives while they’re at work or out hunting.”
“Thought you wiped me out.”
“Your fortune, yes, but women sleep with you ‘cause you’re hot, not because of your money… at least at first.”
“What will happen to the kids?”
“They’ll grow up resenting us, which they’re going to do anyway. Kye will speak with a twang, wear pants that are too big and borrow your jalopy to go park with girls on weekends.”
“And Sky?”
“Will start wearing crop tops and hoop earrings, shouting about how grown up she is and how we’ll never understand.”
“I think she’ll do that anyway.”
“Maybe.”
“And us?”
“We’ll gradually descend into alcoholism and resentment.
Going out to bars at the weekend, I’ll flirt with other men to piss you off.
I’ll throw myself at them until they take advantage, then you’ll pin them down in parking lot brawls.
I’ll drag you away before the cops show up and we’ll scream at each other back at the trailer, but I’ll mop up the blood and clean your wounds, while telling you how stupid you are for getting into fights. ”
“And I’ll agree with you, but say I lose my head when I see other men touching you.”
She smiled. “Exactly.” Another sigh. “Then, with too much alcohol and regret in our systems, and the realization that our kids ran off and abandoned us long before, we’ll start the cycle all over again. You’ll knock me up right there against the aluminum siding.”
Running his hands up and down her back, he released a sound of satisfaction. “That’s some future we’ve got ahead of ourselves.”
She opened her eyes that had closed somewhere along the way and glanced across the room again. “And it all starts with walking out that door.”
JD kissed the top of her head. “I’ll race you to it.”
“Would you do it?” she asked. “If it was really going to play out that way?”
“Babe, it would never play out that way.”
“Because you’d never let me fritter away your fortune?”
“No, because I’d never let my daughter wear crop tops. Are you crazy? Those things attract boys.”
They were still laughing when Brenna’s voice interrupted them. “What’s so funny?”
“Damn it,” JD said. “We missed our chance.”
“Your chance for what?” Brenna asked. “What are you talking about?”
They were still dancing. The oddest thing about it was that it didn’t feel odd.
Brenna didn’t even comment or look at them like it was weird in the slightest.
“I want to take the kids to Disney this summer,” she said. “Will you take the family to Disney, JD? The kids would go nuts. I want to take them while it’s still magical to them.”
“I’ll hire ‘em the whole park.”
Giving him a quick squeeze, she backed out of his arms. “We don’t need the whole park; people are part of the experience.”
“Can I come?” Brenna asked, sitting on a stool.
“Sure, and Lotta, and your mom,” she said, going to join her friend. “We’ll have everyone.”
“She’s determined to fritter away my fortune.” JD leaned over her to get some nibbles from the bowl laid out earlier. “Because I haven’t bought her a trailer in Texas.”
She pushed her elbow into him and, tipping her chin to her shoulder, addressed him without seeing him.
“If we bring your family, we’ll have trusted babysitters on site.”
“Ah, good plan, Siren.”
There was something saucy about the way Brenna’s lips twisted. “And why would you need babysitters?”
“So I can throw myself at other men,” she stated matter of fact, scooping up some nuts.
Brenna’s smile gave way to confusion.
“It’s the only way I’ll notice her.”
With her brow pulled down, Brenna looked from one of them to the other and back. “And society calls me queer? Straight are the strange ones.”
Spinning around, Brenna hopped off her stool and went to join her mom and the kids in the living room again.
“You should invite Greg,” she said, propping herself against the counter, facing JD.
“Invite him where?”
“To Disney.”
“All he’ll want to do is talk work,” he said, coming closer to lean forward and set a hand on the counter on either side of her.
“We’ll get him out the habit. He doesn’t have anyone around here. I feel bad for him. He needs a support network.”
He narrowed one eye. “Is that code for a girl?”
“No, but, oh,” she said and pushed her shoulders back. “I know a girl in my old department who is nice. We could nudge them together.”
“Matchmaking? Is that really what we’re doing now?”
She popped one of her almonds between his lips. “He’s your friend, JD. He should be part of the family too. He better come to the kids’ birthday party in the park next weekend.”
“I’ll remind him.”
From his smirk, she wasn’t sure he’d ever invited him, or if he had that Greg had been receptive.
“Want me to call Nichelle?” she asked. “Your mom will come over and watch the kids. You could pay for dinner somewhere fancy, help Greg impress her.”
“Will that impress you?” he asked, angling closer.
She laid a hand on his shoulder. “All you’ve got to do to impress me is take out the trash… and do your share of bedtimes.”
“You’re an easy woman to please. I’ll set it up,” he said. “Monday?” She nodded. “Greg and I have never been on a double date before; this should be interesting.”
“Don’t be talking work all night,” she said, feeding him the last nut and taking his hand. “Remember the goal is to get him laid.”
“That’s his goal,” JD said, looping his arms around her to move her body in front of his. “We set the scene. He has to close the deal. My goal for the evening will be very different.”
“Yeah?” she asked over her shoulder as they made their way toward the living room wrapped in each other. “What will your goal be?”
“A whole evening without even a hint of Disney.”
If his mom was watching the kids, she’d be subjected to the cartoons, maybe giving them a reprieve.
“Wow,” she said, laying her head against his upper arm as they ascended the stairs. “Now I get why the press calls you ambitious.”
Brenna and Marjorie were seated on the couch with the kids on the floor setting up a game on the coffee table.
“Daddy, you be my team,” Sky said, lining up the pieces.
“No, Daddy, be my team!” Kye demanded. “Boys and girls.”
“How about we each go on our own team?” she said, extricating herself to go sit by Brenna.
It was unlikely they’d finish the game. The twins would lose interest, so it didn’t really matter who played with who.
The kids didn’t look happy until JD sat on the floor between them. “That’s the best plan, you know why?” he said, righting a piece that had fallen. “Because the winner gets a cookie. And I am not sharing my cookie with either of you when I win.”
Both kids laughed and jostled him. JD settled the raucous by asking them to explain the game. Didn’t matter that he understood it already. Asking them to explain would help them get the rules clear for themselves.
Watching him play mediator and ask questions like he was clueless was funny. JD kept surprising her. Every time she thought she had him figured out, he’d do something that took her breath away.
Even now, while talking to the kids, he took the time to glance up and wink at her. They were a team, and that team was getting stronger every day.