Good Wood (34 page)

“Sorry you came?” He gave me an apprehensive sideways look as if afraid of my answer.

“No, I have to admit I’m having fun. Just don’t expect that I will remember half the people that I was just introduced to.” He laughed and put his arm around me. The night was chilly but there were large standing heaters keeping the area comfortable. I was glad since I’d neglected to bring a wrap or jacket with me.

“They’ll all remember you. You are hands down the most beautiful woman here.” When I glanced up at him suspiciously, I saw only sincerity reflected back at me.

“I think you might be a little biased.”

He put his bent knuckle gently under my chin and raised it so I was looking directly into his eyes. “You’re the most beautiful woman here or anywhere else.” The intensity of his voice set a fire burning in my core. He pressed his lips to mine and when he pulled back, I saw he was wearing my crimson lipstick again. I giggled and told him so. A smile played on his lips and he smacked them together like a lady who’d just applied a fresh coat

“Does it bring out my eyes?” He joked, as I tried to brush it away with my thumb. He glanced behind me and his posture changed immediately. He swiftly wiped his lips with the back of his hand. I spun to see what abject horror was lurking there and instead saw Tamryn leading a mature couple in our direction.

The resemblance was striking between Joe and the older man. I could see subtle shades of Tamryn in the woman as well.

Oh shit. Welcome to meet the parents. Our next contestant is a tattooed food truck girl from the other side of the tracks…

Tamryn stopped in front of us and gave me a comforting smile.

Joe cut in seamlessly before she had a chance to speak. “Molly, these are our parents James and Felicia Jensen. Mom… Dad, this is my girlfriend, Molly.”

The older woman’s eyes glistened a bit and she pulled me into a small hug, her manner identical to Tamryn’s. “Molly. It’s such a pleasure to meet you.” She seemed like she was about to say more, but her eyes flicked toward Joe and she withdrew. His father wore a small polished smile on his face as he shook my hand.

“Delighted to meet you, Molly.” His hand was soft and un-calloused, a sharp contrast to his son’s. He stepped back next to his wife. The two of them turned to Joe. I saw a complicated exchange between the three of them, and wished I could teleport away. “Joseph, I hear from your sister that you’ve been carving again.”

There was a pregnant pause and I turned to look at Joe just as he finally answered.

“Yes, I have.” His gravelly voice was firm as he lifted his chin. “Just a few things so far.”

“That’s good to hear.” His father’s jaw tightened and an identical complex look crossed both of their faces. Tamryn looked between the two of them and rolled her eyes. I was the only one who seemed to notice her annoyance at their bizarre posturing, and she gave me a wink.

“Hey Molly, I want to show you our tree. There are some old ornaments from years ago, including a few childhood pictures of JoJo.” I grinned at her and looked over at Joe.

“JoJo?” A wide smile spread across my face.

Joe gave Tamryn a mocking glare and me a sweet smile. He nodded.

“You go ahead. I’ll find you.”

Relieved to have a legitimate escape, I left him with his parents to follow Tamryn inside. Once we were out of sight, she took me to the family room and showed me some of the cutest ornaments with grade school pictures of Joe.

“Molly?” Tamryn took a seat on a giant leather couch that dominated the room. “Can we talk?”

My stomach went into worried knots. I nodded and went to sit beside her.

“Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

She looked uneasy, but took a deep breath. “Joe.” I felt my heart drop at her serious delivery of his name. Something must have showed on my face, because she put both hands up in front of her. “Nothing bad, nothing bad. I just want you to know how grateful I am that you two found each other. For a long time there I was worried about my little brother. You know about the accident?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“It was almost like we’d lost him, too. He was so distant and had shut his emotions down entirely. But since you two have been together I’ve seen that light coming back into his eyes.

I guess this might sound a little archaic and definitely gender bent. But I want to know what your intentions are towards my little brother.” I could not have been more shocked if she told me that she was from outer space.

“What?” I flushed in anger and embarrassment but kept my tone light. “Like, am I using him for his money?” The look on her face turned to horror and I realized she was embarrassed.

“No! Oh God no! Nothing like that. I just want to know if you are serious about him. I know it is me being nosy in your business and I’m sorry. But the way he looks at you…I’m not sure that he could take another heartbreak. So if you weren’t serious I just wanted to make sure you let him down gently.”

My stomach was roiling now. It had become an acid factory of epic proportions. This was insane. I was getting the ‘let him off easy if you aren’t interested’ speech. It took all of my willpower to keep my breathing steady and my voice even.

“I care a great deal about Joe. But we haven’t even reached the point where we’ve had that type of conversation. For all I know…” I was coming dangerously close to having a mascara wrecking moment. Taking a few deep breaths I managed to calm myself a bit.

“I’m sorry, Molly. I think you two make a cute couple and I am horrible at this girl talk crap. I just want to make sure that if you don’t want to be with him that you are gentle about it. I don’t want him to disappear again. You know?”

Looking up, I saw her fighting back tears and I just nodded, unable to offer her much comfort, as I still questioned if any of this between Joe and I could possibly be real.

“Joe was my first love, Tamryn. It was completely unrequited, but that wasn’t relevant. He set the bar pretty high for me when it came to men. Still does.” She seemed stunned by my response and hugged me. This was the hugging-est family I’d ever encountered, but I liked Tamryn and admired her moxie and her protectiveness of Joe. I accepted the hug from her gracefully. We were interrupted by her daughters who started asking me a thousand questions.

The little one looked at my inner arm. “Is that a tattoo?”

“Yes. It is.” I said without pausing.

“Did it hurt?” The older one asked.

I didn’t flinch. “Yes.”

“Do you kiss my Uncle Joe?” The older one shot back.

“Nope.” I replied, winking at the little one. “But he tries to kiss me sometimes.

By the time I broke free and returned to Joe, he was alone at the edge of the patio. He fixedly looked off into the darkness. I came up to his side and put a hand on his arm.

“Tamryn showed me pictures from when you were little. You were a cute kid.” He turned and gave me an absent minded nod.

“You ready to go?” His tone was strained and when I nodded he put my arm through his and led me back to the stairs. A valet summoned our driver and we were soon on our way back to town.

Our ride back to Austin had none of the excitement of the outbound trip. Joe seemed like he was locked in his head wrestling with something. I turned my phone back on to check for messages. There was one missed call from Draven and three texts.

Dan sent me your picture. You’re perfection, Doll.

I made a mental note to choke Dan out.

I was just remembering today the way we used to drive around together looking at all Christmas lights.

Thirty minutes later he had sent a second message.

Why won’t you talk to me?

I shook my head in disbelief. Even now, Draven had the capacity to surprise me with his level of audacious insanity. I was tempted to tell Joe, but he was fixated on the passing landscape, so I quickly responded to the text instead.

Move on, Draven. I already have.

Then I turned my phone off again.

By the time we got to his apartment, I figured it was a safe assumption that I would just be heading home. I had an overnight bag that I’d left at his house and it still held a spare outfit. When I changed out of my dress, I came back out into the living room. Joe was in the kitchen, his bowtie undone and his tuxedo jacket discarded. He was popping the top off of a Corona when I grabbed my cell phone to text Dan to come pick me up. Joe stepped forward and put his hand over mine.

“Please stay.” I turned and eyed him reluctantly. He’d barely spoken to me since we left the party and now he wanted me to spend the night. I tried to tell myself to grow a backbone, but he cupped my face in his hands and delicately touched his lips to mine. “I’m sorry. Things went down between my parents and me. It has me a bit…I
want
you to stay, but only if you want to.”

That dirty ‘morning after’ feeling crept back into my heart. My post-Draven defense alarms sounded, and I wavered.

Say no and head home
.

But it was Joe. One look up into those mossy eyes of his and I knew the fight was over before it began. I dropped my phone and let him lead me to the bedroom.

The next morning I got up and made coffee. It was way too early to think about food, so I decided to go back down and have another look at the dollhouses Joe had made for his nieces. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed until I heard noises from upstairs. Joe was up and I headed back up to make breakfast.

As I neared the stairs my eye was caught by a huge tarp in the back corner. Curiosity got the better of me and my feet took me over to it. Thick dust caked the cover and I grabbed a cloth and cleaned it off before I pulled it loose. As the tarp slid to the floor I felt my heart catch in my chest. Two beautiful stacks of wood sat beneath, dovetailed by purple totes. I ran my finger along the wood as my mind assembled the pieces together.

One of the piles came together in my head like a jigsaw puzzle. It was a bed, a brilliant red racecar bed. The other took my mind a little longer to put together. I had to shift one of the totes to get the full picture of it. When I did a wave of horror washed over me. It was one of the most breathtaking cribs that I had ever seen. My hand went to my mouth as the stairs creaked loudly behind me.

Whirling I saw Joe standing there with a distant expression on his face. He walked slowly across the room and stopped next to me. The silence drug out between us and a small fear began growing in my heart. I’d stepped into a minefield.

“I didn’t realize that these were still here.” There was a shaky quality to his voice that made my chest ache. “I thought Tamz got rid of all of this stuff.” He slid his hand along the rail of the crib and the plastic tote I had shifted fell forward and spilled onto the floor. Papers and pictures scattered everywhere. A wedding album hit the floor and slid over to my feet. Joe sank slowly to his knees. Picking up the album he looked at the pictures for a moment before slowly closing it.

Setting the tote upright he gently put the book back inside. As he picked them up he stopped to look at each item before putting them back inside the container. I saw pictures of Joe smiling and laughing. Jess holding him. A candid shot of the two of them at a party of some kind. Each picture tore at my heart making it ache for him. When he reached the last item his breath caught in a near sob but he kept his face down to the floor. I looked down and saw a sonogram picture. Things suddenly coalesced in my mind and horror made my blood run cold.

The baby.

Joe placed the sonogram picture into the tote, put the lid back on and slid it gently back in place. Reaching down he grabbed the tarp and flipped it back into position with an angry jerk. I jumped even though I was nowhere near him. The ferocity of that action made my mind wander to things from the past. Things best not thought about.

“Molly.” His voice sounded artificial, like he was working hard to keep emotion out of it. “This is too much…I need some time to process.” My heart wrenched in my chest and it felt like iron hard fingers were crushing it.

You went too far Molly. You kept pushing and finally went too far. He’s trying not to lose it, trying to figure out a way to tell you to get out without yelling at you. But he doesn’t want you here.

I fought against that voice, that inner voice that often sounded so much like Draven; so often critical and gleefully inflicting pain.

He never wanted you here.

I kept my voice steady as I nodded.

“Okay, I understand. I need to get home.”

I walked up the stairs with far more calm than I felt. Looking down them I saw Joe standing in exactly the same place facing away from me. His labored breathing drifted up the stairs and it set me in motion.

I threw my things in my bag and went out the door. As I walked away from Joe’s the voice kept digging at me.

You silly girl, you should have known better. What were you thinking? It was too good to be true.

I was blocks up Sixth Street when the crushing reality finally became too much to bear and I had to stop and sit on a retaining wall as sobs racked my body. I replayed the scene over and over in my head. Using some left over napkins in my purse, I blew my nose. By the time I turned on my phone to call Dan I thought I had it together. An old text from Draven came in immediately.

No one’s gonna love you like I did. You know that, right?

When Dan pulled up to the curb, he took one look at me and leapt out of his rental car.

His friendly eyes showed blatant alarm. “Molly, what happened?”