At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(173)

“Anything you need,” Bea replied instantly.

I nodded, put my arm around Kate’s waist and led her down the hall to Keira’s room. Joe was in bed with a still crying Keira tucked into his side. His eyes came to us as we entered the room. Without hesitation, we all crawled into Keira’s double bed and curled into Joe.

It would be much later when I wondered why my girls and I did this and why it seemed so comfortable. Me, maybe, my girls, no.

And when I thought about it later, I would come to the conclusion that it just came natural because it was us and it was Joe.

In other words, the new us.

So when a situation became emotional, what else would we do?

After awhile, when the Winters girls got their shit together, I took my cheek from Joe’s shoulder and looked at his face.

“That didn’t go as planned,” I told him.

“Far’s I can see, buddy, it couldn’t have gone better,” Joe replied.

I looked at him and saw he believed what he was saying and his belief made me smile at him. Even so, my smile was shaky.

When Joe leaned into me, his kiss was firm.

When Joe was done kissing me and I was feeling a lot less shaky, Keira’s head came up from Joe’s other shoulder and she looked at him.

“Sorry I went all wussy on you,” she whispered, her eyes not quite catching his, her voice trembling and I realized that she was worried she’d disappointed him and my stomach lurched.

Joe’s arm went from around me and he turned toward Keira. Kate (who was tucked in front of me) and I came up on our elbows. We watched Joe put his hand to Keira’s jaw to tip her face up further toward him.

“Never bury somethin’ deep, baby,” he murmured. “Takes twice as much courage to be who you are, say what you think, feel what you feel and let it show then it does to bury it. That shit you been holdin’ onto will destroy you. You got a safe place to get rid of it, and you do, then you get rid of it like you just did. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Keira whispered, a shaky smile on her lips too.

I stared at Joe thinking maybe he was Superman.

There was the sound of a throat being cleared and we looked to the door to see Gary standing there.

“Um… sorry to interrupt, Joe, Vi, but… there’s a young man at the door. Says his name is Dane. I tried to –”

My body jolted when Kate screeched, “Aiyee!” and leaped from the bed, ran passed her grandfather and then disappeared.

Keira sat frozen against Joe for half a second then she followed her sister with just as much energy. Joe was not far behind but he was hindered since he was dragging me with him.

“I thought I told you!” we heard Kate shout as Joe hustled us down the hall.

“Katy –” we heard Dane.

“No!” Kate interrupted him. Then she asked a very familiar question. “Do you have your head sorted out?”

Oh shit.

There it was. Proof that my daughters were soaking up all things Joe.

We hit the living room and Theresa was standing behind Kate like a sentry. Bea was close too, though not as close as Theresa. Vinnie was standing by the television, his eyes on the scene playing out in front of him. Keira was sitting on her knees in the couch, facing the door. I felt Gary come up behind Joe and I but the minute we hit the room, Dane’s eyes shot to Joe and his face paled.

I was thinking there were a lot of good reasons to have Joe around but at that moment his putting the fear of God into pipsqueak boy-men (no matter how cute they were) who hurt my daughter was at the top of my list.

I crossed my arms on my chest and stared at Dane as he swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Then Dane plucked up the courage and stepped forward.

“Mr. Callahan,” his eyes came to me, “Miz Winters, I need to talk to Katy.”

“You need to talk to Kate, why you talkin’ to us?” Joe enquired and I looked at him to see his arms crossed on his chest in a new sinister, scary pose. This one was both alpha-male and man-of-the-house-slash-father-figure-you-did-not-mess-with.

“Uh…” Dane muttered, struck dumb by Joe’s sinister, scary pose.

“Your girl’s standin’ right in front of you, kid,” Joe prompted when Dane seemed frozen to the spot and this lasted awhile and that while included a number of people as his audience, all eyes on him. “You came to make a move, make it.”

Dane swallowed again, nodded and looked at Kate. “Can we talk?”

“Only one thing I want to hear you say,” Kate replied and I was proud of my girl for sticking to her guns and not letting some boy-man (no matter how cute he was) treat her like dirt.

“Can I say it out on the back deck?” Dane asked.

Kate looked over her shoulder at Joe and Joe tipped his chin at her.

This was when I realized that I’d lost a little bit of both my daughters. They’d taken it from me and given it to Joe.

Other women might be jealous of this or they might be alarmed.

I wasn’t.

Joe had given us everything. It was just our way of giving back. Not a lot of men would appreciate the gifts Keira and Kate were giving him and doing it so freely, but I reckoned Joe did.

“Back deck,” Kate agreed and turned, leading a flush-faced Dane through the living room and study and out the back sliding glass door.