At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(178)
“Come on, girls,” I heard Dad say, “get in Vinnie’s car.”
“Mom –” Keira called.
“Car, Keirry, sweetie. Please.” Bea said.
“I’m gonna sue!” Susie shouted.
Joe was trying to move me toward the car but was having trouble since I was fighting like a she-cat to get at Susie. Fighting so hard even big Joe Callahan couldn’t subdue me.
“If you’re gonna sue then I best give you something good to sue me for!” I threatened.
“Cal, everything all right here?” a man asked, running up and holding a jacket over his very blond head and I saw it was Chip Judd, the man who put in my security system and screwed up the wiring so Joe had to fix it.
“You let her break you?” Susie asked Joe, ignoring Chip and pointing a finger at me. “Her?” she repeated, her voice filled with disgust, her mascara melting down her face and another rumble of thunder filled the air accompanied by a flash of lightning.
“Vi, quit fightin’, get in the car,” Joe muttered in my ear.
“You once were magnificent. You’re nothin’ now. The whole town’s talkin’ about it,” Susie insanely taunted Joe.
“Shut your mouth, Susie Shepherd,” a woman with long dark hair and a fabulous figure (and I knew this because her sundress was plastered to her body by the rain and the wind which had sprung up and was lashing all around us) rushed forward to stand by Chip. “No one’s talkin’ that trash but you and Tina.” The brunette turned to Joe and me. “We’re all real happy for you Cal.”
There you go. Explanation of why everyone kept staring at us and mostly Joe.
“Josie, do me favor, babe, don’t get involved,” Chip said to the woman.
“Like she’ll listen to you,” Susie’s voice was dripping with derision, “you’re so pu**y whipped you’re not even a man.”
Acting on manly instinct at such a slur uttered at one of his brethren, Joe stopped moving. Chip pulled himself up to his full height which was pretty tall and he dropped his arms and the jacket but it was Josie who acted.
“You bitch!” she shrieked, lunged forward and shoved Susie in the chest causing Susie to step back on her foot. “Don’t you talk about my man that way.”
“Don’t you touch me!” Susie shrieked back.
“Susie, get gone,” Joe warned.
“Fuck you, Joe Callahan!” Susie snapped.
“You wish!” Josie yelled. “Everyone knows you tried to get in there and nothin’ goin’. Now everyone knows you and Tina are talkin’ trash about Cal and Violet because you made your play and he didn’t like what he got when he had his piece of you so he threw it away and Tina’s been livin’ by him yonks and couldn’t catch his eye.” She looked at me. “Can’t deny, we’re all real curious, the whole town is, but it don’t take a psychiatrist to see you’re hot, Cal’s hot, hot attracts hot so, you know, hot moves in next door, shit’s gonna happen.”
I’d stopped struggling because I was staring at Josie and now trying not to giggle as I got the rest of why everyone kept staring at Joe, me and the girls and I found it didn’t annoy me anymore. It would hit me much later that Susie Shepherd was one of Joe’s ex-lovers but when it did, it didn’t hit me hard. She was gorgeous for one so that explained that. She was a bitch for another and that explained why Joe took what he wanted and then didn’t come back for more. Therefore it wasn’t worth discussion, something which I decided Joe and I would never have and we never did.
“Um…” I started, “you know me but I don’t…”
“Josie Judd,” she said, coming forward seemingly impervious to the rain, hand extended, “Chip’s my husband.” I shook her hand and shoved wet hair out of my face while blinking against the fat drops of rain hitting my eyes as she stepped back and kept talking. “Sorry Chip f**ked up your wiring. He tried real hard to figure that shit out, spent all night goin’ over Cal’s plans but Cal’s a security genius. My Chip, he’s good but he isn’t a genius or I’d be livin’ in LA gettin’ a pedicure every week.”
“Oh, please, this is gonna make me sick,” Susie griped and Josie whirled on her.
“Then go away and by the way,” Josie said, “Chip likes my pu**y but it’s my mouth he loves and that’s because I love his big, gorgeous dick. You stop bein’ such a bitch, Susie, and use your mouth for good not bad, you might get a man with a beautiful dick who’ll give you some on a regular basis instead of runnin’ as fast as they can to get away from you. Only man you could hold onto was Colt and he was only f**kin’ you ‘cause you reminded him of Feb.”
“Oh Jesus,” Chip mumbled.
I was thinking this was a lot of information most of which I didn’t want to know but I really didn’t want my daughters to know it.
I twisted my neck slightly and whispered over the wind to Joe, “Please tell me my daughters are no longer here.”
“Gone, buddy,” Joe muttered and he didn’t sound pissed, he sounded like he wanted to laugh.
“Bea?” I asked.
“Gone,” Joe answered.
“Thank God,” I murmured.
“He likes your trashy mouth,” Susie shot back, my eyes turned to see she looked fit to be tied but she was also not stupid enough to go so far as to make it get physical again. She’d learned that lesson twice in the last five minutes. Now she was just trying to save face.