At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(77)

Although Cal was relieved she hadn’t had it rough after her parents kicked her out, he didn’t want to talk about this, about her husband, about her life and memories that made her voice go quiet and her face get soft.

Even not wanting it, he still asked, “You still close to them?”

She swallowed and sadness swept the softness from her face. She looked like she looked when he first met her, a look he hadn’t seen in awhile, a look he didn’t like. She missed them being down the street but, mostly, she missed her old life.

“They call, the girls especially, a couple of times a week,” she answered. “I talked to them a lot when we first moved, but not so often now that I’m working full-time. So, no, we’re not close anymore. I’m not fired up to go to Chicago and they aren’t big on travelling so they’ve visited only twice.”

“Chicago’s only four hours away,” Cal pointed out.

“Chicago is where Daniel Hart lives.”

“I wasn’t talkin’ ‘bout you goin’ there, buddy.”

She shook her head. “They go to Florida once a year, Joe. Two weeks. In January. They stopped by on their way there and back. That’s all they do. They’re both still working, both full-time and they’re just not like that. They stick to their ‘hood, what they know. They were relieved when Tim and I moved down the block instead of further away. Even fifteen minutes would be out of their comfort zone unless Tim went to go get them. It’s not so much his Dad, it’s his Mom. She’s quiet, really shy, she likes what she knows, the rest I think scares her.”

This, Cal did not get. He couldn’t say he knew much about families since his had died with his mother but he spent enough time with Uncle Vinnie, Aunt Theresa and their kids Vinnie Junior, Carmela, Benny and Manny to know they were loud and in your business even if your business was six states away. Carmela had moved with her husband to California and Vinnie Senior and Aunt Theresa used every excuse they could to visit her. When Carm’s first kid lost his first tooth, they got on a f**king plane.

And they’d taken him on when his mother died. Even before that, they were down from Chicago visiting, Vinnie Senior was close to his sister, he didn’t like to be away from her long. But when Cal’s Mom died and they cottoned on to the state of his Dad, their visits were more frequent and, eventually, they’d come, get him and take him to Chicago. Vinnie Senior, with Vinnie Junior in the car, driving down on a Friday to pick him up for the weekend, bringing him back on a Sunday so he’d be home before he had to go back to school.

“Is, um…” she hesitated, he focused on her, she bit her lip and asked, “Your family close?”

“Mom and Dad are dead,” he told her and he listened to her suck in a soft breath.

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“Joe,” she whispered.

He couldn’t handle that, hearing the sadness in her voice when she said his name. He couldn’t handle it because he didn’t f**king like it.

He sat up suddenly, taking her with him and planting her astride him then he slid his hands over her ass and changed the subject.

“Not gonna get your garage door fixed hangin’ on my couch.”

She put her hands to his neck and studied his face. Then her thumb came out and stroked the underside of his jaw.

“Yeah,” she said softly, letting it go and he decided he liked that, Vi reading his face and knowing she should let it go then she asked, “But could I ask you a favor?”

“Shoot.”

“Will you talk to Sam?”

He felt his body get tight and his hands flexed into the flesh of her ass.

He did not want to talk to her brother.

She was working her way under his skin. Every day, she got in deeper, even when she wasn’t with him. He’d be working a job, sitting in a meeting and he’d wonder what she was doing, if she was working, what she was wearing, where her kids were, if they were safe. He wondered if Dane was keeping his f**king teenage kid’s hands off Kate and thinking he’d break his neck if he wasn’t. He wondered if Keira was friendly to everyone like she was friendly to him and hoping to Christ she didn’t strike up a conversation with some sick f**k pedophile whose neck he’d also have to break if he f**ked with Keira.

These were not Cal’s usual trains of thought.

And it was worse at night, trying to get to sleep, he thought of Vi in other ways, her hands, her mouth, her smell. Christ, some nights, she was so real in his thoughts, he could smell her hair on his pillow, feel her ass in his hands like it was right then, hear her saying his name, feel her body heavy in sleep against his side.

When he heard Keira’s far away scream and Kate’s yell and the fear in Vi’s voice, he’d nearly come out of his skin being so far away and powerless to step in if something was going down. And he couldn’t remember the last time he was as pissed as when he heard it was Kenzie doing the hang ups, shit in his life affecting hers and, again, he was so far away, on the f**king phone and she was dealing with it with Colt.

He didn’t like this, any of this.

His life was steady before Vi. He liked that.

“Joe,” she called when he didn’t answer and he focused on her. “Forget I said anything. You don’t have to.”

He didn’t want to but he knew he was going to.