A New Member
Johnny
“YOU’RE GOING TO do what?”
Johnny wasn’t altogether there.
It was the next morning and they both needed to leave. Him, to go deal with the horses, her, to go to work.
Ten minutes ago, he had heard her heels on his floors as she walked down the hall to appear in his kitchen fully dressed for work.
He turned from scrambling some eggs for her to see Iz in a navy dress that hit her at the knee and had short sleeves.
The thing about it was, it hugged her figure close and had a stripe of sheer navy across her upper chest and another one a couple of inches above her hem taking class and making it sexy.
She was also in beige pumps with spiked heels that looked professional but still called to him to fuck her.
Even though he had that overwhelming desire, since they had to get their shows on the road, he instead launched into his plans for her sister while scraping her eggs on a plate with the toast and bacon he’d made her, handed it to her and made his own plate then stood there shoveling it in while telling her how things were going to go.
She held her plate in front of her while he did this, her eyes on him getting bigger and bigger and he vaguely noted she’d quit eating halfway through him talking. She was just standing there, holding her plate and staring at him. But he needed to get her down with this so they could talk to Addie about it, and when they did, both of his girls could have a couple weighty things off their minds.
The problem was, throughout all this, all he could see was Iz in that dress and those shoes, and in the back of his mind he was thinking about what he’d do to her in them, so he wasn’t paying close attention to her eyes getting bigger and bigger and her not eating.
“I’m paying for the attorney,” he answered her question.
“She won’t let you do that, Johnny,” she told him.
“We’ll talk to her about it, I’ll state my case and we’ll see,” he said, taking the last bite of his toast.
“No. Really. She just won’t let you do that,” she said.
“She refuses, then it’ll be a no-interest loan. We can work out a payment schedule after she’s set that’s comfortable for her. But in the meantime, she doesn’t have to worry about it.”
“She might have a problem with that too,” Izzy replied.
He picked up his last piece of bacon and said, “That’s where you come in.”
“I’ve not been really successful with talking Addie into things she doesn’t want to do. Case in point, I told her to break up with Perry about seven hundred and ten times before he asked her to marry him. And I pleaded with her nine hundred and ten times not to marry him. You can see how that went.”
“Let’s give it a shot,” he suggested.
“You have properties?”
He guessed with the sudden change of subject they were going to give it a shot so he nodded, chewed the last bite of his bacon and put his plate in the sink to run water over it.
“Plural?” she asked, sounding weirdly choked.
Not having her in her sexy work getup as his visual, his mind snapped back to the present and slowly he turned to her to see her standing there with her plate of half-eaten food held up in front of her.
“Yes,” he said deliberately, wondering why she was looking at him the way she was looking at him—like he’d sprung a second head and she didn’t know whether to stand there and scream in terror or run away as fast as she could.
“How many?” she asked.
“Two,” he answered. “Well, three, counting the mill. Actually, four but it’s more like three and a half since both me and Tobe own the shack. That said, we did the split. He got the shack. I got the mill. So it’s really his. But he’s never around, so whenever I need it I go to the shack.”
“The shack?”
“A fishing shack we own out at Shanty Hollow Lake.”
“Is it a real shack?”
“In a way.”
“How can it be a shack in a way?”
“It’s been taken care of just by guys for the last forty-five years.”
“What way is it not a shack?” she asked.
“It’s thirteen hundred square feet,” he answered.
She looked down at her plate but didn’t pick up her fork.
“Izzy, something up with you?”
Her head came up and she looked him right in the eye.
“How rich are you?”
For some reason, this question seemed like it had a wrong answer, and that wrong answer was not the answer any woman he’d ever known would think was wrong.
“That answer is relative,” he said as reply.
“Well, I already know you don’t own as many places as Circle K,” she returned.
“I got money,” he told her.
She suddenly looked around. Took it all in.
And her eyes fell on his dining room table.
“Baby, you wanna tell me why this seems to be an issue for you?”
Her gaze came back to his.
“My father’s father died in a hunting accident when my father was seventeen. He inherited fifteen hardware stores. He didn’t run them. He didn’t even work at one. He was a musician. He was going to be bigger than Johnny Cash. But he did take the checks whoever ran them sent him.”
Johnny felt his insides growing deathly still.
“Your dad is wealthy?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Your dad is wealthy.” He said it as a statement that time.
“We had a huge house when we were young. That was the only time, until we grew up and moved out, Addie and I had our own rooms. Sometimes we only had a one bedroom place and Mom slept on the couch.”
He couldn’t process that last part.
Not right then.
He had to stay on target.
“Your dad’s got money.” He was growling now.
“Y-yes,” she stammered, suddenly standing rock solid and staring at him, not like he’d grown two heads, but was a rattler about to strike.
And he was.
He did this taking two strides to her, tearing the plate out of her hand and hurling it underarm into his sink where it exploded, pieces of crockery, strips of bacon and bits of egg flying.
Ranger, who had been sitting beside Izzy while she ate, got to his feet, backed up two steps and barked.
“Johnny,” she whispered.
He spun back to her.
“You had plastic sandals,” he ground out.
“Sorry?” she asked quietly.
“In those photos in your stable. You with your mom. You were wearing cheap plastic sandals.”
She shook her head. “I . . . I don’t remember.”
“You were,” he confirmed.
“Okay,” she said conciliatorily.
“He was fucking rich and you had cheap plastic sandals?” he demanded to know.
“We . . . we were better off without him.”
There was a translation to that and Johnny translated it.
“She couldn’t go for child support because if she did, he’d fuck with her,” he declared.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Try to take you or at least get time with you just to screw with her, not that he cared dick about you, since he proved that being absent from your life and not even being a big enough man to send her some cash. And she couldn’t let that happen,” he said.
She nodded.
“He ever hurt you?” he asked.
“No, Johnny. No. Not me. Not Addie. Just Mom,” she assured him.
“But she was worried it’d come to that.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe. We didn’t talk much about him. We just—”
“Kept on keeping on,” he clipped, finishing for her.
“Yes,” she said softly.
“And now you got an issue with me having money,” he stated.
“It’s . . . I’ll admit, it’s a shock.”
“You looked ready to bolt, Iz.”
“My, well . . . Kent is also . . . he’s, well—”
Her creepy ex Kent was rich too.
“Jesus, shit,” he hissed.
“They’re not you,” she told him hurriedly. “I should have put it together. You know, that you were, um . . . comfortable. With all that’s been happening I didn’t put it together so it was just a shock.”
He saw the fear in her eyes and he bit out, “I’d never hurt you, Eliza.”
“You threw a plate in the sink,” she said quietly.
“Because a man makes two beautiful daughters, he works until he fucking bleeds to make sure they don’t have to wear cheap plastic sandals. And if he can’t make that happen, he’s still there to clean their scraped knees, take pictures of them when they go to prom and walk them down the aisle to their future husband. But even when that happens, he doesn’t let them go. He never lets them go. You and your mother and your sister have eaten shit all your life because first, he’s an asshole abuser and second, he didn’t sort his shit out when you took off on him. He let you go.”
“Yes,” she agreed, the uncertain light in her eyes changing to something else entirely.
Johnny couldn’t process that either.
“And you’ve been making do ever since.”
She made no reply.
She didn’t have to.
He’d made the decision two days ago this shit ended.
Now he’d let her in on that.
“Your sister is gonna take the damn money from me, Eliza,” he informed her. “And like I told you, she’s gonna move into one of my properties when a tenant moves out. They’re nice places. The tenants don’t go often. But she’s not ready for that yet. Though when one goes, she’s got a home, she’s safe, her son is safe, and you aren’t gonna tell her I’m discounting the rent.”
That light in her eyes had fully changed to that something else entirely.
But still, she replied, “It’d be me that wouldn’t want you in a bind with that, Johnny, and I’d know.”
“I own them outright, Iz, so anything I make off them works.”
“We’ll talk to her tonight,” she said quickly, probably just to appease him.
He was glad she was in to do that.
But he didn’t feel very appeased.
“You should find him,” he replied.
Her brows went up. “Who? Dad?”
He didn’t answer that question.
He announced, “You should find him. You should walk up to his house in that dress and knock on the door, and when he answers, you should tell him who you are. And you should tell him since he wasn’t around to take pictures of you when you went to the prom, he isn’t walking you down the aisle. He isn’t seeing his grandchildren. He’s gonna die knowing the woman who gave him his daughters and the precious babies he made lived their lives happier without him in them.”
“Johnny, honey, it was a long time ago and we were happier without him,” she soothed.
“Did you get what happened when I was inside you last night?”
She stared up at him.
“Did you get it, Izzy?” he pushed.
“I think so,” she whispered.
“That’s the guy I am. Yours. Simple. That’s it. And you’re mine. Mine, Iz. And we take care of each other. And we look after those in our hearts and lives. So the Forrester Girls Club has a new member, baby. And he’s got a dick.”
The tension in her shoulders ebbed, her lips twitched but she asked, “Can I request no future throwing of plates?”
“You can but I can’t guarantee that won’t happen because I figure I got a lot more to learn about your dad and Kent, so anything’s game.”
“Then can I request that if you learn some of this at my house you don’t throw any of my plates?”
“Do you own a single plate you bought new?” he demanded to know.
She suddenly looked confused. “I . . . actually I don’t know.”
“Guess,” he pushed.
“Probably not,” she said.
“So no, I can’t promise that either. What I can promise is if I hear more about the shit you’ve eaten and plates go flying, I’ll replace them with the finest china that can be had.”
That was when her face got soft.
“I don’t need fine china, Johnny.”
“Then you’ll get whatever you want and it’ll be goddamned new,” he returned.
She ignored him and said, “I just need a guy who’s mine who cares enough about me to get angry enough to throw plates.”
Christ, she was so damned sweet, he wanted to fuck her all the time.
“Baby,” he growled. “How much trouble will you get in if you’re late to work?”
Pink hit her cheeks and she answered, “I’m never late.”
“Right, then grab your purse and let’s roll.”
“We need to clean—”
“Spätzchen, we’re rolling.”
Her brows knit. “You shouldn’t leave that egg—”
“Eliza,” he bit out.
Her expression changed.
“You want me to be open with you?” she asked tartly.
“Yup. And right now you got about five seconds to do that.”
“You can be extremely annoying when you’re being pushy. And you calling me ‘Eliza’ when I annoy you further annoys me.”
“Noted,” he replied. “Now get your purse.”
She rolled her eyes before she announced, “I need a travel mug of coffee.”
“I’ll get the mug, you get your purse.”
She pointed at the island, which was two feet away from where she was standing. “My purse is right there.”
Johnny looked to the ceiling. “Oh for fuck’s sake.”
She strutted on those freaking heels to the coffeepot, stating, “If we have children and you curse like that in front of them, it’ll be me throwing plates.”
He ignored that since they were having children and he wouldn’t curse like that in front of them (at least not the girls, the boys, when they reached a certain age . . . ) and she already knew that (probably).
Instead, he asked, “Your bag in the bathroom?”
“Yes,” she answered, grabbing a travel mug.
“It packed or you leaving it?”
“It’s packed. But I have to repack it tonight so I need to take it.”
“Stock up tonight, spätzchen.”
“Roger that, Ghostrider,” she returned wryly as she splashed cream into the mug.
Yeah.
He wanted to fuck her all the time.
Johnny managed not to tackle her at the coffeepot and he and Ranger went to get her bag.
Then he and Ranger walked her and her purse and her travel mug to her car.
He dumped the bag in her back seat.
That done, he allowed himself some time to make out with her, hot and heavy at her car door.
Then he and Ranger loaded up in his truck and followed her down the lane from the mill.
“I’m staying.”
Suffice it to say Johnny was thrilled his brother was making this statement.
However, the instant he did, that afternoon after he’d found out Izzy’s dad was not just an epic dick, but an asshole of massive proportions, while they stood in the lone bay of the first Gamble Garage (this the only one having one bay, the others had at least two, some of them four), he thought of Toby sitting at Izzy’s outdoor table looking up at Izzy’s bedroom window.
So he did not share he was thrilled.
He felt his brows draw together and he asked, “Why?”
Toby shrugged.
Shit.
“Tobe—”
“I might not be settling in. I don’t know my plans. I just know I’m staying for a while.”
“You got trouble somewhere?” Johnny asked.
“Nope,” Toby answered, and Johnny watched him closely as he did.
When he saw his brother wasn’t lying, he asked, “Feel like consoling a not-so-suddenly single mom after her husband proved how big of a dipshit he is?”
Toby’s face changed, a nuance, a nuance only their dad, Margot and Johnny could catch, and he replied, “Nope.”
Now that was a lie.
“Hands off, brother,” Johnny declared.
It was then Toby got pissed. “I’m not going there,” he clipped. “Christ, what kind of ass do you think I am?”
“I don’t think you’re an ass. I think you’re a player and the way you play has nothing to do with me. Unless it’s Addie.”
“She’s pretty.”
“She’s off limits.”
“I’m just saying she’s pretty.”
“I know she’s pretty. And I’m just saying she’s off limits.”
“I’m not gonna go there, Johnny,” he repeated.
“I know you aren’t.”
“I wanna get to know Izzy better because I’m thinking that’s the right call about now with where you two seem to be. And with where you two seem to be, I’ll also need to be getting to know her sister, and I don’t need you breathing down my neck or treating me like I’m a complete dick who’s gonna make a play on a woman who collapsed in my arms because her man is a total tool.”
“If that’s it then great, awesome, I’m thrilled you’re gonna stick around,” Johnny said truthfully.
“You know, the time I needed an older brother ended about a decade ago,” Toby shared.
“Tobe, you need to get over that because I’m gonna be your older brother until the day I die, and that’s just the way it is.”
“Terrific,” Toby muttered, turning his head to stare at the car Johnny had up on a lift.
“You got plans while you’re in Matlock or are you gonna fish and charm women and drive Margot insane because you seem entirely immune to having a healthy relationship?”
Toby looked back to him. “I wanna work with you here, at the garage.”
Johnny stood solid and stared.
Toby was good with an engine. He wasn’t better than Johnny because Johnny had always been a gearhead like their father and grandfather.
Toby could get stuck in and do great work.
Then Toby could get distracted and take off.
Johnny didn’t care. He was used to it and his brother was an adult. He got his checks from the garages. He did his thing. He didn’t get into trouble anymore (much). It was his life to live and it wasn’t Johnny’s place to get involved in it.
Except giving him stick and keeping him away from Addie.
But he’d love having his brother home, working beside him, like the old days.
Like before Dad died.
“You wanna be here, I want you here,” Johnny told him. “Long as you want, forever or a week, I don’t care. But I don’t have to say that. It’s yours the same as mine.”
“That may be true on paper but it isn’t true in practice, and I’ve been thinking that isn’t right.”
Johnny again stared.
A healthy relationship with a woman was not Toby’s thing.
Responsibility wasn’t either.
“I need to do my part,” Toby stated. “I don’t wanna be managing any mini-marts. But I can change a belt and switch out plugs.”
“Then start when you wanna start,” Johnny replied. “But if you’re here, I manage this bay, brother. You wanna take over your own garage, we gotta work you up to that, and by that I mean, you get one when we lose a man who’s managing one. We got great crews in all the garages. That changes, you slide in. But I’ve laid claim to this one, so it’s mine.”
“I don’t wanna manage anything. I just wanna be rooted for a while.”
“Outside of thinking you’re not pitching in when you don’t gotta pitch in, anything else bring this on?” Johnny asked.
“Grams is dead. Gramps is dead. Dad’s dead. And Margot and Dave aren’t gonna be here forever. I’ve seen a lot. Done a lot. Learned a lot. And the biggest thing I learned was that the only place I feel right is in Matlock.”
“Then it’s really a welcome home,” Johnny said quietly.
“Yeah,” Toby replied.
“I’ll talk to Iz about a good night for you to come over for dinner so you can spend more time with her,” Johnny offered.
Toby grinned. “That’d be great.”
They stared at each other for long beats.
Johnny ended it, saying, “Dad would be glad.”
Toby kept hold on his gaze.
Then he replied, “Yeah.”
“Sure,” Addie said.
It was after dinner at Izzy’s. They were in her living room, a place Johnny wanted to get out of as soon as possible considering spending time with all the white furniture, flower covered pillows and lampshades and the flipping bird cage with a pink roof on her white coffee table was making him concerned he’d actually be able to father a child in the future.
He’d just got shot down for paying the attorney straight up.
So he’d pitched the loan.
And that was Addie’s response.
Johnny looked from her to Izzy, who was staring at her sister like she’d morphed into someone else, and back to Addie.
“Great,” he replied. “Give your attorney’s bills to me. I’ll cover them. We’ll keep track. This is done, we’ll sort out a payment plan.”
“Done,” Addie agreed, giving him a big grin.
“Are you all right?” Izzy asked Addie.
Addie’s grin faded and she looked to her sister. “Yeah. Why?”
“You don’t have a fever?” Izzy inquired.
Johnny chuckled.
“Put a sock in it,” Addie ordered.
“No, really,” Izzy said. “Are you sure you wanna do this?”
Addie looked to him. “You gonna screw over my sister?”
“Nope,” Johnny answered.
Her gaze returned to Iz. “Then sure, I’m sure.” She got up from her place in Iz’s slouchy white loveseat, moved to Johnny, dropped Brooks in his lap, Brooks ignored the beard and yanked on his ear and Addie strolled toward the kitchen, asking, “Anyone want leftover cake?”
“Yeah,” Johnny called after her.
“Iz?” she prompted.
“Okay,” Izzy said.
Brooks grunted as he pulled himself up to Johnny’s shoulder.
Johnny spotted him with his hands as he crawled behind Johnny’s neck.
The kid hit his other shoulder, threw himself over and slid down Johnny’s chest into his lap and giggled.
Johnny then lifted him up, swung him around and planted him on his shoulders, his pudgy legs dangling on either side of Johnny’s neck.
He held on to his upper arms.
Brooks tugged his hair.
“If we’d have stayed with him, I wouldn’t have met you.”
Johnny’s attention cut to Izzy to see her face soft, her eyes on her nephew, but he had a feeling that softness wasn’t just for Brooks.
“What, baby?”
She dropped her gaze to his. “If he’d gotten it together. If he’d fought for us. If he’d made us stay close, I wouldn’t have met you.”
“That’s sweet, Iz,” he said quietly. “But that doesn’t erase—”
While he spoke, her eyes darted up and then back down before she cut him off.
“Go through it all again if it led me to you.”
He felt his chest start to burn.
Brooks tried to hurl himself over Johnny’s head.
So he flipped Brooks over and planted his behind in Johnny’s lap.
Brooks squealed.
Izzy smiled and whispered, “You can attack me when we get back to the mill.”
“Obliged for the permission,” he grunted instead of sharing he didn’t need it.
Her smile got bigger.
She knew he didn’t need it.
“Ice cream, everyone?” Addie shouted from the kitchen.
“Yeah!” Johnny shouted back.
“Yes!” Izzy yelled.
Brooks let out a shriek and then collapsed into his own lap, giggling.
“The secret room revealed,” Izzy murmured in awe.
Johnny had just guided her into the walk-in closet that led off the door at the back of the bathroom.
He’d switched on the lights, which were mostly recessed spots that shone on the railings and shelves as well as on the island in the middle. He’d then walked in and dumped her bag (which was much heavier than yesterday) unceremoniously on top of the island that was covered in sliding glass panels that protected velvet-lined jewelry trays.
All of them empty.
“The secret what?” he asked.
She was wandering around the opposite side of the closet from him like he would suspect she’d wander around a castle. She lifted a hand and ran the tip of her forefinger along an empty slanted shelf, which had a lip that was supposed to display shoes but now was bare.
“Izzy,” he called when she said nothing.
She stopped and turned to him. “I always wondered what was in here. I almost looked in that first morning. But I didn’t want to snoop.”
“It’s just a closet,” he said.
“It’s the biggest, most gorgeous closet in the history of man,” she replied, glanced beyond him to the half a rail up top and half a rail under it that were the only rails in the huge place that held clothes. “Though you need more jeans.”
His mouth hitched. “I don’t need more jeans.”
She looked him right in the eye. “You built this for Shandra, didn’t you?”
His mouth stopped hitching. “Iz—”
Her head tipped to the side and she interrupted him. “You don’t like talking about her.”
“I don’t like her being any part of us,” he corrected.
She gave him a small smile and started walking toward him.
When she reached him, she put a hand on his chest and tilted her head back to look up at him.
“She was a part of your life,” she noted quietly.
“I know that,” he replied.
“And in your life when you fixed up this place,” she guessed.
He put his hands on her hips. “We were gonna move in together. But we didn’t do that, Izzy.”
“You built this for her. You built the bathroom for her.”
“I did but she never used either of them, Iz.”
She swayed toward him and asked, “Is that for me?”
He was confused. “Is what for you?”
“All that reassurance, is it for me?”
He gave her the obvious answer. “Well . . . yeah.”
“Okay,” she started. “Then let me make it clear that you’re not giving me any indication you’re still hung up on her. I don’t ever even think about it, until you take pains to reassure me you’re not hung up on her. Our start was rocky, honey. Then it smoothed out. Notwithstanding, of course, Perry spraying gravel with his angry exit. But that wasn’t about us. That was just something we had to deal with.” She pressed her hand in his chest. “You can talk about her. You can talk about that time in your life. You can stop trying so hard to protect me from something that happened when I didn’t even live in this town.”
She swayed even closer so her breasts were brushing his chest.
“I was there last night when you were inside me,” she told him. “And I did get what was communicated, Johnny. You keep trying to educate me but I knew exactly what kind of guy you were from the first moment I met you. So I know you aren’t the guy who would lead me on, start something this intense if your heart and mind are with someone else. Shandra is history but that history is your history, and I want to know everything about you.”
“I love that, baby,” he said softly. “And it’s me trying to reassure you about that but it’s also the fact I know everybody in town is taking sides like there’s a chance for Shandra when there isn’t, and I know that, I wanna make sure you know that, but they don’t know that. And I don’t want you to hit town and hear shit that makes you doubt where we are. I want you to know where we are and if you hear shit, you can stand strong and know it’s just that. Shit.”
“I don’t care what they think,” she returned. “They aren’t here. They don’t know. This closet isn’t hers. It’s yours. The bathroom isn’t hers. It’s yours. And she’s not yours. I am.”
He felt those words everywhere. Absolutely everywhere.
But with her that close, her tits brushing his chest, he felt them mostly in his balls and dick.
This meant his, “Eliza,” was a growl.
She ignored his tone and ordered, “So stop worrying about it.” She then pulled out of his hold, took a step away, but turned her back to him and went on to say matter-of-factly, “Now I nearly dislocated a shoulder trying to get this dress zipped this morning. Can you do me a favor and unzip it?”
If there was nothing else in this world Johnny could do, he could do that.
So he took the step she’d moved away and unzipped her.
She stepped away again, rolled her shoulders so the dress fell off of them and then she slid it over her hips and let it drop to her ankles.
Johnny watched it go and enjoyed the show.
She turned around wearing a black strapless bra, black lace panties and her pumps and gave him a look.
He raised his brows. “Are you trying to seduce me, spätzchen?”
“You haven’t tackled me yet,” she whispered.
He had not.
Johnny didn’t hesitate to rectify that mistake.
He lunged.
And Izzy went down without a fight.