Fruit-Infused Vodka
Johnny
“GOOD CHRIST, WOMAN! What’s on your face?” Dave shouted half a second after he walked into Izzy’s dining room.
Johnny followed him in, Charlie behind Johnny, Toby coming in after Charlie.
Once in, he saw Iz, Addie, Margot and Deanna sitting around Izzy’s round white table, their asses on distressed white chairs. There were two weathered barn doors resting against a wall for some reason and a huge chandelier that was almost bigger than the table hanging low over it that you’d have to look close to see the crystals that were missing.
Johnny had looked close.
There were fifteen crystals missing.
He moved around the table to give all the men room to join them, but also to get to his woman, and he did this with his eyes on Izzy’s face, a big smile on his mouth.
Her face was covered in goo.
White goo with bits in.
“This, my girls, is why the magic happens without the man in your life bearing witness to it,” Margot drawled to the women around the table. She turned to Dave. “And David, please, I beg you for the five hundred and fifteenth time in our marriage, do not take the Lord’s name in vain.”
“This is not an answer to what you got all over your face, Margot,” Dave replied.
She swept a hand along the air at the side of her white goo slathered face like she was a model demonstrating high-end facial care. “It’s a facial mask as concocted by Adeline that her mother taught her to make that I already can feel wrings miracles.”
Johnny made it to Izzy and he bent toward her as she twisted her neck to look up at him, getting a whiff of yogurt and honey when he got close.
He then made a remark out loud that he thought in his head on more than a rare occasion.
“I don’t know whether to kiss you or eat you.”
She rolled her eyes.
He decided to kiss the top of her head.
After he did that he looked at her again.
“I’m gooey and you’re filthy,” she murmured.
It was three Saturdays after their camping trip.
Three Saturdays with three good weeks in between of family and friends, and them just being together punctuated only by the need to sleep in order to keep going and work in order to afford to eat (or Izzy’s work was that, Johnny was stinking rich and could have quit but then he’d be bored stiff and working on cars anyway so he might as well do it and make his garage more money).
Addie was off work at the grocery store that day so the women decided to have a girls’ day out, which meant the men could have a boys’ day.
They’d all started it meeting at Izzy’s and going their separate ways with the plan to meet back and mix genders for dinner.
Brooks was the odd man out, considering he couldn’t reach the grips on an ATV, so he had to stick with the women.
“Too bad with all this company we can’t take a shower,” he murmured back.
“Johnathon, please. No sexual innuendo at a lady’s dining room table,” Margot scolded. “It’s crass.”
Johnny straightened and looked at her. “It wasn’t innuendo, Margot. It was just sexual.”
Toby busted out laughing. Charlie chuckled. Dave shook his head at him, but did it grinning. Deanna and Addie smiled at each other.
Margot’s eyes narrowed. “We’re sampling Eliza’s excellent infused vodkas and I’m in a chipper mood. I’d thank you not to upset that.”
“I’d thank you too. My woman’s gonna feel good about her skin and be drunk, this bodes good things,” Dave delivered his own sexual innuendo, leaning into the table, grabbing the bottle that was closest that looked like it had strawberries and mint leaves in it, pouring a healthy dose into the glass in front of Margot and then he leaned back and shot the whole thing.
“David, you sip,” Margot snapped.
Dave put the glass down, ignored his wife and winked at Izzy. “I don’t even know what that was but you got my approval, child.”
Izzy beamed at him.
“I hope you all have changes of clothes seeing as you all need showers before we feed you,” Margot declared. She then turned to Izzy. “Take note of this, darlin’. In case you weren’t aware, ATV stands for all-terrain vehicle, and when they’re on one, they attempt to discover every type of terrain they can, the muddier, the better.”
Izzy, apparently unaffected by her man having dried mud caked up to his hips, just nodded and replied, “So noted, Margot.”
“I’m gonna go home and shower,” Charlie said then bent and kissed Deanna under her ear. “I’ll be back for dinner.”
“Iz, can I jump in your shower?” Toby asked.
“Sure,” Izzy answered.
“It’s my shower at this juncture so you should ask me,” Addie put in. “Unless you’re going to the master.”
“I’m in the master,” Johnny stated.
“Adeline, can I use your shower?” Toby asked.
“Sure,” she answered on a big grin.
He shook his head at her and strolled out, Charlie following him.
Dave took a chair that was against the wall and started twisting it to the table.
“Halt!” Margot shouted.
Dave froze.
“Do you think you’re sitting in your muddy jeans in Eliza’s chair?” she asked.
“It’s chipped and dented and has no pad,” he stated.
“It’s shabby chic,” Margot returned with emphasis on words Dave didn’t understand and even if he did, he wouldn’t give that first shit about.
“It’s fine, really. I have cats, dogs, and these chairs cost me four dollars each,” Izzy entered the conversation. “Except the one Deanna’s sitting in had a missing leg so I got that one thrown in for free. Anyway, a home is a home, not a showplace. Everyone is welcome, muddy jeans and all.”
“See?” Dave asked his wife.
“You’ll remain standing until you’re showered,” Margot returned.
“Both showers are taken ’cause Tobe has no respect for his elders,” Dave shot back. “And I’m sitting,” he declared, finished twisting his seat and then he put his ass in it.
Margot turned to Izzy. “You should take note of this as well, my beautiful girl. He’s quite right. Tobias should have let David go first. He’s also demonstrating how he doesn’t respect me by sitting in that chair. Don’t let that start. If you do, it never stops.”
“I respected you enough when I paid that credit card bill yesterday,” Dave retorted and looked at Johnny. “Take note, son. Seven-hundred-dollar shoes. And I’m not even kidding.”
He felt Izzy’s gaze and looked down at her.
“I’d never buy seven-hundred-dollar shoes unless they were seriously on sale,” Izzy told him.
“It comes to a time I’m paying our credit card bill, feel free to buy as many seven-hundred-dollar shoes as you want,” he replied.
“I love him,” Deanna declared.
“Easy for him to say, he’s a millionaire,” Dave muttered.
Izzy’s eyes in the goo got huge.
Fuck.
“You’re a millionaire?” she whispered.
Damn.
“Yeah,” he grunted.
“Oh . . . my . . . God!” Addie shouted. “I take it back! I’m totally letting you pay my attorney’s fees!”
Brooks, in his mom’s lap, squealed with glee.
“Iz?” he called when she just stared at him.
“I’ve always wanted a pair of Louboutins,” she said softly.
He grinned, bent his head and kissed her hard.
He got goo all over his mouth and chin.
But she tasted great.
After dinner, Johnny stood at the back door in the kitchen looking out the window.
Izzy was on the porch, standing as well, directly opposite him, and watching what was happening in the backyard through the screen.
She was goo-less, in a pretty sundress, arms and legs tanned, no shoes, no makeup, hair in a ponytail at the base of her neck streaming down her back, and he only had her profile but he saw a small, happy smile on her face.
He looked beyond her to what was making her happy.
In the yard under the tree that still was hung with crystals and strung with Christmas lights that were not yet turned on because the sun was just beginning to set, Toby had hold of Brooks and was swinging him around, dipping him down, lifting him up, like he was flying.
The kid had a look on his face like he was frozen in laughter, experiencing bliss.
Addie was ass to the grass close by, Frisbee in hand, winging it, after which Swirl, Dempsey and Ranger took off after it.
But she didn’t watch to see which dog got the Frisbee.
She looked right at Toby and her son.
Shit.
“I don’t know who’s falling faster. Her for him or him for that baby boy,” Margot said from his side.
Johnny turned to her.
“Or him for her,” she finished. “It’s a tossup.”
“She’s in the middle of divorcing her husband, who it’s my understanding she loved,” Johnny informed her.
“Time moves on, my sweet Johnathon,” she replied. “And love never really dies, but it does fade, as you well know.”
He looked back at Izzy.
“And when it fades, the part that remains teaches us how to love better the next time,” she said softly, putting her hand on his forearm.
He pulled it away but only to catch her fingers and lift them up to press to his chest.
But he didn’t reply.
He set his eyes back to the yard.
“Tobe doesn’t do relationships,” he said.
“People change.”
Johnny looked back to her. “He’s not going to take his first test drive with Adeline.”
Her gaze drifted to the window. “He’s going to do what Tobias has always done. Whatever he wishes.”
“Margot—”
She cut her gaze back to him. “My love, he would tear out his own heart before he did anything that might harm yours.” Her fingers squeezed his. “You have nothing to fear.”
“I don’t like it,” he shared.
“Well, first, it’s your job as his big brother not to like pretty much everything he does until he proves to you that he can do it well. It’s both your lots, I’m afraid, and there’s no escaping it. And second, you’re so blind in love with Eliza it’s taking everything you have not to hammer a wall made of iron around her to protect her from anything that might hurt her. And something that might hurt her sister will hurt her. So you’ve got twice as much to get over when that,” she tilted her head to the window in the door, “takes root.”
“He doesn’t even know if he’s staying in Matlock,” Johnny said.
She raised a brow. “And he can’t take her and Brooks with him should he decide to go?”
“That would devastate Izzy. She loves having her sister close.”
She smiled. “Ah, there’s that iron wall.”
Johnny felt his lips hitch, but he shook his head and looked back to the yard even as he pressed her hand closer to his heart.
After a turn around the yard, probably just to get some alone time since they hadn’t seen each other most of the day and Johnny had noticed the two were not just a married couple, but a couple, Deanna and Charlie were strolling up to Toby. Deanna had again worn heels that day, but she was walking barefoot in the grass now, though the straps of her sandals dangled from her husband’s fingers.
Johnny took note of that.
Dave was latching the gate on the stables. He’d just brought in Izzy’s horses while Margot and Johnny did the dishes and the rest Margot had ordered, “Had done enough . . . so get.”
This, even though she didn’t let anyone do anything. She’d pushed out the women so she could cook, and then she’d pushed out everyone except Johnny so they could clean up.
No one said dick. Even if most of them knew her a short time, they’d all learned this was Margot’s way.
Toby now had Brooks around his neck, walking toward Dave with Deanna and Charlie closing in.
Addie was watching Johnny’s brother and her son go.
Izzy was pushing through the back door.
He felt it as Margot moved closer to him and he felt it as she curled the fingers of her other hand over both of theirs.
“It will be just fine.”
“When we were camping, she told me a lot about her mother and father. I already knew he beat her mother and her mom’s parents refused to let her come home so they were on the run and had nothing. They never got anything either, no matter how hard Iz’s mom worked. They only had each other. Daphne, Izzie and Addie. That was all they had.”
“That’s terrible,” Margot murmured her understatement, the timbre of it sharing just how terrible she thought it was.
“Thank God for you,” he whispered.
“Pardon?”
He turned his head and looked her direct in the eyes.
“Thank God for you. Dave and you. Thank God Dad had you so he could give you to us. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have a lot of things, Margot. Too many to name. It’d take a week just to get through table manners. But there’s a new one now. And that would be, if I didn’t have you, I wouldn’t know how to love her like she needs me to do it.”
Tears brightened her eyes and she tried to slip her hand away, because Margot was the kind of woman who left the room to have her emotion in private, probably because she’d spent most of her life around men and she thought they had no clue how to deal with it.
Except those men had her too so she was wrong about that.
In other words, Johnny’s hold only got tighter so she wouldn’t slip away.
“She lost her mom and mourns her like that happened yesterday. She blossoms when she’s anywhere near you. You try to act the diva, sweetheart, but you can’t help but just give and give. Thank you for giving that back to Izzy.”
“Stop,” she whispered.
He didn’t stop.
“Mother-son dance,” he said softly.
Her eyes got brighter.
“You’ve already done it three times, you up for a fourth?” he asked.
She swallowed.
She sniffed.
She squared her shoulders.
Then she declared on a tight squeeze of his hand, “Most certainly.”
She gave him that and it was not the first time she gave him something for which he’d be forever grateful.
But she was Margot.
So she wasn’t done.
“However, as I also intend to stand in for another important role, you best prepare Eliza. Because everyone knows, a girl’s wedding is not her own. It’s the dream wedding her mother always wanted, and if not that, it’s the wedding her mother determines she should have. And I birthed three boys and helped raise two more. The first three’s women had mothers. Now, it’s my turn.”
To that, Johnny busted out laughing.
The sun was down.
The Christmas lights in the tree were on.
The infused vodka had again been unearthed.
Blankets had been brought out and spread in the grass.
So they sat under moonlight, Christmas lights and crystals, one couple each to their own blanket, sucking back vodka, talking and laughing, both quietly because Addie was giving her son his nighttime bottle.
Johnny was frowning at his brother who was stretched out on Addie’s blanket with her, watching her feed her son like he’d never seen anything more beautiful.
“Johnny, honey, can you pass me the ginger and peach bottle?” Izzy asked softly.
He reached to the bottle of vodka he guessed was ginger and peach because it had peaches in it as well as something that looked like cut up garlic cloves (a bottle he had, until she just said that, avoided because he wasn’t thinking he’d be a big fan of peach and garlic).
He turned and handed it to her.
She took it with a, “Thanks, häschen.”
He said nothing.
He just stared at Izzy’s face in the moonlight and Christmas lights, seeing right then, next to him on a blanket, with their people around them, she was not happy.
She was what she thought her mother wanted to be.
She was in her place.
She was where she’d always wanted to be.
She was serene.
He’d thought he’d never seen a more beautiful woman than the woman he’d seen with her daughters in those pictures in Izzy’s stables.
But that changed right then.
Eliza set the bottle in the grass by their blanket and lifted her eyes to his.
She tipped her head to the side. “You okay?”
“Best ever, baby.”
She smiled.
And there was the happy.
So Johnny forgot his brother on Addie’s blanket.
Izzy was happy.
Therefore so was Johnny.
And they’d ride that the next day, Sunday, when he loaded up Izzy and his dog in the morning and he spent the entire day with her in bed at the mill.
And they’d keep riding it, falling asleep together and waking up together the next morning.
It wouldn’t be until Monday afternoon when Izzy’s serenity was shattered, when her world of moonlight and crystals and fruit-infused vodka and good people all around that Johnny knew she’d worked her entire life to find her way to fell apart.
And when it did, everyone on those blankets plummeted straight into hell.