Chapter Nineteen

Landon

 

We roll into John’s Island around five. It’s slightly warmer here than in Charlotte. I crack the window and breathe deep. The minute that salty air wafts into my nose all the stress from the last few days leaves me and only peace floods my mind. Home, this is what it’s like to be home.

I chuckle when Luci shudders. “Sorry,” I say.

She gathers the travel blanket she brought around her, smiling. She’s done that a lot, smile and laughed the whole way down. If I was worried things would be awkward, that changed when I cracked my first joke and her lovely laughter drifted in the cabin.

As close as we’ve become over the past month or so, we haven’t been physically close. I’ve given her time like I promised, not that it’s been easy. The other night, if it weren’t for that call and dealing with ICE, I would have spent the night with my hips buried between her legs. At least, that’s what I think she was giving me permission to do. But when I returned, that desire I all but felt clawing at my clothes was gone when she opened the door.

She banged her head pretty hard from the feel of it, and I kept checking on her during the night to make sure she was okay. I think anyone else would have blamed her injury for the change in her mood, and maybe I should have done just that. Except there was that familiar shield around her, keeping me from touching her and far away from her heart.

I wasn’t sure what she’d say about coming to Kiawah with me, knowing that offer included my bed. I was prepared to tell her she could sleep in one of my spare bedrooms if it came down to it. Hell, I want her with me more than sex.

But then she said yes, both to the trip, and my invitation for more.

“Are you planning to sleep outside?” I ask, motioning to her blanket.

“Only if you’re bad,” she counters.

I grin. “Does naughty count?”

Hey, she already knows I’m up to no good, might as well make sure she wants to be up to no good with me.

She presses her lips together, trying not to smile and not quite managing. “When you say naughty, what do mean?”

I pretend to give it some thought. “Oh, I don’t know, petroleum jelly on the toilet seat, taking pictures of my ass with your phone, or maybe grabbing yours.” I give her a wink. “I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.”

She laughs. I do, too, loving the way the tone melds with hers.

“Why did you open the window?” she asks me, settling into her blanket.

“Smelling the salt.”

She looks ahead. “You can smell it, from here?” At my nod she asks, “Are we almost there?”

“To my place, we have a little less than an hour. Too far to see the ocean, but not so far I can’t smell it.”

“Oh,” she says, perking up. Her attention stretches ahead, and I can feel her excitement build. It’s one of those things I love about Luci, when she feels something, especially something as precious as joy, she feels it down to her bones. Like all that zest for life she carefully clutches releases at once.

“Love.” I don’t miss how that word digs its way into my brain more and more around her.

All the parts of me that were burnt to a crisp, rap my knuckles with a perpetual ruler, reminding me the last time I used that word this soon, it didn’t work. It went up in flames shot from a redheaded demon now known as my ex-wife.

Luci’s hand falls to my lap, stroking me lightly. “What are you thinking about?”

“Crabs.” And the evil redhead demon. But she doesn’t need to know the latter.

“Excuse me?”

“You like crabs? There’s this place called Gilligan’s I’d like to take you to. But if you don’t like seafood, there’s a real nice place that serves steaks.”

“We’re not going straight to your place?”

I toss her a playful look. “Now, darlin’,” I say. “I know you’re just dying to take advantage of me and have your way, in all the right ways, but I figured we’d better eat first, or risk dying of starvation.”

She turns her attention to the passenger side window, her face flushed red. “I thought you said we didn’t have to do anything.”

It’s only because I catch her smile in the reflection that I say what I do. “We don’t. You’re the one taking us to Orgasm Mountain and staring out at the peaks and valleys.”

“Landon!”

“How’s the view from up there? Any sight of Pleasure Hill, Lake Orgy, or Highway 69?” I click my tongue. “And those valleys must be something, huh? Mind if I take a peak in between?”

She covers her face, muffling her laughter. “You really know how to make a woman blush.”

I nod, thoughtfully. “I know how to make a woman do a lot of things, if you know what I mean.”

“Landon,” she warns.

I glance from the road back to her. “I’m sorry. Would you like me to explain?”

“No.”

It’s what she says, but she can’t stop laughing, and all that bashfulness is too cute to abandon this soon. “You see, I’m what some women consider attractive.”

“Are you?” she asks, playing right along.

“And sexy,” I add.

“Hmm,” she says.

“Also dashing, with the right amount of rugged.”

“Rugged?” she questions.

“Just a sprinkle for color and only enough to know it’s there.” I adjust my hand on the wheel. “There’s also what some might describe as hotness.”

“Is there?”

“Of course, you can’t have attractive, sexy, and dashing without hotness.”

“What happened to rugged?” she asks.

“Don’t worry. That’s there, too.”

“You forgot modest,” she points out.

“No, I left that out on purpose,” I tell her. “Don’t like to talk about myself much. It’s bad for my attractive, sexy, rugged, and dashing persona.” It’s hard not to laugh when she giggles, but I push on, seeing how I’m on a roll. “Anyway, like I was saying, I know how to make women scream with pleasure, beg for more, and writhe in ecstasy.” This time I do laugh. “Sorry, I forgot you’ve already seen that side.”

“I have,” she says. She’s looking shy, and maybe she is, it doesn’t stop her voice from growing husky or her from saying what she does. “It’s why I’m surprised we’re stopping for dinner.”

I ease around a pothole in the road and another one that follows. “Did you think I just brought you out here for a toss and tumble and maybe a few licks?”

I mean it as a joke, but she’s no longer laughing. “Didn’t you?” she asks, her voice just above a whisper.

Shit, it’s hot in here.

“No,” I admit. “I want more.”

She doesn’t move, and if it weren’t for me driving, I wouldn’t move either. We’re getting serious, me and Luci, regardless of whether we planned it.

At least, that’s what I want.

I’m not talking a ring and forever. It’s too soon even with feeling everything I am.

I am, however, promising as much as my heart will allow.

“Why did you come?”

“Maybe I want more, too,” she admits.

“Maybe?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch her fussing with her hands. “I haven’t had anyone in my life for a long time,” she says carefully. “Not anyone who mattered, and even then, it wasn’t like this.”

“You mean like you and me?” I’m putting it back on her, not to be a prick, but more to show her where I’m coming from, and maybe where we’re headed.

If I hadn’t taken a moment to glance her way, I would have missed her nod. As it is, I barely hear her response. “Yes.”

“It’s been a while for me too, but the more I get away from it, the more I wish it hadn’t happened.”

“Did you love her?”

Her voice is quiet as it often is, gentle like she thinks she shouldn’t be asking what she does. But she wants to know, and maybe needs to.

I owe it to her to tell her.

We pass one of those rusted old shacks along the road, and several others further down on the same side. I note a beaten down willow tree beside the next, its long, withered branches flowing close to a battered picnic table perched on the front lawn.

I used to be that tree not long ago, until Luci added the blooms, reminding me I’m still alive.

Maybe that’s why it takes me a moment to answer, and a moment longer after that.

“I thought I did,” I finally answer. “But I was wrong.”

“How do you know?”

“That I was wrong?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Because love, the real kind, doesn’t fade away.” The thought used to tear me apart. But for the first time it doesn’t. The only thing I sense is relief. That, and now hope.

I lift her hand and kiss it when I catch her softening features. Be it the way the sun beams against her face, or be it simply Luci, I can’t get over her beauty.

“So what will it be, darlin’? Someplace rustic or someplace elegant?”

“Let’s go with rustic,” she says. “I have a feeling that’s where you’re leaning toward.”

Now, I’m the one who quiets. “It is, but if steak is what you want, that’s where we’ll go. You’ve been without that smile I like for too long.” She grins in the way that lights her eyes. “Yeah, that’s the one,” I say.

“Let’s do seafood. If you’d like, we’ll try the steakhouse tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” I reply. “Besides, I like showing you off.”

If you ask me, I can’t think of a better woman to have on my arm. The more days that pass, the more I want to show the world how special she is to me.

The silence spreads between us as softly as that red blanket she tucks beneath her chin. As much as I welcomed all the laughs on the way down, I welcome that quiet with equal force. It’s comfortable, easy, there’s no underlying dread of what may come, what’ll piss her off, or how she’ll treat others around us. That’s what my life used to be. I guess it took leaving to make me see how bad it was.

“Are you okay, Landon?”

I didn’t realize she was looking at me. I grin, passing my thumb along the ridges of her knuckles. “I am,” I admit.

I hold her hand the entire way to Gilligan’s, even as I park. It makes it challenging, but I find it harder to let her go. It’s only when I cut the engine that I finally release her. I wait for her to slip into her coat before I open the door and step out.

Luci isn’t used to having a man do things for her and doesn’t wait for me to open the door. I don’t argue with her. I simply reach for her when she comes around.

Gilligan’s is a hardcore hole in the wall. Wide wood planks make up the siding and steps, and its high triangular roof is probably older than I am. Their food can’t be beat and Gilligan would shoot down from heaven itself to rough up anyone who said otherwise.

Ever since I was a kid, it’s always been one of my favorite places to eat. I never really brought another woman here, unless you count my mother. It was below the standards of the women I dated, especially the one I married. But if I was going to bring any woman, I’m glad it’s Luci.

Luci doesn’t care about cloth napkins or waiters with fancy accents. Just the other week she was perfectly content eating a hotdog when I took her to the zoo. The zoo. I offered to take her anywhere she wanted and that’s where she picked just so she could see their new baby gorilla.

She glances up, smiling. “This here is what we call a real Southern restaurant,” she says, imitating my accent and speech.

“Yes, ma’am, it is,” I agree.

The lack of windows gives the interior a very dark look, but the activity of the bustling waitresses, the loud voices of parents fussing over their children, and the booming laughter that never seems to fade is what gives Gilligan’s life.

“Hey, y’all,” the hostess says when she sees us.

Her name is Lashanda. She used to say, “Welcome to Gilligan’s,” when my folks and I first started coming here. But it didn’t take her long to figure out we were local so her greeting switched real quick.

“Evening, ma’am,” I say. “Two for dinner, please.”

“This way, sir.”

I guide Luci ahead. The center tables are wide and long, and the ones in the booths are only slightly smaller. Every table sits a minimum of eight comfortably and every four place settings there’s a large hole with a bucket beneath to dump garbage and shells.

There’s barely enough room for one adult to walk through the aisles. But the atmosphere is friendly, and the service is classic Southern charm.

Lashanda motions to one of the large booths. “Wow,” Luci says, taking in the size.

“You want ‘wow’, y’all have to check out the king crab legs. It’s our special tonight.”

“Thank you,” Luci says.

Luci scoots in first, I start to follow when I hear, “Landon? Is that you?”

Jesus, God help me.

I turn around slowly to catch Trin, Callahan, and Cal junior perched in his daddy’s arms walking toward me . . . Directly in front of my folks.

Oh, shit.

Trin reaches up to hug me, her lips pursed the same way they did when we were kids and she snagged me doing something I shouldn’t be doing. “What are you doing here?”

She’s asking me, but poking her head around me to see who I’m with.

“Ah, what are you doing here?” I reply, patting her back like a moron. I look ahead to my mother whose eyebrows are almost to the ceiling and to my father who’s narrowing his stare. “I thought y’all were in Tennessee.”

“Business was concluded faster than expected, son,” my father drawls. Like everyone else, his attention drifts to Luci. I clap Callahan on the shoulder. He looks at me, pretty much in the way any decent man would look at another about to be humiliated.

“Payback’s a bitch,” he whispers.

Never mind. Maybe he’s just revving up to enjoy the show.

“Hi, Momma,” I tell her, bending down to embrace her.

“Hi, baby,” she says, barely glancing at me.

“Hey, Daddy,” I say.

He shakes my hand, cocking a brow and tilting his head in the direction of the table. “I have a date,” I begin.

“I can see that,” he says.

“I’ll get more menus,” Lashanda offers.

“Thanks, Lashanda,” I say, pinching the bridge of my nose.

So much for a romantic getaway.

I’m not embarrassed that Luci is with me. But as much as I like her and am ready for more, I’m not exactly mentally prepared for her to meet my family. Don’t get me wrong, my family are among the best people to every walk the earth.

The problem is, even the best people have their flaws, and if I’m right, they’re preparing to wave those flaws like flags and poke me with the staffs.

Luci had scooted all the way in. It’s darker than sin in here, but I can tell she’s already blushing. With everyone honed in on her the way they are, I can’t exactly blame her.

I chuckle. What the fuck else am I going to do? Knowing my family, that there is the first of many blushes to come. “Everyone, this is Luci. Luci, this here’s my sister, Trinity, her husband, Callahan, and my parents, Owen and Silvie Summers.”

She shifts timidly forward, managing to reach the end by the time I’m done with the introductions.

“Hello,” Luci says, extending her hand to my mother first. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Hello, dear,” my mother says.

My father takes her hand gingerly. “Charmed,” he says, eyeing her carefully.

Callahan nods cordially when Luci greets him, adjusting his hold over Cal. But as she turns her attention on my nephew, that smile gets a whole lot brighter. “Hello, little man,” she says, rubbing my nephew’s wrist with her finger. “What’s your name?”

“That’s Cal, Jr.,” I say, watching the way she interacts with him. “You like kids?”

She doesn’t even look at me when she answers, too fascinated with Cal who’s giving her a toothy grin. “Are you kidding? I love children,” she says, beaming at him.

“Well, I’ll be,” Trinity says, a big shit eating grin on her face. “You’re the girl from Becca’s party. The one who helped me with my crab cakes.”

Luci tucks one of her long waves behind her ear, embarrassed. “I wasn’t sure you’d remember.”

“How could I forget? You were so sweet to help.” Trin’s words should put me at ease. But I know Trin and she’s just getting started. She swivels around. “Becca’s party was New Year’s Eve,” she reminds me and our parents.

“New Year’s?” my father says. “And we’re just meeting her now?”

Trin places her hands on her hips. “Funny, you should say that, Daddy. I was thinking the same thing,” she tells him.

My body stiffens. Of course, why would that discourage Trin?

“Now, Landon,” she says, her thick accent turning up a notch as it often does when trouble isn’t too far away. “Seeing how you’ve waited so long to properly introduce your lady friend here to your folks, I’m sure you’ll agree this is the perfect opportunity for all of us to get to know each other.”

More like perfect opportunity to be bitch-slapped in public. Christ, I can practically hear the wheels in her head turn.

“Well?” she asks when I don’t reply. “Aren’t you going to invite us to join you?”

“He doesn’t have to do that,” Callahan says.

“Oh yes, he does,” Trin and Momma reply.

Callahan, swipes at his mouth, trying not to laugh. He shrugs, assuring me he’s done his best and that I might as well give in.

“I insist that you join us,” I mutter through my teeth.

“You sure?” Trin asks. “Far be it for us to impose.”

“Of course,” Luci says. “Please, we just arrived.”

She scoots back down to her seat. “Uh, uh,” I say, hooking Trin’s elbow when she tries to follow. “You, over there.”

I point to the opposite side of the table and to the far end. That doesn’t discourage her in the least. No, not my sister. “Even better,” she says, moving quickly so she can sit facing Luci.

I place myself beside Luci. It’s the least I can do seeing how Momma follows Trin and Daddy isn’t too far behind.

“May I?” I ask Callahan, extending my arms to my nephew.

He laughs, knowing perfectly well I’m about to use his son as a human shield.

Cal, Jr. comes easily to me, and takes even quicker to Luci. “Hang tight to the kid,” I whisper, plopping him onto her lap. “He’s the only chance you have to make it out of here alive.”

She lifts him so he’s facing her and standing on her lap. “What?”

“Run away,” I mumble.

She blinks back at me, puzzled. Poor, sweet, innocent Luci. She has no idea what she’s in for. Instead of prepping herself for the worst she gives Cal her full attention. “Hey, cutie,” she says. “How are you doing, handsome boy?”

I don’t think Cal, Jr. finishes his giggle before Trin and Momma start in. “Look, Momma,” Trin says. “She’s a real woman, with real parts.”

“And no glitter,” Momma points out, thanking Lashanda when she returns with a tray of waters.

“And no tassels, neither,” Trin murmurs.

“Mm-hmm,” Momma says.

Luci stills in place, confusion as evident on her face as the glee on my sister’s. Before I can give it much thought, I slip my arm around her. The baby doesn’t seem like enough, someone has to protect her from Hell’s version of Steel Magnolias.

“Tassels?” Luci asks, probably thinking she misheard.

Trin folds her arms on the table and leans forward. “So, Luci. Do you have any hobbies?” she asks. “Scrap booking, horseback riding, or say, um, bedazzling unmentionables?”

“Trin,” I warn.

“I like to read,” Luci answers. “But I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time.”

“She can read,” Daddy says, sounding impressed.

“Oh, come on,” I reply. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes, it was,” they all mutter, including Callahan.

Luci gapes back at me in the same way any sane person would. “Believe it or not, they’re insulting me, not you,” I assure her.

“I could learn to bedazzle,” Luci says slowly.

“No,” Daddy, Momma, and Trin say, holding out their hands.

“So, you’ve been together since New Year’s?” Trin asks, ignoring the way Callahan cackles.

Luci and I exchange glances. “Not exactly,” I admit. If she wasn’t beside me, I might have said yes. God knows I haven’t looked at another woman since I first laid eyes on her.

“We met that night,” Luci says, her face growing more flushed with each breath. “But we didn’t start dating right away.”

“Is that a fact?” Trin asks, enjoying herself. “Ivy Lionelle told me she lost track of you, Landon, that you seemed to disappear and no one could find you.”

“Did she?” I reply. Good ol’ Ivy Lionelle never could keep her trap shut.

Trin’s smile widens, ignoring my scowl. “Well, I suppose now we know why.”

“Trin,” I say again.

She taps her chin, giving it some thought. “And maybe, just maybe, that explains why you opted out of brunch on Saturday. Oh, and Sunday, too.” She grins like the Cheshire cat after eating the damn rabbit. “Hmm. And why you seemed so tired when we finally did see you Monday.”

I grin right back. “I’m going to kill you, and bury your body right next to Blackbeard’s.”

“Do you think he might show me his booty?” she counters. “Or are you more concerned about showing Luci yours?”

“Trin,” I warn, again, like that’s going to do anything.

“You like her,” she says, as if I don’t already know.

I look to Callahan. “Jesus, doesn’t your woman ever shut up?”

“Nope,” he answers, taking a sip of his water.

“You do like her,” Momma agrees, her voice more careful. “And it seems to me, she really likes you.”

The muscles in my neck are so stiff, it takes some doing to turn to look at Luci. For as red as her face is, she’s smiling in a way I’ve never quite seen.

I’m not openly affectionate with women in front of my family. I don’t know, it’s not that they’d say anything, it’s just never felt right around them.

It feels right now. My fingers skim down Luci’s arm and I kiss her cheek. “Good,” I say. “Cause you’re right about me liking her.”

Luci lowers her chin, her shyness returning full force. When she glances up, her gratitude is as evident as the warmth in her stare. I love her. I know it now, despite everything that warns me I shouldn’t.

“Look at you,” Momma says. “And you used to be so shy.”

“When in the hell was this boy ever shy?” Daddy counters. “Don’t you remember when he went through that naked stage? Every time we had some place to go he’d strip down to nothing and tear through the neighborhood climbing trees and pretending to be Tarzan.”

“I was two!” I fire back.

“Five,” my family reminds me.

“Christ,” Callahan says, despite the way he’s covering his mouth laughing.

“The wild boy of Kiawah, that’s what they called him,” Daddy says.

“He even made the paper,” Momma, adds proudly.

“Thank God Trinity never pulled that,” Daddy says, shaking his head like this is something I still do. “Worst thing she did was sit on the beach and eat sand.”

“Well, yeah, she was always the sensible one,” I agree.

Trinity pretends to scowl, but ends up laughing. “Did y’all come down for Spring break?” she asks, turning her attention back on Luci.

Luci seems hesitant to answer. She doesn’t know Trinity, at least not well, but Trin has this gift for simultaneously busting balls and charming hearts. I hope Luci understands that despite her needling, she means no harm. Regardless, I try to shift the attention away from her. “We’re just down for the weekend. Grant Parsons called me. This is a slow time of year for him and told me he’d redo the kitchen for me at a sweet price.” My voice grows serious. “I would have called, but you said you’d be away.”

“Like I told you, son, we wrapped up business quick and came home,” Daddy says. “Trin hasn’t been feeling like herself.”

I frown. “Everything all right?”

“It’s great,” Trin says. “We’re going to have another baby.”

Momma wipes her eyes, although she’s trying not to let anyone see her. I scoot up to hug Trin and shake Callahan’s hand. “That’s the best news I heard in a long while,” I admit.

“Congratulations,” Luci says. “You must be so excited.”

Trin laughs when Callahan gives her a wink. “We are. We’ve always wanted lots of babies.” She shrugs. “God willing, we’ll keep having them.”

“What about you, Luci?” Momma asks. “You think you might have children one day?”

Momma glances at me, but thankfully Luci doesn’t appear to notice. “I hope so,” she answers, her attention wrapped around Cal, Jr., “I’ve always dreamed of a big family.”

We’ve never talked about kids and kept our talks about our future to a minimum, not that I mind what she has to say.

I ease my arm back around her shoulders when she quiets. “You all right?” I ask.

She surprises me by cuddling Cal, Jr. closer. Between the other patrons, and my family, it’s loud in here. But Cal is fading away, his eyes blinking fiercely as he fights to stay awake.

The way Luci holds him, and the way he’s so at ease against her, gives me one hell of a pause. “You know what this reminds me of?” she asks, motioning around the table.

“The looney bin?” I offer.

She laughs, so does my family. “No,” she says. “It reminds me of the day you met Kee-Kee and the rest of the staff.”

“Who’s Kee-Kee?” Trin asks.

“One of the junior partners at the law firm where we work,” Luci explains.

My father frowns. “You got Luci a job there?”

Here we go. “No. Luci has been working there for years. I . . . didn’t know until my first day when I saw her.”

They stare blankly at us, and while I’m not looking directly at Callahan, I can feel his stare, too.

“That there’s fate if I ever saw it,” Momma says.

I normally laugh off Momma’s superstitions, but I don’t laugh this time. Not with how I feel having Luci this close and not when she feels this perfect in my arms.