“Your room.”

“How?” Her voice was rising.

“How?” Cal repeated.

“Yes, how?”

“Packed some shit, brought it over, unpacked it,” Cal explained unnecessarily.

“Where’d you put it?”

“In your room.”

“Yeah, but where?”

“Jeans and boots in the closet, dumped some tees in a drawer, razor in the bathroom. Done.”

“Holy crap,” she whispered then jumped when Elaine slapped two menus on the table.

“Should I have bothered with those?” she asked a pertinent question, tipping her head to menus no person who’d lived in that town longer than a month hadn’t memorized.

“Not for me,” Vi told her, “I want a reuben.”

“Burger,” Cal said.

“Cheese?” Elaine asked Cal.

“Yep.”

“Cheddar, swiss, or jack?” Elaine went on.

“Surprise me,” Cal told her and Elaine grinned again.

“Drinks?” Elaine continued.

“Diet Coke,” Vi ordered.

“Beer,” Cal said.

“Bud, Coors, Bud Light, Coors Light, Heineken –” Elaine listed.

Cal cut her off. “Bud.”

“Onion rings, fries or both?” Elaine went on.

“Fries,” Vi answered.

“Both,” Cal told her.

“Gotcha.” Elaine shoved her pencil behind her ear and slid the menus back off the table. She’d had her pad in her hand while they ordered but this was either for show or she held it by habit. She hadn’t written a word before she walked away. The order would come to the table as they’d asked for it and the check would come with a total at the bottom, that was it and it would be the right total. That was Elaine. That was Frank’s.

“Joe,” Violet called and he turned to see she was out and out fretting so he turned more fully to her and dipped his head close.

“Relax, buddy,” he said softly.

“This is going really fast.”

“I know.”

“We need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Nadia.”

Cal pulled back. “What about her?”

“Who is she?” Vi asked.

Fuck.

He did not want to get into this shit and what was more, she didn’t.

“Vi –” Cal said low.

“No, I don’t want to know. What I want to know is, honest, right here, did you sleep with her while you were sleepin’ with me?”

Cal locked down his temper. “I already told you the answer to that.”

“Okay, then, is she gone?”

Nadia was never gone. Nadia was always a phone call away. He didn’t share that.

“Yeah.”

“Definitely?”

“Vi, not a big fan of askin’ or answerin’ twice.”

“You lied to me.”

“There was a reason.”

“And that was?”

“To save you from me.”

Her torso moved back and her eyes got big.

Cal wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, pulled her close and leaned into her.

“Thought I was savin’ myself from you, but I was savin’ you from me.”

“I –” she started.

He cut her off. “You see these scars on my face?”

Her eyes went to his cheek then back to his. “Yes.”

“Bonnie gave them to me. So high, her head was in the clouds but it wasn’t a good trip. She got pissed at somethin’, I don’t even know what, she came at me. Got me with her nails.”

“Joe,” she whispered, her fingers curling tight around his thigh.

“She got like that a lot. When she was pissed, she’d scream the fuckin’ house down and it wasn’t unusual she came after me. She only marked my face and, you probably don’t know this, buddy, but you gotta come hard and dig deep to make marks like these with your nails.”

“I… I don’t know what to say,” Vi muttered.

“Not tellin’ you for you to say anything. I’m tellin’ you because now it’s happening. You’re with me and you’ll find this shit out about me. I look in the mirror every day and remember her marking me then I remember what else she did to me. Now you see it, right on my fuckin’ face, you’ll think about it too. Maybe it won’t come to you every time you see it, but it’ll come to you and, I know you, you’ll feel it.”

“Joe –”

His face got closer and he whispered, “That’s what I was savin’ you from, baby.”

“It’s you,” she said incomprehensibly.

“What?” he asked.

“I didn’t know she did it. Before you told me what you just told me, those scars were just you.”

“Now you know.”

“Those scars are still just you.”

“Vi –”

“They are.”

Fuck, was she serious?

“Vi –”

“Maybe you’re right and I’ll think about it sometimes. But most of the time, I don’t even see them. They’re just a part of you.”

Cal had no response to that except the urge to kiss her.

So he did and he kept doing it until he heard the thud of a beer bottle hitting the table.

His mouth left Vi’s and he turned to see Elaine putting Violet’s drink in front of her.

“Bud, diet. Enjoy. Shout for a refill,” Elaine said, her mouth curled up at the ends and then she walked away.

Cal turned to Violet who’d grabbed her drink and was sucking on the straw. It reminded him of her at J&J’s, her elbow on the bar, her head in her hand, her straw between her lips, her eyes on him and half his concentration had been on her, the rest of it trying to stop his dick getting hard.

He hoped Frank hurried with their goddamned food.

Violet’s eyes came to him. “We should probably not make out in Frank’s restaurant.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause it’s mostly full.”

“So?”

“Rumors fly.”

“Buddy, my truck’s in your drive and my tees are in your drawer.”

Her eyes slid to the side then back to him then she put her straw to her mouth and muttered, “Right,” then she sucked on her straw.

“It’s a small town, we’ll be the talk of it for about a week then someone else will.”

“Okay,” she whispered and put her glass down.

When she released her glass, he took her hand. Linking his fingers with hers, he brought their hands to his thigh.

“What else is in there?”

Her eyes lifted to his. “What?”

“In your head that we have to get sorted out?”

She laughed softly then replied, “You don’t wanna know.”

“Wouldn’t ask, I didn’t wanna know.”

She leaned into him. “Joe, there’s so much in my head, it’d take a year to get it sorted out.”

“All right, break it down. What’s priority?”

Her face set to confused. “Priority?”

Christ, she was cute.

“The most important, baby,” he explained quietly.

“Um… all of it.”

“First thing,” he said.

“First thing?”

“Right now, first thing that comes to you, what is it?”

“Mel.”

His brows drew together. “Mel?”

“She’s… I know what she’s feeling, Joe, I’ve been there and I’m worried about her.”

His hand squeezed hers. “Buddy –”

“And she doesn’t even have kids to make it easier.”

“Then give them to her,” Cal said and a surprised laugh came from her.

“I can’t give her kids, Joe, it’s anatomically impossible,” she teased.

“You got two with phones and you got a car, honey.”

Her face turned startled and she whispered, “You’re right.”

“Helps both ways. The girls and you call her regular, you get her regular. Go up to see her, get her to come down here.”

“I don’t think I can go up there, Joe, not by myself.”

“Didn’t say you’re goin’ by yourself, wouldn’t let you go by yourself.”

Her hands spasmed in his and she whispered, “Joe –”

“What else you got?”

“Joe –”

He leaned in again. “What else’s in your head, baby?”

She tugged her hand from his, lifted it and curled her fingers around his neck.

“Thank you,” she whispered and he saw tears trembling at the bottoms of her eyes.

“For what?” he asked softly, his eyes glued to her tears and her hand gave him a squeeze as he watched one slide down her face.

Before he could do a thing about it her head came forward and veered to his left.

In his ear, she whispered, “For not wastin’ time showin’ me I made the right decision.”

There it was. Vi didn’t make him work at it long, it took less than thirty minutes.

Cal felt a twinge pierce the left side of his chest and he lifted his hand to her neck too, sliding it back and up into her hair, he bent his neck in order to kiss hers and she turned her head and kissed the hinge of his jaw.

He’d never had a sweeter kiss. Not in his life.

His hand fisted in her hair and he lifted his head, positioning hers so he could kiss her.

“Burger!” Elaine announced, a plate crashed to the table and Vi jumped as Cal lifted his head. “Reuben!” she went on as Cal twisted his neck to look up at her, leaving his hand in Vi’s hair. “You got cheddar. Surprise,” she told Cal, smiled huge and walked away.

Vi giggled.

Cal let his woman go and turned to his food.

Vi squirted ketchup in a pile by her fries and noted, “One good thing about you movin’ in…”

Cal left his burger suspended halfway to his mouth and looked at Violet, brows raised when she didn’t finish.

“Don’t think Dane’ll have any ideas, you’re in the house.”

“He gets ‘em, I break his neck,” Cal muttered and took a bite of his burger then looked back at Vi to see now she had a fry loaded with ketchup suspended halfway to her mouth, her eyes wide, her face back to pale. He chewed, swallowed then assured her, “Relax, baby, I wouldn’t actually do it.”

“Don’t threaten it either. You’ll scare the shit out of him.”

“Scare him enough not to get ideas?”

“Joe!” she snapped.