* * * *
Nevvie noticed her little sister looked a lot like her. The four of them spent an hour talking and going over old pictures. With young Laurie there, Nevvie hedged when asked questions about her family. Eventually, John picked up on the fact that Nevvie wasn’t comfortable talking about everything in the girl’s presence.
“Laurie,” he said, “why don’t you go get a shower and change clothes and we’ll all go out to eat.”
She nodded and ran to her room after giving Nevvie a hug.
He waited until he heard her bedroom door close to smile. “What is it you didn’t want to say in front of her?”
This would make or break what happened between her and her parents. Nevvie hoped they didn’t change their minds about her. “I live in an…unconventional marriage.”
“Unconventional?” Kelly asked.
Nevvie took a deep breath and plunged forward, telling them briefly and without too many details how she met and became involved with Tyler and Tom. “We have two beautiful sons. Tyler’s dad is staying with us now. We’re trying to convince him to move here permanently from England. And I’d love for you all to meet Tom’s mom and sisters. We’ve been talking about a huge family get-together for the Fourth of July.” She finally stopped talking, holding her breath and waiting.
John spoke first, his tone quiet. “They saved your life, didn’t they? I could see it in your face that you’re not telling us everything.”
Nevvie nodded. “Alex tracked me down and stabbed me a few months later. He’s in prison.”
John took her hands in his and gently squeezed. “They sound like good men.” He smiled. “So when do we get to meet our grandsons and our sons-in-law?”
It took a moment for that to sink in. When it did, Nevvie let out a happy sob and fell into their comforting arms.
* * * *
When she recovered her composure, she asked John and Kelly how they wanted to handle her explaining to Laurie her living situation. Kelly shrugged. “We’ll tell her the truth. She’s known since she was nine that she had a big sister. She asked us the question about babies because one of her friend’s older sisters was in high school and got pregnant.” She glanced at John. “So, we used it as a teachable moment.” Her gaze dropped to her hands. “She handled that a lot better than we thought she would. From then on, she’s asked us from time to time if we’d found you yet so she could have her big sister.”
When Kelly looked up, her eyes looked bright, like she was about to cry again. “She’s a smart kid. Sometimes I think she’s smarter than us.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t stand up to my parents,” John said. “I wish I had. We both do. We’re sorry we gave you up. We didn’t want to. At the time, they were all pressuring us and we felt like we had no choice.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I just wish I’d looked for you sooner. I just want to move forward now that we’re all together again.”
Nevvie called Tyler and Tom to meet them at the restaurant with Dad and the boys. They’d told Laurie before leaving the house about Nevvie’s situation. Of all the questions the girl could have asked, Nevvie didn’t expect the one that first popped out of the girl’s mouth.
“Oh, kind of like Big Love in reverse?”
John frowned. “We never let you watch that show.”
Laurie blushed, realizing she’d busted herself. “I watched it over at Amber’s house a couple of times,” she softly admitted.
Kelly laughed. “Oh, you’re so grounded, but not tonight.”
“Yes,” Nevvie said, “sort of like that, but we didn’t do it for any religious reasons. The three of us love each other and wanted to be a family.”
Fortunately, Laurie seemed satisfied with that answer.
Laurie asked to ride to the restaurant with Nevvie. On the way there, Nevvie found herself already loving the girl. She was bright and funny and everything Nevvie could have ever hoped for in a little sister.
“So, are your two brothers my brothers, too?” Laurie asked.
Nevvie wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. “Well, technically no, but I’m sure they’d like to meet you and get to know you.”
The girl went quiet for a moment. Then she softly admitted, “I was mad when they told me about you.”
“You were?”
“I was mad they gave you up. I always wanted a sister or a brother.” She looked at Nevvie. “I’m glad you found us.”
Nevvie smiled. “Me, too.”
Dinner lasted long into the evening. Both the boys had fallen asleep, and Laurie was unable to hide her yawns by the time they finished and paid the check. Outside in the parking lot, they all exchanged hugs and said their good-byes. Nevvie followed Tom and Tyler home. As the men got the boys out of their car seats, Andrew pulled her aside.
“You look happy, love.”
“I do?”
He nodded. “You’re positively glowing. I’m guessing this went as well as you hoped?”
She hugged him. “Yes, it did. It absolutely did.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alex LaRogue hefted his duffel bag and stepped out of the Everglades Correctional Institution outside of Miami. He blinked in the bright sunlight. With hardly any money in his pocket and a packet of paperwork from the Department of Corrections about the terms of his parole, he walked across the street to the bus stop there.
He stood alone at the stop. According to the weathered schedule mounted under a piece of Plexiglas on the side of the bus stop shelter, a bus into downtown Miami should be by in a few minutes.
He stared at the packet of information in his hand. As the bus rolled up a few minutes later and opened its door, he turned, dropped the packet of information into a garbage can at the bus stop, then boarded the bus. He paid the fare and took a seat.
As the bus door closed and rumbled back into traffic, he sat back, closed his eyes, and pictured his revenge.
Chapter Twenty-Three
With the boys put to bed, both her big ones and her little ones, Nevvie poured herself a glass of moscato wine and settled onto the couch with the ten grocery bags of mail, a recycling bin, a letter opener, and a stapler. She also had a second bin, which she put legitimate mail and mail for Tyler to read. She’d been putting off this task for nearly two weeks now, and it was only piling up worse.
She dumped the first bag out onto couch. It only took a minute to sort the junk mail and catalogs and other recyclables from mail she had to open. Most of the mail was addressed to Tyler, many of them cards or letters, so those were easy to distinguish. She put them in a pile for last and with a sigh, started opening the other pieces of mail.
Two hours and another glass of wine later, she reached the second to last bag of mail. She’d kind of developed a system and she quickly sorted through the mail, only stumbling when she reached a letter that didn’t resemble the others.
As she stared at the return address, from the Florida Department of Corrections, she took a closer look at the addressee.
Nevaeh Barton.
Her hands trembled and she dropped the envelope. When she fumbled for it, she lost her balance and fell off the couch, knocking her wine glass over on the table. It shattered on the tile-topped table.
“Dammit!”
She heard a door open down the hall. Andrew appeared in the living room doorway, a book in his hand. “Nevvie? Are you all right, dear?”
She felt her breath catch in her throat and shook her head. He rushed over to her and helped her up. “What is it? Are you ill?”
Well, she felt like she was going to throw up, but she didn’t know if it was her nerves or the wine. With a shaking hand, she pointed to the letter on the floor.
He set his book on the couch and picked up the letter. “Hold on, love. Sit. Let me get a towel—”
“No,” she whispered. “Open it for me and read it. Please.”
Concern on his face, he knelt in front of her and ripped the flap open on the envelope. She watched his face as
he scanned the letter inside. When his eyebrows furrowed, she knew.
“Oh, god!” she whispered, horrified. “They let him out, didn’t they? They let Alex go!”
An unreadable mask descended over his face. “Stay here.” He started to stand, but she grabbed his arm. He palmed her cheek. “Love, stay here. I’ll be right back.”
He untangled his arm from her grip and headed down the hall. She heard him knock on their bedroom door, then open it without waiting for a reply.
She sat there, her gut hollow, trembling, rocking herself back and forth. Tom, carrying the letter, and Tyler on his heels with Andrew close behind, hurried into the living room. Tom was still reading the letter as he rushed over to her and sat next to her on the couch.
She curled into a tight ball, her head in his lap, and started crying. “They let him out. Oh, god, they let him out. Why didn’t they tell me? Why? Why would they let him out?”
Tom started to stay something, then he stopped. “Fuck, this thing is dated weeks ago. It says the state attorney’s office was unable to contact us for a witness impact statement. What the fuck? Where was this, babe?”
She pointed at the pile of mail she had yet to sort through.
Tyler bent over and started rummaging through it. Then he saw the other bag, emptied it, and started pawing through it, too. He pulled out two letters from that pile and ripped them open. “They’re from the state attorney’s office. Dated right after we left.” He threw them down onto the couch. “Bollocks!” He ran his hands through his hair. “This is all my fault. All my fault. That damn trip. I wanted—”
“Tyler!” Tom barked. “Stop it. That doesn’t help. This isn’t your fault. I was here when Pete got sick. I should have sorted through it then. Plus I’m the one who killed the answering machine. I should have played the messages when I was home before, but I just didn’t get around to it.” He stroked Nevvie’s hair. “It’s going to be okay, baby girl.” He looked at Tyler again. “Call Bob. Right now. I don’t give a fuck what time it is. Call him.”
“Right.” He hurried for the phone.
An hour later, in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, Bob was sitting in their living room and reading the three letters. He looked as pissed off as Tyler and Tom. “I’m sorry, Nev. They never contacted our office. Shit.” He rubbed at his forehead. “I can’t get hold of anyone there tonight, but first thing in the morning, I’ll start calling until I get a hold of a real person who can tell me where the fuck this animal is. It says there’s an order of protection, requiring him to stay away from you, Tyler, and Tommy, but…” He didn’t finish his statement. “Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Bob.” She’d finished crying before he got there. She sat between Tom and Tyler, her head in Tom’s lap, Tyler rubbing her feet. Andrew had made them all coffee and sat, listening.
“Look, get out of town for a little while,” Bob suggested.
“We just got back in town,” Tom said. “I don’t want this fucker running us out of our own home.”
“Let me finish, Tommy. Go back up to your mom’s for a while. As in, take Nevvie and the kids up to your mom’s. Let Nevvie help Karen with her wedding preparations while you two come back home. I’d bet your mother would like to see the boys again. Capice?”
“I’m not a kid, Bob,” Nevvie softly said. “If you start spelling words, I’ll smack you.”
He laughed. “There’s our feisty girl.”
“It can’t hurt,” Tyler said. “I can go get the RV from the storage yard and—”
“No,” Nevvie said. “No. No RV. I need to recover from that trip first.” She finally sat up and wiped her face. “I’ll pack the boys up in the morning,” she softly said. She looked at Andrew. “Will you go with me?”
“Absolutely, love. You don’t even need to ask.”
She stared at the ceiling for a minute before looking at Tyler, then at Tom. “Get the RV serviced. You said it needed an oil change and stuff after the trip. Get all that done. Then maybe bring it up next weekend. Tyler has to get that book done and turned in, and he’s got edits due next week. So you two stay here for now. Can you put my car on the hauler for the toad and bring it up, too? That way we’ll have an extra car up there.”
“I think so, Nev,” Tom said. “Are you sure about this, baby girl?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I don’t like it, but I won’t risk the kids’ safety.” Her stomach dangerously rolled again. That’s it. No more wine. Not for a while. “And we could be blowing this all out of proportion.” Now that she’d had a chance to calm down, she tried to look at the whole picture. “Maybe he’s behaving himself in a halfway house in Homestead, for all we know. He could be the perfect citizen now. It’s possible.”
She didn’t believe it for a second, but she wasn’t going to let it freak her out any more than she could, either.
* * * *
She was ready to go by eight o’clock the next morning. They hadn’t heard back from Bob yet, but she wasn’t going to hang around. Adam was beyond thrilled to know they were going to visit Grandma Peggy again. She hadn’t told Peggy the whole story when she phoned her at six thirty that morning, knowing her mother-in-law would be awake. Peggy, sensing she’d get the story upon Nevvie’s arrival, didn’t press for details once Nevvie assured her their family was fine, Tom and Tyler weren’t in trouble with her, and that Andrew was coming with her.
Peggy seemed especially pleased about the last part.
Tom and Tyler hugged and kissed everyone as they climbed into the Pilot. Nevvie had put the backseat down to give them more room for everything she’d need for the kids and Harley, in addition to her and Dad’s luggage.
With Harley settled on the seat between Adam’s and Mikey’s car seats, Nevvie climbed behind the wheel and slowly pulled out of the driveway. She didn’t want to look in the rearview mirror at her husbands standing there waving good-bye or she was afraid she’d cry.
* * * *
Inside, Tyler seethed with rage. That bloody bastard will not get another chance at our angel! That day was forever seared in his memory. The sight of Nevvie lying on the kitchen floor, stabbed and bleeding. Then Alex blindsided him with a chair and knocked him out. If it hadn’t been for Tom…
When they returned to the house, Tyler headed for the shower. “You watch the phone in case Bob calls,” he told Tom. “I have to run some errands this morning.”
“Okay.”
Tyler finished his shower, ate breakfast while Tom took his shower, then headed out. “I’ll be back soon. I need to get some things and do a little research for my book.”
Tom kissed him good-bye. “Be careful, buddy.”
“I will. Guaranteed.”
Thirty-five minutes later, Tyler had threaded his way through the final remnants of morning rush hour traffic and pulled up in front of the gun shop where he’d taken the concealed weapons license class.
Jack stood behind the counter and greeted him with a smile. “Good morning, Mr. Paulson. Back for more research?”
“Not this morning. I want to buy a gun. And I need you to teach me how to shoot it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nevvie and Andrew reached Savannah late that afternoon. Peggy walked out to greet them when they pulled into the yard.
“Hey, sugar,” Peggy said as she gave Nevvie a hug. “How you holding up?”
“I’ve had better days.”
“Tommy called me after y’all left home.” She tipped her head toward Adam, who was just waking up now that the car had stopped moving. “We had a long talk. You’re all staying here as long as you need to. End of discussion.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“And that goes for you, too, Andrew.” Peggy sent him a smile that he returned.
“Thank you, Peggy. I appreciate it.”
“No need to thank me. I love having you around.”
Later that night, after dinner and putting the boys to bed, Nevvie, Andrew, and Peggy gathered around the kitchen table
with mugs of hot chocolate, and Harley asleep under the table.
“I feel like a frickin’ nomad,” Nevvie said. “This is ridiculous. I was just beginning to feel comfortable and settled in at home again after the trip. And now, this. No offense, Mom, because I really appreciate you putting up with us.”
“Sugar, whatever you have to do. Tommy said a bench warrant’s been issued for the guy because he didn’t report to his parole officer. That means when they find him, they’ll put him back behind bars.”
“Did Tommy tell you the rest?”
“What rest?”
“We’ve been tossing around the idea of moving up here. Buying a piece of property and building a house so we can be close to you and everyone else.”
“No, he didn’t tell me that part. What about your house in Tampa?”
“We’d keep it for now. He wanted to be the one to tell you after we’d decided for sure, but I think I’ve decided for all of us. I want a state line between that asshole and my kids. And me. And the rest of my family.”
“I’m not saying I don’t want y’all here, Nevvie. I’d love it. But don’t make a knee-jerk decision. I mean it when I say y’all are welcome to stay here with me. If I could survive raising five daughters, having all of you here is like a cakewalk.”
It was after midnight by the time Nevvie was talked out and went to bed. When she retired, Andrew and Peggy were still happily chatting away.
That, if nothing else, was a bright spot in this whole situation.
She wasn’t sure what awoke her at first. Then she heard it again and bolted upright in bed, heart racing. When it happened a third time she started giggling at her silliness. Her phone, set on vibrate, had danced itself off the bedside table and was now rattling against the hardwood floor.
“Geez.” By the time she reached down and retrieved it, it had stopped vibrating. The time read 2:37. When she pulled up the text messages, she expected to see one from Tom or Tyler. If it had been important, they would have called, which would have tripped the phone into an audible ringer.