Wild Man Read online

  “Great, Tangled,” Dylan muttered.

  “I’m watchin’ football,” Grady declared.

  “So am I,” Rex said, seconded that notion.

  “And everyone knows Thanksgiving means football, not cartoons,” Joel told Ellie.

  “Boys can watch football in the basement while the girls have girl time with Tangled in my bedroom,” Fern declared while unearthing my chocolate cake from a box. “Now, children out. Go play Wii. Go play football in the yard. Go play anything, just go play.”

  Hmm. It seemed cooking for seventeen was putting Fern in a mood.

  Joel, Rex, Grady, and Dylan raced out screaming, “Football!” and Brock put a confused-looking Ellie on her feet.

  She watched the door where the boys disappeared, considering this dilemma and clearly wishing to play princess games though unsure how to convince her all-male older brothers and cousins this was what they’d prefer. Then, gamely, she raced out after them and I hoped they didn’t damage her crown when tackling her.

  “Hey, Uncle Slim,” I heard and I looked up to see a very pretty, dark, curly-to-frizzy-haired girl come forward and give Brock a hug. She was dressed like she was at a costume party and she was a sixties hippie (without headband or funky sunglasses but the rest… all there).

  “She lives,” Brock teased, hugging her back and I scanned the room.

  Those I knew were there, including Elvira, who was standing at the sink peeling potatoes liked she’d been to Thanksgiving at Brock’s mom’s house every year since she was born.

  Yes, I said Elvira.

  Although it was me who “asked” her (in quotes because she mostly invited herself), I wasn’t entirely sure why she was there.

  I’d since had cosmos with her and the girls (twice) and she was not afraid of texting or phoning to tell you anything that was on her mind (frequently). I still didn’t know her very well.

  What I did know was that she was currently in some drama with her sister and they weren’t speaking. She detested (with a passion) her brother’s new “skanky ho” of a girlfriend. And, wisely (I thought) to escape this discord, her parents had chosen Thanksgiving to vacation in Hawaii. Therefore, Elvira was at odds for a Thanksgiving meal and although she had tons of friends, she latched on to me.

  I suspected undercover work for Martha but I knew what it was like to face a Thanksgiving alone and the lengths you’d go to avoid that so I’d let her make that play and, when I asked, Fern told me she felt the more the merrier.

  Brock did not feel the same and nonverbally let this be known (another time he looked at me like I was crazy) but he didn’t say word one.

  Also in the room was a tall blond man with light-blue eyes who was smiling at me like a madman (my correct guess, Austin). A stocky salt-and-pepper close-cropped-but-obviously-still-frizzy-haired man (another correct guess, Fritz). A tall dark-haired girl who was for some reason in late November wearing short-shorts and a thin drapey T-shirt over a camisole (and that reason might be because she was young, she was gorgeous, she had great legs, and I was with her—if you had them, flaunt them) who had to be Kellie (Jill and Fritz’s youngest). And the girl hugging Brock who had to be Kalie.

  Lastly, a breathtakingly handsome man who, with his tall, lean, powerful, fit body, thick dark hair, but strangely, since no one else had them, hazel eyes, had to be Levi.

  Hovering visibly nervously at Levi’s side was a young woman (another correct guess, in her late twenties) with a fabulous figure, blonde hair in a pixie cut that suited her very pretty features, and a carefully selected outfit that said she wanted to impress but not show off. Levi’s latest squeeze.

  Jill introduced me to Fritz as Kellie went in for her snuggle with her uncle (and also got stick from him for “disappearing into thin air,” his words). Laura introduced me to Austin, who smiled warmly at me while giving me an equally warm hand squeeze. Elvira muttered, “Yo bitch,” at me, to which everyone chuckled even though they all had just met her that day.

  Then Levi came forward with his girl and I watched him as he did it.

  Oh man.

  Suffice it to say, one look at him and I knew he trusted me a fair sight less than Cob did.

  He clapped his brother’s arm while shaking his hand, kissed my cheek, stepped back, and introduced his girl as Lenore before he launched in.

  “Tess, been hearin’ a lot about you.”

  “I’ll bet,” I replied.

  “You been hearin’ a lot, which makes me wonder why we haven’t seen you a lot,” Brock put in and Levi’s eyes went to his brother.

  “Been busy,” he muttered.

  “Not too busy to hear a lot about Tess,” Brock remarked.

  Levi decided to ignore that and he looked back at me.

  “Got tight with Slim quick,” he noted.

  “Levi,” Fern said in a warning tone.

  “Oh boy,” Elvira said to the potatoes in an undertone.

  “Not exactly,” Brock said in a rumbling tone and Levi looked back to his brother.

  “Yeah, heard about that too.”

  I tensed at Brock’s side. Brock felt it and his arm came around my shoulders.

  “It’s Thanksgiving. I got my boys. I got my family and I got my woman. What I don’t wanna get is pissed off,” Brock said low and Levi held his eyes.

  Standoff, and I didn’t think this was good. Levi was questioning his brother’s judgment and it might be for protective reasons but Brock was the kind of man who wouldn’t appreciate that. Brock had also both said and demonstrated that he intended to protect me, and a full-frontal assault to test me within ten minutes of arriving for Thanksgiving, if Levi didn’t back down, was not going to go down well.

  It was time to institute damage control and I did it by looking to Lenore, who was studying Levi with both concern and bafflement.

  I took her in and then said, “Lenore, I really like your boots.”

  Her body jerked and her eyes came to me. Then she whispered, “Uh… thanks. I was, uh…”—her eyes shifted to Levi, then back to me—“thinking the same thing about yours. And that’s a really nice sweater.”

  “I have a friend who works at Neiman’s,” I told her, and now I did, for with Elvira came Gwen, Tracy, and Cam, and Tracy was generous with her discount. My sweater cost a whack but, as all girls knew, I needed the perfect sweater for Thanksgiving dinner with Brock and his family so, like the nightie, I’d splurged. And, unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing I bought.

  I really needed to sell more cupcakes.

  “Employee discount,” Elvira muttered over her potatoes.

  Lenore gave another searching glance to Levi, then to me, “Cool.”

  I studied her and it hit me.

  She liked Levi, a lot.

  He was with his family and she was just his latest piece.

  But to her, this was important. To her, this was meeting his family and she was reading this as a hopeful occasion when, with the way Levi was behaving with her, it was not. She was noting this and therefore understandably confused. And with the way Levi was behaving, in the not-too-distant future, she was going to be heartbroken.

  I looked back at Levi to see him opening his mouth to say something but Fern got there first.

  “Men, out. You’re underfoot, you have no intention of helping, and if you tried, you’d mess it up. Go turn on a TV somewhere. Take those crackers and cheeseball with you. And the bowls of nuts. And the chips and dip.”

  Elvira looked over her shoulder at me and with her head she gestured to the kitchen table, which was covered in bowls and plates filled with pre-Thanksgiving nibbles that might defeat the purpose of Thanksgiving. She gave me an approving look that said Fern was not Ada and this clear plus was to be reported to Martha at her earliest opportunity.

  “Tess! These pies are just beautiful!” Laura exclaimed and I looked to her.

  She was right. My pies were gorgeous. I’d gone all out. The pumpkin ones had a border of egg-washed pumpkin cutouts I’
d stamped out of pie crust and I’d even rolled out and arranged curly miniature vines that I’d attached to the pumpkin stems. The apple one had an apple cutout border. The maple buttermilk, maple leaves. And with the pecan, I’d painstakingly fashioned a decorative pie edge that was experimental but came out looking great.

  It wasn’t just cakes that deserved to be pretty.

  “Jesus, fuck me, flashback,” Levi muttered under his breath, eyeing the unveiled pies on his mother’s kitchen counter. He looked to Brock. “Olivia used to make you cinnamon nut muffins. Granted, they didn’t look that good or taste good, but she did it.”

  The air in the room went static as Laura snapped, “Levi!” Austin said low, “Dude, uncool.” Fritz muttered under his breath, “Jesus.” Elvira muttered under hers, “Oh boy.” Kellie and Kalie whispered in unison, “Ohmigod.” Brock’s body went solid and Fern whirled on her son.

  “Tell me you did not just say that,” she demanded and Lenore slid closer to her man who was not her man.

  “Am I wrong?” Levi asked his mother.

  “What you’re wrong about is thinking you’re too old to get a slap across the mouth from your mother,” Fern shot back.

  “Outside,” Brock growled and everyone looked to him but Brock only had eyes for his brother.

  “Seriously?” Levi asked.

  “Now,” Brock rumbled.

  Again, within ten minutes of arrival, it was time for damage control and I got close to him, curling my hands on his arm and tugging.

  “Leave it,” I whispered and his flashing, mercury eyes tipped down to me.

  “Tess—”

  I shook my head and gave his arm a squeeze. “The options available: have a brother who doesn’t give a shit or have a brother who does. You’re pissed now, honey, so you don’t get, with those options, you lucked out.”

  Brock’s jaw got hard and I looked to Levi.

  “I get it. Your brother was fucked over, you care about him, and you’re cautious. Thank you for being that way.”

  Levi blinked at me.

  I let Brock go and moved to Fern, asking, “Now, what can I do?”

  Fern didn’t answer because she was committed to the act of glaring at her youngest son so Jill said, “You can help me lay the tables, Tess.”

  I ignored the family tension and followed Jill’s lead setting the table.

  On the way from dining table back to kitchen, I ran into Fritz, smiled at him, but suddenly found my hand clasped in his and he got close.

  When he did, he whispered, “Good play, Tess. This crew is tough to crack. Twenty years and I gave them my two girls and, sometimes, they get together, honest to God, I still feel like an outsider. But me and Austin, honey, we’ll have your back.”

  Before I could say a word, he squeezed my hand and headed to the door that I guessed led to the basement.

  I watched even after he disappeared and I did it feeling a whole lot better.

  This again lasted ten minutes. In that ten minutes, the good news was, Jill and I set the tables (plural because there were folding ones set up in the living room for the overspill). The men disappeared to watch TV. Fern got the sweet potato casserole in the oven. Laura and Elvira tackled the mountain of potatoes and they were on the stove. Kalie and Kellie had arranged my plethora of desserts on the side table in the dining room and were currently arranging my bouquet of flowers in a vase. And Fern, Jill, and Laura clearly had a good deal of experience with Levi loving them and leaving them thus they were inclusive and gentle with Lenore even though it was probably the last time they would see her.

  The bad news was, after ten minutes of relative harmony, Ellie came in shrieking, “Grandpa’s here!”

  The air in the room got thick as everyone in the room froze. Elvira and Lenore did it just because they felt the vibe and had no idea that Ellie’s delighted shriek heralded Armageddon.

  Then Elvira muttered a premonitory, “Oo lawdy, I’m thinkin’ family drama is far from over.”

  “Uh…” Jill started, “Mom, we should have, um… Laura and I should have probably told you we invited Dad.”

  Oh man!

  “We thought that…” Laura began then hesitated. “Well, it would be the kind of news better delivered at the last minute.”

  My eyes flew to Elvira, who had her hands full with shoving potato peels down the disposal. Her eyes hit mine and her eyebrows hit her hairline.

  Fern didn’t move. Fern was frozen. Fern was engaged in what fifteen seconds before was a thought she never thought she’d have and that was that she wanted to commit double homicide, with her victims being her daughters.

  “Grandpa’s here! Grandpa’s here! Grandpa’s here!” Ellie shouted from the doorway, then added, “Yippee!” She raced away, shouting, “Grandpa’s here!” in what I was guessing was on her way to the TV room.

  Dylan filled the doorway next and he did it tugging on Cob’s hand. “Look!” he cried. “Grandpa! Isn’t it cool? Grandpa hasn’t ever been to Thanksgiving!”

  “Heya, girls,” Cob said carefully to Jill, Laura, and his granddaughters then his eyes came to me. “Heya, Tess, honey.” Then they went to Lenore and Elvira in turn and he bowed his head slightly in greeting.

  “Hey, Dad,” Jill warily whispered.

  That was when we heard, “What… the… fuck?”

  My eyes got big and my lower lip stretched out in an eek! look at Elvira as everyone turned to the door.

  “What the fuck?” This time it was shouted and I didn’t know him very well but I knew it was Levi.

  “Dylan, honey, go get your sister and go outside and play,” Laura said urgently to her bewildered and somewhat frightened-looking son who had his head tipped back and was looking at someone in the hallway. “Now, honey, all you kids stay outside.” Dylan dazedly looked at his mom and she repeated, “Now, baby.”

  He let his grandfather’s hand go and dashed away.

  Cob’s gaze slid through Jill and Laura. He cottoned onto the situation and he turned to look down the hall.

  “Now, Levi—” he started.

  “Get the fuck out.” We heard.

  “Levi—” Jill began, moving to the door.

  “Get… the fuck… out!” Levi roared.

  “Son—” Cob started again only to be cut off by Levi.

  “I am not your son, you motherfucking asshole.”

  Cob winced.

  Oh man.

  “Levi!” Laura snapped, also moving to the door but she didn’t need to.

  Levi shoved passed his father and entered the kitchen, starting the wave that included Austin, Fritz, and Brock. But Brock settled just inside the doorway close to his father.

  “Levi, cool it until the kids are outside,” he rumbled.

  Levi scowled at his brother, visibly counted to ten, then fifteen (and I was right along with him), and we all heard the door close and he let loose.

  Turning to his sisters, he snarled, “You two are un-fucking-believable.”

  “Careful, bud,” Fritz growled.

  Levi swung to Fritz and declared, “Fuck that.”

  This needed to play out but without the audience it had.

  This was my decision. Therefore, I whispered, “Kalie, Kellie, why don’t you guys, Lenore, Elvira, and I go out and see what the kids are up to?”

  “Good idea, Tess. This is a family situation,” Levi gritted at me.

  Bad move.

  Really bad move.

  I knew this when Brock took two long strides to his brother and got toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose with him and the thick atmosphere became suffocating.

  “Tess talked me down earlier and now I’m seein’ I shouldn’t have let her. You need to cool it or, honest to fuckin’ God, Levi, I’ll see that you do.”

  “Do not bullshit me, Slim. You do not want that man here any more than I do,” Levi shot back, throwing out an arm and pointing at his father.

  “You don’t know what I want,” Brock replied and Levi’s eyes narrowed.
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br />   “Fuck me, you? You are buyin’ this bullshit? Pretty convenient he sees the error of his ways when he’s got cancer eatin’ out his insides,” Levi returned scornfully.

  I pressed my lips together. Laura made a noise like a whimper. Kalie moved so she was closer to Kellie. And Fern decided she was done. I knew this because she said so.

  She did this with a whispered, “I’m done with this.”

  Brock disengaged from the angry-man stare down, turned, and stepped to his brother’s side.

  All eyes turned to Fern.

  Fern looked to Cob.

  “This is my house and I say who’s welcome here. It’s Thanksgiving, Cob, and I’m sorry for you that you don’t know if you’ll have another one. But I’m happy for you to sit at the table with your family for this one. You didn’t give me much but you did give me the four most precious things in my life. For that, I can give you this.”

  Okay, well, I pretty much liked Fern before.

  Now I knew I really liked her.

  She looked to Levi and kept talking.

  “I love you, sweetheart, but you have to get that hate out of your gut or it’ll eat out your insides like the cancer is eating your father. And”—her eyes slid to Lenore then back to Levi—“I’ll add it might be a good time for you to wake up.”

  I felt eyes, looked to Elvira, and saw her grinning at me.

  Fern wasn’t done.

  “Now, we’ve got dinner to finish off so go and watch your game and, I’ll tell you this”—her eyes honed in on Levi—“it might be Cob’s last Thanksgiving with his family but that also means it might be his family’s last Thanksgiving with him. And we all should do what we can to make it a damned good memory because, for my grandbabies out there, it’s gonna need to last a while.”

  No one said anything and no one moved.

  So Fern went on, “Levi, can you do that for your family?”

  Levi didn’t answer. Levi stared at his mother for long moments before his eyes sliced through his sisters, he turned on his boot and walked out.

  Fern sighed.

  Cob said quietly, “Appreciate it, Fern.”

  Her eyes went to him and she nodded.

  Then she looked to her granddaughters and said softly, “That looks pretty, girls. Put it in the middle of the dining room table, would you?”