At Peace Read Online Free PDF Page A

yours?”
    “Yeah.”
    “She’s drivin’ which means you had her, what,
when you were fifteen, sixteen?”
    “ Eighteen.” By the time of her birth, of
course, her conception was another matter but I didn’t share this
with Joe.
    He just looked at me then again he didn’t
really need to say more, his point was made.
    “Can I have my shovel back?” I asked.
    He didn’t give me my shovel back.
    Instead he said, “Come to J&J’s tonight,
I’ll buy you a drink.”
    This wasn’t really a question but I decided
to treat it like one. “Thanks, but, no.” Then I repeated, “Can I
have my shovel back?”
    He turned fully to me and again stepped
into my space. It took a lot but I held my ground and tipped my
head back to look at him. I had to tip it back far; he was that
close and he was that tall.
    “I’m tryin’ to be neighborly,” he said
quietly.
    “Neighborly would have been not draggin’ me
into your house and treatin’ me to that scene.”
    “I needed a witness and you were the only one
available.”
    “A witness?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why?”
    “Because Kenzie’s a pain in the ass, if she
can make trouble, she will and the bitch can make trouble for me. I
got a witness as to the way things went down, and I’m guessin’
she’s not hot to share that scene with anyone, she’ll keep her
mouth shut. I don’t, she can share whatever she wants to share,
make the whole thing up. I was right, she’s keepin’ her mouth shut.
She doesn’t then I produce you who says it like it was.”
    “Produce me?”
    “It’s not gonna happen, she’s not gonna say
shit.”
    “Produce me to who?”
    “What?”
    “Who would you produce me to?”
    His head cocked slightly to the side and his
brows drew together. “Clients.”
    “What clients?”
    “Potential clients who might be swayed into
not hirin’ me if they hear some bullshit Kenzie cooked up.”
    “What kind of clients?”
    He got closer and I really wanted to edge
back but I didn’t when he asked, “Buddy, you serious?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m in security.”
    “Security?” he nodded and I went on. “What
kind of security?”
    “Kenzie Elise security.”
    I stared at him, feeling my lips part and my
eyes get wide.
    I had Security to the Stars living next
door.
    Wasn’t that just the shit of it? There I
was, in my predicament and I had Security to the fucking Stars living next door and I hated
him because he was a huge jerk. I couldn’t have made him a plate of
cookies when I saw the shiny, black, new model Ford pickup in the
drive and charmed him with my rapier wit. No. I had to get
embroiled in a situation when he was scraping off a movie star who
had fallen in lust with her mysterious, rugged and
interesting-looking bodyguard at the same time finding out myself
during said situation that he was a huge jerk and falling in
instant hate with him.
    “So, seeing as you do what you do, and
considering Dane’s reaction to you, I guess you’re pretty famous
around here?” I asked and he shook his head.
    “ Not famous, people just know what I do and
sometimes who I do it for. They’re famous, not me.”
    “That stuff rubs off.”
    “Not really.”
    “Dane looked pretty impressed.”
    “He’s seventeen. That ain’t hard to do with a
seventeen year old.”
    “Still I’d guess, around here, you don’t
often hear no either.”
    “I’m not ‘round here often.”
    God, he had an answer for everything.
    “ Even so, no on the drink, okay Joe?” I said. “Now, can I have my shovel
back?”
    Just like he’d done that night, he studied me
for awhile, something happening behind those blue eyes, something I
didn’t get.
    Then he gave me my shovel, turned and walked
away.
    I gave up on the drive, it would take
forever and there was a tall, strapping boy-man in my daughter’s
bedroom. Therefore, I shoveled the sidewalk at the front of the
house and went inside and did all sorts of things loudly, such as
make dinner or call questions to Keira