Chapter 8

Like we had for most mornings in the past ten days, I woke with Renee next to me, lying on her back, with her left hand resting on my hip. Her face was peaceful and, as normal, beautiful. There was no hint of the anger or vengefulness I had seen last week. I lay there just looking at her. In the calmness of her face, I could also see the strength and the power I had seen in her the night we left the house to get away from Stan and Helen.

Stan and Helen. I lay there thinking about my ex-wife, how she looked at me before she walked out of my front door on Stan’s arm, telling me she was going to stay with Stan for the weekend. And Stan laughing at me and telling me I could keep his wife, Renee, until he brought Helen back. At that point I considered Helen dead.

A few years later, Helen returned to take a shot at me while I was in the park with my wife and children, only to be stymied by my brave wife, Renee, who jumped in front of me and took the bullets meant for me. After the court case, Helen was committed to a mental hospital and was still in the mental hospital after all these years. Her mind never had returned to what most people would call a normal state. I still put money into her account, $800 per week, like I promised myself I would do. If she ever got back to normal, she would have a good amount to start her life over.

Stan was still in prison with at least three more years to serve. When he got out Stan would be in really bad shape. His money was gone, he would probably be homeless and jobless since he didn’t have any marketable skills when he went in. I really didn’t care about him, after what he had done to me. When he walked out of my house with my wife, he became as dead to me as Helen was. I never asked, to this day, how Renee felt about Stan.

At some point, when he got out I would need to address what we would do about Stan with Renee. I had chosen to take care of Helen because she had been my wife and I had loved her in spite of her later discovered cheating and her surreptitious use of birth control pills when I thought that we were trying for a family. Renee stirred and that ended my train of thought.

“Good morning, Mick.”

“Good morning, Lover. How do you feel this morning?”

“OK. Right now.”

She tried to stretch and winced in pain.

“That hurt a bit.”

She tried to continue her stretch and continued to wince.

“Renee, stop. You don’t need to hurt yourself. Relax. Let the healing come to you.”

“I want to get better faster. It’s already been a week and a half, and I want to be able to hug you as hard as I can, for as long as I want.”

“You will. But it is going to take time. Just relax and let it come. Don’t hurt yourself. I’ve seen men with broken ribs push and re-break them. So, relax. You’ve already let us take care of you for a week and a half. It’s only fair since you have already taken care of us.”

“You really believe that?”

“I do. Everything those guys said to the men bears out your story. I believe that you were set up and attacked by someone who was trying to get back at me through you. Now we need to find the someone who hates me enough to harm you and not worry about it.”

“Who would that be? Did we do anything to anyone through the company?”

“I can’t think of anything we did to anyone, Lover.”

“Well then, let’s look at anyone we can think of who might not like either of us.”

“Mick, I can only think of two people that we ruined, one already tried to hurt us, and both are in prison.”

“Helen and Stan?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Helen is still in the prison mental hospital and Stan is in Federal prison for three more years.”

“Are we sure of that? I mean might Stan have been released early for good behavior or something? And he is about six feet tall.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Let me call Recon and ask him to look into it.”

“After we cuddle a little and after we get to play a little.”

“Play? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I will be very hurt if you don’t let me play with your cock. And I will be hurt if you don’t spend some time playing with my pussy. I haven’t had an orgasm since the Sunday before your trip.”

“What about the STD?”

“Don’t you have any rubber gloves around here?”

“Now that you mention it, I do have some non-latex gloves in my first aid kit.”

“What are you waiting for big guy?” She kissed the tip of my nose.

“Wildman.”

“Recon, I have a job for you. You still with me?”

“Always and forever, bro.”

“Good. You remember Renee’s ex, Stan, right?”

“Yeah,” he said flatly.

“I need you to find out if he is still in prison?”

“What? Do you think... ?”

“I don’t know, Recon, he is the only one I can think of who knows Renee, me and you, and would want to do us harm. Renee and I ruined his life and you found and disposed of all his property. I thought that he was in prison for another three years, but he might have got out for good behavior or to ease the overcrowding. Check it out for me, and if he is out, track him down and see where he is and what he is up to.”

“Will do, boss. Wildman?”

“Yeah.”

“Are we good?”

“Recon, I gotta admit that I was really suspicious of you. I see how you look at Renee occasionally. But I’m believing that you do love her like a sister, and that is what everyone seems to think. Let’s play out the string to the end and then see where we stand. OK?”

“OK.”

I disconnected the call from a dejected sounding Recon and turned to see Renee standing there. She had a strange look on her face.

“Hi Lover.”

“Was that Recon?”

“Yes.”

“You have seen the way he looks at me?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you were up to anything.”

“I know. I have seen him looking at me as well. It has never been a creepy thing. The looks he gives me have always been, I don’t know, affectionate? Not loving.”

“I know. The guys say that he loves you like a sister. You can guess my thoughts.”

“That he is jealous of us and wants me for his own and is the puppet master behind all this.”

“And I feel like a real shit thinking that.”

“I can imagine so, Mick. He is your best friend and has had your back in battle. That is a strong bond and if he is behind this, I can’t imagine the pain that betrayal would bring.”

“Well like I told Recon, let’s see how the string plays out and go from there.”

Renee was still tender around the ribs, but since she was feeling better, she managed to walk down to the lake with the kids to go fishing after one of their after-lunch naps were over.

“Mom the first thing we need to do is get out a worm.”

Jack opened a can of worms (don’t say it!) and pulled out a huge night crawler.

“Mom, these worms are called night crawlers. They are big, and the fish really like them.”

“What do they taste like, Jill?”

“Moooom. We don’t eat them.”

“Sorry, Jill. I figured since you tried to play with the skunk, that you might try the worms.”

“Yuck!” Jill made a horrible face, but I wondered if Renee’s words would get her little brain working.

“So, you take the hook and you put it through the worm like this and then kind of loop it around like this.”

“Jack, who taught you how to do this?”

“Grams and Daddy.”

“What do you do now that the worm is on the hook?”

“You have to throw the worm way out in the water. If it is too close to shore the little fish nibble away the worm. In the deep water the big fish will go after the worm.”

“How big do the fish get?”

“This big.”

Jack held her hands about a foot apart.

“That big, huh?”

“Grams says that there are really big ones, way out in the deep water, but we need to go in the boat to get to them. Now that daddy is here, maybe he will take us out there.”

“So how many fish do you want to catch?”

“As many as we can. We can clean them and freeze them for later if we get too many. Jill and I love fish.”

“I could eat fish every day,” Jill bragged.

“Do MJ, Rachel and James feel the same way?”

“Yes, they sure do. James likes them the most, I think.”

“Jill, will you show me how to clean a fish?”

“Mommy, don’t you know how?”

“Kids, I have never been out here before and I have never fished, ever.”

“Ever?” Jack looked amazed.

“Ever, Jack. I love you kids so much. Thank you for teaching me. Now how do you throw the worm out?”

“It is called casting and you push this button here and hold it down. Then you reach the rod back and whip the end of it towards the water. When the rod gets to the right spot, you let go of the button. It takes practice.”

“The first time I did it I cast the worm into the ground,” Jack said.

Jill laughed, and Jack made a funny face.

“Jill, you tossed the whole rod into the lake.”

“Really Jill? Really?”

“Yes. I was supposed to let go of the button and I let go of the rod. I guess it was funny.”

“It was. Grams and I laughed, but now Jill is the best caster. She is way better than me,” Jack said, making his sister feel better.

“Please show me, Jill.”

“OK.”

Jill took her rod and reached back and then moved the tip forward in a long arch, letting go of the button on the reel at just the right time and sent the worm and bobber a good thirty feet out into the lake.”

“Wow! That is far.”

“Daddy and Grams can get it way farther. But they say it is because they are bigger and when we get big we will do it too.”

“May I try?”

“Yes. Use mine since Jill’s is already in the water.”

Renee took the rod and pushed down the button on the reel and let go of it. That released the line and the worm and bobber dropped to the ground.

“Oh my, what did I do?”

“You let go of the button. You have to hold it down until you cast it into the water.”

“OK, how do I get this back?”

“Just turn the handle.”

“Like this?”

“No, the other way.”

The line wound back in and Renee tried again, launching a mighty cast into the ground.”

“Oh my. Is that the way you did it, Jack?”

“Yes, only not as hard.”

“I guess because I am bigger, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Renee tried again and got the worm into the water about ten feet off the shore. Her next attempt put it out near Jill’s bobber.

“Yea! That was good Mom!”

“Now what do we do?”

“This is the part I like the most. We sit on the grass and relax and watch to see if the bobber goes under water.”

“That is all? Just sit and relax?” Renee asked.

“Yes. Maybe Grams will bring us some lemonade,” Jack said.

“Maybe Daddy will come out,” Jill said.

“Maybe a skunk will walk by,” Renee said.

“No! No more skunks for me,” Jill screwed up her face.

The three all laughed at that. I had been standing at the window and watched as my twins and their mother remembered that they loved each other and were a family. Probably more important for Renee than the twins, but still important.

That evening, after my kids had shown their mother how to scale and clean the fish they caught, we sat around the fireplace playing Scrabble. I was relaxed and enjoying having my family around me, when my phone rang.