Bounty (Page 150)

“Baby, he was standing in the door when we got here. I couldn’t miss that. There are people in the space station who didn’t miss that.”

He had Rembrandt’s eyes on him so he caught the big, professionally-whitened smile the man returned to the one Deke could not bite back.

“No, you’re right. It’s impossible to miss. But that doesn’t mean you should say something about it,” Jussy retorted.

“I did, and he doesn’t care.”

Jussy’s tone tightened when she noted, “So you weren’t cool in those five words you gave him.”

“Justice, drink your coffee. We’ll resume communications in five minutes when the caffeine has started working its way through your system,” Joss declared.

Deke thought this was a good play.

“Thanks, dude,” Rembrandt muttered as Deke handed him his mug.

He didn’t wait to watch after the man started curling up to take a sip. He turned back to the kitchen.

He’d poured his own cup by the time conversation resumed.

“How long are you staying?” Jussy asked her mother.

“I have a client to see Monday afternoon. Rod’s got shit on too. So we have to leave Sunday, late afternoon.”

He watched his woman do another shoulder slump. Now that they were there, she was getting past the surprise, her irritation they showed and why they did, she didn’t like the short visit.

“Though, this place is the…fuckin’…shit,” Rembrandt decreed from the couch. “We’re totally coming back.”

“Next time, though, we’ll let you know,” Joss said to her daughter quietly.

It was and was not an apology.

And while Deke watched her, moving back to his bowl, he saw his gypsy accept it, doing this inaudibly.

“Dude, you’re hittin’ the pancakes, just to say, I like mine doughy, by that I mean, medium rare on the inside,” Rembrandt placed his order.

Deke looked to Jussy and grinned.

She grinned back, shaking her head.

Joss twisted toward the couch.

“First, Rod, his name is not dude, it’s Deke. Second, you aren’t in a restaurant. You’re in Jussy’s home.”

“Thought you were ignoring me,” Rembrandt noted.

“Fuck, I forgot,” Joss muttered.

Deke couldn’t help it. His shoulders shaking, he failed in holding it back and released the chuckle.

“Just so you know, I’m normal,” Joss stated. “He’s not, but I’m so normal, I can often balance us out. I’m unable to do that right now since his not normal is in overdrive due to the fact he’s tired, hungry and horny.”

Jussy looked to the ceiling.

Deke’s shoulders kept shaking as his laughter got louder.

Through it, he looked at Joss and saw a beauty that hadn’t even started fading in a way she’d be that kickass bitch at seventy that twenty-year-old girls looked at and vowed they’d be like her when they got that age.

This boded well for him because he could tell already she’d passed that down to his girl.

When his laughter died down, he said, “No offense but you aren’t normal either, Joss. But just to say, that’s good. Normal sucks.”

Joss took him in and she took her time doing it before she turned to her daughter and said, “I give preliminary approval.”

“He can make a doughy pancake, I give full approval,” Rembrandt called from the couch.

That was when he heard it, Jussy’s giggle, starting the way it always started, with a tinkling sound, before it became full-throated laughter.

And then Deke watched her fall forward into her mother, who caught her in her arms as Jussy wound hers around Joss.

“You’re a pain in my ass,” she said in her mom’s neck, voice muffled by a shit ton of auburn hair that was second only to her daughter’s. “But I’m glad you’re here.”

Deke kept watching and while he did, Joss Rembrandt did not get his preliminary approval.

She got it full, the way her profile gentled, love saturating her face, her eyes slowly closing in a way that looked like she needed to do it in order to fully focus on a moment of bliss, her arms visibly tightening.

“Missed you, baby girl.”

“Missed you too, Joss.”

They held on to each other.

Deke turned from mother and daughter to find the measuring cups.

* * * * *

Late that afternoon, the countdown at two hours before everyone was going to get there, Deke sat at the end of one of Justice’s denim couches, Jussy curled up to his side.

Rod and Joss sat across from them in the middle of the couch. Rod slouched into the side of his wife, his stocking feet on the edge of the fireplace, legs at an angle. Joss was slouched too, down in the seat, her legs in front of her bent, soles of her feet to the fireplace.

It was after pancakes, Rod and Deke hauling in the suitcases, Joss and Rod disappearing upstairs for their nap and possibly other activities, which fortunately, if they happened, he and Jussy didn’t hear.

With Deke helping, Jussy got on starting Steph’s chicken. And with Deke lazing on the bed he’d helped Jussy make, he kept her company while she unpacked a variety of shit from the four suitcases. Most of it was clothing, some shoes, sandals and boots, some small cases of jewelry, all of it a headache-inducing variety of colors, patterns, feathers, metals, beads and tassels, and she put them away.

After that, they took a shower, and just in case the distance and shower sounds didn’t muffle it, Deke did so her family couldn’t hear their activities.