Page 4 of Edmond

“I’m sorry.” Lica smiled at him and told him that he was only joking. “Then, thanks for being such an ass right now. Also, here you go.”

The vine at his command, he supposed that was what had happened had left his hand to reach out to Lica. It didn’t go very far before it broke off at his hand, but just a couple of leaves, not like it had done when he’d gotten a piece of it from Mac. Lying back, watching his brother have his little hissy fit in, trying to shake it off him, Edmond reached out to Mac to see if she was all right.

“Why would I not be? I didn’t know that…I’m not having a good time right now. Brandy is upset that you did something to her mate, and she’s taking it out on me. I’m going to see if I can give her some of the vine, too, just to shut her up.” When she laughed, Edmond was happy that Brandy had done the same thing as her mate. She was trying her best to shake it off as well. It wasn’t working. “She’s coming to find you. I don’t know why, but she’s really pissed off. I’m going to follow her to see what she tries to do to you.”

Edmond sat up and then stood with the help of one of the cars that was close enough to touch. His vine, he thought that it would more than likely have a name, too, just stayed where it was. Getting his feet under him seemed to take a bit longer than he had wanted, and he felt like he was spinning in circles. Just as Mac and Brandy came out of the diner, the police were hauling away the last of the four brothers. He had a feeling that they were beyond used to being hauled away and was really glad for the reprieve of their bitching about their sister.

“What did you do to him?” Edmond shrugged, then he told Brandy that he didn’t know what he’d done, but it seemed like the vine did. “Oh, are we listening to vines right now? Let me see, can you talk to the grass? I’d like to know why it doesn’t grow over the ground right next to the apple tree. Which is dying as well.”

“There is too much iron in its roots. Rocks, too, but they’re not as bad as the iron that is tangled up in its roots. The patch of ground, it’s had a very terrible person standing there when it died. Actually, the man was killed right there, holding onto the tree when it was…I guess you’d call it destroyed.” They all three looked at Mac. “Oh, you weren’t serious about asking us? Remember next time that I will do as you asked. I have no idea why. I’m not only not a wolf, but I’m not anything but a human.” Lica snorted.

“I think from the moment that vine took you over, you weren’t human any longer.” Lica backed up from Mac when she took a step toward him. “Look, like you, you asked the questions. Or I guess you made a comment that wasn’t correct. While I haven’t any idea what that vine will do to all of us, I’m feeling much more comfortable with it there than I had in a couple of days. I didn’t know, but it felt like…like something was missing inside of me.”

“I did as well. I thought it was just the fact that I’m carrying a child. But I feel even relaxed at that as well.” They both turned to Mac, and she took another step back. Edmond told them to back off. They were scaring her just as he moved around them and stood beside her. “I’m sorry, Mac, and you, too, Edmond. I just wanted to hug her.” Lica said that was his intention, too. “I’m sorry, Mac, I didn’t mean to scare you. But we…I don’t know what this is going to mean to us, but I’ve got a feeling that it won’t be long before we need whatever you’ve given us.”

“I don’t know either.” She had brought her coat out but hadn’t put it on. Smiling a smile that looked more fearful than humorous, the two of them stared at one another before she spoke again. “I have an apartment not far from here. Also, a car. It’s about as old as your truck, but it’s drivable. It’s not too bad in the snow when I have good tires on it, which I don’t. But you’re welcome to stay there until you do. Also, I’m off for the next couple of days, and I’m going home to sleep. You’re more than welcome to use the couch and only the couch until you can figure out what you want in the way of a vehicle.”

Mac turned away and he had a feeling that she was leaving, even if he didn’t follow her. Telling his brother and sister-in-law goodbye, he ran up to walk with Mac to wherever she was going. He figured that if they were to talk about things, perhaps they’d be able to figure out this vine thing.

~*~

Mac woke to the room being blindingly bright. Pushing the covers off of her, she staggered her way to the shower. But it was being occupied. It took her several moments to remember that she’d invited Edmond to her home to sleep. She’d been just too exhausted earlier this morning to talk much but had nearly fallen fully clothed in the bed as soon as the covers were pulled back. Making her way to the kitchen while he showered, Mac pulled her tin of tea from the cabinet and decided to make a nice cup of tea. It might get her in a better mood.

He came into the kitchen just as she was having her second cup of the strong brew. He was refreshed-looking, his clothing looked clean, and she was happy that he’d pulled his hair back in some sort of ponytail before sitting with her. For some reason, his hair was too much of a distraction for her.

“My brother brought me by some clothing. He said that he and Brandy would be staying the night here as it was much too far for them to drive back. I’m glad he thought of me needing clothing.” She asked him if he was babbling again. “I’m sort of nervous if you want the truth. I’ve been that way since I woke up. Not about you but just in general. How did you sleep?”

“All right, I guess. I do have to go back to the diner and put in a meat order. If you need something to drive around looking at what’s to offer, you can drop me off there and come back for me.” He asked her how long she’d be. “No more than a couple of hours, if that. I can walk back home from there if you’re not ready. It’s no big deal. I only use my car when it’s too cold to walk and not that much more. You’re welcome to it.”

“I’d like for you to go with me. For no other reason than Brandy told me that you can sort of read people—other than me, I guess. I don’t know that I can do that yet so I’d like to make sure that I’m getting a good deal. Please?” She said she could do that but he wasn’t to just depend on her for a good deal. “Why not? Are you saying that you’re not good at it? According to Brandy, you had her pegged at what she’d said to me and my other brothers.”

“I was a rude bitch. I shouldn’t have made it any of my business when she asked. But I was hurting, too, or not understanding, I guess you can call it. But I shouldn’t have done that to her.” Edmond asked her if she’d been truthful to her. “Yes. I don’t lie or fib if I don’t have to. It’s difficult to keep track of lies if you have to tell them over and over to people. So telling the truth, no matter how harsh it is, that’s easier. With that being said, don’t ever trust anything that my brothers tell you. They’re shitheads, but they are protective of me. Too much so at times, but I don’t care to be around them. The four of them get into more trouble than any one person that I’ve ever met.”

“My parents were like that. They were horrible, too.” She told him that most people think that their parents are horrible. “It’s a reality with ours. They beat the shit out of us all the time. Wouldn’t hold down a job—when we’d get a job, just working around the neighborhood, they’d take the money then beat all of us when it didn’t go as far as they thought it should have. When I was only about seventeen, my mother beat me so badly with her high heels that I lost a toe because of her. And I still carry the marks from it as well.” She said she was sorry. “I am as well. When they were finally jailed, it was their plan to beat one another up and then blame it on us. Or to kill us. They thought their lives would have been better had they not had us. Mother ended up killing Dad, and she still, to this day, blames it on the six of us. But I’ve heard that without their treatment, I might not have been the man that I am today.”

“Are you a good man?” He said that he hoped that he was. Then turned the same question to her. “I don’t know. I work hard for what I have. And, like you, I don’t want a handout. I’m sure that you thought that was what Brandy was doing to you, and you’d be right to a point. But she sees now that she didn’t do any of you any good by treating you like she had. I think she genuinely regrets offering you the money the way she had. But she still wants to help you guys. And if it were me, I’d want an apology before taking anything. She has a good heart deep in her bitchiness.”

“You knew what she had done.” Mac nodded at the man. “We, my other brothers and I, had made us a plan to go into Columbus today. To get things for the house. Up until Lica moved out, we were all sharing a home. It’s a piece of shit, but it was all we could afford after what our parents had done to the town. We paid the people back what my parents had taken advantage of and bought the farm that was just down the road from us. None of us wanted to live in the house we had grown up in. Too many terrible memories.”

“This place was my grandparents. When they passed on, the man who owns the entire building said that since I’d taken such good care of my family while they were living that, I could live here for what they had paid while this was their place. Then, about three years ago or so, the man died, too. He put it in his will that I’d be able to live here for as long as the building was standing. Otherwise, he had said that the attorneys for his estate were to tear the building down and then sell the land to the city. I guess they didn’t have an issue with that because I didn’t have a raise in rent. Where do you live? I’m assuming it’s not around the corner.”

“No. I live in Nashport. Still Ohio but a couple of hours away. Lica and Brandy gave me a house and a ton of money to fix it up. My brothers, too. But we got into—you know the rest. So I don’t have a place of my own.” She nodded and gathered up her clothing to take her own shower. “What is Mac short for? I’m assuming that no one named you Mac.”

“You have assumed incorrectly.” She laughed.” My first name is Mac, and my middle name is Kenzie.” He said that he was sorry. “Don’t be. I was just thinking that no one ever gets it right, and I just figured out that I don’t care that you didn’t. I’m named after my grandparents. Marlyn, Alan, and Caroline. My grandfather’s last name on my mother’s side was Kensington. He passed on before I was born. But I took care of Grandma Marlyn and Grandda Alan, Dad’s parents. Their last name was Pendleton. Grandma Caroline, on my mother’s side, the Kenzie part of my name, comes to see me sometimes but not all that often. She doesn’t like that I’m single and living in what she considers a two-room lean-to. Even though I have four rooms and plenty of water pressure. Why does that mean a great deal to people, having nice water pressure?”

“So your name is Mac Kenzie Pendleton. And I loved that you have that pressure in your bathroom. Seemed to knock out all the kinks I had from yesterday. But I don’t understand the obsession with it. No.” She told him that she was going to take a shower. That there was still some water in the kettle if he wanted any more tea. She was nearly ready to get into the shower stall when her phone rang. She was going to let it go to voicemail; it was a home phone, but Edmond came to the bathroom door before she closed it. “I’ll get it if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead. It’s more than likely a spam call.” She got under the hard spray and let hit get her kinks out as well. By the time she was scrubbing her hair for the second time, she felt like she could face the day. Going into the kitchen, where Edmond was still talking on the phone, she turned the kettle on again for another cup when he handed her the phone.

“It’s your grandma.” She took the phone from Edmond and didn’t get to speak until her grandma ran down a little. Something about having a check to lean on from the government. Mac told her hello as she paused for a breath.

“There you are, my dear girl. I was beginning to think that you went down the drain. That man, Edmond, Frazier I think he told me, he’s a nice man. Said that you were his mate.” Mac told her grandma that they were figuring things out. “Good for you. You need a nice, strong man in your life to keep up with you. He also told me that those idiot brothers of yours are back in jail. I believe that I offended him when I told him that’s where they should have been for a long time. They’re my grandsons, and I should be able to call them what I want.”

“You can. Under your breath or in your dreams. They’re my brothers, not just your grandsons and while they do get into a great deal of trouble, they’re still all the family that I have.” She scoffed and told her that she had her. “Do I, Grandma? That’s news to me since the last time I spoke to you I was told to not ask you for money. I hadn’t in all my life asked you for one cent, and I have no intentions of doing so now.”

“You’re in a mood, aren’t you?” She told her that she had started it. “I suppose that I have. I’m just lonely in my golden years.”

“You’re not going to be getting any new friends to take that loneliness away by finding anyone that will want to hang out with you if you keep picking at people the way you do me. What is it you want? I’m not being rude, just myself and I have plenty of things to do today without you adding to my list.” She told her that she was in town at the hotel. “Why? Why are you telling me this? Am I supposed to be impressed that you have the money to afford a suite of rooms plus have maid service coming in to help you out?”