Love Slave for Two: Reunions [Love Slave for Two 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (27 page)

Nevvie found herself laughing, too. “Yeah, if you’re serious. I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

“Yes, please! John will be home in about twenty minutes. Can you come here? Or do you want us to meet you somewhere?”

“I can come there.” This felt unreal. After confirming their address, Nevvie hung up and stared at the phone. Then she realized she needed to get moving. She hurried out to the kitchen and grabbed her purse.

“Where are you off to, love?”

“I’m going to meet Kelly and John Fleischman.”

“Who?”

She grinned. “My parents.”

“Ah.”

“I have a little sister!”

“That’s wonderful. I’ll change clothes so I can—”

“No. No offense, Ty, but I want to do this alone, at first. I want to meet them.” She shrugged. “I might not even like them. They might not like me. Who knows? But I want to meet them first. Then we’ll take it from there, introducing them to everyone.” She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “I love you, and I appreciate you wanting to stand beside me, but I want to do this by myself.”

“I understand, love.” He kissed her, long and sweetly. “Call me as soon as you leave, right?”

“I promise.”

Tom walked in. With relief, she found he understood, too. He also kissed her and admonished her to call them as soon as she could.

When she was in her car and on the way to Town ‘n Country, she started wondering if maybe she should have had one of the men, or even Dad, go with her.

No, I can do this. I should do this.

They want to meet me!

There was no mistaking the eager joy in Kelly’s voice as they talked. All the years feeling unloved and unwanted, and now Nevvie was about to fit the final missing puzzle piece into place. Kelly even told her that Laurie knew about her and was eager to meet her as well.

She swore at every red light, as if there was some unseen conspiracy by the streets of Tampa to deter her. It felt like every nerve ending in her body was close to exploding by the time she pulled into their driveway and shut off the car.

Before she could even get out, a man and woman appeared on the front porch, both wearing nervous-looking smiles. They walked down the driveway to meet her.

“Nevvie?” the woman asked.

Nevvie nodded, and even though she swore she wouldn’t cry, as the couple enveloped her in their arms, she did.

* * * *

Nevvie noticed her little sister looked a lot like her. The four of them spent an hour talking and going over old pictures. With young Laurie there, Nevvie hedged when asked questions about her family. Eventually, John picked up on the fact that Nevvie wasn’t comfortable talking about everything in the girl’s presence.

“Laurie,” he said, “why don’t you go get a shower and change clothes and we’ll all go out to eat.”

She nodded and ran to her room after giving Nevvie a hug.

He waited until he heard her bedroom door close to smile. “What is it you didn’t want to say in front of her?”

This would make or break what happened between her and her parents. Nevvie hoped they didn’t change their minds about her. “I live in an…unconventional marriage.”

“Unconventional?” Kelly asked.

Nevvie took a deep breath and plunged forward, telling them briefly and without too many details how she met and became involved with Tyler and Tom. “We have two beautiful sons. Tyler’s dad is staying with us now. We’re trying to convince him to move here permanently from England. And I’d love for you all to meet Tom’s mom and sisters. We’ve been talking about a huge family get-together for the Fourth of July.” She finally stopped talking, holding her breath and waiting.

John spoke first, his tone quiet. “They saved your life, didn’t they? I could see it in your face that you’re not telling us everything.”

Nevvie nodded. “Alex tracked me down and stabbed me a few months later. He’s in prison.”

John took her hands in his and gently squeezed. “They sound like good men.” He smiled. “So when do we get to meet our grandsons and our sons-in-law?”

It took a moment for that to sink in. When it did, Nevvie let out a happy sob and fell into their comforting arms.

* * * *

When she recovered her composure, she asked John and Kelly how they wanted to handle her explaining to Laurie her living situation. Kelly shrugged. “We’ll tell her the truth. She’s known since she was nine that she had a big sister. She asked us
the
question about babies because one of her friend’s older sisters was in high school and got pregnant.” She glanced at John. “So, we used it as a teachable moment.” Her gaze dropped to her hands. “She handled that a lot better than we thought she would. From then on, she’s asked us from time to time if we’d found you yet so she could have her big sister.”

When Kelly looked up, her eyes looked bright, like she was about to cry again. “She’s a smart kid. Sometimes I think she’s smarter than us.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t stand up to my parents,” John said. “I wish I had. We both do. We’re sorry we gave you up. We didn’t want to. At the time, they were all pressuring us and we felt like we had no choice.”

“It’s okay. I understand. I just wish I’d looked for you sooner. I just want to move forward now that we’re all together again.”

Nevvie called Tyler and Tom to meet them at the restaurant with Dad and the boys. They’d told Laurie before leaving the house about Nevvie’s situation. Of all the questions the girl could have asked, Nevvie didn’t expect the one that first popped out of the girl’s mouth.

“Oh, kind of like
Big Love
in reverse?”

John frowned. “We never let you watch that show.”

Laurie blushed, realizing she’d busted herself. “I watched it over at Amber’s house a couple of times,” she softly admitted.

Kelly laughed. “Oh, you’re
so
grounded, but not tonight.”

“Yes,” Nevvie said, “sort of like that, but we didn’t do it for any religious reasons. The three of us love each other and wanted to be a family.”

Fortunately, Laurie seemed satisfied with that answer.

Laurie asked to ride to the restaurant with Nevvie. On the way there, Nevvie found herself already loving the girl. She was bright and funny and everything Nevvie could have ever hoped for in a little sister.

“So, are your two brothers my brothers, too?” Laurie asked.

Nevvie wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. “Well, technically no, but I’m sure they’d like to meet you and get to know you.”

The girl went quiet for a moment. Then she softly admitted, “I was mad when they told me about you.”

“You were?”

“I was mad they gave you up. I always wanted a sister or a brother.” She looked at Nevvie. “I’m glad you found us.”

Nevvie smiled. “Me, too.”

Dinner lasted long into the evening. Both the boys had fallen asleep, and Laurie was unable to hide her yawns by the time they finished and paid the check. Outside in the parking lot, they all exchanged hugs and said their good-byes. Nevvie followed Tom and Tyler home. As the men got the boys out of their car seats, Andrew pulled her aside.

“You look happy, love.”

“I do?”

He nodded. “You’re positively glowing. I’m guessing this went as well as you hoped?”

She hugged him. “Yes, it did. It absolutely did.”

Alex LaRogue hefted his duffel bag and stepped out of the Everglades Correctional Institution outside of Miami. He blinked in the bright sunlight. With hardly any money in his pocket and a packet of paperwork from the Department of Corrections about the terms of his parole, he walked across the street to the bus stop there.

He stood alone at the stop. According to the weathered schedule mounted under a piece of Plexiglas on the side of the bus stop shelter, a bus into downtown Miami should be by in a few minutes.

He stared at the packet of information in his hand. As the bus rolled up a few minutes later and opened its door, he turned, dropped the packet of information into a garbage can at the bus stop, then boarded the bus. He paid the fare and took a seat.

As the bus door closed and rumbled back into traffic, he sat back, closed his eyes, and pictured his revenge.

With the boys put to bed, both her big ones and her little ones, Nevvie poured herself a glass of moscato wine and settled onto the couch with the ten grocery bags of mail, a recycling bin, a letter opener, and a stapler. She also had a second bin, which she put legitimate mail and mail for Tyler to read. She’d been putting off this task for nearly two weeks now, and it was only piling up worse.

She dumped the first bag out onto couch. It only took a minute to sort the junk mail and catalogs and other recyclables from mail she had to open. Most of the mail was addressed to Tyler, many of them cards or letters, so those were easy to distinguish. She put them in a pile for last and with a sigh, started opening the other pieces of mail.

Two hours and another glass of wine later, she reached the second to last bag of mail. She’d kind of developed a system and she quickly sorted through the mail, only stumbling when she reached a letter that didn’t resemble the others.

As she stared at the return address, from the Florida Department of Corrections, she took a closer look at the addressee.

Nevaeh Barton.

Her hands trembled and she dropped the envelope. When she fumbled for it, she lost her balance and fell off the couch, knocking her wine glass over on the table. It shattered on the tile-topped table.

“Dammit!”

She heard a door open down the hall. Andrew appeared in the living room doorway, a book in his hand. “Nevvie? Are you all right, dear?”

She felt her breath catch in her throat and shook her head. He rushed over to her and helped her up. “What is it? Are you ill?”

Well, she felt like she was going to throw up, but she didn’t know if it was her nerves or the wine. With a shaking hand, she pointed to the letter on the floor.

He set his book on the couch and picked up the letter. “Hold on, love. Sit. Let me get a towel—”

“No,” she whispered. “Open it for me and read it. Please.”

Concern on his face, he knelt in front of her and ripped the flap open on the envelope. She watched his face as he scanned the letter inside. When his eyebrows furrowed, she knew.

“Oh, god!” she whispered, horrified. “They let him out, didn’t they? They let Alex go!”

An unreadable mask descended over his face. “Stay here.” He started to stand, but she grabbed his arm. He palmed her cheek. “Love, stay here. I’ll be right back.”

He untangled his arm from her grip and headed down the hall. She heard him knock on their bedroom door, then open it without waiting for a reply.

She sat there, her gut hollow, trembling, rocking herself back and forth. Tom, carrying the letter, and Tyler on his heels with Andrew close behind, hurried into the living room. Tom was still reading the letter as he rushed over to her and sat next to her on the couch.

She curled into a tight ball, her head in his lap, and started crying. “They let him out. Oh, god, they let him out. Why didn’t they tell me? Why?
Why
would they let him out?”

Tom started to stay something, then he stopped. “Fuck, this thing is dated weeks ago. It says the state attorney’s office was unable to contact us for a witness impact statement. What the fuck? Where was this, babe?”

She pointed at the pile of mail she had yet to sort through.

Tyler bent over and started rummaging through it. Then he saw the other bag, emptied it, and started pawing through it, too. He pulled out two letters from that pile and ripped them open. “They’re from the state attorney’s office. Dated right after we left.” He threw them down onto the couch. “Bollocks!” He ran his hands through his hair. “This is all my fault. All my fault. That damn trip. I wanted—”

“Tyler!” Tom barked. “Stop it. That doesn’t help. This isn’t your fault. I was here when Pete got sick. I should have sorted through it then. Plus I’m the one who killed the answering machine. I should have played the messages when I was home before, but I just didn’t get around to it.” He stroked Nevvie’s hair. “It’s going to be okay, baby girl.” He looked at Tyler again. “Call Bob. Right now. I don’t give a fuck what time it is. Call him.”

“Right.” He hurried for the phone.

An hour later, in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, Bob was sitting in their living room and reading the three letters. He looked as pissed off as Tyler and Tom. “I’m sorry, Nev. They never contacted our office. Shit.” He rubbed at his forehead. “I can’t get hold of anyone there tonight, but first thing in the morning, I’ll start calling until I get a hold of a real person who can tell me where the fuck this animal is. It says there’s an order of protection, requiring him to stay away from you, Tyler, and Tommy, but…” He didn’t finish his statement. “Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Bob.” She’d finished crying before he got there. She sat between Tom and Tyler, her head in Tom’s lap, Tyler rubbing her feet. Andrew had made them all coffee and sat, listening.