Page 12 of Audon

“I could eat. I can’t believe how late it is. It’s about seven in the morning.” She said she’d make them pork chops and breakfast. “That sounds amazing. I’ll help.”

“Do you think she’ll fall back to sleep?” She told him there was a crib in the kitchen for when she was in there, that he could take her down and put her in that one. “All right. Then we’ll have something to eat as well. I really am hungry.”

They took a shower together and played around in the shower. It was fun, having someone wash her hair and back. She did the same for him as they showered together. When they were both dressed, him in the same clothing as he wore over to her house, they were ready to face the day.

Just as they were headed to the kitchen, the front doorbell rang. When Audon said he’d get it, she let him. She was going to talk to him about moving in with her anyway, and he might as well start making himself at home. Putting Lizzy in the crib, she pulled out all the things from the fridge to make something to eat when Audon called for her to the front door.

~*~

Peter didn’t understand why the butler was dressed the way that he was. Not to mention, he wouldn’t allow him into the house. His dad had kicked him out and told him to go live with Trin so that they could get married, but he didn’t expect to be thralled when he first got there. He was quite the catch, and she should be happy he decided to take her as his wife after all that he’d been through in the last week.

“Who are you?” The man asked who he was. “Peter Jacobson. I’m here to live with Trinity Banton because my dad said that I had to marry her. She’s supposed to calm me down or something. I just think she’s going to be some dumb woman that just popped a baby out and will be willing to fund my fun. What do you think?”

“I think you’re going to be shit out of luck. She’s already said that she’d marry me, and I’m not a man that needs calming down at all.” He looked back at all his baggage and told him that he was moving in. “I don’t think so. You might have your shit with you, but that doesn’t mean that you’re moving in. We like it just the way we have it.”

He yelled for ‘Trinity,’ and he had to think who that might be. When this bombshell of a woman came into the hall where he was, he sucked in his gut that he’d been trying to get rid of and made his cheeks look thinner. If this was his supposed wife, he was going to have fun taming her. She’d probably be grateful to—

The slug to his face made him fall back. Tumbling over his luggage, he nearly got up to figure out why he’d been hit when the man stood over him. He’d not realized that he was so big until that moment. The man must have been bench pressing his weight since he’d been out of school if his muscles were any indication.

“Why did you hit me?” He said that he was getting his mind back on track. “My mind was just where it should have been. Just look at her. She’s gorgeous. Nothing like the frumpy woman I thought that she’d be.”

“And she’s mine.” He wanted to argue with the man, but when Trin draped herself over the man, he knew something in his head that was telling him that she was off limits. But his daddy had sent him here to marry her, and that’s what he was going to do. Getting up finally, he was able to go toe to toe with the man and realized two things. He was much taller than he was by a good five or so inches, and he knew how to fight. Peter didn’t know where that thought had come from, but he thought that if he tackled this man, he’d be dead before it even began.

“Look. I think we got off on the wrong footing here. I’m just here to move in with Trin and to have her marry me. We can come to some kind of arrangements about that, don’t you think? I mean, my daddy is Pete Jacobson, and I don’t know if you know this about him or not, but he gets what he wants. And he wants this. For me.” The man didn’t even look at the hand that he had put out for him to shake on the deal. “Come on. You have to know that you’re going to lose this. My dad is a powerful man and always gets what he wants. I’m just here to move in and not cause anymore trouble by allowing you to leave here on your own two feet.”

“You’re not moving in here, Peter. I don’t know how many times I’ve told your father, but I’m not going to allow you within ten feet of me. If I have to go to the police, I will.” He asked Trin why she had to involve the police. “Because you’re trespassing. And they don’t take kindly to people showing up with their luggage to move into other people’s homes. You said yourself that your daddy wants this. Tell him you came and found out that I’m already getting married and that will be the end of it.”

“You don’t know my daddy if you think that’s going to happen.” He picked up two pieces of his luggage and looked at the man. “If you’d be so kind as to bring in the rest, I’ll tip you on your way out.”

This time he saw the fist coming toward him and knew that it was going to hurt. Closing his eyes, he was tumbling back again over his luggage when his head hit something hard. He’d been told all his life that he had a hard head and today he knew what that meant. His head was hurting now from the hit to his face, and he didn’t much care for it. No wonder when he was knocking the shit out of someone, they begged to be let go. That fucking shit hurt.

Trying to stand up, he got his feet tangled in the flowers or vines that were on the front porch. Knowing that he was going to have them taken out, he didn’t have time to wonder how that was going to happen when his head hit the ground again. This time everything went black.

Startling awake, he knew that he was in the emergency department by the smells. He tried to sit up, but his head was hurting him so badly that he was nearly sick with it. Lying back down carefully, he tried hard not to puke on himself. Whatever happened, it was something that he didn’t want to happen again. He looked around with his eyes, and even that hurt him.

“You’re in the hospital.” He looked at the officer that was standing at the end of his bed. “You’ve been here about two hours. You must have hit your head pretty hard.”

“I was punched.” He said that he’d tripped over his baggage. “No. I was punched in the face by some man that was in my house. Trin and I are supposed to be married soon, and he hit me when I tried to tell her when that was going to happen.”

“We looked at the surveillance cameras. You were hit, yes. Two times, as a matter of fact, but you got up after each hit, and then you tripped over the luggage you thought you were going to take into the house. Audon told you that he was going to marry Trin, and you should have listened.” Telling the man that his daddy wanted him to marry Trin only had him laughing. “She’s getting married in the morning. I’ve already talked to both her and Audon. They might have waited a bit to get married, but you and your wanting to move in with her had upped it for them. They’ll be man and wife before you get out of jail.”

“Why am I going to jail? You said yourself that I was hit two times. Why isn’t whoever hit me going to jail? I want to press charges.” He said he was keeping him from entering the house, which was his right. “It’s my house, and I’ll decide who lives there beside me.”

That made more sense in his head, but it was hurting too bad for him to make much sense of things right now. Asking for something for pain, he was told he could have it, but he was going to have to wait a while. The staff was busy with real patients. That’s when he called his dad.

After telling everything to his dad—well, most of everything. He didn’t tell him he’d been hit twice but had ended up in the hospital. Dad wanted to know what he’d done to do that, and he said that he didn’t believe him at all about her getting married.

“She’s just getting over the death of her family, and she’s not thinking right. Not that it matters, I’ve changed the locks on the house, and you’re not getting back in.” He asked him what he was supposed to do. “Get her to marry you, you moron. That’s why I sent you over there in the first place. Once you get into the house, I’ll make sure she can’t kick you out again. I’ll pay her whatever it takes to get you two married. She’ll be the calming force that keeps you out of trouble.”

“I’m not in trouble all that much, Daddy. I mean, I do get into trouble, but it doesn’t always cost something to get me out.” He said something more, but since he yelled at him, his head started bursting again. “Daddy, I have a headache from falling. Can you please not yell at me right now?”

“I thought you said you were knocked out.” He couldn’t remember what lies he’d told his daddy, but it shouldn’t matter. He was his son, and he should be taking care of him. “Which is it? Did some man get the better of you or did you fall like you just said?”

“What does it matter?” He didn’t see any reason for him to get all up in arms about a little lie when he was hurting. “Are you coming down here to get me out of this? I can’t get them to give me anything for the pain. Don’t you donate a shit ton of money to this place? They should be waiting on me like I’m a god.”

“You’re an idiot if you asked me. And no, I’m not going to come down there and get you home. You should call that damned girl and have her come and get you. Better yet, I’ll call her. She’d better get in line here, or I’m going to have to do something drastic. I’m sick of pussy footing around with her. I’ll call her now.” He thanked his daddy. “You’re still an idiot. If you had done what I told you to do, then there wouldn’t be any trouble from her. I told you to move in like you own the place, and you didn’t even try all that hard. I swear to you, Peter, you’re not moving back home. I’m washing my hands of you.”

“Daddy. What am I supposed to do now? She’s getting married in the morning to some guy that hit me. And he did hit me. Twice.” His dad started cursing again and told him he’d call him back. He had to make Trin Banton see he was a man that always got his way. Then he asked what the name of the man was. “I don’t know. He never gave it to me.” He’d thought about that too and realized that he’d not said anything other than he wasn’t going to be marrying Trin.