Page 9 of Dusty

“What about my momma…mom?” She told him that he needed to cut the strings before she did. “All right. See? I knew that you’d be mean to me if we were together. We’re not even getting married—we’re not, are we?—and you still treat me badly.” She decided to ignore his question about them getting married.

“You’re going to leave the house within the hour. Go to the library and stand there waiting for someone to come and get you. It will either be one of the Erickson men or my sister. Just keep your mouth shut and do what they tell you.” He asked her if she was going to tell on him. “No, dumbass. You’re going to be leaving home so that she doesn’t know where you are. So I want you to get your shit together and be there in an hour. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, I’m packing my duffle now. There isn’t much you can put in one of them, is there?” She told him that was the point. He was just going to leave. “All right. I’m going to walk to the library. I won’t say anything to momma…mom because she’s not home.”

“Good. Go there, and I’m going to make some other phone calls. Just wait for one of them to come for you.” He said that he would. Then he thanked her for her help. “You’ll be able to thank me when you get out of town and never return. You don’t need your mother any more than I did mine. Get your shit together is what you need to do.”

Calling her sister, she said that she had company over and that she’d pick him up as soon as she could get the person to leave. It was Mrs. Landry. She told her what she was doing, and her sister laughed.

“I’ll keep her here all night if that’s what it takes to get him away from her. You just let me know what else I can do to help out.” She said that she was going to call Dusty and see if he could help. “He just called here. I think he misses you. Anyway, he asked me if he could have dinner with me and the kids. I, of course, told him yes. So I know that he’s not too busy right now.”

After telling her sister thanks, she called Dusty. After explaining what she was going to do, he was all for it. She told him, too, that her sister was entertaining Mrs. Landry, so that wouldn’t be an issue.

“I’ll give him some money too. I’m betting that he doesn’t have anything on him.” She told him that she was going to do that. “I will enjoy this. Just to get him out of our hair.”

After hanging up with him, she called Scott back. He was at the library and was terrified that his mom was going to show up. Telling him where she was and that Dusty and Amanda were going to help him, he cried again. The damned man was driving her insane.

“Dusty is coming to you. Don’t give him any shit, and get into the car. He knows where to take you. If you call your mom and tell her where you are, so help me, Scott I’ll never help you again. In fact, I’ll help your mother beat you up. Do you want this or not?” He didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “Scott?”

“I see your Dusty. He’s about here.” When he was silent for a few moments again, she started to scream at him. “Thank you for doing this for me. I know that I need to get away, and you’ve no idea…I’ve tried before, but she pulls me back. I’m glad that I didn’t marry you either. You’re mean, as I’ve said, but I don’t think that we would have made a good couple. You’re just too bossy.”

The line went dead, and she had to laugh. She supposed that was the only way that he could get the last word in was to simply hang up on her. Putting the phone back in the cradle, she waited to see if Dusty would get back with her. She was going to have to jump his bones soon or have to find her a battery-operated boyfriend. Spending her nights alone was for the birds when she had a perfectly healthy man who wanted her right where she could get to him.

Plowing through the rest of the paperwork, she was only interrupted once more when she’d gotten a call from Dusty telling her that he’d gotten Scott where he needed to be. That was good, she told him.

“He gave me his cell so he’d not call his mom when he realized that she was going to be pissed at him. Scott, like a lot of people, had no idea what her number was because it’s been stored in his phone. I don’t know that I’d know anyone’s number if I was asked. I even put the one for your office in the phone so that I’d not have to remember it.” She told him that she’d made it so that he could get through to her whenever he wanted. “I did wonder about that. All I had to do was to say my name and that I wanted your number and they connected me right away. Thanks for that. When are you coming home? I miss you.”

“Friday.” She looked at the calendar on the wall in front of her. “That’s only a couple of more days. You can hang on until then, can’t you?”

“I’m not sure. The house is a bigger mess than I thought it would be. August is asking me all kinds of questions about how we want things. Do we want tile? Carpet? I told him no on the carpet, so I hope that was all right.” Shipley told him that it was perfect. “Good. I thought that you’d say that. Also, while I’m talking to you, what do you think about a pool? My brother has one and I think that Zander does as well.”

“I’d love a pool. Also, a hot tub. I did notice that you didn’t have one when I was wandering around.” She decided to tell him the good news. “I have fifty-seven days until my retirement. I didn’t realize that they would count my boot camp time in that. Yay for us. Also, I’m to see the president in a couple of hours. He wants to talk me into staying on. I’m so finished and want to be home all the time. Have babies with you and shit. I guess we should make plans to have sex, too. I mean, that is the best way to have kids, I’ve heard.”

“Seriously? The best way?” Dusty laughed. “I would love that more than anything right now. I’ve been taking cold showers since you left.”

“So have I.” The two of them laughed. “I have to go. I need to get this shit finished so that I can go out instead of staying inside all the time. My time off was good for me getting around but now I’m stuck here with paperwork.”

When she hung up with Dusty, she buried her head in the work to get it finished. She really did have a lot of it to finish up and was glad to see that the last file on her desk wasn’t that complicated. Looking up, she was startled to see Vice President Hayden sitting across from her.

“You do know that you talk when you work, I guess.” She said that she didn’t speak in English. “No, I noticed that too. Latin, if I don’t miss my bet. I’m to understand that you’re going to be leaving us soon. Is that correct?”

“Yes.” She didn’t say anymore, but he nodded with a sly smile. “I have an appointment with the president later this evening. Or am I meeting with you now?”

“Me. He’s been called away. Something that I’d like for you to do but I know with you getting out, if you get your ass hurt now, there will be hell to pay. I’m to understand that you’re marrying into the Erickson family?” She told him that she was. “They’re a good family. At least the sons are. Their father was a bastard, but he’s gone now. Martha Grable, she would call us on occasion to let us know how much she thought of them. Martha was my great-aunt. I’m glad that she had them around when she needed them. My uncle was a shit to her.”

“I didn’t know she had more than one son.” He winked at her with a short laugh. “I don’t know why you think that is funny, sir, but I don’t understand.”

“She didn’t have another son, but that prick that…well, she was my godmother when I was born. And when I got older, I lived with her for a time. After that, I considered her my aunt. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you understand.” She didn’t but nodded anyway. He pushed a file at her that she’d not seen until then. “There is all the paperwork that you need to be free of the army right away. It’s been signed off on and filed. The president and I wish you a happy life and one that is as much as you wish to make of it. I’m to understand that you have a house here as well. If you wouldallow the government to purchase it from you, we’ll give you a good deal. That way, when you come for a visit, and I do hope that you will, you and your family will have someplace to stay that is not too inconvenient for you.”

“I don’t want to sound greedy, but I’m staying the extra time because of my benefits. Those are too good not to have, as you well know.” He told her that she was getting them as well as a promotion that started the month before she left to rescue a little boy from a car accident. “Seth calls me too. Just to tell me how he’s doing. He’s living with his aunt with two other kids his age. He loves it.”

“The young man wrote to us as well. Telling us how he’d been terrified, but you stayed with him even though you were hurt as well.” She said it really wasn’t that bad. “No, but it was enough to impress upon us how much you’re willing to give back even when you’re on vacation. How is your sister, by the way?”

“She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her. The kids and her are having fun. Looking forward to being a family again around the holidays. I think that she’s having fun, too, without her mother-in-law barging in to take the kids from her, too.” He told her that he’d heard that. “I’m also thinking too that she’s going to be dating again, too.”

“Really?” He didn’t look so much surprised as he did happy. She asked him if he was going to ask her out. “I’m forever looking for a beautiful woman to take my arm when I’m working. And I’d love to talk to her about a future together. I’ve been in love with Amanda since you introduced us when you were out of boot camp, and I was a senator.”

“I didn’t know that. I’m glad to hear that, too. But you’d better hurry and ask her out. There are a few men around that want to take her out too when she’s ready.” He asked her if she’d mind him dating her sister. “Not at all. I think that it would be good for the two of you. But you have to realize that her kids will forever come first in her life. If you’ve got a problem with that, then I suggest that you leave her alone.”

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