Author's Notes: I'm still learning my way around , so I'm not sure if this statement is going to show up in the right place. That said, I have to take a minute to thank those who have been leaving reviews and making this story a favorite and all of that. I truly appreciate you each taking the time to tell me how John's behavior is cracking you up and how Joss and Cali are going to have their hands full reigning him in. This story has somehow taken a life of its own. I thought I'd be finished in three chapters, but that's clearly not the case now. Maybe four or five. I'll see. Thanks again, everybody!
"Who are you trying to butter up?"
John turned from the half dozen salmon fillets he had grilling on the stove to look at his questioning daughter. "What do you mean?"
Cali approached the stove with a fork and flaked off some of the fish. "You're grilling salmon, and I see remnants of your vinaigrette in a bowl on the counter. You're trying to make somebody feel good. If it's me, it's not working," she said before eating the fish.
John frowned, shocked by Cali's words as she continued to eat the salmon. What did she mean if he was buttering her up it wasn't working? "I'm making lunch for you and your mother because I feel like it. Why would you think I'd need to butter you up?"
"Are you kidding?" An incredulous laugh followed her words. "Did you forget what happened a few hours ago?"
"No, I didn't forget," he answered, sprinkling some lemon pepper on the salmon and squeezing on more lemon juice. "Some boy that gave you a ride home raced away like a bat out of hell."
"So, you still won't admit you did something."
John removed the fillets from the grill and sat them on a stone platter. "Did you see me do anything?" he asked, knowing all along she hadn't. He knew how boys worked, and he was certain that rogue had his Cali's attention all on him, which was exactly what John expected.
Cali's pretty face contorted into a frown, anger sparked in her blue eyes. "You know, Daddy, the more you deny it, the more I know you did something. What? Did you break a cement block or baseball bat in half with your bare hands? Fix him a scary scowl?"
He was rescued from deflecting the accusations of her questions when Joss returned. "Who fixed a scary scowl on whom?" she asked, making her way in from the back door.
"Hi, honey," John said, giving her a kiss and taking her coat and purse and setting the items in a stool at the center island. "How was work?"
"No paper cuts from shuffling all those forms, so I guess it went fine," Joss answered. "What did I interrupt?"
"Daddy trying to explain what he did to scare Trent away?" Cali said, her arms folded and face still set in a frown.
"Actually, Daddy wasn't trying to explain anything," John offered. Trent. He grunted.
Joss's eyes cut to him. Her brown orbs both scolding and demanding. He did not like that look.
"We should have been Catholic, as it would make things so much easier when I enter the nunnery."
John felt a smile turning his lips. He didn't have a problem with that. It least she wouldn't have tons of boys around her.
"That's what you want, isn't it?" Cali raked her fingers through her dark curls. "It makes so much sense now. No guy I invite over stays long. If I meet up with a guy away from here, in no time at all he has to go. He's scaring them all off." She turned to Joss. "Mom, he won't be satisfied until I'm an old maid."
"Now, that's not true," John remarked. He would be happy to let his princess start dating these lecherous boys when she's thirty.
As if reading his mind, Joss gave him a hard stare, her full lips all but disappearing.
This was not going well for him. John rubbed his hands together. "I made lunch," he said in his attempt to change the subject. One of his ladies mad at him was bad, but them both being mad was hellish. It wasn't by chance he cooked salmon. It was a favorite of his women. He removed the dressed salad from the fridge. "Let's eat."
Cali groaned and threw her hands up in the air. "I give up." She removed a plate from the cabinet and served herself some food. "I'm going to Sonia's," she said, covering her plate with plastic wrap. "Mom, you're going to need your interrogation skills, because he's incredibly slippery today." She kissed her mother's cheek and gave her father a scowl before she and her plate disappeared toward the front door.
Feeling his wife's eyes on him, John slowly turned to meet her fiery gaze. This was going to be a long day.
"Okay, let me hear it, John," Joss said, moving to sit on a stool, wondering how long it would take him to fess up without first blaming the boys for making him take extreme measures.
"You don't want to eat first?" John asked, turning to the stove. "Salmon doesn't really…"
"No."
"Fine." He released a heavy breath and folded his arms on the island. "You know, Joss, I wouldn't have to - -"
"…protect my princess if these boys weren't so fill in the blank," she answered for him. "I know. I've heard this before. What did you do?"
"Why did we bother to get her a car for her sweet sixteen if she was going to have boys drive her around?"
"What did you do?" she repeated.
"I didn't shoot any kneecaps," he said, as if that made it all right.
"But you did something." Joss bounced her hand off her forehead. "Did you beat your fist into your hand? Show off some deadly moves?" All of a sudden it hit her. "Damn!" She shot off the stool racing toward the front door.
"Joss, where are you going?" he asked, following her.
She stopped right in the middle of the yard, pulled up the faux grass, and pulled out the uzi rifle. She could not believe him. "Really, John?"
"It's not loaded," he offered for himself.
"That makes it so much better." She dropped the gun back into the compartment and returned to the kitchen. She had to eat. She needed strength to be able to resist the overtures John was sure to put on display to attempt to explain this away. Stopping at the sink, Joss washed her hands and dried them with a dish towel. As she reached for a plate, John returned to the kitchen.
"You didn't replace the grass outside," he explained for his delay. "I can fix a plate for you."
"I got it," she said, placing the fish and salad on her plate.
John sighed. "I brewed some tea," he shared, serving himself.
"Fine."
"Please, Joss, don't go monosyllabic on me."
"At least I'm still talking. Who knows how long that will last?"
"At last, a break in the monotony." He smiled, handing her a glass of tea.
Joss fixed him a hard stare, saying nothing. That smile was not working right now. She returned to the stool and started eating. She almost moaned in pleasure. John's cooking was like his lovemaking. She almost forgot she was mad at him.
"Is it good?" he asking, taking the stool next to her.
She glanced at him, refusing to answer that stupid question, before returning her attention to the food.
"I hate when you're mad at me. Please, talk to me."
Joss shook her head. "No, you talk."
"Okay. Did I tell you this boy was driving a huge truck? Huh? The kind of truck I'm sure fathers of girls from a generation or two ago would have put in the same category as a van. All the room in the world," John said, disgust coloring his blue eyes. "That kid must be crazy getting my daughter in a vehicle like that."
Reluctantly dropping her fork, Joss turned to him. "Did you hear yourself? Kid? John, they are kids. Well, almost adult kids, but still kids. Why in the world would you scare the hell out of this Trent with a rifle? Don't think I don't know about you slipping the little brother of that rifle to the boys who have been in this house."
John's eyes seemed to dance with memories of those times. Joss shook her head. He was incorrigible. "They know whose daughter they're having illicit thoughts about," he said. "And they also know I won't have it."
"It's Cali who's not having anything." Joss returned her attention to her lunch. "That includes fun. Don't you remember high school? Dating different people? Going to parties?" she said between bites of food. "All those good times?"
"That's just it, Joss. All those times aren't good." John cut his two fillets into six pieces and started shoveling them into his mouth. "And the things we found fun are the same things I want to keep away from Cali," he managed to say between bites. "You know what I'm saying."
"But you can't keep her away from that."
John scoffed. "I can try. And so far I've had success."
Wanting to finish this conversation without the food being a distraction, Joss reverted back to her army days and finished her lunch in record speed, but still minutes behind John. "Do you think all boys Cali's age have the same thoughts you did at that age?" she said, handing him her empty plate as he washed the dishes.
"No, not all of them. There were a couple guys at my high school that didn't."
"See."
"Yeah, but one of those guys liked boys and the other was so shy, he was afraid to think the thoughts."
"Oh, boy," she grumbled.
"All red-blooded, heterosexual teenage boys think about the same thing. Girls. Taylor thought the thoughts." Joss's jaw dropped in surprise. John nodded. "Yes, Carter, he did. And those boys I see grinning at my baby are thinking those thoughts," John said, drying the dishes and returning them to the cabinet. "That why I do what I do. Besides, you act as though I don't let her go anywhere or do anything. She went to that skating party and boys were there."
"Skating party? Sonia's birthday party?"
John nudged his head forward.
Joss scoffed. "That was three years ago, and you watched every move she made from a dark corner at the rink."
"A boy still held her hand."
He really believed that was a big deal? Joss looked up to heaven. She truly had a task on her hands getting him to see reason.
"I consider what I'm doing now an extension of watching closely from a corner."
"Really?"
"Yes." He nodded.
Joss rubbed her forehead, at a complete loss. She didn't know what else she could do.
"Knock-knock," Taylor opened the back door and stuck his head inside. "I have somebody here."
TJ raced past his father and over to John. "Grandpoppy!" he said, leaping into John's arms.
"Don't I get a hello?" Joss asked, moving over to TJ. Her grandson looked a lot like her, but had the light complexion of his mother.
"Sure, Grandma." TJ kissed her cheek and then turned back to John. "I've been practicing."
"Is that so?" John said.
The boy nodded furiously.
"Okay, you say goodbye to your dad and then I'll see what you got," John carried TJ over to Taylor.
"Bye, Daddy," TJ said with a wave as John shook his stepson's hand. "Let's go, Grandpoppy."
John shrugged. "Sorry, we have business." Holding TJ like an airplane, John 'flew' the little boy toward the living room.
Joss gave her son a hug. "Taylor Joshua's having a ball," she said.
"He always does when he's here. Sorta like you do when you say his middle name." Taylor laughed.
"Guilty as charged," Joss confessed. "It fills my heart to know you and Leah wanted to name him after me."
"You're the greatest, Mom. That was one of the easiest decisions we've ever made. And we really appreciate you guys watching him for us."
"No problem at all." Joss smiled proudly at her oldest child, smoothing her hand against his short cut hair. "You look so handsome," she said, admiring the taupe colored summer suit.
"Come on with that."
Joss grinned at him. He still had problems taking a compliment from her.
"Leah's waiting out in the car, so I'd better get going." Taylor checked his watch. "We should only be a couple of hours or so.
"Take your time."
"Cool. See you later. And tell the pipsqueak I said hello."
After Taylor left, Joss made her way to the living room to watch John take TJ's 'punishing' blows. A part of her wished TJ's moves had more power, and he'd aim at Grandpoppy's head. Something had to make him see how wrong he was where Cali was concerned, because she was having no luck at all.
