Joe was quiet for all of the ride to Patricia's place. It was nearing eight o'clock, when she had to be in bed for school the next day. At least that's what Phoebe had to do in order to get Malia off to school.
How was this going to effect Joe's work? Wasn't he in the running for that title business? He had Wrestlemania coming up and there was hardly a chance for him not to go home often.
Pulling into the driveway, Phoebe put the car in park and shut off the engine. For the longest time it felt like neither he or she did anything. It was finally getting dark, but it wasn't dark enough to hide the fact that Joe was still shaking in anger.
"Go to her, Joe." Phoebe said. "Go to Malia, hug her, hold her tight. Press her into your arms and show her that you will never hurt her."
"I can't." He mumbled. "I can't do this on my own."
"Joe, there is a little girl in that house that needs one of her parents. With her mother being out of the picture right now, she needs someone strong there. You're here, for now, and you need to go in there and see your daughter. Two weeks is a long time not to be home."
He thought about that, it seemed. His eyes down, his mouth forming a thin line on his face. Then he opened the passenger side door and got out, slammed it shut and headed for the front door. Phoebe sat in the front seat taking deep breaths, in through her nose and out through her mouth. Trying to calm herself. Between what happeened and the need to fix things that weren't even her problem, she didn't know what to do. Pain? Longing? She was married, she needed to divorce the feeling and make sure that it was gone before she could move on. Move on from what? The life that she wanted the most?
By then probably the majority of the Anoa'i family knew what was going on. Matt probably knew and for what it was worth, Phoebe didn't care. She cared for the safety of that little girl.
A tapping came to the window, making Phoebe look up. She focused on her side window and smiled slightly when seeing that it was Patricia standing there.
"Thank you." Patricia said when Phoebe rolled the window down. "Thank you for bringing him here."
"It wasn't an issue. I'm concerned for him, and for Malia at the moment." She answered truthfully. "I think Joe left some of his bags in the back, I can help you with them if you want."
"Thank you, that would be wonderful. Sika is out at Matt's place right now helping with the books and I don't think he needs to be around at the moment."
"Why?" Phoebe asked when she opened the car door.
Patricia seemed to think about it. "Because he always thought that she was cheating. They had a rough spot a few years ago, something happened and then she came back. I thought Joe had broken it off but she came back asking for a second chance. Sika thought that she was cheating on Joe."
"I'm not taking sides, except for what is best for Malia. That little girl does not need to go through the hell that I did when I was her age. Infidelity was rampant in my family at the time, and my dad didn't try to hide it. For whatever reason my parents are still together. That isn't the life that she needs."
"It's good you're looking out for the best interest of Malia."
Phoebe helped Patricia get the luggage out of the car. She helped carry it into the house. The house was fairly big, sort of. It looked old, like it had seen years of children in there. She could imagine, sort of, seeing Joe as a young boy running through the house kicking up dirt and just being a boy while Patricia pulled her hair out. Even with everything going on, the place with it's soft yellow walls made Phoebe feel like she was standing out under the sun and warmed by it's rays.
"You have a nice home." Phoebe said as she adjusted the backpack on her shoulder.
Patricia lugged in a rolling suitcase that was filled with Joe's wrestling gear. "The home feels so empty without children here. We try to get Malia here as often as we can. Are you going back to the bar?"
"It's being well taken care of right now. I think the constitutes a family emergency. Heather and the new hire Dylan can take care of the bar. Candace, Katrina and Nora won't be doing much work, Monday is amongst the two slowest days of the week."
The older woman was quiet. Phoebe liked how her brown hair hid the signs of gray hair real well. It was naturally wavy and long, down to the middle of her back. She didn't dress like a grandmother, she looked like she tried to stay in fashion as much as she could. And she still had a good figure for her age. She wore jeans and a shirt that made her look a little younger than in her mid fifties.
"How can you keep it all together?" Phoebe asked her.
"Keep what together? My sanity? I lost that years ago when Joe's sister Summer had her second daughter. If there is one thing that's true, this family is huge. We look out for our blood and those that we see as blood. Whether you want to believe it or not, you pretty much family now."
Finding the bag of cloths, Phoebe handed it towards Patricia. "I don't know if I should be the one to go up there and see how Joe is doing. I don't even know which room he's in."
"I don't care if you stay over."
"I think Jon would be grateful to have some time alone with Heather right now." Phoebe added, thinking about her friend and her new found love interest. "Thank you, you didn't have to do that."
"It's hard to believe, having a family like ours isn't it. But you are very much a part of Malia's life and she adores you. Right now I think that's all that matters."
Upstairs Patricia showed Phoebe to where Malia stayed in when she was over. It happened to have been Joe's old bedroom. It now had a sea foam green color to it, with fluffy clouds dotting the ceiling. It still looked like a children's room but it didn't pertain to a little girl's room. It was a neutral color, one that both boys and girls would like. When Phoebe and Patricia got to the room to check on Joe and Malia, there was the cutest thing to see.
Joe was curled up on his side with his large arms circled around Malia's small body. Her little hands held Joe's much bigger hand and she was sleeping peacefully. A book lay on the bed opened as if they both fell asleep reading it. Phoebe watched as Patricia walked in and picked up the book, putting it on the nearby bookshelf before returning to the man and daughter both asleep. She drew up the creme colored comforter around both of them and brushed Joe's hair from his face.
Phoebe felt a knot form in her stomach as she watched the older mother tend to her son and her granddaughter even while they slept. It was a foreign feeling to her. Longing crept it's way up to her heart again. She longed to be treated like that, to be loved because it never really happened in her life.
"I'll show you to the other guest room." Patricia said once she walked back to the door. "I think Myritza left some of her cloths here the last time she was over."
With one last glance at the two sleeping figures in the room, Phoebe closed the door until it only had a crack open and then followed Patricia down the hall to another room.
Joe woke up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom. He looked down at his little Princess and smiled seeing her oblivious to everything that had been going on in the day prior. She slept peacefully, unlike he did. He dreamed of killing that asshole that was in his closet. He wanted to, he wanted to take his frustrations out on everything and everyone but he knew he could never intentionally hurt his little princess. She was the light in his life at that moment.
Easing out of the bed, Joe stretched and headed for the door.
Once he had taken care of his business, Joe was on his way back to the bedroom to try to get some sleep. Until he passed his older sister's room. There was a small night light on, which was never used. The door was wide open and Joe stopped to see who could be sleeping in there. When he saw that it was Phoebe, her hair falling over the side of the bed, he wondered how could she still be there. After everything that had been happening, how could she still be there.
How? That question plagued him as he leaned against the doorway watching her. She did nothing. She did nothing but care for his daughter. She was only concerned about Malia's safety, her well being when Rochelle hadn't seemed to care. Did Rochelle care? Did she worry about their daughter?
Pushing those darker thoughts out of his head, he focused on the corn colored hair the woman wore like a crown of glory. She didn't know how special she was. She didn't care for how she looked, she didn't care how others saw her. She had that passion in life that only so many women, so very few, seemed to carry. She had the world thrown at her and she lived. And yet here Joe was, he thought he had an okay relationship with the childhood sweetheart he had known all his life almost. But then Phoebe came in and he turned it all around on himself.
She didn't deserve him. Phoebe deserved someone that wouldn't throw away his life for some foolish dream of a perfect relationship.
Phoebe turned over onto her back, sighing. Her small hand came up to her head and she groaned. In the dim light, he saw her eyes open, blink a few times before they stayed open. He wondered what she was thinking? Was it the new place, unfamiliar surroundings. He knew she was staying with Heather at Heather's studio at the moment. Jon had spoken about the two looking into finding a place to live together, a two bedroom apartment now that income was coming in more steadily. Maybe it was the fact that Phoebe was in a place that wasn't a shelter, a place that wasn't going to hurt her that bothered her.
She sat up, hugged one knee to her chest and pressed her chin into her folded arms. Her hair rested on the mattress now. Her small figured huddled into a tight ball. Was she trying to protect herself? Did she have a dream that scared her?
"What are you doing here?" Joe heard himself ask, which seemed to bounce off the walls with a reverb louder than necessary.
She glanced at him. "I'm here to make sure Malia's okay."
"She's fine, sleeping in fact." He said. "Why stay here?"
"To give our friends some well needed alone time. To make sure that you didn't go off and do something stupid." She said, refusing to look at him.
He liked it that she was refusing to look at him. It only meant that she liked him. That was what kept him from killing the man, knowing that someone else that wasn't his wife liked him more than just as a friend. He wanted to do something, to go over there and cover her with his body but at the time it was going to be a stupid move that would end badly for both of them. He knew he wanted to hurt someone, but it was Rochelle that he wanted to hurt, he knew he could never do that to Phoebe. Especially in his parents home.
"Well you don't have to worry about me." Joe said walking into the room.
"Don't you dare come any closer, Joe or I will scream bloody murder and you will look like the bad guy instead of the victim." She said, turning so that she was facing him. "I don't need you in my life, I don't need you to be there. My life was better when you were gone."
"Don't say that shit, Phoebe." He growled.
"Look a what happened with Rochelle, she's been cheating on you. More than once and she's told me that this wouldn't be the first. I don't want to be in the middle of your problems."
"You already are, Phoebe. You're the reason Rochelle cheated this time." He couldn't help his voice raising.
And the next thing he knew there was a pillow being thrown at his head. Joe instantly ducked and the pillow landed out in the hall with a muffled thump.
"Don't blame this on me. I am not the one that actively pursued you in the bar. You did it on your own. I have been nothing but a good person, giving you the utmost respect, never acting out of turn in front of you or your wife." She stood up from the bed.
She wore small white cotton shorts and a tank top. It made her look sweet and innocent when she was fully a woman. Her breasts pressed at the tank top and Joe swallowed.
"I am not the one that wished you to kiss me." She said lividly.
Joe took two long steps forward, but she didn't move. She tensed but she didn't move. He saw how small she was, compared to Rochelle's full figure, Phoebe seemed smaller than what someone her size should be. She shook as his eyes raked over her from head downward, taking in every little detail that he could see. Shadows from the window danced along her bare shoulders and the long hair he was fond of hid the scars that were starting to show up like white lines on her skin. To think that someone had hurt her like that made his blood boil.
"How could you stand that?" He asked, his finger coming to run down the one scar that wasn't hiding under the strap of the tank top.
"How could I stand what, Joe?" She asked, her voice in a whisper almost.
"Being abused like this." He started to take down the tank top strap off her shoulder but she shrugged him off of her.
"I endured it because I didn't think I deserved better. It was ingrained in my head that I wasn't going to amount to much other than someone's punching bag. When I lost," she faultered slightly. "When I lost the baby a few months ago in my last hospital visit, I ran. I had someone help me get money for a bus ticket and got out of dodge fast. I always wanted to go to the beach, a sunny place so why not Florida. I didn't like the glitz and glam of Miami so I threw a dart and found my place here."
While she talked Joe couldn't help but look a her face. She was scared, scared of so many things. She was scared of people but he knew for a fact she adored Malia. She would never do anything to hurt the little girl. Now Joe understood why, it was because she lost a child of her own due to the abuse she had to endure.
"How did Kathy find out that you were married?"
"I don't know. It took Jon following me to the shelter to realize that I was homeless. The guy has a hard time expressing himself, expressing that he didn't want me to be in danger. That was the weekend that I stayed with him at his hotel room. Nothing happened, just so you know. I would never let it get more than friendship even if I was confused about my emotions towards him."
"So you liked Jon."
"Maybe at one point I did, early on." She turned away from him and went to go stand at the window.
The blinds created horizontal lines across her face. Somber as it was, she still looked pretty. She looked like she was thinking.
"I only ever knew pain, Joe. It felt good to have Jon flirt with me He was the first that flirted with me, he was the first that made me feel good about myself. But then Heather showed an interest and I knew I could never be anything other than a friend to Jon."
"But that left you alone." Joe resisted the urge to grasp her chin and kiss her.
"I was never alone, Joe. I don't need love of a man to feel like I belong. It took a while, it took a lot of effort to see that at the bar. The bar is my home, it is my life and the people in it are my family. I don't need a man to make my life meaningful."
He heard her but he heard that tell tale sign that she was trying hard to believe what she said. She was trying to put it in a nice little box and put a bow on it. But it was obvious, there was a chance that she still wanted him.
"Go back to bed, Joe." She said, her voice mimicking the darkness of the room. "Either you or me need to take care of Malia in the morning, get her to school. I'll ask Patricia to drop me off at the bar later in the day."
He didn't fight it, he didn't try to fight it but Joe did fight the urge just to get her in that bed with him on his side holding her close to him. He knew that she needed the space that he wanted to give her. But the fact still remained that there were things that needed to be done about his life. Not hers.
Not yet, he would get the answers he needed when they came to him. At that moment he decided to just return back to the room that he and Malia were staying in together.
How'd you guys like this update. I'm almost finished with this story, just a few more updates to come. Just be patient with it and we'll see how this story ends.