Impact on the Heart

She looks over at the house across the street.

"That's not where I grew up." She tells me after a second. "That's the house my Father bought when he and my Mom divorced. There were the three of us kids and when it came time to chose where we were going to stay I chose my Dad. Jason, my brother, said I had betrayed Mom when I did that. Milisa seem to understand but I think she kind of felt the same way."

"So your Dad became your problem to handle." I say understanding. "When he needed something they would be there, maybe, but the rest of the time He was yours to take care of."

She nods.

I take a slow breath to quell the uprising of feelings that threaten my manners.

"Yea, I've had to deal with that more than a few times over the last few years." I say after a moment. "Parents get the divorced but the kids feel like they have been part of the whole thing. Like they have to chose who they love the most. Sometimes the parents even make it worse by making the children feel just like that is what they have done." I sigh and open my lunch up; the smell of it is still wonderful. "I have a client, well I guess had a client would be a better way of saying it, named Cindy. I had her transferred over to a full psychiatrist. Her parents divorce truly unhinged her a bit. They played her off one against the other for the better part of a year before her Grandmother put a stop to it and brought her to me."

Casey nods her mouth full of food. Taking a sip from her bottle of water she clear her mouth.

"It sounds like you have a interesting job. You get to help people. I would like to do something like that I think. Most of the time I just annoy people."

I nearly choke from laughter at that admission.

"You do have a job that can get on peoples nerves but if it didn't help a few people out there then there wouldn't be a market for those kinds of sales. So you're helping some people."

She shakes her head and looks down at her food.

"I will get fifty people hang up on me for everyone that will listen and fifty no's for every yes. In a day I make maybe five sales sometimes. It takes volumes of calls to make any profit in this business."

Watching her speak I can make the next statement with some surety.

"You don't like what you do. It feels like a worthless endeavor to you, right? Why don't you change to something else then? You have telephone skills and experience, there are a lot of jobs out there for that skill set."

"A lot less than there were ten years back. Computers have taken on a lot of those kind of tasks." She says

"Well call me old fashion but when I pick up the phone and find myself talking to a computer I don't care for it in the least." I say

"My Dad's the same way..." she starts to say then stops...

I reach across the concrete table and take her hand when the tears start. I don't offer anything more than my presence. She needs to get these tears out as best she can.

After a few minutes she slowly stops crying and we sit in comfortable silence eating the last of our lunch together. I watch her face, feeling the need to say something to help but feeling at a loss for words. A state that my secretary would totally deny existence of.

Casey looks up at me and I see a blush start to cross her cheeks.

"What?" I ask with a grin.

She shrugs but doesn't answer. Reaching across I tap her hand and ask my question again.

"I was thinking about what you said about changing jobs. The problem is the only thing I can think of that uses my skill set and sounds fun...is well...A phone sex operator."

I smile then chuckle.

"Well if you make that job change let me know. I'll be your biggest customer."

She looks at me blinking. Then there is a smile, blush, chuckle combination.

"You like to listen to phone sex lines?"

I shrug.

"Don't know I never tried it. No, I would call you just to listen to you talk sexy. You have a beautiful voice and I would love to hear that."

She blushes under the praise and looks down to find her food gone.

"Wow, I must have been hungry. I just don't really remember eating those last bites." She glances over at the house. "I guess we need to go. It may take a few hours to find what I need. If you like I can handle it alone then take a cab back to the office to get my car?"

I'm shaking my head before she's half way through the question.

"Here till I decide." I look across the street. "You're going to need me over there and not just to help find papers."

She swallows, then nods and gets to her feet. When I come around the table and pick up her lunch box she catches my arm.

"Jake?"

I look down into her beautiful face.

"Thank you, for being with me today. I don't want to think about what today would be like if you hadn't"

I lean down and place a soft quick kiss upon her lips then move my mouth to by her ear.

"You're welcome but its all still just bait for the elaborate trap I'm laying for you." I smile at her chuckle.

Her fingers close on the front of my shirt and she leans into my chest.

"You can stop baiting the trap. I think I'm caught." She says softly.

It's awkward to hold her with my hands full of Styrofoam boxes but I manage.

After a few minutes she turns me lose and we walk over towards the house. I drop the boxes into a trashcan by the street side.

As we cross the road I see her head turning to look at one corner of the yard.

Sitting among slightly shorter grass is a bright yellow riding lawn mower. By the look on her face I can tell she is picturing him sitting on it.

"Does it store in the back somewhere?" I ask as we walk into the yard. Grass clipping stir by my feet.

"There's a shed back there."

"I'll go put it up." I tell her

"I can..."

"...go unlock the door. I'll put up the mower and come join you in a minute." My voice is firmer than she has heard from me before it gives her a startled second then she nods.

The lawn mower is far from new but I can see it's been well cared for. That careful precision that the daughter has, shows a bit of its source. More so when I get the mower cranked and around the house. The storage shed, a little garage built against the side of the larger garage really, is meticulously organized. All the garden tools hanging from their own peg and no other. An ordered man, a man of details. I can see that from his habits.

When I shut off the mower and close the door I hear raised voices from the other side of the house.

There is a second car in the street behind my rental.

When I walk around the corner I see Casey by the front door talking to her brother, Jason, I think his name was. I see a taller man standing next to him. He looks maybe twenty, twenty one.

She's ignoring him, but talking with her Brother in a less than completely calm voice.

"...I will go through it all, get with the lawyer and see what he has in the Will going to whom, as far as things go. Just let me find all the papers. I know he had a copy of his Will here and that may tell me if he wanted you to have it." she's making a wait gesture with her hand as she talks.

"Look Cass, I promised Philip he could have the car, for what he's offering. It a good price given how old that thing is. Let's just find the paper later. He can take it, if the Will says Milisa was to get it we can split the money with her."

"I really don't care what you promised Philip, Jason. That you brought him here... today... knowing that I would be here is just..."

"Come on Cass, don't be that way." The guy standing next to her brother steps forward. "Look just let me get the car and hell, what you say I call you tomorrow and I'll take you out for a late Valentines dinner? We can try to patch things back up. I know you didn't mean to wreck my car it was that asshole that hit you. Let my buy your dad's old car, I promise I'll take better care of it than he did."

As I step from around a tall shrub my feet making no sound on the soft carpet of cut grass, I see her eyes come to me, a look of fear comes to her face. I just stop, standing behind them a half dozen feet or so and cross my arms.

After a few seconds I can see my presence there calms her. Gives her a strength. She looks to her brother.

"No, Jason. You can't have the car. If Dad had said it was to go to you then fine, but till I've found that Will and seen where it's meant to go I can't let you take it."

I hear her brother chuckle.

"Sis, I'm just going to get the keys and go get the car. Look have your big sister little brother power trip on another day. I need the money and I've found a buyer. The cars not even worth what Philip is willing to pay for it. Two grand is a more than fair price for a forty year old clunker."

Her eyes go to me. I give my head a shake. She looks back to her brother. Her hand pulls her cell phone out her pants pocket. She holds it up for him to see.

"Who do I call, Jason, our sister or the sheriffs office? One of the two is going to tell you the same thing I just did, since you're not listening to me. You're not getting the car! Not till the Will is found and you know what, read in chambers. If you hadn't been so pushy about it I might would have let you take it if the copy said the car was going to you but now? No. I want to hear it from the Probate. Dad may have changed his official Will since he made that copy." She turns to look at the taller man. "I'll thank you to get off my Father's property, Philip. I don't even want to see you... much less go out with you. So please leave."

Both guys laugh.

"Come on Cass, don't be that way towards him." Says her brother chuckling. "Philip here was the best thing you've ever had going for you. He's just about got you to come out of your shell. Now come on open the door and get out the way I don't have all night. I've got a date to go get some roses for."

I see Casey's eyes narrow. Her fingers click around the keys in her hand.

The taller guy Philip moves forward.

"Come on Cass I forgive you for what you did to my car. It was that assholes fault. Now come on, open the door." He kind of looms over her a bit. "Don't make your brother and I have to take those keys from you."

"Not going to happen." I say with my voice calm and even.

Her brother and the tall guy both about jump out their skins spinning around towards me.

"Who the hell are you?" her brother asks then looks hard at my face. "I saw you at the hospital."

"Jake Kindle." I look to the other guy. "The asshole."

Philip's face goes ten shades of red. He moves from in front of her to standing far to close to me trying to do the looming over me thing now. I'm not impressed, our eyes are far to close to level for it to be anyway effective.

"I'm going to kick your ass for what you did to my car old man!" he says threatening, but doesn't make a move closer.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" her brother demands of Casey.

My eyes shift looking past Philip's shoulder to meet with hers.

She sees my calm in the face of the taller man's anger, I think it gives her strength. She steps up into her brother's face.

"He's my new boyfriend. Now get you and your boyfriend off this property. I'll let you know when the Will is to be read."

"Boyfriend?"

Both men say it together. I hear all kinds of tones in their words. I could spend a day trying to sort out the different ones.

I don't have that kind of time at the moment.

Watching him with corner of my eye I see when Philip makes his move. His hand starts up towards my face!

Maybe it's the cold air through my nose but even the idea of taking a punch on my already broken nose isn't even considered.

My head moves with the old skill out the way of the incoming punch even as my hands are lifting to guard my face.

His second swing I see coming in square on. I lift my left arm and it lands somewhere around my forearm on the hard bone, probably hurting him more than me.

The ribs are open!

The left takes him just under his short ribs square on top of his diaphragm. I see the air leave his mouth, see that half a second shocked look when he tries to breath in and can't.

Then my right connects with his jaw just under his ear! I may be fifteen years out the ring but I have lost very little of my power. He drops like a stone!

I see her brother step towards me and I settle my hands back into position in front of my lower face.

My eyes are steady and cold when they meet his.

"Your friend was stupid and ignorant, you know better than he did. Do you still want to make the same mistake?" there is a calm to my voice that chills even me.

Jason looks down at his friend and I see the fear. My coaches told me to look for it. Sometimes it's sudden, then gone. Other times it's there always but half-hidden.

His is more... out in the open, kind of waving a surrender flag.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

In the end I have to help him get Philip out to the passenger seat of the car behind mine. Even when he comes partially too the tall man is out of it. I see a bit of blood at his lip.

"He starts coughing up blood get him to a doctor." I tell Jason as I walk back around the front of the car. I see him put the car door between himself and me as I clear the finder. My answer is a quick nervous nod.

I start back up the walkway then see something on the ground. Leaning down I pick up the white tooth. I walk back over to the car making a roll it down motion with my fingers.

I drop the tooth into his hand.

"Better yet take him to a dentist. That can be put back in if you hurry." I squat down till his eyes are level with mine. I move my eyes towards where Casey is standing. Then center them back on him. "Don't bully your sister again like that. Like she said I'm her new boyfriend, you, and I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. You have no idea how long I may be in your life."

I see his nod and lift my eyes to look up at Philip. He's looking at me but I don't think he sees me really.

"Now go see to him."

As the car pulls away I take in a deep breath and feel the nerves settle in. My hands start to shake from the adrenaline.

Yea that's the reason, I tell myself as I turn and walk to where she is standing on the front porch.

I can see the wheels turning behind her eyes as I walk up. Reappraising me.

"Shall we go in, it's cold out here?" I look over my shoulder at the street light, as it turns on. "And it's getting dark."

She nods but doesn't move to open the door.

Smiling I take her hand into mine. Her fingers feel cold and there is a slight tremble similar to mine. Adrenaline is a bitch.

"Come on, girlfriend, open the door."

She blushes and turns to the door. I don't turn lose of her hand till she got it open and we are inside.

"Sorry." She tells me after a second. "About me using you like that, and about what Philip tried to do."

I smile and step up till I right in front of her. My arms close around her gently.

"Stop apologizing for what the world brings. You have no control over you ex being an idiot that thinks with his fist." My lips quirk. "As for using me...make it up to me with a kiss."

She looks down then back up at me. She leans in and I feel her lips, still cool from being outside, brush against mine. Then they center in and I feel them warm against my own as I return the kiss with a growing passion. The adrenaline of the fight switches to a need that has been along time unsatisfied.

Casey melts into my arms her mouth moving in a growing passion her lips part and I taste her breath. I place a second soft kiss back upon her lips and slowly step back. I watch her face for the half second before she opens her eyes. I enjoy seeing her savoring the kiss.

She looks at me then a soft smile making her even more beautiful.

"That was nice." She says after a moment.

"Yes it was. I would like more, of them. My lovely girlfriend."

She gives a breathy laugh.

"You're not going to let me forget that anytime soon are you?" she asks moving back a bit. I catch her hand before she can escape.

"No." I say softly.

I enjoy the blush on her cheek. I hold her hand till she squeezes my fingers to signal a need for release.

Moving with her through the house I see the same sort of precision that I saw outside reflected in the decorating of the house. Things clearly in place and nothing that's not needed just sitting around taking up space. The more I see of the house the more I think her father and I would have gotten along well. By the time we get to his office and I see the family pictures that cover a wall of it I'm wishing I had been give the chance to know him.

I smile when I see the disorder of his paperwork. Yep he and I are a lot alike I think.

"It will take just a bit." She tells me and goes to work.

Taking a seat in one of the chairs I watch her start pulling out files and opening drawers. She reads through things and sets them in a pile then every so slowly a second smaller pile starts to form.

She is so beautiful to watch. The order and precision that she moves with is almost like watching a dancer. The grace of long practice making ever move look like magic. Casey moves that way. When she's not paying attention to what she's doing.

"Would you like a drink?"

I look up from admiring her breasts to see her eyes on my face. I feel my cheeks flush at having been caught like a schoolboy. I lick my lips finding them dry and a bit chapped from the cooler air.

"That would be nice. Anything."

She nods and leaves the desk. I watch the curves of her ass as she walks away. She stops by the door and I quickly bring my eyes up only to find myself caught again. I see a small grin.

"Would you like beer? I know he has a few...that he will never..." I see her swallow, I nod and she smiles this little quirk and disappears off into the house.

My eyes roam around the room as I wait. They settle on the family photos. I get up and walk over to the wall.

Family vacation photos, graduation photos, birthdays. They're happy poses for a camera to capture. I look for and see the tension in the faces of her father and the woman that looks so much like her that it has to be Casey's mother. It's there but only a person trained to read faces could see it. The first pictures have them laughing and hugged up against each other, then later ones there is a growing distance. I see a photo of them when Casey must be about fourteen or so. She's next to her dad, a slighter taller more mature looking Jason, her brother and sister stand closer to their mom.

The next photos are of a man and a woman with their family not a husband and wife. The rings are gone, the love between them seen so clearly in the first photos is totally gone now as well. I can see the tension in the faces of the kids as well.

My eyes come to rest on a vacation photo of Casey by herself. She is standing alone on a beach looking off into the setting sun. She is in a two piece with a wrap covering her hips and legs. I can see the woman I know in this one. I look between it and the earlier ones showing the happy teenager with the bright smile.

"My dad took that." I look over to the door and see her standing by it. "He was a good photographer."

She comes over to me and hold out the open bottle of beer, Schlitz. Now I really do wish I had meet him.

I look at her.

"I think I would have liked you dad." I hold up the bottle to show the brand.

She chuckles.

"He was a devoted fan." she looks up at the photos. Her hand goes to one of her and her dad together standing in front of the Epcot sphere. "A stranger took this one, using Dads camera. It was just him and I."

I gesture with bottle to the rest of the wall.

"So I can see. It was a bitter divorce?"

She nods and sighs.

"Yea. There weren't any affairs of anything like that I just think that Mom fell out of love with him. Maybe she wanted more out of life than he could give. I tried to talk to her about it a few times but She wont give me a straight answer."