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My girl choked, and I had to pat her on the back.
Ted handed Myra the bottle of water she’d sat between them. “Oh damn, kid. Get a drink before you die.”
It was a naughty secret, and her blush wasn’t from the coughing fit.
“You’re right,” I replied. “She needs to make that again soon.” I leaned into her shoulder as she stared at me, wiping the tears away from her bugged-out eyes. “It’s my favorite.”
When she got it together, she offered to make a new dessert she’d found. I couldn’t blame her for not making it for anyone else again. She was bright red thinking about what we did with the last one.
The joke was on me, because after a having thought about that scene in our kitchen, it came to mind all too often through the rest of that evening.
After the wood was cut and stacked in our truck beds—split between Ted and I, since Chris and Ashley didn’t have a working fireplace—we headed home as it got dark.
I hadn’t planned to spend a whole day listening to Chris and Ted give each other hell. In less than twenty-four hours, I’d have weeks of that ahead.
All I wanted to do was go home, maybe have a drink with Myra, and spend some time with her before I had to leave. I wasn’t looking forward to the trip. It would be long days, doing back breaking work, followed by embarrassingly lonely nights.
I’d worry about it later though. I was there with her now.
Settled inside, she changed into my gray sweats and a worn-thin V-neck. She was right about that article she’d read all those weeks ago. I loved seeing her in my things. I wasn’t sure if it was the androgyny of it or how petite my over-sized things make her look. Maybe it was just her.
While she got changed, I gathered some kindling I’d collected and put it in the wood stove.
Hair all pulled to one side, she strolled back into the living room where I was and went straight for the bookcase. “Better not forget your new book. You’ll get bored.”
“I’ll be bored anyway. Staying at a hotel, for nights on end, is torture sometimes. I hate not getting things done around here. All I’ll think about is what I could be doing at home.” I was ahead in the shop, but that wouldn’t last long. Especially since we’d went to Lancaster last weekend. Plus, I’d been busy and distracted by a blue-eyed, blond haired woman all that week.
“I’ll keep the place up. You can trust me. It’ll be fine.” She fell into the corner of the sofa and tucked one foot under herself.
“I trust you. Think you’ll get bored?”
She was just like me. Nose to the grindstone. I doubt she’d have a spare second the whole time I was on the road.
“I’ll try not to. Won’t be hard. I bought some things at Hobby Lobby to play with, I have a laundry list of blankets and clothes to make for people. School work. Looking for a tutor—because there must be someone else who can do it. And Ashley and Violet aren’t too far if I get lonesome. I’ll visit them.”
“Could you try to miss me a little?” I teased, threw the long match in the fire, and then climbed on the couch with my girl, laying across her lap even though my feet were left to dangle off the other end.
She ran her fingers through the front of my hair, and God it felt good. “I’ll miss you the whole time. I don’t like being away from you, but we’ll be okay. You’ll come back.”
“I will.”
“Maybe the time will go fast because we’ll both be so busy.”
I didn’t want her to be sad, but damn. “Why do you have to be so practical?”
“Why not? You’re not going away because you want to be away from me. It’s for work. Unless you need a break? Are things going too fast for you? A lot has happened in the last week or so.”
I shook my head and looked at her upside down. “No. No break needed. I finally just got invited back to the bed.”
When she laughed, my head bounced against her stomach.
“True. Should we sleep apart tonight, just to get used to it again?”
“Hell no. I’m sleeping where you’re sleeping. I’m putting my foot down.”
The challenge had her mouth hanging open. “Oh, your foot, huh? What if I put my foot down?”
“My foot’s bigger,” I countered. Then I lifted my leg and wiggled my bare toes.
“You’ve never struck me as a put-your-foot-down sort of man before. Is this a new thing?” It had taken her sometime to pick up on sarcasm, but she was mastering it all the same. I didn’t care if we turned the tv or the radio on, I could talk to her all night and never tire of it.
“I’m usually not, but I’ve always been a get-what-I-want kind of man.”
“I’ve noticed that about you. I think it’s sexy.” Of all the words in the English language, hearing sexy fall from her lips was erotic. She continued, “We have that in common. Recently, I’ve become a get-what-I-want woman.”
“Really? Tell me more about that.”
“Well, I wanted you to sleep in the bed and now you do. Guess I put my foot down.”
“I guess you did.”
Her fingernails scraped across my scalp and it made my eyelids heavy. Out of nowhere, a thought occurred to me. “Will you take my last name?”
She’d been going by Fox at the bank and at school, which I completely respected. Make no mistake, Hathaway wasn’t really a name I was proud of, but it was mine, and I would share with her whatever she wanted.
“Yeah,” she answered, and her eyes shined. Leaning forward, she kissed my lips and the sensation of our mouths being in opposite directions was odd, but kind of cool.
“Thank you for asking me.” She sat back and one of her hands found my chest. “When I was at the Griers, I didn’t know what was going to happen, so I used my maiden name for things. I was confused and didn’t know what you or I wanted, and Jacob was gone. Although I don’t really think about my time with him anymore.”
She never spoke about it either.
“You don’t?”
“No. It seems like another life. I was a different person. It’s crazy how fast someone can change, isn’t it?”
“Not when they want to, it’s not.”
“I didn’t even know I wanted to though.” She scanned around the room, and I watched her think through what she was trying to say. “I had no idea this life was possible. Or the idea that men like you were out there. I didn’t even dream of getting an education or a job or money of my own to do with as I wished. You’ve changed my life so much.”
I had to correct her, “No, you did. You chose to leave. The same as I did.”
“I left because I thought it was what God wanted me to do. I thought he orchestrated it all to put us together. Heck, who knows? Maybe he did. Or maybe it was something else that brought us together.” Her hands stopped rubbing me as she pondered such a huge concept. One that people for ages and centuries have debated. Then, after a bit, she added, “You know what? I suppose it doesn’t matter who gets credit or how it happened. I’m just glad that it did.”
I was fine to accept the way she thought, but I had my own theories. I believed it was probably more than one thing that pointed me in her direction. Good. Evil. Free will. Fate. God.
She was right though. It didn’t matter. I was thankful for it all and wouldn’t change a thing.
#
WE HUNG OUT ON THE couch through two bundles of firewood. Talking and laughing. Touching and kissing. For hours and hours, we talked about things we wanted to try and places we wanted to travel someday. I was surprised when she told me she wanted to visit Waco, TX. She told me it wasn’t only because of the history of what happened there with a cult she’d learned about, but also because it was close to a store owned by a couple in one of her favorite television shows.
I had to agree; it didn’t sound like a bad trip. One day, we’d go. After all, we were a couple who got what they wanted.
It was one of those nights that sticks with a person. Real quality time.
And when we both got sleepy, and the conversation seemed to burn out like the oak in the stove, we went to bed.
It was the best sleep I’d get for a while, which turned out to be the gospel truth.
A few nights later, I was tossing and turning. Uncomfortable. My foot wandered the hotel sheets for hers as I dozed and woke up for hours.
So far that week, the days weren’t bad. Sure, the work was daunting. Especially since we were at the beginning of the giant job, but the conditions could have been much worse. Chris and Ted were right, the tracks were mostly flat, and that made a huge difference. The weather stayed dry, although the temperature was cooling off more and more each day. But without mud and hills to war with, overall, things were good.
Good, except I’d rather be at home at night.
I refused to let it get the best of me though, and I didn’t let on to Myra how much it sucked being away. We talked every morning and texted throughout the days when we had a free moment, but FaceTiming was what I looked forward to each night.
On Thursday, Ted let me know he needed me to stay through the weekend to keep everything moving since we were getting so much done. He was staying to help through Saturday and then going home for a day. Chris was leaving Friday and then coming back on Monday with a ripped load.
I wasn’t looking forward to telling her it wouldn’t be until sometime next week when I’d be able to bring a truck home, but I pressed send to start our video call and waited for her to pick up.
Smiling ear to ear, hair in a thick, long braid over her shoulder, she answered. “I was just about to call you, but I was trying to wait until nine when you usually do. I got out of class early and waiting was getting the best of me.” She was wearing the robe I’d bought and sitting against the headboard in our room. Clean faced and beautiful, I could almost smell her skin.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“Productive. I sent packages to three of my brothers’ families. I made a big pot of vegetable soup. And I did some research on something I’m working on. Abe, you can learn almost anything you want on YouTube. There’s so much knowledge in those videos. Anyway, I might start working on a prototype tomorrow. I’m excited for that.” When she said prototype she leaned toward the camera as if she were introducing me to the word. Either she was way better at being alone that I was, or she was just infinitely better at hiding it.
“Why was class short tonight?” I asked.
“When Mr. Paxton finished going over the module in the guide early, he let us out.” Her head fell back against the wooden headboard and she looked up at the ceiling. “I’m kind of stressed about school really. I’ll be off for two weeks, and I haven’t had any luck finding a tutor yet. I’m not sure what to do.”
Knowing how she felt about the young woman in her class, I didn’t want to suggest that. Honestly, I didn’t have an answer or a way to solve that problem. “You put up a flyer at the community college yet?” That was one thing she’d mentioned trying.
“Yeah, and when I stopped to see if anyone had taken my number, it was covered up by two posters looking for roommates and a dog sitter ad.”
“Have you asked Ashley if she knows anyone?”
“She didn’t but offered to ask around. She hasn’t said anything about it. Guess I’ll just have to work on my own next week.”
Hopefully something would turn around for her. I knew about angles and measurements, mostly from using them in my work, but I’d seen things in her workbooks that made my head spin. There was no way I could help.
“So are you coming home tomorrow?” she asked. Her tone had changed from defeated to optimistic, and I hated to give her the news. I do my best to cushion the blow.
“Not tomorrow, but sometime next week I’ll get to run home for the night.”
She sighed. “Okay. Let me know what night so I can make something good for supper ahead of time. I don’t want to waste any time cooking.”
That brought a genuine grin to my face. “What would you rather waste your time doing?”
Her jaw swung to the side, bashfully, she answered, “I’ll show you when you get here.”
That was promising, and I liked where her head was at.
“I’m making something for you,” she added. “I’m not going to tell you what it is though. Not yet. Just in case it’s a flop. But I think it’s going to be good.” I loved the charm in her eye and the way she licked the corner of her lip, having a secret from me.
It didn’t matter what it was. If it made her glow like that when she thought about it, I’d ask for six more. Her expression was priceless.