Always in Albuquerque

by Kirsten Osbourne

  “I guess…”

  “Please?”

  The single word, and the way she said it, had him nodding. “Sure. I’m probably going to kick myself for agreeing later, but I’ll do it.”

  Alexis hurried around the table to him, plopping down in his lap and throwing her arms around him. “You’re the best husband I’ve ever had!”

  He shook his head. “I’m the only husband you’ve ever had.”

  “So, I could have called you the worst, but I called you the best. See how generous I am?”

  “I do…”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “When do you want to go to Disney?”

  “Let’s go as soon as you’re off school. Maybe we can beat some of the crowds that way. I want to stay on one of the lakes there, and I want to buy all kinds of Disney stuff for our house. Don’t you think the kitchen would look better with a Mickey Mouse cookie jar or a Mickey Mouse crockpot?”

  “I’m not even sure what to say to that, Alexis. But having a giant rodent staring at me all the time might make me a little uncomfortable.”

  “I promise, I’ll make a Mickey lover of you before we leave to come home. I can do it, you know.”

  “I know you think you can.” He kissed her softly. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving! Any idea what Mrs. Remynse made tonight?”

  “Let’s go see.” Together, they went into the kitchen, finding their dinner and sitting down to eat.

  “I love that I never have to cook. Can we keep Mrs. Remynse forever?”

  He shrugged. “Until you stop working to be with the children.”

  She blinked at him. “What do you mean? I’m going to keep working. We’ll hire a nanny or put them in a daycare.” She liked the nanny idea a great deal more than daycare, but she wasn’t about to quit her career.

  “But…you want someone else to raise our children?”

  If he’d been anyone else, she would have assumed he was teasing her, trying to get her goat. But he was Dirk, and Dirk didn’t tease. “I want to raise my children, but I need to be able to work. Do you have any idea how many years I went to school to become a life coach? I love my job.”

  He frowned. “You love your job more than our future children?”

  “At the moment, yes! I haven’t met our future children yet. I adore everything I do at work. I might be able to cut down to four days per week, but I’m not going to give up working.”

  Dirk stared at her, trying to decide if she was joking with him, which she often did. Surely, she wasn’t the type of woman who would leave her children all day while she made her own dreams come true? It just didn’t seem like she could be that person.

  They finished their meal in silence, both thinking the other person was crazy. Finally, just before she went to put the dishes in the dishwasher, she asked, “Was your mother a stay-at-home mom?”

  “Of course. She gave up her career as a receptionist to stay home with me.” Dirk was surprised she’d even asked.

  “Do you know the educational differences between qualifying to be a receptionist and qualifying to be a life coach? I did four years of college and grad school. Your mother most likely finished high school, but probably didn’t even have to do that.”

  “What difference does it make? She made me her priority.”

  “The difference is she didn’t throw away six years of higher education to make you a priority. I promise you that my children will be my ultimate priority. But I will continue to work.”

  He shook his head. “Are we ever going to agree on this?”

  “I don’t know. Will you ever see reason?”

  He got up from the table and walked into the living room, flipping the television on to one of his boring documentaries.

  Alexis could see she’d been dismissed. She loaded the dishwasher and headed back to their bedroom, filling up a hot bath. As soon as she was in the tub, soaking up the glory of the heat, she went into the contact list on her phone and tapped Dr. Lachele’s name.

  Dr. Lachele answered on the first ring. “I promise he’s perfect for you. Just hold out a little longer.”

  “You knew he was going to make me crazy, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but I knew the two of you could work through it to find your happily ever after. You just have to trust me.”

  Alexis groaned. “Do you realize he was just talking to me about after I quit working to stay home with the kids?”

  Dr. Lachele laughed. “I’m not at all surprised. The man is different, I’ll give you that. But he’s a good man, and he is the right man for you. Talk through it. Or don’t talk about it for a while and give him time to see that you’re good at what you do and you genuinely help people.”

  “What’s the sentence for strangling a man in his sleep? Does the ‘he needed killing’ defense actually work?”

  “Only in Texas!”

  “I might have to talk him into moving to Texas then.” Alexis sighed and sank deeper into the water. “Do you have any idea how obsessed the man is with his reputation? He’s sure I’m going to make it so he’ll never get tenure. He asked me if I’d ever gotten drunk and shown up in public naked.”

  Dr. Lachele’s cackle came through the line loudly. “That sounds exactly like Dirk. You’ll get there. I promise you will.”

  “What do I do in the meantime? I really do want to hurt him.”

  “Have you thought about taking up violent video games? Maybe if you got a sword and whacked a few monsters in the head with it, you could take some aggression out that way.”

  Alexis grinned. “Haven’t there been studies that show violent video games just make people more violent?”

  “I’m sure there have. People are messed up in the head regardless. That’s why we can make a living doing what we do.”

  “Dr. Lachele?”

  “Yes?”

  “I just need you to tell me one more time it’s going to work. Please.”

  “It really is going to work Alexis. You just have to give it time. And I’m watching my beautiful grandbaby, so I’m not talking to you anymore. Love you. Hang in there.” With those words the phone went dead.

  Alexis sighed, and stared down at her phone. A mindless game of match three might be the answer. Something had to be.

  By the time Dirk was over his anger enough to go to bed, Alexis was sound asleep on her side of the bed. He considered waking her for a little bit of newlywed fun, but instead he set his alarm for thirty minutes early in the morning. They’d both go to work with smiles on their faces.

  As Alexis was working with a couple the following day, she listened to them and realized Amanda and Dirk sounded the same way. “She thinks she should get to stay home with the kids, and I say we need her income.”

  “You need it? Or you want it?” Alexis asked. Normally she didn’t do couples counseling, but Amanda had been her client for a few years. When she’d asked, Alexis didn’t feel like she could say no. “And aren’t you borrowing trouble? She’s not even pregnant yet.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized that’s exactly what she and Dirk had done the night before. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t see it when it was the two of them fighting, but when it was someone else, it was so obvious.

  “I feel like we need it.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “Without her income, we’d have to cut back a lot. We’d have to cut out vacations.”

  Alexis looked at Amanda. “What do you think?”

  “I think we need to start saving half of my income from every paycheck now. Then we’ll have a nest egg built up when I get pregnant. We don’t even want to try for another year or two.”

  Alexis looked at Jack. “Does that work for you? It sounds like a good compromise to me.”

  He frowned. “I guess we could do that.”

  “Good. That sounds very smart. You two start saving now, and if you don’t have a baby for a few years, then she can at least stay home until the baby starts kindergarten.”

&n
bsp; Amanda looked like she wanted to say more, but Alexis shook her head slightly. She was getting her compromise now. If she pressed for more, it would only be detrimental to her cause.

  “All right.” Amanda nodded. “Half of my paycheck goes into savings, and once the kids are in school, we’ll discuss me working part-time.”

  Jack nodded. “All right. I can agree.”

  Alexis looked at the clock on her wall. “I think we solved some little problems today and worked more on compromise.”

  Jack glanced at the clock. “That’s my cue that time’s up, right?”

  Alexis grinned. “I think it might be.”

  Amanda smiled at Alexis. “Thank you for working with us.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  After they left, Alexis thought about Dirk and their relationship. She wanted to work, not for the money, but because she’d worked very hard to get where she was in her business. What if she built on a small room toward the back where there could be a nursery, and a nanny could be right there on the premises? She could nurse full-time, between clients, and she could always supervise things. There was a second office she wasn’t using, and she’d thought about hiring a second counselor, but she didn’t want to share her place. No, that might just work. She’d talk to Dirk about it that night. If he didn’t like that solution, she’d find another.

  As soon as she got home, she went into the living room, knowing she’d find him there. He wasn’t watching documentaries as she’d expected, but instead he had papers spread all around him. “Do you need some help?” she asked softly.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m just grading a pop quiz I gave in each of my classes today.”

  She noticed then that there were several piles of papers. There must be one for each class. “I’m going to work on the puzzle while you grade, then.” She was disappointed that he was working at home, but she understood. His job was very important to him, just as hers was to her.

  He joined her at the table an hour later. “Should we eat?”

  She nodded, following her nose to the crock pot. “Something smells wonderful?” That’s when she realized there were now two crockpots. “This one is labeled ‘no meat.’”

  He laughed. “So, we’re both getting chili, but I get mine with TVP, and yours comes with beef. She’s really working hard to accommodate us both.”

  “I hope you gave her a raise when we married. She’s doing lots more work. My laundry as well as yours and now cooking two meals every day.”

  “I didn’t think about that.” He reached up into a cabinet and got down two bowls.

  “Might be time to think about it if we want to keep her on, and I think she’s amazing.”

  “I will give her a bonus and let her know that she’ll have a raise starting this week.”

  Alexis smiled and reached up to kiss him. “You’re a good man.”

  “As long as I know there is something that needs to be done, I’m happy to do it,” he told her.

  They filled their bowls with chili, and Alexis grabbed a sleeve of crackers. They each carried their own bowl into the dining room, not wanting to risk getting the other’s food. It really was going to be interesting when it was time to start feeding children.

  Once they were settled and eating, Alexis brought up the subject of children. “I have an extra office. How would you feel if I turned that into a nursery? Then I could have a nanny working there, and I could still nurse and be a part of my baby’s daily routine.”

  He tilted his head to one side as he considered her suggestion. “You’re working on compromising, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. “I was working with a couple with the opposite problem today. She wanted to stop working when the babies come, and he wants her to keep working. She’s going to start saving half of each paycheck, and they don’t plan to try for a couple of years. By that time, she should have enough money saved to take some time off to be with children.”

  “That’s a good compromise.”

  “So after they left, I thought about our argument last night, and I thought that if we could make it work with a nanny with the baby in my office, it wouldn’t feel so much like someone else was raising our child.”

  He nodded. “I do think that would work for us. Are you all right with the idea?”

  Alexis nodded. “I was trying to figure out what to do with the extra space anyway. I thought about hiring someone else to work from it, but I really like working on my own. I mean, I like working with other people too, but I want someone that I can be sure my personality will mesh well with.”

  “Because you do enough fighting at home? You don’t feel the need to do that much at work?”

  She laughed. “We’re learning to compromise well, I think. We’re both just very different people.”

  “We are. I still wonder sometimes if Dr. Lachele lost her mind hooking the two of us up.”

  “I don’t think so.” His words hurt though. Why, she wasn’t sure, because she’d thought them herself multiple times. Hearing him say them made her sad.

  “Well, I don’t know what to think. On our wedding day, there was no doubt in my mind she had put us together as a joke. The longer we’re married, the less sure of that I become.”

  Alexis nodded, glad that he was at least doubting their lack of chemistry. “I’m going to do the dishes and take a hot bath. That’s my favorite way to unwind.”

  “So for our anniversary, you want bubble bath?”

  She shook her head. “Scented candles and bath bombs. Bubble bath is so twentieth century.”

  Dirk grinned, watching her walk away, admiring her backside. Who was he kidding? He liked her backside and her frontside, and her sideside. The woman was amazing to look at, and he wondered again how he’d been so lucky as to be her husband.

  Eight

  As they settled into a routine of their marriage, Dirk and Alexis started to rely on one another more and more. She cooked for them on the weekends, and he took her hiking at least once a week. On the fourth Saturday of their marriage, they went back to hike on the same path where they had been caught kissing.

  It was warmer, and she dispensed with the coat, just wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. They once again took a picnic that consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When they reached the summit, she spread their picnic out around them.

  “I’ll do my best not to molest you this time,” she said softly. “I know that’s for the bedroom.”

  “It is…but sometimes it’s fun when you grab me and kiss me wherever we are.”

  “It is?”

  “Definitely.” He reached out and took her hand. “Never doubt how attracted I am to you.”

  “I don’t.” Though it made her sad. It was obvious their attraction was very strong, but he didn’t love her like she loved him. He still thought that Dr. Lachele had made a mistake matching them up, and she didn’t think so at all.

  While they ate, he talked about his research project he was going to be working on all summer. “I’m actually excited about our Disney trip now. They do marketing better than any other company. You see that silly mouse, and you know exactly what he represents. People are willing to spend astronomical amounts of money at Disney that they wouldn’t spend for the same things elsewhere.”

  She nodded. “I did get the trip booked. We’re going to stay at Saratoga Springs. It’s not one of the overly themed places, from what I’ve read, so it might be a better place for us to stay.”

  “Do you only want to go to EPCOT?” he asked.

  “I’d like to do all the parks, but I have a feeling that would make you grumpy.”

  “Not at all. I want to compare how themed each one is and consider the marketing aspects of each individual park. I’m excited about this trip in a way I didn’t expect to be. After doing a bit more research, it truly is the right place to do my project.”

  “I wish I’d booked more than just a week now. I did manage to get us into th
e Be Our Guest restaurant, which is usually booked six months out. You can’t get in after that unless there’s a cancellation, from what I understand. It’s supposed to be a fabulous experience.”

  They talked more about their trip as they finished eating. She wasn’t sure if she should be offended that he was planning on doing research on what was essentially their honeymoon, but she decided not to be. Why be offended when it would only hurt her?

  One of her favorite things to tell people who carried a lot of anger around inside them was that anger only hurt them. It didn’t hurt the person they were angry with. She talked a lot about writing letters to people who had hurt you and burning them. That way you got it out of your system, but no one was hurt. It was a method she’d learned in school, and it was a favorite.

  As they hiked back down the path, they ran into another of his students. He introduced her as his wife. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Blanton.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, too.”

  “You two really don’t seem like you should be together,” the young man said.

  Even as it hurt Alexis, she laughed. “We hear that a lot, but trust me. We are good together.” In bed, if nowhere else.

  As they continued their hike, Dirk kept thinking about what his student had said. And what Jessica had said the weekend before. They really didn’t seem like they should be together at all, but they were. And they were making it work. He just hoped she was as happy with their marriage as he was.

  After leaving the walking path, he looked over at her. “Supper?”

  She nodded. “I have stuff to make fajitas tonight. I thought I could make some with just the veggies for you, and I’ll add steak to mine.”

  He frowned. “Do you feel up to cooking after that long walk?”

  She shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind.”

  “Why don’t we just go out for supper instead? I don’t want you getting too tired. I can’t imagine standing in the kitchen after that hike today.”