by A. Valentine
On her last trip to the house, Erin had just finished packing the last box when she glanced out the window overlooking the back yard and saw Michael coming up from the garage. Her eyes widened and her heart leapt to her throat. Oh, no, she thought. What is he doing here?
“He lives here, idiot,” she muttered to herself.
She grabbed up the box, and started down the stairs. Two steps from the bottom, she lost her grip on the slightly heavy, cumbersome package and in trying to catch it, wound up twisting her ankle and tumbling down to the floor. “Shit!” she cried out in frustration and pain.
Michael came running from the kitchen, alarmed. The color drained from his face when he saw Erin sprawled at the base of the stairs. “Jesus, Erin!” he muttered, and knelt at her side. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said. No, you’re not. Not when he’s this close to you…not when he’s touching you. “Please – really – I’m okay.” She started to get up only to yelp the moment she put weight on her right foot. “Oh, god! It hurts!”
“I don’t think it’s a fracture,” Michael said. “Best case scenario, you just hit the ankle really hard and it’s in shock; worst case, a sprain.” He started to pull her arm around his neck in preparation to pick her up. “Come on – let’s get you to the living room. I need the light so I can take a look at it.”
“I don’t –“
“Erin, please.”
Despite the sharp edge to his voice, Erin saw fear in his eyes. Then she remembered. His girlfriend…the one who slipped on the stairs, causing her to miscarry. Erin nodded. “Okay,” she said softly.
Michael scooped her up easily and carried her to the living room. He placed her on one of the club chairs and put her injured foot on the hassock. Very carefully, he unlaced her sneaker and slipped it off along with her sock. “All right,” he said, “I’m going to move it around very carefully. I want you to tell me where you feel the most pain. That will help me to determine if you had a sprain.”
“How do you know so much about these things?” Erin asked. “You’re not a doctor for humans.”
He smiled at her. “I used to play baseball in high school, even thought I might go into it as a career…until I did a slide into second the same time the baseman caught the ball. He went to step on the base and wound up stomping on my ankle – with cleats. Snapped the bone in two places. I have a metal pin in there, now, and have to carry a card around whenever I go through airport security.”
He continued his examination of Erin’s foot. She winced a few times, even let out a few little curses and the occasional “Ow!”
“Well,” Michael said, “it looks like I was right about the shock to the ankle. Stay right there.” He got up and disappeared around the corner. A minute later, he returned with a bag of frozen peas, which he placed against her ankle. “Icing it will bring down any swelling. You should be okay, but it’s going to be bruised for a few days.”
“Okay.” Erin looked up at him and offered a small smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He did not move away immediately. Erin glanced down and saw his hand resting on the chair’s arm, very close to her own. Unable to resist, knowing she shouldn’t, Erin let her fingers inch over toward his. Michael’s hand twitched, but instead of pulling back, he turned his palm up. Their fingers laced together. Erin looked up and found Michael gazing down at her. Her lips parted. She had so many things she wanted to say to him but she could not make the words come out. She gulped.
Michael leaned down.
Erin let out a little sigh when his lips brushed hers. She reached up with her other hand, fingers threading into his short hair, holding onto him as she opened to his tongue. Soft and wet, a loving caress, reassuring, comforting.
“What in the hell is going on, here?”
They broke apart, Michael releasing Erin’s hand and stepping away from the chair. Mom stood in the doorway, hazel eyes flashing as she looked from Michael to Erin and back again. “Marianne,” Michael said, “she fell on the stairs, I was just –“
“I know what you were ‘just,’” Mom snapped. “I saw what you ‘just.’” Her heels clicked hard across the wood floor as she moved to Erin and bent to take a look under the frozen peas at her ankle. She looked up at Michael again, glaring. “What the hell were you doing, sticking your tongue down my daughter’s throat?”
“Leave him alone, Mom!” Erin shouted. She glanced at Michael. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just sit here and let you tear into him like he’s some kind of criminal. If you weren’t so caught up in work and the hospital, you would see all the things you’ve been missing – like this great, romantic, wonderful guy.”
“Erin,” Michael said softly, as though imploring her to stop.
“Michael had no idea what he was getting himself into when he married you,” Erin continued, her attention focused on her mother. “But I knew. I’ve known all my life. And I was headed down that same path. I was so caught up in my studies that my boyfriend, Zach, went looking to someone else for the attention I wasn’t giving him. The truth is, Mom, you’re addicted to work. It’s the reason Dad left. It’s the reason Brandon and Peter never come home for visits. They’re out having lives, they found the balance between career and family that’s always eluded you.” Very carefully, she pulled herself to her feet and tested her to see if she could take the weight; finding that she could walk, Erin slipped into her shoe.
“You should let me take you to the hospital,” Mom said. “You probably need x-rays.”
“I’ll be fine, Mom,” Erin said, with a sigh of frustration. She looked at her mother again. “Right now, I think you and Michael need to have a nice, long talk…and when you do, I want you to bear in mind that one day you are going to wind up all alone, and this big, empty house is going to become a metaphor for your life: beautiful to look at from a distance, but cold and void of love on the inside.” She started to make her way toward the front door. She still had the one box left but she decided to leave it and come back later, or maybe get Corrine to stop by and pick it up for her. Right now, she just wanted to get away from her mother.
Chapter Ten
Two weeks later, Erin looked up from feeding the penguins to see Michael sauntering toward her, hands stuffed into the front pockets of his jeans. She smiled. “I guess they’ll just let anyone into the aquarium,” she remarked.
“It’s good to see you, too,” Michael said. There had been no word from him since Erin had limped out of the house in Evanston, although she did suspect Michael had been the one who left the last box of her belongings outside Corrine’s door a day after that. “How are you enjoying the new job?”
“Loving it,” Erin said. She finished and stood up, taking the now empty bucket back to the feeding supplies area. “How’s everything with you?”
“Pretty good,” Michael said, looking at the floor and nodding. “Just came over here from the court house.”
Erin frowned, puzzled. “Court house?”
He reached inside his linen blazer and produced a folded sheaf of papers. Erin finished washing and drying her hands before accepting the offer. Her eyes widened. “You and Mom are divorced?”
“We had that talk you suggested, right after you left,” Michael said. “There was a lot of yelling…a lot of anger and accusations…but then we calmed down, sat down, and discussed it like rational adults.” He shrugged. “And we came to the mutual decision that we both made a mistake by getting married.”
“Did you…” Erin stopped, not knowing how to ask. “Does she know? About…us?”
“Yes,” Michael answered. “I told her that until I met you, I wasn’t really living anymore – I was just going through the motions. I credited you for opening my eyes and making me realize that I had spent twenty years immersed in work and avoiding relationships because I was too afraid of being hurt again, and that getting involved with her had been ‘safe’ for both of us. The truth of the matter is, I was p
unishing myself for what happened to Laura and the baby. I craved companionship but at the same time I didn’t think I deserved it.” He smiled. “Until you came along.”
Erin blinked, feeling her eyes prick with tears, and smiled. “That is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me,” she said.
“Well, maybe I can top that,” Michael said. He reached into his jacket again and pulled out two airline vouchers. Waving them in the air next to his face, he raised his eyebrows. “How would you feel about going to Las Vegas with me tonight, and then tomorrow morning waking up as Mrs. Michael Kassmeyer?”
Erin’s mouth fell open and she nearly stumbled backwards into the penguin enclosure. “Are you serious?” she managed to gasp out. “You just got divorced from my mom and now you want to marry me?”
“I wanted to marry you the moment I met you,” Michael said. He walked over to her and took her hands in his. “I want to marry the woman I’m supposed to be with…the one who makes me happy…and the one I love.”
Now the tears began to fall, and Erin did not even bother to brush them away. “I love you, too,” she said. “But, I can’t just leave – I haven’t been at this job long enough to warrant any vacation time!”
“I wouldn’t worry,” Michael said. “I know a few people who work here…some through cooperation programs with the zoo. Let’s just say, I called in a favor.” He smiled. “For the rest of the week, you’re all mine.”
Erin stepped in close to him, reaching up to stroke the stubble on his jaw. “No,” she said, “I’m yours for the rest of our lives.” Hooking her finger in his collar, she tugged him down and presented him with a kiss.
Epilogue
A refreshing breeze off the ocean wafted through the bay, caressing over Erin’s bare legs as she reclined in a beach chair under the shade of a large umbrella. She watched the lazy waving of palm fronds and the white caps cresting on the clear, turquoise-blue water. She smiled, one hand resting on the small rise of her belly under the green Lycra one-piece swimsuit she wore. Fast approaching her third trimester, she did not feel comfortable in a bikini, even though Michael had insisted she looked beautiful. He had even offered to rub sun screen on her stomach but she had laughed and stood her ground. In truth, she liked the feel of Michael’s hands on her, especially once they found out about the pregnancy. At first, he had been terrified, going by his past experience. But that lasted all of five minutes, as his joy at becoming a father took over. He had proven himself to be very attentive, sometimes to the point of obsession. In those times, Erin just had to poke him and tell him to knock it off, and he would laugh and apologize.
Erin did enjoy the attention, though. She knew Michael would be a good dad. The more time they spent together, the more she saw his playful side emerge. Sometimes, he could be like a big kid, and she liked that. He never got so carried away that she had to worry about him becoming too immature. He could act crazy and still be a serious, responsible person when the need arose. He once told her she brought out the best in him. She wondered if he knew that he brought out the best in her, as well.
A musical tone interrupted her thoughts. Reaching around the bottled water on the small bamboo table to her left, Erin retrieved her phone. She smiled as she answered. “Hi, Mom. How’s it going up in Chicago?”
“It’s freezing,” Mom said. “We’re under another winter storm watch. They’re predicting eighteen inches or more of snow along the lakeshore. I’m sure you’re glad you’re in Hawaii right now.”
“Well, it’s not a vacation,” Erin said. “We’re both working. For the last few days, we’ve been monitoring a pod of humpback whales off the coast of Oahu that are in the area for the breeding season. We’re sort of taking a day off today but we’re lined up to go snorkeling and spend some time with spinner dolphins.” She laughed. “You should hear the locals tease us about how the sun reflecting off our pale Irish skin blinds them. They refer to people like us as ‘shark bait.’”
“Oh, my god!” Mom said, but she chuckled all the same. “That’s terrible!”
“Ah, it’s all good-natured,” Erin assured her. “We just have to slather on the waterproof sunblock a few times a day.” She held up one arm, looking at it. “I’m actually going a little golden. Definitely getting more freckles. Michael’s shoulders look like someone dusted him with cayenne pepper. His hair has lightened a bit since we’ve been here, going kind of red-blond from all the sunlight.”
“How is Michael?” Mom asked.
Erin could hear the concern in her voice. It no longer bothered her to think about how her husband had once been married to her mother. Getting over the fact that Michael had sex with the woman who gave birth to her had been little harder, but she had adapted. “Michael’s fine,” Erin said. “We both are. We’re doing what we love. We’re having fun. He’s starting to get a little anxious about the baby, and it’s probably going to get worse the closer I get to my due date, but we’ve been talking about it.”
“I know he’s scared,” Mom said, soft and sincere. “But I have a feeling that once this baby is on the way, all those fears are going to disappear and he’s going to become so focused, he’s not going to even have a chance to think about what happened in the past. I’ve seen it happen dozens of times, men who seem so nervous as they come in with their wives going into labor, and suddenly something just kicks in and they’re still excited but they’re also very controlled.”
“Yeah, I have a feeling that’s how Michael will be,” Erin said, agreeing with her mother’s prediction.
“He’s going to be a wonderful father. And you’re going to be a wonderful mother. With no thanks to me,” Mom added with a self-depreciating snort.
“Mom…”
“No, Erin,” Mom said, cutting her off. “I know I was not a good parent. You were right about that. Giving birth and actually being there to raise your children are two very different things. I should have spent more time with you. I should have spent more time with your father. But as you said, I put my career before family. I admit that was wrong and I do regret it. It’s a case of ‘physician, heal thyself.’ I was so busy trying to help everyone else, I couldn’t see that my family needed my care, too.”
“Yeah, well.” Erin sighed. “It is what it is, Mom. I’m not mad at you for it. You’re a great doctor and you’re teaching other people to be great doctors, so that’s a good thing. I don’t hate you for it. I know Brandon and Peter don’t, either, and neither does Dad or he would have stopped coming back and staying at the house after the divorce.”
“About your father…”
Erin rolled her eyes. She began to have flashbacks to Mom breaking news to her long after the fact. “Please don’t tell me he’s dead,” she said.
“What?” Mom exclaimed. “Oh, no, honey – god, no! He’s fine! Why would you think that?”
“Nothing,” Erin said, shaking her head. “Never mind. So – what about Dad, now?”
“Well,” Mom said, drawing out the word in a coy manner. “He called the other day and asked if I had any plans for Christmas, and when I said no he asked if I would like to fly out to Los Angeles and spend the holidays together.”
That made Erin sit up straight, her eyes wide and mouth falling open in shock. It took a few moments for her vocal chords to work again. “Mom,” she croaked out. “Are you and Dad talking about getting back together?”
“We haven’t exactly talked about it,” Mom said. “But when he was here in September, things…happened…”
“Okay, ew,” Erin said, holding up her hand even though her mother couldn’t see it, her face screwed up in disgust. “Mom. Please. Thanks to having a mother in the medical field, I grew up thinking there was nothing wrong with the subject of bowel movements as dinner conversation. And I know we’ve had clinical discussions about sex many times, and that we’re both adults, but when it comes to hearing about you and Dad doing it? I’ve got to draw the line. Okay? I just…I can’t.”
Mom laughed
. A genuine, guffawing kind of laugh, not one of her polite little chuckles. “All right, I’ll spare you the details. But I thought you should know that we’ve started seeing each other again.” She paused, and Erin could almost see her smiling. “Now that I’ve had my eyes opened, maybe this time I’ll get it right.”
That made Erin grin, but she still had to swipe at the happy tears that filled her eyes. “I hope so, too, Mom,” she said, and she meant it. She wanted her mother to be happy. If her parents could get back together, that would be great. “Just make sure your calendar is clear next year, too. It’ll be the baby’s first Christmas. I’d like to share it with you. And Dad, if things work out. Heck, maybe we can get Peter and Brandon to join us. Christmas at home, all of us.”
“I can’t remember the last time there were that many people in this house at the same time,” Mom said. “But I do love that idea. Yes, let’s plan on it. My children and my grandchildren, the whole family. I like it.”
She really has had a change of heart, Erin realized. Well, I guess they’re right – you’re never too old. Spying Michael coming toward her across the beach, dressed in swim trunk and a light blue t-shirt, she smiled. “Well, Mom, I hate to cut this short but it looks like they’re ready for us to head out to meet the dolphins. I’m interested to see how the mothers and calves in the pod react to my pregnancy.”
“You’ll have to tell me all about it, later,” Mom said. “Have fun, honey.”
“Thanks, Mom. Love you.” Erin ended the call and looked up as Michael stopped in front of her. She leaned back in her chair again and rubbed her belly. “Hey, mister,” she said in a seductive purr. “Like what you see?”
He grinned. “Always.” He swooped in and presented her with a tender kiss, lingering for a moment to nuzzle her cheek. “You ready to go?”
