by Thianna D
Of course, he had no right to expect her to do that in the first place. That was the bottom line, but it still didn’t make it any more comfortable to stand under his praise. Then again, she wouldn’t have had to go to such extreme measures if he had just been more reasonable. She might be doing a little creative end run around him, but he had brought it on himself. If he wasn’t so hell-bent on trying to control her, there would have never been an issue. He could’ve resolved the whole thing last night if he had just accepted that her work was the one area that was off-limits. She didn’t care what kind of tripe he came up with about nothing being off-limits in a relationship like theirs. Her job was her own. That was the one thing she wasn’t going to allow him control over. She had already conceded to giving him control over most things that she was used to doing for herself. It was hard enough to get used to answering to anybody without him insisting on meddling in her professional life too. When she made a commitment, she kept it, dammit. That was who she was. No one was going to change that. Not even her husband. No matter what he thought in his stubborn, controlling moments. If he could just understand that, this whole situation could’ve been avoided. It was all his fault. That’s what she needed to remember.
Still, she mused, pulling the stack of papers out of her bag and settling down in a corner of the sofa to work, Valentine’s Day couldn’t come fast enough.
CHAPTER THREE
Valentine’s Day dawned clear but cold. Grant awoke feeling like a child at Christmas. He couldn’t wait until tonight. Kathleen was going to help them do the decorating this afternoon and then he had to go and pick up their food from Amore after he dropped the girls off at the dance. As much as he hadn’t wanted Lainie to chaperone the dance tonight, it had turned out to be a blessing in disguise, getting her out of the house for the afternoon and giving him plenty of time to get things in order. With the exception of the decorating, he could have managed it all even if she had been home, but it really made it a lot easier having her out of the house.
The day seemed to drag on forever. Like just about everywhere else, the campus of Sandy Ridge College where he worked had been hit by Valentine’s fever. There were multiple parties planned all over campus for later this evening. Grant had been invited to dinner parties by more than one person, but he’d had to decline. As much as he appreciated the offers, he had plans of his own that he couldn’t wait to get home and put into action. Of course, that made it even harder for him to keep Lainie and his plans for the evening off of his mind. Everything seemed to carry some sort of reminder. Even the cafeteria was bedecked with cutout hearts made from paper dollies and tissue paper. Nowhere was safe.
Grant grinned goofily over his pasta dish and heart-shaped cookie, daydreaming about the coming evening, and praying silently that he would manage not to screw it up. It was going to be fine, he told himself. After all, how much could he possibly screw up when all he had to do was pick up takeout and wine and light candles? How hard could that possibly be? It was going to be great, and Lainie was going to love it.
After what seemed like an eternity, Grant’s shift finally ended. On his way out of town, he stopped at the florist and picked up the flowers he had ordered for Lainie. Then, he got on the road. The drive from Denver to Corbin’s Bend had never seemed longer than it did today, but finally he came to the entrance of Corbin’s Bend, the sign that always let him know unequivocally that he was home. He pulled up to his own house, bounding out of the car and through the door.
His daughters had clearly been hard at work. The scented candles that Lainie favored had been scattered all over every flat surface in the living room and kitchen. The kitchen table was covered with a white linen tablecloth and had been set with the china service Lainie had inherited from her grandmother. Candles were holding court in the center of the table. Grant found a vase and added the flower arrangement he had bought. It looked good if he did say so himself. His daughters had done an excellent job.
He left the flowers on the table and mounted the stairs in search of the girls. He found Kathleen standing in front of her dresser, using the mirror to slot sparkly stud earrings into her ears. She was wearing a long red sweater and black leggings with black boots that came halfway up her legs. She looked far too adult to be his little girl, in his opinion, but the outfit was appropriately modest so he couldn’t really complain.
“Hey, Dad,” she said brightly, gathering her pink streaked blonde hair into one hand. While he watched, she divided the hair quickly into multiple strands and twisted it into a loose braid. “Did you like what we did downstairs?”
“I did,” Grant told her. “It looks great. I really appreciate all your help. I think your mom is really going to like it.”
“I hope so,” Kathleen said, drawing the braid around over her shoulder and securing the end with an elastic band.
“Hey, you’re home,” Natalie said, coming out of the upstairs bathroom that the girls shared. “Do you know when Mama is coming home?”
“It’s nice to see you too,” Grant teased, dropping a kiss onto her hair. “Your mom is staying at school to help get ready for the dance, remember? I’m going to drop you girls off.”
“You mean she’s not coming home,” Natalie said, growing increasingly distressed. “I need her help to get ready. I wanted her to help me do my hair. What am I going to do now?” She added the last question in tone that suggested disaster was imminent.
“Well,” Grant said slowly, hoping to buy time. What was he supposed to say to that? Hair crises were totally out of his area of expertise.
“I’ll help you,” Kathleen broke in, saving Grant from having to answer. “What do you want to do with it?”
“I want to twist the sides and then do a ponytail at the back,” Natalie replied. “I can’t do it myself because I can’t see the back of my head. I don’t want it to be all messed up and lumpy.”
“I can handle that,” Kathleen told her. “Let’s go into the bathroom. The light is better in there.” Kathleen put a hand on her sister’s shoulder and guided her down the hall toward the bathroom.
Thank you, Grant mouthed when Kathleen looked back.
Kathleen grinned. “I got this, Dad. Don’t worry.”
Satisfied that Kathleen had things well in hand, Grant headed back downstairs to get himself ready.
Grant dressed carefully, feeling ridiculously like a teenager on his first date. It was a little silly, and he knew it, but he wanted so badly for tonight to be special. It was the first time in years they had actually gotten to spend time together for the holiday. His job had interrupted far too many holidays and special occasions. Lainie had never complained, but he knew it hadn’t been easy, and he was determined to do something special to make it up to her.
He had debated breaking out one of his rarely worn suits for the occasion but had decided against it. For one, he hated the things, which would make it considerably harder for him to enjoy himself, and for another, it would be incredibly conspicuous. People in Corbin’s Bend knew him and if he was that dressed up, it was entirely possible that word could get back to Lainie when he dropped off the girls, effectively spoiling his surprise. Instead, he opted for the dark green dress shirt he knew Lainie particularly liked him in and black slacks. Adding just a bit of the cologne Lainie had given him for Christmas, he headed out to round up his daughters.
“Let’s go, girls,” he called up to them from the bottom of the stairs.
Normally, such an instruction would have been met with a cacophony of excuses and “in a minute”, but tonight the girls trooped down the stairs without the slightest hesitation. Kathleen had succeeded in styling Natalie’s hair, adding in a sparkly black bow to hold the ponytail at the back. Generally, Natalie had never been the one to go for sparkles and frills, but that had begun to change of late, in the weeks following her thirteenth birthday. It was a milestone Grant preferred not to think about, but occasionally, things like tonight’s dance brought it into sharp focus. They were both
growing up far too fast, a fact he was uncomfortably aware of as Kathleen looked him over with a knowing look in her eye.
“Grab your coats and get a move on,” he said to avoid having to think too deeply about just how much Kathleen probably knew. He shouldered into his own coat and hustled the girls into the car.
The high school parking lot was crawling with people when he pulled in to drop the girls off. Hordes of teenagers were piling out of cars or walking up in giggling and horse playing throngs to stream into the gymnasium.
“Your mom’s coming home in a little bit, but one of us will be back to pick you up when the dance is over,” Grant told the girls as they were getting out of the car.
“We know,” Natalie said in that unique teenage tone that managed to sound both bored and annoyed at once. “Even if you didn’t, it’s not like we don’t know everybody here and couldn’t get a ride home.”
“Yeah, okay, there is that,” Grant conceded, “but I’m your dad, it’s my job to think about these things. Have fun.”
“You too,” Kathleen shot back over her shoulder with a cheeky grin as she sauntered into the building.
Shaking his head bemusedly, Grant pulled out of the parking lot and headed in the direction of Amore. As he had expected, the restaurant was crawling with people. Not for the first time, he was very glad he had decided to arrange for takeout rather than going out to the restaurant. Luckily, since he had arranged things with Matt ahead of time, once he fought his way through the throng of people to get inside, he was able to easily pick up his orders. When he got back to his car, he realized that the errands had taken up most of the time that he had to wait for Lainie to come from the dance. For that, he was grateful. There was little he hated more than just sitting around with time on his hands.
When he arrived home, Grant slid the takeout boxes into the oven to keep warm. Matt had cautioned him not to plate them up too early so that the food would not get cold. He would wait to plate them up until Lainie got home. It wasn’t as if he was trying to pretend he had made them anyway. Lainie would take one look at them and know exactly where they came from. They both knew his limited culinary skills were nowhere in the realm of the dishes that Matt came up with. Grant didn’t care, and he doubted Lainie would either.
With a quick glance at the kitchen clock, he dug out matches and began walking around lighting the multitude of candles that Kathleen had scattered everywhere. It took some time to get them all lit, but he had to admit that the sea of little flickering lights really was beautiful. He shut off the overhead lights and took a seat on the sofa to wait.
He waited, and waited, and waited. The time that Lainie was supposed to be home came and went with no sign of her. Restless, Grant got up and wandered around the house pacing. Had something gone wrong at the dance? Could something have happened to her? Surely not. If anything had happened, someone would have called him. Anyone in the community knew how to get in touch with him. Though he wasn’t technically one of the police officers assigned to Corbin’s Bend, everyone knew he was a cop, and as such he served as a kind of informal backup. Not to mention he would have been contacted just as a matter of course if Lainie were involved. Nothing could have been too wrong. Someone would have called him. Maybe she had just gotten caught up and was running late. He didn’t need to get ahead of himself.
He went on waiting, finally shouldering back into his coat and walking around outside, convinced he could hear the lights and sirens if there was any kind of disaster. There was nothing to hear. The night was still and cold. After a while, an insidious thought made its way to the forefront of his mind. Lainie had never really wanted to leave the dance early. It was entirely possible she had just decided to ignore his instructions and do as she damn well pleased.
He didn’t want to believe that. He had asked her if she had made arrangements, and she had indicated that she had. However, thinking back on it, Lainie had never actually said yes or no explicitly. She had just murmured and nodded, leading him to assume she had done as he requested. Dammit, he knew better than to fall for that quiet, complacent act. She had slipped it right past him.
That realization solidified in his mind exactly what was going on. There was no crisis. Nothing had gotten held up. His wife had just decided to do exactly what she wanted and to hell with what he had told her to do.
Worry morphed quickly into fury. Despite what most people thought when they saw his red hair, Grant was a patient man who rarely lost his temper. However, when circumstances brought him to the end of his very long fuse he was capable of exploding quite spectacularly. Realizing what Lainie had done brought him to the verge of just such an explosion. He stomped back into the house, slamming the door behind him hard enough to rattle the windows. The resultant draft extinguished several of the candles, but Grant didn’t care. He was going to kill Lainie when he got his hands on her.
Grant made several circuits around the house, pacing and trying to work some of the anger out of his system. However furious he might be at this moment, he knew better than to go near Lainie until he had worked some of it out of his system. That was one thing Matt, as his mentor, had taught him early on. Never ever to spank in anger, and make no mistake about it, Lainie was in for one hell of a spanking when she got home.
Actually, the more he thought about it, why should he just sit here and wait for her to come home? That allowed her to stay at the dance the whole time and essentially gave her exactly what she wanted. No, that couldn’t happen. He had told her to come home, and if she couldn’t come home on her own, then he would just have to go get her.
That decided, Grant grabbed his keys and headed out. It was time for Lainie to come home and face the music.
* * * * *
Music pulsed through the high school gymnasium. Lainie felt the beat more than she actually heard anything. It wasn’t a song that she was familiar with and the words were incomprehensible over the thrum of the crowd filling the gym. Though both middle and high school students were included and the students were allowed to wear street clothes rather than their uniforms, it was very easy to determine who was who. The middle school students stood around in groups, talking and laughing. They were almost exclusively segregated by gender. The boys clustered near the refreshment table, busying themselves with food. Occasionally, good-natured jostling and chasing would break out and an adult would have to go over and calm them down. The girls hovered around the bathrooms and the edges of the open dance floor. The groups near the bathrooms zipped in and out anxiously checking themselves in the mirror every few minutes. Every so often a group of girls would go out and dance together. Sometimes, one of the bolder boys would take a chance at joining the dancers, though only for a song that was appropriately fast enough to dance without having to get too close. Just watching them was entertaining.
The high schoolers, on the other hand, were, for the most part, intent on actually dancing. They danced individually, in mixed groups, and as couples. There was a lot more intense focus on pairing off and attracting the attention of that special someone. There was also very little mixing between the two groups. The middle school students kept to the far end of the gym nearest the refreshment tables whereas the high school students had taken over the area nearest the entrance. Miraculously, they seemed to be coexisting peacefully though. To Lainie’s knowledge, not a single disagreement or fight had broken out. She had chaperoned dozens of dances in her career. This one was undoubtedly the calmest and most peaceful of them all.
She said as much to Zach Cunningham, who was standing near her looking out over the crowd. He nodded knowingly. “It’s a whole different world here,” he said. “The kids here understand the rules and structure and consequences in a way that my public school students never did. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we know all their parents either.” He flashed her a wry grin. “They don’t dare pull too many shenanigans because the chance of their parents not finding out is slim to none. That’s a big advantage of everybody knowing every
body around here.”
“That’s true,” Lainie agreed. Even with just a casual glance around the room, she knew virtually every child there. Her own children both seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Natalie was huddled with a group of girls across the room, holding court against the folded in bleachers, talking and giggling. Kathleen seemed to be deep in conversation with Slade Mixon. That was interesting. Maybe he was her mystery crush. If she remembered correctly, he was a junior, a year older than Kathleen, but seemed to be a good kid. At least, she hadn’t heard anything particularly negative about him going around school. Granted, at the middle school, she didn’t know as much about the high schoolers as some of the high school teachers did, but in a community this small, if there was a problem she would’ve probably heard about it. Heck, five or six months ago Kathleen had owned a very deserved reputation as a problem child. She had turned it around, and Lainie was very proud of that, but it had taught her very quickly how well everybody in this community knew each other. If she didn’t know of any red flags about Slade, he was probably safe enough.
* * * * **
“Hi Grant, I didn’t know you were coming tonight,” Zach said, drawing Lainie’s attention instantly back in his direction. Apprehension flooded her, tying her stomach in knots and sending her heart rate into the stratosphere. What was Grant doing here? He wasn’t supposed to show up like this. She knew he would be upset with her. She had known full well that coming tonight would result in at the very least an argument and possibly punishment, maybe, if she couldn’t succeed in talking him out of it. That was supposed to be later though. At home. In private. Not here.
