“Don’t worry about it,” Lainie said, leaning back against the counter and sipping her coffee. “We’ll manage.” She couldn’t decide whether his concern was amusing or annoying. She’d been taking care of the girls on her own in the summers for as long as she could remember. It wasn’t like this was anything new. While it was true that she had moving and a new community to deal with, it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Leaving them alone had never seemed to matter before, why was it suddenly different now? Did he think just because he was supposedly the head of the household that she was suddenly incompetent to handle it on her own? Because if that was what he thought, she had a thought or two of her own for him. She didn’t know about the other women around here, but she wasn’t some weak spineless doormat who couldn’t make a decision for herself without her husband’s permission. She had no intention of becoming one either so if that was what he was expecting, he was bound for disappointment. Surely after all these years he knew her better than that. Didn’t he?
“I have no doubt of that,” Grant replied, smiling. “Just don’t let Kathleen talk you around. She got herself into the trouble she’s in, and you don’t need to bail her out. If she drives you too crazy, send her to her room until I get home, and I’ll deal with it.”
Really? Since when? She had never been a ‘wait until your father gets home’ parent, not that it would have done her much good if she had been considering he had never been home. “I can deal with it,” she snapped, the words coming out harsher and sharper than she had intended. “I’m not helpless, you know, just because we moved here doesn’t mean I’ve turned into some meek little church mouse.”
“I’d have never guessed that,” Grant said dryly, chuckling. Lainie glared at him. “Honey, meek and helpless have never been words I’ve associated with you. That’s not who you are, and I wouldn’t want it to be. I don’t know where you’re getting these ideas from. You know my mom. She doesn’t have a helpless bone in her body.”
That was true. Edna Taylor was a force of nature. She was just the kind of plucky, strong woman that Lainie admired. In the early years of their dating and marriage, her mother-in-law had become much more of a role model for Lainie than her own mother had ever been. It had been a complete shock when Grant had revealed the nature of his parents’ relationship. Lainie couldn’t see Edna ever letting anyone tell her what to do, much less spank her. The idea still confused her, though Grant swore it was the practice of domestic discipline that was the glue that made his parents’ marriage work, and that they had the strongest marriage he knew because of it. Lainie couldn’t fault that observation. Grant’s parents had clearly been devoted to one another. Their marriage had been different from any one she had ever seen, and she’d wanted that. She still wanted that. That’s why she had agreed to this move and to this type of relationship. She just wasn’t at all sure how she was supposed to do it.
Grant must have seen something in her face because he moved over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be fine,” he assured. “Don’t be so nervous. People here are nice, and I bet you will find out you have more in common than you think.” He dropped a kiss on her head, glancing at his watch. “I’ve got to get moving. Have fun.”
Once Grant left, Lainie fussed around the kitchen, randomly unpacking things and cleaning up, trying to at least pretend to get things in some semblance of order. Far too soon for her comfort, there was a knock at the door. She opened the door to find her mentor, Venia Varner, along with two women she didn’t recognize. Both were around her own age, unlike Venia, who was likely in her 50s. One had long, very pale blonde hair, several shades lighter than Lainie’s own and the lithe, elegant build of a dancer. She had a baby carrier hooked on one arm and carried a cane in the other. The other was as dark as the first was fair with brown hair and eyes and a fuller more curvy build.
“Good morning!” Venia said cheerfully as Lainie stepped back to let them in. “How was your first night?”
“It was fine,” Lainie said noncommittally. Though Venia had been assigned as her mentor, they didn’t really know each other very well yet. They had met back in the spring when Lainie and Grant had first flown out here to meet with the housing board and had spoken on the phone a few times since then, but they were still essentially strangers. Still, Lainie found herself liking the older lady.
“Good,” Venia said. She stepped aside to let the other ladies into the house. “Lainie, this is Cadence Devon,” she said, gesturing to the blonde woman, “and the little one here is her daughter, Anna.” She smiled at the baby, her eyes lighting up with sheer delight, before turning to the other woman. “This is Julie Renton. I think you know Julie’s husband, Matt. I know he was here yesterday.”
Lainie nodded. “Matt is Grant’s mentor. It’s nice to meet you both. You’ll have to excuse the mess. The men got all of the furniture in yesterday, but we’re still buried in boxes, obviously.” She glanced around, indicating the boxes that were scattered throughout the rooms around them.
“Don’t worry about it, honey,” Venia replied, dismissing Lainie’s concern with a wave of her hand. “That’s what we’re here for.”
“I appreciate you coming to help,” Lainie told them. She honestly did appreciate the thought, even though at the moment she would much rather they had been anywhere but here. The thought of anyone seeing her or her house in this kind of mess wasn’t at all appealing. “I have coffee in the kitchen if you’d like some.”
“That be perfect,” Julie spoke up. “Ange – that’s Angie O’Brien – sent along some goodies as her contribution to the effort. Trust me, you don’t want to miss them. She owns the bakeshop, and her stuff is seriously addictive.”
“Let’s go in the kitchen then,” Lainie said. “It’s right through...” She broke off abruptly when she realized there was no need to explain. All three women had already headed unerringly in the direction of her kitchen.
Noticing her expression, Cadence explained, “All of the houses in the community are built with similar floorplans. After you have lived here a while, you can pretty much walk into anybody’s house and know exactly where the main rooms are. It takes a while to get used to.”
“Sorry,” Julie apologized. “Matt and I have been here almost since the beginning. It’s second nature by now.” She set the paper bag she’d been carrying on the counter by the coffee pot. “Do you have a plate or something I could put these out on?”
Luckily, Lainie had managed to find the box holding her dishes while she was rummaging around after Grant left. She plucked one out of the box and washed it off before handing it over to Julie, who pulled what appeared to be scones, hot and incredibly fragrant, out of the bag and arranged them on the plate. Cadence, who had been following cautiously through the maze of boxes, set the baby carrier where her daughter slept on the table, and dropped into a chair beside it. Julie took the plate of scones over and set them on the table, heeling out a chair and taking a seat. Lainie fished cups out of the box with the dishes, choosing three and washing them out. She passed them to Venia, who carried them over to the table while Lainie retrieved the coffee pot and her own cup.
“Does everyone want coffee?” she asked, coming over to join them. Everyone nodded affirmatively.
Venia gave Cadence a pointed look. “Has Marcus suddenly changed his opinion about you having caffeine?”
Cadence gave her an exasperated look. “One cup won’t hurt.”
“Uh huh,” Venia said knowingly. “Have you convinced your husband of that?”
“Of course not,” Cadence said. “The man is impossible.”
“So do you not want coffee then?” Lainie asked uncertainly.
Cadence hesitated, her gaze wavering between the empty cup and her sleeping baby.
“It’s your butt,” Venia told her.
Cadence sighed. “I better not,” she said regretfully. “Marcus doesn’t want me having caffeine while I’m still nursing.”
Lainie nodded. “Unfor
tunately, I don’t have much to offer you. I have water and ilk.”
“Water is fine,” Cadence said, still looking longingly at the coffee pot. “Why do men have to be so unreasonable about pregnancy?” she asked. “Women have been having babies for hundreds of years. If we were half as fragile as they act like we are, the species would have never survived.”
“I hear you,” Julie said. “Matt was the same way, all three times. You’d think it would get better after the first child, but it really doesn’t.”
“It brings out their protective instincts,” Venia said. “My husband was the same when Cecily was born, and of course you know our men are going to be worse about it than your average guy on the street. They already have stronger than usual protective instincts.”
“They do?” Lainie asked curiously. She passed Cadence a glass of water and sat down with them, taking a scone from the plate and breaking it open. It was true that Grant was the protective type. He always had been, but he was a cop. She’d always thought that just came with the territory.
“Oh yes,” Venia said. “In my experience, men who are drawn to this type of relationship tend to be very protective. I would imagine many of them would tell you that satisfying that protective instinct is one of the things that draws them to it, at least for those on the HoH side of things.” Both Julie and Cadence were nodding in agreement.
That was a novel thought. Lainie had always assumed it was about control. Grant wasn’t happy with the way that things were going in their household so he had decided to step in and take charge. At the time, she had been exhausted and more than willing to let someone else take over. Besides, if he thought he could do a better job, he was welcome to it. Had Grant actually been trying to protect her in some way?
Part of her bristled at the thought, she wasn’t a child in need of an adult to protect her. She was a grown woman and more than capable of handling herself. Another far deeper and quieter part of her liked the idea though. She’d had precious little protection and care in her life, having had to fend for herself for nearly as long as she could remember. That quiet hidden part of her would like nothing better than to let someone else take care of her for a while, but could she do that without sacrificing her independence.
She realized abruptly that the conversation around the table had gone quiet and the other women were watching her closely. She scrambled through the various tangled thoughts in her head, searching for something – anything – she could say. Finally, she grasped onto the most urgent question in her mind, blurting it out without thought. “Were you serious?” she asked Cadence. “Your husband would spank you for drinking coffee?” In the moment of silence that followed, Lainie realized suddenly that she had asked a virtual stranger an intensely personal question. “I’m sorry,” she stammered, face flaming with embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have said that. It’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s fine,” Cadence assured her. “We’re pretty open with each other. That’s one of the advantages of living here, being able to talk openly about your relationship with people who understand. You don’t have to worry about what people might think. To answer your question, yes, he would.”
“For coffee?” Lainie repeated incredulously. It seemed like such a small and insignificant thing to be in trouble for. Even the language was bizarre. In trouble was something she associated with her students and her children, not with grown women, yet the three women around the table talked openly about it as though it were perfectly normal.
“Technically it would be for endangering my health and Anna’s by drinking caffeine while I’m nursing,” Cadence said in a tone that suggested she had heard those exact words more than once before, “but yes, the coffee would likely get me spanked. Marcus gets serious about anything health related.”
Venia snorted. “You married the doctor, honey. What did you expect?”
“She has a point,” Julie agreed, eyes glinting with amusement. “Although, from what I hear, all the HoH’s take health and safety pretty seriously, Matt included. It’s one of those basic cardinal rules. You seem surprised,” she added, studying Lainie. “Is that not something that is part of your agreement?”
“Grant wouldn’t get upset about coffee,” Lainie said slowly, “but we do have a rule about not doing anything dangerous.” In her opinion, it was a totally unnecessary rule. She was a fully competent adult. It wasn’t like she was deliberately going to put herself into danger. Thankfully, Grant didn’t interpret it as strictly as Cadence’s husband did.
“Matt either,” Julie replied, “at least now that I’m not pregnant or nursing, but there are other things that are his hot buttons. I’m sure your husband has them too.”
Lainie nodded. “We’re kind of new at this still. We discussed it, and we have rules, but we haven’t actually –” She trailed off unsure how to explain. How did you tell women who clearly lived this every day that you didn’t, at least not in the way that they did? Sure they had talked about it, and they had made the rules. Well, Grant had made the rules, but that was all. That conversation had been months ago and not much had changed. Grant hadn’t actually tried to enforce them. Sure, there had been a few times during the move when she had gotten stressed out and downright bitchy when Grant had insisted that she stop and calm down, including once or twice when he had accompanied that instruction with a firm swat, but that seemed altogether different than what these women were talking about. For them, it was quite clear that the rules and the threat of punishment were real, real enough to make Cadence turn down coffee when she clearly really wanted it.
“Haven’t actually what?” Venia pressed.
Lainie swallowed hard, heat rising in her cheeks again. “We haven’t actually –” She tried again only to stop and stammer. How did they talk about this so easily? How did you say it without feeling completely absurd? She saw Julie and Venia exchange a look. They probably thought she was ridiculous.
“Has he spanked you yet?” Julie asked bluntly.
Caught between being mortified and relieved to have it out on the table, Lainie shook her head.
“Have you ever been spanked before?” Julie questioned, her tone gentle yet matter-of-fact.
“No, never,” Lainie admitted.
“Do you want to be?” she wondered.
“Of course not!” Lainie blurted. “Why in the world would I want him to hit me?”
“It’s not hitting; it’s spanking,” Julie corrected, as though there were actually a difference, “and under certain circumstances, it can be quite pleasurable, at least for most of us.”
That was such a bizarre thought Lainie couldn’t even formulate an answer. Cadence started to laugh. “What?” Lainie demanded.
“You just look so shocked,” she replied. “I remember how that felt. I was vanilla when I met Marcus. I didn’t even know Corbin’s Bend was a spanking community. Someone neglected to tell me,” she added, giving Venia a significant look.
“Just how was I supposed to explain that,” Venia countered, thoroughly unrepentant.
“Marcus and Brent seemed to manage well enough,” Cadence told her.
“That’s why I let them tell you,” Venia shot back.
This time it was Julie who started to laugh. Before long both Cadence and Venia had followed suit.
“Seriously?” Lainie said.
Candace nodded. “I moved into the community with no idea. I thought it was just like any other gated community. I didn’t know a thing about the lifestyle until after I moved here.”
Lainie was absolutely flabbergasted. It was hard enough adjusting even with knowing what she was getting into. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like for someone who had no idea. “Oh my God!” Lainie spluttered. “What did you think when you found out? You must have been completely shocked.”
“I was,” she admitted, “but I was also intrigued, far more intrigued than shocked, and that only got stronger after I met Marcus and discovered how good it could be.”
“See?” Venia retorted. “It turned out all right in the end. You managed.” Turning to Lainie she added, “You will too you, honey, don’t worry. We were all new once, and Cady is right. It can be really good.” Dusting the crumbs from the scone she had eaten off her hands, she continued, “Now, how can we help you? Put us to work.”
It didn’t take long for them to form a surprisingly efficient system. Venia and Cadence unpacked boxes and entertained Anna, who woke from her nap shortly after they started unpacking while Julie and Lainie put things away. The kitchen was set to rights in no time at all, and they moved from room to room in the downstairs area using the same method.
While they worked, the conversation continued. Lainie learned a great deal about the community as a whole, how things worked and the more colorful personalities within it. She learned that Cadence had four children, three boys from her husband’s first marriage whom she loved like her own in addition to Anna, and that Julie had three. They explained about the daycare and Disney movie room, where the older children had been dropped off today. Lainie thought it was a brilliant idea. There had often been days when Lainie could’ve used a system like that when her own children were small.
As they talked and worked together, Lainie was surprised at how much she was enjoying their company. If she were completely honest, she had expected the women here to be old-fashioned, subdued, and cowed. She was rapidly discovering that was anything but the truth. Her new neighbors were sassy and smart and a lot of fun. Julie had them all dissolving into fits of laughter describing her epic battle with a smoke detector. “Oh sure, laugh it up,” she said dryly, grinning at them. “It’s all fun and games until someone puts an eye out.”
“Or your husband finds out,” Venia quipped.
“Tell me about it,” Julie said. “Matt takes a pretty dim view of me destroying things in a temper. I’ve tried to tell him the damn thing deserved it, but he just won’t listen.”
Learning to Live Again (Corbin's Bend, Season Two Book 9) Page 5
