Thinking about it, Lainie realized that was true. They didn’t have arbitrary rules. Their rules were to be honest with each other, to be respectful, not to do anything unnecessarily dangerous, things like that. They were bedrock things that were the cornerstones of relationships. One thing still rankled though. “If the rules are for both of us, why am I the only one getting spanked?”
Grant shrugged. “That’s how it works,” he replied. “One of us has to be in charge. Otherwise, it would just be a constant power struggle, and that defeats the purpose. We tried that, remember?”
Lainie couldn’t argue with that. The early days of their marriage had been a constant power struggle until Grant had started working all the time and left her to do everything her way. Loathe as she was to admit it, the time since they had moved had been far better than any of the time when they were living like that.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not still accountable though,” Grant went on. “I’m as capable of making mistakes and bad decisions as anybody. You of all people know that. If I am not living up to my end of the bargain, then call me on it. You have that right. If there ever comes a time when I won’t listen to you, go to Matt, go to Brent, go to someone. I promise you the men around here won’t hesitate to get in my face and do whatever it takes to get me to get my head out of my ass.”
Lainie had never thought about that, but she had no doubt that it was true. “I can see that, I suppose.”
“I think the structure and accountability has helped,” Grant continued. “That’s why it’s so important to me to keep it. Do you not agree?”
It wasn’t that she disagreed exactly. Something had certainly improved their marriage since they had moved. If she were honest, Grant taking over a lot of the decisions had been a big part of it. She didn’t want to go back to the way they had been before. She didn’t miss the stress or being a de facto single-parent. Truthfully, she like the way things were going. She just didn’t like being spanked.
She didn’t realize she had said that last bit aloud until Grant chuckled wryly and said, “It wouldn’t be a deterrent if you liked it, sweetheart. That’s the point.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lainie grumbled good-naturedly.
“Do you agree to continue with our rules then?” Grant asked.
She couldn’t think of any good reason not to. It made a lot more sense now that she knew his perspective. Besides, it was working. “Yes.”
“Thank you,” Grant said quietly, dropping a kiss on her head. “We can revisit it any time we need to.”
Lainie sighed, curling into Grant’s chest. “What are we going to do about Kathleen?”
“Well, for starters, I’d say she’s grounded again, for at least three weeks this time,” Grant replied. “I’d also like to have her write an apology letter to you for the way she behaved. The way she treated you and the things that she said to you are completely and acceptable, and she needs to know that.”
Lainie nodded. “That seems fair, but I really meant what are we going to do to help her understand. She is still insisting that we are living in some kind of weird cult. She really thinks you are abusing me.”
Now it was Grant’s turn to sigh. “So does most of the mainstream population.”
“Yes,” Lainie agreed, “but I don’t care about what most of the world thinks. I don’t have to live with them. Kathleen, on the other hand, I do care about. For one, I’m tired of her being so angry. For another, I don’t like the idea that she thinks of you as an abuser. That’s not a fair characterization, and I don’t want her growing up with that idea of her father.” Even as the words left her mouth, Lainie was struck by the irony of them. It had only been a few weeks ago when she herself had accused Grant of being abusive. She had never really meant it. She was just angry and struggling against all the new changes. Kathleen honestly believed what she said though. “There has to be something we can do to make her understand.”
“I have some ideas about that,” Grant said. “You leave Kathleen to me.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Despite Grant’s instructions, Lainie couldn’t help worrying. She admitted as much to Julie as the two of them walked together to the TiH book club the following day. She trusted Grant, but she was sick of the constant conflict and desperate to find a solution. Julie sympathized but confessed it wasn’t a situation she had ever encountered before. They walked along in a comfortable silence, broken here and there by random bits of small talk and neighborhood gossip. Suddenly, Julie stopped in her tracks, staring at the paperback book she was carrying.
“What about a book,” she blurted.
“What?” Lainie stared at her, confused.
“For Kathleen,” she explained. “I was thinking back to when I was a teenager. I remember that was when I first encountered the idea of adult spanking. There were a few spanking scenes included in some of the old bodice ripper romances I used to sneak from my mom’s stash. I was fascinated by them. I’m not saying Kathleen will be as attracted to them as I was, but it’s a fairly unthreatening way to introduce a teenager to the idea of erotic spanking.”
“You might be onto something there,” Lainie said thinking about it. “I couldn’t give it to her. She would ignore it if it came from me just on principle, but maybe I could just “happen” to leave one lying around where she could find it. Do you have any recommendations for books that might fit the bill?”
They tossed around a few possibilities as they continued toward Venia’s. When they got inside, as everyone was settling down, Julie explained to the group what they were working on. “Does anyone have any ideas?” Julie asked. “The obvious problem is that most books in this genre lean toward erotica, we need something that is more romance without being too explicit for fifteen-year-old.”
“That probably rules out gay lit too,” Jonathan said. “Unless she identifies that way herself, she’s probably not ready for that.”
Lainie nodded. “I’d agree with that. I’ve never had anything to lead me to believe she might be gay so she’s probably not ready for that at this point.”
“So, we’re looking for a male/female romance that is fairly non-explicit and includes spanking,” Dina summarized. She pursed her lips and tapped her index finger against them, thinking. Out of the group, Dina was the one Lainie had really expected to know the answer. She’d read a tremendous amount of books and seemed to be able to recall most of them from memory. After a moment, Dina got up and wandered to the bookcase where Venia kept the books they had previously read. She came back carrying two or three possibilities, holding them out for everyone to see.
“That one’s perfect,” Char exclaimed pointing to the one in the middle. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. It’s a favorite of mine.”
“Mine too,” Julie agreed. There was a murmur of agreement from several others in the group. “I have a copy at home. I’ll get it for you when we’re done here.”
“That would be great,” Lainie said. “Thank you, all of you. I really appreciate the help.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Jonathan said. Then, he picked up the current book they had been reading and they settled down for the discussion.
* * * * *
Lainie was still in good spirits when she made it home from book club. For the first time in a long time, she actually felt like she had a solution that might work for helping Kathleen understand. Her good mood lasted until she made it in the door and called out to Grant. “In here,” he called from the living room in response to her greeting. The words were casual enough, but there was something in the tone that made Lainie feel like someone had suddenly poured a glass of ice water down her spine. Her stomach tightened. She thought back frantically, scanning her memory of the recent days to figure out whether she had done anything that could possibly make Grant upset with her. He was clearly upset, but she couldn’t for the life of her pinpoint anything she had done that would’ve gotten her in trouble. She was still recovering from her last spa
nking and not nearly brave enough to chance getting another one just yet. Her anxiety spiked yet again when she walked into the living room to find Brent sitting on the sofa with Grant. Brent was a nice guy, and generally, Lainie liked him a lot, but she could tell almost instantly that this was no social call.
Hi, Brent,” Lainie said cautiously. Grant reached out a hand to her, and she came around to sit beside him on the couch, tucking her leg under her for comfort. “What’s going on?”
Brent shifted. He seemed inordinately serious and just a bit uncomfortable. “Well, as I was just telling Grant, a problem has been brought to my attention.”
“What sort of problem?” Lainie asked, the tension in her belly instantly morphing into an uncomfortable knot of nerves that sank like a rock
“I got a call from a friend at Denver PD. A concerned citizen called 911 yesterday claiming she had overheard a conversation in the mall that led her to believe that women and children were being abused in our community,” Brent explained.
Lainie thought she might be sick. This was the very thing Corbin’s Bend was designed to protect the residents from, and now her daughter’s very public tantrum had brought it right to their door steps.
“My friend got the security video from the mall and emailed me the relevant portion to see if I could identify the people in question,” Brent went on. “I think you know what the video showed.”
Lainie nodded. “She didn’t mean it. I swear to you. We’ve never laid a hand on our girls, save for the odd swat here and there when they were small.”
Brent nodded, satisfied. He turned to Grant. “I need to talk to Lainie alone for a minute.”
“There’s nothing you can’t say in front of Grant,” Lainie told him. “We don’t have secrets in our marriage.” The irony of that statement was not lost on Lainie. Could it have only been last night that Grant had disciplined her for that very thing? It seemed like a lifetime ago now. It had to be. The last ten minutes had been years long at least.
“Not this,” Brent insisted. Looking directly to Grant, he continued. “You know SOP in situations like this as well as I do. Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
Grant’s eyes went wide as the implication of Brent’s words dawned. “Wait a minute. You and Matt encouraged me to add physical discipline to our relationship, and now you think I’m abusing her. That’s bullshit.”
“I have to ask,” Brent replied calmly.
“Would you go get me some water, please, sweetheart?” Lainie said to Grant. She’d been a cop’s wife for fifteen years. You didn’t live with someone for that long without picking up some of the lingo and procedures. It was clear to her what was going on here, and it was just as clear that she needed to find a way for Brent to be able to ask his questions without Grant exploding. In general, Grant was an easy-going man who rarely got angry, but when something finally reached the end of his long fuse, he was perfectly capable of living up to the kind of temper his red hair suggested. That kind of reaction would not do their assertion that he wasn’t harming her any good.
Grant raked hand through his hair, clearly trying to keep a handle on his rising temper. “Yeah, okay, I can do that.”
As soon as Grant had disappeared into the kitchen, Brent turned to her and said, “You know what I need to know. Is he hurting you?”
“Of course not!” Lainie replied. “We practice DD, of course, but he’s never hurt me.”
Grant came back into the room on the heels of this comment. “What the hell, Brent?” he blurted. “You taught Matt, and Matt taught me. You know that. You know damn well I’m safe.”
“I do,” Brent agreed. “I’m sorry about that, Grant. I had to be able to tell the investigators that I had asked and found no evidence of abuse. For what it’s worth, if I honestly believed you were abusing her, I would’ve never had this conversation anywhere around you.”
Grant nodded, grudgingly acknowledging the logic of what Brent was saying.
“As it is,” Brent went on, “I can now honestly report that I have looked into it and am convinced that it was nothing more than baseless accusations thrown around in a temper.”
“That’s all it was,” Lainie told him. “I swear it.”
“I believe you,” Brent replied, “and I’m fairly confident I can convince the authorities that there is no need for further intervention. Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem.”
Lainie had begun to relax when he had said he believed her, but now she went on high alert all over again. If he believed her and no further action needed to be taken, what other problem could there be? Had Kathleen done something else she didn’t know about. Please God don’t let her have done anything worse.
“What else?” Grant asked. He was outwardly calm, but the way that he was clutching Lainie’s hand told her he was just as anxious as she was.
“You are both aware that we have certain rules in our community,” Brent said. “One of those rules is that we do nothing to bring undue scrutiny into our community. Even though I believe this incident was no more than a teenager having a tantrum, it was very public and as such brought our community under scrutiny from the police and social services. While I don’t believe that it warrants outside intervention, it is without question a violation of our own community rules. That brings with it its own set of consequences.”
“Like what?” Grant asked.
“Therein lies the problem,” Brent explained. “In the past, incidents of this nature have been handled by sentencing the person or persons responsible to a public spanking, typically with some element of community service also attached. However, those cases have all involved adults who were members of the community and had agreed to be subject to our unique justice system.”
Horror washed over Lainie. Throwing up became a very serious possibility. Her heart pounded impossibly hard. Her palms had gone sweaty and clammy, and she realized through a haze of distance that she was trembling.
“Lainie, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Grant questioned. Despite the fact that Lainie could see him sitting right next to her, he sounded somehow very far away. She tried to form words to answer him, but the words refused to form. Suddenly, he was gone and that scared Lainie even more.
Then, as suddenly as he had disappeared, he was back, holding out one of the small brown paper bags she occasionally used to pack lunches in and telling her to breathe into it. She did, and after what seemed an eternity, her body finally began to cooperate again, more or less at any rate. She shook her head back and forth frantically, “No, please, not that.”
“Absolutely not,” Brent assured her. “That was my point. The normal consequences do not apply here. Kathleen’s a minor.”
“But I’m not,” Lainie whispered before she even consciously realized the words had formed. “She was with me. I was responsible for her. I should have stopped her. I know I should have. It’s my fault, but please, don’t make me... Not that.” She had just barely begun to wrap her mind around the idea of Grant setting boundaries and punishing her. The idea of submitting to that in public before all of her neighbors... The very thought had her shaking again.
“No,” Grant said firmly, breaking through the haze of panic. “Kathleen is responsible for her own actions. Her deplorable behavior is her fault. Not yours.”
“You did try to stop her,” Brent added. “It was clear even from the tape I saw that you were trying to talk her down and diffuse the situation. I didn’t mean to imply that I somehow held you responsible. That never crossed my mind. I only wanted to let you know that I will have to take this before the discipline board, and let them determine the consequences. I am so sorry I frightened you. That was never my intention.”
“Speaking of consequences,” Grant put in, “I’m not sure you should consider all of the typical consequences off the table.” Somehow, in all the chaos of the last few minutes, he had returned to sitting beside her. He had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and was rubbing his hand up a
nd down her arm in a light, warm touch that was surprisingly comforting. “Yes, spanking may be off the table, but I’m not sure community service is a bad idea. She put the community in a bad position by her behavior. Now she needs to give something back to the community. That seems like a logical consequence to me. I will also tell you right now in addition to whatever the discipline board decides, she will make a public apology to the community. They can include that as part of the consequences if they feel so inclined, but even if they don’t, it will happen.”
“Actually,” Brent said thoughtfully, “that’s not a bad idea, community service and a public apology. It will be up to the discipline board, but I can certainly put that forward as a suggestion.”
“I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about Kathleen,” Grant told him. “As you can probably tell, she’s having a very hard time adjusting and understanding spanking relationships as not being something abusive. Lainie and I have both tried to talk to her multiple times. I have taken the approach that she doesn’t have to like what we do or what other people believe and do, as long as she is still polite and respectful, but clearly this isn’t working. I was thinking that sometimes kids have an easier time hearing things coming from someone other than their parents. Do you know of anyone who might be willing to talk to her? I know this is incredibly personal and private information, but we’re at a loss.”
“Sure, I’d be glad to,” Brent answered, “or I can ask Char if you think she would be more receptive to it coming from a woman. Actually, now that I think about it, Char is probably a better idea. Teenagers can be so sensitive and easily embarrassed.”
“That would be great. Maybe there is something Kathleen can do for Char as part of her volunteering that would give them a chance to talk,” Grant suggested.
“I’m sure we can think of something,” Brent agreed. “I do have to tell you that there is a chance the discipline board won’t accept the suggestions we talked about. I don’t think this is going to happen, but they could possibly choose to refer you to the housing board to determine whether or not it’s best for you to stay in the community.”
Learning to Live Again (Corbin's Bend, Season Two Book 9) Page 14
