"I'll help Henry with the twins. I really don't mind. I like kids."
"Uh huh. You just keep telling yourself that." She ate the last few bites of her meal and started to clean the kitchen.
He watched her with a frown.
*****
Michaela groaned when the alarm clock went off the next morning, but she refrained from slamming it into the wall. She wandered into the kitchen, started the coffee, and got into the shower. The warm water rushing over her helped her wake up.
By the time Jon joined her in the kitchen, she'd had three cups, and was making French toast with bacon for breakfast.
He approached her gingerly after her warning the night before, kissing her cheek. "Breakfast smells good."
She nodded, taking another sip of coffee. "I hate mornings, you know."
He grinned. "I know. How can I help?" She didn't seem all that bad to him, just a bit grumpy.
"Set the table," she said with a yawn, as she flipped the first piece of French toast. "Get yourself whatever you want to drink. I'll have milk and six pots of coffee please."
It was all he could do not to laugh at her disgruntled attitude. He wondered if she'd think the glass was half full this early in the morning. "What time do you need to leave?"
She groaned, looking at the clock over the stove. "Five-forty, although why anyone would even know that hour of the morning exists is beyond me."
"You know what?" he asked, watching her at the stove. She wore a pair of slacks and a blouse, looking very professional.
"What?" she asked, sliding four pieces of toast onto a plate for him, before dipping more pieces of bread in the egg and milk mixture.
"I like you this way. You seem so together most of the time. Even when our honeymoon was falling down around us, you kept your cool and smiled. It's nice to see you're human too."
"Me? You're the one who everyone thinks is absolutely perfect. No one's ever mistaken me for perfect."
"You look perfect, but I like the slight edge and crankiness to your personality. You'll be Little Miss Michaela Sunshine again later, and I'll think about how grumpy you looked while you were cooking breakfast."
"Don't make me dump this batter over your head," she threatened half-heartedly. She was pleased by his compliment whether she wanted to be or not. "Don't be nice to me in the mornings. It makes me want to make you mad, too."
He laughed but did his best to cover it with a cough. She was something else. How had he gone for twenty-seven years without this wonderful woman in his life?
*****
Michaela was exhausted but happy by the end of her first day of work. It was a lot more hands-on with the children than she'd realized, especially the babies. She'd spent an hour in the infant room rocking, singing, and feeding babies. She wanted to take every single one of them home with her to keep forever.
After work she arrived home to find her boxes from Manhattan had arrived. She stared at all her stuff and wondered where she was going to put it. A lot of things she'd left behind with Haley, because her friend could still use them, but there was so much that she had brought.
She unpacked five boxes before making some rice to go with the meal she'd had in the crock pot all day. The one good thing about the apartment was that the closet was huge. She moved all of his clothes and shoes to one side of the closet, and put her own things in the other side. She'd be working on unpacking boxes for a week or two, she knew. Hopefully he wouldn't be frustrated that it took her so long to get it done.
Just as she finished the rice, Jon walked in, going to her for a kiss. "Hey, I'm setting the table here!" she protested.
"I didn't make you drop anything! Besides my kisses are so much more important than food. You could live without food!" he said dramatically.
She laughed. "You think pretty highly of yourself. Maybe that's your one flaw."
"Oh, there are many flaws. I've just managed to hide them so far." He took a sniff of the air. "Dinner smells amazing. You're already spoiling me."
"It's my job." She waved him toward the table. "Sit. Eat."
He sat down, watching her as she filled their glasses with water. "How was your first day of work?"
"So much better than I thought it would be. I was worried that I wouldn't get to be hands-on with the kids, but only about half my day was administration, and the other half was hanging with the kids. It was a good surprise."
"I'm glad you like it! I gave Steve some money for gas, so he's happy to pick me up and bring me home all week, but I do think I want to get you a car this weekend. As good as he is about driving me, I feel weird not having my car."
"I'm sorry. We could go tonight to look if we need to."
He shook his head. "It's not that imperative. It'll do me good to go without for a while. Jesus walked everywhere. I can get into my friend's car and let him drive me to and from work for a week."
She took her seat beside him. "Yeah, you'll survive. Might make you more Christ-like. Although according to your congregation, that's not possible." She winked at him. "I met a lot more people who go to the church today. They were all checking me out like I'm some sort of movie star who came to live here."
He grinned. "You weren't expecting that?"
"Oh, no. I totally was. I just didn't like it."
"I'm sorry that's hard on you. I know how I feel about having my private life taken from me. It's very frustrating. Do you regret marrying me as a result?"
She shook her head, not even needing to think about it for a moment. "How could I regret marrying you? I think you're pretty darn awesome."
He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. "The feeling is mutual." Needing to change the subject, he frantically sought for one. He wasn't ready to have a talk about their feelings yet. Not until they had made a decision on the baby thing. "I see your boxes arrived today. That's a lot."
She nodded. "And I've already unpacked five of them. Isn't it amazing how much stuff people accumulate?"
He nodded. "Where are we going to fit everything?"
She laughed. "That's what I'm wondering. I've already unpacked five boxes and rearranged your closet. All of your stuff is on the right side, and all mine is on the left."
"Hey, the left side is longer. You have more room than me."
"It's the natural order of things. I get more room because I'm a girl. Deal with it." She watched him as she popped a bite of food into her mouth and chewed it slowly.
"I can't believe you just said that to me! Isn't that being a bit sexist?"
"Nope. It would only be sexist if you said it." She took a forkful of food, grinning at the astonished look on his face.
He sighed. "Fine. Do you also get more drawers in the dresser?"
"Of course. I'll go through and throw away anything with holes in it to make more room." She'd already started to do just that, but she wasn't about to admit it.
"When clothes have holes, it means they're finally broken in."
Her eyes met his steadily. "Really? So I should throw away the clothes without holes? All right."
"No—Oh do what you want. You will anyway." He finished eating and pushed away from the table, grumbling about women coming into a man's life and ruining everything.
She laughed as she watched him wander off into the bedroom. He was definitely going to keep her on her toes with his strange attitudes about everything. At least he made it very clear he wasn't perfect, no matter what anyone else thought.
*****
Michaela woke up even grumpier on Wednesday morning. She lay in bed taking deep breaths for a minute before she sat up, not wanting to take her mood out on her new husband.
"How can I help?" Jon asked, already a bit wary.
She groaned. "Start the coffee." She walked into the bathroom, realizing she should have added the word please, but hopefully he'd understand. She showered, doing her best to fight the mood.
Normally, she sang in the shower, but no songs came to her mind. Of course, normally she wasn'
t up before the butt crack of dawn.
She got dressed, pulling on her favorite pair of jeans and a comfortable shirt. There was no point dressing up for work when she was just going to be spit up on.
She found Jon in the kitchen, pouring her a cup of coffee. He handed it to her with a smile. "You like it black, right?"
Michaela didn't even respond. She took the cup from him and took a sip, closing her eyes. When the cup had been drained, she handed it to him. "What do you want for breakfast?"
"Do we have the stuff for pancakes?" he asked.
She nodded. "Bacon or breakfast sausage?"
"Sausage."
"You're passing up bacon in favor of sausage? What is wrong with you?" She pulled the sausage out of the fridge and turned the burner on, slamming a frying pan on top of it.
"We can have bacon. I'm okay with either." He sat in a chair, clad only in his boxers, watching her. "Can I help?"
"Set the table. I want milk and coffee. Don't care what you drink." She kept her sentences short, hoping she would sound less angry. She hated that she felt like this every morning, but it was like a gremlin invaded her body. She was good after seven or eight. Before and she was ready to spit nails.
He got up and set the table, careful not to upset her more. She really was different in the mornings, and he wished he knew how to help her.
"Have you thought about praying for peace in the mornings?" he asked as he set the table.
She glared at him. "You don't think that would have been one of the first things I did? I still do it every morning. And before I go to sleep at night when I know I have to get up early. I go to bed earlier. I've tried it all!" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I almost feel like I'm not in control of myself when I get this way, and I hate it so much! Like I'm a female Hulk without getting bigger or green."
"Do you function all right when you get to work? You're not throwing babies are you?"
She gave a harsh laugh. "By the time I get there I usually have enough coffee in my system that I can smile." She put his pancakes and sausage on a plate and held them out to him
"Thank you." He kissed her forehead, trying to let her know without words that he didn't think less of her for her morning anger issues. "You need a job that lets you get up later. Maybe that's why you like the idea of the overnight daycare."
She smiled despite her mood. "I really think that's a lot of it." She carefully flipped her pancakes. "I can stay up all night just fine, but the only way I can handle five or six in the morning is if I'm still up. It's so weird to me that people think they need to be up early."
"So, what you're telling me, is you aspire to be a vampire."
She laughed. "It's been suggested before. Don't let my mood bother you, okay? This is just how I am, and it has nothing to do with you and your breakfast sausage habits, weird though they may be."
*****
Finally, on Friday morning, Michaela was beyond what she could endure. She woke up and stormed into the shower while Jon went to start the coffee. It had become their morning ritual. When she met him in the kitchen, she said, "I'm going to tell Ronda I just can't do this. I'm too angry, and we don't need strife in our marriage at this early date. We need to wait until we've been married six months or so to start yelling at each other every morning."
He grinned. "You haven't yelled at me even once."
"I've wanted to!"
"I know you have. But see how wonderful your self-control is? You haven't done it!"
An hour later, she sat in the office with Ronda. "I don't think I can do this," she said.
Ronda looked at her, obviously surprised. "I thought it was working out well! The children and parents love you. What can I do to make the job better for you? Is it the money?"
Michaela rubbed the back of her neck. "No, it's the hours. Getting up before five in the morning has me homicidal. My poor husband doesn't know what hit him."
"Would you prefer to stay late? I just assumed you'd want the morning shift. I prefer it, so I think everyone else will as well."
Michaela blinked at Ronda. "Are you kidding me? I could sleep until seven thirty on that shift, which is much more my speed. Yes, I want the afternoon shift!"
"So you like the job other than the hours?"
"I love it. The children are wonderful. It would be perfect if it just started a few hours later."
Ronda smiled. "Consider it done. Be here at ten on Monday. I'll show you the closing stuff throughout the day. The job will be the same, except you'll be closing the center instead of opening it."
Michaela breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you! I wasn't looking forward to finding another job. And I love the children. I just can't keep straining my marriage with these early morning hours."
Michaela was happy. She couldn't wait to tell Jon.
Chapter Ten
That evening at dinner, Michaela told Jon about her talk with Ronda. "So, I'm going to keep working there, but my hours will change to ten to six." She was so happy about the change, she couldn't keep the enthusiasm from her voice.
"Seriously? That will be so much better for you!"
"I know! And for you! Now I won't be prone to throw a coffee mug at your head for no apparent reason."
"I'm not worried about me. I just hate how unhappy you are when you get up that early. I've never seen anything like it." Truly, he'd had roommates who weren't morning people in college, but she took it to a whole new level as far as he was concerned.
She sighed. "I'm awful, and I know it." She shrugged. "So what plans do we have for tomorrow? I need to get laundry caught up." Most of the household chores she did on a daily basis after work, but laundry was better left for the weekend.
"I can help with that," he told her. "I'm used to doing laundry every Saturday and working on my sermon while the clothes wash."
"Works for me. I'll let you help! I'm not proud."
"We also need to shop for a car for you. I have enough in savings to get a good used car. I don't like debt." He hated that she wouldn't have a shiny new car, but it wasn't worth paying that much to him.
She shook her head. "I don't either. I have a bit saved, but not much. I've been doing the college thing."
"No, I understand that. We'll find you something. I've already called a friend of mine with a used car dealership. He's expecting us at ten tomorrow. He opens at eight, but I thought you might want to sleep in."
"After only ten days of marriage, you know me so well!"
He grinned, glad she could joke about her morning moods at other times of the day. "Looks like you got most of the boxes put away," he said, glancing toward the living room.
"Yeah, there are only two boxes left. I'll get those done around laundry and car shopping tomorrow." She stifled a yawn. "I thought I'd feel like I had a ton of free time after I graduated, because I wouldn't be working and going to school. You sure threw a wrench in those plans."
He laughed. "That was my whole goal in going to Matchrimony. I told Dr. Lachele to find me a girl whose time I could suck away like a giant vacuum cleaner."
She put the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically. "I believe it! And I came to you, a willing victim of your scheme! Oh, woe is me!"
*****
They had no problem finding a car for her. It was a small foreign car that ran well, and looked good. It was about five years old, but since she'd only be driving in town, he wasn't terribly concerned.
As soon as they got home, they did the laundry together. When they got back to the apartment, and were folding clothes, she said, "I've changed my mind."
"Changed your mind? About what?" he asked, having no idea what she was talking about.
"Having a baby. Let's do it right away. I'll stop taking birth control." She wanted him to be happy with their decision.
He looked at her in surprise. "I thought we were going to discuss it in a week?"
"I know, but I can feel it between us every time we talk. I need to get it out!"
He sighed. "Okay, so why did you change your mind?"
"Well, part of the reason I wanted to wait was to establish a career. With where I'm working now, the baby could go to work with me. I could check in on him or her when I needed to."
"Was there more than that?" he asked. He didn't want her to agree just to make him happy, and he worried that's what she was doing.
"The other part was I wanted us to have time alone together. To get to know each other without adding a baby to the mix. I think I was being selfish there, though. If you don't mind, then why should I?"
He sighed. "Are you sure? I mean, I love the idea of trying right away, as you know, but I don't want you to feel pressured into anything." He shook his head. "I never should have made such a big deal about it that day. I don't think I would have if I hadn't been so frustrated!"
"I don't feel pressured. I do feel like it's honoring to you to do what you feel is right on this, though."
He dropped the towel he was folding, and turned to her fully. "This isn't something we can go back on. Once you're pregnant, we're at the point of no return."
She grinned. "I know that." She carefully laid his folded shirt on the coffee table and scooted toward him on the couch. "I realize that I want to please you, and if having a baby right away pleases you, it doesn't hurt me to do it." She shrugged. "My mom really wants a grandchild she can show off pictures of."
"But I want to please you, so I could put off conceiving for a year."
She laughed. "Let me be the one to concede on this one," she said, stroking his cheek with her hand. "You put up with my morning moods all week." She sure owed him something for that. Maybe a baby sooner that she was ready was taking it a bit far, but something.
"I was afraid not to! I was never sure when you were going to hit me over the head with a hot frying pan!" His grin told her that he was mostly kidding.
"Funny." She took a deep breath. "I know I'm not saying this well. So let me try again. I've fallen in love with you, and I want you to be happy. If having a baby right away will make you happy, then I'm thrilled to do it."
Only in Oklahoma (At the Altar Book 6) Page 11
