She had dinner simmering, all bathrooms spotless, and the beds remade before the door banged open and Corinne hurried into the kitchen to hug her. “That smells delicious. I can’t believe you made the chicken and dumplings I wanted!”
Patience laughed, leaning down to hug the girl. “Now why would I ask what your favorite thing to eat was if I wasn’t going to make it? That would make no sense at all.”
Ryan smiled as he hung his cowboy hat up on a hook in the entryway. He kicked his work boots off and walked into the kitchen in just his sock feet, amazed at the difference she’d made in the house that day. A lot had been done when he’d come in for lunch earlier, but now it looked like a new place.
“Dinner smells fantastic,” he said, sniffing deeply. “What is it?”
Corinne turned to him, clapping her hands, her butterfly wings flapping with her excitement. “She made chicken and dumplings!”
He grinned, watching as Patience scooped their meal into bowls for them, adding a side of carrots. “Someone must have told you her favorite.”
Patience grinned, shrugging. “I’m happy to cook both of your favorites. I just have to know what they are.” She felt a little bad that she hadn’t gotten around to making dessert that night, but there had been so many other things to do. She’d bring something home from the bakery tomorrow.
Ryan walked over to the table, which already had silverware and filled glasses waiting for them. He sank into the chair at the head of the table and watched as Patience set everything out for them.
While they ate, Corinne babbled about her day. “Auntie Felicity did my hair differently, and she even added hairspray. Do you think hairspray makes me look more grown-up?”
Patience nodded, her face serious. “You look at least seven with the hairspray!”
Corinne smiled at that. “And it’s a long time before I’m seven still. Right, Daddy?”
“Oh, a whole week!”
Patience’s eyes widened. “A week? How did I not know this? What are we doing for your birthday?”
Corinne shrugged. “We didn’t do a party last year. Just some cake at home.”
Because last year had been the only year her mother hadn’t been around for her birthday. Patience closed her eyes, trying to think. “How would you feel about having a party here on Monday night? That way your ballet friends could come over after ballet, and your daycare friends could come over after daycare?” Her mind raced as she tried to think of everything. She looked at Ryan. “Could you do hot dogs on the grill?”
Ryan nodded, his face wary. “We don’t have to go nuts. We only have a week to plan it.”
“No little girl of mine is going to feel cheated out of a birthday party!” Patience announced. She’d get her sister and cousins to help her. They’d make it perfect.
Ryan sighed, knowing he’d been outvoted already. “Just dogs, or do you want me to make burgers as well?”
Patience thought for a moment. “Let’s make this one just dogs. Won’t hurt anything.” She jumped up from the table and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. “I don’t usually write notes at the table, but this is kind of an emergency. What do you want for your party theme, Corinne?”
“Butterflies! Or maybe ballerinas… Both!”
Patience laughed softly. “I’m not certain why I even asked.” She jotted a few more things down. Her eyes met Ryan’s. “I’m going to see if I can borrow Honor’s car for a week. It might put her out, but with the running we have to do with Corinne, I’m going to need something.”
“I never thought of that. We should buy you a car.” He’d known she wasn’t using her own car, but it hadn’t occurred to him until that moment that they would need to find a way to get Corinne everywhere she needed to be without one.
“No time this week for sure. I’m working every day, and this weekend will be full with party planning.” Patience bit the tip of her pen, thinking. “I wish we’d brought my car from Kentucky, but that would have looked suspicious.”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “Suspicious?”
Patience shook her head. “I’ll explain later.” She sighed. “I’ll call Honor after supper. She won’t mind if I borrow her car for a week or two. She’s mostly getting around by horseback now anyway.”
“Honor is one of your cousins, I know, but which one?” She seemed to have cousins everywhere from what he could see.
She laughed. “Oh, of course, you wouldn’t just know. Honor is Grace’s twin. She married Angus.”
“And Grace works in the bakery and married Marcus, right?”
“Exactly! Hope runs the daycare, and she married Karlan. Faith has a business making dolls, and she married Cooper. She’s pregnant. Joy is married to Kolby, and she makes this amazing stuff out of plastic canvas. Chastity is a knitter, and she’s married to Chris. You can’t miss those two.”
“Someone needs to trade names with Chastity,” he said, thinking of the girl he’d seen with Chris the day before. “It does not fit her at all.”
“I’m making no comment on that,” Patience said with a grin. “Of course, my name doesn’t exactly fit me either.”
He looked at her with surprise. “I think it does.”
She laughed. “Just you wait until you have to see me sitting around trying to wait on something that I’m anticipating. You will be ready to change your mind in seconds.”
He shrugged. “Okay, so I haven’t seen that side of you yet.”
“Hopefully it will be a while before you do.” She looked at Corinne who was sitting with an empty bowl in front of her. “Do you want more?”
Corinne nodded. “Yes, please. Will there be enough left for my lunch tomorrow? Miss Katie will heat stuff up for us if we want.”
“Yes, I’ll make sure I put some in your lunch for tomorrow. Your dad will get some for lunch tomorrow too.”
“I never thought I’d be thankful for the day when I got leftovers for lunch,” he said with a grin. “I’m not complaining after two years of cold sandwiches, though.”
“I forgot to get Twinkies,” Patience said, wrinkling her nose.
“Oh, you can just throw in one of your little treats then.” He studied her for a minute. “I have an idea for cars until we can get you one!”
“What’s that?” She got up to serve Corinne another bowl of food.
“Why don’t I just drive you to work in the mornings. You can borrow whatever car you’ve been borrowing to drive Corinne to camp, and I’ll come pick you up in the evenings.”
She finally nodded. “That’ll work. You two may have to wait on me for a little bit.”
“We don’t mind!” Corinne said, a grin lighting up her face. “But you really need chairs in the bakery for people to sit on.”
“So I keep hearing. We’ll talk about that soon, I’m sure.”
After supper, Patience conscripted Corinne to help clear the table. She could tell by the girl’s face she’d never been asked to do it before, but she didn’t complain. Corinne carried the dishes from the table to Patience who rinsed them and put them into the dishwasher. “I really appreciate all your help,” she said when the girl had finished. “Why don’t you go get your bath now?”
“Bath? I took a bath on Saturday!”
“It’s time to take another one. You need to take a bath every day. Think about how yucky and sweaty you get while you’re dancing around the studio. You need to wash that sweat off every night.”
Corinne folded her arms over her chest. “Daddy doesn’t make me take a bath every night.”
Patience could feel Ryan’s eyes on her as she responded. “Well, your daddy has had far too many things to think about being a single parent. Now that I’m here to help him, little things like baths won’t be forgotten. Do you need help running the water?”
“I can do it.” Corinne frowned. “I just don’t want to.”
“You can’t always get what you want from life, you know. Sometimes, you have to do what you’re told instead.”
>
Corinne turned to look at her dad. “Do I really have to take a bath?”
Ryan frowned at her. “You’re going to do what you’re told. You wanted a new mama, and you have her. Now you’ll obey her.”
Corinne sighed heavily before walking up the stairs slowly, as if walking toward her death.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Patience smiled at Ryan. “Thank you for backing me up.”
“It’s my job. I think a bath every night at her age is overkill, but I’m not going to contradict you!”
Patience nodded. “I think it would be overkill if Corinne was less active, but she dances all day every day. She needs to take a bath every night.”
He nodded, giving in more easily than she’d have expected. Maybe he actually agreed with her. Either way, she was getting his agreement was all she needed.
She finished up the dishes and walked into the living room to sit with him. “What do you two do in the evenings?”
He shrugged. “This is the second week of summer. We haven’t really gotten into a routine yet. I want to just sit on the couch and stare off into space once my day is over, but Corinne usually wants to play board games.”
“How about this? Every night that she helps me clean up and takes a bath without complaining, I will play board games with her while you sit and vegetate. If she does complain, I find a couple of chores for her to do before bed.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you’re going to be a mean mom!”
“I’m not going to be mean, but I’m certainly going to show her where her boundaries are. I believe it will be a lot easier to start out strict and become more lenient than it would be to start out soft and get tougher.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. So what about tonight? She complained.”
“She doesn’t know the rules yet. We’ll all three play board games together tonight and we’ll explain the rules. They’ll go into play tomorrow.”
“That sounds fair.” He reached out and took her hand, tugging her toward him on the couch. “Why are you sitting way over there?”
She shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me closer.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You didn’t think I wanted you close? I didn’t show you I want you close last night?”
“Well, I know you want to do that with me. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me close the rest of the time.”
He tugged her into his lap, putting his arms around her. “I want you close all the time. It’s hard with a kid around, but she’s not here, so…” He lowered his lips to hers, kissing her softly. “We’ll have to live on stolen kisses.”
She grinned, snuggling close to him. “I can do that.”
“I’m glad, because I’m not sure how we’d make it work otherwise.” His hand stroked up and down her back, and he glanced at the clock. “It’s only eight. Do you think we can convince Corinne her summer bedtime is eight now?”
Patience laughed. “I don’t know. What is her summer bedtime?”
“Nine-thirty. What was I thinking?”
“I really don’t know. I have to be at work at five. Nine-thirty is way past my bedtime.”
“Wait, I have to drive you to work at five? I didn’t think of that.”
“Maybe we should make the summer bedtime at eight?” she asked softly. “I know I’m messing up your schedule.”
“I think it’ll be fine.” He frowned for a moment. “So what time will you get up? Four?”
She nodded. “If I get up and shower at four, I can fix breakfast for you, and stick it in the oven for later. You can both get up to drive me at quarter ‘til five, and come back and eat the breakfast I fixed. Does that work?”
He nodded, yawning widely. “I’m tired just thinking about it. Who has to be at work at five?”
“You know those scones you adore? They don’t make themselves.”
He sighed. “I bet the muffins don’t either.”
She shook her head. “Nope. They don’t.”
Corinne came down the stairs wearing a pink pajama short set that was way too tight. “Are we going to play games now?” she asked from halfway up the stairs.
Patience scrambled off Ryan’s lap, embarrassed Corinne had caught them that way. Why, she’d never seen her parents kiss, and her step-daughter had already caught her on her husband’s lap, and they’d only been married twenty-four hours. What was she going to see by the time they’d been married a year?
“We have time for one game while we explain how summer evenings are going to go,” Patience said, getting to her feet and walking to the table.
Corinne rushed off and picked out a game. “This one?”
Patience nodded, not really caring what they played. She sat at the table while Corinne set everything up for them. “I have to be at work really early in the mornings. Like before the sun is up. So we’re all going to go to bed early so you and Daddy can drive me to work in the mornings.”
Corinne made a face, her bottom lip pooching out. “How early?”
“It’s going to be eight during the summer. So here’s the deal I’m going to make with you. If you help me clear the table and immediately after you get a bath without being asked, we’ll take the time to play a game in the evenings. If not, you have to do a chore of my choosing, and you still have to go to bed at eight.”
Corinne shook her head. “But that’s not fair. If you have to go to bed early, I shouldn’t have to go to bed early too.”
“I don’t have a choice about going to bed early. You know how I’m always in the bakery when you get there in the morning?”
Corinne nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, by the time you and your daddy come, I’ve already been there for two hours. The scones and muffins that I make have to be made fresh every morning.”
Corinne sighed. “Daddy? Is it true? Do I have to start going to bed early?”
Ryan nodded. “And you need to quit asking me if you have to do what Patience says. She’s your mother. You have to do what she says. Period.”
“Fine. I’ll help clear the table and take a bath every night.” Corinne looked miserable agreeing to it.
“It’ll give you more time with me in the mornings,” Ryan said. “And, I bet we can still go to the bakery to get your hair done pretty every morning.”
Corinne looked directly at Patience for the first time since the conversation started. “Can we?”
Patience nodded. “Absolutely. You’re more important to me than anything else, you know.”
“I am?”
“You are. How many little butterfly ballerinas will I ever have in my life?”
Corinne flew around the table and hugged Patience. “I thought I was being sent to bed early ‘cuz you didn’t like me.”
“Oh, sweetheart! That’s not it at all. You’re being sent to bed early for the exact reasons we told you. I have to get up really early, whether I want to or not.”
“Do you want to?”
Patience shook her head. “Do you want to know a secret?”
Corinne nodded, her eyes wide.
“I hate mornings. I can get up, and I can do what I need to do, but I’d rather sleep late every single day.”
Corinne giggled. “Me too!”
“Isn’t it sad that we don’t always have that choice?”
“Yes.” Corinne hurried back around the table. “Do you know how to play Trouble?”
“I absolutely do!” Patience told her. “I want to be green!”
“I get to be blue!” Corinne said.
Ryan sighed. “I guess I’ll be yellow.” His eyes met Patience’s, and he nodded slightly, letting her know he liked how she’d handled the conversation.
She reached out and took his hand across the table, feeling united in this parenting thing they were doing together. At least for now.
Less than an hour later, they were climbing into bed together, and her eyelids were already drooping. “I can’t believe how tired I am,” she said, pillowing her
head on his shoulder.
“You did amazing things to this house today, and all of my clothes are clean and in my drawers. It’s like I came home to a whole new world.”
She laughed. “Well, hopefully there won’t be any more days that will be this hard. In another week, I’ll be all caught up on the deep cleaning stuff, and it’ll just be a matter of maintaining.” She closed her eyes, settling against him.
He looked at her face and knew she was much too tired to make love that night, no matter how much he wanted to. She had done too much to have any extra energy for lovemaking.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “So tired…”
He stroked her back, holding her close. “You sleep. You’re not superhuman. You did a year’s worth of housework today.”
She yawned, burying her face in his shoulder. “I feel like I did. But I should be able to do it all. Shouldn’t I?”
“No, you shouldn’t. Go to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day.” As he watched her drift off to sleep, he promised himself to make her load at home lighter. He’d scoffed when she’d told him what her church had taught about it being the woman’s job to do all the work inside the house, but yet, he was expecting her to do it all. He wasn’t going to let her work herself into an early grave. He’d already lost one wife way too soon. It wasn’t going to happen again.
Chapter Nine
That first week of marriage was much harder than Patience had imagined it would be. Working thirteen hour days and then going home and cooking for her new family was just too much. Thankfully, Ryan and Corinne had taken over the dishes every night, so she didn’t have to worry about those.
Corinne didn’t like following the new rules, but after the first night, she hadn’t complained again, not wanting to miss out on her games in the evenings.
Patience got up at four every morning for a quick shower, dressed, made breakfast, and then she started supper in the crock pot. It was hard to get all of that done in the forty-five minutes she had before they had to leave for work, but she managed.
Trainer's Treat (Culpepper Cowboys Book 7) Page 9
