by Robyn Carr
When he was checking out of the grocery with his dinner makings, the checker said, “I’m about to go on a coffee break, if you feel like a cup of coffee. Maybe your daughter would like some ice cream?”
Sean immediately said, “Thanks, but I have to get going. My wife is waiting.”
And Rosie said, “Who’s your wife, Daddy?”
The checkout girl nearly threw the groceries into the bag as she shot daggers at him with her eyes. He felt fortunate she didn’t bean him in the head with the produce. On the way to the car he said to Rosie, “We’re going to have to get our story straight, kiddo. I don’t know if you’re helping or hurting the situation.”
“Daddy? Daddy, I know the baby is in the mommy’s tummy and the baby comes out of the mommy’s tummy, but, Daddy? How do that baby get in the mommy’s tummy?”
He stopped dead in his tracks in the parking lot, his daughter in the rider seat of the shopping cart, his bagged groceries in the cart, and stared at her dumbly. Time stopped. He tried to channel Franci, who seemed to do all this parent stuff with such ease, but nothing came.
“Daddy?” she asked.
He smiled with what he hoped was confidence, pinched her little chin and said, “After you have Stroganoff and peas tonight, would you like chocolate or vanilla ice cream?”
“Chocolate!” she yelled.
“Whipped cream and a cherry?”
“Whip cream and a cherry!” she yelled.
“That’s what I thought. No chicken and broccoli for you tonight. No, sir. You’re having fun food! Daddy’s Stroganoff and ice cream!”
“Yay!” she yelled.
Later that evening, while Rosie was singing in the tub, Sean and Franci did dishes together and talked about Sean’s day. “Here’s a shocker, Franci—Rosie is a babe magnet.” He grinned at her. “I’m a catch. You can’t believe the number of women who almost propositioned me today.”
“While you’re with my daughter?” she asked, appalled.
“Well, nothing racy. Just a cup of coffee or a kid’s playdate. Who’d guess, huh?”
“What a comfort that is,” she grumbled.
“Should Rosie be alone in the tub?” he asked.
She smiled at him, happy that he was over-protective. “The bathroom is ten steps away and as long as you can hear her singing, she’s not underwater.”
So Sean told her about the question Rosie had posed while they were in the parking lot of the grocery. Franci had to lean against the counter, laughing so hard she was doubled over, yet trying to keep quiet lest Rosie come running soaking wet to the kitchen to see who would dare have fun without her.
“Yeah, funny,” Sean said. “What would you have said?”
She wiped her eyes. “Well, I have a special book about all that. It’s right about time to look at it together, but I didn’t know how to explain you to Rosie, so I’ve been putting it off. I guess I can go ahead with it now.”
“A book? Come on!”
“No, really. It talks about all the differences in the mommy’s and daddy’s bodies—it’s very cute. Sweet. Non-threatening.” She smiled at him. “If you’re very good, I’ll read it to you later.”
“If you’re very good, I’ll show you how it’s done.” He leered at her. “By the way,” he said. “How was it done in this case? We were always very careful. Do you remember?”
“Every detail,” she said, turning away from him to put away dishes.
He turned her back. “Could I have a couple of details, please?”
She took a breath. “Remember I used to go off the pill for a couple of months a year and your job was to be very good about the condoms? Well, there were a couple of times you got real worked up and just let it slide.” She shrugged. “It was as much my doing as yours. I was also a little worked up.”
Silence enveloped them for a moment. He leaned forward and kissed her brow. “We were like that,” he whispered. “I’m not sorry about that. Big accident. Huge reward. She’s awesome.”
Franci hugged him. For once he managed to say the right thing. “You’ve had a nice week with Rosie, haven’t you?”
“She’s pretty amazing. Listen, there’s no good way to do this, Franci. I’ve been thinking all day about how to sneak up on our issues, but I’m kind of up against the wall. The air force wall. After we get Rose settled in bed, can we please have a glass of wine and talk about things? Practical things.”
She looked terrified. “Like what?”
“Everything from insurance to…” He took a breath. “Franci, I’ve been at Beale four years. I’m going to have to call MPC tomorrow, first thing in the morning, and see if I can get the boys down there to work with me on an assignment or I’m going remote. Maybe to the Middle East.”
Iraq. Afghanistan. She went visibly pale. “In the U-2?”
He shrugged. “If there’s a need for manned surveillance. But the U-2 travels to a lot of places. I don’t want to go since I have you and Rosie here. That aside, they’re not above changing my weapon system back to a fighter or finding me a staff job in the desert. I pinned on major—I owe ’em three more years at least.”
“Sean,” she said weakly.
“I know you’d like to just roll with this awhile—see where we are in getting to know each other—but we’re gonna have to face it. I’m only on leave another four weeks and two days. I’m sorry, Fran.”
“You’ve been at Beale four years, and you know that’s a long time for an air force assignment,” she said. “This can’t have come as a total surprise.”
“No, it didn’t. You and Rose came as a surprise. I tried to get into Air Command and Staff College and I’m on the waiting list as an alternate. My plan was just what you’d expect out of me—do whatever I have to do, go wherever I have to go, to head toward a command position. I wanted this job for life—so it didn’t matter where they sent me, as long as it all added up to a real good command slot down the road. I figured I’d take a remote for a year and come home to a year in Air Command and Staff College, a lieutenant colonel promotion and a squadron of my own.” He swallowed. “Now I don’t want to get too far away. I don’t want Rosie to think I can’t keep my word. And time’s short.”
Franci was quiet. “She’s still singing in there,” Sean said, tilting his head toward the bathroom.
“But I bet she’s pruny by now.”
Vivian and Maureen had a very nice day together, too. They’d gone out to lunch and then did a little shopping at the local mall—Maureen felt woefully behind in adding her special grandma gifts to Rosie’s coffers. They went back to Viv’s for the rest of the afternoon, looking through pictures of Rosie from her birth to the present.
There were, of course, many pictures of Franci. “Sometimes when you catch her looking at the baby, her eyes are glowing, but other times…” Maureen’s voice trailed off.
“I know. It was a very hard time—she wasn’t at peace with her decision to be away from Sean. She was already three months pregnant when she came home to Santa Rosa, but she got right to work in the local hospital. She took six weeks of maternity leave and went back. It was not only a long year, but heartbreaking to watch my daughter’s sadness. I kept thinking that any second he’d realize what he’d let slip away and come looking for her. But he didn’t.”
Maureen pursed her lips so tightly they nearly disappeared. “I’d like to box his ears,” she muttered.
“Remember, he didn’t know. Franci was the one to leave him. I was twenty-five when Franci was born,” Vivian said. “And thirty-two when my husband, a trucker, was killed in an accident. I went back to college almost immediately, in search of an education that would guarantee me a good income so I could raise my daughter alone. Franci at least had that much going for her—she wasn’t going to have any trouble supporting Rose. But, except for that, I knew how hard life was going to be for her without a partner.”
“I had a good husband while I raised my sons,” Maureen said. “He was devoted, worked hard, sta
yed involved. But he worked long hours and, with five kids to support, he took as much overtime as he could get. I had to be able to do it alone—I had to be strong and keep control of that brood. It wasn’t easy, even with a good husband. It’s hard to imagine how you and Franci—”
“We had each other,” Viv said. “Franci came alive when we moved up here. Actually, I said I’d come north only if I could find a good job. I only agreed to take an unpaid leave from my Santa Rosa job to give it a try. Franci flies out of Redding, so we initially went there, rented a small apartment and, on Franci’s days off, I scoured the area for work. When I had a good offer in Eureka, the decision was made—we bought a little house together here. Franci works a couple of twenty-four-hour shifts three weeks a month, then only one on the fourth week. It’s a long commute—but it’s only seven or eight days a month, and my job never requires an overnight or on-call status. After two years in one little house, another just like it down the street came on the market and I bought it. We joined forces to make sure Rosie always had one of us plus the babysitter. It’s been all right. It’s been good. She was even starting to date again. But…”
“But…?” Maureen asked.
“You didn’t know her after she broke up with Sean, so you wouldn’t see the difference—but since Sean’s been in the picture, she’s a different person. She loves him so much. And I believe he loves her just as much. I don’t know how this is going to work out, Maureen, but those three need to be together.”
“Sean told me he suggested marriage to Franci…” Maureen said.
“Really? That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Vivian said with some astonishment. “I’m surprised Franci didn’t jump on that offer. There must be something not quite settled between them. Frankly, I don’t care whether they get married or not as long as they follow the strength of their obvious feelings! Well, I’m staying out of it. Except for one thing—I’m going to be sure Franci knows she doesn’t have to consider me in her decision.”
“You?” Maureen asked.
Vivian nodded. “I don’t want her to think I need her to take care of me—not emotionally or in any other way. I have a full life and look forward to the next stage. I have a wonderful man in my life—I expect he’ll be around a very long time. We’ve been seeing each other the past year and both of us have had commitments that have kept us from moving forward—he’s a fairly new widower with two teenagers, and I’ve had my responsibilities to Francie and Rosie. But Carl and I have both known for quite a while that when our kids don’t need us quite as much, we’ll have more of each other.”
“Really?” Maureen said, intrigued. “A man?”
Vivian laughed. “A wonderful man. He was one of my bosses. A year after his wife’s death he invited me out to dinner, and that was all it took.”
Maureen leaned toward Vivian. “An office romance? I heard that was taboo!”
“Pah! We work together very well! I imagine we will for many years!”
“How amazing.”
“You’ll meet him sometime. In the meantime, my offer stands. If you want to stay close to Rosie, but give your boys some space, Rosie’s overnight room makes a perfectly useful guest room. You’re welcome to it.”
“But you obviously have a private life!”
Vivian just laughed. “Don’t let that get in your way! Especially in your wild imagination! Once you meet Carl, you’ll be completely at ease around him. He’s a physician—a wonderful, warm, loving man. Besides, we don’t have many pajama parties, Carl and I. As I said, he has teenagers at home!”
Maureen was thoughtful for a moment. “You’re very liberal in your thinking, aren’t you, Vivian?”
“I suppose I am,” Viv said. “And you’re quite the prude, aren’t you?”
“So I’m told,” Maureen said, somewhat grumpily.
Vivian laughed. “We should make an interesting and strange pair!”
Eleven
Once Rosie was tucked in, the lights were out and it was quiet, Sean and Franci sat on the living room sofa, a couple of glasses of wine on the coffee table. They talked quietly and the side of Sean she rarely saw was illuminated. Franci had wanted him to grow up, act like a family man, show responsibility. Then when he did, she wanted the old Sean back, fanciful and full of spontaneity. Seeing Sean act like an adult was a little scary.
She had to admit, when he got down to business, he was up to the job. His list of things that had to be done immediately was impressive. First he intended to visit the air force JAG and get a new will drafted so his daughter would be taken care of. He was going to transfer money out of his investments into a college trust for Rosie, a large enough stake so that even if Franci never contributed another dime, it would probably grow into enough. He had a hundred-thousand-dollar life-insurance policy in which his mother was beneficiary—all the Riordan boys did. They had not begun to help support their mother yet, but it looked as though the time was growing near. As often as these boys were involved in risky jobs, they had all agreed on individual policies so that each one would be holding up his end.
But Sean was going to immediately apply for an additional two hundred and fifty thousand, plus sign over his military death benefit to Rosie, with Franci as the executor, so that if the worst happened she and Rosie would be cared for.
“I’ll get those things taken care of right away,” he told her. “And I’ll spend the morning on the phone with MPC about assignments but, as you probably remember, that can take weeks. Now I have to ask you this—will you even consider going with me on assignment?”
“I don’t know,” she said wearily, uncertainly. She sipped her wine. “Sean, I’m so enmeshed in this place. I own a house and Rosie is settled. I don’t need that job at the college, but it’s good for me—it not only keeps me sharp, but I use their track for some running, and work out in the college weight room. And there’s my mom…”
“I know,” he said softly.
“She’s my best friend. And she moved up here with me to help take care of Rosie. They’re real close.”
“I know.” He leaned toward her. “Is there anyplace you’d be willing to go with me?”
“Huh?” she returned. “I don’t under—”
“There are U-2 assignments around the world, Fran. Accompanied tours. Alaska, England, Okinawa, the Philippines, the high desert in Southern California. I could probably sell my soul for a non-flying staff job in San Antonio at the Military Personnel Center or the Pentagon until Air Command and Staff materializes. It’s always hard to get back in the cockpit once you do that, but I’m willing to take that chance.” Then he shrugged. “I could skip any assignments that come with a time commitment, just get the three years I owe them out of the way, then do my best to get an airline job.”
She gave a huff of laughter. “Sean, the airlines are in the tank. They have such a deep pilot furlough list, none of them are hiring.”
“I could go in the cabin business with Luke,” he said. He reached toward her and ran a finger through that super-short hair at her temple. “You need time to think.”
She felt her eyes glisten with tears. “I wanted time for us to get to know each other again. So far so good,” she said. “But it’s only been a little over a week.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him and across his lap, holding her against him. “And it’s been good. Very good. Think as fast as you can, Franci.”
“Maybe the best thing for us to concentrate on is how we can be the best co-parents. We seem to do that pretty well. We both love Rosie.”
He put his lips against her neck. He licked his way up to her ear. “We’ll always be more than co-parents, and you know it.”
Sean and Franci made out on the couch until clothing got in the way, then by mutual consent they went to her bed. Sean was the one to close the door so Rosie wouldn’t find them and be traumatized; Franci was the one to supply condoms.
“I missed a condom once,” he murmured against her lips. “What a l
ucky break that was.”
“You wouldn’t have thought so at the time,” she pointed out.
“You were right about one thing, Franci—we’ve both changed a lot in the past few years and I’m for not going back.”
And then he went to work on her body in his own expert way. He kissed her ankles, sucked her toes, licked her inner thighs, worked her clitoris with his tongue. He pushed his thumb into her velvety softness while he licked at her core. He snaked the other hand up to her mouth to cover it so that her moans of ecstasy were muffled. When she claimed she couldn’t bear another orgasm, he was inside her, rocking her slowly and gently—excruciatingly slowly and gently. He pressed rhythmically against the deepest part of her and the build came upon her gradually, but when she tried to hurry him, to push him to move deeper, faster, he kept up that easy pace until she whimpered. Begged. “Please, Sean…Finish…” She dug her heels into the mattress and pushed back hard.
His chuckle was soft and low; his thrusts grew deep and powerful, and that was all it took. She broke apart from the inside, clenching against him, grabbing him to her, bathing him in hot liquid. And he said, “Ahhhh, baby. I love that sweet spot.” And he slammed into her, letting himself go in a low moan of pleasure.
He held her in the aftermath for a long time, the blanket drawn over them. She finally whispered, “You should go. You have a lot to do in the morning.”
“I’m staying tonight. Put on my T-shirt and I’ll sleep in my jeans in case someone’s wandering in the night. But I’m staying.”
“Your mother will know you spent the night with me…”
“I dare her to say one word to me,” he said. “I want to be with you.”
Franci wanted to argue, but not really. She pulled on his shirt as he told her to and enjoyed the scent of him. She was vaguely aware of Sean slipping into his jeans and she smiled to herself. She knew he liked to sleep in the nude and would be uncomfortable, but she appreciated his protection of Rosie’s innocence.
