She heard Colin’s truck pull into the driveway. She didn’t want to admit how worried she was.
She met him at the door. For a moment they just stood there staring at each other. She hated the silence between them. She hated the distance she felt, so she leaned in and kissed him. He looped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.
“Holy hell, Colin! My mouth is burning.”
He grinned at her. “I like kissing you, too, love.”
“No.” She swiped her hand over her mouth. “My lips are literally burning. Like you’ve been sucking on chili peppers.”
“Sorry, lass. Me and Mike were eating death wings. I only had two. He had six. Ellis is in for a bit of trouble tonight.”
“You saw Mike?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen much of him lately.”
“Is that because of me? You know you can see him whenever you want. You don’t have to stay home with me. I can take care of myself.”
“What if I like staying home with you? What if I want to take care of you?” He leaned closer, about to touch his lips to hers. A little spark of anticipation lit inside her. And then she felt the heat of his mouth. She had to pull away.
“Don’t kiss me. At least not until you scrub your mouth. I’m eastern European. We don’t do spicy.”
“Neither do us Irish. But a little spice in your life is okay sometimes.” He grinned at her again, seeming to be in a much lighter mood than when he’d left. “We need to go to the car dealership.”
“Why, is there something wrong with your truck?”
“No, but if you are taking that job you need a dependable car. I can’t be worrying about you on that long commute every day.”
“You’re serious?”
“Of course I am. I don’t joke about buying people new cars.”
“You mean I have your blessing?”
“I mean I want you to be happy here.”
It wasn’t the same as his blessing. But she was so happy that it didn’t matter at the moment. “Bring them hot lips over here.”
CHAPTER 21
Feels like the first time …
Colin couldn’t take his eyes off his wife as she got ready for school. She was nervous. He knew it by the way she buzzed around the room. She had changed her clothes three times. Two pairs of pants lay crumpled on the floor. A sweater lay draped over a chair. She stood looking at herself in the antique mirror he had restored just for her.
“Do I look okay?” Her eyes met his in the mirror. She wore a simple dress the color of jade. It made her eyes stand out.
“Yes, love,” he said softly. “You look beautiful, but you looked beautiful two changes ago.”
“I couldn’t button my pants,” she said with a pout. “My belly has popped. But I don’t look pregnant. I just look like I’ve had too many beers. Fat beer-belly Cherri. I wonder if I could get away with wearing my pants below my gut like some guys do. You think I could get away with that? Maybe I could make it a thing. Start a trend. I’ve always wanted to be a trendsetter.”
She was chattering again, just like the old Cherri. He couldn’t believe how much he’d missed that sound. “You don’t look like you have a beer belly, daft girl.” He came up behind her and set his hands on his growing child. “My heart speeds up like a lass on her first date when I see you.”
“You’re full of shit. You’re just saying that because you’re my husband.”
“Am not.” He kissed the side of her face. “Now put your shoes on. You’re going to be late.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know.” He stepped away from her. “But I know you’re going to be a good teacher. And when you get home tonight I’ll take you out to dinner.” He picked up the vintage tin lunch box he’d bought for her and presented it to her. “I made you lunch. Turkey and cheese with honey mustard because mayo makes your stomach turn lately. A brownie from the sweets shop. Sweet tea and a bottle of water.”
She burst into tears.
“Bloody hell, lass.” He gathered her in his arms. “What are you going on about now?”
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
He wasn’t being nice. He was being her husband. He wanted to make her happy. He was just doing his job.“Because I want to have sex with you later.”
“Okay.” She sniffed and gave him a wobbly smile. “I can do that for you. What else can I do for you?”
“Nothing. Just get to work.”
Fifteen minutes later she was gone. He stood in the driveway for a long time with Rufus staring after the car that had pulled off a long time ago.
She’ll be fine. He kept telling himself that. It didn’t matter that she was pregnant and emotional and got so tired at one o’clock she could barely stand.
Plenty of pregnant women commute. Plenty of pregnant women work long days.
But plenty of those pregnant women aren’t my wife.
“Come on, boy.” He slapped his leg. “Let’s get to work.”
He thought if he buried himself in his work he wouldn’t notice Cherri was gone. But that wasn’t the case. He looked up at the clock a dozen times an hour and hated himself for it. He was never like this. He felt like somebody’s overbearing mother.
But the shop felt empty without her. For months they’d worked side by side. He missed her smell in his shop. The way she hummed quietly to herself when she painted. He even missed the annoying things she did, like leaving half-finished water bottles all over the place. He missed her. He’d gotten used to her in his space. In his home. In his life. And now she was gone. And he was worried that she would be gone forever one day.
Mike was right. If he didn’t support her she would resent him forever. She already resented him, even if she didn’t show it; he knew he had taken away her freedom to do whatever she wanted with her life when he had gotten her pregnant. He couldn’t in good conscience keep her from her dream.
* * *
There were twenty-five sets of little eyes on Cherri as she stood in front of the spacious art room.
Kindergartners.
Four- and five-year-olds with little hands, poor fine motor skills, and seriously cute faces. They weren’t even her first class of the day. She had taught well-behaved fifth graders perspective and some overly chatty third graders about tessellations. But it was the kindergartners that scared her.
“Mrs. O’Connell?”
“Yes, Elizabeth?” It was her first day and she’d barely had time to memorize any of the kids’ name but she knew Elizabeth’s.
“You’re tall.”
“Yes, I know.”
“You’re taller than my daddy.”
“That’s nice. Let’s talk about the fish we are going to make today.”
“Are you older than my daddy? He’s thirty-one.”
“I’m ninety-seven. I know. I look great for my age.” She walked away from the child and addressed the rest of the class. “First we are going to read a story called ‘Rainbow Fish’ and then I’m going to let you do something that you probably won’t get to do in your regular classes. We are going to rip up a whole bunch of paper so we can make our own rainbow fish.”
“Are you a giant?”
She looked at Elizabeth for a long moment, her patience slipping. “Yup. I’m a giant and I have a giant dog named Rufus. His favorite thing to eat is children who talk too much in my art classes.” She watched Elizabeth’s eyes grow wide and felt a tiny bit of satisfaction sneak up inside her. “Now let’s get to work.”
Forty minutes later Cherri sat at her desk and looked around her empty classroom. She only had two classes left for the day and seemingly nothing to do until they arrived. She was so eager to prove that she could be good at this job that she had already planned ahead for the next two weeks.
It was technically her lunchtime but she didn’t feel like eating. Her mind wandered to her friends, to the shop she hadn’t worked in for months. She knew they were getting along fine without her, but still she missed them.
She hadn’t seen much of them lately. She knew they were being polite, trying to give her and Colin some space, but she didn’t need space from them. Her marriage wasn’t anything like Mike and Ellis’s in their early days. Ellis had skewed her idea of what a newlywed was. It wasn’t all kissy-face and longing looks. It wasn’t sneaking off all hours of the day to make love. Being married, sharing a life with somebody, was hard work. And for the life of her she couldn’t figure out if she was doing it right.
“Mrs. O’Connell, please come to the office,” she heard over the loudspeaker.
She gulped. Getting called to the principal’s office on the first day was not in her plans. Then she remembered what she had said to Elizabeth. It wasn’t very teacher-like at all. But it was worth it. The kid didn’t make another peep.
“I’m going to get fired before I’ve made it an entire day.”
Her room wasn’t far from the front of the building, and as she made her way closer to the office she heard sounds of feminine laughter and a low brogue that never failed to turn her insides to mush.
“Colin?” He wore a black sweater and one of his many leather jackets. His hair was a little wild and he had a hint of shadow on his chin, telling her that he hadn’t shaved that morning. He was sexy and looked like the last person you’d find in an elementary school.
But then she touched her belly and remembered. He would be in elementary schools and at soccer games and at concerts. He was her husband. They were going to be parents, and for some reason she had a hard time coming to terms with that.
“Hello, love.” He smiled softly at her. It was a shy smile, unlike the one he was giving to the secretary when she walked in. “I’ve come to do a little sucking up for you. I brought some pastries for the staff. But I’ve got to tell you, love. You’ve got the most beautiful-looking women working here. If I had these ladies at my school when I was a lad, I might have gone more.” He looked at Janis Millwalker, the sixty-year-old school secretary, and lavished his big sexy smiles on her. “I might have gotten in trouble a little more just so I could spend some extra time in the office.”
“Cherri,” Linda the school social worker said. “You didn’t tell us you had such a charming husband.”
That was because she hadn’t ever exchanged more than two words with her.
“Or that he was so handsome,” said another woman, a teacher whose name she had no idea of. “Where did you find him?”
Translation: What the hell is he doing with you?
“He found me,” she answered, because it was true. He’d gotten to her when she’d least expected it.
There were a total of five women in the normally quiet office. All there to gawk at her husband. She should feel jealous, but she didn’t. Colin was a flirt. He had a way with women. She was more curious as to why he was here.
“Is it okay if I take my husband to see my classroom?”
“Just put this on so we know you’re a visitor.” She handed Colin a large pass before Cherri led him out of the room. He reached for her hand, his large fingers easily sliding between hers. They were quiet as they traveled down the hallway. His hand felt right in hers, but there was something about them that didn’t feel right. All that easy comfort that they used to have before they got married had somehow slipped away.
“This is a beautiful school, Charlotte.” He looked around her classroom and then sat at her desk.
“What’s the matter, Colin?”
He looked up at her and for a second she saw something flash in his eyes. “Nothing.”
“Nothing? You drove an hour for nothing? Why are you here?”
He reached for her, wrapping his arms around her waist and settling his lips on her belly.
“How’s my boy?”
“He’s getting bigger by the moment.”
He looked up at her. “And you? How are you feeling? You look tired.”
“I’m fine, Colin. I—”
“How was the drive? Was the car okay? I know you were wary about getting an SUV but it’s supposed to be good in the snow. I can take it back if you want. We’ll get you something you like.”
“I love the car, Colin. I know I have the safest, most reliable car on the planet. Especially after you interrogated the salesman for two hours. Why did you come? Are you checking up on me?”
“I just needed to see where you were going to spend your days. And I…” He shook his head.
“What? Tell me?”
“Nothing. That’s all. I just wanted to see this place. I just wanted to see how you are.”
She shut her eyes as he rested his head on her belly again. She ran her fingers though his messy hair, needing to feel closer to him, but somehow she never felt close enough. “You know I was feeling a little miffed at you?”
“Why, mo chuisle?”
“What? What was that word?”
“Mo chuisle? It’s a Gaelic term of endearment. My pa used to say it to my gran. Why were you mad at me?”
“Ellis texted me. Belinda called me. Even Mike sent me an email to ask me how my day was going. I almost thought you didn’t care, but I guess I was wrong.”
“You were.” He stood up and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you at home, love. No painting furniture tonight. Okay? You should rest. I don’t want you taxing yourself.” He gave her a pointed look.
“Okay, Mr. Bossy Pants.”
“You’re carrying my child. I think I’ve got the right to be a bit bossy.” He searched her face for a long moment, then leaned in to give her a loud smacking kiss. “Now be a good girl and carry on with your work. I’ll be waiting for you when you get home tonight.”
* * *
He was pacing, Colin realized after he walked past the front door the fourth time. He was pacing, waiting for his wife to get home. She was late. Again. Last time because she had stayed after for a staff meeting. The time before she said she was getting to know the other teachers in her building. But this time she was really late. He glanced at the clock for the hundredth time. It was a little after seven. She normally left work at four. Even with the long commute he expected her home by five fifteen. Five thirty at the latest. But this week she had been getting home around six. He’d said nothing to her about it. There was nothing he could say.
She had a new job. She needed to get to know her co-workers. She needed to stay for meetings and such. She always let him know when she had one. Even tonight. Even when she was over two hours late, she had called to let him know why. There had been an accident. A tractor-trailer had flipped over, shutting the highway down. She was stuck. And there was nothing anybody could do.
He just said to her, “Okay, love. Get home as soon as you can.” But a hard knot settled in his stomach.
A tractor-trailer flipped over. She had seen it happen. She had been that close. It could have happened to her. He didn’t like the idea of her commuting so far. He didn’t like that she was throwing herself into work even though he had done the drive himself, and seen the school and met the people. He wanted her near him. It was selfish. It was stupid, but ever since he’d found out she was pregnant the need to keep her close by overwhelmed him.
That’s not true, jackass.
Maybe he wanted to keep her by him for other reasons. They had been married for three months now. Three months. They were newlyweds but most of the time he felt more like her roommate than her husband.
Rufus popped up and flew toward the door as soon as he saw the headlights shine through the window. Colin shot toward the door, too, but forced himself to slow down. To calm down. It was Friday night. They had all weekend. He thought about taking her away for a few days. They hadn’t done that yet. They hadn’t had a honeymoon. He hadn’t even thought about it before. Their life had been so crazy those first few weeks after marriage. He’d thought it would settle down. He was still waiting.
He opened the front door. Rufus bolted out of it. He jumped up on Cherri, trying to lick her face.
“Get down,” she said, but her voice
had no force behind it.
Colin studied her for a moment, his stomach clenching as he took her in. She was rumpled, her eyes a little glossy, her skin a little pasty. Her face not as full as he was used to seeing it.
“Okay, Rufus. Okay. Hello. I’m happy to see you, too.” She scratched behind his ears.
“He’s been missing you,” he said. I’ve been missing you, too. “How are you feeling, love?” He crossed the driveway and cupped her cheeks in his hands.
She shut her eyes for a moment. He could feel her weariness. It was on the tip of his tongue to order her to stop working, but he couldn’t do that. She would hate him for it.
“Despite the horrible accident and the traffic, I’m fine. I had a good day.”
“That’s good.” He led her inside to the couch and bent before her to take off her shoes.
“Don’t.” She put her hand on his head to stop him. “If you do they’ll swell to the size of bowling balls.”
He frowned up at her. “You’ve been on them too much.”
“No. No more than usual. It’s just one of those days. What do you have all over you?”
He looked down at himself. He was covered in paint and oil and grit. He probably smelled like hell, too. He had been restoring an old gas pump and made a mess of himself. “Just work things, love. I guess you’re right. It’s been one of those days. I’m going to hop in the shower. Why don’t you sit for a little while and relax? We can have dinner together when I get out.”
“You haven’t eaten yet?” She glanced at the clock above the fireplace. “It’s late.”
“I was waiting for you, love.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I’ll be out in a bit.”
He was quick about it. His hair still dripping when he returned to where he’d left her. From the window he could see the lights on in the shop. He walked out, not bothering to even put his shoes on.
Thrown for a Curve Page 22
