Chapter 32

Sunday dawned cold and rainy. I split time with Paige in the bathroom, both of us emerging from our rooms eventually to make our way downstairs. I was wearing another of my new suits, and I had on the cologne designed to inflame the desire of Mercer women everywhere. I was happy that the new suit still fit; obviously it had been purchased after I had encountered my latest growth spurt.

I had to pass by Evie when I entered the kitchen. She gave a large sniff of approval. Her daughter’s dark look engendered laughter from her.

“He doesn’t fight fair,” Paige told her mother, intent on maintaining her pique with me.

I caught the soft-spoken words passed from mother to daughter, “Are you sure you want to characterize this as a battle?”

Paige looked thoughtful at that.

Breakfast wasn’t normally taken in the dining room, but given that we were all dressed for church, Dad had us move in there. Informal devotions are one thing, but reading the Bible and the day’s lesson while dressed in a suit gave it an additional gravitas. We prayed before splitting up to finish the morning prep.

Paige claimed the bathroom before I got there, so I waited while she brushed and flossed. After, I performed the same functions, finishing with mouthwash the way she had, and then we were off to church.

We took Evie’s car again, the Audi seemingly the vehicle of choice for our churchgoing purposes. She was on-edge as we started driving, Dad eventually asking the question that was on our minds. “Are you okay, Honey?”

Instead of answering with a yes or no, she took the long route. “Candace told me this week that there was some talk. I think we need to be prepared.” She didn’t say anything else.

I, who had my own crisis this week that was currently in the process of being resolved, didn’t catch what she meant. “What...” I began to whisper to Paige.

“Our living situation. Some of Grandma’s peer group have been spreading it around that all of us are living in sin.”

“But we aren’t.” I looked at Paige, remembering where my hand had been, “Are we?”

“No!” she hissed, blushing. “But don’t you dare act guilty in church, or they’ll think something’s going on. For today, we’re one big loving family, even if I’m still angry with you.” She didn’t look as convinced of that last bit as she had once been, which brought a smile to my face.

When we got to church, we followed the same procedure as we had on Christmas Eve, minus the lipstick of course. Dad and I escorted the ladies to our pew, we were joined by Grandma and Grandpa, and we sat up proud and happy. I even caught Paige laughing at the lyrics to some of the hymns when they spoke of loving one another. We made it through the service and drove to Grandma’s Sunday dinner, happy, proud, and content – a family in truth if not in name.

Evie checked in with Candace when we got back to the homestead. “How bad was it?”

Grandma cackled, “They can’t figure you four out. You were supposed to slink in, guilty on all counts. Instead, you show up beaming, sit near the front where everyone can see you, sing like the angels you are, although someone needs to quit laughing,” she mock-glared at Paige, “and then you leave with your heads held high. It’s either proof that everything is above board, or proof that you are the devil’s spawn sent to corrupt the faithful.”

“Where’s the money?” Evie asked, amused by Grandma’s description.

“It’s two to one that it’s all above board. It would have been more in your favor, but Paige kept laughing when she sang about loving one another. She does have a distinctive voice ... and laugh.”

We all found that funny. Grandma called us to the table not long after that, and we ate her brisket which had been slow-cooking since sometime before I got up this morning. Before we left after lunch, she took Dad and Evie aside.

“Are these two still...?”

“Yes. Until something happens.”

Grandma smiled knowingly, drawing Paige to her once Dad and Evie had turned to get their coats. There was one-sided whispering, ending with a satisfied expression and a wink at me. Whatever it was, Paige didn’t seem inclined to share it. I held her coat out for her to slip into, not even receiving a thank you. She seemed to be working hard at maintaining her distance.

When we got home, the two of us were sent to our rooms, sentenced to solitary confinement. I had my Surface Pro, so I wasn’t cut off, and Paige had her MacBook, but the loss of physical freedom was palpable. No matter, I still needed to catch up on my sleep.

I’d like to be able to say that my dinner was slipped through a slot in the door, as was Paige’s. In reality, we were called downstairs and had a nice light supper with our parents. We didn’t have to prepare or clean up as we were enduring our sentencing alone. I barely heard the doorbell as it began to ring sometime around seven, the soundproofing I had insisted upon, performing its duty between the floors.

What roused me from my stupor was a light rap at the door leading into the bathroom.

“What is it, Paige?”

“What happened with you – you promise that it’s like the book said?”

I got off my mattress and walked over to the door, not knowing how to communicate the truth if she kept refusing to believe it. My head rested on the paneled surface.

“Paige, I don’t know what you want me to tell you. Yes, I pulled back, and I yelled at you when I couldn’t get away far enough. Yes, I was scared and exhilarated by your promise on the morning the day after Christmas. Yes, that was probably what triggered my little freak-out.”

I paused, letting the pain I felt when I realized the impact my actions had on my girlfriend, flow into my voice. “Yes, I’m heartbroken that I hurt you, and the timing of it after you had shared more of yourself than I had a right to expect. And I don’t know how to make that up or apologize to you.”

There was a bright note in all of this though. “Do you know when Dad knew it was time for us to come home?”

“No, when?” she asked, her voice sounding uncertain.

“We had been hitting balls at the driving range and Grandpa noticed that I was whistling when we got back into the Tahoe. He signaled Dad who lied and told me that you had said to tell me that you missed me. I don’t know how to describe this except to say that my heart burst with joy and anticipation. That’s when Grandma was called and informed that we were coming back.”

“Oh.”

“Do you know what the worst part about this is, Paige?”

“What?”

“It’s going to happen again. I’m going to feel the need to pull away, and if we don’t recognize what’s going on, we’re going to end up right here, all over again. I don’t want that.”

“Me neither.”

The door swung inwards, surprising me.

“We’re supposed to be confined to our rooms, Paige.”

“Yes, we are. Grandma told me a secret.”

I shook my head. “What?”

“She said that Mom talked to her and mentioned that since we share a bathroom, it could be considered to be part of each of our rooms. It’s neutral ground. She also told me to grab one of the air mattresses from the garage. Here,” she held it out to me, “you get to fill it.”

After I had worn myself out huffing and puffing into a small one-way valve, the two of us laid down on the cushion I had provided in the middle of the floor by the tub.

“Paige, I mean it. This will happen again if the book can be trusted.”

“Yes, but won’t it happen less and less with the severity diminishing over time?”

“I hope so. What about you?” I asked. “Do you think you’ll eventually quit pursuing me when I pull away, trusting that I’ll be back?”

She gave me the same answer, “I hope so.”

“So does that mean I’m forgiven, even if I haven’t said ‘I’m sorry,’ enough times?”

She laughed. “I forgave you yesterday. Want to know when?”

“Yes.”

“What time were you at the hardware store yesterday morning buying all that tape and plastic?”

“I don’t know, seven-thirty?”

“That’s when I forgave you.”

“But you didn’t know anything about it until I got home and explained what I was doing.”

“My forgiveness is retroactive.” She started stroking my hair. “That’s when I realized that you cared about me. You thought through your actions and minimized the negative effects on me.”

We lay quietly for a while.

“Do you think Mom and James are going to be alright?”

“Don’t tell me you have insecurities about that?” I asked.

“I’m allowed to! Didn’t you read your chapters? Right now I need reassurance.”

My fingers found hers pulling her into a seated position with me on the mattress. “Yes. They will be. Dad loves Evie almost as much as I saw him love Mom. It’s painful to say this, but I think before it’s over, they’ll love each other more.”

“You miss your mom.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t miss my dad. I think that, more than anything, is what hurts.”

“Tell me about it.”

We talked about what she remembered of her family life, of her mother’s marriage, of her father’s presence. I listened to her fears when it came to Dad, and tried not to invalidate what she was feeling. Instead, I spoke of family memories that I had, of the times I had that Dad and Mom that were truly joyful. I told her about Aunt June and Uncle Frank, of Grandma and Grandpa Edwards. For a girl who had grown up alone, with only her mother as her support and vice versa, the thought of family must have been daunting.

“Paige, what is it that you think we’re doing here?” I waved my arm so that it encompassed the entire room, which in turn substituted for the house in which we lived.

“Providing a place for me and Mom to live.”

“You really think that’s all?”

Her lip quivered. “No.”

I couldn’t imagine having to grow up, me and Dad against the world with no other support system.

“Good, because like Dad said, we’re creating family! You, me, Dad, Evie, Grandma, Grandpa. Someday, God willing, you and I are going to bring additional souls into that circle. It’ll be Tim, Paige, little Jack and Anna, and Pentwhistle.”

“Pentwhistle!? Is that our dog or our child?”

I grinned, “If she’s a girl, we can call her Penny, otherwise it’s our Scottie.”

“It’s our Scottie,” she stated with finality. “Jack and Anna. He’ll design the first sky rise on the moon, and she’ll be president someday.”

“No way, he’ll be the eight-time Superbowl winning quarterback for the Seahawks, and she’ll head up GD Holdings, the largest corporation on earth after Amazon, having taken over from her mother.”

“You goof. I can say it now that we’ve settled things. I love you.”

“And I love you.”

“I know.”

We relaxed now that the fight had been resolved, cuddling beside each other in the most unromantic room in the house. As I lay beside her, the bathroom floor warm beneath the air mattress, I had a dreadful thought that I didn’t want to voice. It came out anyway.

“Did you tell anyone about what went on between us on Tuesday morning?”

“Did you?”

“No, but I asked you first.”

“I ... I told Grandma.”

I turned on my side so I could look at her while I talked. My head got propped up on my left hand. “Can I ask when?” I gentled my voice so as not to spook her.

“Thursday morning.” She turned toward me, mirroring my posture. “Did she say anything to you?”

“No, I couldn’t see any difference in the way she treated me.”

“I made her promise not to say anything. It looks like she can be trusted.”

I groaned.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“You remember that she and Grandpa are moving in at the end of next month, right?”

Paige laughed, the clear lilting tones buoying my heart. “She is going to be watching us like the stallion watches his mares. We will never be left alone for a second.”

“Right.” I tweaked Paige’s nose. “We’re going to have to figure out some way to get away.”

“Well, living with you doesn’t constitute dating, even though it’s a lot more intense and lasts longer. You need to plan some of those, and we can always count on Valentine’s Day.” She saw the sudden fear in my eyes. “What? What is it now?”

“You have no idea how much pressure there is on a guy to get Valentine’s Day right.”

“So? Get it right and the pressure will be gone.”

“You think that’s how it works? Fine! Let me get my Surface.” I got up and grabbed my tablet, bringing it back to the bathroom with me. It still got a good wireless signal in here, so I was able to look up restaurant websites. Paige was helpful.

“No, not that one. Mom and I went there and the server perved on us all night. That one’s okay but a little pricey. Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there.”

I looked where her finger pointed. “Dovetail?”

She nodded.

“Okay, they use Open Table. Let’s see if we can get in for Valentine’s Day.”

It looked like I was in luck. Most people would start thinking about V-Day in January, tomorrow that is, so I had a head start. “Alright, we have a choice of table for two at seven, seven-fifteen or seven-thirty. Seven sounds good to me. And click, and fill in the details. There we are.”

“You’re soooo romantic,” she said sarcastically, “making the reservation in front of me.”

“I can cancel it. You want me to cancel it?”

“No!” She captured my hand to keep it away from the keys. For all my efforts I got a slug in my shoulder that made me wince. She noticed.

“Come on, that little tap couldn’t have hurt.”

“Normally it wouldn’t, but Dad worked me pretty hard Friday and then again yesterday. I’m just a little sore all over.”

“Oh! I saw you out there. James kept coming in and consulting with Mom over what she needed done for the party. When she ran out of things, he found other stuff for you to do. I personally didn’t think that the path back to the equipment yard needed to be sprayed, and neither did Mom. Then yesterday she kept telling me about all the work you were doing, and that even with all that, you’d have to pick up what I didn’t finish.”

So they followed through with it. I told Paige about what I had heard and was surprised when she nodded approval.

“I’m going to have to file that one away for when Jack or Anna misbehave.”

“Doesn’t work like that, Sweet Pea. As brother and sister they’ll be happy to slack off and let the other one have to do more work. Nope. What you do is when Jack’s girlfriend pisses you off, and she will, it’s guaranteed, you punish Jack for her misdeeds, right in front of her. Same goes for when Anna’s boyfriend does something. No, on second thought, when Anna’s boyfriend does something, leave him to me.”

“Wow! Your face got fierce at that thought, and we haven’t even had Jack yet! Let it go, Baby.” She swung me around and began to rub my neck. “You’re really tight. Lie down and I’ll work on you.”

“Okay, but let me get my pillow first.”

“I’ll get it.” She hopped up and headed toward my room.

“Paige, don’t go in there,” I began.

“Why not? I was in there yesterday when I did your laundry. There’s nothing wrong with your room except that my picture was facing the wall. I fixed that for you, by the way.”

“It’s not that. You have to stay in your room and your room-adjacent areas. I have to get my pillow.” I started to get up, groaning now as, with a little down time, everything was stiffening.

“Stay.” Just like Pentwhistle. “Lie down. Roll over. Good boy.” She passed by me on the way to her room. “I have pillows, too. You just lie there.”

She came back in with a nice one in a case adorned with lace. My head was lifted off the air mattress and goose down placed beneath it. “Where’s that rub you used?”

“The camphor stuff? It got thrown away. Check the second shelf in the medicine cabinet. Your mom picked up some new rub and gave a jar each to me and Dad. Something about having to wash all the covers to get rid of the odor.”

“Tell me about it.” I could see her feet by the counter. “Ooh, this stuff is nice. I may have to exercise really hard just so I can get you to rub me down again with this.”

“Paige, you don’t need to do that. Just say the word and I’ll give you a rubdown. You already know I keep my promises.”

She returned, straddling my thighs and creating warmth on the back of my legs. “Help me with your shirt.”

I pushed myself up so I could get at the buttons on the shirt I had worn to church. That reminded me that I was still wearing my suit pants. As much as I didn’t want to get up, I needed to take them off and hang them up so they didn’t wrinkle any more. While I was at it I could change into sweats too, as well as remove the shirt.

I left a disappointed young woman on the floor in the bathroom.

“Don’t watch, Paige.”

The pants came off and were hung up, and I was dressed only in a white button-up shirt, boxer briefs and crew-necked t-shirt. The dress shirt came off, as did the t-shirt. I remembered we had heated floors up here, so the socks made the hamper as well.

I really hadn’t expected her not to watch, and I wasn’t going to be a prude after she had encouraged me to take advantage of her private playground, so I was standing in the doorway dressed only in my briefs. I gave her a look before opening my armoire, searching for my sweatpants.

“Where’d you put my sweats?”

“Top drawer, back right side.”

“Why does it look like you wrote a T in it with a glitter pen?”

“Well, I had to keep your stuff separate from your dad’s. I only marked what was yours.”

“Really?” I came back to the bathroom dressed in the sweatpants. “You couldn’t have marked his stuff? I have to change in front of other people after gym class you know. They’re going to give me hell if they see this, particularly since you used pink glitter pen.”

“Just claiming my territory.”

I couldn’t help it. I fell onto the mattress laughing my fool head off.

“Paige, it’s not the guys you need to worry about, it’s the girls. If they’re already in my underwear to see this, it’s too late for both of us. I’m the one that has to worry about the guys with you.”

I lay down again, my face smushed into her pillow.

“You’re right,” she admitted as her hand drew some cold cream across my shoulders, “but I really did it for me. I like knowing that you’re wearing what I marked.”

“Oh. I guess I can live with that.”

She was beginning to work my muscles.

“That feels good, and it smells a whole lot better than the stuff I used.” I breathed deeply. “Speaking of odors, why does your pillow smell like my new cologne?”

“Shut up and let me do this.”

She wasn’t as strong as I was, but just the feel of her hands on my back, and then my chest when she had me roll over, was a really nice sensation. She had changed clothes herself sometime during the massage, and I hadn’t even been aware of it. She was dressed now in what I privately thought of as her idiot clothes, the ones that had to tell the wearer what color they were – you know ... pink. We were lying on the mattress together and she had finished her work, a contented smile on her face. I was feeling a bit of chill set in.

“I’m going to get a t-shirt or something; I’m getting cold here.”

“That’s fine.”

I had to laugh when I looked through my closet to find the shirts she had folded away in there. She had taken the time to mark all of the shirts I wear, even the ones that had still been clean, with the exception of the more dressy button shirts. Okay, her hour-long rubdown had convinced me that I could take the ribbing. I’d just suck it up for such rewards. I brought back two of my pillows so I could sit with my back to the tub. I didn’t get to use either when she immediately claimed them telling me they smelled good. She replaced mine with two of hers.

“Let me take a picture for your wall,” she told me, turning my Surface so the camera faced us. She found a timer I didn’t know it had, and we sat back waiting for the picture to be taken. When she pronounced it good after looking at it, she posted it with the caption, ‘New Year’s Eve’ and the year. We watched the clock on the computer mark the beginning of another journey around the sun, giving each other a kiss which she cunningly captured as well, and posted.

“Happy New Year,” I said, passing a capful of mouthwash to her. She swished and spit into the tub.

“Happy New Year to you, too.” I received a cap as well, imitating her.

There were now blue streaks staining the formerly pristine Jacuzzi. “You know that since I don’t normally take baths, you’re going to have to clean that before you want to use it again.”

“Ugh.”

We fell asleep on that bathroom floor, holding each other, the light still providing illumination. Dad woke me around two, indicating that I should move Paige to her bed and get to mine. Evie was watching over his shoulder as he pantomimed his instructions. I had to point to her pillows for him to bring as I had my arms full of warm sleeping woman. When she was tucked in, I returned to the bathroom, closing her door behind me.

“I take it you two made up?” he asked, escorting me out into the hallway where we could chat without fear of disturbing her.

“Yeah, we had a long talk both before and after. How was your night?”

“It was good,” Evie chimed in. “We sent everyone home about a half hour ago, and we’ve been cleaning up since then. We saw your posts a little after midnight. Cute.”

“I want to thank you two for all your help with us.” I hugged them both at the same time. “Can I ask a favor though?” I waited for confirmation. “Can we keep going with those relationship building meetings? Maybe once a week, and not on date night?”

Dad chuckled, “It’s already on the family calendar. Oh, that reminds me, you can pick your phones up in the morning. They’re on the island in the kitchen. Goodnight, Tim. Love ya.”

“I love you too, Dad, Evie.”

I was surprised when Paige woke me with a light tap on my door to the bathroom the next morning. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, come ahead.”

The door opened, and a fully pink beswathed, (if that’s a word), woman padded in to sit on the edge of my bed.

“I had this dream last night, and it was a good one,” she informed me, lightly touching my face. “You know how when you’re little, and you’re in the car with your parents, coming back from something that went late into the night?”

I nodded, capturing the hand that was distracting me.

“When you get home, dad pulls you out of the car where you’d been sleeping and you half wake up? Then he carries you into the house and puts you on your bed while mom comes and pulls off your jacket and other clothes and tucks you in?”

“Yeah, I’m familiar with that; it’s happened to me on more than one occasion.”

“Yes. It’s the best feeling isn’t it? You’re safe, and warm, and you know, you truly know, that you’re loved.” Her smile hearkened back to those experiences. “That happened again last night.” She squeezed my fingers and added, “I lied; I know it wasn’t a dream. I just wanted to come in here and thank you for bringing me that good memory of my dad, and for making a new one. I can’t wait until you do that for Jack and Anna.”

I brought her hand to my lips, kissing her palm. “I promise to try to let our kids know every day that they are really and truly loved. How’s that?”

She ruffled my hair with her free hand. “I couldn’t ask for more.”

An impish look appeared, and I wasn’t fast enough to stop what happened next. The fingers that had been so loving a second earlier flicked my ear.