Oh, these old guys, always imagining the worst! “Jayne’s not a rebound anything, and she’s certainly not looking for a ring already. She’s nice, Sal. I promise. Plus, she’s a teacher.”
To his surprise, Sal didn’t look too impressed. “Humph.”
“She’s educated and good with kids. She’s a dynamite person. Organized, too.” Actually, there were a lot of things to admire about her.
“I liked Shawn. Even more, I liked you with her. I thought you two were good together. She kept you lively.”
“I’m plenty lively now.” He didn’t want to be any livelier, anyway. Living with Shawn had been exhausting. He never knew what she was planning or what she had in mind.
Sometimes, those spur-of-the-moment decisions stressed him out—like the time he’d come home from work to find a trio of suitcases in the kitchen. Without consulting him, she’d decided they needed to take the girls to Disney World because there was a special going on.
Yes, they’d had fun, but the whole while he’d been wishing for just a few hours of downtime. Every time he’d tried to tell her about the rape case he’d been working on, she’d changed the subject. Like it was going to mess up their holiday.
Jayne was the exact opposite. Calm. Serene. On time. She kept a database of all the books she read. He admired that. “You weren’t married to Shawn, Sal.”
Eddie hated like hell to snap at his lieutenant, but honestly, did the old guy have to comment on everything in his life? Tell him exactly what he thought about things? He had parents who already did that. “Shawn’s the mother of my children. She’ll always be special to me. But we’re through. It’s over.”
“I hear you.” Sal put down his stacks of folders and bit off a chunk of his candy bar. “So how is Shawn? How’s she doing?”
“Fine, as far as I know.” He couldn’t deny that she looked just fine at the beach.
“Is she working?”
“Twenty hours or so a week at Carnegie Airlines.” He’d always hated how it took her away from him. She was always sprinting either to work or home. She’d never understood how much he’d counted on things being settled when he got home from a long shift. Months before they separated, he’d be lucky to find milk in the fridge.
“I always liked hearing her stories about the customers.”
“The thing is, it’s not like she has a career—she answers the phones. Shawn makes that job sound like it’s amazing. Like she’s helping to change the world.”
“She told me once that she helped a lady get funeral tickets,” Sal chided, telling him pretty plainly that he didn’t like Eddie’s tone of voice. “I thought that was special.”
“She told everyone that story because that was the only big thing that happened. Most of the time, all she does is listen to people complain and try to help them.”
“Sometimes that sounds like our life, huh, Wagner?”
To his surprise, Eddie realized he was sweating. Remembering all their problems got him worked up like nothing else. Privately he knew he’d made plenty of mistakes, too. He’d been so upset about losing the baby that he hadn’t thought about her needs enough. “I’m sorry about snapping at you. Thanks, you know, for caring.”
“I have to. I used to work with your dad, though he decided to retire early. So it’s up to me to look out for you.” Talking around another bite of chocolate and peanuts, he barked, “Watch your overtime. There will still be bad guys when you get back on your next shift. I promise.”
“I hear you.”
Sal slapped him on the back, then picked up his trash and wandered out of the room. Eddie grinned when he heard Sal’s booming voice target another officer.
All their business would always be the lieutenant’s, too.
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, Eddie wondered what it had been about Shawn that made everyone like her so much. Liked them together so much.
So far, he wasn’t getting much positive feedback about Jayne, which surprised the hell out of him. What was not to like?
“It’s just that she’s so young, Eddie,” his mom said when he stopped by his parents’ house for dinner.
“She’s not that young. Only seven years younger. She’s almost thirty.”
“She seems younger. She’s got so much blond hair, and she’s perpetually chipper.”
“That’s because she doesn’t have kids. She teaches them, instead.”
Unfortunately his mom didn’t take the bait, about how great it was that he was dating someone who was educated, committed and had summers off.
She’d be the perfect person to live with. The girls would grow to love her, too.
As his mom scooped the leftover mashed potatoes out of the serving bowl and into one of her many Tupperware containers, she said, “Shawn is doing a wonderful job with Kit, Mary and Elsie. She’s a good mother. And smart, too. I won’t let you act like she isn’t.”
What was it with everyone? “I never said Shawn wasn’t smart.”
“You insinuated it, Eddie.”
“Not really.” Feeling vaguely like he was still a teenager, he commented, “So when are you going to be in my fan club?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean that lately everyone I meet is feeling just fine reminding me about how great Shawn was. I didn’t dump her. It was a mutual decision.”
“Hmm. Is she dating someone?”
“I don’t know. Probably.”
“She’s not!” his sister, Melanie, called out from the back room.
Eddie resented the intrusion. “Melanie, no one asked you what you thought.”
“I can’t help but tell you. You’re being ridiculous.”
“So are you.”
“Stop snapping at your sister, Eddie.”
“She’s thirty years old, Ma.”
In reply, his mom handed him yet another Tupperware container. “Put the meat loaf in this, please.”
Eddie took the container and did as he was asked, though he could have sworn he heard Melanie snickering.
No matter how he tried, it seemed as if no one was going to let him move on.
SHAWN WAS RUNNING late again. “Girls, if you don’t hurry, Daddy is going to have to eat all by himself.” Grabbing two little rolling suitcases, she picked them up with one hand and looked for either Mary or Elsie to put in a car seat. Now that Kit only needed a booster and could easily get herself in and out of it, things moved a little more quickly, but even Kit’s help didn’t erase the minutes she’d lost trying to find Elsie’s blankie and baby.
Elsie wouldn’t have lasted twenty minutes on the road without her two favorite security items. Unfortunately she’d left them on the bathroom floor—which was the last place Shawn had thought to look for them.
When no little brown heads appeared, Shawn became more impatient. “Girls? Now.”
Kit skipped in from the garage. “I’ve been out here, Mommy. I’ve been ready.”
“It would have been nice if you could have told me you were in the garage.”
“You were looking for Elsie’s fuzzies.” Kit took one of the little suitcases, bumped it down the wooden stairs and wheeled it over to the Mazda minivan.
Shawn knew her ever-practical daughter was right. “Yep, the fuzzy search made us late for sure.”
“Later,” Kit corrected. “You were late picking us up, Mommy. Mrs. Henderson said so.”
“Only by twenty minutes.”
Returning to Shawn’s side, Kit said, “Mrs. Henderson said being late is rude.”
“So is gossiping.” Shawn appreciated how qualified Mrs. Henderson was, but she sure didn’t appreciate the lady’s penchant for speaking her mind.
When Mary and Elsie appeared, Shawn picked up Mary and motioned her oldest to Elsie, now grasping her blankie and baby with two arms. “Kit, honey, grab Elsie’s hand for me. As soon as we get buckled up, we’ll be on our way.”
If she got them in the car right away and hit every green light and there wasn’t too
much traffic on the highway, they might make it to Eddie’s condo only an hour late.
With a huff, Kit led Elsie to the car. Just then Mary squirmed. “I forgot my backpack!”
“Go get it. Quickly.”
Mary ran in, then seconds later, ran out, slamming the door behind her.
Shawn didn’t even chastise her for that, simply buckled her in. After double-checking that Elsie and Kit were buckled in, too, she cheered. “Hooray! We’re on our way!”
“Hooray!” the girls echoed.
Shawn rushed to the driver’s seat, mentally estimating their new time of arrival. But as she pulled the seat belt with one hand, she realized the awful truth.
Her purse was still in the house.
“Hold on, girls,” she called, though a sense of foreboding filled her.
Of course, it was just as she feared—the door was locked. And in her purse were the keys and her cell phone.
Shoot.
Forcing a smile, she opened up the sliding door to the minivan and met the concerned expressions of her three daughters. “Girls, let’s get you unbuckled. We’re going to have to walk over to the Bartlets’ and see if we can use the phone. I locked the keys in the house.”
“But we gotta go see Daddy!” Mary whined.
“We will. We’ve just got to see the locksmith first.”
“I hope the lockman hurries,” said Kit.
“I do, too,” Shawn murmured. Because if they were much later, Eddie was gonna have a cow.
He was probably already beside himself. And once again, she hadn’t met his expectations.
Chapter Four
Where was she? Once again Shawn was late and hadn’t thought to call. He was left waiting and wondering what had happened to her. Pacing and worrying.
Again.
She was almost an hour late to drop off the girls. Honestly, Shawn could make the most basic of activities into a three-ring circus. Just once he’d love for her to be where she said she’d be when she said she’d be there.
For a moment he considered calling John Nelson, one of his buds in the police department, and ask him to drive by Shawn’s place to make sure everything was okay. John had a major crush on Melanie and would do any kind of favor if it meant Eddie would push the two of them together.
Checking up on Shawn would give him peace of mind, though it would most likely be a futile errand. They were always okay—Shawn never put the girls at risk.
Though he’d just looked out the window, halfheartedly hoping to suddenly see her approaching, he looked again.
Nothing.
He’d bet money the girls were on the road, stuck in traffic, or eating McDonald’s, or filling up her near-empty gas tank. Who knew? She always had an excuse, because she was always in a rush to catch up to life. The woman never, ever planned ahead.
He couldn’t count the number of times she’d almost run out of gas or left the house without so much as a dollar in her pocket.
Or couldn’t find time to balance the checkbook. Or have his uniform shirts taken to the cleaners. Or remembered to pick them up.
Countless times the girls would run out of cereal or juice or diapers and she’d call him in a panic, begging him to run by the store on his way home. She’d never tried to see his point of view, either. That he hadn’t been just parading around town in a police uniform—he’d actually been working.
“Maybe you should try her cell phone again,” Melanie suggested as she approached the window and stood next to him. She’d come over to go out to dinner with the girls, but Eddie had a feeling she’d also wanted to see Shawn.
“I already tried it four times. She’s not picking up.”
Melanie dared to crack a smile. “Maybe she forgot to charge her phone. Or lost the charger again.”
“Who knows? I’ve given up trying to figure her out.” Glancing at his watch again, he swore under his breath. Worry and frustration caused him to speak more rashly than usual. “She’s now over an hour late. Why can she never even call me?”
“Because she knows you’d probably snap at her.”
“I’d snap because she’s going to give me an ulcer at thirty-five.”
Almost evilly, she grinned. “You’re thirty-six.”
He chose to ignore that. “Mel, do you think she’s hurt? What if she’s hurt?” Because it was really sounding like a good idea, he ventured, “Maybe I should give John at the station a call. He’d run by her house if I asked.”
Melanie looked away. “No, I don’t think you need to call John just yet. We don’t want to get him involved.”
“He wouldn’t mind.”
“You’re right. He’s a good guy. It’s just…well, this is vintage Shawn, Eddie. Let’s wait a little bit longer.”
He looked at his watch. “We were supposed to be eating dinner right now. I hope the girls are okay.”
“Honestly, the way you talk about Shawn, you’d think she went around without a care for anyone but herself,” Melanie chided. “I’ve never known those girls to ever miss a meal. They’re probably munching on banana sandwiches now.”
“Don’t even get me started on those.” Even thinking about the odd combination of sliced bananas, mayonnaise and white bread gave him the willies.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he peered out the window again and gave in to irritation once more. “I bet she’s fed them. They’re going to come running in here with some hamburger chain’s paper sacks. It’s going to be just you and I who are hungry. Sheesh.”
“You know that’s not fair.”
“I know. And I know she cares about the girls…but sometimes I don’t feel like giving her fifty excuses. Sometimes I just want her to think about things from my perspective, too.”
“I see.” Rolling her eyes, Melanie went to his sofa and sat down, then picked up his Sports and Leisure and started flipping through it.
“I’m not the one who’s late, Mel.”
“I hear you.”
Still staring out the window, Eddie said, “One time Shawn showed up an hour late for an awards dinner downtown.”
Melanie coughed. “You know she had a good reason for that. She was caught in traffic. An interstate was shut down.”
“Funny how no one else’s wife was late.”
“And I’m sure Jayne never would have done such a thing.”
Why was it that every time someone in his family mentioned Jayne it was with a note of derision in their voice? “Jayne definitely wouldn’t have been late,” he said, standing up not only for his girlfriend—was she his girlfriend?—but for himself. After all, he was damn happy a woman like that was interested in him. “How come you don’t like her?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t.”
“I don’t get the idea that you do. And you should. She’s pretty much perfect.”
“You want perfect?” Never afraid to put him in his place, Melanie made gagging noises. “Wanting perfection in a partner is a little scary, don’t you think?”
“Stop twisting my words around. No, Melanie, I don’t want perfection. I just appreciate the fact that she’s never left me standing next to a window while listening for my cell phone to go off.”
“No, I don’t imagine she has.” With robotic precision, his sister turned the page in the magazine, scanned it quickly, then flipped again. “I doubt she’s ever done anything in her very short life that’s impulsive.”
“Very short life? You’re only a year older than her.”
“I’ve been through a whole lot more than she has, Ed.”
Eddie knew that was most likely true. She’d gotten mugged almost eight months before and was still too skittish to do much besides work and hang out with family. She was still too skittish to ever do more than smile at John, though everyone in the family knew he was half in love with her…and that she wasn’t immune to him, either. “Sorry, Mel. I wasn’t thinking.”
She ignored him. “Actually I think you think you’re perfect. Which, I’d like to remind you
, you’re not.”
“Jeez, Melanie. I never said I was. Why are you picking a fight? We’re not in middle school.” In seventh grade he and Mel had fought tooth and nail over everything.
“I’m not picking a fight. You’re the one who brought up Perfect Jayne. Why do you think she’s perfect, anyway? Because she has long, flowing, golden hair?” Melanie smirked at her joke.
He turned back toward the window. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. She’s been living on her own since she was twenty-one. She volunteers in the community.”
“Not to mention she’s drop-dead gorgeous.”
“She is,” he agreed. Jayne was beautiful in that wholesome, girl-next-door, cover-model way. And what was wrong with that, anyway? The girl couldn’t help being gorgeous. “That doesn’t even matter. Shawn was pretty, too.”
“Was? What happened, Eddie? She got old and her body changed after giving you three precious girls? You got bored and needed a trophy wife?”
“Sergeant Wagner, the guy who is so insecure he needs a trophy wife to make him look good,” he said sarcastically. “Come on. You know that’s never been me.”
“I’ll grant you that.”
“And nothing happened to Shawn’s looks, Melanie. I’ve always thought she was pretty. But looks were never our problem.”
Unexpectedly a moment from four months ago flashed into his mind. A moment when the last thing either of them were thinking about was kids or clocks.
No, all he’d been thinking was that he missed kissing her. He missed how she melted into his arms the moment they hugged. Always. The guys at the station used to tease him about how Shawn always flattened her hips against his when they’d embraced—even if the hug only lasted thirty seconds.
But one night, the hug was all it took for his body to respond the way it always had.
Clearing his throat, Eddie brought himself back to reality. “All I’m saying is that I didn’t think you acted very warm or nice to Jayne when I invited her to the barbecue.”
“I didn’t know what to say. I’m pretty new to you dating. Plus, it was a little uncomfortable. She was here, acting like y’all were on some kind of date.”
Baby Makes Six Page 3