by Floyd, Susan
“I think it’s time for homework,” she suggested.
Karen looked up. “But you have it,” she said with perfect kid logic.
“You’re right. But now that your homework’s here, the television goes off.” She deposited their backpacks next to them and turned off the television. Once she saw that the girls were happy to comply, she went into the kitchen where Brady was pulling out beautiful vegetables from the refrigerator.
“I see you did some shopping,” she observed, leaning against the counter.
“You were at school all day.” He shrugged. “It didn’t make sense to wait for you. Plus, we needed lunch things for the girls this week. I bought enough to last until the weekend.”
“So what’s for dinner, honey?” Dana joked.
“Chicken with some veggies,” he replied, rinsing both green and red bell peppers with his capable hands. He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Can you get me a few carrots?”
Dana obliged, opening the refrigerator door to see a ten-pound bag of carrots on the bottom shelf. “How many?”
“Four or five.”
She pulled out the requisite carrots and handed them to him. “You know,” she said, “I didn’t expect you to clean up the place. I’m embarrassed.”
“Don’t be. There’s a lot of work when five people live in one house. I put the laundry that was in the dryer on your bed. I wanted to get more of the girls’ things done.”
“Laundry, too?” Her eyes went wide. “So you cook, you clean, you do laundry, you fix locks, and you protect the public. Is there anything else I should know about you?”
He grinned. “I’m a nice guy.”
“I’m sure you are.”
“And he’s a good kisser,” Ollie called.
“How do you know that?” Karen asked.
“He was kissing Miss Ritchie.”
Karen looked at them speculatively, “Really? Isn’t that supposed to wait until after you’re married?”
“Is kissing what gives you babies?” Ollie asked.
“No, silly. Kissing doesn’t give you a baby,” Karen said with older-sister scorn.
“So what does?”
Brady pretended not to hear. Dana stood quickly. “You have to be in love to have a baby, Ollie. I’m going to change and then I need to go back to the school and get some work done.”
“Can I go, too?” Ollie asked.
“No,” Brady answered for her. “Miss Ritchie is going to be busy and you have homework. In a little bit you can all help me cook dinner. Dana?”
“Yes?”
“Dinner will be at six-thirty. Please be sure that you’re on time.” He gave her a smile that made her heart sing.
“I’ll try.”
“Don’t try. Just be here.”
Just be here. Seemed like a simple idea. But as she glanced up at the clock and realized she still had about an hour’s worth of work and a half hour to complete it, she knew it wasn’t. For years she’d answered to no one’s schedule but her own. If she wanted bacon and eggs for dinner, that’s what she had. Curiously though, she wasn’t upset by her loss of freedom. It felt good to know she had a family to go home to. She put her head down and worked on the forms. She didn’t want to leave her family again tonight.
At twenty past, Jean came running over to tell her it was time for dinner. And as they walked back to the house, Jean slipped her hand in Dana’s. It felt so good, so natural to have that small hand in hers.
The dinner table was beautifully set and the kitchen was filled with wonderful aromas. Brady pulled out her chair, and they all sat down to their first family dinner.
This was what it was like, she realized. She’d been so busy avoiding the pain that loving brought that she’d missed out on the joy. What a terrible mistake.
After dinner was finished and the girls were bathed, they all watched television for an hour, Dana and Brady on either end of the couch, the three girls between them. By the time the program was over, Ollie had crawled into Dana’s lap and Jean had curled up against Brady. In sync with Brady, she stood and then together they got the girls to bed.
After the girls were tucked in, Dana and Brady went back to the couch. Without the girls as a buffer, Dana felt like a teenager. She wanted him to kiss her, but instead they watched another comedy, before he switched to a newsmagazine show.
At the first commercial break, he muted the sound and said, “The coroner will be releasing Bev’s body on Thursday. I’ll take the girls to see her after school then.”
“Thank you.” She really was grateful. Though she knew it was important for the girls, especially Karen, to see their mother, Dana didn’t want to see Bev.
The show came back on but Brady didn’t turn up the sound. “I made an appointment with the judge on Friday at four.”
“Oh.” Dana curled her legs up under her.
“Not nervous, are you?” Brady’s eyes were sympathetic.
“Very.” She searched his face, her heart beating at twice its normal rate. “Are we doing the right thing?”
Brady looked in the direction of the girls’ room. “Yes.” His voice was sure. “For those three reasons in there.”
Dana nodded, not sure what to say next.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, resting his hand on her bare forearm.
“For what?” Dana felt a thousand goose bumps form in the wake of Brady’s rhythmic stroke.
“I doubt this is going to be the wedding ceremony you’ve dreamed of.”
She smiled. “It’s probably not the kind of marriage I’ve dreamed of either.”
“We’ll make it work.” Brady was earnest. “We have every reason in the world to make it work. I’m not the easiest person to get to know—”
She laughed. “How can you say that to the most reclusive woman in the Central Valley?”
Brady took a deep breath. “Maybe that’s why this will work. I hope I can get this family stuff right.”
“After the cleaning, the dinner and the bedtime stories, you must be joking,” Dana said. “You do it like a pro. Why haven’t you married?” The words popped out of her mouth before she could stop them. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
Brady shook his head. “That’s not true. Most everything about me is about to become your business. The sad fact is I never met the right woman.”
“You still haven’t, but you’re going to marry me.”
“I think you’re the right woman. And every hour that I know you, I become more convinced that I couldn’t ask for anyone more suitable.”
Dana wasn’t sure that was a compliment, but his stroking had turned her brain to mush.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to wear?” Brady asked suddenly.
“No.” What did you wear to an impromptu wedding?
Brady pulled a crumpled wad of bills from his pocket and gave it to her.
She stared at it. “What’s this for?”
“Maybe after school tomorrow you can go shopping for dresses for you and the girls. Something nice to mark the occasion.”
She tried to make him take the money back. “I can buy us dresses.”
He shook his head and reached out to touch her cheek. “Please, let me. As my wedding present to you.” Brady tangled his fingers in her hair and gently nudged her close so that he could give her a long, not-so-chaste kiss. Dana closed her eyes. This kiss was different from the kiss on the playground. This one was passion from start to finish.
It was easy to go farther. As he pushed her back against the couch, she felt her body molding against the warmth of his chest and legs. With a deep groan, he wrenched himself away.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I’ve scared you away.”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid of scaring you away.”
“I’m still here.”
He gave her a teasing smile. “You’d better go to bed. Or we couldn’t even begin to think about an annulment.”
“You know we have t
o start thinking beyond Friday,” Dana said in a rush.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t sleep on the couch forever.”
“Short of making the girls sleep on the couch, I don’t see what other alternative there is.”
After that kiss, he could say that? Dana didn’t know whether she should be pleased or insulted. “You can always stay with me.”
“You should go to sleep while you can,” he replied.
With a nod of assent, Dana stood up and hurried down the hall, his wad of bills clutched in her hands. Once in the safety of her bedroom, she leaned back against the door. Then she remembered something that she’d forgotten. She was getting married and hadn’t told her parents.
“You’re what?” her mother squeaked as soon as Dana told her.
“I’m getting married on Friday, Mom. Just wanted you and Dad to know.” Dana lay on her bed, staring at her ceiling fixture.
“To who? Do we know him?”
“No. I didn’t know him until last week.”
“Last week? Harold, wake up, your daughter’s getting married on Friday to a man she met last week.”
“Congratulations, honey,” Dana could hear her father say drowsily in the background.
“What does he do?”
“He’s a deputy sheriff for the county.” Dana hesitated. “There’s more.”
“More?”
“Yes. There are three little girls.”
“The ones that were left with you on Friday?” Her mother’s tone was laced with concern.
“Yes,” she admitted. “Those little girls.”
“Oh, Dana, not again.” Her mother’s frustration was born of love. “I remember how awful it was for you when—”
“Their mother committed suicide, so we’re going to make a family, Mom. The deputy— Brady—is their uncle. He can’t get custody by himself. He needs me.” The reason sounded so weak when she said it out loud.
“But this is how you get hurt.”
“I know, Mom.” Dana felt her eyes fill with tears. “But you should see these little girls. They need me.”
“And you need them?”
Dana stared at the phone, amazed at her mother’s insight. She nodded even though her mother couldn’t see her. “Yes, Mom. I need them.”
“Do you love him?”
“No.” Dana was reasonably sure she was telling the truth.
“Can you grow to love him?”
“Yes.” Her affirmation was so soft she barely heard it herself.
AFTER SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY, Dana put the girls into the back of her car and drove to Los Banos to see if she could find them dresses for Friday. The prospect of a trip to town seemed to excite the little girls. At Wal-Mart, Dana shot out of the car and hustled the three girls inside. As if she’d been doing it for years, Dana pulled out a cart, plopped Ollie in the seat and headed for the children’s section, with Jean and Karen hanging on to either side.
The girls were overwhelmed by the choices they had. They hung back, unwilling to stray far from Dana. She, however, was on a mission. With no ceremony, underwear, socks, T-shirts and even hair ribbons began to pile up in the cart.
That chore done, Dana pushed the cart over to the dresses. “Which one do you like?” Dana asked. She pulled out a pink dress decorated with little rosebuds and held it up to Jean. “Do you like this?”
“Pretty,” Jean said, nodding her head.
“Do you want to look alike? Or do you want to wear different dresses?”
“Whatever you think is best,” Karen whispered deferentially.
“Karen, I’m not going to be wearing the dress.” Dana smiled. “You are. So we should find something that you really, really like.”
Ollie reached out of the cart and plucked at the rosebud dress. “I like this one.”
Dana shuffled through the rack looking for one in Ollie’s size. “Here.” She lifted Ollie out of the cart and held the dress up to her. “You both are going to look so cute.” She fished in the cart and pulled out a package of hair ribbons and put it next to the dresses. “Perfect!”
Jean and Ollie clapped, big smiles on their faces.
When Dana looked up, she noticed that Karen had wandered to the other side of the rack. She fingered the material of a dress and then looked at the price tag. She moved on to another dress and looked at the tag. Finally, she found one and pulled it out.
“This one’s on sale,” Karen said.
Dana looked at the dress, a drab gray, more sober than any of the ones surrounding it. “Do you like it?” she asked.
“It’s on sale.” Karen looked hopeful.
“We don’t have to buy dresses that are on sale. This time we’re going to buy dresses that we like. So do you like it?”
Karen scrunched her face. “I don’t know.”
Dana went around and picked out the first dress Karen had looked at. “Do you like it better than this one?”
Karen shook her head.
“Why don’t you go try this one on. To see if it fits.” Dana grabbed three more dresses and gave them to Karen. “Why don’t you try these on, too.”
“All of them?” Karen’s eyes were big. “These are really expensive.”
“Well, we’re not going to buy all of them, just your favorite. We’ll wait out here for you.”
Karen disappeared into the cubicle of a dressing room. When Jean got tired of standing, Dana made room for her in the cart.
Ten minutes later, Karen came back out, her eyes shining.
“Have you decided?”
She shyly handed the dress of choice to Dana. It was a beautiful dress in a pink floral chiffon. “I think these three dresses are going to go perfect with each other.”
Karen hung on to the cart as they went down the aisle. “Now we need to find a dress for you!”
“Yes, we do, don’t we?”
In the women’s section Dana picked out a conservative peach dress.
Karen wrinkled her nose.
“No?”
Karen shook her head.
“Well, which one?”
“Something like this!” Karen pointed to a clingy white cotton lace dress that was only slightly more substantial than a slip. “It’s got sparkles in it.”
Dana hesitated. “You think?”
All three girls nodded.
Dana picked the hanger off the rack and held it up. “I’ve never worn anything like this before.”
“It’ll look real pretty on you,” Karen assured her. “Go try it on.”
So Dana did as she was told, taking all three girls into the dressing room with her. The dress fit perfectly but Dana didn’t know if she liked it. It was so short, so clingy, so…flirty.
“You should get that,” Karen said with great confidence. “Uncle Brady will think you’re pretty.”
With a laugh, Dana decided to buy it. After an endorsement like that, how could she go wrong?
“Just shoes left to get,” Dana said after she’d changed back into her own clothes. They scoured the shoe department trying on dozens of shoes. Ollie and Jean got matching shoes to coordinate with their rosebud dresses, and Karen chose a pretty pair of patent-leather Mary Janes. Dana found a pair of white heels, even though she knew she’d wear them only once. Heading toward the checkout, they came upon the jewelry counter.
“You need a ring for Uncle Brady,” Karen reminded her.
Dana stopped. It hadn’t occurred to her to get a ring for Brady, but if this was going to look real, he would need to have a ring.
“I don’t know his ring size,” Dana replied as her eyes scanned the wedding bands.
A much-pierced clerk leaned up against the case. She was chewing gum but her smile was genuine. “Are his hands bigger than yours?”
Dana nodded.
“If you get something that fits your thumb, it’ll probably be pretty close. You can have it sized later.”
“Get that one,” Karen whispered, pointing to a simple white-g
old band.
“I like it,” Dana admitted.
“Try it to see if it fits your thumb.”
The clerk brought it out and Dana slid the cool metal onto her thumb. She held it up for the girls to inspect. “Well, it fits.”
“That’s the one.” Karen nodded.
“We do piercing, too.” The clerk said with a gesture at Jean who had wandered over to the earring display.
“What?”
The clerk grinned at Karen. “We pierce ears.”
Karen immediately started playing with her ears, and she looked at Dana with large, pleading eyes.
Dana hesitated. “I don’t know… What do we have to do?”
“Just sign the parental consent form.”
Dana hadn’t forgotten what Karen had told her about her mother’s promise. “Do you want to get your ears pierced?” Dana asked and then added, “With me?”
Karen nodded. “With you, especially.”
“Me, too,” Ollie said. “Me, too.”
“Is she too young?” Dana asked the clerk.
The clerk shook her head. “Nope. I did a baby last night.”
“Does it hurt?” Karen asked.
“Yes.”
Dana made a face. Karen flinched, but then straightened her small back as the clerk started to walk over to the earring display.
“Dolphins!” Karen said. She looked up at Dana. “Can I have the dolphins?”
Dana wasn’t sure what to do. In a matter of days, she and Brady would be married and have temporary custody of the children. It would be prudent to wait until after they had custody before poking holes in the girls’ ears.
“Please?” Karen’s gray eyes were shining with anticipation.
Dana made her decision. “Are you sure you want the dolphins? They have to be in your ears for a long time before you can change them. And you have to take very good care of them.”
“I will. I want the dolphins.”
“Okay, the dolphins for this one,” Dana said.