by Jo Goodman
Thea rang the bell, startled when the door opened immediately. Mitch was standing there with something like a scowl on his face and a crushed Dr. Pepper can in his fist. She actually took a step back. “Do I have the wrong day?”
“No.” He held the door open for her but she didn’t move in his direction.
Thea’s weight shifted from one foot to the other. “I’ll wait here until you get your coat. Or weren’t you planning to go to the dealer’s right away?”
“That’s fine.” He disappeared into the house. Out of Thea’s sight he did a mock banging of his head against the wall before he got his jacket. Feeling marginally better, he pitched the pop can then found his shoes and slipped them on. Thea was waiting by her car when he returned to the front porch. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she suggested he ride in the backseat.
She didn’t. They got in simultaneously and buckled up. Thea started the car but didn’t take it out of park immediately. She looked over at Mitch. “Am I late?”
“You can’t be. I didn’t tell you a time.”
“Then I interrupted you in the middle of something.”
“No.”
“So you’re irritated because ...”
“I’m not irritated.” He flashed her a grin. “See?”
Thea regarded him skeptically, her mouth pursed to one side. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.” She put the Volvo into drive and started down the street. “You never did tell me where your parents took the kids this weekend. Emilie said something about skiing when I spoke to her but I wasn’t sure I got it right.”
“You did. They went to Seven Springs. Dad’s going to spend the weekend in the hot tub, and mum will have the kids on the beginner slopes. It’s still cold enough for making snow. If the forecast is right, they might get some fresh powder tonight.”
“There’s snow in the forecast?”
“A couple of inches the last time I checked.”
Thea glanced at the sky. It was still clear and sunny, not a cloud on the horizon. Although she realized the temperature had been dropping since morning, she figured Mitch’s sources were wrong about the snow. The first day of spring was only a week away, and there was that adage about March going out like a lamb to consider. Doppler radar was overrated.
“Why didn’t you go with them?” asked Thea.
“I thought about it, but I realized I could get a lot done if they were gone. Besides, Mum and Dad really wanted to do it. They’ve taken the kids before, even when Gabe and Kathy were alive.” He heard his words and fell silent.
More to herself than to Mitch, Thea said, “It’s still hard to believe.”
Mitch simply nodded.
“Last week I picked up the phone and called Gabe. I had his number on my speed dial. I didn’t even realize what I’d done until I heard the voice telling me the number had been disconnected. I cried off and on for the rest of the day.”
“Yeah, I know that feeling.”
She believed him. “What do you do? I mean, with the kids around.”
“They pick up on it pretty quick so there’s no point in trying to pretend it’s something else. I tell them I’m sad and why and we talk about it and go on. Emilie tends to cling a little more to me than the boys do. Maybe it’s because they’re identical and have some kind of twin weirdness happening.”
Thea smiled. “Wonder twin powers! Activate!”
“How’s that again?”
“It’s from a cartoon show that Gabe and I used to watch. The twins would put their rings together and say that phrase and take on the bad guys. Maybe that’s what Case and Grant do, in their own way.”
“Makes sense to me. It’s better than my alien theory.” He glanced over at Thea and saw her smile had deepened. Better. “Anyway, getting Emilie out was a good thing, I figured. She was allowed to take a friend and that seemed to help. She only asked two or three times if I was going with them.”
“I think she has a crush on you.”
“Don’t say that. It creeps me out.”
“Why? She probably had a crush on Gabe. Didn’t you ever read Freud? Then there’s the whole transference piece that I don’t really understand, but it’s probably important.”
“If you start talking about penis envy I’m throwing myself out of the car.”
“Don’t worry. No girl really wants one of those.”
“I beg to differ.”
Thea couldn’t look over because of the traffic, but she bet he was smirking. “I don’t think we’re talking about quite the same thing any longer. Clean it up, Mitchell, or I’ll throw you out of the car myself.”
“Are you certain you haven’t talked to my mother?”
“I’m certain, but I’m thinking more and more it’s a good idea.” The next sound Thea thought she heard was Mitch’s mouth clamping shut. “It’s perfectly natural for Emilie to develop an attachment to you. It will pass eventually. How does she act around Gina?”
That was hard for Mitch to answer since he and Gina hadn’t done more than talk on the phone a few times since the we-can-be-friends speech. “For a while I thought there would be a catfight, but she’s been better lately.” That was true, at least.
The line of Thea’s mouth flattened so she wouldn’t laugh. A catfight? With Gina? Good for Emilie. When she was certain she was composed, she said, “One day you’ll come to the realization that Emilie no longer thinks you hang the stars and—”
“And I’ll hate it,” he finished, resigned. “I know. I’ve thought about that. She has me wrapped.”
Thea didn’t say anything.
Mitch looked over and saw her pensive expression. “What is it? You think it’s a problem she has me around her finger?”
Chewing on the inside of her cheek, Thea didn’t answer immediately. How much did Mitch really want to know about her? How much did she want to tell? “I was thinking she was lucky,” she said quietly. “It wasn’t like that with my father. Either of them.”
Either of them? Mitch frowned until he remembered the past that Gabe and Thea had really shared. “That’s right. You were adopted.”
She didn’t glance in his direction. “I always wondered if you knew.”
“Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“No, not really. I’m not ashamed of it or anything.” There was a little catch in her breath as she heard herself say the words. In the back of her mind she could hear Rosie again. Foolin’yourself, honey. “Gabe and I were in the same foster home until we were five.”
“The Reasoners.”
Thea nodded. “They adopted him when he was four but they weren’t allowed to take me. I had some medical problems. For a while the doctors thought I was going to lose a kidney. The surgery, the drugs, the aftercare ... no one thought the Reasoners could financially handle it. There was no real help for adoptive parents in those days. They had to manage on their own. As long as I remained in foster care the county’s children’s services looked after me and paid my medical bills.”
“But you were eventually adopted.”
“Uh-huh. I stayed with the Reasoners another year as their foster child. They shuttled me to doctors, watched what I ate, made certain I had my medicine. I didn’t understand there was any difference in Gabe’s status in the home than there was mine. He was just my brother. I knew the Reasoners weren’t my parents because I could remember my own, but it seemed to me that Gabe was really my brother.” Thea paused and resolutely pushed down the lump in her throat. Her eyes remained dry. “Do you know what permanency planning is?”
Mitch shook his head. “I never heard of it.”
“It’s a policy that holds to the notion that foster kids shouldn’t be shuttled from place to place.”
“That seems reasonable.”
Thea went on. “But stability isn’t supposed to be achieved in a foster home if it can be helped. That’s success of a lesser nature. Adoption is the holy grail.”
Mitch understood the problem. “So, for permanency plann
ing to work for you, you had to be moved from the foster home. Is that what happened?”
“In a nutshell.” She shrugged. “I suppose it depends on your point of view as to how well it worked. Children’s services saw it as a coup. They got me off their rolls and into a family that could financially absorb my medical bills. The Wyndhams were like the poster parents for the adoption advocates, so it was good for them. I had to leave the Reasoners and Gabe but ...” Thea simply allowed her words to trail off. It still caught her off guard sometimes, this pain.
“Thea?” Mitch said softly. “Are you all right?” Her face was pale and in profile her features appeared cast in marble.
She nodded, gave him a sideways glance, and smiled. “Oh, yeah. It’s not Dickens, you know. No Oliver Twist. I was lucky.” When she saw him frown slightly, she added more emphatically, “Really, Mitch. I was very lucky.”
Mitch suspected she said that for his benefit. In spite of her quick grin and her words, there was something she wasn’t saying. “Did you lose touch with Gabe and the Reasoners?”
“For a while. I didn’t think Barb and John—the Reasoners—knew where I was. Later, I found out that they weren’t allowed to contact me. Visits were prohibited by a court order. It was supposed to help me adjust to my new parents and my new home. No one explained that, though—or at least not in a way I could understand it. I thought they hated me.” She shrugged. “Like most kids, I thought I had done something wrong.”
Mitch just shook his head. Hearing it from her didn’t make it any easier to imagine. It was that far outside his experience.
“Well,” Thea said, punctuating a sigh. “Enough about me.”
“Oh, no. Not so fast. How did you hook up with Gabe again?”
“You don’t know?”
“I’m asking, aren’t I? He was kind of tight-lipped about you. I never understood it. When Kathy first started dating Gabe I told all kinds of stories about her to him. When they got serious I actually told a few that were the truth. It was tough prying three words out of him about his friend Thea.”
“You didn’t even know me back then. We didn’t meet until their wedding rehearsal.”
“So? Kathy had a lot of anxious moments about you in the beginning.”
“About me? That can’t be right. Gabe was crazy in love with her.”
“I don’t try to understand it. I’m just reporting the facts. I figured if she saw you as the competition—and Kathy not being a slouch in the looks and brains department herself—you must be someone I’d like to know. My early plan was to make sure you didn’t ruin things for my best friend by keeping you occupied myself.”
Thea’s head snapped around. “Oh, spare me! Are you serious?”
“Hey!” Mitch made a grab for the steering wheel. “Watch the road.”
“I saw him,” Thea said lamely. Him was the tractor trailer slowing to a stop to make a turn into a strip mall. “His brake lights are dirty.”
Mitch merely grunted. He waited until Thea had clear road ahead of her before he continued. “I didn’t tell Kath anything about my plan. I don’t think she would have approved.”
“She would have been insulted.”
“Insulted? Why? I was looking out for her.”
“Your actions suggest that you thought she couldn’t keep Gabe on her own.”
He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t get women.”
“I know.” She saw the car dealer up ahead and slowed to make the turn. “So what happened to your plan?”
“I couldn’t get much out of Gabe about you. Tight-lipped, remember? He wouldn’t hook me up with you.” Not then, anyway.
“He was probably looking out for me,” she said, grinning. “See how that sort of thinking worked against you?”
“I’m learning.”
“Good.” She pulled into the car lot and found a parking space on the side of the showroom. “Let’s go see about your wheels, Mr. I-have-a-plan.”
Mitch had to admit it seemed ludicrous in retrospect. At the time, he thought he’d had a stroke of genius. “Most likely, just a stroke,” he muttered.
“What’s that?” Thea asked, getting out of the car.
“Nothing.” He pretended he didn’t hear her laughing, but by the time they reached the doors, he was laughing himself.
Thea actually missed Mitch’s company on the way back to Connaugh Creek. He followed her because she refused to have her view of the road blocked by his new SUV. Besides, she’d told him if he was stopped because he looked like a drug dealer, her plan was to drive on and leave him there.
The final paperwork on the car was finished without any arguing between them. Thea had her checkbook out before Mitch realized what she was doing. She paid the first thirty months off in one lump sum, essentially putting half down on the vehicle and reducing Mitch’s monthly payments to a figure that was completely manageable. He could have stopped her, she knew, but he must have known she wasn’t going to give in easily.
Mitch parked the SUV in the driveway while Thea stopped on the street. They walked in together through the garage. Thea noticed he’d made no attempt to make room for the new vehicle. It was doubtful there’d ever be enough space for it.
“I think you’re going to need a larger house,” she said. “Or at least a larger garage.”
“I’m considering it.” His voice held none of the humor hers did.
“You are?” Thea kicked off her shoes and padded into the house in her socks. “Seriously?” She took Mitch’s jacket and her own to the closet while he went to the kitchen. “How long have you been thinking about that?” she called to him.
“Since about a week after the kids came to live with me.” Thea brought herself up short, sliding a little on the kitchen tile as she entered the room. “A week? But I thought you didn’t even want the kids back then. You were still trying to get me to take them.”
“I never thought that I wouldn’t ever have them,” he said. “Anyway, you weren’t around and no one knew where you were, and I was thinking ahead to the what-ifs.”
Thea leaned against the counter, her arms folded loosely in front of her, and regarded Mitch thoughtfully. He was looking for something in a cupboard, his back to her. “You really are one of the good guys, Mitchell Baker.”
Mitch’s hand froze over a bag of rice. He pulled it out of the cupboard, set it down, and turned around. “Yeah? You think so?”
She nodded. “I do.”
His eyes narrowed faintly, consideringly. There was only about six feet separating them, and he closed the distance before Thea understood his intent. He heard her breath catch, saw her lips part, but he gave her no time to move or raise an objection. His mouth touched hers, lightly at first, and when she didn’t push him away, he pressed his small advantage, tasting her lips carefully, finding the shape of them, first with his own mouth, then with the tip of his tongue. His hands rested on either side of her elbows on the counter, but they gradually moved closer together, cupping her arms, then gliding downward until he had her waist between them.
Her mouth was warm and soft. He touched the underside of her lip with the tip of his tongue. She was silky. Damp. His teeth clamped down gently on her lower lip. She made a tiny whimpering sound. Mitch shifted the position of his mouth, slanting over hers hard this time. His palms found her bottom and jerked her to him, pressing her thighs against his fly so there was no mistaking the response of his body. He surged against her, grinding his hips. Breath seemed to leave his lungs.
He tore his mouth away from hers. His nostrils flared slightly as he drew on the same air as Thea. There didn’t seem to be enough. He took the next breath from her, feeling her moan softly against his mouth. His tongue slid over the ridge of her teeth. She opened for him. Her thighs settled heavily against him. He was supporting her now and she seemed almost weightless in his arms.
The kiss deepened. The pace changed to slow and drugging. Long seconds passed. Somewhere in the house a clock t
icked. There was the sound of their kisses and the clock ticking. Then there was only the clock.
Mitch drew back slowly. He lifted Thea to the countertop and stood between her splayed thighs. His hands rested on her hips. Her head was slightly bowed and turned away. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“You still think I’m one of the good guys?”
She didn’t answer.
“That’s what I thought.” He backed up, leaving her on the counter, and tunneled through his hair with his fingertips. “You want to yell at me?”
She shook her head.
“You want to finish this?”
Now she raised her head and looked at him. The dark centers of her eyes were so wide they nearly eclipsed the green irises. “I’m not ready.”
He nodded. “I didn’t think so.” Mitch turned away, opened the refrigerator, and foraged for a beer. He held up the bottle of Corona. “You want one?”
“No.”
Shrugging, he closed the door. He twisted off the top, tossed it on the counter, and took a long swallow of the beer. It was a relief to get something cold into his system though it was going to be a little while before his jeans fit comfortably. “I was thinking I’d make us some spiced couscous for dinner. Would you like that?”
She stared at him. “Who are you?”
“Hey, you saw me eat a burger, so you know I’m a regular guy.” He shrugged. “I’m trying out new stuff with the kids. This way if I screw up, they don’t have anything to compare it to. I apparently can’t make Kathy’s meat loaf right, even though I filched her recipe. After that debacle, I’ve been sticking to things that might satisfy uninformed taste buds. There was a lot of Vinnie’s pizza in the beginning.”
“Spiced couscous sounds great.” She pointed to the package on the counter. “That’s the rice you have out, though.”
Mitch glanced at it. “I was distracted.” He opened the cupboard, replaced the rice, and rummaged for the box of couscous. When he turned back with it, he saw Thea was still sitting on the counter watching him. There was still a little flush to her cheeks and her mouth looked ripe. She was wearing a loosely fitting purple turtleneck that looked great with her dark red hair and green eyes. Her socks matched her sweater. It made him wonder about her bra and panties and left him feeling a little sorrier he hadn’t gotten under either the snug Levi’s or the turtleneck. “You’re kind of like a hood ornament sitting there: classy but not very functional. Why don’t you set the table? We’ll need bowls and forks. And find yourself something to drink. Napkins are—”