by Sarah Banks
She carried Ben from the room with Claire following and she didn’t once look back at Ethan still sitting on the bed.
Chapter Twelve
Ethan spent the rest of the week trying to figure out what he could say or do to make his wife happy and erase any possibility that she would leave him to return home to her father.
Unfortunately it seemed as if instead of growing closer together, they were drifting apart. He would need to return to Denver soon but couldn’t bring himself to leave again quite yet. Not when things were so precarious. His store in Sweet Creek was just as demanding so he spent his days there, working long hours. He didn’t let himself go home for lunch because he knew he wouldn’t want to leave again. And when he finally did come home at night, just in time for supper, Charlotte was quiet and withdrawn.
She was always agreeable toward the children, pasting a smile on her face as she interacted with them. After supper she would first clean the table making room for Claire to do her homework and then she would do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. Afterwards she would help Claire if she needed it and play with Ben. Bedtime came quickly and she always put them to bed, her soft voice drifting downstairs as she read aloud to them. Afterwards, instead of coming back downstairs, she would go to bed herself.
He’d follow, not long after, wanting to spend time with her however he could get it. He would expect to find her reading as he knew of her love for it but the bedroom would be dark when he came up. She wasn’t sleeping, just lying there in the shadows. He would quietly undress and slip underneath the covers next to her.
He wanted to say something but he didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything at all. He would pull her into his arms and she would lay within them stiffly. She didn’t refuse him. He would kiss her, but never the way he wanted to as she lay tensely in his arms. Finally, he would sigh and release her and go to sleep, without her in his arms, and the whole charade would start again the next day.
One day an idea came to him along with a customer whom he also considered his friend. Ethan was manning the front of the store while his salesman was on lunch. The showroom was filled with furniture for every room of the house. Along the back of the room, he sat behind a desk with a thick catalog filled with even more furniture they offered complete with drawings and prices. If the customer could afford it, they also built custom-made furniture but most residents of Sweet Creek ordered from the catalog.
Behind him, on the other side of the closed door sat the majority of the building where the furniture was created and sat in various stages of production. They had already expanded the work area twice over the past few years and frankly it could use another expansion or perhaps another bigger building altogether. It was currently quiet as it was lunchtime. Ethan glanced at his watch. In fifteen minutes his employees would return and it would grow busy and loud again and it would be his turn for lunch. He would disappear back upstairs to his office and try not to think about Charlotte.
He looked up at the sound of the bell ringing over the door leading out to the street. The opening of the door was accompanied by a blast of cold air that reached him all the way at the back of the showroom. They hadn’t had many customers today due to the weather but that didn’t mean they weren’t busy. He had every man working long hours to fill orders. An order received today wouldn’t be finished and delivered for weeks, that was how much his business had grown in the thirteen years he had been living in Sweet Creek. When he first opened Morgan Furniture it was just him working every single position from designer to craftsman, sales and delivery. Now he had more than a dozen men filling those positions and the way business was going, he would soon need even more in addition to the bigger space.
Alex Courtland entered the store followed by his younger brother Billy and a girl in her teens Ethan didn’t recognize. Billy waved and began to try out the furniture, sitting in every available chair. The girl, who he realized walked with a small limp, followed Billy with a smile on her face, gently running her finger along the smooth lines and finishes of the furniture.
Ethan closed his ledger and stood up, holding out his hand as Alex reached him. Alex had moved to Sweet Creek a little more than two years ago with his brother Billy and had a farm a good distance outside of town. A few months ago Alex had married a mail order bride named Becca. It was Becca and Alex who had cared for Claire and Ben until Ethan had been able to return from Denver following John’s accident and he would be forever grateful to them for that.
“Leave your wife at home?” Ethan asked with a smile, shaking his friend’s hand.
Alex laughed. “As if she would let me. She’s actually visiting your wife,” he said with a raised brow. “I had no idea you had gone and gotten married. Find her in Denver, did you?”
Ethan shook his head. “Nope. Same as you, through Lucy Spencer.”
A second brow joined the first in surprise. “She’s a mail order bride?”
Ethan nodded.
“Well congratulations. I hope she makes you as happy as Becca has made me.”
Ethan just smiled and nodded. Both times he had seen Becca, Alex had been by her side, and they only had eyes for each other. It was obvious they were in love. Ethan didn’t have that with Charlotte. He felt something strong for her but he didn’t think it would ever be reciprocated.
“What can I help you with? Or are you just making a trip to town while you can to stave off cabin fever?”
“We have happy news. Becca’s expecting.”
Ethan clapped his friend on the shoulder, shaking his hand again. “I should be congratulating you.”
“Thank you. I wanted to surprise her with a cradle. I would have liked to make one myself but I know that I could never make one as good as you and she deserves only the very best. Point me in the right direction?”
“I have a few along the wall,” Ethan said. He noticed the girl that had accompanied them had already discovered them, gently sending one after another rocking with a push of a finger. “But I’ll see to your order personally.”
They spent the next few minutes discussing what Alex wanted in the cradle, flipping through the catalog while Ethan wrote up a sales order. He’d see to this order himself. Now that the business had gotten so big he didn’t craft the furniture as much as he used to and he missed it, but he would always love it. He would be honored to custom make a cradle for his friend.
He promised it would be done in time for Christmas and soon the shop was empty again but they had left him with an idea. He had wanted a way to cement the bond between him and Charlotte and what better way than to get her with child.
Ethan hadn’t thought much about having children before, same as he had never thought much about getting married before until the idea had been introduced and wouldn’t leave him until he acted on it. He felt the same about having children. Now that he had the idea he wanted it just the same as he had wanted a wife and a home. He knew Claire and Ben had something to do with that.
He loved his niece and nephew. When they suddenly came into his care, he had immediately written their grandparents, never truly considering raising them himself. He regretted the rash action because now that they had been in his care for several weeks he knew it would be difficult to part with them. He wanted to be a part of their lives and watch them grow up and now it was too late, their grandparents were on their way to take them back east and raise them.
But he still had Charlotte and he wanted to have children with her. Whether she thought it or not, she was a good mother to Claire and Ben. Sure, there was a lot of stuff she didn’t know, but she was brave and strong and she was learning what she needed to. He wanted to see her with their own children. The way it had been when he had come home from Denver a few nights ago, he wanted a happy, smiling wife and a houseful of happy children greeting him. He wanted Charlotte swollen with his child. If she was, she would be bound to him for life and would never leave him.
∞∞∞
“We should stop,�
�� Charlotte said breathlessly, tearing her lips from his.
Ethan took the opportunity to nuzzle her neck. “I don’t want to stop,” he murmured against the delicate skin, her pulse fluttering madly beneath his lips.
She tensed in his arms.
He pulled back, leaning over her. Her rapid breaths matched his and her chest moved up and down beneath his. “I want to make love to you Charlotte.”
“But the children—”
“Are asleep. I checked.”
She was silent so long that he started to pull away. “You aren’t ready,” he surmised. “That’s ok—”
She gripped his wrist preventing him from moving further away.
“It isn’t that. It’s just that I’m frightened I suppose. You’re the first man I’ve ever kissed, let alone—” She waved her hand in the air, lightly brushing his cheek in the darkness.
He felt a surge of triumph that she was only ever his. He cradled her jaw, just about to kiss her again when she continued, “But you’re my husband and it’s my duty as your wife.”
Ethan quickly pulled away, breaking their contact. “I don’t want you to do anything because you think it’s your duty Charlotte. I only want you to do things because you want to.”
“I do enjoy kissing you,” she admitted. “It makes me…”
“What?”
“It makes me want…more.”
In one quick motion he was leaning over her again. He wished that he had left the lamp lit so he could see her eyes. He cupped her hot cheek in his palm, brushing the velvety skin with the pad of his thumb. “I would never hurt you Charlotte.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Ethan didn’t know what to do. He wanted her more than anything but he didn’t want to pressure her. Even if he did want to make love to her and even if he did want her pregnant with his child. Not only because he wanted to tie her to him in that way but because he couldn’t imagine anything sweeter in life than Charlotte bearing his children. But if she wasn’t ready, he’d wait. He’d wait forever for her. She was worth that and more. He was just about to move away again when she took the decision out of his hands.
She reached up and pulled his head down to hers. Their lips met and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, pressing her front against his and he groaned. She was so sweet and precious. Despite the urgency he felt to make her his, he took his time, kissing her, undressing her and caressing her, making sure she wanted this as much as he did. And then he made love to his wife.
∞∞∞
The next morning Ethan stared down at his wife lying in the bed beside him, lightly rubbing her arm up and down. He was pretty sure she had fallen back asleep after he woke her up a little while ago, making love to her a second time.
Ethan didn’t know when it happened, but he had gone and fallen in love with his wife. When he decided to advertise for a mail order bride, it was for companionship, not love. He had never loved a woman before save his mother, sister and niece but that wasn’t the type of love he was thinking of anyhow. Charlotte had become everything to him. Before it was just him and his business, not much else. Now he couldn’t wait to come home each evening and spend it with her. He wanted to hear about her day. He wanted to know what he could do to make her life better. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to make her happy.
Despite not knowing a single thing about children when she arrived, she had turned into a wonderful mother to his niece and nephew. She had turned his house into a home. She gave his life new meaning.
“I thought you had to go to work,” she murmured sleepily.
He dropped a kiss onto her shoulder. “Not today. I’m taking the day off. One of the perks of owning your own business.”
She turned onto her back, the covers pressed tightly against her front. Her cheeks were blushed a pretty pink and she gave him a shy smile. “You have other plans then?”
“I do. I’m going to make you breakfast,” he said, slipping from the bed and pulling on his pants.
The expression on her face was priceless. “You are going to make me breakfast?”
“Well, with Claire’s help. She’s offered to teach me how to make flapjacks.”
A smile teased her lips. “You’d better get started right away then.”
He raised a brow. “Hungry are you?” He asked, slipping his shirt over his shoulders.
“A little. But I was actually thinking that if it turns out anything like I think it might, we’ll still have time to get breakfast at the restaurant,” she teased.
He barked out a laugh. “Minx,” he said, reaching down and tickling the pink toes peeping out from underneath the blanket. She gave a startled scream mixed with laughter and pulled her foot back into the safety of the blanket. Seeing her laughing and smiling filled him with something he couldn’t name. Or perhaps now he could – love.
He leaned over, framing her head against the pillow with his arms. She was stunningly beautiful with her mussed hair, sparkling eyes and laughing mouth. He brushed a kiss across her lips. “I didn’t think you liked breakfast as much as lunch anyhow.”
“I don’t. But I know someone who happens to love flapjacks.”
He raised a brow.
“You,” she said simply, tapping his chin once lightly with her finger.
He took a sharp breath. That. That she thought of him, the little things, just another reason he hadn’t had a chance when it came to falling in love with her. He pulled his wife into his arms.
Chapter Thirteen
Ethan never came home for lunch, until today. He wasn’t accomplishing much at work anyway and once everyone returned from their own lunches, he took his and quickly walked home. He just wanted to see her.
He had lingered over breakfast that morning. He enjoyed Claire teaching him how to cook. He couldn’t ever remember talking and laughing so much over breakfast. His flapjacks admittedly needed work although butter and jam and a side of bacon had helped them taste better. Afterwards they had walked Claire to school together. And then he forced himself to go to work when all he really wanted to do was to return home with Charlotte.
She and Ben left him outside his furniture store. He wanted to kiss her but they were in the middle of town and it was busier than usual because the train was expected soon, so he settled for a quick caress of her cheek that caused her to blush becomingly and made him want to kiss her even more. Then he mussed Ben’s hair before promising to be home in time for supper but he only made it to lunch before giving into temptation and returning home.
He found Charlotte on the porch cleaning the windows. They sparkled underneath the bright sun and dusting of fresh snow that had fallen the previous evening.
“Ethan,” she said in surprise, turning when she heard him on the steps. “What are you doing here?”
“I came home to have lunch with my pretty wife.” He grinned. He would never get tired of seeing her blush. She wasn’t dressed to be out in this weather, her nose pink with cold, so he gripped her hand, gently pulling her inside the house and into his arms, warming her. “Where’s Ben?” He asked, nuzzling the hair at her temple.
“He’s down for a nap,” she murmured against his shoulder. “He should be up soon.”
“Have you eaten yet?”
She shook her head. “No, not yet.”
Ethan wanted nothing more than to take her upstairs but he didn’t want her to think that was all he wanted from her. He most definitely did want that but most of all he just wanted to be with her.
“Did you make enough for me?” He asked, rubbing warmth into her arms.
“I didn’t make anything, only reheated leftovers. Are you tired of stew yet?” She asked with a laugh.
He grinned. “Not yet.”
He reluctantly released her and set the table while she served the food. The stew was reheated but the cornbread was fresh, golden brown and still steaming. Like clockwork Ben awoke.
“I’ll get him,” Ethan volunteered, taking the stairs two a
t a time. He quickly returned with a freshly changed Ben and they shared a long lunch together.
“I guess I’d better be going,” he said finally, after lingering over a second cup of coffee.
“I’m glad you came home for lunch,” she said softly, following him to the door. She gave him a shy smile. “You should do that more often.”
He wanted to stay but he had other responsibilities and he really needed to get back. He gave her a quick kiss and pulled open the door. She followed him out onto the porch.
He took her hand and her eyes went to his. He cleared his throat. He needed to ask, he needed to know. “Charlotte, are you h—” He had just been about to ask her if she was happy here with him when someone called her name.
“Lottie!”
Charlotte’s eyes widened and she whipped her head toward the voice and then she pulled her hand from his and flew down the stairs, her long skirts threatening to trip her before she launched herself into another man’s arms. The man was a couple inches shorter than she was but had been braced, staggering back just a step before he caught her and held her close.
A woman he didn’t recognize, dressed even fancier than Charlotte had been when she first came to town was standing nearby, tears glistening in her eyes. When the man pulled back and stared at Charlotte, Ethan recognized her father from the wedding picture currently on their mantle. They didn’t look very much alike except she did have his eyes. And that was when Ethan realized it was too late, for his plan to get her with child, to try to convince Charlotte to stay with him forever, her father had arrived and now he would take her away.
To make matters worse, another couple came up behind the first. He recognized them, having met them at least a couple of times before. They were older than he remembered, and the silver-haired man had his arm in a sling, but it was Claire and Ben’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Reed. They had finally come to get the children and Ethan mentally staggered back. In a heartbeat, he was losing everything he loved – Charlotte, Claire and Ben.