by Anne Conley
If she made it through this week, she would take the kids to church on Sunday, she swore.
The next Thursday, Alyssa was picking up in the living room after bath time, when she noticed the acrid smell of smoke.
“Guys?” She called for the kids. “Sierra? Cayden? Where are y’all?” Her voice rose in pitch, even though she tried to control her frayed nerves.
“In here Mama!” Cayden’s little voice came from their bedroom.
Alyssa rushed in to find the ceiling fan draped in dirty clothes and stuffed animals tied up with rope. The darling angels had loaded the blades of the fan with items that were weighing the motor down. The whole fan had come out of the ceiling a couple of inches, and there was black smoke coming from the base of the fan.
“What in the world do you guys think you are doing? I have told you over and over not to mess with the fan!” She flipped the switch at the wall, turning the fan off. Exasperated, she got a portable fan and set it up in front of a window to dispel some of the smoke.
Her voice rose in pitch and volume. “I’ve told you and told you not to throw stuff on the ceiling fan! I can’t believe y’all would do this! Now I’ve got to call somebody else to come and replace it. And I’ve got to buy a new fan! After spending almost $300 on a plumber to come out and fix the toilet you guys broke!” She knew she was losing it. She shouldn’t be yelling at them like this.
She turned her back to them and took a couple of deep breaths. She could hear sniffling behind her. Cayden, especially, hated to be yelled at.
Alyssa turned back to the children and lowered herself to her knees. Forcing serenity she didn’t feel into her voice, she said, “I’m sorry for yelling, guys. I just got really frustrated, but I think I’m better now. Can we hug?”
Sierra ran into her outstretched arms. “We’re sorry, Mom.” Cayden hung back, still unsure if the outburst was over.
“Cayden, sweetie. Mommy’s really sorry for yelling at you. I shouldn’t have done that. I love you both. I just got mad. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. I’m sorry.” Cayden unwillingly allowed her to hug him.
“Now, let’s get into bed. I’ve got a great story to tell you guys tonight.”
“Will you sing the Scooby Doo song?” Cayden asked, still tearful.
“Of course I will, Sugar.”
Chapter 9
Dalton sat on the fourth row pew next to his mother. He didn’t mind church. It helped to center him sometimes. He didn’t love the organized aspect of it all, but he believed in God and most of the Bible, and listening to somebody talk about it usually lifted his spirits a little. Lord knew, he needed his spirits lifted. With his Dad sick, and his Mother barely speaking to him, he had been feeling pretty low.
He felt his mother’s expectations pulling at him like a magnet, and his initial reaction was to pull away. He didn’t like the idea of doing something just because it was expected of him. But, this was his mother, and the whole family was going through a difficult time right now, with Dad sick. He wanted to help out, he just wanted to do it on his own terms.
While he was getting ready for church this morning, Mary had come into his room and told him to iron his shirt because his collar was sticking out. Dalton hadn’t done it, and she was miffed about it, continually reaching over to smooth it down for him.
It wasn’t a passion of his, but he’d gone to church his whole childhood and enjoyed it. Now he only went when he came home. It wasn’t a priority in his adult life, but he did enjoy it when he got the chance to go with his mom. His mom really seemed to need her church friends lately, and she got a lot of pleasure out of Dalton going. So, he had suggested it to her last night, and she’d jumped at the chance. It had pleased her, briefly, he’d suggested it.
Glimpsing people Dalton hadn’t set eyes on in a while was cool, and he nodded to several old classmates before the service started. As everyone was getting settled, two children and a woman in front of him captured his attention. They seemed so familiar, but as he couldn’t see their faces, and he couldn’t tell where he knew them from. Her golden hair falling down her back was gorgeous. He resisted the urge to finger the waves. His mother would probably kill him, if she saw him doing something like that.
The preacher’s sermon interrupted his reverie.
“A virtuous woman is clearly spelled out in Proverbs in the Bible. If you will turn in your pew Bibles to Proverbs, Chapter 31, verse 10.”
As he read along with the preacher, Dalton ruminated on the virtuous woman of the Bible. She clothes and feeds her family. She respects her husband. She is strong, both physically and emotionally. She has self-confidence. She is generous to the needy. Her children and husband praise her. Dalton liked the virtuous woman. Who wouldn’t? His own mother was the epitome of a virtuous woman, wasn’t she?
His thoughts turned to Alyssa. She was probably one of the most virtuous woman he knew...imagined. She put her children first. She was strong, self-confident, and generous.
The preacher went on to say, “A virtuous woman is not the end of the story, though. A virtuous man has many of the same qualities, qualities which complement his wife and help nurture his family in Christ...”
Dalton realized then, he didn’t deserve Alyssa or any real woman like her. What was virtuous about him? He constantly put his own needs before others. Wasn’t it obvious by all of his sexual escapades in Dallas? Years of clubbing and taking home women to appease his sexual appetites made him less than virtuous. If Alyssa was real, and knew him, she would probably think he was depraved. Hell, he was depraved.
He admitted to himself that he was having a problem. He couldn’t quit thinking about this figment of his imagination. He was obsessed with her. All day of every day, he constantly replayed the dreams of the night before in his mind. Her children, her friends, her students, they all captivated his attention. The way she interacted with everyone was extraordinary to him. But what was killing him, was how real it all seemed.
Dalton shifted uncomfortably in the pew, skewing the cushion under him. His mom glared at him, and he smiled sheepishly, mouthing a “sorry” to her. The corners of her mouth turned down disapprovingly, and they both stood to sing the closing hymn before leaving. He scanned the crowd for the woman who had been sitting in front of him, but he didn’t see her anywhere.
Alyssa really wished she could pay more attention to the preacher’s sermon. Her efforts to keep the kids still and quiet so they didn’t bother the people surrounding them took most of her attention. She usually had to put Cayden in her lap. The nursery only took kids up to four years old, and the truth of the matter was, he probably could glean some life lessons from the service if he would only sit quietly.
But today, Sierra was acting up, too. She had been sitting quietly during church for years, but today for some reason, she wanted to wiggle like a toddler. She was up in her seat, down on the floor, up on the seat, back down on the floor. She was being quiet enough, but Alyssa knew if she let her do that, then Cayden would be wiggling too, and the next thing she knew, they would be wrestling and squealing in the middle of the service.
Alyssa spent most of the service with her kids in a death grip, one on each side of her. She had her arms around their necks in what she hoped appeared to be an extended hug. She was holding tight enough they couldn’t move.
Occasionally, she would experience a weird tingly sensation, as if someone was watching her, but she decided she probably was being watched. A single woman with two small kids in church tended to garner a lot of attention. That was part of the reason she didn’t come to church as often as she used to. After the divorce, she couldn’t handle the pitying glances, the well-meant words, or the blatant snubs. When her Sunday School class put her name on church-wide prayer list, she quit going to church regularly. Alyssa knew they meant well, but she couldn’t handle it.
The preacher’s sermon on the virtuous woman made her regret coming to church today anyway. All the talk about a virtuous woman and her husband mad
e her feel queasy. How virtuous could a divorcee be? As soon as the service was over, she ducked her head and left out of the side door.
Chapter 10
Alyssa was frustrated. Steven hadn’t told her until Sunday afternoon he couldn’t keep the kids this week. He said it was a last minute business trip, but Alyssa had her doubts. She knew his boss, and he was a super-organized control freak. He would have had any business trips scheduled months in advance.
Not that she cared, she jumped at the chance to look after the kids longer. If Steven couldn’t keep them, and Alyssa wouldn’t keep them, then they would have to stay with Steven’s mother, and Alyssa would eat chalk before she would let that happen.
An electrician had come out to replace the ceiling fan in the kids’ room, to the tune of almost $500. Alyssa was pretty sure the town’s repairmen were out to get her. It was because she was a woman, Alyssa was sure. First of all, a man would never have called somebody to come out and fix that stuff, they would have done it themselves. If they hadn’t done it themselves, they would have at least known what the doo-hicky the plumber had replaced was, or at least how much they cost. And she had seen Steven replace a ceiling fan, and he made it look easy, not that he would do her any favors. Alyssa was convinced these people had a list of prices for men and a list of prices for women.
At least it was the weekend again, and they would be at the Hot Pepper Festival. That was good wholesome fun for the kids, and she’d been planning to take them anyway. Steven had another engagement this weekend. She thought he might have a girlfriend he wasn’t telling anybody about. Probably Stephanie. Not that she cared.
Alyssa watched the parade on Saturday, Cayden on her shoulders, while Sierra ran to grab all the candy she could for her brother and herself. They all enjoyed waving to the parade entrants, dancing to the band’s rendition of "Funky Town," and visiting with the people in the street around them. After the parade, they made their way to the booth for Jackie’s Crisis Center donations.
Jackie, Jennifer, and a girl Alyssa didn’t know were already at the booth when they got there. To the children’s utter delight, Alyssa gave Jennifer some money to feed and entertain Cayden and Sierra and sent them on their way.
The morning went by quickly, with all three of them busily taking in donations and writing receipts. Alyssa was pleasantly surprised at how well Jackie’s service project was going. The girl had solicited the newspaper’s support, the Chamber of Commerce’s support, as well as various business owners. They had enough donations to fill a couple of truckloads, and Jackie had all of that organized as well. Alyssa was impressed with her effort.
By the afternoon, the donations had slowed, so they were folding and organizing the clothing to box and bag up for easy transport. Alyssa was making a pile of clothing to be laundered before taking it to the Crisis Center, when Summer came up behind her.
“Hey Alyssa, I asked around about your...um...” She looked at the high school girls around them. “Situation. Unfortunately, nobody had really heard of anything exactly like it before. But I did get some names of other people to call. I was going to do that this evening, but I saw you here and thought I’d go ahead and tell you I don’t have anything yet, but I’m still looking.”
Alyssa shrugged her shoulders and picked up a box to take to Jackie’s truck, which was waiting in the nearest parking area, two blocks away. “That’s okay, Summer. It’s probably nothing.”
As she turned with the box, she ran smack into a solid wall of muscle, sending the box full of clothes dropping to her feet. She was so unsettled by the sudden lack of motion, she tripped on her own feet and started to fall forward, into the broad chest standing in her way. A pair of strong hands gripped her arms to steady her, and she looked up into a steely pair of gray eyes. Alyssa’s heart did a flip-flop as she looked up, and noticed the auburn tousles, then the streamlined nose over full, wide lips that were parted in surprise. The man gaped at her, apparently as much at a loss for words as she was.
She gasped.
“Dalton?” She sputtered. His steely eyes softened into molten pools and widened in surprise.
“You know me?” He whispered. His face so close to hers, she could feel his breath. It smelled like lemonade. His hands relaxed on her arms but didn’t move. The heat from his touch spread through Alyssa’s body, like molten lava, settling into a pool at the bottom of her tummy.
“Y-yes.” She struggled to say that one word. Her heart was hammering so fast, she couldn’t breathe, much less form words.
Summer had witnessed the episode with a knowing smirk, and she gave Alyssa a wink. “I’ll call you later, girlfriend. We probably need to talk.” She melted into the crowd and disappeared.
Dalton’s eyes were still glued to hers. “But we’ve never met, have we?”
She wondered briefly, why he kept asking her questions. She was having such a hard time talking, answering, thinking with his lips so close to hers.
“No. I-I don’t think so.” She answered, and then licked her lips and swallowed hard past the lump that had formed in her throat. Her mouth was so dry, suddenly.
His hands, which had been holding her arms, moved upward, towards her shoulders. One hand grasped a lock of hair and rubbed the tendril between the fingertips. Dalton sighed, blowing his sweet breath across her face.
Her breath caught at the tenderness of his touch. His hands on her were unbelievably warm. She could feel his calloused fingertips on her bare shoulders, and tingles shot through her body, causing a tremble to rush through her. She shuddered.
“Are you alright?”
He must have felt her shaking, and she shook her head at him. “N-no.”
His fingers tightened on her shoulders, squeezing reassuringly. “I’m not, either. I didn’t think you were real.” He shook his head. “In fact, I’m not sure this isn’t a dream.”
Alyssa didn’t know what to say. Her lips parted to tell him something, but no words came out. Nothing else existed except for the two of them. All other noises stopped, except for the sound of the blood rushing through her veins. The smells of the festival were gone, and she was enveloped in the warm, citrusy, manly scent of Dalton. She couldn’t see anything except the darkened, gunmetal gray of his eyes, which were getting impossibly close to her face. Her eyes swept down his body, to see his sculpted chest through the tee shirt he had on, down his chiseled abdomen, and lower. Her mind flashed to images of him in the shower, water droplets streaming down those planes.
“In fact, since this is a dream…” He closed his eyes and lowered his mouth to hers in a gentle, sweeping kiss, which she had no choice but to surrender to.
As soon as his lips touched hers, a fire ignited deep in her belly, melting all of her muscles and tendons, relinquishing Alyssa of her ability to support herself. Her arms snaked around his neck, in an effort to hold herself up. His hands came down to her waist, pulling her towards him. She sighed against him, as his tongue came out of his mouth and swept across her bottom lip. Their bodies, torso to torso, chest to chest, fit together perfectly, as his hands on her lower back began to move in slow, sweeping strokes up her back, into her hair.
Alyssa could hear her heart pounding in her ears, the blood rushing around inside her body. She grasped tightly at the hair at the nape of his neck, and heard a soft groan come from the back of his throat. His arms tightened around her waist, pulling her impossibly closer.
She relished the feel of him against her body, and was completely oblivious to all else around them, concentrating instead on the sensations of need Dalton’s body was broadcasting. His strong fingers at her waist, his lips insistent on her mouth, his hardness pressed against her belly, the growls coming from his chest, the pulse point pounding in his neck, his heartbeat. This was all she was aware of.
Until, she heard shrieking laughter behind her.
And then she realized where she was.
She was kissing a total stranger in a crowd of hundreds of people, most of which she knew
, at the Pepper Festival.
Pushing Dalton away, she struggled to catch her breath.
Wiping the back of her hand on her mouth, she looked at him. He was standing there, as dazed and breathless as she was.
“I can’t do this.” She mumbled. “I’m sorry.” She bent to pick up spilled clothing on the ground at their feet. He bent to help.
“No. I’m sorry. I…I shouldn’t have done that.” He looked at her squarely, as if trying to decide if she was real or not, blindly putting clothes into the box.
Alyssa couldn’t say anything, so she continued to throw clothes into the carton.
Dalton’s hands had stopped moving. “Can we meet somewhere? To talk? I need to see you again.”
She looked into his eyes, which looked desperate. “Like, a date?”
“I need to see you. We’ve got to talk about this. Us.” He looked down, at the clothes at his feet. “Don’t you think we need to?” He ran his fingers through his hair.
“I guess so. I mean…”
“Can you meet me tonight?” His voice was laced with tones of anxiety.
“No.” She answered him quickly, putting the last articles of clothing into the box and standing. “I have my kids with me. Monday at the Serendipity Bakery. Four o’clock. Can you be there?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” For the first time, since they had seen each other, he smiled at her, a devastating smile that weakened her knees. Unable to control herself, she blushed furiously.
“Okay. I’ll see you then.” She turned to see four teenaged girls giggling furiously behind her. Kelly was not even trying to hide her amusement, and Alyssa suspected she was behind the shriek that had interrupted the kiss.
Wow. What a kiss it had been.
As she walked towards the truck, she hardly noticed Dalton had grabbed two boxes of clothes and was walking next to her, not saying anything. She turned and looked at him, and he broke his gaze at her, sheepishly looking away. But he kept walking next to her, silently.