“You have an iPhone, right?” she asked and he nodded. “Can you unlock it?”
He dug it from his back pocket and did as she said. “I’d wait ‘til junior’s asleep before you look at the porn,” he said and while the brothers thought he was joking, he was referring to last night and she knew it, he could tell because she was avoiding his gaze. In truth, he’d welcome her looking at any of the pictures. After her response to seeing a single innocuous one last night, he’d be intrigued to see how she reacted to the more… graphic ones. He went into the settings and took her hand to pull her closer. “Here, do this.”
Selecting her thumb, he straightened it out. “What are you doing?”
“Putting your print in,” he said, moving her finger on and off the pad then turning it as he had to. It registered and he smiled. “There, now you can get into it any time. Just put your print on the home button.”
She took it and seemed perplexed, but pressed something and disappeared into the house. “You just hand your phone over?” Murphy asked. “You better not have any kinky porn on your phone, you’re trying to make a good impression. Remember, you have to ease them into kink.”
As they all laughed, music blasted from the house sending them all to their feet. “Geez,” Owen said, holding his hand to his ear. “Cam’s hearing will be permanently damaged… is that Blondie?”
“Party time,” Murphy said, never one to say no to a good time. He was the first inside and Rocky came running up the stairs to follow him and Owen inside.
In the living room they found Ginger jumping and dancing with Cam who was laughing and trying his best to sing along in babbling baby talk. She dipped the baby then crouched and shot back to her feet. Shane hung back just watching her move, that body move, the body he’d felt beneath his hands so many times and the body that had reacted to his last night.
“What’s going on?” Owen asked, going to the stereo in the corner where the phone was attached to the docking station. Shane got it now, she needed music and she’d said that she didn’t have a cell phone of her own. Owen turned the music down. Cam shouted and wriggled away from his mother to crawl at speed to his uncle to tug on his jeans.
“He likes it loud,” Ginger said. “It’s naptime and someone’s not tired enough…” Looking at all of them, she shrugged. “If we have the house to ourselves, we dance… We can stop if it bothers you.”
“If it bothers them, they can leave,” Shane said, going to get his son. He turned up the music and Cam was trying to dance and sing again.
“Put him on the floor,” Ginger called over the music and went over to get on the floor with him.
Shane took the table out the way and gave them more room to dance and play. After Owen got used to the volume he was singing too and selecting songs. After it was discovered Cam had a thing for rock music, they all took turns putting their phone on the dock to let him hear as much as possible.
When he was lying on the floor on top of his mother with his thumb in his mouth and his other hand tangled in her hair, Shane began to turn the music down gradually. By the time it was off, both mother and son were asleep on the floor.
“Man, your kid is fun,” Murphy said. “He knocked Ginny out too.”
“This whole thing is taking a lot out of her,” Owen said.
Everyone was tired, but it was taxing on her in ways they couldn’t imagine. The emotional pressure was immense and she was still a full-time mommy too. Rocky went over to nose her face and Shane pulled him back. “Upstairs,” he said to Rocky who grumbled, but turned to go upstairs.
“They’re sleeping in his favorite spot,” Owen said.
“No,” Shane said, bending to carefully scoop both mother and son off the floor into his arms. “His favorite spot is spooning with Ginny… same as mine.”
Ginger cocooned Cam in her arms and twisted toward him making it easier for him to carry both of them without fear of dropping the baby. When she rubbed her face in his neck half way up the stairs, he cursed. Great, he was hard again, she really had to stop doing that when he was concentrating.
Rocky was already on the bed when he got to the bedroom. He laid Ginger down and picked up Cam to move him into the crib like she’d shown him. “Shane,” she whimpered as he tucked Cam in.
“Yeah, Bit?” he asked and turned expecting to see her looking at him.
Instead, she was still fast asleep. A grin slid to his lips. Either she was dreaming of him or just had the urge to say his name, whichever way it was, he was winning.
At least he thought he was until he went into the kitchen much later that night and saw through the open door that she was in Calvin’s arms. They were at the water’s edge in the moonlight and the bastard was holding her, whispering something and kissing her lips.
Murphy came up beside him. “Want to revise your estimate?” he asked.
Shane felt sick. “Would it be wrong for me to go out there and punch him?”
“You could ask the doctor what the appropriate response is,” Murphy said, but Shane knew the answer. “She’s still wearing his ring, you know, Bishop’s. If she wasn’t planning on marrying him—”
“I get it,” Shane said and turned his back on the intimate scene only to come face to face with a panicked looking Owen.
“Uh, Cam is awake,” Owen said and his worry made Shane smile. “I have to get Ginger.”
“There you go,” Murphy said. “There’s your interruption. Did you train the kid?”
“We don’t have to get anyone,” Shane said. While he was new at this fathering thing, the point of him sharing a bathroom with mother and son was so that he could bond. “I’ll go to him.”
“You will?” Murphy asked.
Both Owen and his brother were surprised, but Shane was liking this dad stuff. Shaking his head and laughing, he left the kitchen and rounded into the living room to vault up the stairs.
Diane went to bed early every night, and he wasn’t complaining about that. Except Shane didn’t want his son being blamed for waking anyone up.
When he opened the bedroom door, he strode in to find Cam was on his feet holding the edge of the cot, bouncing. “What are you doing, dude?” he asked. “You’re supposed to be asleep.”
As soon as he picked him up, he smelled the problem and then he understood Owen’s worry. The fun stuff, he could do, the practical stuff had been all Ginger so far. Although he was worried about screwing up, his son needed him, so he took a deep breath and took him to the makeshift changing table.
Ginger was tired, and confused. She just wanted to go to bed. Calvin had been right in most of what he’d said, and that meant she had to talk to Shane. The idea of that conversation wasn’t one she relished. When she’d come back inside, leaving Calvin outside, she hadn’t seen anyone, so she hoped they were all in bed. If Shane was asleep, no one could expect her to talk to him, maybe she could just slip into bed and worry about this tomorrow night.
Opening her bedroom door carefully, she didn’t make a sound because she didn’t want to disturb Cam. But she paused when she saw her bed was occupied by three slumbering males. Her surprise gave way to a smile as she angled her head. Shane was sleeping with an arm tucked around Cam and Rocky was on the other side of the bed. Covering her laugh with her fingertips, she went to nudge Rocky.
“Come with mommy,” she whispered, “come on.”
The dog gave a squeaking yawn but leaped down off the bed and trotted along with her. After putting the bedside barrier on the open side of the bed, she took Rocky through to Shane’s bedroom. All she needed was a bed. And Shane deserved to know what it was like to wake up to Cam’s punching alarm clock at least once in his life.
Stripping to her underwear, she pulled back the covers and lay down in the bed, Rocky circled a couple of times and then slumped down with her. She stroked him and kissed his head, then closed her eyes.
It was sunny when she woke up alone. Very sunny. Shielding her eyes with her hand, Ginger rolled over and opened
an eye only to see she was right on the edge of the bed and face to face with a crouched Shane.
“Go back to sleep,” he whispered and pulled a socket from the wall. “I’m just getting my charger.”
But she was awake and it was sunny. “What time is it?” she grumbled.
“Ten thirty,” he said and she half nodded then his words seeped in and she sat bolt upright.
“Where’s Cam?”
“Outside playing ball with his uncles.” Jumping out the bed, Ginger ran to the window and shook the locked door. “Uh, I wouldn’t go outside,” Shane said as she fought with the key she’d made everyone use so that Cam couldn’t get out onto the wraparound balcony.
“Why not? Is he ok? I need to see him.”
“Ok, but get dressed first.”
Spinning around, she was aghast when she caught sight of herself in the mirror to her left and saw she was only in her thong panties and plunge bra. “Right,” she said. “Clothes.”
“I’m not complaining,” he said. “Though knowing you slept like that in my bed won’t help me sleep tonight.”
She tried to straighten out her hair. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
“No, I get it,” he said. “Sleeping with Cam was great, thank you. He woke up early.” Yes, that sounded like her boy. “He’s not subtle, is he?”
She laughed and tried to remember where she’d put her clothes. “Not even a little bit.”
“I took your clothes to the laundry,” he said and pulled a tee-shirt from a drawer to toss it to her.
“Wish I’d known that was there last night,” she said and put it on. “Did you feed him?”
“Cam?” he said, in a daze as he watched her cover up. “Yeah, I’m not sure you can’t feed him. He’s clear about what he wants. It’s impossible to neglect him.” She threw him a glare as she unlocked the terrace door. “Not that I ever would.”
Going outside, she was chilled by the air but it was sunny and probably warm without the awning. Just as Shane had said Cam was outside crawling around after a ball with Owen and Murphy under his spell. She watched for a minute and then Cam noticed her and pointed up, so she waved.
“Ma!” he screamed and she laughed.
“Hello, Angel, are you being good?”
“Da!” Cam hollered.
Ginger turned around to see that Shane was joining her. He leaned on the bannister, just a little closer than he probably should, but if she made a big deal of it, she’d draw attention to it and she’d learned her lesson about doing that, so she stayed still and tense.
“Well isn’t that a blast from the past,” Murphy called, never subtle, and she thought maybe that was where Cam got it from, was something like that genetic? Murphy grinned and shielded his eyes from the sun. “She naked under your shirt, bro?”
“Oh god,” she whispered and turned to dart back inside despite Shane gesturing at his brother to cool it.
“Ignore him,” Shane said, coming in and locking the door again.
But it was too late, the damage was done. “I’m not the one we have to worry about,” she said and pulled off his tee shirt, she was too frantic to be modest and he’d seen her naked before, he’d said it so many times that it was a given now. Her underwear was as concealing as a bathing suit, but honestly, she didn’t care, couldn’t care, while she paced and panicked.
“What’s wrong?” Shane asked, coming over to take her arm and stall her. “Gin, talk to me.”
Now was as good a time as any to have the conversation. “He’s jealous of you,” she whispered.
“Who?”
And right then, she considered that he might be the dumbest man on the planet. “Calvin,” she said, refraining from following it up with a ‘duh’ as she wanted to. “We’re spending too much together.”
“You’re spending too much time with Calvin?”
God, he was thick or playing dumb to rile her. “Us, we’re spending too much time together,” she said and pulled his hand off her arm. “And you touch me too much.”
He squinted. “Is that you saying that or him?”
“Him!” she said then lowered her volume and began to finger the ends of her hair. “What was I thinking? He tells me it’s too much and then I come up here and sleep in your bed.”
“I wasn’t in it,” Shane said. “If I was in it, then I could understand him being upset… But wait a fucking sec, I’m the husband! Shouldn’t I be pissed off about your little make-out session in the yard last night?”
She sagged and was more mortified. “You saw that?” Ginger whined and he nodded. Her head fell to her hands. “God, this is a mess. He was upset, I had to give him something.”
“Give him something?” Shane said and his tone wasn’t promising. He shook her once to make her look at him. “I left you alone because I thought you wanted to kiss him. Are you telling me you were doing that under duress?”
“No! Not under duress, no! Shane, I—”
“I think I need to talk to your fiancé—”
Before he could move her aside, she got in front of him and grabbed his arms. “Please, Shane, this is difficult enough, I can’t have you two… fighting… I… please.”
“Please what?” he asked. “What do you want me to do? Let him force you into kissing him?”
This was getting away from her fast. “He didn’t force me,” she said, “it wasn’t like that. I just meant… he doesn’t feel good. I wanted to make him feel good.”
His scowl didn’t scream understanding, in fact it was snide. “I don’t feel good, what are you going to give me?” he snapped.
If he was going to give attitude, she was going to give it back. “You’re a big boy, get over it.”
“Oh so he’s the baby, are we in agreement over that? He gets a kiss and I get the cold shoulder?”
Shane didn’t pout like Calvin did, but his anger made her feel different, so she responded to each man in different ways. She didn’t fight with Calvin, not like this. It made no sense to her why Shane couldn’t see this from Calvin’s point of view.
“What do you want from me?” she asked, lifting her shoulders. “You want a kiss, will that make you feel better?” She picked up his hand and kissed the back of it.
He grouched. “Yeah, ‘cause that’s the same as what he got.”
“I can’t give you both the same…” She moved in close so no one could overhear, or maybe she was paranoid. “Did you forget what happened in the bathroom?”
That relaxed him, but it wasn’t supposed to make him smirk like that. “I didn’t forget.”
Clinging to her patience, Ginger tried to be clear, “You and me, we’re…”
“We’re? Married? Yeah, I know.”
“Well I don’t,” she said and his attitude began to accumulate again, she could actually feel it prickling her skin without him saying a word. “I don’t remember being married to you, so you can’t expect me to do… married things.”
“I never asked you to do any damn thing. We’re talking about what your fiancé is asking you to do,” he said and picked up her hand to show her ring. “And why are you still wearing this? You know you’re not going to marry him, right?”
Pulling her hand away, she stepped back. “I don’t know that. Why should I know that?”
Bowing, he brought his face close to hers. “To marry him, you have to divorce me… You think I’m going to consent to a divorce? Look at my face, Bit, do I look like I’m open to that?”
But she wouldn’t be intimidated by Shane any more, she’d seen how he melted around their child. Ginger could be overwhelmed by him, but she’d never fear him. “Who I marry is my business and I’ll divorce you if I want to, I can argue extenuating circumstances. There isn’t a judge in the country who wouldn’t consent to a divorce petition given the situation, even without your consent.”
He threw his head back in a laugh then sneered at her. “Oh, baby, you do have a sense of humor.” Getting close again, he brushed his fingers down
the strap of her bra. “It’ll take more than a kiss to scare me away.”
She brought her hands to her hips. “Then I’ll make sure he gets more than a kiss next time.”
Horror made him inhale, but the door opened. Owen stuck his head in, her brother faltered when he drank in the scene. “Are you two fighting again?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
Owen shrugged. “At least you agree on something. I’d tell you to get a room, but… yeah… Anyway, put some clothes on, sis, the nanny is here, it’s therapy time.”
Spinning around, she marched to her room. “Oh, goodie,” she hissed.
8
Therapy was not going to be fun today. Maybe because she was in a huff or because Shane was sulking, but no one was saying much. Guinness was struggling to get anyone to engage. “I sense heightened tension in the room today,” Guinness said. “Should we talk about that?”
“No,” Shane said at the same time she did.
“Did something happen between you two?” Guinness asked.
She shook her foot and turned her eyes to Calvin who was fixated on her. “Did you talk to him?” Calvin asked. “Is he giving you trouble?”
“Yo, buddy, I’m right fucking here,” Shane said. “If there’s trouble, it’s between her and me.”
“That’s not the point of this retreat,” Diane said, more smug than usual. “You were told to back off, weren’t you?”
“Oh, you spoke to your mommy about it,” Shane said to Calvin then looked at her. “You were right, Bit, he is a baby.”
Slamming her hand on the arm of the chair, she sat up. “I did not say that!”
Shane scoffed. “You’ve called me way worse, if he needs his hand held over one bad name, he is a fucking baby,” he said.
“Ok, why don’t we go back to the beginning,” Guinness said and laid his focus on Calvin. “You and Ginger talked about Shane?”
Remember When... Page 10