Waking Up Wed

by Christy Jeffries

  “What?” He tried to crane his head around to look at her but groaned in pain. “Of course not.”

  “Ever come close?” Boy, she was really on a roll now.

  “You mean, was I ever engaged?”

  “Or, you know, living together with a long-term girlfriend? Anything like that?” It was as if she couldn’t stop with the personal questions. Thank goodness he couldn’t see her face right then.

  “I was in a long-term relationship a few years ago, but I don’t know how serious it was. I mean, for me at least. She wanted to get married, but I didn’t, so we went our separate ways. What about you? Any past boyfriends I need to worry about upsetting because you’re suddenly off the market?”

  Was she off the market? Obviously she couldn’t really date anyone until they got this whole marriage thing resolved. But it was kind of weird to realize just now that her love life was going to be on a temporary hiatus.

  “I don’t think we’ll have any major issues on that front,” she said as her hands dipped below the collar of his shirt. She heard him suck in a breath, and thinking he might still be in pain, she wanted to put his mind at ease. “For the next couple of months, I’m all yours.”

  His shoulders stiffened and he jumped up from his chair, shaking the table and sending cereal and milk sloshing out of his bowl.

  “It’s fine. I’m fine. My neck’s better.” His voice was huskier than before, but the angle of his head indicated that she still hadn’t worked out the cramp. Had she said something to make him uncomfortable? “I’d better go get dressed before it gets crazy. In here. With the kids waking up and stuff.”

  Drew jogged toward the bathroom, and it wasn’t until she heard the water running that Kylie began to wonder whether it was her personal questions or her intimate touch that had caused such a weird response from the normally cool and reserved psychologist.

  It couldn’t be her touching him. Could it?

  Before she could bask in the possibility of her womanly charms, the twins sprinted out of their room and straight for the unattended box of Honey Smacks left behind on the table.

  Drew was right. It truly was about to get crazy in here.

  * * *

  After his shower, Drew quickly donned his uniform and left Kylie to deal with the mayhem of getting the kids fed and dressed. Sure, it was the coward’s way out, but his hormones were already raging to new heights. It wasn’t until he was away from the cabin and driving down the mountain that he allowed himself to revisit that awkward scene in the kitchen this morning.

  When he’d seen her long, toned legs in those ridiculously short pajama bottoms, he’d been immediately aroused. Then, as she had begun rubbing his aching neck and making her way to his shoulders, he’d known he was on the edge of losing control. Not to mention, their conversation had taken a sudden intimate turn, and all he could think about was how fabulous her hands were making him feel.

  But hearing her say that she was all his was his complete undoing.

  How could any male on the planet withstand that kind of temptation? He might’ve looked like a complete bumbling idiot when he’d knocked over his cereal and raced into the bathroom. But better to be an unsocial fool than to risk pulling her onto his lap and kissing her until neither of them could think straight.

  If he wasn’t a more disciplined man, he would’ve done exactly that. And possibly more. But he’d had years of practicing self-control, so he’d gotten the heck out of there.

  Last night, they’d decided that Kylie was going to drive Nana’s Oldsmobile, since she was dropping off the kids and her Mercedes didn’t have enough seat belts, let alone seats, for two extra passengers. The old Jeep his family kept parked at the cabin didn’t have an adapter for his iPod so, during his commute, Drew had to listen to the radio. When one of his favorite gym songs came on, he thought about hitting his punching bag later that day, if there was time.

  He looked at his crooked pinkie, a reminder of a punch gone astray. He’d taken up boxing when he’d first joined the navy, but by the time he was in graduate school, he’d decided a peaceful and genteel physical outlet would be more suitable. So now Drew’s workouts of choice were a combination of yoga and strength training. Controlling his mind and body at the same time usually helped to redirect any of his stress and negative energy.

  But today he realized that blasting loud music and boxing might be the only thing that pushed his mind and body to their absolute limits, which wouldn’t necessarily soothe him but would allow him to temporarily block out everything else.

  He pulled the Jeep into the staff parking lot and turned off the Metallica song before taking a few deep, cleansing breaths and heading into work.

  He spent the morning meeting his commanding officer and the hospital chief of staff before being shown into his new office, a beige room near the orthopedic outpatient wing. Some might have thought the psychology department should have been housed in or near the psychiatry unit, but he liked to plan for his team and his patients to be near the physical-therapy rooms. Sure, the issues he dealt with were mental in nature, but he wanted the soldiers who came to him for help to know that their battlefield scars shouldn’t be treated any differently or with any more stigma than a physical injury.

  If the proximity of his office allowed him better access to the exercise facilities, then that was a bonus. And after seeing Kylie in her skimpy tank top, her pebbled nipples pressing through the thin pink cotton, then feeling her warm, long fingers rubbing along his neck, he needed more than some planking and pikes to get his mind back where it needed to be.

  He was organizing his desk when his cell phone vibrated. Drew read the incoming text from Kylie, hoping that getting the kids out the door hadn’t proved too much for her.

  It took some finagling but I made a deal with Alex Russell to enroll the boys in the adventure camp.

  What kind of finagling? And what kind of deal had she promised the owner of the sporting-goods store in order to get special treatment?

  Wait. Why did he suddenly care who Kylie was talking to or bartering with? He’d never been jealous in his life. Not even when he’d dated his ex-girlfriend, which probably should’ve been an early indication that he hadn’t been as serious about that relationship as Jessica. He still couldn’t believe he’d told Kylie about that this morning. But her question had been simple enough, and really, Drew was pretty curious about Kylie’s past, as well.

  I’m all yours, she’d said this morning. Even though it would be unreasonable for him to expect her to give up her dating life temporarily, he didn’t like the idea of her ditching him with the twins to go out with another man.

  He checked his racing thoughts before he wrote back, Great. How did you swing that?

  I told him he could store his camp gear underneath your old boat shed. I also promised to do his quarterly taxes for the next fiscal year.

  He let out a breath. Of course she hadn’t promised Alex any sexual favors. He wanted to think that Kylie wasn’t the type of woman to do something like that. Though honestly, he didn’t know what kind of woman she was.

  But he didn’t like that brief rush of envy that had made its way through his coiled muscles and up into his brain.

  Clearly he wasn’t thinking straight. Drew rolled his neck, grimacing over the stiff pain still lingering there, then arched his back, stretching out his shoulders. He was hungry. And stressed. Possibly a little tired from trying to sleep all night in a kid-size bed, knowing a sexy and scantily clad redhead, who also happened to be his lawfully wedded wife, was sleeping just a bedroom away from him.

  But mostly, he was hungry. Dinner last night had barely filled him up, and this morning’s cereal had been left half eaten when he’d made a mad rush for the bathroom to cover up the fact that below the waistband of his pajama pants, his body was reacting way too strongly to Kylie’s proximity and touch.

  He planned to meet with his new staff at the hospital cafeteria for lunch, but maybe he should tour the buildi
ng first. Refocus his thoughts. He grabbed the cell phone off his desk, hoping no emergencies would come up for the rest of the day.

  At three o’clock, Kylie texted him again, letting him know that she’d picked up the boys from camp and asking him if he needed anything from the grocery store. He remembered her overdone mushy rice and thought about offering to do the cooking tonight, but he was supposed to sit in on a group session that started a few minutes ago and figured he could just call her on the way home.

  When he left work for the day, he’d barely gotten his Bluetooth set up when his phone rang. He saw Kylie’s name on the display and couldn’t answer quickly enough.

  “We have a change of plans for dinner tonight,” she said by way of greeting. “The microwave caught on fire, and we had a little incident with the fire extinguisher.”

  He should count his blessings that he’d almost made it a full day without a phone call like this or a trip to the emergency room. “Is everyone okay?”

  “Yes, we’re fine. The kitchen’s a mess and we’re trying to air out the cabin since it smells like a chemical explosion at a fishing village.”

  “How on earth did they set the microwave on fire?”

  “Well...uh...it wasn’t the boys. It was kinda my fault.”

  Drew let out his breath, but the sudden thought occurred that Kylie might be covering for his nephews. He gripped the wheel tightly as he wound his way up the mountain and back toward Sugar Falls.

  “You see, I was going to try to make a tuna casserole for dinner because Aiden said that was his favorite meal. So we went to the store and got some groceries and I tried to follow a recipe I found online. Then, right when I was about to pull it out of the oven, I realized I forgot to add the tuna.”

  “Okay,” he said when it seemed as if she was waiting for a response. But he still didn’t understand exactly what had happened.

  “So I figured that I could just heat the tuna up separately and layer it on the top.” Tuna and layer were two words Drew doubted the chefs on the gourmet cooking website used together too often. “Anyway, I threw it in the microwave and then I got busy showing the boys how to separate their laundry and load the washing machine when, boom, the whole package burst into flames and smoke started pouring out everywhere.”

  “Wait. You put an aluminum can in the microwave?”

  “Of course not, Drew. I’m not an idiot. It was one of those little pouches that are supposed to be better for the environment, and, well, apparently that has aluminum in it, too. They really should label that kind of thing on their packaging. Anyway, I’m terribly sorry, and I’ll buy you a new microwave tomorrow.”

  He should have taken the time to send her the text offering to cook. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. We can just have plain noodle casserole for dinner.”

  “Actually, we can’t. That’s where the fire extinguisher part of the story comes into play.”

  “What happened to the fire extinguisher?”

  “Nothing happened to it. We used it.”

  “We?”

  “Well, not me so much as the boys. I was calling the volunteer fire department, but the twins were smart enough to remember that you kept the extinguisher on the back porch. So they ran and got it and there was a little issue getting it to shoot but... Hey, you know what? We just pulled up, so I’ll tell you all about it when you meet us.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Drew, focus.” He heard her sigh. “The kitchen is a mess and the casserole was ruined from all the spray. So I brought the kids to Patrelli’s for pizza. I’ll see you there soon.”

  She disconnected the call, and Drew didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or drive straight to the hardware store for a backup fire extinguisher. Yet one more instance when his perfectly planned life went perfectly wrong. He took a few deep breaths and cranked up the radio. AC/DC was almost done playing by the time he parked the Jeep in front of the Italian restaurant on Snowflake Boulevard.

  Chapter Seven

  Sugar Falls hadn’t changed much since Drew used to come here with his family as a kid. Downtown consisted of a main street lined with old Victorian buildings. Most of the eating establishments and business were on the first floor, with office buildings or private living quarters upstairs. The Sugar Falls Cookie Company was the biggest business in town. Maxine Cooper owned the famous bakery, which was one of the top tourist hot spots on the weekends. She, Cooper and Hunter lived in the renovated apartment above it.

  City hall, along with the newly formed police department, was just a couple of blocks down—near Freckles’s Cowgirl Up Café. The small town catered to the tourists but during the week, it was mostly just locals hanging out on Snowflake Boulevard. As he walked toward the large oak door under the Patrelli’s sign, Drew remembered eating here occasionally when his parents would bring them for the summers. They’d had the best pizza and the newest arcade games.

  He stepped into the dimly lit restaurant, and the scent of garlic and yeasty dough told him they probably still had the best pizza. A look toward the arcade in the back told him the games, on the other hand, weren’t as new. But the red vinyl booths were full, and the excited kids gathered around the pinball machine and the Pole Position game suggested the patrons came there for the same reasons after all these years.

  He spotted his wife immediately and made his way toward her. An older woman wearing an Idaho Steelheads cap stood near the table, looking at the wedding ring on Kylie’s finger. Drew’s steps slowed, his own left thumb fingering the back of the ring he’d slipped on after Kylie had made that unexpected announcement at the wedding. He wondered if his wife was ashamed of the plain gold bands they’d bought who knew where. Did she wish she had something bigger to show off?

  “Drew, this is Mae Johnston.” Kylie made the introduction when he arrived. “She’s Mayor Johnston’s wife. I was just telling her about our...whirlwind courtship.”

  “It was quite a whirlwind, all right.” He smiled and slid into the empty side of the booth, taking Kylie’s outstretched hand. Apparently, the pretense was still alive and well.

  “I’m glad I’m finally getting the chance to meet you, Doctor. I just think you two are so dang cute together. When you were dancing together at the wedding, I told Cliff you guys looked as in love on that dance floor as we felt on our own honeymoon back in the day.”

  “How long have you and the mayor been married?” Drew asked, wanting to turn the attention away from his sham of a marriage and that awkward first dance.

  “We were only married for a few months that first time. But then we met up again last year at our fiftieth high school reunion, and neither one of us had anything else going on, so we thought, meh, why not?”

  “How, uh...romantic?”

  “Not really. Now, me and Don—that was my in-between husband—we had us one of those big loves. You know, the kind you read about in stories? But I lost him back in oh-eight. He also had a big romance with bourbon, you know.” Mae extended her pinkie out and tipped her thumb toward her lips as though she was drinking out of a bottle. “His ol’ liver couldn’t take it no more. But me and Cliff make do. Anyway, it was nice getting a chance to meet up with you two. Congratulations.”

  Mrs. Johnston gave a little wave, then moved on to the next table to make conversation and schmooze. He guessed being married to the mayor, twice, came with certain social duties and civic obligations.

  “The boys are in the game room with a stack of quarters, and I ordered you the large meatball sub,” Kylie said as she slid a red plastic cup full of soda toward him. “I figured if that wasn’t enough, you could share some pizza with us.”

  “Sounds great,” he said and took a big swallow to help appease his stomach, which had begun growling the moment he walked in the door.

  “I’m sorry again about dinner. And about your microwave.”

  A waitress brought out their food, and looking at everything covered in freshly made tomato sauce and piping hot cheese, Drew wrestle
d with the urge to confess to Kylie that he would have preferred this dinner over tuna noodle casserole any day. It was actually a win-win. “Don’t worry about it. You’re a whiz with the kids, and you managed to keep them all in one piece today.”

  “I also negotiated a pretty sweet deal with Alex for their summer camp.” Kylie gestured for him to start eating. “Go ahead. The kids will be in there awhile.”

  “How did their first day go, by the way?” Biting into his toasted sandwich, he let his taste buds get acclimated to what real food was supposed to taste like. A burned-up and oversprayed kitchen was well worth it to savor this kind of heavenly, meaty goodness.

  “Actually, Alex said they did pretty well. I guess about halfway through the day, he split them up and assigned them to different wilderness teams, which helped keep them out of trouble.”

  “Ah, divide and conquer. Why haven’t I tried that approach?”

  She smiled, and he tried to ignore how natural it felt to talk to her about every day family life.

  “My guess is it’s easier when there are other kids around to distract them. Plus, it sounds as though they stayed so busy, they didn’t have time to get into any scrapes.”

  “You have no idea how relieved I am that they haven’t been kicked out yet.”

  “Drew, they’re sweet boys. Sure, they’re a little rambunctious, but they just need some guidance and an outlet for all their energy. Plus, Alex knows he’s getting a good deal and will put up with just about anything to get free accounting services from me.”

  “Kids really aren’t my forte,” Drew admitted. He also wasn’t well trained in having other men indebted to his wife.

  “Well, cooking isn’t mine. We can’t all be perfect, Saint Drew.”

  “I’ll make you a deal. You keep doing what you’re doing with the twins, and I’ll do all the cooking.”

  She raised her arms above the red vinyl booth in a sign of victory. “It’s a deal. I’ve waited two hours for you to say those exact words to me. You really know the way to a girl’s heart.”