Chapter 30

She wouldn’t walk beside him. When he caught up to her and tried to walk alongside her she stopped, and faced away from him. Her shoulders were tense. No matter where he stepped, to try to get her to face him, she turned away. He knew better than to touch her. Something told him not to speak either.

When she started away, he simply followed her. They went for four blocks that way, his footsteps echoing hers, until she turned, suddenly.

“Go away!” she said.

“No.”

“I don’t want to talk to you!”

“I know.”

She turned and stalked off. He followed her all the way home. She opened the front door and went in, slamming it behind her. He didn’t know what to do then, so he just sat down on the front steps.

Eventually he lay back on the porch.

Prudence woke him when she got home. Kyle and Katherine were tired, and wanted him to pick them up. He did, since Prudence was burdened with the picnic basket.

“She wouldn’t talk to me. I don’t think I should go in,” he said.

“This is my house,” said Prudence. “Put them to bed, will you?”

He had to read them a story, but they fell asleep in the middle of it. He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of either Prudence or Connie, and he thought to just leave.

Constance was sitting on the step, where he had been earlier. He sat down beside her, but didn’t touch her.

“My mother says I’m an idiot,” she said.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot.”

“She says you love me.”

He didn’t answer that. He was still confused about how Prudence had known anything was going on between him and Connie at all.

“She says I love you too.” Even though she had said she loved him in the past, she didn’t sound convinced at all that her mother was right.

Bobby still sat there, silent.

“She says I loved you before Tim, and then after him, and that it was because of who you are ... who you always were.” She looked at him for the first time. “What the heck does that mean?”

“I don’t know what to think,” he admitted.

“I’m so angry with you!” she said.

“I know.”

“Every other woman in the whole stinking world gets to have your baby ... but not me ... oh no ... not Constance!” She stood up, agitated. “And do you know why?”

He had no clue, so he just sat there.

“Because when I have your baby, it will only be when we’re married, and I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth!“

She stomped up the steps and turned the knob of the door. She paused. She turned back around. Bobby was still sitting, staring straight ahead.

“You know what makes me the maddest of all?” she snapped.

He turned to look over his shoulder.

“What makes me just fume is that she’s right. I do love you!” Her voice was gruff.

Then she went inside and slammed the door.

Erica walked slowly beside Terry. He was pushing Owen. The night was glorious, and warm.

“Thanks for coming,” she said.

“My pleasure,” he responded. “I wanted to meet Owen.”

“Just Owen?”

She could see his smile in the dim ambient light.

“You have interesting friends,” he said. “I’m glad I got to meet them too.” They walked on in silence before he spoke again. “What was up with that table full of women who were glaring at us?”

“Oh, those are the town biddies,” said Erica. “They think they’re better than everybody else. I had a child out of wedlock, and that puts me on the wrong side of the tracks. You too, now.”

“Oh horrors,” he said mildly. “There goes my chance at being invited to Tupperware parties.”

She didn’t smile. “Some of my co-workers were there tonight too,” she sighed. “None of them came to meet you. It’s really disheartening.”

“If they have a problem with you, then I suspect they aren’t my kind of people anyway,” he said.

She reached out and took his arm, squeezing it against her breast.

It only took fifteen minutes for them to get to her house. He’d offered to drive her, but she’d said she wanted to walk, and that Owen’s carriage wouldn’t fit in his car. When he offered to walk with her, she accepted. Now she turned to him and took his hand.

“It’s a long way back to your car,” she said.

“It’s no big deal.”

“And it’s a long way back to Hutch.”

“I can make it.”

“I’d feel really bad if you got in an accident, just because you came to see me.” Her voice was soft.

“I’m not going to get into an accident,” he said. “Seeing you always pumps me up.”

She dropped his hand.

“If you think I’m just going to beg you to stay all night, you have another think coming, buster!” Her voice was stern.

He smiled. Then he yawned, theatrically.

“Wow, it’s really late!” he said, looking at his wrist. She could see the watch there, but it was obviously too dark to read the face. “And I’m almost out of gas too! Is there anyplace open in town to get gas?”

“Not this late,” said Erica.

“Man!” he said, sounding disappointed. “I didn’t plan this well at all. Is there any way ... any way at all ... that you could see your way clear to let me sleep on the couch? I won’t mess anything up, and I’ll leave early ... just as soon as a gas station opens up.”

She opened the door and he lifted Owen up onto the porch, buggy and all. He followed her to what was obviously her bedroom, where there was a crib in one corner. Owen was sleeping, and didn’t wake up when she laid him down. She turned.

“My brother might come home, so you can’t sleep in his bed,” she said. She knew that wasn’t likely. Ever since Christy had accepted his proposal, he’d all but lived at her house. “And the couch is lumpy. You came all the way here to see me, and it doesn’t seem right to make you sleep on a lumpy couch.”

“Anyplace is fine,” he said. He looked at her bed. “What about this bed?”

“That’s my bed,” she said.

“That’s a pretty big bed,” he said. “And you’re not exactly a huge person.”

She got tired of playing games, and just undressed. He watched her, standing stock still as her pale skin was exposed. She pushed away a teensy feeling of insecurity, and stood before him, naked.

“I’m exhausted,” he said. “I’m absolutely sure I’d wreck my car if I tried to drive home right now,” he sighed. “I accept your kind offer of a bed for the night.”

He wasn’t exhausted. That became clear over the next two hours. He wasn’t averse to breast milk either. When it dripped on him, he simply solved the problem by sucking both nipples until it didn’t drip any more. He didn’t tell her how proud he was that she had half a dozen orgasms while he did that, or how lucky he felt to be here with her. She would find that out, months later, when they were in bed again, and could talk about anything together. But he showed her how much passion she had unleashed in him.

He showed her four times during the night.

He also didn’t leave at the crack of dawn, as he had suggested he would. And, when they woke up, the bed was a mess.

Jeff Hamilton’s conversation with Mirriam on the drive back to the B&B was remarkably similar to Terry’s.

“You have fascinating friends,” he said.

“They’re good people,” said Mirriam.

“I’d forgotten about the social flows in a small town,” he said. “I’m glad you have some friends to buffer you from the hoity toity types.”

“Was it that obvious?” she asked.

“I came from a small town myself,” he said. “It’s the same everywhere, sadly.”

“Your reputation is ruined, you know,” she said. “It was bad enough that you stayed at our place. Going to the picnic with me and dancing with me has sealed your fate.”

She parked the car and they got out. The only light on in the house was in the room where both of them knew that Randy and Wanda had probably spent the whole evening in bed. They had elected not to go to the party.

“Doesn’t seem fair,” he sighed, as they walked in the back door.

“You didn’t have to go,” she reminded him. “Had you stayed away, your reputation might still be intact.”