Chapter 8: Cindy's Birthday

It was pure luck that our work schedules came out as well as they did. Rachel worked four half-days a week at an insurance agency. That meant that even on days that she worked she was normally home by one or one-thirty in the afternoon. I worked a more normal forty hour week and normally got back around three-thirty.

On the first Monday that we both worked I was both delighted and amazed at the wonderful smells that were coming from the kitchen. When I came through the front door she came almost running in from the kitchen, threw her arms around me and greeted me with a kiss. "I missed you today," she purred.

"Me too," I said. "I thought today would never end."

She turned and walked back toward the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour. Today's paper and your slippers are by your chair. Just sit down and relax for a while."

I laughed. "June Cleaver had nothing on you, babe." She chuckled.

She was back in a few minutes. "I just put the potatoes on to boil so I've got a few minutes." She sat in my lap and gave me another one of her wonderful kisses.

The remainder of the week was much the same except on Wednesday I demanded that we go out to eat. The nights were wonderful as well. Where when I was with Karen I had been lucky if I got sex once every week or two, with Rachel it was almost every night. I was in heaven. She was bubbly and funny and more caring than anyone I'd ever met. I thought her ex-husband must have been a fool to divorce this wonderful lady but I was glad he had.

The only thing that bothered us a little that week was the messages on her phone over at her house. George had called almost every day and left a message demanding to know where she was. He kept telling her how his parents were just dying to meet her. We both knew it was something we were going to have to take care of but figured it could wait until after Cindy came back.

On Friday night we were sitting on the sofa cuddling. I sighed, "We probably won't get to do this much after tomorrow. You know that I love Cindy but it's been kind of nice having her gone for a week, especially since I found you."

"Why in the world we have to stop this just because Cindy's here," she said. "Don't you think she would kind expect it to be a little different since I'm living here?"

"Yes, but..."

"No buts," she said emphatically. "Look at it this way. If I'm on one side and Cindy's on the other you have two women who love you and want to be near you." She chuckled, "I thought it was every man's dream to have two beautiful women hanging on him."

"Is this going to be a habit," I asked.

"What?"

"You being right all the time," I said dryly.

She grinned, "You betcha. Every man needs a woman to keep him straight."

"Enough already. I give up. I submit" and I leaned in to steal a kiss.

We had to get up early on Saturday to pick up Cindy. We were waiting in the church parking lot when the bus pulled in. She was one of the last one's off the bus. She spied us and came running, "Dadddy", and threw herself in my arms. She looked off to my right and said, "Hi Rachel." She realized what she was doing and looked into my eyes. "Dad, I'm fourteen. Put me down." I put her back down, collected her luggage and we were off.

In the car on the way back she couldn't stop talking about her week. She told us about the girl who got homesick after the first day and made her parents come and get her, "What kind of live must she have if she couldn't stay away from her mommy for five days?" And she told us about Brian who, according to her, is "kind of a nerd but he's really nice and he knows almost as much about cars as me." And on, and on and on...

When she finally ran down, Rachel looked back at her and said, "Cindy, honey, while you were I, ah, sort of moved in with your dad. If it bothers you, I can move back into my own house."

According to Rachel she got a smirk on her face before she said, "Don't you dare, I haven't seen dad this happy since mom left." And as an afterthought, "Besides I really didn't like staying alone in the house until dad got home." That was news to me and I felt kind of bad about having left her by herself. "Hey, Rachel," she continued, "can you teach me how to cook? I asked mom but she told me she didn't have time and besides I was too young. I'm almost fifteen and I don't think that's too young. I'm not going to set the fire or something."

"Cindy, honey, I'm not the world's greatest cook but I'll be glad to teach you what I know."

Cindy's response? "Neato!"

I joined the conversation, "Don't believe her about not being her good cook, sweetie. I've been eating her cooking for a week and if we didn't go for a walk after dinner I'd be as big as a pig. But you probably wouldn't find that out until this evening. I thought we'd stop some place for lunch if that's alright with you." Cindy named a fast food joint that serves food I wouldn't feed to my dog but all the kids seem to like. So, I suffered through a greasy hamburger and fries and we arrive home around two in the afternoon.

For dinner that evening we had left over roast beef from a previous meal but on Sunday Rachel pulled out all the stops. We had roast turkey and all the fixings. Cindy was there while it was being fixed, asking all sorts of questions and helping whenever she could. I do know that she mixed up the stuffing and put it in the turkey. I made sure to tell her it was the best I'd ever tasted. And, in truth it was very good. The really good about the whole thing was how well Rachel and Cindy got along. It was much better than she had ever got along with her mother. Where her mother had often short tempered and acted like Cindy was a bother, Rachel was understanding and patient and loving.