Time to Control (27 page)

“I'm not going anywhere, babe.”

“Why me?”
 
I whispered after a minute.

“No.”
 
He laid a finger against my lips.
 
“We're not going through that
again.
 
Not tonight.
 
I don't have the energy for that.
 
You're mine, and I love you.
 
You're not going anywhere.”

“Except maybe to your bed?”
 
My tear-lined eyes looked at him
hopefully.

He raised an eyebrow.
 
“I thought you were tired?”

“Yeah.
 
Um, yes.”
 
I flopped an arm across my head
dramatically.
 
“I am so
exhausted.
 
I have no energy to
unclothe myself.
 
Where ever can I
find a willing person to undress me?”

***

Eddie's father Phil picked us up at
the Hartford airport.
 
The men
embraced, glad to see each other.
 
Phil then took my hands and studied me.

“So you're Schroeder,” he said,
smiling with a twinkle in his eye.
 
I could see where Eddie got his.
  
“We've heard so much about
you.”
 
He tugged at my hands and
gave me a strong hug.
 
Eddie also
got his height and build from his father,
 
the son being an inch or so taller.
 
Phil hadn't kept in as good of shape, and was starting to put a few
pounds on around his waist, but showed that Eddie had a great future in store
for his body.
 
Eddie must have
gotten his hair color from his mother, as what was left of Phil's hair was dirty
blond.
 
“It's good to meet you,”
Phil said, releasing me.
 
Eddie took
me from him, putting his arm around my shoulders.

“It's good to meet you too,” I said
back, and found that I sincerely meant it.
 
Phil had the same easygoing personality as Eddie, and I felt immediately
at ease.
 
“Thank you for having me.”

Eddie kissed my cheek.
 
“Come on, let's go.
 
It's an hour drive from here, and I'm
getting hungry for Mom's cooking.”

“Anything's better than mine, huh?
Don't answer that,” I said hurriedly, sliding into the backseat.
 
Eddie chuckled and closed the door
behind me and got into the passengers seat.

“Sure you don't want to drive?”

“Dad, it's your car, you
drive.”
 
It sounded like an old, but
well loved, argument.
 
I didn't mind
riding, but I also wouldn't have minded driving – the luxury Jaguar was
made for road trips like this, and would be a pleasure to drive.
 
I rested my head back on the headrest
and listened to Phil update Eddie on happenings in their small town.

“Sweetheart, we're here,” Eddie
said softly.
 
I sat up with a start,
rubbing my neck to work out the kink in it.
 
He was looking back from the front seat,
trying not to laugh at me, and I saw that he inherited the crinkles around his
eyes from his father, who was also trying not to chuckle at me.
 
I glared at them suspiciously, then grabbed
a small mirror from my purse and saw that the right side of my hair was
sticking straight up.
 
Ye gads.

A few minutes with my hair brush
tamed the errant side, and I pretended that I didn't notice Phil slowing down
on the last few streets before theirs, making sure I was presentable before
pulling into their driveway.

“You go in and say hello to your
mother – I'll bring in your bags,” Phil told Eddie, coming to a stop in
front of the two car garage.
 
I
looked at the old farmhouse as I got out of the car.
 
It was two stories, with extra height
showing that it was an older house.
 
A wraparound porch, whitewashed to contrast nicely with the yellow paint
on the house, had a few steps leading up to it.
 

Eddie took the steps in one stride,
and looked back at me.
 
“Coming?”

I took the steps one at a time, my
body stiff from the long plane ride and sleeping in the car.
 
Eddie must have seen uncertainty on my
face, because he smiled at me gently.
 
“You'll like my mom.
 
Just
watch out for the sugar cookies.”
 
He
opened the screen door and entered the front hallway.
 
“Mom!
 
We're home!”

“Eddie!
 
I thought I heard the car.”
 
A tall, slender woman entered the foyer
from a doorway on the left, wiping flour from her hands onto her apron.
 
She gave him a big hug and a kiss, not
minding that she got the white powder all over his black t-shirt.
 
“And you must be Schroeder,” she said
warmly.
 
“I'd hug you, but I don't
want to get flour all over you.”

“It'll wash out,” I told her, and
moved forward hug her anyway.
 
Family matters to them, I realized, and wanted to be a part of this
close-knit community.
 

“You're just as pretty as Eddie
said.”
 
I blushed at the compliment,
and busied myself with dusting off the flour.
 
“Come into the kitchen – I need to
pull the next batch of cookies out of the oven.”

“Mom, we're not seven.
 
We don't need milk and cookies when we
get home.”
 
Eddie's actions belied
his words as he followed her into the kitchen.

“Liar,” she said fondly, pouring
two large glasses of milk.
 

I hopped up on one of the wooden
stools next to the kitchen bar and helped myself to one of the still warm sugar
cookies on a platter.
 
I let out a
little sigh of delight, and grabbed another one.
 
“These are delicious.”

“Told you so.”
 
Eddie stuffed one in his mouth.

“Not too many, you'll spoil your
dinner,” Mom warned.
 
Eddie ignored
her and grabbed another.

I excused myself to find a
restroom, and when I came back out I followed the sound of Eddie's voice to the
front foyer.
 

“You can just leave the bags here
for now, Dad.
 
I'll take them up to
our room later.”

“Oh no, I can take them up
now.
 
Doc says it's good exercise
for my knee to do stairs.”

“Dad, I don't want you to need
surgery again.
 
I'll take them.”

“Eddie, can I speak with you?”
 
I interrupted, and both turned in
surprise.
 
“Outside?”

He put his hand on my lower back
and escorted me out onto the porch, and I whirled on him as soon as the door
shut.

“We are
not
sharing a bed!”

“Schroeder, it's no big deal.”

“Yes, it is!
 
I don't want your parents thinking we're
having sex!”

“Well, we are,” he said with a sly
grin.
 
He put his arms around me in
apology.

“Eddie, no.
 
I'm liking your parents.
 
I don't want them to think I'm
corrupting their son.”

“Sweetheart, it's fine,” he
repeated.
 

“No.
 
I'll sleep in your brother's room.”

Eddie looked at me humorously.
 
“They redid the room when he married
Becca.
 
It's now Mom's quilting
room.
 
You can sleep on the couch,
but I'll warn you – it's not bad for napping, but not for sleeping.
 
You can sleep down at Tony's, a quarter
mile down the road.
 
Or you can
share my bed.”

Tony's house was sounding like a
better and better option to me, and it must have shown on my face because Eddie
finally caved.

“Look, it's no big deal.
 
We're not going to be doing
anything.
 
You know that, I know
that, and my parents know that.
 
Mom's a light sleeper.
 
You
open a dresser drawer during the night, and she's there in the next heartbeat
asking what you need.”
 
He got a
guilty look on his face.
 
“It made
it very uncomfortable during puberty.
 
So will you believe me now?
 
It's fine.”

I stuck out my lower lip and
pouted.
 
Eddie couldn't help himself
any longer, and leaned down to take my lip in his.
 
I kissed him back, finally sinking into
his embrace.
 
He moved a hand up
from my back to knead the nape of my neck.
 
Since it was still sore from sleeping in the car, his fingers felt so
good, and I moaned into his mouth.
 
He ground his groin against mine in response.

Eddie slid his hands down my back,
tracing the lines of my butt, and scooped it up and deposited it on the porch
rail.
 
I gladly parted my legs to
let him in between, and moved my hands to his rear as he moved his hands back
up to continue their massage.

“Eddie and a girl, sitting in a
tree – K I S S I N G...”
 
A
young girls' voice carried over the yard, and Eddie and I abruptly broke it off
and moved away.
 
I pulled away too
quickly, and Eddie grabbed at my arms to keep me from falling backwards.
 
I slid off the rail and regained my
feet, but kept hold of him.

Two sets of little feet pattered across
the porch, and slammed the screen door open.
 
“Grandma!
 
Uncle Eddie was kissing a girl on the
porch!”

I chuckled and rested my forehead
against Eddie's chest, which rumbled in laughter.
 
“Karrie and Chris.
 
My niece and nephew.”

The crunch of gravel indicated a
car pulling into the driveway.
 
Eddie released me, and went out to greet his brother, standing up the
kids' bikes from where they dropped them along the way.
 
“Becca, you look radiant,” Eddie told
his sister-in-law as he helped her out of the passenger's seat and gave her a
kiss on the cheek.
 
“When are you
due?”

“Not for another three months.
 
Tony thinks it might be twins.”

My eyes bugged out when I saw Tony
lift a toddler out of the back seat.
 
If Tony was any indication, it might just be another linebacker that
Becca was having.
 
Tony had the same
height as the rest of his family, but where they were lanky, Tony was
thick.
 
Not fat, I noticed as he
carried the little one around the car to her mother, just built like a bear.

Hugged like a bear too, I thought
as he lifted me up off the ground.
 
“So you're the woman who is finally getting my older brother to settle
down.
 
Good on you.”

“Tony, put her down,” Becca lightly
chastised her husband, and gave me an one-armed hug when Tony released her.
 
I greeted Becca with a hug, and tickled
the toddler's stomach.
 
The little
girl giggled and tossed her arms around her mother's neck.

“Ooof.
 
This is Izabel.
 
Izzie, do you want to give your Uncle
Eddie a kiss?”
 
Izzie shook her head
no, but looked over at him curiously.

“If you came to visit more often,
she would remember you and not be scared of you,” Tony teased his brother.

“Afraid of me?
 
Why would you be afraid of me?”
 
Eddie gently teased the little one,
tweaking her nose.
 
Izzie squealed
in delight, and stuck her arms out to move to him.
 
He readily took the girl, tossing her in
the air a few times before settling her in the crook of his arm.

I smiled, taking in the sight.
 
He was good with kids, really, really
good.
 
I wanted that to be our child
that he was snuggling with and playing with.
 
Giving into temptation, I gave Eddie a
kiss on the cheek and hugged them both.

“Hey, get your own kid, that one's
ours.”
 
I blushed at Tony's teasing
comment, stepping away from them.
 
Eddie laughed good-naturedly, and led the way inside to dinner.

Dinner with the Valenti-Kirby's was
what I had always fantasized Christmas dinner was like with more than three
people.
 
Large amounts of home
cooking – meat loaf, in this case – combined with lots of fun.
 
Rolls weren't passed around the table,
they were tossed.
 
Five year old
Chris was just as happy asking me for more milk as he was asking his
parents.
 
And the teasing going on around
the table simply filled me with a sense of peace and welcoming.

“You're going to marry my Uncle
Eddie?”
 
Karrie, seven years old and
full of spunk, asked.

I opened my mouth to say yes, but
that wasn't what came out.
 
“No,
Karrie.
 
I like you all, and I can't
lie to you guys.”
 
I looked around
the table, avoiding Eddie's gaze.
 
“I don't want to deceive you.
 
We're already married.
 
We
eloped.
 
We were just going through
the motions for everyone else.
 
I'm
sorry.”
 
The chair scraped against
the tile floor as I stood up hurriedly, and ran out of the room.