Page 74 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Let me take you out to dinner tonight.”

“Can we go to the drive-in?”

“Sure. But we can’t stay for the second show. I have an early meeting.”

I ran my finger along his shirt until hooking it under the button by his collar. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”

“Oh, you want me so bad.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I teased and he surprised the heck out of me by scooping me up into his arms and bursting through the door to our home, carrying me toward the stairswithout even sayinghelloto Maisie, who laughed and clapped her hands, like she couldn’t get enough of this.

“Okay, you’re getting me nowandtonight.”

“Right,” I replied, all heaving bosom and breathy voice. When it came to getting turned on by my husband, I went from zero to six hundred in less than 2.75 seconds.

Oh, yes, Ilovedbeing married.

After taking his time with me in the shower, we toweled off, dressed, and then he drove us to the drive-in. He’d been promising to take me here since we got back from Mexico. It’d been years since I’d been to one. We dined on fried pickles with ranch dressing, crispy onion rings, and seriously the best, messy cheeseburgers in the entire state of Vermont—not that I’d eaten every burger in Vermont, but the drippier the better and this dripped a puddle. It seemed a safe bet.

The next morning, he left me lying naked in bed while he went back to the office. I felt useless now that we weren’t heading out on the road any longer and I still couldn’t find a job. I didn’t even have the ability to be a homemaker unless I wanted to put people out of work and that was the last thing I wanted for our staff. They relied on their paychecks and Blake paid really well.

As I wandered downstairs for my first fortifying cup of coffee for the day and one of Dee’s breakfast pastries with eggs and cheese and in my case, mushrooms, and spinach, my phone lit up with Lorelei’s name.

“Hey,” I answered.

“You busy today?” she asked.

“Well, you know I have to work today, and then I have to come home and cook, then clean the house.”

“Damn… I was hoping you wanted to hang out at the lake with me. It’s too bad.”

We both started laughing. “Which lake?” I asked.

“Does it matter? Vermont is full of them and it’s a lake. Only good, idyllic fun can be held at a lake.”

“Tell that to the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake.”

“Ooh—good point. Okay, so noteverylake. But Jason Voorhees lived in New Jersey. It’s second summer this week and I’veneverheard of one serial killer coming back from the dead in Vermont.”

“You promise—not one?”

“Scout’s honor.”

“Were you ever a Girl Scout?”

“Not even a Daisy.”

Fits of giggles echoed through my house between the two of us—I had her on speaker phone while I sipped my coffee that Dee already had sitting in a large mug waiting for me. Dee smiled as she worked around me. The kitchen solely fell under Dee’s domain. She ran it like a small restaurant.

“You’re done here,” Dee said, swiping my plate out from under me even though I’d only halfway taken another bite of my pastry. I looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Go get ready for the lake.” Then Dee shooed me off. I felt lucky to leave the kitchen with my life and my cup of coffee intact.

She laughed at me scooting out the kitchen with my phone pressed between my chin and my shoulder while holding the pastry between my lips and hugging my mug to my chest. Hey, that took talent.

I rearranged my pastry to lay flat over the mouth of my coffee mug, which left me a free hand to hold my phone.

“I’m headed up to get changed,” I told Lorelei.

“Wear a suit. We’re swimming today.”

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