Page 170 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“Some…”

“No! I don’t want to hear your excuses. Are you at least laying down when the sitter comes?”

She blushed again and refused to look at him.

“Seriously? So, not only have you been lying to me and not taking care of yourself, but you disobeyed me as well?”

Her mouth dropped open. “I didn’t dis—”

“I specifically told you to find someone to help out. I gave you an amount of money per week, to do so. Speaking of which… the money has been going out, so where is it?”

“In a savings fund,” she spoke under her breath. “But, I swear my main motivation wasn’t to deceive you, Dave. I wanted to surprise you with a little nest egg. With the van the-”

She clamped her hand over her mouth.

“With the van what, Victoria?”

She looked like she was going to be sick, and answered barely above a whisper. “The van has been acting up. We keep having to jump start it, and the mechanic said a new battery won’t help; it will cost more than the van is worth to fix it.”

“And, you didn’t tell me because…” He held his hand up before she could respond. “Wait, don’t answer. ‘You didn’t want to worry me’, right? Tori, I swear I don’t know whether to spank you until you cry or hold you while I cry? When did you stop relying on me to carry your burdens? When did you stop trusting me?”

She began to sob at that. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just feel like I have to be the perfect army wife, and the perfect mom, and the perfect woman, and…”

He pulled her down into his arms and held her while she cried.

Once she had calmed down, they sat on the floor across from each other holding hands. “Now, tell me everything you’ve been scared of burdening me with, ok?”

She took a deep breath and it all came flooding out. “Well, the pregnancy and anemia. I’ve been spotting so I was scared we’d lose the baby. Then, the van’s issues and the dishwasher’s been broken since you left, and I’m so tired of leading the FRG, and Gideon is still wetting the bed at night, and Tyler refuses to do math without a threat of bodily harm, and I’m so tired. Oh, David, I am so tired.” By the end she was sobbing again.

He stroked her back and rocked her slightly, making soft shushing noises. “It’s okay, my love, It’ll be okay. I’m here now.”

He could tell when she finally succumbed to sleep because it was the only time she truly rested all of her weight on him. He kissed her head sadly. “This is the story of our lives, isn’t it? You don’t want to fully rely on me to bear your burdens. Well, that is gonna change, missy.”

Lifting her into his arms, he gently tucked her into their bed, and went through the house to turn off lights and make sure all the doors and windows were locked. Daddy was home, and he was going to make sure his family was safe. Starting with his stubbornly self-sufficient bride.

Chapter Three

The next morning Victoria opened her eyes to the smell of bacon and coffee. Glancing at the clock she gasped! Crap! Eight A.M. She had missed her alarm. She glared at it realizing the little button was set to “off”. She never turned it all the way off which meant that David had changed it. Stretching as she got out of bed, she smiled a little though. It was nice to wake up to breakfast cooking and actually get a full eight hours of sleep. Actually, she must have gotten closer to ten. After taking care of her morning business, she groaned at the mirror. Her belly was definitely getting bigger and she’d need to pull out her larger maternity shirts. She padded out to the kitchen where the boys were sitting while David made bagel sandwiches.

“Morning, sunshine!” He leaned over and kissed her.

She happily kissed him back, and then squinted her eyes at him. “Somebody turned off my alarm, so I was three hours late getting up today. Who do you think would be so naughty, boys?”

The littlest ones looked worried, but Joel grinned. “I bet it was Daddy! Are you gonna discipline him, Mama?” Everyone laughed, and David growled.

“Nah, I think I’ll just let him serve me some of this awesome breakfast. I bet you guys are glad to be rescued from oatmeal today, huh?”

The boys all nodded eagerly. Gideon spoke up though. “Oatmeal’s gross.”

Tori’s eyebrows shot up. “Try again. We don’t use that word about food in this house, little man.”

He sighed and glared at her.

“One…”

“Okay! Oatmeal is… not yummy.”

She smiled. “I’ll accept that. But, it’s cheap, and it’s good for you.”

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