Ch 82: Looking Forward

“Thanks for coming to my game, Dad,” Stevie said, giving his father a huge hug. “Come to the next one, okay?”

“Looking forward to it, Buddy. Love you,” Jeffery said, holding on a bit longer than Stevie might have wished, especially in front of his friend.

“Love you, too,” Stevie said and he quickly jumped into the car beside Cindy.

Jeffery stared at the two kids in the backseat for a minute, his fists stuffed into his front pockets.  How he longed to be going home with them. He then shifted his gaze to Wendy.  How he wished he could go home to her bed!

“Jeffery, may I have a word before we go?” Wendy asked.

 “Yes,” he said on automatic.

Wendy moved toward Jeffery’s pickup and he followed. He stood on pins and needles waiting for her to say something, but all she did for about a minute was look at her shoes and kick at the gravel.

“Wendy, what is it?” he said, anxiously. How much worse could this situation be anyway? Would she now ask for a divorce?

“I remember you saying you would come over to be with the kids while I’m at work, but I don’t want to make it rough for you,” she said.

“Being with the kids isn’t rough, Wendy, not ever. It’s NOT being with them that’s killing me,” he replied.

She didn’t seem to hear this, or perhaps chose to ignore it. “Thing is, I start work before they get out of school, but you won’t be able to close up shop so early, but I don't think you have to. Janet and Jasmine will mostly be home right after school, but they should be okay until you can come. Your main concern was them being alone and unsupervised with their boyfriends, but Wes and Troy both have practice, at least until soccer season is over. So, really, whenever you get there—five or six o’clock-- is fine. I’ll have dinner ready for you. You can have the girls heat everything up. They know how and…”

“Wendy, I can handle it. I know how to feed the kids. I can even whip up dinner, too. They aren’t two years old anymore and it’s not like I’ve never done this before. I did take care of the twins when you were stuck in the hospital with Stevie trying in vain to keep him from entering the world too early, remember?”

She smiled. “Yes, I should have remembered that. Okay, then, we’ll see you on Thursday…the kids will, I mean. I 'll be gone already, but that’s another thing.  I ‘ll be back kind of late—close to midnight if it’s anything like last time. I’ll try to get home as early as I can.”

“Wendy, don’t worry. This is your time, your big break. You’re chef of a great restaurant!  I should say a restaurant that you’ll make great. This is your dream and I definitely won’t stand in your way this time,” he said adamantly.

“This time?” she said bewildered.

He looked like a deer stuck in headlights all of a sudden. “I mean…we kinda took a wrong turn along the way and…” He grimaced then shrugged. “Well, what’s done is done. You’ve got your dream coming true now. That’s what’s important and I’ll do anything I can to help you out.”

Wendy stared at him, part astonished and part relieved. “Thank you, Jeffery. This means a lot to me.”

“Believe me, I have nothing better to do, nothing I’d rather do at any rate. I’ll be very happy to stay with the kids for as long as it takes. I wish it was for every single day. So, we’re good, okay?” Jeffery said.

She nodded and smiled. “Thank you, Jeffery. Goodnight,” she said, going back to her car. She was about to open the door, but Jeffery got there first and held it open for her.

“See you,” he said, stepping closer and kissing her on the cheek. He lingered a moment longer inhaling her familiar fragrance then stepped back. “Good night.”

“Bye,” Wendy whispered. It was as she buckled up that she remembered to breathe. She looked at him in her rear-view mirror and almost cried. He looked so forlorn… as bad as she felt. She sniffed, picked up her chin and drove away.

“Mom! What are you doing here?” Janet shrieked.

“She brought me home from Stevie’s game,” Cindy said. “See? I told ya she’d be here with Wes.”

“You were right,” Wendy said.

“Were you looking for me?” Janet asked, getting up off the couch and kissing her mother on the cheek, the very same one Jeffery had just kissed.

“No, but I can take you home, if you like, after I speak with Donny,” Wendy said.

“What about?” Wes asked.

Wendy laughed. “Parent stuff. I want to make sure he knows I took care of his little darling. We fed her and everything!”

“We?” Janet asked. 

“We went out to dinner with Dad,” Stevie said, almost belligerently.

“Oh. Sounds… nice,” Janet replied.

Both Stevie and his mother gaped at her, but neither said anything. Instead, they followed Cindy to the den where they found Donny reading the newspaper.

“Hi, Daddy,” Cindy said.

“Hey, baby,” he said standing up and hugging her, his eyes on Wendy. “I thought for a while, Ms. Meadows was going to keep you after all.”

“You told me I couldn’t so I brought her back, but she is fed and watered, even with Stevie trying his best to eat all her food,” Wendy said, giving her son a somewhat stern look.

“No, I didn’t!” he shouted.

Cindy giggled. 

“So, how was the game?” Donny asked.

“It was awesome, Daddy! I think Stevie’s better than Wes,” Cindy said, in a hushed voice.

“Better not let your brother hear that,” Donny replied.

“I won’t,” Cindy said. “Um…Can you talk to Ms. Meadows for a while, Daddy? I want Stevie to help me with some really tough math homework before he goes home. Is that okay?” 

“Yes, fine,” Donny said, happy for the chance to be with Wendy.

“Okay. Come on, Stevie,” she said grabbing his hand.

“Cindy, are you not forgetting something?” Donny asked.

“Oh…Thanks for taking me to the game and for dinner, Ms. Meadows. I had a lot of fun,” she said.

“No problem, Sweetie. Hope we can do it again,” Wendy replied watching the two kids vanish around the corner. “So, what are we supposed to talk about? The weather? Politics?  The latest best seller?”

He laughed. “We can start with how are you?”

“Oh, well, going for the boring, are we? I’m fine, thank you very much. How are you?” she replied cheerfully and to her astonishment she finally felt cheerful again. Was it, she wondered, because she was away from Jeffery or because she was with Donny?

“Good now that you’re here,” he said.

Her heart did a little tumble, and flustered, she turned to the room and walked around. “Missed your baby I guess? How sweet,” she replied, trying for casual. “I promise not to steal her away for so long next time, if there is a next time, I mean.”

“I hope there is,” he said. “May I offer you some coffee?” 

“Heavens no! Too late for caffeine. Keeps me up all night,” she said, curiously  looking about the very masculine looking room. “I wonder, Donny, would you mind acting like a real estate agent now?”

“Why?” he asked.

“I want to see the rest of the house and I don’t want to seem nosy.”

He laughed then led her down the hall, to the one room of the house no one ever went in anymore. He opened the double doors and stood back in case a ghost wanted to come out. 

Instead, Wendy gasped and stepped inside spinning around in a circle. “This is a voracious reader’s heaven, you know,” she said.

“Or a voracious writer,” he mumbled, staring at the empty desk and envisioning his wife tap-tap-tapping away on her laptop. 

Wendy tore her eyes away from the huge book shelves, each filled to capacity, and looked at him. “Margarita’s room. She used to write all her stories here. Wes told me about it. Oh, how sad to see it…empty and unused.”

“She used to love this room,” he said, walking in and sighing. "Her sunny spot...during the day anyway."

“I can imagine. It’s a beautiful space.”

Donny smiled as he ran his hand over the desk, getting dusty fingers in the process. “I remember walking in here, probably to ask her if we were going to have dinner or eat out or something, and I’d find her crying at the keyboard."

"Oh, no!"

"I’d ask her what was wrong and she’d mention someone I didn’t know. They were dying or were in an accident or breaking up with the love of their lives. Then I’d ask who these people were…”

“And?” Wendy eagerly asked, riveted to the spot.

“They were inevitably characters in her books. She was crying, sometimes hysterically, over figments of her imagination and the situation she put them in. Can you believe that?  She was the funniest thing.”

“Oh,” Wendy said, laughing despite getting all teary eyed. “I would have loved to have known her.”

“I’m sure you could have been good friends. You’re so alike,” Donny said, clearing his throat, forcing a smile and leading the way out of the room. “I’ll show you the kitchen next, her second favorite room in the house.”

As they moved down the hall, a picture on the wall caught her eye and she grabbed Donny’s arm, stopping him. “Is this Margarita?” she asked needlessly.

“Yep.”

“Oh, Donny, she’s gorgeous, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Wendy whispered staring at the smiling face.

“That’s saying something."

"How do you mean?"

"Well,  you see a gorgeous woman every day,” Donny said.

“I do?”

“Yeah, in the mirror,” he said smirking.

She stared at him, her confusion apparent, until she caught on and she laughed. “Oh, I see. Thank you kindly, Sir.”

“Welcome.”

“Wow, this is some kitchen all right,” she said.

“Another room  no  one uses much anymore,” Donny said. “Except…when Janet is here. She was the first one to actually cook a real meal here since Maggie died. She might have done so again, but we got pizza.”

“Well, it’s a wonder Janet could do anything with these scant offerings,” Wendy said looking into the pantry and the fridge.

“There’s no need. No one cooks here.”

 “That’s it, Mister,” Wendy said, closing over the pantry door and turning to glare at him. “I’m taking you shopping tomorrow and I’m going to teach you how to cook.”

Donny’s jaw dropped, but he couldn’t exactly say he was surprised, nor was he upset at the prospect of spending another glorious day in her presence.

Hell no! He was looking forward to it.