Beyond Ordinary

“Where are Jenny and Rose?” she asked, her voice muffled by Matt’s chest because he’d wrapped his arms around her tightly.

Angel loved having an older brother. Maybe if she’d known about him in high school, she could have gone to him for advice when boys started to sniff around her once she’d started to develop this double-edged sword of a killer body. Maybe things could have gone differently for her….

“I can’t breathe,” Jesse wailed against her thighs, and Matt pulled away, laughing.

“How long are you staying this time?” Matt asked.

“I’m staying in Ordinary only a few weeks.” She refused to call it home. As soon as she figured out how to deep-six Phil and Missy’s marriage, she was getting out of here and staying away. She’d warned Matt enough times that she wouldn’t end up in Ordinary permanently. At some point, he would have to believe her.

They all entered a house that smelled like bananas.

They found Jenny and Rose in the kitchen. Half a pot of chicken-noodle soup sat on the stove and a loaf of banana bread cooled on the counter.

Angel spotted the mix box in the recycling bin in the corner of the kitchen. Jenny was a terrible cook. She did nothing from scratch.

She rushed to give Angel a big hug, but not before Angel noticed her belly and hooted.

“Another baby?”

“Yes,” Jenny said, beaming.

Women everywhere were having babies, while Angel…well, none of her encounters with men seemed to last long enough to reach the let’s-commit-and-make-babies stage. She swallowed her sorrow.

Enjoy your niece and nephew.

She walked to the table and kissed the little blond-haired, blue-eyed doll sitting in the high chair.

Rose giggled and kicked her feet. “Up, Auntie Angel.”

Angel lifted the tray away from the chair. It looked as though more noodles had ended up on it than inside her niece.

Rose kicked her feet and said, “Angel. Up. Peese.”

Angel laughed and blew her a raspberry. “Hold your horses, squirt.”

Rose blew a raspberry back at Angel, sending spittle flying. Angel made a show of jumping out of the way, and Rose giggled.

Angel unbuckled Rose’s belt and lifted her into her arms, sniffing her kid scent of powder and baby shampoo and chicken-noodle soup.

She kissed Rose’s nose. “What are you up to today?”

“I played dollies and bocks and pee-peed in my potty.”

“You did?” Angel exclaimed.

Rose nodded emphatically. “Big girl now.”

“You certainly are.”

Rose picked up a strand of Angel’s long hair. “I grow up pitty like you.”

No, don’t. It’s too much. It’s a burden. I want to be loved for myself, not for my face and my body.

She wanted the same for Rose, to be loved for the beautiful person she was inside. “Auntie Angel?”

“Yes, Rose?”

Rose spread her hands, as if puzzled. “What you bring me?”

Everyone laughed and Angel sent Matt and Jenny a wry smile.

“This habit of bringing gifts every time you show up is going to have to stop,” Matt said.

“Sure,” Angel said. “Next time. Come on. There’s something for each of you in the car.”

Matt wrapped his arm around her as they walked outside.

Here is where I feel at home, where I’m accepted and loved, completely and utterly. On Matt and Jenny’s ranch, she wasn’t trashy Angel Donovan. Here, she wasn’t Missy’s daughter. In this house, she was a good sister-in-law, a loving sister and a world-class aunt.

WHEN PHIL RETURNED TO the house, Missy still sat at the kitchen table, exactly where she’d been when Angel had left, with her head in her hands, trying to figure out what to do.

“Hey, babe,” Phil said. “Come on.” He walked down the hall to their bedroom.

Missy followed him, less and less happy about their afternoon “dates,” as Phil called them. Why couldn’t Phil ever get enough no matter how often she satisfied him—every night, most mornings and every afternoon?

Her frustration grew. Maybe today she could change that. How? For a woman who knew as much about sex as anyone could, she was drawing a blank. She had to make this work with the man she was about to marry.

When she entered the room, Phil was naked from the waist up and unbuckling his belt.

His pants dropped to the floor. Skinny legs. Small chest. It was hard for Missy to whip up enthusiasm day after day.

Phil’s face turned hard. “Where’s the car?”

Warily, Missy said, “Angel took it to visit Matt.”

She pulled off her blouse and Phil stared at her breasts. She swore he liked them better than her face.

“You shouldn’t have let her take it.” His lips pulled back into a snarl. Phil was angry. Could she use it to charge up the sex?

She dropped her pants and the tiny scrap of red lace of her thong. She turned her back to him and climbed onto the bed, hoping that the sight of her would excite him to new heights.

“Hurry up,” he said. “Get under the blankets.”

She didn’t want to hurry, was sick of hurrying, of giving and not getting. She turned onto her back but didn’t climb under the covers. Instead, she bent her knees and spread her legs. Go down on me, Phil. He never had before. She wasn’t sure what he would do if she asked. She needed satisfaction today.

“Please,” she whispered. Phil, honey, give an inch.

He shook his head, pulled off his boxers and lay on top of her, entering her without foreplay.