Weddings in the Family

Caroline reached over his shoulder and snagged an olive, popping it into her mouth. Her other hand rested on his shoulder.

“Sorry about last night,” she said softly, her breath a whisper against his ear.

He relaxed and turned around, placing his hands on her waist. “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to spring it on you like that.”

She tilted back, her eyes narrowed. “You weren’t hoping that making love would keep me from yelling at you?”

“I didn’t plan it that way, but afterward, I did think it might help.” He kissed the tip of her nose and then edged away, giving the hamburger sizzling on the stove a stir. “I didn’t accept the promotion yet, Caro. I wanted to talk to you first.”

“I figured that out after I calmed down this morning.” She carried the condiments to the table and spread out the dishes he had stacked in the center. “I made a list.”

His bark of laughter echoed around the room. She faced him, her hands on her hips. “I know you think my lists are crazy, but they let us see all the options. I’ll show you after supper.”

He nodded and dished up the meat. Caroline was always easier to talk to when she was well fed.

After dinner, with the dishwasher humming quietly in the background, Caroline lit a candle on the kitchen counter. The soft scent of apple cinnamon cut through the spicy aroma of the tacos they had just eaten. Outside, a neighbor mowed the common area in front of the town houses, taking advantage of the light now that daylight saving time had started. Two children raced past the window on big-wheeled tricycles, their voices high and shrill over the loud whirring of their tires.

“I listed the pros and cons of two options,” Caroline said.

He turned away from the scene outside. “Two options?”

She pulled a tablet out of her bag and opened it to the first page. “Not what you think.”

He frowned. The only two options that came to his mind were taking the job or not taking the job.

She laid her hand on top of his. “You need to take the job, Nick. That’s a given. You’ve worked hard for the promotion. I know we didn’t consider a move, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We just have to look at what’s good for both of us.”

He glanced at the paper she had turned toward him. The heading at the top caught his eye. “You stay in Iowa?”

“Yes. Wait—” she said quickly, lifting her hand. “Just listen before you say anything.”

She pointed to the first two items on her list. “Pros. You get the experience and job you deserve. I can develop my program with the teachers.”

He tapped the right side of the paper. “We won’t be together.”

“During the week.” She ran a finger over the words she had written on the first line of the con entry. “Four days.”

“Four days? We both work Monday through Friday.” How could she calmly suggest that they be apart four days each week? They hadn’t slept away from each other since their wedding night. Even angry last night, they’d been in the same bed.

“You’ll come home every Friday night. And I checked the mileage. If you left early Monday morning once in a while, you’d still get to your office on time. So, you’d really only be gone Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.” She raised a finger with each day.

He bent over and kissed the raised fingers. “Three days, four days. It doesn’t matter, Caro. That’s a lot of days to be apart.”

She tapped the paper. “But, Nick, it’s only during the school year. We’ll have the summer and holidays together. I can visit you on my breaks.”

He sat back in his chair, his arms folded over his chest. He didn’t like her reasoning, but he was willing to hear her out. “Okay, go on with the list.”

“With the raise you’ll receive and my stipend, we can save toward our house.” She lifted her hand again when he opened his mouth. “I know, I know, it doesn’t sound like we’ll save money, with two places to live. But if we can find you an apartment close to your office, we’ll save on gas money.”

The pros took up the full side of the paper. Only one item was on the con side. “You don’t mind living apart for the year?” he asked.

She fixed him with her look that was just a fraction short of being disgusted. “Nick, it’s just for a few months. And we’ll see each other every weekend.”

She scooted her chair over until she could frame his face with her hands. “Honey, what if this job doesn’t work out? Or you don’t like the town? I’ll have given up this great opportunity for no reason. I want to try it for one year.”

She wasn’t pleading, but he could hear the tremor in her voice. “If I do move with you, I’ll have to get another certificate to teach in Missouri.” She sighed and he felt the motion all the way to his feet. “You know what happened when we moved to Lawrence. I had to work as an aide for a year before a job came open.”

He nodded. “You’re right.” He scooped her into his lap, holding her close. “But what am I going to do when I come home and you’re not there?”

“We’ll talk on the phone. And we’re both always so busy during the week, we hardly see each other in the evening anyway.”

He couldn’t put it into words, but he liked knowing that she was sitting at the dining-room table, her school papers spread around her, while he read through a report or checked on figures. She was always there when he prepared for bed, eager to tell him about her latest meeting or some funny story from her day.

Right now she was warm in his arms. How would he deal with the long nights without her?

“I MADE A COUPLE OF CASSEROLES and put them in the freezer.” Caroline stood next to her car, watching him add her last suitcase to the trunk. “And you have bread and sandwich fixings for the week.”

He caught her shoulders and kissed her mouth, silencing the rest of her words. “Caro, I can take care of myself.”

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” Her brow was puckered in a frown, her gaze darting from the car to the door of the apartment building. “I mean, you lived at home, then we got married and I took care of you—”

His kiss was rougher and when he lifted his head, he was pleased to see the dazed look in her eyes. “I can take care of myself,” he repeated. “Now, you? What will happen if you need a clean blouse in the middle of the week?”

She grinned and tossed her head. Dressed in cutoff shorts and a Mickey Mouse tee shirt, her long blond hair pulled back in a simple ponytail, she looked more like a high-school student than a teacher heading back for a new school year. “I’ll buy a new one and wait until you come home to do the laundry.”

He laughed and spun her around, giving her a soft pat on the derriere when he put her down. “No shopping.” He marched her toward the car, leaning down to open her door. “We’re saving money here, remember? We want to buy a house we can live in together.”

“Okay, okay.” She stood on tiptoe and planted a long kiss on his mouth.

He held her close. The last two months had been a whirlwind of furnishing his small studio apartment and training at the new office. He liked the people and they had responded well to him. The local manager, the oldest son of the company’s owner, had invited them over for dinner. Caroline had discovered a mutual interest in authors with Mrs. Abbott. Their youngest child, an almost kindergartner, had crawled into Caroline’s lap and stayed there until sent to the family room to play with her older siblings.

Caroline had spent her days while he was at the office putting together school materials. Their nights had involved making memories that would last them through the days ahead. In a new place, a new town, she had lost any inhibitions and he sometimes wondered what his neighbors on either side of the apartment thought of the new tenant.

“I feel like your lover and not your wife,” she had whispered to him last night, arms and legs wrapped around each other in the dark, tiny space he would call home for the next ten months. “Grabbing every minute together, until we can sneak away again.”

He had held her close, savoring her scent, her soft skin, committing them to memory for the lonely nights ahead.

Now he tucked her into the car and reached across to fasten her seat belt. “Call me as soon as you get home.”

“I will.”

He shut the door and she rolled down the window. “I love you, Mr. Eddington.”

“Ditto, Mrs. Eddington.”

He watched the car head down the street, waiting until she disappeared from view before going back to his apartment. The place was functional, one large room with a kitchenette built into the wall under the window. They had pushed the double bed into the opposite corner and hidden it behind a wooden screen Caroline had found at a garage sale. She had positioned the flowered couch at an angle from the front door. An easy chair, coffee table and simple entertainment center with a TV and his stereo created the illusion of a living room separate from the other areas.

The apartment felt empty without Caroline. He wandered around, touching the leaves of the potted plant she had placed on the table, straightening a picture she had hung from their honeymoon in Colorado. He had snapped the shot from their cabin porch, the sun casting shadows on the canyon walls across the river. She had surprised him and had it enlarged and framed for their last anniversary.