Twenty-One

 

 

 

 

 

Monday morning came way too fast. Naomi and Colt got up early to make pancakes and had them ready when Tibby came out wearing her new clothes, a cropped pair of snazzy jeans and an oversized pullover.

“I like the new boots,” Naomi commented. “I knew they’d look good on you.”

“You look stunning,” Colt added. Using a spatula for a microphone, he stuck it under Tibby’s chin. “Ms. Porter, tell the world how you manage to look so radiant on your first day of school.”

Tibby giggled and struck a celebrity pose, doing her best imitation of a model on the runway. “I take great care of my skin and hair. I use Blubber Shampoo and Conditioner.”

Maddie was a little slower to get to the kitchen. She made her appearance wearing a pair of jeans and a purple sweater with her tiara firmly in place on her head. It was difficult to get her to go anywhere without it.

“Hey, Cinderella,” Colt began. “You look amazing.” He tried the same schtick on Maddie he’d tried with Tibby, but Maddie seemed downhearted and nervous. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t wanna go.”

“Uh-oh, crisis on aisle nine,” Colt said into the make-believe microphone. “Tell us why you don’t like kindergarten?”

“Cause everybody else there has a mother. Some of them even have a daddy. I’m the only one who doesn’t have anybody.”

“That’s just not true,” Naomi drawled, sliding Maddie onto her lap. “If anyone gives you a hard time about that, you explain to those dunderheads that you’re getting a new mommy. You’re special because you’re getting adopted.”

“What is Colt?”

“Well, Colt is…” Naomi glanced up and met his eyes. “What are you exactly?”

Colt thought for a minute, scratching the side of his jaw. “I’m the daddy standing in the wings, scanning the lay of the land, standing by to protect his homies.”

“Really? I like that,” Maddie said, jumping up to wrap her legs around Colt’s. “So, it’s true. I’m not alone?”

“You are definitely not alone,” Colt assured the girl. “You’re the most not alone little princess in the entire kingdom.”

Naomi and Colt had worked out a deal with Ophelia and Seth for afterschool care at the church. Naomi reminded the girls of that as they walked into the building later that morning. “Since Tibby thinks she’s too old for a sitter, the daycare center will put her to work.”

Naomi lifted Tibby’s chin to make sure she was listening. “After you complete your homework, you’ll be helping Neenah Brewer look after and entertain the pre-kindergarten class. There’s a lot of toddlers in that age group. Neenah could use an extra pair of hands. Consider it your first babysitting gig.”

“Really? Do I get paid?”

“You get the going rate for any novice just starting out. Five dollars an hour.”

“Cool. What about Maddie?”

“Maddie’s too young for us to put her to work.”

Tibby laughed. “That’s not what I meant. I know she’s in kindergarten from nine to noon. What about getting her to daycare?”

“Five days a week, if the weather’s good, Neenah Brewer walks over to the school and collects her charges herself. If it’s bad weather, she picks them up in the church van. Maddie will eat her lunch at daycare and hopefully take a nap.”

Tibby’s interest suddenly doubled. “Then she’ll be in Neenah’s class in the afternoon and my responsibility?”

“Nothing slow about you, girl. Yep. So you can keep an eye on her for me. Do you think you can handle that?”

“Piece of cake,” Tibby stated, glaring at the little girl she already considered a pest.

Although Colt had Naomi’s back, he felt the need to make sure the girls knew what was expected of them. “Here are the rules. Maddie, are you listening?”

Maddie had turned her wide eyes and attention on the Christmas tree decked out in the hallway.

Colt squeezed the girl’s hand to get Maddie to listen. “While Naomi and I are at work, the team in place consists of your teachers, Carla Vargas, and Neenah at daycare. Until you get picked up in the afternoon by either me or Naomi, you’re not allowed to get in the car with anyone else. At. All. Period. No exceptions. Got that?”

“Yep. Only the members of our team are allowed to take us anywhere,” Tibby repeated.

“Is that understood, Maddie?”

“Don’t get in the car with nobody,” Maddie declared.

“Good girl.” Naomi kissed the top of Tibby’s head and then Maddie’s.

Colt did the same. “Then let’s go get you registered and make it official.”

 

 

The next few days went by in a blur.

They got the girls settled into a daily routine. Thanks to Ophelia and her staff, afterschool care went off without a hitch. Tibby liked the responsibility of working with all the kids in Maddie’s age group, especially when she got to read to them, and at times, boss them around.

There was just one major glitch in their well-oiled team effort. Because Tibby had missed so much of the semester she had to play catch up to all the rest of the fifth graders in her class. Which meant Naomi and Colt needed to work with her in the evenings to get her up to speed.

Maddie fit in well enough with her kindergarten group. But every time she saw the social worker she wanted to know when she could start calling Naomi mommy and Colt daddy. Nothing seemed more effective at putting pressure on a family court judge to speed things along than having a five-year-old who wanted answers.

Kinsey had assured all parties things were moving along. The state of Idaho had responded to the petition, eager to get rid of one more foster child out of their crowded system and into another, they agreed that Tibby was now California’s problem. As far as they were concerned, California could keep one Tabitha Rene Porter.

Kinsey also managed to put any fears to rest that the court was concerned about marital status. It didn’t matter to the court if Colt and Naomi had tied the knot yet or not. “There are too many kids in foster care to let a little thing like that prevent an adoption. Unmarried couples petition the court to adopt every day somewhere in this country. It’s commonplace these days for couples who aren’t married to expand their families.”

With the case firmly in the hands of judges and lawyers, Colt put it out of his head and helped Zach complete the job at Drea’s loft before moving on to becoming a cop. But he’d learned a vital lesson along the way. Brent had been right. The construction work would eventually dry up or be sporadic at best.

Naomi had picked up where she’d left off at the bank. Every day she ushered in more and more customers into her office to help them apply for first mortgages or seal the deal on a personal loan to help them get through whatever crisis loomed over their heads. She learned people here were hardworking individuals who just wanted to provide for their families the best possible way they could.

Couple time was hard to come by. She and Colt had to get creative to carve out alone time for each other. They decided to start meeting up at lunch. It had become their habit to spend a quality hour together locked away by themselves at the cabin.

The more time Naomi spent there, the more she fell in love with the locale, the cliffs and the beauty surrounding the place. The isolation made it an ideal spot for an interlude without the kids or the added pressures of work.

On this Friday, Colt had brought her favorite, Fischer’s primavera with bowtie pasta, light on the sauce and all vegetables. But they’d wait to dig into it.

“I’ve ordered it so many times, Fischer knows your order by heart.”

Naomi frowned. “Do you think we’re becoming too obvious?”

“I don’t think so. Although Fischer did remind me to pick up more condoms.” He laughed the minute her face went white. “Kidding, Naomi. You’re overthinking this.”

“I guess so. This must be how randy teenagers feel when they sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to fool around.”

While she talked, he thumbed through his music library on his phone. He hit play and backed her toward the bedroom to the sound of Bruckner’s Symphony Number Four.

While she kept rattling on about sneaking out of the house, he envisioned getting her out of her clothes, a charcoal pencil skirt and a boardroom-type jacket.

“You were probably a randy teenager,” Naomi declared.

Nibbling his way down her throat, he muttered, “Probably. Weren’t you?”

“No. I didn’t have sex for the first time until I was twenty. And then it wasn’t very fulfilling. The second time was only slightly better.”

Finally, he looked at her. “Naomi?”

“What?”

“Do you want to spend this precious hour talking about what you did or didn’t do…or…actually doing it?”

Her sapphire eyes flicked a deeper blue. “I want to snuggle up in bed next to you while you make the world go away. You always do. You’re the only one who has that power.”

He dipped his head to meet her lips, the kiss urgent and fraught with need. His fingers unbuttoned her jacket before yanking her top over her head. He got rid of her bra and unzipped the skirt. It fell around her ankles like a puddle as her hands got busy getting him out of his jeans.

Bare skin to bare skin, he lowered her to the mattress. Mapping the shape of her body with his tongue, he feasted. Fingers explored textures and contours as they clung to each other, half crazed with the age-old buildup. Their bodies craved more.

His mouth captured every tremor and quake as he slipped inside her. Their hearts raced as the world tilted. Pleasure ratcheted upward, higher, higher, to match the rush of blood pounding through their systems. The velvet ribbon of give-and-take, of moving as one, ignited like a flash flame. Stars erupted like molten lava before burning bright, then burning out, gliding smooth as silk into afterburn.

Feeling battered and dazed, she couldn’t move, not a leg or an arm.

Stretched out, flat on top of her, and sweaty, Colt blinked to get his head to stop spinning. He tried to move, to roll off, and realized she held onto his longish hair.

Instead of letting go, she ran her fingers down to the silky ends. “You’re like this magnificent wolf who sees everything and knows exactly what to do.” She picked up a few strands of his raven mane. “I love this.”

“Really? Most women see shaggy and think unkempt.”

“I don’t see that at all. It’s sexy, like a wolf.”

“Have you been drinking?”

Her laugh was like velvet. “No.”

“Since my Army days, I’ve let my hair grow out.”

“I like it. But right now, I need a shower more than anything. I can’t go back to work like this.”

“Why not? You look great mussed up. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

“I don’t think so.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

“Where are we going?”

“You said shower. I need one, too.”

Together they soaped each other with the energy of teenagers, laughing and giggling like two people without a care in the world. But things turned serious when he pinned her against the tile and lifted her off her feet. If afterglow meant swimming in the same slide of hunger, he would play again.

In the mist of heat and passion, Naomi wrapped her legs around his waist for the ride of her life. Wet and slick, the pleasure built, like a satin finish it pulled them toward its shimmering climax.

Out of breath, she dropped her head to his shoulder and blurted out, “God, I love you.”

“I hope you mean me.”

She hooted with laughter and took hold of his wet mop of black hair. She used her last bit of strength to cover his mouth. “You’re the only one I see here, soldier. I’m having a hard time believing my luck.”

As he grabbed a towel off the rack, he kept his tone casual. “I’ve never been considered anyone’s lucky bet.”

“And I’ve never made love standing up in a shower before, either. But there you go.”

He began to pat her butt dry. “You really have led a sheltered life, haven’t you?”

“Not anymore. Not with you around. That dull part of my life is over. Look out, world, here I come.” 

The clock was their enemy as they dressed in a matter of minutes. Because the hour was ticking away fast, they gobbled the food down in quick bites, cold now, but neither one cared.

He locked up the cabin and hesitated on the porch before heading out to their separate vehicles.

“Every time I have to leave here it makes me a little sad,” Naomi admitted, looking longingly out to sea. “It’s lovely here, Colt. I see why you opted for this rental instead of moving into a studio. You’d have gone crazy there.”

He loved that about her. In fact, he couldn’t think of a single thing he didn’t like about her. He stepped closer, fixed his mouth on hers. “We didn’t talk about the girls or the case or anything like we’d planned.”

She ran a hand down his cheek. “Maybe that’s because for once in our lives things are working out. Tibby seems more adjusted. And Maddie adores you. I don’t think she’s had a father figure in her entire life.”

“Is that what her bio said?”

“Pretty much but a lot of what Carla knows is vague. Kinsey doesn’t think there’s a grandmother back in China. No one knows the story, may never know exactly where Maddie came from.”

“That’s okay by me.”

“Look, I know you’re starting the new job on Monday, but could you take the girls aside and reassure them that it isn’t dangerous.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to say anything about it before, but the day we went shopping for school clothes some old busybody put the idea into their heads that being a cop would get you killed.”

“What? Why would anyone say something so mean?”

“No idea. So will you make sure the girls aren’t scared every time you leave the house?”

‘I’ll do my best.”