Chapter Thirty-Five

Maggie

Summer school goes by quickly. It’s intense, but I love it. My favorite class is Child Development and I’m leaning towards studying Speech or Occupational Therapy. I like the idea of working with kids and when I tell Trig he pretends to be terrified.

After pulling an all-nighter to study for final exams, I stop to do a little shopping. There’s something I’ve always wanted to buy but never had the nerve. A lacy nightgown. Something sexy for Trig. Usually I’ll just grab one of his old t-shirts, but I want to surprise him tonight.

I’ve had my eye on this little shop for a while. Lillian’s.

An older lady, standing behind the counter, greets me.

“I’ll be right with you,” she says with a heavy French accent.

I wander around the shop, trying not to gasp at some of the price tags. At the end of the spring semester, I worked for a math professor, grading exams. During the summer, she had me do a little more work, so I have a little of my own money.

The best thing about having money isn’t saving it, like I’d always imagined. It’s doing unexpected things for other people. When I got my first little check, I bought a gift certificate from a spa for Jane, so she could get a pedicure. I got another check just before Father’s Day and I bought tickets for Wes and Trig to take the monkeys to go see the Astros in Houston.

That pretty much wiped out my earnings, but the look on the boys’ faces made it totally worth it.

Trig always tells me he doesn’t need anything, but today I got my paycheck from the last summer session and I want to buy something for him.

I could spend the money he gives me, but somehow that doesn’t seem as special. I’m not crazy about him paying for everything. He tells me not to be ridiculous and that he’s planning on retiring when I graduate, anyway. He says he’s going to take up golf. Join a country club. Or do whatever men with rich wives do.

After my van was lost in the flood, he took me car shopping and bought me a cute little truck. I would have been happy with anything, but he insisted I have something fun to drive. He could picture me in something sporty and so that was that.

The truck had some super-high safety rating, and once he told me that, I knew there was no arguing with him.

Holding a silken baby doll nightie up I try to imagine how Trig would like it. Every night we make love and he tells me I make him feel like an animal. But he’s not. Ever. He’s gentle and tender and perfect. He treats me like I’m fragile and precious.

I draw a sharp breath. Thinking about him always makes butterflies swirl inside me.

I put the baby doll back and continue looking through the racks for just the right thing.

The shopkeeper smiles as she crosses the shop. “I had to select and wrap a few gowns and a robe, for a customer who is coming any moment.”

“That’s fine, I’m just browsing. I’m looking for something that isn’t one of my husband’s t-shirts.”

The woman laughs. “You American girls need to dress for your husbands at night. A t-shirt, yes is sexy, but you need something feminine too. At least every so often.”

Her warmth puts me at ease. “I agree.”

She shows me a few negligees, chatting amiably, telling me she moved to Texas when she married her husband, an Air Force pilot. She talks about her two grown children and asks me about my family.

The assortment of sexy nighties gets more and more risqué the further back into the store we go. I hold up a lacy bodysuit and she gives me an approving smile.

“Exquisite,” she murmurs. “Very sweet. Innocent. You might also like to get something more seductive.”

She holds up a corset. “You might enjoy something like this. If you want to take charge in the bedroom. A little dominatrix attire?”

My face heats with embarrassment. Aside from a little bit of dirty talk, Trig’s always gentle with me. But he makes it clear that he’s in charge. Not that we’ve ever talked about who’s in charge.

“I don’t think that’s for me,” I say.

“Maybe some other time.” She hangs it back on the rack.

The doorbell rings and she excuses herself to greet the customer.

“I have your gifts wrapped and ready to go,” she says.

“Thank you.”

The voice belongs to my husband. Trig is here in this shop. I clap a hand over my mouth and duck behind a rack. My truck is parked outside. Fortunately, the parking lot was crowded, so there’s a good chance he won’t know I’m here.

“Maybe now my wife will stop stealing my bathrobe.”

Lillian laughs softly. “Perhaps you’d like to look around while I run your card? We have some pretty nighties in the back.”

No, no, no…

Trig doesn’t reply for a moment. My heart thumps against my ribs. I’m not doing anything wrong, I tell myself, but for some reason I don’t want him to find me back here. Not only would it ruin the surprise, but I know he’d tease me every chance he got.

“I don’t think so,” he says. “It might be dangerous if my wife wore anything like that.”

A breathless laugh escapes my lips.

Lillian thanks him and I listen for the doorbell to ring. When he’s gone, she returns to the back of the shop. I don’t say a word about Trig coming into her shop. Instead, I ask her opinion on the handful of lacy things I’ve picked out.

“The pink,” she suggests.

“Even though I’m a redhead?”

“Especially because you are a redhead.”

When she assures me that the fit will be perfect, I make my purchase, feeling a little giddy about the whole idea of dressing for Trig. Just before she finishes ringing me up, I get a surge of recklessness and add in the corset and a pair of stockings. She smiles, but says nothing, wrapping each item in tissue paper and putting them in a pink bag.

After getting by on very little sleep this week, I should be exhausted, but I’m not. The idea of a nap sounded great while I was finishing up my tests, but now, even though it’s late afternoon, I don’t feel a bit tired.

I thank Lillian and tell her good-bye. Stepping outside the door, I look around to make sure Trig’s big truck is nowhere in sight. The coast is clear. I hurry across the parking lot, jump in my truck and head for home.