TWO
After I’d nervously blurted out that Reed had “such a nice voice,” my embarrassment was so profound that I could have dug a hole in his driveway right then, jumped in, and buried myself with dirt, never to be seen or heard from again.
He, on the other hand, didn’t seem so much embarrassed by what I’d said as a bit surprised.
For a long moment, he just looked at me with his eyes widening almost imperceptibly. “Well… thank you. You have a very nice voice yourself.”
Feeling as if I were thirteen years old and speaking to a cute boy in the school lunchroom for the first time or something, I truly wanted to sink into the ground.
Mad at myself, my flustered behavior, and my apparent lack of control over my mouth, I mumbled thanks, then changed the subject with my face flaming. “So, should I start carrying my things inside the house, then?”
Having only brought a single suitcase and five medium-sized moving boxes, it didn’t seem like the task would be that hard. And besides, I was currently wanting to do some sort of physical task. I was wanting some sort of physical task that would make my muscles burn, and make me forget all about what I’d just said to Reed. It seemed like making several trips into his house, carrying boxes, might be just the thing.
I’d arrived at his house after a slow drive through the shifter village of Somerset, which was a nicer village than I’d thought it would be for some reason. I didn’t really know what I’d been expecting. Run-down Victorian-style houses and a single run-down gas station, maybe, like some of the little villages in Michigan’s lower peninsula. This wasn’t the case, though. Instead, Somerset boasted a few residential districts, all of them filled with large, well-kept homes that looked like they’d been constructed fairly recently. This really shouldn’t have surprised me, considering that many USSA defense posts in the north of the country had only been established near the end of the Great Shifter War, or after, in order to defend America against the Bloodborn shifters who’d taken over Canada.
The homes in the village weren’t the only evidence of new construction. The paved roads were smooth and well-maintained, without a pothole in sight, which was unusual for any village in the Midwest, with roads constantly undergoing the cycle of freezing and thawing. In Somerset, it appeared that the roads had already undergone post-winter patching and repairs, even though it was only late March, and there was still a bit of snow left on the ground.
In addition to the single gas station that I’d expected, Somerset also had various other businesses, clustered around what I’d thought of as the “town square” on my way in. I’d seen a grocery store, a couple of restaurants, a building that appeared to possibly be a clothing store, and even a wide, brick-front building proclaiming Somerset Elementary School and Public Library in green lettering on a white sign. I’d also be able to get a caffeine fix in Somerset, at an inviting, glass-fronted place called Polly’s Java Café. The painted coffee cup pictures on the wide glass windows reminded me of painted pictures on the glass windows of my favorite neighborhood café back home in Fort Wayne. Somewhat to my surprise, I found this incredibly comforting, and I couldn’t wait to make a visit to Polly’s Java Café for a piping hot latte.
After driving out of the “town square,” I traveled maybe a third of a mile before turning off the paved road and making my way down a short dirt road that led to Reed’s sprawling house, which was nestled in a wooded area right on the edge of what appeared to be a dense forest. It had taken me two days of travel to reach my destination from Fort Wayne, including an overnight stay in a hotel, and also including a ferry ride with my car, luggage, and all, from the lower peninsula of the state to the upper. Throughout my journey, off and on, I’d imagined how cool, calm, and collected I was going to act in front of the man I was supposed to have a child with. Clearly, it hadn’t taken me long at all to send “cool, calm, and collected” spinning right off the rails. Clearly, all it had taken had been a quake rippling through my insides, the sound of Reed’s deep voice, and my own voice seeming to issue forth from my own mouth, seemingly of its own accord.
In response to my asking if I should start carrying my things inside the house, Reed shook his head. “I’ll do it. You can just go inside the house and relax if you’d like. Feel free to get yourself something to drink and have a seat in the kitchen… or whatever else you feel like doing. Just make yourself at home, because this is your home now.”
With my face still hot, I said thanks, struggling to maintain eye contact with him. I didn’t even know why. I supposed I was still just inwardly cringing over the fact that I’d told him that he had “such a nice voice.” I was sure that no matter what happened between us, I’d always regret it.
The truth was that beyond probably junior high age, I’d never blurted out anything stupid to a member of the opposite sex in my life. In fact, it was members of the opposite sex who’d always done the blurting around me.
Never again, though, I told myself in regard to Reed. Having him see me act like an idiot once was plenty.
After leading me up to the house, opening the front door, and inviting me inside, once again telling me to make myself at home, Reed went back to my car for my things, and I stepped into the foyer, quickly discovering that it was more like a mudroom than a foyer. Dried mud was streaked across the hardwood flooring, and several pairs of large work boots were caked with dried mud. It did look like Reed had tried to clean up a little, though. The boots were loosely lined up against a wall, and the dirty straw bristles of a broom leaning against the same wall indicated that maybe he’d tried to sweep up the caked mud. Giving my head a shake almost unconsciously, I wondered if he even owned a mop, and if so, if he knew how to use it.
Once I’d stepped through the foyer, I saw that the rest of the house, at least from what I could see, was cleaner than the foyer floor. In fact, the kitchen, which I was currently in, was downright sparkling, from the marble-topped island in the center of the room, to the polished hardwood flooring, to the stainless-steel sink basins and fixtures. The house also smelled clean, too, something like laundry soap and lemon.
I hadn’t taken more than a sniff or two when a short, plump woman with a gray bob came bustling into the kitchen, almost startling me, then immediately almost startling me again with the warm effusiveness of her greeting, saying that I must be Samantha. When I nodded in the affirmative, she smiled and gave me a hug instead of a handshake, telling me that her name was Marie.
“I’m the chief’s housekeeper, and sometimes, his cook, too.” After giving me one final squeeze and a few pats on the back, she pulled away to look at my face. “My, you sure are beautiful. I bet the chief just about fell back on his heels when he saw you.”
Pleased by the compliment and really liking Marie, I said I wasn’t sure about that, and Marie said that she was.
“He’s a man, isn’t he? He’d have to be blind not to be wowed by you. Now, between you and me, he’ll say he’s all about ‘business’ in his baby-making arrangement with you, like he just wants to see it as some sort of business transaction or something, but just give him time. He’ll-”
Marie abruptly stopped speaking, looking over my shoulder. I turned to look and saw Reed striding in from the foyer carrying a stack of my moving boxes.
Possibly to cover the fact that she’d been talking about him, Marie suddenly exclaimed about the state of the foyer floor. “Oh, I should have had it all mopped up by now, and it’s a terrible muddy mess! I meant to have the whole house spotless by the time you arrived, Samantha, and I’m sorry that I didn’t quite finish the job in time.”
I told her not to be sorry at all. “A tiny bit of mud in a foyer never hurt anybody. In fact, I’ve heard that doctors now think that a tiny bit of dirt in the home is good for people’s immune systems.”
Marie grinned, giving me a tiny wink. “I like the way you think.”
After mopping the foyer, leaving “just a smidgen of immune-boosting dirt,” as she said, she went home, leaving me alone with Reed in the kitchen. He’d carried all my boxes and my suitcase upstairs by this point, although I didn’t know exactly where, meaning in what bedroom, he’d put them. He hadn’t said, and I hadn’t asked. Him putting them in a guest room felt like it would have been “right,” but then again, I didn’t think I’d be surprised if it turned out that he’d put my things in his room. After all, we were supposed to be making a baby together, and there was no real reason to wait in the trying. Reed wanted a baby to be created quickly so that its blood could be used to help his people regain strength, and I wanted a baby to be created quickly so that I could collect the money needed for my mom’s possibly lifesaving treatment in Switzerland. If Reed’s entrance into the kitchen hadn’t caused Marie to change the subject from talking about him, I would have told her that I wanted Reed’s and my “baby-making” to be a pure business arrangement-type thing, too. This was what I was still telling myself I wanted, anyway. Even though I was currently experiencing “the quake” again, sitting up to the island in the kitchen across from Reed, with glasses of iced tea that Marie had poured for us between us.
Wanting to distract myself from the butterflies rioting maddeningly in my stomach, I took a quick sip of iced tea, then asked Reed if Marie had been his housekeeper long. I didn’t really care either way if she had or hadn’t been; it was just something to say.
With some sort of a shadow seeming to cross his face, Reed responded by saying that she’d been his housekeeper for about four years, starting not long after the village of Somerset was established as a national defense post against the Bloodborn bears. Reed didn’t say anything further, and again, I felt the need to say something just to keep the conversation going and avoid thinking about my butterflies.
“So, Marie moved here to Somerset when all you shifters did, then?”
Reed was beginning to look distinctly uncomfortable, although I couldn’t fathom why.
He responded to me with his gaze turned downcast at his glass of iced tea. “Yes. Marie moved up here right in the beginning, with her son, Sean, who was my second-in-command at the time, and his wife Polly. Marie planned to be a full-time nanny for the kids Sean and Polly wanted to have, because Polly had always wanted to own and operate her own coffee shop.”
With his gaze still turn downcast, Reed frowned and seemed reluctant to continue, so I asked a question, thinking I knew where things were going.
“But… Sean and Polly haven’t been blessed with kids yet? And that’s why Marie is working as a housekeeper?”
Still frowning, Reed stared into his iced tea so long before responding that I wasn’t sure he was ever going to. “That’s halfway true. Sean and Polly were never blessed with kids. So, Marie is working as a housekeeper.”
Sensing that there was a lot more to the story than I’d originally thought, I didn’t say anything, and Reed didn’t, either. At least not for an awkward couple of moments, when he finally lifted his gaze to my face.
“Sean died not long after we all got up here to Somerset. He was killed in battle with a group of Bloodborn bears, who were able to cross over from Canada and claim a small piece of land not far from here for their own. It’s this same group of bears that unleashed some kind of a biological weapon on us Somerset bears that weakened us. The creator of the weapon was killed, thankfully, so we don’t expect any more attacks of that kind, but…” Reed paused to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, gaze dropping to his iced tea for a moment. “This is why you’re needed here, Samantha. We need a baby born to a woman possessing the supergene. Then, with just a single drop of blood from the baby, the scientists at the NSMP can make some sort of a restorative medicine that will be injected into all of us to restore our strength so we can continue to fight the Bloodborn.”
I already knew all this. And I was pretty sure that Reed knew that I already knew all this. Which made me think that he’d intentionally tried to steer the conversation away from Sean, Polly, and Marie.
Wanting to respect the privacy of all parties involved, but also wanting to know a little more at the same time, I told Reed that I was well aware why I was in Somerset. “But… back to the subject of Sean, Polly, and Marie…well…” I really didn’t know exactly what, specifically, I wanted to ask and had to think briefly. “Well, did Polly ever remarry, then, after Sean was killed?”
Instantly making me regret my question, Reed frowned hard before answering it. “No. She’s never remarried. And, frankly, I don’t know how to say this without seeming rude, but I don’t want to talk further about anything having to do with Sean. We spent several years doing covert military operations together overseas before the war, and he was my best friend… Really more like a brother to me, since I never had any siblings of my own and it’s just too difficult to talk about him sometimes. I really don’t even like to hear his name mentioned sometimes. I hope you can understand.”
I said that I could, feeling sorry that I’d pushed the subject of Sean, and Reed thanked me.
“Now, I guess to get another subject out of the way…” Reed paused briefly to give his throat a little clear. “We’re both adults, so I may as well just come right out and ask the question. How soon do you want to start the business of the arrangement that you’re here in Somerset for?”
I hadn’t really expected him to be so frank, and so soon, although I wasn’t really sorry that he was. After all, I was eager to get right down to the business of things, too.
I told him that I was ready to “commence business” right away. “As long as you’ve signed the contract that we were both supposed to have received from that attorney hired by the NSMP, anyway.”
The contract not only detailed the terms of our “arrangement,” as far as what benefit from it both parties would be receiving, it also outlined what Reed’s and my legal rights as far as co-parents of a child would be. In a nutshell, we were both to share legal custody of the child, fifty-fifty, indefinitely. If there came a time when this arrangement was no longer satisfactory to one or both of us, we were to file a petition in court, just like regular non-shifter and non-supergene parents. This seemed fine to me, although I did have a few questions about the long-term realities of sharing a child together, such as where the child would live permanently, since my life was in Fort Wayne, and Reed obviously lived in Somerset. However, I figured all of that could be dealt with later, and maybe we could work something out to where I had the child for the school year, or Reed did, and then the other parent had the child for summers and holidays or something. Or maybe I’d just buy my own house in Somerset, and we could do things that way.
I knew things could and likely would get more complicated than I was thinking, but at present, I was just desperate to get the money to possibly save my mom’s life. Similarly, if Reed was wondering how things with our custody arrangement would work out in the long term, these thoughts seemed to be taking a backseat to his urgency to help his people, because he responded by simply saying yes, that he’d signed the agreement from the attorney and that it all seemed fine to him.
For a few moments, neither of us spoke, and instead just sipped our iced tea at the same time.
With a slant of bright sunlight bathing his face in a golden glow, Reed was the first one to set his glass down on the marble-topped island. “Well, it’s settled, then. I suppose we can start trying to conceive a baby tonight, if that’s agreeable to you.”
I said that it was, and I meant it, although at the same time, I was becoming rankled by Reed’s businesslike tone. I wasn’t even sure why. I wanted a businesslike tone from him, I told myself. I also wanted him to say exactly what he was saying.
After another sip of my iced tea, I gave him a little nod. “Making our first attempt at conception tonight sounds more than agreeable to me.”
Agreeable. For some reason, I just hated the word in the context of how Reed and I were using it. We were both “agreeable” to having sex that night. Both “agreeable” to making an attempt at conceiving a baby. It just sounded so wrong to me in some way. And, at the risk of him thinking I had some problem with our “arrangement” already, I was about to find out if it sounded at all odd to Reed, too.