Interview for a Wife by Ruth Ann Nordin
Chapter Fourteen
The next morning while Deanne got ready for the day, she did something she hadn’t done in a very long time; she decided to wear her hair down. She did pull back the sides with her pins just so that it wouldn’t get in her face, but other than that, it fell in soft waves down to the middle of her back. She thought of the pretty ribbons and barrettes in the general store. Maybe she’d buy a couple of them. They would be more attractive in her hair than the plain pins she was used to.
Amber came bounding into the room and gasped in surprise when she saw her. “You’re wearing your hair down.”
“I haven’t worn it down in years.”
“You’re so pretty. You should wear it down all the time.”
Deanne smiled at the compliment. “Thank you. You’re pretty, too. And you have more curls than I do. Your hair will be nicer than mine when you grow it down your back.”
“It will?”
“You’re going to break many hearts when you’re older. I feel sorry for the poor young men. One look at you, and they won’t stand a chance.”
Amber shook her head. “I’m not going to break anyone’s heart. It’d be gross to take someone’s heart out of their chest and smash it on the ground.”
Deanne hadn’t thought a simple comment like that would be taken in such a literal manner. Did children not understand what commonly used expressions really meant? By the look on Amber’s face, Deanne concluded that children didn’t grasp the concept of figurative speech.
She drummed her fingers on the dresser as she considered how to best explain what she meant. “I don’t mean that you’ll actually break a young man’s heart. Um, well, when you turn into a young lady, young men will start to fall in love with you. You can only pick one to marry. That means the ones you don’t marry will be sad for a while.”
Amber breathed a sigh of relief. “That doesn’t sound gross.”
“No, it’s not. You won’t do anything disgusting.”
“Good because that’s only something boys do. Like Vernon. He used to play in muddy puddles at the farm. I had to run and drag him to the house and help Pa wash him.”
Deanne’s eyes grew wide. “That’s a lot of work. Was this after your pa got his wheelchair?”
Amber nodded. “That’s why I had to do most of the work. This house is better. Vernon doesn’t run all over the place anymore.”
“That is good.” After working at the store all day, the last thing Deanne felt like doing was washing a child in a tub.
“Now, Vernon just gets stuck.”
“Stuck?”
“I told him not to jump on his bed, but he did. And now he can’t get out.”
“What do you mean he can’t get out?” How was it possible that someone couldn’t get out of their bed? It wasn’t like the mattress could open up and swallow them.
Amber waved for her to follow her, so Deanne put the pins she didn’t need in the top drawer and went to the other bedroom.
As it turned out, Vernon wasn’t even on the mattress. He was under it. Part of the mattress was on top of him. Deanne lifted it and saw that he had somehow managed to get stuck between two of the wooden boards that were nailed into the bedframe in order to support the mattress.
Vernon looked up at her and giggled.
Amber rolled her eyes. “He thought the muddy puddles were funny, too.”
Deanne had to resist the urge to chuckle since Amber wasn’t the least bit amused by the whole thing. Deanne pushed the mattress aside and reached under Vernon’s arms to pull him up. She had to wiggle him in order to get him out, but in the end, he was freed and took off running out of the room.
Deanne set the mattress back in place just as Bill came up to the doorway. “What’s taking everyone so long this morning?”
“Vernon got stuck under the bed,” Deanne told him.
“He was jumping on the bed,” Amber added. “I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“How did he get stuck under the bed if he was jumping on top of it?” Bill asked.
Amber shrugged. “He was jumping one moment and under there the next.”
“Just when I think I’ve been through everything you kids can do, you come up with something new,” Bill said.
Once Deanne was done making the bed, she walked over to Amber who was in the doorway.
“You haven’t seen me break hearts yet,” Amber told her pa, “but I’ll do that someday.”
Bill frowned. “Break hearts?”
“It sounds gross, but it won’t be.” Amber turned to Deanne. “What’s for breakfast?”
Startled by how quickly the girl could change a topic, it took Deanne a moment to say, “Eggs and sausage. I’m going to make those now.”
“Can I crack the eggs?” Amber asked.
Since Amber enjoyed cracking eggs, Deanne indicated her agreement.
Amber ran down the hall.
Worried that Amber was going to start cracking eggs before she had a chance to make sure bits of shells wouldn’t get into them, Deanne began to go after her, but a touch on her hand stopped her.
“I don’t recall ever seeing you with your hair down,” Bill said. “I like it.”
Her face warmed with pleasure. She had hoped he would notice that she’d made an effort to look attractive for him, and judging by the way he was smiling at her, she had succeeded.
He squeezed her hand. “I hope I can focus on the ledger at work. You’re going to make it hard for me to think of anything but you.”
“You can always come out of the back room when I’m not busy if you want to see me,” she suggested, a teasing tone she didn’t usually use in her voice.
He gave her a playful smile as he let his thumb trace the top of her fingers. “Would it be wrong if I decided not to open the store today?”
Her body shivered in the most pleasant way. She had no idea that a simple touch could be so profound. Clearing her throat, she said, “I don’t think the customers will be happy if you keep the store closed.”
“I know you’re right, but you can’t blame a husband for trying, can you?”
She didn’t expect to experience a moment of shyness around Bill since she’d been married before, but she was unable to maintain eye contact with him. Like last night, he was looking at her and saying things that made her feel the strangest sensations. She didn’t know whether to jump up and down in excitement or run off and hide because she worried she might say or do something stupid to ruin the moment.
“At least the customers can’t come here when we’re at home.” He kissed her hand. “I won’t keep you any longer than I have.”
She didn’t mind that he had made her linger in the hallway longer than she intended. She hoped he might cause her to linger for a while in the future.
She heard Amber let out an “Oops” from the kitchen and knew she had to deal with whatever situation she was going to find in that room. She cleared her throat and said, “If you finish the recordkeeping earlier than you expect, it’d be nice to have you nearby.”
His smile let her know that her answer made him happy.
Her heart still beating faster than normal, she hurried to the kitchen.
***
It turned out to be an unusually busy day in the store, and Deanne was hardly able to catch her breath. Even Bill had to come out and help her. She went about the place to grab the items the customers needed while he took care of the monetary transactions.
Finally, when things calmed down, Bill was able to return to the back room. Considering the number of purchases that had been made, it was going to take him quite some time to update his ledger.
It wasn’t until almost two when she realized she hadn’t had lunch. She ended up resorting to putting up the sign letting people know the store was going to be closed for fifteen minutes so that she could satisfy her growling stomach.
Bill looked up from the desk where receipts were scattered all over the place. “I should have told you to keep your hair up. I had no idea that everyone was going to come in to see the prettiest woman in town.”
She chuckled as she went to the shelf where she put her sandwich. “I think the sudden flow of customers is due to the fact that most people just got paid.”
“I’ve been here for years, and I’ve never seen it this busy.”
“It must have been this busy at some point.” She glanced at him. “Did you have anything to eat yet?”
“I did. You make a good sandwich, by the way.”
“Sandwiches are easy. There’s nothing to making them.”
She went to the desk and found a clear area to set the sandwich on. Then she retrieved a cup and poured water into it. When she realized Bill was watching her, she turned her gaze to him.
“What is it?” she asked.
“There’s nothing wrong with accepting compliments when someone gives them to you.”
“I accepted your compliments last night and this morning.”
“Yes, that’s true. So why won’t you accept them now?”
She rolled her eyes and sat across from him. “Bill, there’s no way half the town came in here this morning just to see me, and all I did was put some peanut butter and jam between two slices of bread.”
He backed away from his side of the desk and wheeled his chair so that he was sitting next to her. At once, the most pleasant sensation spread through her entire body.
He brushed her hair over her shoulder. “If I wasn’t already working here, I’d make the trip to this store just to see you.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, but he spared her from having to come up with something when he cupped the side of her face and urged her to lean toward him. Heartbeat picking up, she did as he wished. As soon as his lips brushed hers, she felt the same wave of weakness come over her that had come over her last night.
Terry hadn’t made it a habit of being gentle with her. With him, kissing was more of a demand, and that demand always led to him satisfying his basic needs. She hadn’t realized a kiss could be this enjoyable. It was nice to be treated with such tenderness. Bill didn’t have to tell her that he genuinely cared about her. She knew he did by how gentle and sweet he was being. For the first time in her life, she knew what it was like to be desired.
Bill wasn’t in any hurry to stop kissing her, and quite frankly, she wasn’t, either. She drew closer to him. The action seemed to encourage him, for he traced her lower lip with his tongue. It took her a moment to realize he wasn’t going to just thrust his tongue into her mouth. He was asking for permission to enter her. And she was more than happy to grant it.
As he’d been up to now, he continued to be gentle with her. She had no way of knowing how long he spent kissing her, but she was very happy to be right here with him doing this. Truly, there was no other place she’d rather be.
After some time, his mouth left hers, and he left a trail of kisses down her cheek and then down her neck. She let out a contented sigh. She had no idea her skin was so sensitive. And, as it turned out, other areas on her body were responding to him, too. Her nipples hardened, and the area between her legs began to ache in a way that was unfamiliar to her. With Terry, things had been done out of the commitment she’d made to him on her wedding day, but she felt no such duty compelling her to be with Bill like this.
It was so different that she couldn’t help but be surprised. She had assumed a woman wasn’t supposed to get the same kind of pleasure from doing this kind of thing like a man obviously did. Even if Terry hadn’t loved her, he had loved being in the bed with her.
When Bill brought his mouth back to hers, she noticed there was a hint of urgency in the way he was kissing her, but he was still mindful to be gentle with her. How could a woman not enjoy this kind of kissing? And how could a woman not want to do more when being treated so well during a private moment?
She would have continued on with him forever if possible, but she remembered she still had to eat and then return to work. Something like this was better explored further in the privacy of their bedroom.
It was with great reluctance that she pulled away from him. “I’m sorry, Bill, but more of this will have to wait. I only meant to stay here for fifteen minutes.”
His eyes grew wide and he glanced at the doorway. “You don’t think someone is in the store, do you?”
“No. I put the sign up saying I’d be back in fifteen minutes before I locked the door.”
He let out a relieved sigh. “I know we’re married, but I’d rather not have someone figure out what’s going on back here.” He moved the wheelchair back toward the desk and reached for the pocket watch. He blinked in surprise. “It’s 2:35.”
She gasped. “Already?” She took the pocket watch from him to make sure he wasn’t joshing her.
“You came back here just a couple of minutes after two.” He gave her a wicked grin. “I probably should feel guilty for keeping you here longer than you intended, but I don’t.”
Her face flushed with a mixture of shyness and excitement. She had no idea marriage could include such playfulness.
“I’ll be good and let you eat.” Bill paused and wheeled himself back over to her. He gave her another kiss. “Now, I’ll be good.”
She was sure her face was a bright red color by now since it grew even warmer from pleasure. She put his pocket watch on the desk. She didn’t know if she could eat with him in the room. The way he continued to smile at her was playing havoc on her nerves.
“I think I’ll take the sandwich and water out there,” she said as she collected them. “I need to open the store back up.”
“I’ll miss you.”
She laughed. “You’re silly. I’ll still be in the store.”
“Yes, but you won’t be in this room. I won’t have the pleasure of talking to you.”
“We didn’t do a lot of talking.”
“No, and that’s why the time went by much too fast.” He winked at her.
She had to get out of this room. Her heart was beating much too fast, and she was having the hardest time concentrating on anything but him. If she kept talking to him, he was going to render her unable to do her job. As it was, she was going to feel awkward talking to customers when she was aware that she was slick between her legs, which was a reminder of how much she’d enjoyed being back here with Bill.
She suspected she would enjoy it quite a bit if Bill were to touch her down there or, better yet, enter her. She had to remind herself that this wasn’t that kind of marriage. Apparently, they were going to kiss, but Bill had said they wouldn’t consummate the union.
Of course, he’d said that before they married. She wondered if that was going to change now that it was apparent they were getting along much better than she’d dreamed possible. Or, perhaps, he couldn’t. He was in a wheelchair. Did that impact his ability to make love to her? She was tempted to ask, but her shyness stopped her.
She hurried to leave the room and then took down the sign from the window so that people knew the store was open again. Fortunately, someone came in within the first few minutes. That gave Deanne the distraction she most needed so she could finally calm down and think of something other than Bill.