Slayer Mom (Married to a Monster #1)

Chapter 1

one

. . .

He was late for dinner. That made the fourth time this week.

He’d been working overtime a lot lately, but this time he’d reassured me that he wouldn’t, since I was making his favorite, meatloaf.

I’d asked Marj to watch the boys for the night, and I’d actually set the dining room table with candles because I hadn’t seen my husband naked for what felt like months.

Stolen moments in the shower before work, or in the middle of the night when my three o’clock insomnia struck, weren’t enough to keep our marriage alive.

I’d scattered rose petals on the bed even though I knew what a pain it was to clean up. I was wearing uncomfortable lingerie under the silky blouse and pencil skirt I never wore.

I glanced at the clock again.

9:45 p.m.

I should start cleaning up. I sighed heavily and hung up my nice clothes in the laundry room then put my ugliest apron on over my lingerie and scraped the mashed potatoes into the Tupperware while I ate the raspberry cheesecake with my fingers.

I shouldn’t be angry. I should have told him that I wanted to make more than meatloaf, maybe even child number three, but I’d wanted to be romantic and have a surprise for him.

He’d used to like that kind of thing, but now I was something he’d have to schedule in.

Was he having an affair with his secretary?

His secretary was Josh, a happily married and balding fifty-year-old, so not likely, but stranger things had happened.

By the time he came in, I was feeling sick from eating the entire cheesecake. Also angry. When I heard him pull into the garage, I hurried and pulled on his old sweats over my lingerie so he didn’t feel bad about ruining my plans. I was officially not in the mood and I didn’t want to talk about it.

He was a good husband. If he’d been working too much the last few years, that wasn’t the worst thing he could do, not by a long shot, but still. I threw myself on the couch and turned on the tv in time to catch a cat food commercial when he opened the door and came in.

I listened to him take off his shoes, hang up his suit jacket and put his briefcase in its slot by the door before he walked soundlessly in his sock-footed feet into the living room.

“Were you burning candles?” he asked as he came in, leaned over, and kissed the top of my head.

He sniffed before he pulled away and came around the couch, his tall, broad-shouldered, lean-waisted figure as perfect as it had been the first time I’d seen him.

It wasn’t his looks that won me, though.

It was his smile and how intelligent he was without being stiff.

Not that I’d gotten to sample his sense of humor for a long time.

Candles? They were scentless, and I burned them in the other room.

I shook my head. “Must be the meatloaf you smell. You should warm some up if you haven’t eaten.”

The show came on while he was beside me. I stared at the horror movie and felt like an idiot.

“I thought that you hated horror movies.”

I do. I really, really hate horror movies. I clicked off the tv and turned to give him a bright smile. “I was in the mood for something different. How was work?”

He studied me with his dark eyes. Sometimes I wondered if he’d heard what I said, because it took him some time to process through things. “Where are the children?”

Was he changing the subject? “They’re having a sleepover with Mike at Marj’s. They’re probably up playing video games and eating unhealthy snacks.” No, it was after midnight on a school night. She had them all sleeping soundly.

He knelt down on the carpet in front of me and leaned close.

I leaned in too, because maybe this evening could be somewhat salvaged.

He had the tall dark and handsome thing down perfectly, and he always smelled like a man, a little wild, a little windblown, even when he did nothing but walk from his car to the house.

“You should call and tell her that I’m on my way to pick them up.”

Wait, what? I stared at him while my heart pounded as his words tangled in my mind. If he didn’t want them to sleep over there, had he heard something about one of them? Had I let them into a pedophile’s house, or some kind of internet scam? “You don’t trust Marj, or is it George?”

“I’m sure they’re fine.” He gave me a flat smile that didn’t tell me anything. “After you call, go to bed, and I’ll take care of getting them and settling them down.”

“Hold on. I’m not going to call Marj this late without a reason. Also, they’re old enough to settle themselves down.”

“It’s nothing about Marj, just the boys are older. Sleepovers are for little children.”

I stared at him, bewildered by this sudden change of philosophy. Who was he and what had happened to the days when we were so in-sync with how we wanted to raise our kids?

He gave me a slight smile. “Am I sounding neurotic? Humor me, love. As children grow up, different rules must apply.”

“That makes no sense.” We didn’t argue very often, but I’d had to vacuum up rose petals and eaten an entire pan of cheesecake on my own.

I was not in an easy-going mood. “It’s after midnight.

You don’t wake up people after midnight to rescue your children unless they need rescuing.

Age isn’t a reason. If you didn’t want the boys to have sleepovers, you should have talked to me about it before I arranged this. ”

His smile flickered and faded. “I see. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it on my own.”

“Like you’ve decided on your own that the boys shouldn’t have sleepovers without telling your wife about your changed convictions?”

He looked confused and then he inhaled deeply. “You’re angry.”

I’d eaten so much cheesecake. I’d have to spend hours on the treadmill so I could keep up with his amazing body, not that I’d ever been quite as fit as he was.

I took a steadying breath. “I’m not angry.

I’m confused. I don’t want you to embarrass me to my friends for no reason.

I don’t want them to feel like they’ve offended us somehow.

I don’t like you coming home late every night, particularly when I make meatloaf.

I appreciate how hard you work for our family, but I don’t need a house this big in a neighborhood this perfect. I’d rather have you than things.”

He stared at me for a long time. “I guess they’ll be fine tonight. You should go to bed.”

“That’s it? You’re not going to tell me why you got so paranoid?”

“It’s just that the boys are older, and they need more supervision. I think it’s time to put them in…” He trailed off and then offered me a small smile. “We’ll talk about it another time, when you aren’t so tired.”

I huffed a breath. “I’m not too tired to talk about our children. I’ve spent most of our marriage investing all of my energy into raising them. What were you going to say?”

“You’re already upset.”

“I’m not upset!” That had come out a little loud, but the cheesecake.

“I’m fine. What were you going to say? They’re already in sports and music and martial arts, but if you think that they should be in another activity, I can probably find some way to get them wherever they’re supposed to go.

” I spent hours each day shuttling them to their various activities. What was one more?

“Boarding school.”

I stared at him. Just stared at him while the grandfather clock in the hall ticked and all the reasons we’d gotten a big house evaporated, leaving nothing but social clout. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t going to yell again. He never got angry, so I should be equally calm and mature.

I took a deep breath then spoke in a calm, reasonable voice. “I don’t think that boarding schools are good for children. Families are good for children. Boarding schools are for children whose parents don’t want them. Is that the message you want to send to Wat and Lock?”

He cocked his head. “I went to a boarding school.”

“Which you never talk about because you were scarred for life.”

“It was good for me. It was what I needed, what laid the foundation for the excellent life that I enjoy here with you.”

“You aren’t here with me. You’re in your office or wherever you are so late at night.

I’m here, in a gated community, while you’re off making more and more money.

I gave up my single woman plans to make a family with you.

What would I do while they were in boarding school and you were working yourself to death? Knit?”

“Knitting is said to be very meditative and calming.”

If I had a knitting needle right then, it would go through his throat.

I blinked and took another deep breath. I didn’t usually have violent urges anymore.

I’d been in foster care for a long time as a kid, passed around, so I’d developed some unhealthy reactions, but I’d worked hard to get through all of that.

I wasn’t the same brash and vicious racoon I’d been before I married Hazen.

“Then you can take up knitting as you deal with the discomfort of having your sons living at home with you. I’m not giving them up.

” I crossed my arms. That had been very defiant, very aggressive, very unwilling to compromise, and as everyone who has stayed married for longer than a month knows, marriage is all about compromise.

But this wasn’t something I could agree to. He had to see that.

“It’s already done. They start on Monday.

” He said it in the weirdest way, like he was curious what my reaction would be, but didn’t take it seriously.

Did he always get his way? I’d wanted to stay home with the kids, because growing up, I hadn’t had parents who cared, and I’d been determined not to have my own children unless I could give them what I hadn’t had.

He’d agreed, been supportive and appreciative all the way up to now.

“No, they don’t.”

“Darling, it’s done. The principal called me up this afternoon about Wat. I made arrangements right away.”

“The principal called you? Why would he do that?” The prestigious private school was a little snobbish to me, probably because I didn’t ever wear quite the right outfits to pick up and drop off kids, but the principal should have called me.

I was at home for the sole purpose of taking care of my family.

“I’m sure that he didn’t want to deal with an upset mother.”

“And that’s me? An upset, irrational woman who needs knitting to calm her down? Keep going, Haze. You’re digging your grave.”

He scratched his neck and looked almost awkward.

“Wat lit something on fire. You know that he’s always had a fascination, but now it’s become problematic.

I’m sure the principal meant no disrespect, love.

But there comes a time in every young man’s life when he must learn discipline.

I thought that the private school would be sufficient, but it isn’t working. ”

Wat was two years younger than Lock and had always been the more mischievous one to his brother’s calm maturity. “This is all news to me! Yes, he did accidentally light the bathroom on fire last month, but—”

“I know that you don’t think it’s a serious problem, because when you were young and in foster care, some children just acted out because they needed connection, and you want to do your best to make sure that Wat feels loved and secure in that love no matter what he does, but there comes a time when everyone has to face serious consequences for their actions.

He’s not you. He knows exactly how loved he is, and he’s using that love to manipulate you into getting what he wants. ”

“You sound like you know from experience.”

“Of course I know from experience. I was very much like him at that age. He’s a danger to himself and to others. Don’t be one of the permissive parents who ruins their children because they can’t say no.”

Ouch. That stung.

He pulled me into a hug, his woodsy cologne hitting me where I was most vulnerable. “Lucy, my love, you’re tired. I’m tired. Get some rest and we’ll talk about things in the morning.”

I stiffened up and crossed my arms, which wasn’t quite pushing away, but close. “In the morning when you’re up first thing to leave for the office? That morning? The morning when we do all the discussing because I’m here on my own?”

He pulled back and studied me. “You’ll have the boys with you.”

“Yes, I will. If Wat needs more supervision then he’ll get it at home with me.

I’ll homeschool him if I have to. Plenty of people do that all the time these days.

There are video classes, and private tutors for math, not to mention all the groups.

Caitlyn did homeschooling with her twins for a few years. It was fine.”

He studied me thoughtfully. “Why did you light candles?”

“They’re unscented! You have no proof that I burned any candles. You changed the subject again. Do you think that I’m incapable of teaching my children?” I really sounded aggressive. I needed to speak with more consideration, like an adult, but the cheesecake.

He moved quickly, taking me in his arms and brushing my hair away from my face with featherlight fingers.

He was so strong, yet gentle, and he felt as good as always, which was very, very good.

I missed him so much. If only this evening hadn’t gone so terribly wrong.

“You are a wonderful mother. You taught them all the important things, from making their own sandwiches to tying their shoes, but there is more that they have to learn. They’re gifted children.

I know that you put all of yourself into raising them, but that’s not all you are.

There’s more to you that you just haven’t discovered yet.

All those big single woman dreams, you would have time to pursue them.

Why don’t you sleep on it? You’re right, I have an early morning tomorrow, but I’ll take you to lunch and we can discuss all the pros and cons.

I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you first before I made arrangements, but Mr. Sanatee was very upset and insistent. ”

I frowned at him, because I didn’t want to sleep on it so I got a chance to think about all the ways my reasonable husband was right, but a wave of utter exhaustion almost knocked me over. He scooped me up and carried me to bed, then tenderly tucked me in.

He caressed my face and murmured, “Goodnight, love. Everything will turn out all right. You’ll see.”