27. Clara
CLARA
“You have no idea how traumatizing that was for us,” Jeff whined as he followed me around the kitchen. “Do you have any idea what seeing you like that did to me?”
“And yet, you’re still standing next to me,” I said, straining the spaghetti for our family dinner.
“Yes, but I feel like I should have a blindfold. I saw your ass, Ma!”
I flushed bright red, but refused to feel bad about any of it. It was my house, and if I wanted to have sex with my husband on the living room floor, then that’s what I would do.
“Jeff, I think you’re forgetting that you walked in uninvited.”
“Since when have I ever needed an invitation?”
“Well, I guess from now on you’ll think twice about coming inside without knocking.”
I dumped the spaghetti into the large serving bowl and coated it with my homemade sauce.
It had been months since we last had a family dinner, but unlike previous times, I wasn’t putting in a ton of extra work.
The garlic bread was from the frozen section of the General Store, and while there was Italian sausage to go with dinner, I didn’t bother to make a salad or anything else that I might usually do with a feast like this.
“Carry the bowl to the table.”
“But—”
“Jeff, I’m not discussing this with you anymore. You walked in on a private moment. Get over it.”
He looked absolutely shocked that I wasn’t giving in, or that I hadn’t apologized. Well, he’d have to get used to that.
Like a little kid, he grabbed the bowl and carried it over to the table, plopping it down while he threw his little temper tantrum. The rest of them shuffled in a few minutes later, all of them avoiding eye contact.
Lizzy buckled Willa into the high chair, avoiding my gaze like the plague.
Krista simply smirked at me, tossing a wink in for good measure.
Liam and Bailey, well…both of them looked uncomfortable, but probably for different reasons.
They’d both been in the same position once.
And as for Michael, he went right to his seat and sat down, his jaw clenched hard as he did his best not to storm out of the house.
“Gamma!” Rosie ran over, holding up her hands for me to pick her up. “Up! Up!”
“Rosie, use your big girl words,” I scolded.
“Ma, she just wants you to hold her,” Michael grumbled.
“And I just want her to try to use sentences instead of demanding things from me,” I retorted. “Now, grab the garlic bread and put it on the table.”
Grumbling, he got to his feet, muttering under his breath.
“What’s that?”
“I said, I’ve been working all day. You demanded we come for family dinner, and then you put me to work.”
Cocking my head to the side, I chose not to let his attitude slide like I usually did. “And I just made dinner for all of us. So, you can either help out, or you can go home and cook your own damn food.”
He stared at me in shock for all of two seconds before grabbing the food and carrying it to the table.
“Anyone else have a problem with helping out?”
“No, ma’am,” my boys answered immediately.
“Gamma! Gamma!” Rosie whined, reaching for me.
I picked up my Rosie girl and snuggled up to her, but when I carried her over to Blake, she whined for me to hold her.
“Sorry, Rosie, but it’s time to eat, which means you’re going to sit down over here.”
“She just loves sitting with her grandma,” Blake grinned.
“Yes, but Grandma is no longer going to be the person who takes the grandkids whenever you don’t want to deal with her whining. And that goes for all of you.”
The room went silent as they all stared at me in utter confusion.
“Hey, honey,” Ben walked in, grinning at me and freshly washed. Walking over to me, he pressed a kiss to my lips. “Smells good. You outdid yourself.”
He was lying, but I didn’t care. Things were going well between us.
As I sat down, I said grace as usual, but during the prayer, Rosie started whining about sitting with me. I finished the prayer, then turned to my granddaughter with a stern expression.
“Rosie, enough! You will sit there and eat your meal in your chair.”
“Geez, Ma!” Michael snapped. “What the hell is your problem?”
“My problem?”
“Yeah, she’s just a kid, and she only wants to sit with you.”
“Yes, but she always does. As do Willa and Duke. And you let them get away with it.”
“That’s not true,” Lizzy frowned. “You’re acting like we take advantage or something.”
“Because you do.”
Her jaw dropped in shock at my words.
“Don’t believe me? How about a few months ago when I came into the bar for a drink? You had paperwork to do and she wouldn’t stop crying, so you plopped her in my lap.”
“Well, yeah, but I needed the help.”
“And I wanted a drink. A night when I wasn’t Grandma.
The problem with all of you is that you think, because I love my grandkids, I’ll drop everything to help out.
And there used to be a time when that was true.
But from now on, you will respect my time and ask for help, not assume I will always give it. ”
Lizzy blinked back tears, quickly brushing them away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was such a burden to help me out.”
“Don’t turn this around on me. I have always been there for you, and I will continue to, but I need all of you to realize that I am not there to be at your beck and call for whatever you need.
You will not assume that because I’m in the room that I will take over when the kids become too much for you to handle.
And if you have to go to work, you will ask if I can watch the kids, not just drop them off for me to take care of. Am I being clear enough?”
They all nodded, but I knew this wasn’t the end of it.
“Now, Rosie, if you’d like, you may sit in the chair next to me and eat dinner.”
My granddaughter climbed down from her chair and scurried over to me. Jeff vacated his chair, allowing his niece to sit where he had been. As I pushed her in, I kissed her forehead.
“Good girl.”
When I looked up again, Ben was staring at me with the same intensity he had last night. I felt like he was reading my every thought, calculating how long it would take to kick everyone out of the house so he could undress me once again.
And for the first time in a long time, I was completely on board with getting rid of everyone.
“Eat up. Dinner’s getting cold.”
Ben grabbed the bowl of spaghetti, piling on a heaping that was smaller than his usual portion. “Pass this down to your mother,” he said to Krista, shoving the plate at her.
“So, how’s the room coming?” I asked, curious what progress he made today.
“Good. I need to drive out to Missoula to get the lumber for the siding. Once that’s up, we can start on the electric.”
I hummed in acknowledgment as I drizzled spaghetti sauce onto my plate, then grabbed a piece of Italian sausage. “I can’t wait to see how it all turns out, and I know the kitchen will look fabulous when it’s done.”
Ben nodded as everyone else tried and failed to get comfortable around us.
“And the writing? How’s that going?”
“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure I’m much of a writer, but I’m enjoying figuring it all out.”
“I’m sure it’s great,” Ben grinned. “Anything…interesting…you’re writing about?”
“Alright!” Jeff yelled, slamming his fork down. “Are we really going to sit at this table and pretend that this isn’t foreplay for later tonight?”
I picked up my wine glass and shot him an innocent look. “Why, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You do!” he snapped. “You both do, and you’re toying with us, trying to make us think that this…
this attempt at pleasant conversation is anything other than what we all know is really going on here!
And I, for one, will not sit by and listen to this disgusting play-by-play of what’s going to happen later tonight! ”
He threw down his napkin and stormed out of the house.
“Would anyone else like to leave before the conversation gets too dirty?”
Chairs were shoved back, and the house was cleared out in less than thirty seconds. Then, it was just Ben and me at the table, and not a single person in sight to stop us from having a little fun.
I ran my tongue along the brim of the wine glass, eyeing my husband in a way I’d never dared. “So, did you want to finish dinner or did you have something else in mind?”
I found myself falling into a routine of waking up early with my husband between my thighs, then showering and heading into town for my early morning workout. After which, I came home and showered again.
The rest of my day was spent doing things for me, whether that was going on a walk, working on my horrendous version of a murder mystery, or trying to perfect what could only be a floating cat in a tornado on my latest painting.
I really was a terrible artist, but I truly enjoyed having the opportunity to sit next to the large window and try my hand at it. I would never sell a single landscape, but painting freed my mind in a way I never realized it could.
I even found I had no problem making dinner once again for my husband. On occasion, I even went out of my way to find new recipes that he might enjoy.
All in all, things were looking up. But I couldn’t ignore the gnawing feeling in my gut that we’d only put a patch on our problems and hadn’t actually fixed anything. The sex was great, and had brought us closer than ever, but that wouldn’t solve our problems.
“Put that down,” Ben rumbled, stepping up behind me and caging me against the stove.
“If I put this down, I’ll burn your dinner.”
My eyes slid closed as warm lips slid over my neck, enticing me away from the food I was preparing. It was so easy to tell him yes when he was like this.
“Ben…”
Reaching around me, he turned the stove off and shoved the pot to the back burner, then spun me around and tugged me against him, kissing me hard.
Gasping, I threaded my fingers through his hair and got lost in his touch.
But all too soon, he stepped back and snatched my hand, pulling me out of the house.
“Where are we going?” I laughed as he started jogging toward the barn.