Darling obstacles (14 page)

She was already drifting into sleep, snuggled deep in his arms. "Hmm?" She didn't open her eyes. She could never remember feeling so deliciously relaxed.

"Break your date with Cassidy tomorrow."

Her eyes snapped open and she tensed, turning her head to look at him. They were so close that she could easily discern the stubborn set of his jaw and his blazing jeweled eyes. "Oh, Greg!" She sighed wearily. "Did you have to bring that up now?"

"Break the date, Maggie. You know you don't want to go out with him."

"True," she admitted with a yawn. "But I told him I would go to the concert with him and it doesn't seem right to back out at the last minute."

"Never break one date for another. I bet your mother told you that back in high school. I've given a similar spiel to Paula. That's one of the Official Rules of Teen Dating. It's considered character building for adolescents to suffer through dates with the wrong person simply because they said yes at a weak moment." Greg traced the shape of her mouth with one long finger. "But those rules don't apply in our case, Maggie. We're long past adolescence. We don't need stupid guidelines. We set our own."

"Greg, I realize that I last dated back in the Dark

Ages, but it still seems rude to break a date just because"—she paused and stroked the rough skin of his cheek with her fingertips—"someone more interesting comes along."

"Well, I'm glad you at least concede that I'm more interesting than Cassidy." Greg caught her hand and carried it to his mouth, tickling her palm with his tongue. Maggie quivered. "Break the date, Maggie. I want to be with you tomorrow night."

Oh, she wanted it too. But mother-ingrained rules die hard. "Greg, the concert will only last a couple of hours. I til be so much easier if I just go with him. I have to see the man every Thursday at school, he's getting Kevin a used trumpet at a great price and will be giving him music lessons, and— H

"I'll buy Kevin a brand-new trumpet and pay for private music lessons. Break the date first thing in the morning, Maggie."

Why did everything have to be so complicated? she thought. Especially when she was groggy from lack of sleep. She couldn't think clearly, couldn't think things through . . .

"I don't want to argue with you, Greg. And—and I don't want another week of frozen silence like this past one either. Please try to understand."

"Understand what? That you prefer to spend tomorrow night with the clod who kicked my little girl out of the junior high band?"

Maggie groaned. She couldn't rehash it again! She could hardly keep her eyes open. "I'm exhausted, Greg. I just want to go to sleep."

"And dream of Cassidy and his used trumpet?"

She kicked him with her bare foot. "I'm not going to dream of anyone but you, Greg Wilder, and you know it."

"You'll be sorry if you keep your date with Cassidy, Maggie," Greg said pleasantly. Too pleasantly. Had she been more alert, her suspicions might have been aroused. "That's both a promise and a threat, honey," he added in the same light tone.

Maggie wasn't alarmed. He wasn't angry with her, he couldn't be, she thought sleepily. He was holding her so tenderly, stroking her hair so lovingly. She cuddled closer and closed her eyes.

"Maggie?" Greg was holding her hand in his, his thumb moving over her gold wedding ring. "I want you to take this ring off."

Her heart missed a beat. She'd always worn her wedding ring, night and day, for the past thirteen years.

"I don't want to be in bed with another man's wife, Maggie. And as long as you wear that ring you're Johnny's wife, if only symbolically."

She slipped the ring off without a word. It was time. She felt no disloyalty to Johnny, none at all. But her finger did feel bare and strange without the accustomed wide band.

Greg watched her as she placed the ring in the small drawer of the nightstand. "Come here," he whispered. She turned to him. "I've never thought of myself as the possessive type, Maggie. But seeing that ring on your finger as you lay here in bed with me ..." His voice trailed off. He wondered if he sounded as surprised and confused as he felt by these unexpected, strange feelings coursing through him. His arms tightened around Maggie in possession.

She nestled her head against his shoulder. "I won't wear it anymore, Greg," she promised.

cartoons, just as they did every other Saturday morning. The Wilders were gone, all four of them.

"Hi, Mom." Kristin glanced away from the television as Maggie entered the room. "Are you feeling better?"

Maggie gave her a blank stare. "What?"

"Dr. Wilder said that when he called last night to tell you what time he would pick up the kids, you told him you weren't feeling well," Kristin explained. "He said that you needed to sleep and we weren't to wake you up."

Maggie again had the queer sensation of having walked into the middle of a play and being expected to follow the action without knowing the plot. "When did you talk to Dr. Wilder, Kristin?" she asked carefully.

"He came by real early this morning, before seven o'clock. None of us were awake, but he kept ringing the doorbell until I woke up and let him in. I was kind of scared when you didn't wake up, Mommy," she confessed. "Dr. Wilder said he would look in on you and make sure you were all right."

Maggie was aware that she was blushing fiercely. She visualized Greg walking into her bedroom and looking at her as she slept naked beneath the covers. But then, she'd been sleeping naked with him all night! She touched her burning cheeks with hands that were icy cold. Thankfully, Kristin's attention had been claimed by a soft drink commercial that she found far more interesting than her mother.

Maggie struggled to regain her composure. The Wilders were gone and Greg had managed to dress, leave the house, locking the door behind him, in order to pretend he was just arriving to pick up his children. Obviously none of the kids knew that he'd spent the night there and Maggie was deeply relieved that they didn't. She didn't know how to explain, what to say. She didn't even know when she would see Greg again. Her thoughts raced as madly as her pulses. Song titles to the contrary, it wasn't easy fall-

ing in love. Not at age thirty-two, when you had three children and he had four. Nor was love particularly comfortable the second time around. This was more confusing and passionate and intensely encompassing than the first time had ever been.

The cartoon show ended and Kevin looked up, acknowledging his mother's presence for the first time. "The soccer game was called off because of the rain," he said morosely. "I don't have anything to do."

"Why don't you invite Josh over to play?" Maggie suggested. She was embarrassed by her overtly obvious conniving. If Kevin called Josh, she would have to talk to Greg to make arrangements for the boys to play. She thought of Taffy Smithton, who had engineered a similar ploy, and cringed. What was she turning into?

"The Wilders are going somewhere today," Kristin said. "I heard Dr. Wilder tell the kids."

"Where are they going?" Maggie asked, far too quickly.

Kristin shrugged. "To some friend's house. Lynn something. I can't remember the last name."

Lynn. It could be either masculine or feminine, Maggie told herself. Was the Lynn with whom Greg and his children planned to spend the day—and possibly the night—a man or a woman?

It was most surely a woman, she decided with certainty, and was sickened by her jealousy and uneasiness. Why had she been so foolish as to fall in love with Greg Wilder? Her life had been so placid, so predictable, so peacefully dull before she'd committed that folly. She didn't want or need the trauma of an emotional involvement.

The rest of the morning dragged. Maggie scrubbed the bathroom and the kitchen; she changed the sheets on all the beds; she did some laundry; she dusted and vacuumed. The physical activity kept her occupied, but her thoughts were focused obsessively on Greg. "You'll be sorry if you keep your date with Cassidy," he'd said. "That's both a promise and a

threat." Did he mean to punish her by spending the day (and night) with the woman named Lynn? What if he again subjected her to the silent treatment? Maggie's heart contracted with pain. She didn't think she could bear it, not after last night, not after what they'd shared. But the facts remained: She was going out with Rich Cassidy and Greg was with someone named Lynn. No doubt he had purposely dropped her name, knowing that Kristin would repeat it. He probably wanted her to be tortured by jealous suspicions all day!

The afternoon brought the Jamison children and an unexpected baby-sitting job. The three active preschoolers kept Maggie frantically busy, and Kevin, Kristin, and Kari all had friends over as well. The noise level in the house was deafening. Maggie was relieved when Mr. Jamison arrived to collect his brood at five o'clock and she sent the friends home shortly afterward.

The telephone rang just as she was sinking down onto the sofa. It was the first time she'd dared to sit since the Jamisons had arrived at one. "Will one of you kids answer the phone?'' She said to her children.

"I will, Mommy!" Kari raced into the kitchen. "Mommy?" she called moments later. "Are you still going on that date tonight?"

"Yes," Maggie sighed, wishing she weren't. She felt physically as well as emotionally drained. The thought of making polite small talk with Rich Cassidy was truly debilitating.

"Mommy, where is the date?" Kari called. And then she corrected herself. "Where is the concert?"

Kari didn't know words like concert. Someone—on the phone—was asking her questions. Maggie headed instantly to the kitchen. Kari was clutching the telephone receiver. "It's Dr. Wilder, Mommy."

"Greg?" Maggie's voice was more like a breathless squeak.

"So you're still going to go through with it?"

Greg's voice was smooth as silk. "I did tell you that you're going to regret it, didn't I?"

"Did you have a nice day with Lynn?" Maggie fired back. No one told her what she could or couldn't do, least of all Greg Wilder, who had a different date every week.

"I had a wonderful time. Where is this concert you and Cassidy plan to attend?"

The question caught her off-guard. She was still smarting over his enthusiastic reply to her question. "At the Woodland Civic Center. Its a woodwind and percussion group."

Greg gave a low whistle. "Woodwind and percussion? Now there's a dream come true."

"Greg—"

"If you insist on going, Maggie, there is nothing more to be said. Just remember I warned you." His silky tones unnerved her. "Good-bye, Maggie." He hung up before she could reply.

Rich Cassidy complimented Maggie on her cream-colored dress. Maggie complimented him on his tie. They discussed the weather (still raining), the traffic (moderate for this time Saturday night), and this year's elementary school band (promising) on the brief drive to the Civic Center. Rich was not exactly loquacious, and by the time they had settled into their seats at the plush Woodland public auditorium, they seemed to have exhausted their entire supply of conversation.

She could have been with Greg, Maggie reminded herself gloomily as the musicians tuned their instruments and she and Rich sat in uncomfortable silence. Rich dropped his program for the fifth time and when she reached down to retrieve it, he stepped on her hand. She jerked up so quickly that she didn't notice that he had bent over. Their heads collided. Rich's lip bled; Maggie could feel his toothmark in the back of her head. Many mutually embarrassed apologies fol-

lowed. Maggie lapsed back into gloom. Yes, she could have been with Greg, but she had stubbornly elected to follow the Official Rules of Teen Dating, at age thirty-two.

She decided it was not at all character building to suffer through a date with the wrong person. It was depressing and boring. And painful. Her hand and her head still hurt from the collision with Rich's foot and tooth. It was also unnecessary. She had removed her wedding ring when Greg had asked her to. Why hadn't she broken this date at his request as well? It was one of those questions without an answer. Greg had said she would regret this date and he was absolutely right.

The lights dimmed and the musicians placed their instruments in position. And just at that moment Greg Wilder and seven children trooped down the aisle to a group of seats five rows in front of where Maggie sat with Rich Cassidy. She gasped, wondering if she were hallucinating. She half-hoped that she was.

But it was the flesh-and-blood Greg who was carrying Max and holding Kari by the hand. Wendy and Kristin followed, then Kevin and Joshua and a pretty teenage girl who could only be Paula Wilder. Kevin was lugging a big shopping bag.

"Okay, who wants some caramels? Who wants some M & M's?" Maggie heard her son say as they settled in their seats. "Marshmallows? Bubble gum? Jelly begins?"

Maggie sat as still as a stone. Rich cleared his throat. "Er, aren't they, uh, your children down there with Dr. Wilder?" he asked uneasily. He'd just met them at the duplex twenty minutes earlier.

Maggie gradually emerged from her paralysis. Her first emotion was that of maternal horror. Her children were still wearing their old sweatshirts and jeans, the ones they'd worn all day. Kari had gotten mustard on the front of her shirt at dinner; Kevin's hair was uncombed and askew. She was certain that

all three had on their oldest sneakers with holes in the toes.

"You, er, didn't mention that your kids were coming tonight," said Rich, and Maggie wanted to hit him. Did he actually think that she would allow her children to appear at a posh place like the Civic Center looking like a ragtag tribe from Poverty Row? She was fiercely proud of her children. Whenever they went anywhere she took great care to see that they were properly groomed and well-dressed. Their teachers often complimented her on their neat appearance. And Rich Cassidy thought she would send them to the Civic Center on a Saturday night dressed for yard work? "I didn't know the children were coming," she replied tightly.

Kevin was still passing out candy. There was more junk in that bag than Maggie allowed them to have for Halloween and Christmas combined. Pounds and pounds of candy. They were going to be flying on a sugar high all night—and the dental bills! Maggie shuddered. Kristin and Kari were already cavity-prone.