Wishing in Wisconsin (At the Altar Book 3) (6 page)

Cindy choked back a laugh.  "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Graham.  You see,
that man
and I are newly married, and he thinks everything boils down to," she carefully looked both ways before saying, "sexual activity."

Mrs. Graham covered her mouth as if she was shocked that Cindy would discuss that in front of her.  "Maybe this isn't the place I should be staying!"

Cindy wanted to care, but she couldn't.  "Maybe not.  We're not trying to upset you with our happiness."

Mrs. Graham turned and walked away, and Cindy bit her lip, trying not to say anything to her.  Instead, she tidied up her desk in the foyer of the house and walked into the kitchen.  She didn't want Mrs. Graham to leave a bad review on any of the travel websites where the B&B was listed, but the woman was on her last nerve.

In the kitchen she peeled some potatoes to mash to go with the beef tips she'd started earlier, and then she chopped vegetables for a salad.  She put the dough she'd had rising in the refrigerator all day into the oven for a fresh loaf of bread.  She'd used a store bought frozen loaf of dough, instead of making her own, because of how busy she'd been.  She'd really thought that having a man around would be the same as it was before he was there, but there was so much more involved in being married than she'd realized.

She put together a pineapple upside down cake and decided to slip that into the oven as they sat down to dinner.  She would serve it with caramel drizzled over it, and they would eat it warm.  She loved warm pineapple upside down cake.

She poured them each a glass of milk and mashed the potatoes, finally ready for dinner.  The bread had three minutes left on it.  She hurried down the hall and put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention, because he was blaring his music in his head phones again. 

He turned to her with a smile.  "I kept my clothes on while I worked this time."

She laughed.  "So proud of you.  Time to eat."  She hurried back out of the room, knowing he'd follow.  She had to make sure the bread didn't burn.

The table was set and the bread was on a plate when he walked in.  He smelled the air deeply.  "Oh, wow.  That smells fantastic."

He took his seat at the table and she fixed his plate for him, setting it in front of him.  "I won't cook like this every night, of course, but I thought you might like a real meal for a change."

While they ate, he talked about the work he'd done on the website.  "Have you thought about having sleigh rides every Friday and Saturday evening during the snowy months?  I think you could make a lot more money that way.  Locals would come out and you could book rides."

She nodded, thinking about it.  "I have thought about it.  I also want to have a few more snowmobiles for people to rent.  We have four, but with as much property as we have, we could accommodate another couple dozen.  This is a forty acre farm!"

"Why don't you?" he asked, surprised it was something she thought about, but hadn't put into practice.

She shrugged.  "I really hate the idea of going into debt for anything.  My grandpa was completely against debt, and I've never had so much as a credit card.  In another year, if things go like projected, I'll be able to add four more snowmobiles."

He frowned at that.  "I don't like debt either, but I think that's something we need."  He debated internally for a moment before finally saying, "Let me buy four of them.  Then in a year you buy another four.  How much is a snowmobile anyway?  I've never even seen one except on TV or in magazines."

"About thirteen thousand or so.  Some more, some less."

He half choked at that.  "That's a lot!"

"Hence, we only have four snowmobiles."

"Could we buy a few used ones and fix them up?"  He had the money, but that was a lot to spend on them.  He would enjoy learning to work on motors and keep them in tip-top condition.

She studied him for a moment, before nodding.  "Yeah, we could.  I've considered doing just that myself, but I wasn't sure I'd have enough time to work on them."

"Wait, you could work on one?" he asked, surprised.  He'd never known a woman who could work on a motor.

She grinned.  "My grandpa taught me so much about so many things.  Yes, I could work on one."

"Why don't I do some research on some good ones to buy used and see what I can do while I'm only working half days this week?  I can search while I'm out.  Then we can work on them together."  He shrugged, giving her a dopey grin.  "I find I really like the idea of working on them with you.  Maybe I'm a dork.  Okay, I'm definitely a dork, but maybe I'm dorkier than I thought.  I love the idea of working on motors with my best girl."

Cindy smiled.  "You're nuts."

"You're something else, you know that?" Trey asked.  "You can cook like this," he said waving to the food she'd prepared.  "You can fix up a motor, and you can do it all while looking so incredibly sexy you take my breath away."

Cindy blushed.  "Well, I've been taught to be self-sufficient.  I think I learned well."

"Oh, you definitely did."  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.  "Is there anything you can't do?"

She shrugged.  "I've always had issues peeing standing up.  It's one of those things that just seems to be beyond me."

He shook his head.  "You are also really good at ruining a moment, you know!" He laughed softly.  "Why would you say that?"

"Well, it's true!"

"I'm sure it is!"  He sighed.  "I was feeling all loving, and I think I was doing a great job expressing it, and you come back with something like that.  How is a man supposed to react to that?"

She frowned.  "I really don't know.  I guess I should pay attention to your moments better, huh?"

"It would be nice!"

After they finished eating, she got up to do the dishes, surprised when he stood to join her.  "You don't have to help me with the dishes!" she protested.  "I can get them."

"I can help.  I really don't mind."  He slipped his arm around her, leaning down to whisper in her ear.  "If I help, we can go to bed faster."

"Always thinking about your tallywacker..."

"Not really," he said with a grin.  "Usually I'm thinking
with
my tallywacker.  There's a difference you know."

She took the crock pot liner out of the crock pot and dropped it into the trash before swiping the pot out quickly and putting it back on the base.  She watched as he loaded the dishwasher and shuddered.  He'd obviously never been taught.  So many people said there was no right or wrong way to load a dishwasher, but there was a right way.  And it was the exact opposite of the way he was doing it.  She debated for a moment, wondering if she should crush his desire to help by showing him the right way to do it, or just let it go and rewash everything in the morning.  Really, though, there was no choice.  She had to have clean dishes in the morning for breakfast.

"You know, I'm really picky about how a dishwasher is loaded," she said cautiously.  "Would you mind putting away the leftovers while I do that?  Then I won't get all twitchy from it being done differently."

He laughed.  "Are you telling me that I'm not loading the dishwasher right?"

"I'm working really hard at
not
telling you that."

He shook his head, but walked to the table and carefully put the leftovers away.  "You'll have to let me know if I'm doing
this
right."

She ignored his playful teasing, knowing he understood what she was trying to say without saying it.  She was thankful he hadn't taken offense.  She rearranged everything in the dishwasher to her own specifications, and then finished loading everything else.  She was going to train him to be a good husband if it killed them both. 

He swept for her, and she tried not to notice the things he missed.  That could easily be redone in the morning.  She wouldn't complain about him doing anything else wrong for the rest of the night.  She couldn't.

After the dishwasher was working and the floor was swept, she stood on tiptoe to kiss him softly.  "Why don't we sit on the front porch for a minute?"

Instead, he caught her to him deepening the kiss.  "I have a better idea, and it involves being completely alone and employing our new lock on the bedroom door."  He nipped her neck.  "I promise you'll like it."

She laughed.  "I supposed I could do what you want for a while.  After, can we go sit on the porch?"

"Sure.  We'll take turns.  We do what I want, and then we do what you want.  And then we do what
I
want again."  The twinkle in his eyes left her with no doubt about what he thought was a good activity. 

She laughed.  "I suppose!"

He grinned, and caught her hand dragging her back to their bedroom.  "I knew you were going to be a good wife from the moment I laid eyes on you."

"Oh?  How did you know that?" she asked, watching as he hurriedly stripped, his clothes flying in every direction.

"Well, you're beautiful.  What else could a man like me care about?"

She sighed.  "I want you to love me for my mind."

He frowned.  "Well, I don't know you well enough for all that yet, so how about for now, I lust you for your body?"

She laughed.  "I suppose that's going to have to be good enough, won't it?"

Chapter Six

Cindy shut off the alarm on her phone at five the following morning, already exhausted.  She hated mornings.  It was the worst part of running a B&B.  She stumbled into the bathroom to take care of business before heading to the kitchen.  Her coffee pot was on a timer, and she poured her first cup of coffee, sitting at the table in silence drinking it down before getting up to pour another cup and start breakfast preparations.

She filled her second cup of coffee and took one more sip before she started to mix up the batter for muffins.  She had a muffin day every Tuesday and would offer at least three different kinds of muffins.  She always made a few extras because people from town invariably would come by on Tuesday to buy a few.  She didn't know why they were so popular, but they were.

She had just put the six dozen muffins into the oven when she felt a hand on her bottom, and she jerked with surprise.  "Trey!  Don't do that while I'm putting stuff in a hot oven.  I could burn myself!"

Trey sighed, and reached over, picking up her coffee cup and taking a sip.

Cindy saw red.  Coffee was the one thing in her world she was never willing to share, and that was her favorite mug.  She took the cup from him and calmly put it on the counter on the other side of her and poured him his own cup, trying her best not to say something she shouldn't. 

Trey raised an eyebrow.  "I take it I'm not allowed to drink from your coffee mug?"

Cindy sighed.  "The one thing in the world I'm not willing to share is my coffee.  So keep your grubby mitts off it."

He stared at her for a moment, his lips quirking into a grin.  "I take it you don't do mornings."

She shook her head.  "Mornings are for birds."  She took another sip of her coffee.  She had stayed awake half the night thinking and knew they needed to have a serious talk, but she would wait until after dinner.  He wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"I'm not particularly fond of them either.  Maybe if they started at noon."

She just looked at him, waiting to see if he'd laugh at his own joke. 

He took the hint and slowly backed away.  "I'm just going to go shave and get ready for my day," he said.  "Can I come back for breakfast in twenty minutes?"

Cindy nodded once.  She knew she wasn't being pleasant, but mornings were so hard for her.  And he drank her coffee!

By the time he came back and sat at the table for breakfast, she had another couple of cups of caffeine in her system and felt slightly more human.  "It's really best not to talk to me 'til I've had my first pot of coffee.  Or two."  She gave him a weak smile.

He laughed.  "I'll remember that in the future."  Looking between the three different muffins on the table, he asked, "Is it muffin day or something?"

Cindy nodded.  "Every Tuesday is muffin day."

"Really?  I was kidding!  What do you serve with the muffins?"

"Cold cereals are put out if anyone wants them.  Why?  You don't like muffins?"

He shrugged.  "I'm not a big fan of cooked fruit."

Why that annoyed her, she didn't know.  Cindy went to the pantry and put four boxes of cereal on the table, before turning to the fridge and putting a gallon of milk beside them.  Opening the cupboard she brought him a bowl, and then she got a spoon from the drawer.  "Happy breakfasting."

Trey looked at the four cereals and picked the only one that had no nutritious value at all, pouring a huge amount into the bowl she'd brought.  "Works for me.  I love Fruit Loops."

Cindy pulled more muffins from the oven and dumped them onto the butcher paper covering the counter.  She quickly added more cupcake liners to the pan and added batter to each one.  "So you love Fruit Loops but won't eat cooked fruit?"  What kind of freak didn't like cooked fruit?

She took a deep breath, realizing she was angry, and really had no right to be.  He'd done nothing wrong.

"Sure.  I like anything that's filled with so much sugar I can't see straight.  Doesn't everyone?"

Cindy shook her head.  "So what are you doing today?"

"I've been through some online classifieds, and I'm going to see if I can put my hands on a few used snowmobiles.  I can get a good start on them this week while I'm not officially working."

"That sounds like a plan."  She frowned.  "I haven't added you to my bank account yet.  I guess we should go into town and do that today."  She felt strange giving him access to her money, though.  What was wrong with her that she could give him access to her body, but not her money?  Was money really that precious to her?

He shook his head.  "Let me get these for now.  I have the funds."

"The money for them really needs to come out of my business budget."

"We'll make it work."

Cindy frowned.  Since she and her grandmother had decided to convert the house to a B&B, Cindy had been in charge of the finances.  No one had touched a dime without her approval. She didn't want to give up that kind of control, but he was her husband.  Finally she nodded.  "I guess it'll be okay just this once."

He finished his first bowl of cereal and poured another into the milk still at the bottom of the bowl.  "I'll be gone most of the day.  Don't plan on me for lunch.  I have seven different people I'm going to see, and they're all in different directions.  Add that to the fact that I don't know my way around at all, and you won't see much of me today."

"All right.  I want to have lunch with Cissie today anyway."  She was surprised at how much she missed their talks.  She had been dying to tell her friend all about Trey and the marriage.  She couldn't wait to see her face when she told her the story of him sitting in just his underwear and Mrs. Graham walking in on them. 

He finished his cereal and walked over to drop a quick kiss on her forehead.  "I'll be home for dinner."

For a moment, Cindy wished she didn't have to talk to him about her worries that evening, but she knew she did.  She couldn't let things go on as they were and stay true to herself.  "Have a good day."

He put his index finger under her chin and tilted her face up so he could kiss her lips.  "Miss me today."

Cindy smiled.  "I will."  She was surprised at how true the words were.

*****

At half past eleven that morning, Cindy made sure everything was as it should be at the B&B before making the walk to the bowling alley.  She saw Cissie's car parked outside and smiled, thrilled to be able to finally talk to someone.  Trey was wonderful, but she needed to have the listening ear of her friend.  Somehow she'd thought that Trey would become the only person she needed to talk to, but it wasn't true at all. 

She walked into the dining area, listening to the crack of the balls on the pins in the main alley.  Tuesday was league morning, and all the retired couples in town came out in droves.  She sank into a booth and waited, knowing Cissie would be there in just a minute. 

A basket holding a cheeseburger and fries slid across the table in front of her and a glass of root beer appeared beside it.  Cissie put her own basket and Diet Coke onto the table followed by the basket of cheese curds they'd share.  Every day for lunch it was the same.  Cindy felt like her world was upside down, so she was thrilled to see the return to her routine.  Things felt comfortable again.

Cissie hurried back to the kitchen without a word to drop off her serving tray, coming back a minute later and sliding into the booth across from her.  "Dish!"

Cindy grinned.  No words of greeting.  No "glad he hasn't killed you yet."  No, that wasn't Cissie's way.  She wanted to know how it was being married to a stranger, and she wasn't going to wait to find out.

Cindy popped a cheese curd into her mouth and swallowed it down with a big slug of root beer.  "He's crazy and sweet and lovable, and he's driving me absolutely insane."

Cissie grinned, reaching for a cheese curd herself.  "Is it going to be a two curd basket lunch?  'Cuz I can have them throw another in the fryer."

"No, one will do."  Cindy sighed, turning sideways to prop her leg onto the booth beside her.  "He's super sweet.  He was shy at first, but after the wedding night, the shyness completely disappeared.  I doubt if I'll ever see it again."  She laughed.  "The transformation in that man pre-sex to post-sex was utterly amazing."

"So you went through with the wedding night?  When?"

"Before you go too crazy, you're not getting a lot of details.  It did happen Saturday night, though.  He's such an adorable nerd, I couldn't resist."  Cindy wouldn't have been able to tell anyone else even that much, but there was nothing Cissie didn't know about her.

Cissie's eyes widened.  "Wow.  I was sure you'd tell him he had to wait."

"Why would I do that?  I agreed to this!"  Cindy frowned down at her burger.  "And now suddenly I'm having second thoughts.  I think I should have gotten to know him better before jumping into bed with him."

"You thinking about shutting the barn door now that he's had a taste of the milk?"

"Last night, he told me I'm beautiful."

Cissie threw a fry at Cindy.  "You make that sound like it's a bad thing."

Cindy fished the fry out of her cleavage and threw it back.  "Well, that in itself wasn't.  I told him I wanted him to love me for my mind, and his response is what upset me."

"What did he say?  Do I need to go over there and kick his butt?"

"He told me that he didn't love me yet, but for now, he'd lust me for my body."  Cindy shrugged.  "At the time, I just laughed, because we were about to—you know!  But I've been thinking about it since then."  It's all she'd been able to think about since.

"What have I told you about that?  You've got to quit thinking!"

"I know!  I know!  Anyway, he felt the need to tell me he doesn't love me, right before he took me to bed.  What kind of woman am I to sleep with a man who's a virtual stranger to me?  The only thing I really know about him is he prefers tighty whities and likes to snuggle after sex."

Cissie blinked a few times.  "I wouldn't have taken him for a tighty whitie kind of guy.  I hope you bought him some boxers."

"Well, yeah, but that's beside the point.  And you need to stop imagining my husband in his underwear, you freak!"  Cindy sighed.  "I think I'm going to talk to him after dinner and tell him that I want to wait on sex.  I think we need to know one another better first."

"Holy Batcave!  How do you think he's going to take that?  I've heard men get testy when you cut off the regular nookie."

"I really don't know.  I just—I feel like I'm doing something wrong, and I need to be true to myself.  And my upbringing.  Grandpa would turn over in his grave if he knew that I was sleeping with a man I met on Saturday."

Cissie nodded.  "He would, but you're not your grandfather.  I think it would have gone better if you'd told him you were waiting on your wedding day instead of doing him."

"Probably.  Oh, and I have to tell you what he did.  There's this little old lady staying at the house.  She and her husband are there to see their great-grandchild who lives close.  Anyway, she's super nosy.  Like one of those people who wants to go through every room in the house."

Cissie grimaced.  "I know the type."

"So I was in the kitchen and I heard a scream from the other end of the house.  When I went to investigate, she was standing in the hall outside the office, screaming about a naked man."

"Doesn't that door have a sign saying to keep out or something?"

Cindy nodded.  "Sure does!  So he stripped down to his underwear to work, and she walked in on him after ignoring the sign.  And do you know what he said to me later?"

Cissie shook her head, looking as if she was making a true effort to keep her face serious.  "What?"

"He said it was a good thing his tallywacker wasn't hanging out."

Cissie threw back her head and laughed, a loud sound that filled the room.  "Tallywacker?  Do people really
use
that word?"

Cindy joined her friend's laughter.  "That's what I asked him!  He said we could discuss all the alternatives and agree on one, but I told him tallywacker would work.  OMG, I couldn't believe it!"

Cissie wiped a tear from her eye.  "Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you."

"I do!  And I was kind of mean to him this morning," she said with her head down.

"What did you do?" 

"He took a sip of my coffee."  Cindy waited for a minute for the words to sink in.

"He drank your coffee?  Does he still have his tallywacker attached to his body?"

Cindy nodded.  "Of course."

"Then you restrained yourself and I'm proud of you.  Good job!"

"I don't think he had any idea how close to death he really was!"

"Obviously not.  I hope he knows not to test you like that again."

"Of course he does!  I couldn't let him keep taking his life into his own hands that way!"  Cindy shook her head.  Few people knew how fanatical she was about her coffee, but Cissie certainly knew everything about her.