Your Bed or Mine? (22 page)

“Keep going,” Zada yelled, waving Rick on when he looked back over his shoulder.

Can’t you see I’m in no shape to exercise?

Evidently not.

Rick and Simon turned around on the path, and headed back in her direction. Bent over at the waist, Zada looked up at them
when they reached her.

“I have a great idea,” she told Rick between gasps for air. “You run that way. I’ll run back to the house.”

“We don’t have to make the full loop around the golf course this morning,” Rick said. “We’ll go back with you.”

“No,” Zada said. “You and Simon finish your run. But if you get back to the house before I do, come looking for me. I’ll be
passed out somewhere along the way.”

Rick laughed. “Will getting up early and exhausting yourself this Sunday be worth it? If, say, I take next weekend off and
leave the training classes to Scrappy? We’ll sleep in. We won’t get dressed all day.
And
I’ll even leave the Sunday paper scattered all over the floor.”

“Define ‘sleep in,’” Zada said.

“Your idea of sleep in,” Rick said. “We’ll sleep until noon.”

“Can I have that in writing?”

“Yes,” Rick said. “You write it. I’ll sign it.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Zada waved as he and Simon ran off.

Surprisingly, she did make it back to the house without passing out. She also carefully chose her selection from the soy coffee
variety pack this time, instead of picking a packet at random.

Hazelnut Hugs and Kisses.

Perfect for the new game they’d agreed to play:
Extreme Makeover: Marriage Edition.

Not a full reconciliation, a trial reconciliation.

Just because they’d orgasmed themselves silly, didn’t mean they weren’t fully aware that they were far from being out of the
woods, yet.

What they needed was more time, and they both realized that. Time to see if they could overlook each other’s faults, learn
to compromise. And possibly learn to live together.

And speaking of compromise.

Zada took her coffee cup with her into her private office off the kitchen. By the time she finished her project on the computer
and hit “print,” Rick and Simon were back from their run.

Paper in hand, Zada walked into kitchen.

“What’s this?” Rick asked when she handed it over.

Rick laughed when he read the words: “IOU one sleep till noon, not get dressed all day, leave the paper scattered on the floor
WITHOUT picking it up, Sunday.”

Zada handed over a pen.

Rick grinned. “Okay. Where do I sign?”

“Anywhere you like,” Zada said. “Just as long as I have your IOU in writing.”

Alicia watched Zada make her morning trek across the street, coffee cup in hand. She cursed herself for being so pathetic—always
peering out her bedroom window like some sleazy voyeur.

She just couldn’t help it.

Watching Jen and Zada go to Tish’s every morning was like that car wreck on the interstate; you knew you’d regret it, but
you couldn’t keep from looking.

She also cursed herself for being annoyed that they hadn’t thought to call and ask her to have coffee with them this morning,
but she was. If she had a life, she wouldn’t have time to stand at her bedroom window, spying on her neighbors. If she had
a life, she wouldn’t give a crap who was having coffee without her.
If
she had a life…

The telephone rang.

Alicia sighed.

Life’s little reminder that she
did
have a brother.

“How did the meeting go last night?” were the first words out of Alfie’s mouth.

“Well enough, I guess,” Alicia said. “I’m having the meeting at my house next Saturday night.”

“Wonderful!” Alfie exclaimed.

“Don’t get too excited,” Alicia said with a sigh. “Things could still backfire.”

Alfie said, “There you go being piss-imistic again. I truly wish you’d see my therapist, Alicia, before you turn into a bitter
old troll.”

“Well, ex-cuse me!” Alicia said right back. “But I’ve had a lot to be piss-imistic about lately. I’m pissed that I picked
a total ass for a husband. I’m pissed that our nutty mother is a hypochondriac, and our delusional father thinks the twenty-something
bimbo he’s running around with at the moment really loves him. I’m pissed that you let women walk all over you, which is why
you’re in therapy. I’m pissed that I spilled my guts about Edward to my snotty neighbors last night, which means they’ll probably
really treat me like poison now. And most of all, I’m pissed that I can’t seem to get out of this stupid blue funk I’m in!”

“And that’s why you have me,” Alfie said. “I’m the best blue funk slayer in the business. I should be, I’ve fought my way
out of enough blue relationship funks in my lifetime.”

“Then tell me, Alfie,” Alicia said. “By all means, please tell me what to do to slay a blue funk. Tell me before this stupid
blue funk ends up slaying me.”

Alfie gasped. “Don’t talk like that!”

Dammit!

Wrong choice of words.

“I’m serious, Alicia,” Alfie warned. “You’ve been depressed for months now, and you’re really starting to scare me. Maybe
I should come stay with you for a few days.”

Go ahead and shoot me now!

Alicia said, “Alfie. Listen to me very carefully. I do
not
want you staying with me for a few days. I do
not
want you calling me for hourly reports. And I definitely do
not
want to see your nutty therapist. What I want you to do is let me deal with my problems and my neighbors in my own way. Got
it?”

“Got it,” Alfie said. “But there still has to be something I can do to help you through this.”

Alicia groaned. “I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay,” Alfie said. “I’ll call and check on you later.”

Jen peeked into Zada’s cup.

“Let me guess. More Arouse Me Mocha?”

Zada shook her head. “Today’s flavor is Hazelnut Hugs and Kisses.”

“Forget today’s flavor,” Tish said. “I want to hear about last night’s flavor.”

Zada took a deep breath and said, “Which part? Me carrying out the lap dance fantasy? Or Rick and I having a simultaneous
orgasm?”

Jen gasped. “You didn’t!”

“I knew it!” Tish yelled.

She gyrated all around the kitchen.

She looked over at Jen. “Pay up, Jen. I told you they’d zip right past foreplay and head straight to consummation last night.”

Zada’s mouth dropped open.

“You bet money on us?”

“Of course we did,” Tish said. “What are friends for?”

“It wasn’t much,” Jen said, trying to appease Zada.

Tish said, “Too bad about the eighty-something more days of foreplay, though. I would have milked that puppy for all it was
worth.”

“Of course
you
would have, Miss S&M,” Jen mumbled.

“On the other hand,” Tish said, “now, we don’t have to wait in suspense any longer. You and Rick are officially back together
in every sense of the word.”

Zada shook her head. “Not a full reconciliation. Just a trial reconciliation.”

Jen said, “Sorry to bring this up, but doesn’t sleeping together void your separation agreement?”

“Neither of us is going to run to the judge with the information we slept together, Jen,” Zada said. “But if we can’t work
things out, we have at least reached a property settlement. Rick wants me to keep the house and Simon. And I’ve agreed to
let him see Simon any time he wants.”

Jen said, “You mean, like the two mature adults you should have been from the very beginning?”

“Yes,” Zada said. “Like two mature adults, Jen. Rick and I really talked things out last night. He admitted he was disappointed
because I wasn’t more like his mother. And I admitted I was waiting for him to disappoint me, just like my father did. Now,
we’re going to take things slow and see if we can learn to compromise, accept each other’s faults, and live together without
killing each other.”

Tish walked over and hugged her. “Well, I’m happy for you, Zada.”

Jen said, “I’m happy for you, too, Zada. As long as you and Rick are over the game playing. Marriage is serious. I hope you’ve
both figured that out.”

“I just thought of something,” Tish said. “Now that you and Rick are at least trying to work things out, why don’t Jen and
I get babysitters this weekend, and we’ll all go out to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate?”

Jen brightened up. “We could even hit a club later, and make the guys take us dancing. Back when we were in college, Charlie
and I practically lived on the dance floor.”

Zada said, “God, how I envy all of those ‘back when we were in college’ stories you and Tish tell. You two grew up with Joe
and Charlie. Rick and I haven’t even known each other two years.”

“Trust me,” Tish said. “Joe and Charlie ‘growing up’ is debatable.”

Jen laughed and nodded in agreement.

“In fact,” Zada said, “I don’t even know if Rick
can
dance.”

Jen said, “You’ve never danced with Rick? Not even at your wedding?”

“You mean the quickie wedding we had in Lake Tahoe?” Zada shook her head. “The gondola ride up the mountain took longer than
the ceremony.”

Zada sipped a few more Hugs and Kisses.

“And now that I think about it,” Zada said, “not having a past together was probably one of our biggest problems. We jumped
into marriage too soon. Before we really knew each other.”

Jen said, “But now you do have a past together, Zada. And you’ve proved to each other that your love is strong enough to at
least want another chance to work things out.”

Tish said, “And
if
we can talk the boys out of their poker game Saturday night, that will give us a perfect excuse not to attend Alicia’s Fantasy
Club meeting.”

Jen said, “What we should do is remind the boys why they call us the Housewives’ Fantasy Club. We’ll tell them they have no
choice. Our fairy godmother granted us a night on the town.”

Zada said, “I hope our fairy godmother grants me acceptance for the new idea I want to send my editor.”

Jen and Tish both said, “You’re writing again?”

Zada nodded. She hadn’t written a word since the separation. “I really want to do something with an environmental awareness
theme this time.”

“Zada, that’s wonderful!” Always-environmentally-conscious Jen exclaimed. “About the theme, and the fact that you’re writing
again. I know how worried you’ve been over your writer’s block since you and Rick separated.”

“Amazing how sex clears the mind,” Tish teased.

“True,” Zada said. “Sex is like air. You don’t really miss it until you aren’t getting any.”

It was after eleven o’clock when Rick drove the Hummer into the garage on Sunday night. Long hours even on weekends were part
of the job during the weeks they were holding training sessions at the center.

The recruits lived at the center full-time, giving them the opportunity to bond with the dogs. But the time after the daily
classes ended was just as important as time spent in the classroom and on the obstacle course.

After class time gave him and Scrappy the opportunity to bond with the recruits. Sharing real-life experiences with explosive
detection was important information a recruit couldn’t learn from reading any textbook.

Rick let himself into the house through the garage door off the kitchen. He wasn’t surprised to find Simon waiting to greet
him. He squatted down, scratching Simon’s ears, and giving him a few sound pats on his back.

He laughed when Simon gave him a thorough sniffing.

“What? Do you smell those dogs I’ve been working with today? You could have shown them a thing or two in your day, couldn’t
you old boy?”

As hard as it had been to retire Simon, he’d taken the vet’s advice and kept Simon away from the center after the explosion.
The vet’s concern had been that bringing Simon back to surroundings he associated with explosive detection would be too traumatizing.
Especially when the dog had a new challenge ahead of him—learning to survive sightless.

Traumatizing Simon in any way was not an option for Rick. The reason he’d left Simon with Zada when they separated was to
keep Simon’s life as trauma-free as possible.

Trauma-free.

Rick smiled.

If he and Zada could work things out, his own life had the potential to be trauma-free.

Thinking of Zada sent him through the house and up the stairs, being as quiet as possible. He headed down the hall to the
guest bathroom to brush his teeth.

What?

All of his personal things were missing. He took a quick look in the closet. All of his clothes were missing as well.

Rick headed back down the hall, Simon following. He slipped into the bedroom. Zada was buried beneath the covers so far, all
he could see was the top of her head.

Poor baby.

I need to let her sleep.

She’d gotten up early with him. Gone on a run with him. Moved his things for him.

God willing, he would spend the rest of his life trying to make her as happy as she was making him.

Rick undressed quickly, and slipped into bed, trying his best not to wake her. She rolled over and snuggled under his arm,
her head resting against his chest.

Rick whispered, “Thanks for moving my things, angel. You didn’t have to do that. I would have taken care of it myself.”

He kissed the top of her head.

She snuggled even closer.

“I know how busy you are during training sessions,” she whispered back. “Did your classes go okay today?”

“I had a great day,” Rick said. “How did your day go?”

“Good,” she said and yawned. “After I moved your things, I worked on a new book proposal.”

She titled her chin up for a kiss. Rick didn’t disappoint her. One kiss led to another. Rick was the one to pull away.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t do this. I know you’re worn out. Try and get some sleep.”

“I’m tired,” she said, “but I’m never that tired.”

Her hand slipped beneath the covers and moved down his stomach.