Page 51 of Beside the Rolling Waves
She was awake, he could tell the difference in her breathing, but she hadn’t lifted her head and stayed snuggled against him. Almost as though she needed it. She’d come back from burying her sister, and to her surprise, and his as well, the church had planned a meal. Neither one of them had known about it, but they had stayed, eating and listening to people reminisce about the girls when they were younger. It was nice to be around so many people who knew them and see their perspective of the things he remembered.
Becky and he had been together so much, but a lot of it had been out of the eyes of the townspeople. Especially in their younger years.
Regardless, it had been late when they had left, and the ride home was brutal.
Hopefully his lawyer would have some information about the house soon, and they would be closing. He had honestly expected to hear from the lawyer today.
He walked by the babies, both of whom just had their faces peeking out from the covers that went over their car seats. He’d pulled a little flap down when he’d set them on the floor so that he could see them. He also had them pointed toward the couch and the recliner, because he assumed that that’s where Becky and he were going to end up.
But rather than lay Becky on the couch, he sat down, holding her in his arms.
She snuggled deeper.
“I’m just going to sit here for a bit,” he said. His boots were still on, and so were her shoes, and he probably should take both of those things off, as well as her coat and get her settled properly. But he just wanted to hold her. She was lighter than he expected, and much skinnier. Almost too skinny to be called slender. It made him wonder again what her financial situation had been lately, and he’d never remembered to ask.
Or if he had, she hadn’t given him a satisfactory answer. He determined to press her in the morning, although he supposed it didn’t matter. She had been letting him take care of her, and that was the thing that was important to him right now.
He settled down on the couch and waited for her breathing to even out. Then, he grabbed the blanket that was behind them and settled it over top of them.
The babies were going to be up soon. They hadn’t eaten since they left Raspberry Ridge, and it was just a matter of time. Neither one of them were even close to sleeping through the night. What had it been? A week? Ten days? More or less? Not that it mattered, but he had lost track of time.
All he knew was that he had Becky right where he wanted her, and he wished that they could stay this way forever.
He was just going to enjoy it for a little while.
Twenty-Two
Becky woke to both babies screaming at the top of their lungs. Kevin still made a cute mewing sound, even when he was crying, but Marley’s cry changed into something that was shrill and demanding.
Either way, it sounded like they had been crying for a while by the time she finally struggled out of the depths of unconsciousness and tried to figure out where and how she was. She didn’t feel normal. She felt…a little uncomfortable. Her neck ached, but she felt warm and safe and snuggled up, and it was weird, because she had just come from the funeral of her sister, and she shouldn’t be feeling this good.
And then she realized that Rodney held her. She vaguely remembered he carried her in and sat on the couch. She had thought that she needed to get up and take her shoes off and her coat and check on the babies, but the next thing she knew, she had been deeply asleep.
“I can get them. You lie down.” His words were soft in her ears, his breath over her skin, and her arms were already around him, but she wanted to move them up, to slide her fingers in his hair and bring his head down to hers.
But that wouldn’t do with the babies crying.
“No. I’ll… I’ll make the bottles.”
That was what she was supposed to do. She wasn’t sure where the baby bags were, or whether he had even gotten the dirty bottles out, but she was pretty sure they’d made sure that there were clean bottles at the sink before they left, anticipating the needs that might arise when they got home.
Plus, there were extra clean bottles in the baby bags. They had been figuring out that whatever they thought they needed, they should double it.
That included the number of diapers that they took anywhere and the number of outfit changes too.
Although, really the only place they had gone was to look at the house, and now her sister’s funeral. The babies were so young, and she really liked to keep them at home. She thought that was best for them. Although soon, this wouldn’t be home anymore.
She moved, reluctantly sliding off his lap and standing up. Taking a moment to orient herself before realizing that the blanket had slipped to the floor.
She grabbed it and threw it over the back of the couch, then turned around to offer her hand to him.
“My arm’s asleep,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“No. I… I enjoyed it.”
She didn’t say anything but continued to hold her hand out until he grabbed it, and she helped him up.
