Authors: Renee Miller
Touch her ag
ain, you die.
They walked away, careful to move out of Daniel’s line of sight before heading back to the car. As they got in, Daniel cowered on the ground. He didn’t move for a long time. John and Frank climbed in the backseat and Wade started the car before Daniel pushed himself off the pavement and looked around.
“Not so hot now is he?” Frank murmured. “I think we cracked a few bones.”
Wade shifted the car into reverse, leaving the lights off. “Good. Now we’ll see if he’s learned his lesson.”
“I heard once a wife beater, always a wife beater,” John said.
Wade turned, a frown on his face.
“Hey man, don’t get pissed at me. I’m just saying it’s what I heard.”
“I hope for his sake it’s not true,” Wade mumbled.
***
Kristina glanced at the clock. Daniel was late. The first couple of days after her conversation with Wade she’d worried he wouldn’t listen and pick a fight with Daniel. But nearly a week had passed and she hadn’t heard anything from her ex-husband.
Assuming Wade had left Daniel alone, she’d been relieved. The last thing she needed was someone defending her. It would only make Daniel angrier, if that was possible.
Gravel crunched outside and she looked to the window next to the couch. Finally.
She picked Cadence up from the mat on the floor where she’d placed her in an attempt to get her to crawl, but the chubby baby preferred to roll everywhere.
At the sound of the door opening, Kristina turned and braced herself for another argument. The words froze on her lips.
Daniel stood in the doorway with his arm in a cast, his face a mess of bruises and cuts. Kristina’s heart tightened as guilt washed over her. Hot and prickly it traveled over her skin. Wade hadn’t listened.
Daniel closed the door and walked into the room to the couch. He eased himself down, obviously in a lot of pain and then stared at her. Misery softened his gaze, the usual anger gone. He looked utterly dejected, as though he’d lost his best friend.
“Jesus, Daniel. What happened?”
He shook his head.
Kristina could have sworn his chin trembled.
“Two guys jumped me on Monday night when I came out of a bar. I don’t know why, they said something about some girl, but I don’t know what they were talking about. Honest to God, Kris, I thought they were going to kill me. I think I even blacked out. They didn’t say anything until just before they left. They just kept kicking me and punching me and then they took off.”
“You don’t know who it was?” Kristina sat down on the coffee table in front of him. Cadence reached for his cast and Kristina shifted her away.
Daniel shook his head again.
She stared speechless, as he fidgeted with a loose thread on the sling. Wade wouldn’t do something like this. Besides, he knew Daniel would go to the cops and he couldn’t afford to go to jail. If Wade had been one of his attackers, Daniel would have recognized him.
Daniel raised head, his eyes moist with tears. “When I was on the ground, I just kept thinking about us and all I’ve lost. Where did we go wrong?”
“We just aren’t meant to be,” she didn’t know what else to say. Her chest hurt. She wanted to hold him and make his pain go away.
Taking her hand in his good one, he leaned closer. “We are meant to be, Kris, I know that now. The whole time I thought they were going to kill me all I could think about was you and Cadence. I miss you so much and I’ve been a jackass, I know. I should have been patient with you, kinder. I just get so frustrated sometimes, and it seemed like you weren’t listening to me when I tried to help you. God, I never meant to hurt Cadence, you know that. People lose control sometimes. I’m only human.”
Daniel stood, pulling her with him. Kristina struggled to hold Cadence still as he drew her close. He touched her face, his gaze on her mouth.
Kristina froze, not sure if she should push him away or welcome this new Daniel. In his eyes she found the man she thought he was so long ago. She let his lips brush hers.
He smiled. “Please, can’t we go back and try again?”
She said nothing. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. This Daniel she could fall in love with. She
had
loved this man but thought he was lost forever to her.
“Let me stay the night, please.”
“But what about Desiree, she—”
“You’re all that matters. I don’t want her.”
A tear slipped down his cheek and Kristina was undone.
“Okay, just tonight,” she whispered.
“You won’t regret it. We’re going to fix this. I want you back so much, I don’t care what you did before.”
Kristina paused at his words. He didn’t care what she did? She pushed it away. If they could fix this, didn’t they owe it to themselves and to Cadence? Ignoring the voice in her head screaming at her to say no, Kristina allowed Daniel to stay.
At Cadence’s soft babbling, Kristina rolled over, a sigh escaping her lips. The sun wasn’t up yet and her bedr
oom remained shadowed. She turned over and her heart fluttered. Daniel slept on the pillow next to hers, his mouth opened just a bit, soft snores issuing from his nose.
They hadn’t made love the night before. He hadn’t even tried to touch her in that way. Somewhat disappointed, she’d lain next to him listening as he talked until the wee hours about the future and how much he loved her. He held her close until he had nothing more to say. Then he rolled away as he always did. Kristina had lain there, staring at his back, her heart wavering between wanting him back and needing more than she knew he was able to give.
Now it was time for reality, to see if he could stay this way. Maybe the mugging, or whatever it was, had really changed his thinking. She eased off the bed holding her breath and then smiled at her silliness. He wouldn’t bite her head off for making noise. Hadn’t he said he was done with his tantrums?
Tiptoeing to the dresser, she opened the drawer and pulled out a t-shirt. Without thinking, she pushed it close with her usual force.
“Could you be louder? Maybe you could stomp around a bit or jump on the bed and make sure I’m up. What time is it anyway?”
“It’s just after five. I have to get Cadence.”
“Yeah, but I don’t so try to be quiet, okay?”
“Okay,” she crept down the hallway and to Cadence’s room.
Cadence giggled when she saw her and pulled herself up on the rail of her crib. Kristina reached for the light and thought better of it. He hadn’t freaked out, but there was no point in testing her limits quite yet.
“Hey Monkey,” she whispered, and picked Cadence out of the crib. “Let’s get you changed and go have some breakfast.”
“Sleeping in here!” Daniel growled from her room.
Kristina closed her eyes and choked a curse; she’d forgotten to switch off the baby monitor. “Sorry.”
She hurried downstairs. Daniel just wasn’t a morning person. He wouldn’t change overnight. He’d been so tender the night before, so unlike himself, she expected too much too soon.
In the kitchen, she fell into the routine she’d adopted since Daniel left. With Cadence in her highchair chasing Cheerios around the tray, Kristina went to the small laundry room off the kitchen—really a closet her dad had fixed up—and threw in a load of laundry, bringing out the ones she’d left in the dryer the day before to fold them. She set the basket next to the couch and went to check on Cadence.
She’d left bottles lined up along the sink, and quickly washed them, setting them on the counter to dry. While wiping the stovetop and the counter, she eyed her list from the day before posted to the fridge. She’d forgotten to clean the oven. On a page from the notebook she kept on the table Kristina added it to her list for the day, smiling as she wrote. That particular chore would see many lists before she worked up the motivation to do it. She hated cleaning the oven.
Kristina stood and went to the coffee maker. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to make coffee, a terrible sin. Coffee was her ambrosia, a heavenly gift from the gods; one couldn’t properly begin a day without it. She opened the cupboard—cringing as the rusted hinges squeaked in protest—to grab the filters and the coffee tin.
She hummed as she worked, pausing now and then to pick up Cadence’s dropped keys and to wipe her messy face; pleased that for once, everything felt right with her world. No guilt over Daniel, no dread about what the future would bring, but a wide-open road filled with promise. If they could stay on track, if Daniel could really change, then they had a chance to be happy together.
She looked up at the sound of footsteps on the stairs and her body tensed. Relax. Promise, the future held hope and promise. He’d attempted to mend their relationship and she should show more faith in him. Kristina sat down, placed her coffee next to her on the little round table, and went back to her list. Her breath caught when Daniel cursed after a loud thud.
***
Fuck
.
Daniel rubbed his knee and glared at the toppled laundry basket. Kristina had grown lazy. “Since when do you leave this shit lying around? Jesus, you’re out there on your ass doing nothing when you could have had this done and I wouldn’t have messed up my damn knee. I think I’ve got enough bruises, don’t you think?”
“Sorry.” Kristina stood.
And she wondered why he lost his temper with her?
Stupid shit like this forced him to snap when they’d been married.
She walked to the basket.
He turned from her, disgusted with how she’d gone back to the trash she’d been after just a few months without him. The answering machine’s message light blinked and Daniel walked to the end table shifting the sling on his shoulder. His neck ached from sleeping too long on one side to avoid rolling on his injured arm.
“You check this?” he asked.
“What?”
God, she was as thick as a brick sometimes. “The message, stupid. It could have been Desiree.”
“I turned the phone off. I didn’t want to be interrupted last night.” She paused holding a pink blanket close to her chest. “I thought Desiree didn’t matter.”
“Shit, you know what I meant. She doesn’t need to know we’re trying to work things out, and I don’t see any point in breaking up with her until I know we have.” He wanted to slap her, but force would get him nowhere. He wouldn’t convince her to let him come home if he lost it now. There would be plenty of time later to retrain her.
Kristina bit her bottom lip and her eyes welled with tears.
Daniel turned away, sick of her blubbering. Someday she’d realize life was full of shit she didn’t like and she’d just have to suck it up and deal with it. He pressed the button and waited for the machine to play the message. Expecting Desiree’s voice, a sharp pain knifed through his chest when a man’s drawl, smooth and very familiar, addressed his wife. His face warmed and fire flared in his veins.
“Hey Kris, I know it’s late. I hope I didn’t wake you…”
Daniel snorted and turned to pin Kristina with an accusatory glare.
She reddened and looked down at the basket.
“Sorry I was so nosey the other night. I just worry about you. Oh, and we got some new shirts and I need to know your size. I can guess at it but I thought you’d like one that didn’t ride up on you all the time, although I don’t mind it one bit—”
Daniel stopped the message, punching the button so hard the machine flipped off the table and onto the floor. “Who the hell was that?”
“Just Wade. There was a problem at the bar the other night with one of the customers and he’s just making sure I’m okay, I almost quit.” She shrugged.
Daniel clenched his fists, taking deep breaths to stop himself from lunging at her. He knew Wade and he’d never liked the arrogant prick. Wade Bowen was dishonest and cocky, and the way he let his wife whore herself out the way she did was disgusting. Daniel had fucked her once, but only after repeated offers. He couldn’t believe a man would let his wife get so nasty. The woman knew things he’d never allow Kristina to know. He paused and looked closely at her. Had Wade been teaching his wife the same things? The thought of anyone, especially Wade, putting his hands on Kristina made Daniel want to vomit. “I heard what he said. What I want to know is why he’s calling you. Isn’t that something he could tell you at work?”
“I guess, but he—”
“And why the fuck are you still working there? I told you to quit.” He walked toward her.
She backed away, her face reddening further. “I told you I’m not quitting. I thought things were going to change, you said—”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” he roared.
She lifted her chin.
A chill ran up Daniel’s spine. Oh no, she wasn’t going to defy him.
The room flashed red and he reached out for something, anything; his hand coming upon the phone sitting on top of the wall unit next to the stairs. His only thought to shut her up, Daniel picked up the phone and hurled it. Kristina ducked, but he watched with satisfaction as it glanced off her shoulder.
“
You
don’t tell me anything. You do what I tell you and that’s how things run around here. If you want to fix this shit, you’re going to learn my fucking word is law and you will not have any more to do with Wade fucking Bowen. Do I make myself clear?” he clenched his jaw when she turned to glare at him as she rubbed her shoulder.
“Get out. I mean it. I’ll call the cops if you don’t leave right now.”
“Is this how we work things out? It gets rough and you call the cops? Good thing I didn’t get rid of Desiree. At least she knows who’s in charge.”
“You lied to me. Nothing’s changed and you don’t love me at all.” She walked around the coffee table and to the door. “Don’t hand me your shit about wanting this to work. You’re no different than the night you left, and you never will be. I’m done.”
“You’re done?” Daniel grinned. “Well honey I’ve just started.”
Kristina opened the door and tried to act tough, but her chin trembled and she slouched just a little. She was scared.
He knew she would call the cops if he pushed too much, and one more run-in with them would do him no good. He walked past her, pausing to lean close to her ear. “This is a long way from over.”
She closed her eyes.
He laughed and walked out the door, smiling when she slammed it shut behind him. She’d learn; whether she chose to do so the easy way or the hard way was up to her.
***
Kristina sank to her knees, Daniel’s laughter as he walked to his truck ringing in her ears. She was an idiot, a fool, too stupid to see what she knew to be true. He played her like a violin and she’d sung the notes he wanted her to.
Cadence cried in the kitchen but she couldn’t get up and go to her. She thought about Daniel’s tenderness the night before, and the words he said. How could she have missed the words he didn’t say? He never said he was sorry for hurting her. He never said he’d been wrong to hit her. No, he said
they
would work things out and
they
would learn how to get along. He would help her to learn what made
him
happy. What about her happiness?
Standing on shaky legs, she sniffed, If one good thing could come of last night, it was knowing she couldn’t ever go back to him. It didn’t matter how empty or alone she felt. They were finished.