Josh moved his hand so that his two fingers covered her mouth, then his fingers began tracing the outline of her lips. When Carrie parted her lips, he ran his fingertips on the inside of her lip, just touching her teeth.
“Josh,” Carrie said in the slightest whisper, then very gently, one by one, she bit his fingertips. He moved his hand over her mouth, and she kissed/bit his palm, then slowly moved to his wrist.
Bending down to her face until his lips were on her ear, his soft, warm breath on her ear was the most exciting thing Carrie had ever felt in her life.
“Golly,” Dallas said, her eyes wide as she stared at the adults.
With a jolt, both Carrie and Josh became aware of their surroundings. Josh started to jump away from Carrie, but she wouldn’t allow him to—not that it required much strength to hold him to her, but she leaned against his knee, and Josh rapidly started combing again.
Carrie looked at Tem and Dallas staring at them in big-eyed wonder and tried to put on a good-mother face. “Sometimes husbands and wives—” Carrie began.
“Shut up,” Josh said sharply. “Is there anything to eat tonight? There, I think your hair’s done.” He looked at Tem. “What about your sister’s?”
Tem was still staring, blinking at the two of them. He knew he had just seen some important adult-thing, but he didn’t know what it meant.
“Have you finished combing your sister’s hair?” Josh asked in a loud, piercing voice, snapping Tem out of his trance.
“Oh. Yeah,” Tem answered, looking from Carrie to his father then back again.
“Good, then we can eat.” With businesslike efficiency, Josh gave Carrie’s hair one more stroke, then handed her the comb. “Could we eat now?”
“Of course,” Carrie said sweetly, then, as though she’d done it all her life, she began to serve dinner to her family. Just as she had the night before, Carrie was the one who had to sustain the conversation throughout dinner. But tonight it was easier because the children asked her questions, and instead of hiding their interest in what she told them about her brothers’ travels, they allowed their eagerness to show.
After dinner, when she bid the children good night, after Dallas had kissed her father, she didn’t hesitate as she flung her arms around Carrie and kissed her too. Tem stood to one side, his hands in the pockets of his dirty work pants and looked as though he didn’t know what to do.
“Go on,” Josh said gruffly, motioning his head toward Carrie, giving his son permission to kiss her.
Shyly, Tem bent to Carrie and quickly kissed her cheek. He was a bit red in the face when he did it, but he gave a self-conscious smile as though he were proud of himself, then hurried up the ladder to his bed.
When the children were out of the room, Josh didn’t say a word, but left the table to stand by the fireplace and stare at the flames. Silently, Carrie cleared the table, putting the dirty dishes in the sink. She had no idea what to do to clean them, and she certainly had no desire to learn. She liked beauty, and dirty dishes had nothing to do with beauty.
Carrie turned to Josh. “Would you like to go outside?” she asked.
“Why?” Josh asked suspiciously. His arms were folded across his chest, as though he were determined that none of himself was going to escape.
“So you can shout at me, of course. I got the distinct impression that that was your number one desire when you came home today. You haven’t forgotten already, have you? Or maybe you’ve changed your mind. Or maybe you want to yell at me in the house so our children can hear.”
“My children.”
“So, you do want them to hear?”
At that, Josh grabbed Carrie’s upper arm and pulled her out of the house into the cool, starlit night.
She walked toward the privacy of the trees, but he didn’t follow her, so she turned back to him and sighed. “All right, I’m ready.”
“What you did was wrong,” he began. “You’ve made a laughingstock of me in front of the entire town.”
“Actually, I rather think the townspeople think you’re the luckiest man o
n earth, but then they don’t have the deep knowledge of my character that you believe you do.”
“Character has nothing to do with this. You may as well have told everyone that I can’t take care of my own family.”
“You love your children as much as any person I’ve ever seen. You just don’t seem to have any money. Personally, I’d rather have love than money.”
Josh didn’t know whether to wring her neck or shout at her. No matter what he said to her, she didn’t seem to hear him, didn’t listen, didn’t understand. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “A man likes to think he can support his own family, that his wife—I mean, his—”
“Yes, go on. What am I to you if not your wife?”