Wednesday
Picture 2
Kimmydon's Choice: both
Title:
Beth was up early, again. I rolled over, trying to go back to sleep, drowsy. I felt lips on my cheek and smiled, making her giggle.
“Do I have to get up?” I whined, cracking my eye enough to see her silhouetted in the early morning light. I thought I’d never get enough of seeing her like this, but somehow, sleep seemed more enticing.... How odd.
She sighed quietly. “No, you can sleep.” I felt her weight shift as she sat on the edge of the bed. I didn’t feel her weight leave, but she was gone when I opened my eyes again.
Dragging my butt, the smell of coffee lured me down the stairs. Beth wasn’t in the kitchen either.
“Shit,” I swore, pouring myself a cup and slouching at the table. She’d gone fishing this morning. Her Uncle Terry was in town, and she’d wanted me to come with her. I’d met her uncle, but she wanted to visit him whenever he was at the cabin. “Why did she tell me I could sleep?”
Taking the cup upstairs with me, I searched out my phone. She’d left a message.
Don’t sweat it, really. Just be ready to clean fish when I get home. -B
I smiled, but still felt uneasy. I’d slept in too many weekends, missed too many sunrise hikes, been too slow to join her on those outings. I looked at my feet and considered. She would have taken my car to the lake. I could cab it.
Decision made, I showered and found something suitable for the cabin. The cab wasn’t cheap, but we weren’t hurting for money. I made a note to myself to find a good nature site for a vacation, something that I would like, too. Costa Rica, maybe? Brazil? Lots of nature, lots of warm temperatures and skimpy bikinis. I could watch Beth watch birds.... I liked this plan.
I was lost in these thoughts when the cab stopped. I hopped out and headed for the dock, seeing two people sitting at the end. As I got closer, I realized both wore ball caps. Beth rarely wore one. She preferred something with a broader brim. Also, both sets of shoulders were wide. My feet on the dock didn’t turn heads.
“All dry, Beth?” Terry asked. “Or did you not find anything that fit?” He turned his head slightly, showing a grey, brush-like moustache. “Oh! Peter! We didn’t expect to see you today. Beth’s in the cabin. Her catch tried to reel her in!” He and his friend laughed.
I chuckled, too, knowing Beth wouldn’t have been troubled by taking a dip in the lake, not when it was still nice and warm. “Hi,” I said, extending a hand to Terry’s friend, “I’m Peter, Beth’s husband.”
“Yeah, the city-boy. Beth told us about you. Dan,” he said, shaking my hand. City-boy? What had Beth told them?
“She in the cabin?” I asked, looking back the way I had come.
“Yeah, probably scrounging for something that isn’t huge. I don’t think there’s anything of hers out here anymore,” Terry answered, casting his line again.
I turned and walked back to the cabin. The door was open and I walked in to find Beth sitting on the floor and pulling on argyle socks. She wore only a T-shirt, giving me a shadowed, but unobstructed view of her panties.
“You know, you left the door open,” I said.
“Oh my God!” she breathed, startled. “Peter!” She jumped to her feet. “What are you doing here?” She ran over and hugged me. Her hair dripped onto my arm, still damp.
“Visiting you and Terry... and Dan. You left the door open,” I repeated.
She backed up a little, shrugging. I swatted her bum, reminding her she wore no pants.
“There’s nothing here to fit me. Really, Peter, how many people are out here? Who do you think is going to walk in?”
“Hello?” Dan said behind us, and I raised a brow.
Beth rolled her eyes, but pulled my button-down off my shoulders, tying it over her hip. It would do.
“Hey, Dan,” she said. “Nothing in the way of pants. Unless you have something that is a little tight?” She grinned at him.
I felt decidedly out of place, and more than a bit jealous as he chuckled and pulled off his cap, scratching his head.
“I don’t really wear anything tight, Lisbet.” Lisbet? Who called her that? She chuckled though and walked away from us. I didn’t take my eyes from Dan, so I saw the way he followed her exit.
“That’s my wife,” I reminded him.
“Uh, yeah, I know. I just... well, remember when she was littler. She sure grew up.”
My jaw worked, teeth clenching. Thankfully, Beth returned in her pants, hanging my shirt on my shoulders and kissing my cheek.
“Thanks, Pete. They’re not comfortable, but I can wear them.” They were still very wet and clung to her. I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying not to think about Dan watching her and knowing he was. I opened them to find her bent, pulling on her shoes and his eyes on her backside, his arm outstretched to her. It meant he was there when she wobbled and caught her arm to right her.
“Whoa, Lisbet. Balance hasn’t improved, has it?”
She laughed heartily. “Not a bit.” She turned to me, her smile still bright. “Remember me falling on nothing when we were walking out here?” She shook her head, embarrassed at herself.
Dan hugged her shoulders and then headed out the door. “That’s how you end up in a lake, you know.”
She smacked his ass as he left rather than give the witty reply I would have expected from her. That really burned. I felt my hands clench into fists.
Her face fell a little and she took the fists into her hands, teasing them open. “Peter? What’s wrong?”
“Can we go for a walk?” I didn’t want to talk about this here.
“You want to walk?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes!” I snapped. “Is that so strange?”
Her lips thinned, and I knew I had erred. “Actually, it is.” She crossed her arms under her breasts and turned to the door. “On the other hand, I enjoy walking, so let’s go.” Her voice was hard. I hated it, but I stalked after her, trying to ignore it.
As soon as she exited the cabin and found the trail along the lake shore, she relaxed, closing her eyes, listening to the shore birds singing nearby.
“I’ve accepted that you aren’t going to change, Peter. You don’t enjoy nature hikes. You aren’t a fishing person. That’s fine,” her voice was hard, just resigned, “but why do you ruin what I enjoy?” she asked, turning to look at me, her dark eyes full of hurt.
I’d done that? “I didn’t mean to! I came to fish with you, Beth. I felt terrible about leaving you on your own for another weekend morning. This is our time together, now that we work on different floors, and I’m leaving you to spend them alone. I don’t want that.”
She nodded, softening further and taking my hand. “I understand. I was thrilled to see you, at first. Then you seemed to go cold, get angry. That made me angry. The way you snapped at me, and then at Dan. He’s an old friend, Peter. He and Uncle Terry.... I think they’re...” She clammed right up, embarrassed.
“He is not gay,” I said emphatically. Not with the way he’d been looking at her.
“No,” Beth agreed, shaking her head. “Not that. They’re best friends though. I’ve known Dan since I was five. He’s as much my uncle as Uncle Terry is. Do you see? I know he’s always surprised to realize I have breasts now, and so he stares sometimes, but I’m still Lisbet, the little girl that fell down and scraped her knees, got twigs in her hair, fell in the lake.” The last she said with a laugh. “I’m definitely still that.”
I chuckled, too, my jealousy evaporating. “I can understand that. I’m sorry I showed up and jumped to conclusions. The way he was looking at you, how familiar the two of you are.... I guess sometimes I think I’m the only one who should be that close to you.”
She laughed loudly at that. “You want to be as close as Jamie? Listen to me crab about cramps and PMS? Or Mary, and hear all my complaints about the witches on the Admin floor? I’m close to all of you, all in different ways.”
I nodded, understanding. “I get that. Dan and Terry are your ‘nature’ friends.” She nodded, smiling at me. “And I’m not.”
“No,” she argued. “You could be, could have been, but this isn’t something you enjoy.” She gestured to the path. “I’ll still drag you out sometimes, just because I love it so much, but I’m trying to be sparing, so I don’t pull too hard.”
I held her shoulders and kissed her temple. “You can pull a little harder. I need more fresh air.”
She grabbed my shirt and tugged.
“And let’s get a couple changes of clothes out here for you,” I suggested strongly.
She laughed. “That’s a good idea. I love you, Peter.”
“I love you, Beth. Is Dan the only one who calls you Lisbet?”
She chuckled. “Yep. Don’t know why he latched onto that, but he’s always called me Lisbet. Better than Liz.” She shuddered. I made a note never to call her that.
“Or Betty?” I wondered.
She stuck out her tongue. “Yes. No Betty, either.”
“I’m going to stick with Beth,” I told her, taking her hand again.
“I don’t mind Mistress,” she said with a wide smile that set my heart racing. “You can still call me that.” She reached up and tugged my hair, tipping my chin up and exposing my throat, which she licked and sucked.
“Oh, yes, mistress,” I answered.
A while later, her pants drier still, she pulled me back out of the bushes. I was covered in leaves, dirt, and scratches. She looked unscathed, probably due to being atop me.
“Make-up sex with you is odd,” she said, putting the scarf back around her neck.
“Why is that?” I asked, pulling my shirt on.
“Because I’m in charge. Doesn’t that seem odd?”
I shook my head. “I think I needed to remember that you’re in charge, that I trust you. It was perfect.”
She grinned. “True. What happens next time? Especially if I’m the one in the wrong? Are you going to punish me?” she asked.
“Would you like me to?” I asked, taking her in my arms.
She shook her head. “But maybe you could let me make it up to you, recompense.”
“You say it like there will be a next time.”
She glared up at me. “You honestly believe there won’t? Peter, we’re married. We’re going to step on each other’s toes once in a while. It happens. We just need to know how to deal with it.”
I nodded. She was right. I could remember my parents after Sarah’s death not dealing with it. “Well, I’d say for our first fight, it went very well.”
She chuckled. “This wasn’t a fight. It was barely a spat.”
I pulled her into my arms again. “Well, then, I can’t wait to see what a fight brings for recompense.”
She laughed and squirmed in my grip.
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