Eddie’s Prize (16 page)

Lisa shuddered at the idea of lines of drying clothes strung up in the kitchen. “Why hasn’t anyone fixed the dryers so they work?”

Over the clothesline, Bree’s pale blue eyes blinked. “The what?”

Lisa sighed, reaching for a shirt. “Never mind.”

Bree giggled as she plucked the sheets out of the laundry basket to hang. Lisa had stripped them from the bed she and Eddie shared and brought them, along with their dirty clothes, to the washtub Bree had set up in the backyard. The scent of them when she’d handed them over to her sister-in-law advertised what she and Eddie had done in them besides sleep. Bree giggled then too, making Lisa blush. She liked her young sister-in-law, she really did, but the girl’s giggle was going to drive her mad.

“Well, that’s done.” Bree pinned the last corner of the sheet to the line and stood back to smile at Lisa. “It wasn’t so bad, was it? You thought it would take all day, but that was only three hours. Well, three and a half, but we took a break to eat lunch. It’s nice to have a friend to help out.”

Not bad? Lisa’s idea of laundry was to pick it up from the dry cleaners. Here, it involved a huge kettle hung from a tripod over a fire while clothes were stirred in the simmering water with a wooden paddle. Just filling the kettle took a half hour. Lisa was positive it was the same kettle she and Carla had bathed in a few days ago. The water was wrung out of the clothes by feeding them between a pair of rollers turned by a manual crank. Lisa wasn’t sure if the stirring or the cranking made her shoulders so sore.

“The clothes should dry before supper.” Bree eyeballed the sun. “Must be around three. Let’s go in, and you can help me get supper started.”

It was only three o’clock? Stifling a groan, Lisa followed Bree into the house. Two hours later Lisa could proudly say she’d done her part to put supper together. She supposed she’d get used to cooking meats preserved in salt or by smoking. No refrigerators made it hard to keep food from spoiling.

Tonight’s menu consisted of fried pork chops, milk gravy, baked potatoes, green beans, cornbread, and fried apple slices. Lisa had cut the chops into what Bree gravely pronounced to be relatively even slices and dredged them in flour to fry them in grease in an extra-large cast iron frying pan. While the pork fried, she cut apples into thin slices and rolled them in flour to be fried when the chops were done. Bree had buried the potatoes in the ashes in the stove to bake and put the beans on the stove to boil. Lisa looked from the sizzling oil in her frying pan to the soft width of Bree’s hips with a knowing eye. If she weren’t careful, her hips would look the same in a few months. But Bree didn’t notice, just showing Lisa how to make the gravy out of the drippings in the frying pan with flour and milk.

“Okay,” said Bree, a young general regarding her single trooper with a bossy eye. “You set the table, and I’ll go get the clothes off the line. Set five places—Mom, Dad, me, you and Eddie.”

After setting the dining room table, Lisa looked around the kitchen with a tired but proud eye. “I did it. Not by myself, but I cooked the pork chops and apples.”

“And they look terrific,” said Bree enthusiastically.

Lisa thought the pork chops overdone, but hopefully Bree’s gravy would help with that. The fried apples looked a little bit like potato chips, but they tasted heavenly with the little bit of cinnamon mixed with the sugar she’d sprinkled over them. She knew because Bree had snagged a half dozen of the curled chips for them to munch on, saying it was the cook’s prerogative to snack a teeny bit while cooking.

“We don’t usually eat meat all the time,” Bree told her. “But tonight is kind of special. You’ll see why.”

They could hear voices in the dining room now, Ray’s bluff loud tones drowning out his wife’s cool voice and the quiet bass of Eddie’s murmur. The sound of her husband’s voice quirked Lisa’s lips into a smile. She couldn’t wait to see if Eddie would like her cooking.

Eddie’s smile as she carried the platter of pork chops into the dining room was as warm as it had been before he’d taken her to the library yesterday. Relief, wrapped in a big bow of happiness, bloomed warmly in her chest.

“Well, now,” said Ray heartily. “That sure looks tasty.”

Bree set the beans, potatoes, and biscuits down on the table. “Lisa made the chops and the fritters herself.”

Lisa blushed as Eddie’s smile widened. She put the big platter down and took the smaller bowl of apples from the crook of her arm. “Really, I only did what Bree told me to.”

Eddie stood up to seat her beside him. “That’s how everyone starts cooking.” His eyes looked deeply into hers before he kissed her cheek, and Lisa recognized it was the eye connection missing this morning. Eddie had avoided meeting her eyes, and that was what made her feel he was distant. “I’m proud of you, Lisa.”

“Aw,” cooed Bree before her mother leveled a gimlet eye on her. Then she shut up abruptly and sat down opposite Eddie and Lisa.

Ray, at the head of the table, filled his plate and sent the platters and bowls around the table for everyone else to take their portion. Lisa took the smallest of the chops, but it was still pretty big. Eddie must have agreed, because he didn’t say anything about her skimping. He took three of them himself, and Lisa understood why Bree insisted she cut so many chops. Lisa covertly eyed her husband’s narrow middle. Where did he put all that food?

After everyone filled their plates, Ray cleared his throat. “Son, we invited you and your wife for supper for a reason. Not that we’re not glad to see you any time.” Ray paused to swallow some water. “Your mother and I have news.”

Eddie looked from his father at the head of the table to his mother at the foot. Bree bounced in her chair. “Remember yesterday afternoon? I said you’d never guess—”

“Brianna!” rapped her mother.

“Sorry.”

Ray cleared his throat one more time. Lisa thought the lamp light made his eyes gleam. Or was that from tears?

“Your mother… That is, your mother and I…” Ray’s voice thickened and then died altogether.

Mrs. Madison took over. “Sometime in March you will have a new brother. Or sister.”

Eddie’s mouth fell open. He looked from his father to his mother and back. “That’s … that’s…”

For the first time Lisa saw the resemblance between father and son. “That’s wonderful,” she cut in warmly. “Congratulations.”

“Yeah. I mean, yes.” Eddie, like his father, cleared his throat. “How are you, Mom?”

“I’m fine. Doctor Whitten says everything is going perfectly.”

There was silence at the table while everyone ignored their food to stare at Mrs. Madison. Lisa wondered what their problem was.

“Have you thought about names?” she asked.

“Not yet, dear. It’s early days. Now, let’s all eat this wonderful food before it gets cold.”

Conversation was limited while everyone ate. Lisa ate the food on her plate, consuming more fat, calories, and carbs at this one meal than she previously would have in an entire day. She told herself she needed it after the backbreaking work of laundry this afternoon.

After supper was done, she burned off more calories washing the dishes. While her husband and in-laws settled into the living room, she and Bree cleared the table, put the leftovers away, and washed the dishes. As they worked, Lisa voiced her confusion in careful words.

“It seems like no one is happy about the baby. Am I misunderstanding?”

Bree gave a small sigh as she wiped a glass dry. “It’s not that we’re not happy. We’re just a little scared too. Mom is forty-four years old. That’s old for having a baby.”

Not really
, thought Lisa. She knew plenty of women who waited until then to start their families. Maybe a hundred years ago it was dangerous to give birth at that age, but modern medicine … “Oh.”

“And Mom had two miscarriages between Eddie and me, and after I came along, she had another girl born dead. She was really sick for a long time afterward. So Dad is pretty worried, I think.”

“I can see why.” Lisa wrung out the dishrag and slapped a cheerful smile on her face. “But your mom said the doctor thinks everything is fine.”

“Right.” Bree made a strained effort to smile. “Just this last pan, Lisa. Then we can go out and play in the living room.”

When Bree said play, she meant play. After the kitchen was cleaned and the last pan put away, the girls went out to the living room where Eddie had set up an ancient Monopoly game on the coffee table. The board was so faded it was almost colorless except where paint had been added to define the properties. Ray and Darlene pulled their arm chairs close to either end of the table, while Eddie and Bree sat cross-legged on the floor across from each other. Eddie reached a hand to Lisa with a smile to tug her down beside him. The fire on the hearth and Eddie’s arm slung over her shoulders made the room cheerful and cozy.

Lisa hadn’t played Monopoly in twenty years. She had forgotten how much she enjoyed it. Or maybe it was watching her parents-in-law play with fierce concentration that made it so enjoyable. Ray was a cutthroat player, but his wife was just plain mean.

“Ha! There goes that hotel!” she taunted her husband as she swooped in to take over one of his prime properties.

Ray managed to stifle a curse by chewing on his mustache. Lisa hid a giggle behind a cough. She watched the older couple squabble over the lots and buildings in a make-believe town and saw they were having as much fun as the younger people. It was past nine o’clock when a rap came on the front door.

“Eddie, answer the door,” instructed his mother.

“Okay, but nobody touch my money. Lisa-love, guard my treasure until I get back.”

“Just look how late it is!” said Bree, yawning as her brother left the room. “I’m losing, but I don’t want to quit yet.”

“We’ll leave the game here until tomorrow night,” her mother decided. “Lisa, you and Eddie come over after supper, and we’ll finish the game then.”

Lisa stretched to relieve the kink hard work had left in her lower back. “That sounds good. Bree, what time should I come over for another cooking lesson?”

“Come over as early as you want. There’s lots of stuff I can show you besides cooking. Mom is the best cook. She should teach you that part.”

Ray was gentle when he laid a hand on his wife’s cheek. “Don’t overdo, Dar.”

I won’t.” Darlene’s voice was impatient, but the way she lifted her hand to cradle his against her cheek made Lisa feel like a voyeur. “Don’t fuss, Ray. Lisa will do all the heavy work for me.”

Eddie came back in. “That was Doug Gray. Taye Wolfe’s wife is going to sing at the library on Sunday. We’re all invited.”

“Carla?” Lisa blurted.

“Yes, your friend Carla. Will you enjoy that?”

“Yes.” Lisa was pierced with a desperate longing to talk to someone who knew her old life. She wanted to find out how Carla handled marriage to a stranger. “I can’t wait.”

Darlene stood up. “That sounds nice. I’ll enjoy that too.”

“You’re not going!” snapped Ray.

“Of course, I’m going, Ray. It’s not dangerous for me to walk to the library. It’s not Omaha.”

Ray’s graying eyebrows beetled. “I’m surprised Wolfe will let his new mate leave his den so soon.”

“Now, Ray, it’s none of our business. The wolves aren’t part of Kearney’s jurisdiction.” Darlene turned to pat Eddie’s arm. “Eddie, we’re stopping the game here. Tomorrow after supper you and Lisa come over, and we’ll finish it up.”

For a second Lisa thought Eddie was going to pout. “But I’m winning,” he pointed out in the same tone as a four-year-old wanting ice cream.

His mother folded her arms. “You most certainly are not!
I
am winning. I have one entire side of the board in my control.”

“Yes, but I have four of the most lucrative places, with hotels!”

Lisa’s giggle was swallowed in a huge yawn. Eddie stopped glaring at his mother to wrap an arm around Lisa. “You’re tired,” he said contritely. “We’ll come back tomorrow night.”

The air was chilly in their little house. While Eddie went to check the fire in the kitchen stove, Lisa was reminded she had stripped the bed to wash the sheets. Bree had taken the laundry off the line while she had set the table. “Oh, damn,” she muttered softly, staring at the bare mattress and the blankets and quilt strewn over the floor.

She felt Eddie’s warmth move behind her and his arm extend, balancing a pile of white on his forearm. “Where did you find those, Eddie?”

“They were on the kitchen table, along with my two other pairs of jeans and some shirts.”

Lisa took the sheets. “Bree must have brought them over before supper. Guess I better make the bed.”

Eddie took a corner of a sheet. “I’ll help.” He held the sheet up to his nose to inhale. “Sheets smell so good when they first come off the line.”

The sheet felt stiff to Lisa, but it did smell good. “Yeah. Eddie?”

“Lisa-love?”

He was back to calling her Lisa-love and smiling into her eyes. Had their spat blown over? She decided not to bring it up. “Did you like supper?”

He neatly tucked the sheet under the mattress and looked up at her. Lamplight became him, gilding his sun-browned skin and burnishing his hair to gleaming gold. He was so handsome. Without any of the beauty products or artificial enhancements of the Times Before, he was more gorgeous than any movie star or model she’d ever known. And the small smile that curved his lips was completely natural, nothing false or forced about it.

“Fishing for compliments?”

Lisa felt her cheeks warm with a blush. “I want to be a good wife. I want to be able to cook your supper and wash your clothes and—”

Eddie reached over the bed and touched the tips of his fingers to her lips to silence her. “Supper was delicious,” he whispered. “I loved it. You’re a wonderful wife. I’ll try to be a better husband.”

She hesitated, wanting to bring up his jealousy but not wanting to ruin the moment. He apologized last night; would bringing it up again be nagging? He took the opportunity away when he whirled to snatch up a blanket.

“Let’s hurry and make the bed so we can mess it up again.”

They did, and they did. Ten minutes later, Lisa lay under Eddie, panting with the force of her release. “Lord have mercy,” she groaned. “Eddie, you have an animal inside you.”