The Marriage Intervention (28 page)

Now, Delaney opened the fridge and said, “Summer, we should have included stocking the fridge in Josie’s intervention. There’s nothing to eat in here.”
 

Josie, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, pulled out a bag of popcorn and handed it to Delaney. “Make me some popcorn and I’ll dig out some green olives, you weirdos.”
 

***

Just as “Legally Blonde” ended, Paul texted Josie:
Try again for dinner? Tomorrow at The Blue Fish?

She texted back:
Sure.
 

Of course, before they left for the evening, Summer and Delaney had to look at her phone to verify that she was really communicating with Paul, and not Scott.

“I can’t show up to babysit you tomorrow,” Summer said to Josie as they stood in the doorway. “So please behave yourself.”
 

“I will,” Josie said. “Promise.”
 

“So how do you feel about expanding our family?”
 

Paul nearly choked on the guacamole-covered chip he’d just put in his mouth and Josie wished for a margarita despite having sworn them off after this morning’s hangover. She was far too old for hangovers.
 

She was slightly offended he choked on a chip over the thought of having children, but she decided not to latch onto that particular angle. She let him off the hook for now.

“Geez, Paul.” She hoped her tone sounded light and humorous. “I was talking about a puppy. How do you feel about getting a puppy?”
 

“A puppy?”
 

“You know, four legs, puppy breath, soft fur. A puppy,” she said.
 

“Dog hair, accidents, fleas,” he said. “Sounds like pure heaven.”
 

“Paul! Puppies are so cute!”
 

“Where did you get this idea all of a sudden?” Paul wanted to know. “Wait. Don’t answer. I’ll bet Summer and Delaney concocted this spectacular idea.”
 

Josie grinned. As always, he had an unerring knack for reading her.
 

“They did,” she said slowly. “But it’s a good idea, right? I’m lonely.”
 

“Remember when you and Summer took over Delaney’s love life? And remember how you guys came up with all these good ideas for making her life better? Is that what this is? It reeks of some kind of … intervention.”
 

This time, she laughed. Maniacally.
 

“It is, isn’t it?” he said. “They think this will be, like, I don’t know, a toddler step toward having a real, actual baby. Or something.”
 

Josie was relieved he didn’t know the intervention wasn’t baby-related. That was almost normal. If he knew how personal it was, he’d probably be angry. Instead of answering, Josie shrugged.
 

“Fine. Get a freakin’ puppy.”

She smiled at him.

“Stop grinning like that,” he said. “You’re freaking me out.”
 

***

“Let’s talk about names!” Josie said. “How about Harry?”
 

Paul shook his head. “I don’t care what you name it. Name it Penelope for all I care.”
 

“I’m glad you’re so invested in our first fur child,” Josie said.

“I’ll have to meet him or her before I become invested.”
 

The conversation lulled. Josie looked at the tabletop. “Paul, when are you coming home?”
 

She hated the desperation in her voice.
 

He looked down, ran a finger around the edge of his water glass. The server came and took their plates.
 

“I don’t know, Josie. I mean, I want to come home, spend every evening with you. I miss you. I miss the hell out of you. But has anything really changed? Not only am I tired of feeling like I’m under the microscope all the time, but you’re also still working with that Scott Smith asshole. And you’ve never even admitted you’ve done anything wrong.”
 

Josie nodded. That was true. She started to speak. She told herself it was to apologize, but she wasn’t exactly sure where she was going. Paul cut her off.

“Do you know what last night was about? Last night, we waited on the highway for a drug dealer who has brought hundreds of pounds of meth into our county over the past couple of years. Hundreds of pounds, Josie. You know how much it takes to get high? Like two tenths of a gram. You know what hundreds of pounds can do? You know those kids in your class who never have their homework done or their papers signed? The ones who come to school filthy every day, their fingernails longer than yours because their parents haven’t even looked at them in the past week? The ones who fall asleep at their desks and always look just this side of awake?”
 

She nodded again. The waiter dropped the bill on the table.
 

When he walked away, Paul continued. “Those are the kids affected by this stuff. The guy we hooked last night had four kids. Cute as fucking buttons. They were all in the car. Wide awake at midnight. Sitting on top of packaged meth. These big eyes, just staring at me. It was a school night! The meth this guy was bringing in, it was going to people who live in Juniper. People with kids. The parents of your students. We arrested him. We stopped him. We removed that scumbag from the streets. We prevented thousands of people from getting high, driving around high. You can’t sit there and tell me that’s not important, Josie. These are people in our own town. Students in your class.”

Not for the first time in recent weeks, Josie felt like bursting into tears.
 

“It’s not that I don’t think it’s important,” she said, casting around for the right words. “It’s just that I want to be more important.”
 

She saw him inhale, as if he were preparing a serious response. This time, she cut him off. “I know I’m important to you. And I know you expect me to understand that. But I guess, just once in a while, I’d like to come first.”
 

“You mean, like, so we could have a movie night?”
 

“Let’s keep this civil, Paul. You know that’s not what I mean. It’s not that a movie night is particularly important. All your late nights and call-outs have a cumulative effect. One, on its own, is not that big of a deal. But when it’s the fifth time you’ve bailed on me in a month, a movie night becomes a big deal. It feels huge.”
 

“Have you talked to Dr. Strasser about this?” Paul said.
 

Josie shook her head. All at once, she felt exhausted. Time for a change of topic. “I haven’t talked to him about getting a puppy, either.”
 

“You want a puppy, get a puppy,” Paul said.
 

“But I want you to bond with it. When are you coming home?”
 

“I’ll come home in a couple of weeks. I just need a little more time. And I need a commitment from you that you’re ready to make a change.”
 

“I am committed, Paul. That’s why I’m doing this whole Marriage Intervention thing. Because I’m committed to making things work.”
 

“Ha!” he said, pointing at her with the butter knife he hadn’t used. “I knew it!”

Josie put her head down on the table.
 

“So, they’re making over our marriage, huh?” he said.

When she didn’t answer, he laughed. “Does this makeover include more frequent hot sex?”
 

“You’ll be happy to know that it does,” she said.
 

He laughed out loud, a short sound that punctuated the conversation. Josie felt herself smiling.
 

“Well, let’s get to it,” Paul said.
 

***

It felt so good to have Paul back in the house.
 

They moved around the kitchen together, their bodies in sync as she dropped ice cubes into glasses and poured them drinks and he put away the leftovers and cut up limes for garnish.

Of course he loved her. Of course she was important to him. If not, then why did being together feel so natural, so right, so much like clockwork? Josie cringed when they walked into the bedroom, wondering if Paul would notice the dirty laundry she’d left on the floor. Yesterday’s blouse lay crumpled next to the bed, and the past few days’ underwear was piled next to the hamper.
 

“When the cat’s away,” he said.
 

He then proceeded to peel her clothes off, one article at a time, in slow, deliberate movements that left her shivering with anticipation. He made a big show of dropping each item into the laundry hamper, and by the time she was undressed, she was giggling and simultaneously aching for him to touch her.
 

She began to undress him, flinging his clothes across the bedroom so they landed like so many decorations. His shirt draped over a chair, his pants over the headboard, and his underwear over the lampshade.
 

They stood facing each other. Paul framed Josie’s face with his hands and kissed her so gently she thought she’d faint. She put her hands on Paul’s waist and he trailed his up and down her sides, calming her and revving her up so that by the time he led her to the bed her body was warm honey and her insides were humming.
 

They made love slowly. Despite the fact that Josie felt like she was starving for this moment, desperate for the nourishment of her husband’s body, she took her time, feasting on his mouth, tasting his skin, savoring it.
 

He did the same, and when they finished, she felt completely undone. They lay facing each other, and Paul gently tucked Josie’s hair behind her ear.

Then, without any warning at all, she felt tears pool in her eyes.
 

“Was it that bad?” Paul asked.

He was joking, but she could see he was concerned.
 

“No,” Josie said. “It was that good.”
 

“You know, I think that’s the first time my mad lovemaking skills have ever moved a woman to tears.”
 

Josie laughed. “Congratulations. I’m glad I could be here for it.”
 

“Seriously,” he said. “What’s the matter?”
 

She took a shaky breath. “I just keep thinking about how I screwed up and I wish I could take so much of it back.”
 

Her voice had become almost a wail.
 

Paul said, “We can move forward from here. I’ll come back home. I promise. When the time is right.”
 

Suddenly, Josie felt a surge of panic. How would she know when the time was right? What if the time was never right? What if the time was right, now, and he was missing it?
 

“Don’t look so panicked,” he said. “I’ve got to help you raise Penelope, don’t I?”
 

Thursday afternoon, the sun shone hot in the sky and Josie squinted as she got out of her car to stand with Delaney in the animal shelter’s parking lot. Summer was the last to arrive, and when her kids tumbled out of the car in a jumble of swords and untied shoelaces, Josie clucked her tongue just like her mother would have done.
 

“You know I love you, Summer,” she said, “but I’m not sure bringing the kids was a smart move. You know you’re going home with a puppy, right? You cannot have brought all four kids with you and seriously expect to drive away without an extra body in the car. A wiggly, hairy one.”

“I had to bring them,” Summer said. “No choice. Derek had a job interview. Last minute.”
 

“We’re getting a puppy?” Summer’s youngest son, Luke, looked up at his mother, awestruck.
 

“No, Luke,” said Sarah, who, at ten, sounded more like an adult every day. “We’re here to get Josie a puppy. Because she’s lonely. Because Paul moved out. Temporarily. Well, we hope it’s temporary.”
 

“Because Josie is too grumpy,” said Nate, Summer’s second child, and the one who was prone to blurting out everything he’d heard without regard to other people’s feelings.
 

Sarah elbowed him. “Shut up, Nate.”
 

When Josie shot The Look at Summer, Summer put her hands up like she had no idea where the kids had gotten the gossip. Josie shook her head and took the baby, Hannah, from Summer.
 

“Give Tia Josie some love,” she said, kissing Hannah’s chubby cheek. “You won’t tell me I’m grumpy, will you?”
 

“Grumpy!” Hannah squealed.
 

“That’s our girl,” Delaney said in a singsongy voice. “C’mon, Josie. Let’s go find your second soul mate.”
 

They trooped into the shelter’s front office, Nate and Luke sword fighting the whole way, while Sarah kept her nose in a book.
 

“We have an appointment,” Summer told the receptionist.
 

“We do?” Delaney and Josie said at the same time.
 

“You’re so organized,” Josie said.
 

“I thought it’d be better since we have the kids with us. Anyway, this way they could get all the puppies ready for you.”
 

A teenaged girl, probably a volunteer from Juniper High, came through the door that led to the kennels.
 

“This is Kelsey,” the receptionist said. “She’ll be taking care of you today.”
 

Kelsey took in the kids, and said, “Hi guys! Can I help you choose your new puppy?”
 

They were momentarily stunned into silence, and then naturally, Nate piped up. “We’re not here to get a puppy.” When Kelsey looked a bit perplexed, he added in a whisper, “We’re here to help our Aunt Josie get a puppy. She’s lonely. Her husband moved out. We hope it’s temporary.”
 

Kelsey’s face turned bright red, but to her credit, she recovered quickly.
 

“Well, I’ve got all the puppies lined up and ready. Follow me.”
 

“That was embarrassing,” Josie whispered to Sarah, who had finally closed her book. Josie was rewarded with a rare smile and Sarah answered, “No kidding. That kid has no filter.”