You're the best." She dusted off her board. "So what color are we gonna make this?"
Julia stroked the length and envisioned a warm honey stain soaking into the grain.
"Purple." Shelby chewed her gum, never missing a beat in the tune.
"Cool!" Ivy chimed.
Julia struggled not to wince. "We'll make a trip to the hardware store and decide together."
She knelt at eye-level with the board. Pursing her lips, she blew sawdust into the breeze with a long exhale.
A tingle of awareness sprinkled over her, the sense of being watched. Her eyes flew straight to the hammock. Zach stared back with sleepy-lidded heat.
The man gave a whole new meaning to bedroom eyes.
Maybe she should buy him one of those electric razors for Christmas, the kind that worked in the shower so she wouldn't have to watch his broad back bent over the sink anymore.
Thank goodness for Christmas mayhem which left them all with little quiet time alone.
And after the holidays?
She would count on his kids and their hordes of friends to keep the house from ever being empty.
Chapter 9
The empty house echoed for the first time in the two months since she'd tied her life to Zach's. From the rocker in the corner, Julia snuggled Patrick and looked out at her bedroom that still held so many reminders of Zach.
His bed loomed so darn big and empty. If she'd balked at the idea of sleeping in a bed that had belonged to another woman, Shelby had cleared up any misgivings right away by assuring her Zach had donated their elaborate sleigh bed to charity the day after Pam walked out.
The simple wooden bed in its place had only held Zach. And now her.
"Come on, Patrick, sweetie," Julia crooned to her son resting on her knees. Holding his hands, she lifted him until he sat upright, working to strengthen his torso muscles for sitting later as she'd learned in his physical therapy sessions. "Don't you want to stay up and play with Mama?"
He stretched with a spine-arching yawn. Julia sank back into the rocker and gave up. She had to be the only mother on the planet who didn't want her child to go to sleep, but she needed something to occupy her, especially tonight.
Shelby was at a band retreat.
Ivy at a sleepover.
Zach not due home for hours, since his plane wouldn't even land until eleven.
Zach. Flying.
Don't think about it. Nothing's going to go wrong.
Julia tapped the rocker into motion, the creak of the chair and Patrick's huffing baby sighs the only sounds in the empty house. She glanced at the clock. Five 'til nine. Only two more hours until he would be safely on the ground.
A routine mission. Nothing to worry about, she reminded herself. He'd flown often enough during the past couple of months.
Every time, she had thrown herself into the kids' routine to keep from thinking. Tonight was different for more reasons than the empty house.
It was the anniversary of Lance's death.
Julia cradled Patrick closer and looked heavenward. "I'm trying, Lance, trying really hard not to be mad at you tonight."
Mad at him for dying, for lying.
Except she knew she would forgive him anything because he'd given her Patrick. Julia cradled her son up to her face and kissed his brow. "Okay, sweetie, I guess it's time for you to sleep."