Three Novelettes by Margaret Lake

Author:Margaret Lake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, contemporary romance, historical romance, pilgrims, puritans, mayflower, plymouth colony, world war ii, contemporary woman
Publisher: Jobree Publishing
Published: 2014-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

ONLY IN MY DREAMS

Delia Cummings lowered her bulk carefully into her easy chair and lifted her swollen feet onto the footstool. Dinner was finished, the kitchen tidied and now she could rest for a fee minutes.

Charlie was already resting, judging by the snores coming from the recliner. Used to be they'd sit and cuddle on the sofa after dinner, their feet entwined on the coffee table. Now they not only sat in separate chairs, it seemed like they led separate lives.

When the babies started coming (three in five years), there had been no time to cuddle, and she often wondered where they found the energy to make the fourth baby. As the kids grew a little older, they swore they would find that intimacy again, but it never happened.

The kids were finally all in school, and Delia went to work in the bakery to help out with the bills. It was only part-time; four hours a day so she'd be home when the kids came in from school. But then they needed to start saving for braces and college, and never seemed to get ahead. She'd increased her hours to six a day and worked every other weekend as well. Added to that, there were doctor bills and Little League and prom dresses and sneakers that seemed to wear out every few months. Once, just once, she would have liked to go on a vacation where they weren't sleeping on some relative's pull-out sofa.

At least Charlie never complained when he had to watch the kids on the Saturdays she worked. Delia had tried to make it up to him, cooking nice dinners on Sunday, shooing him off to play darts with the guys down at the pub on Thursdays. She'd even scrimped and saved to get him that leather case filled with four sets of the best hammerhead darts and all the extras for Father's Day a few years ago, so he would know how much she appreciated him.

Charlie had just smiled his tired little smile, kissed her on the cheek and said, “Thanks, Dee.” He never even called her “Doll” anymore. That had been his pet name for her from the first day they met. Delia held on to her tears and smiled back, but she would always remember that as the moment she had given up on her marriage.

It was after ten, and she should have been in bed already. Tomorrow was her Saturday to work, and she needed to be at the bakery early to ice and decorate the cakes. That was her specialty. She should be proud of her work, but it had become just another dull and boring task.

She left Charlie to sleep away the night in the recliner. He'd be stiff in the morning, but it was Friday and he could work it out on the lawn tomorrow. Every summer he cared for that yard as it if were his baby. He watered, he fertilized, he mowed, and if a weed dare show its ugly head, he made sure to pull it out carefully, roots and all.

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