One More Time by Mandy Magro

Author:Mandy Magro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQ Fiction
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

13

December 1988

It was a typical Sunday morning in the Wilson household, with both Charlie and Grace trying to beat the clock to take some precious time out together. Charlie had long ago given up begging. There just weren’t enough hours in the day, as Grace had always reminded him, and if there was the rare opportunity for an interlude, she was simply too exhausted to enjoy a stolen moment of intimacy. Charlie did his best to understand. He believed it was imperative to their relationship to retain some level of private tenderness, but he wasn’t about to pressure her – he didn’t want to be another thorn in her side. But god, how he missed their unbridled moments. Their date nights had become virtually non-existent since the birth of their unexpected, cherished fourth child, Ava Lilly. Hell, half an hour spent chatting over coffee was unusual.

Taking a few minutes out in the only room where he got a smidgen of privacy – the upstairs loo – Charlie flushed then quickly veered into the bathroom. He needed to get a move on or Grace would be cross. Again.

The children’s happy squeals carried upstairs and Nugget’s incessant barking from the backyard only compounded his smashing headache. Sticking his head out the bathroom window, he watched three of their laying hens race along the fence, tailed by the playful golden retriever. Charlie gruffly told their beloved family pet to stop being a scallywag and behave himself before heading over the sink to wash his hands and rinse his mouth out with some Listerine. With no handtowel in sight, he resorted to wiping his wet hands on his shorts.

Catching his reflection in the vanity mirror, he grimaced at the black bags beneath his red-rimmed eyes. If only he could enjoy a sleep-in … but life didn’t allow for such luxuries. One day, he kept telling himself, when they were older and less under the pump, they’d be able to turn their focus back to one another.

‘Charlie, are you coming back downstairs anytime soon?’ Grace’s soprano voice carried up to him. ‘The washing doesn’t take that long to grab, and as you know I’ve got my hands full down here.’

Charlie popped his head over the banister, meeting her frazzled gaze. ‘Yes, sorry. I’ll be two minutes.’

‘You said that five minutes ago.’ Her reply was curt. ‘I could do with some help down here, right now.’ She disappeared again.

Charlie sagged against the banister. He’d had a tumultuous night shift, spent trying to apprehend three prisoners who’d started a brawl in the mess, and stabbed another inmate with a homemade shiv. His father and husband roles shouldn’t seem so hard by comparison. He heaved a weary sigh and made his way down the stairs to the laundry. Dumping the basket of dirty clothes he’d gathered from the children’s bedroom floors into the washing machine, he tipped a capful of liquid and the same of softener into the designated ampules and turned the cycle to start.

He took a breath, and then another – tired didn’t even scratch the surface of how worn-out he was.

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