He entered the living room, turned the CD player down a couple of notches, and then met Dulsie in the kitchen. Because of his frame of mind Shad immediately noticed that Dulsie was wearing her usual at-home summertime outfit of a tank top and wispy shorts. Otherwise modest in dress, the scanty raiment Dulsie now wore was something she would don only when Shad was the only other one around.

“Hey.” Dulsie smiled at him and stepped away from the counter where she had been chopping tomatoes to meet Shad halfway across the room. “So how was your day?”

“Busy.” Shad admired the view. Although he understood that many people would have called Dulsie “cute” because of her youthful appearance, she was to Shad the most beautiful woman in the world. More importantly, it was a beauty that came from the inside. The temple of flesh that enshrined her soul was a reflection of the divine mysteries which dwelt within.

“And I thought you napped all day.” Dulsie tilted her head back and placed her hands on his chest as Shad stooped to kiss her. He briefly placed his free hand on the small of her back but was conscientious that the carrying case hanging from his shoulder didn’t accidentally slide down. Shad wanted to press her closely to him but he had taught himself long ago not to rush things.

Dulsie immediately reached for the plastic bag in his other hand when their lips parted. “Let’s see what we got here.”

“Dark and mushy avocados.”

Dulsie smirked as she took the bag and returned to the counter.

Shad immediately followed her, removing the case from his shoulder and hanging it on the back of one of the kitchen chairs at the table as they walked by. “So how was your day?”

“Busy.” Dulsie tossed a glance back at him. “I didn’t get to nap either.”

Her attention returned to the avocados. As Dulsie removed them from the bag and began rinsing them at the sink, Shad studied the supple curves of her exposed limbs. Dulsie moved about gracefully and confidently. Her skin was tanned a light brown from all of Dulsie’s summer activities, but Shad’ interest quickly diverted to the parts of her that didn’t get tanned. He stepped closer to Dulsie when she returned to the cutting board.

It was a technique he had perfected during his courtship of her. Shad stood directly behind Dulsie, very closely to her yet not touching. He placed his hands on the counter edge on either side of her, effectively impeding any escape she might try to attempt. As Shad lowered his head closer to Dulsie’s upswept hair he drew a long, slow inhale that filled his sense of smell with the softly sweet aroma he associated with her, like the scent of a large patch of blooming clover on a warm spring day. And Shad began to detect warmth from her agile body radiating through his shirt to intermingle with the heat from his own skin.

As subtle as he was, Dulsie had known Shad long enough to know exactly what he was up to. “Do I detect a side effect from your handling my avocados?”

The light tone of her voice was pleasing to him, and Shad also appreciated how her words were so often well-seasoned with humor. He lowered his mouth to the same level as Dulsie’s ear.

“I like it when you talk dirty to me.” His own voice was slightly hoarse from the now welcomed sensation that was increasing within him.

“How’s this for dirty: If you don’t clean up your act I’m gonna use you to mop the floor.” Dulsie finished slicing open the avocado. “Ooh, nice. I do have to admit you seem to really know your fruit.”

Shad’s mouth lowered to her shoulder. His lips lightly settled on the base of her neck and the tip of his tongue pressed just enough against her skin for him to experience the subtle saltiness of it. Shad almost had to catch his breath as he contemplated tasting more of her.

“Speaking of fruit –” Dulsie shoved her back into his chest and stomach. She was trying to push him away, but Shad wrapped his arms around her torso and he could feel the roundness of the lower part of her breasts pressed into his right forearm. The pressure of Dulsie’s body arched against him made Shad ache to move his hands under her shirt, but Dulsie was meant to be savored.

“Don’t make me slap your hand,” Dulsie growled.

Shad responded by nibbling on her earlobe.

“This is not the time or place!” Dulsie’s voice betrayed both amusement and annoyance. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. Let me finish getting supper ready and satisfy my own appetite first. As for your appetite, you just go rip off your clothes someplace else.”

Shad rested his mouth beside her ear and softly murmured, “Then do I get to rip off your clothes?”

“Sustenance first, debauchery later! Now scat!”

“It’s a deal.” He kissed Dulsie on the jaw and released her.

She turned around and pushed on Shad’s chest to insure he would actually leave. Shad stepped back and for a few seconds watched Dulsie return to her work.

He remembered in his youth that Pap sometimes referred to Shad’s future as “when you have a family of your own,” as though it were a given that he would marry someday. For years Shad doubted such an event would ever occur for him since he just wasn’t interested in adult women. Then his relationship with Dulsie went through a couple of transformations, and she completed his understanding of the concept of “oneness.” As Shad reluctantly turned away and picked up the computer case he offered thanks again for this unanticipated blessing. For someone who once thought he’d never get married, Shad now couldn’t imagine life without Dulsie.

Chapter Ten

There is blunt talk like sword thrusts, but the speech of the wise is healing.

--Proverbs 12:18

Monica Simms lived in the same vicinity just south of Jefferson City as her brother and sister-in-law. Actually Monica’s home was within the town of Wardsville while Eliot lived outside the city limits. If Shad could have simply crossed the Osage River where it bordered Pap’s farm, it would have been possible for him to make it to Monica’s in a matter of minutes. But since the highway north of home that provided a direct link between Linn and Jefferson City also provided the only bridge, albeit over the Missouri River, Shad had to take the “longer” route over that river and then drive on a back road that snaked into town.

Monica’s house was a newer model with a brick foundation and vinyl siding and a small concrete porch, but it seemed to be only a little larger than the place Shad and Dulsie rented. Demetri Simms had been a high school basketball coach so his income was modest, and it was at his insistence that Monica stopped working outside the home shortly after they married. At first that seemed just as well since Monica became pregnant five months after the wedding. But in retrospect she now realized it was part of Demetri’s efforts to keep Monica isolated from family and friends.

When Demetri decided to start seeking employment elsewhere, he didn’t tell Monica until the end of May, after he was already hired at a school in St. Louis for the next academic year. This was the same time Demetri informed her he would take Charissa with him but leave Monica behind so their daughter wouldn’t have to go through the trauma of watching her mother die. Immediately afterward he loaded Charissa into the car with the rest of the belongings Demetri would need over the summer, and drove to the apartment he had arranged to rent in St. Louis.

Monica’s days left living in this home were numbered by how long she could get by before needing hospice care. She agreed with Shad that Charissa should be able to come home to the room she knew, and then gradually the two would move into Eliot’s house. That way Charissa would already be settled into her new home when she became the official dependent of her uncle and aunt.