Into the Storm (Signal Bend #3)(93)
Shannon was furious, but she had no place to put it. After several painful minutes, standing next to Ted, making the smallest of small talk, seeing Show’s daughters come out of the bathroom and stand for a minute in the hallway processing the argument coming from their mother’s bedroom, not to mention Ted and Shannon standing near the front door, Shannon was struggling against the urge to just get out. Then Show and Holly came out of the bedroom. Show smiled at his girls and walked them toward her, up the hall. She smiled, too. There was a lot riding on the girls liking her, she thought. So hurrah for Show making it as incredibly awkward as he possibly could. That was just peachy.
“Girls, this is Shannon. Shannon, this is Rose and Iris.”
Shannon, feeling angry and scared and embarrassed, held out her hand to Rose first. “Hi, Rose.”
Rose shook her hand limply. “Hi.”
“And hi, Iris.” Iris shook more readily and smiled.
“You have pretty hair.”
“Thank you. So do you. I like your curls.” Iris had long, dark blond hair that curled into ringlets. She had it back in a ponytail, and the curls spiraled down her back.
“Got everything you need, girls?” They nodded, and Show pushed them toward the door. Shannon had still not officially met Holly, but she turned now and made eye contact. Holly nodded. Shannon supposed that would have to do. She smiled and returned the nod, and then Show had them all out of the apartment.
He turned back to Holly, who was standing in the doorway.
“See you Sunday at noon.”
The girls trotted out in front, and Show grabbed Shannon’s arm from just behind her, leaning down close to her ear. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Yeah. We’ll talk. Later.”
He nodded and kissed her shoulder.
oOo
As awkward meetings with soon-to-be stepdaughters went, Shannon thought it wasn’t too bad. They’d planned to keep the girls occupied all day, so there wouldn’t be a lot of time for uncomfortable silences.
They went to the mall first thing, and Show bought them not quite everything they asked for. There was a salon in the mall, and after lunch, Shannon took them in and got mani-pedis with them, while Show sat out in the mall and waited. Sitting three abreast at the nail stations, Shannon immediately second-guessed this idea she’d had on a whim, worried that they wouldn’t have anything to talk about without Show there, but they conferred on polish choices, and that grew into a conversation about clothes and jewelry. The girls oohed over her ring. They seemed okay with her presence in their father’s life. Maybe Show and Holly had been apart long enough—almost two years now—that they had come to terms with the fact that their parents had moved on from each other. Maybe it was Holly’s new boyfriend being around.
That thought brought to mind the question of why in the hell Show had been so pissed when he met Ted. Shannon shoved the question aside, because she could taste the acid in it. She didn’t want to think about it or make too much of it until she could confront him. Instead, she talked to Rose about her hair. She wanted to dye it black, but her mother wouldn’t let her. With her peaches-and-cream complexion, big blue eyes, and sweet pink lips, black would be much too severe. Shannon agreed with Holly. When Rose looked like she was going to pout, Shannon suggested she talk to her mom about temporary colors, that washed out, so she could try some without too much commitment. Maybe that way, she could try black, and she and her mom could both decide. Rose was mollified, and Shannon thought she might have escaped without getting into trouble with Holly. The stepmother gig was going to be something of a minefield, she could tell.
After miniature golf, dinner, and a movie, they went back to the hotel. The girls swam in the hotel’s indoor pool, and Show, fully dressed in his boots, jeans, and t-shirt, and Shannon, in her emerald green bathing suit and floral pareo, sat at one of the tables—which was, oddly, fitted with an umbrella. With the girls splashing and shouting in the pool, Shannon used the opportunity to talk to Show.
“Why were you so mad about Ted? Are you…” It was hard to ask the question. She fiddled with her ring. “Are you jealous?”
He’d been watching the girls. At her question, he jerked his head to her. “What? No, hon! No! I…” He sighed. “I was surprised. I didn’t like seeing another man in my girls’ house. Like a father. And…with the shit that was between Holly and me. The sex thing. It took me a minute to get right with that. That was a long eight years we had at the end.”
Oh, right. Shannon had forgotten about the sex thing. Considering what she knew about his libido, she could believe that eight—no, nine—years without it had been torturous. Seeing that the woman who’d denied him because sex was too painful was having sex with someone else would be a shock. She understood, and she felt the ease move through her blood. She’d been pushing the worry away so hard all day, she hadn’t realized that she’d in fact been quite scared.
“I’m sorry I left you standing there with him. All that shit just filled my head when he opened the door.”
“It’s okay.” She took his hand. “I’m glad that’s what it was. The worst part was thinking you were jealous.”
He laughed. “No. What I feel for you, what we have—my life with Holly was never anything like this, not even when it was at its best. I’m happy, hon. A year ago, I would have said that was impossible.”