Chapter Ten

Judah had never thought much about his home before that moment as he drove Mrs. Janaskie back. But as they drove up the gravel driveway to the old home he started to realize how it must look to her.

It hadn't been painted in years and different layers of paint where showing through on every part of the home. Several of the windows were boarded over as he'd not had time to replace them after they'd been broken. The front door had two double doors, but they didn't match, one had come from a room inside the house and that door had not been replaced. To put it simply, his house was a mess.

And it wasn't the house only that was bedraggled. The yard was filled with all kinds of broken things, from toys to old kitchen stoves and furniture. The inside was no better.

"Sorry things are such a mess."

He knew the apology wouldn't fix anything but still felt like he should offer it. Even without her memory, she still knew how to remain unreadable, as she gave the whole of it a cursory look before allowing him to lead her to the front steps. They creaked, threatening to cave in, as they bore them up to the front door.

"Again, I'm sorry. We haven't had time to clean up."

He opened the door, wincing at the thought of her reaction. Instead of commenting on how messy things were she stepped inside and asked, "Where's my room?" She motioned to her scrubs, "I want to change."

He nodded, hurrying ahead of her before guiding her back to the bedroom. She gave it another quick perusal before heading over to the dresser. She opened the first drawer, then the second, then the third, then she looked back at him.

"Where are my clothes?"

The question came so unexpectedly he didn't know what else to say and so blurted, "We share clothes."

This was the thing that got him a reaction as she blinked slowly, as if having trouble processing it, then she stared.

He gulped.

"You, uh, you've never cared for women's clothing," why was he trying to salvage this of all lies? He should have just said it was a joke and said her clothes were all lost in the fire. Yes. Why hadn't he gone with that lie? He was such an idiot. Still, now that he was charging forward with this he needed to play it through. After all, with the Mrs. Janaskie he had known before, the logic fit. "Plus, we've never had that much money, so we just wear each other's clothes. You said it was cute when couples exchange clothes and you wanted to do it all the time."

He opened up the closet where his shirts were stored. He picked out something, then headed over to the dresser where he grabbed a pair of pants and some boxers. His mouth was dry as he held out the clothes to her, waiting for her reaction. This was where it could all come apart.

Why had he followed this story through?

Her eyes came down from his face to the clothes, then as if waiting for his heart to reach its peak of panic, she finally took them.

After that she stared at him again.

Her eyebrow arched as she coolly asked, "Are you going to stay to watch?"

He felt his face heat as his shoulders rose with tensed energy, "Oh, right." he spun around as he hurried out of the room.

A few moments later she came out. She really did look good in his clothes. The pants were short, but they fit on her waist and the shirt looked better on her. The sleeves were long, but didn't quite reach her wrists. To hide this she rolled them up further, an sight which made his heart skip a beat.

In the pink scrubs she hadn't looked right, like a dog in a costume, but in his clothes she looked relaxed, like she belonged. He wasn't sure if it was the clothes or if it was because they were his.

His heart fluttered at the second idea.

"I noticed a photo in the bedroom. Do we have kids?"

His face reddened at the thought, but he quickly recovered, "They're adopted. We adopted them two years ago. Their names are Arin, Olivia and Stacie." He grabbed a photo from the living room so she could match the names to the faces. "Arin's the big man on campus, he likes to keep the other two in line. Olivia is the baby, but she's daddy's big helper girl. And Stacie is the most concerned about appearances. Especially when it comes to clothing."

"How does she feel about her mother wearing men's clothing?"

Judah pressed his lips together as he considered the question, "Uh, she, she thinks it's weird. But also sweet?" He knew he should sound more sure, but he'd done all this on a whim. He hadn't even had a chance to tell the kids about it.

"The kids!"

Kyle looked startled by the exclamation as he just then remembered that they should be home any moment. This could be the moment when everything fell apart when they came inside and saw a strange woman.

"I have to pick them up. You wait here, I'll uh, I'll be right back."

He knew he was panicking but what did he expect when he was playing with fire. He was an idiot if he'd ever thought this would work.

Just as he rushed out the door Titus drove up in his truck with the kids bouncing around in the seat beside him. He'd only gotten half way down the drive when Judah rushed up to the vehicle.

"Is everything okay, buddy?" asked Titus, noting his friend's flushed expression and the way he couldn't seem to catch his breath, though he hadn't run that far.

Judah cast one look back at the house before looking back at his friend with wide eyes, "I did something bad. Really bad."