Chapter 11
"Six months?" Winona says. She's sitting on the bed, feet curled under her eating ice cream from the carton with a plastic spoon. Ice cream for dinner is an old habit from their marriage that they've revived recently. It has to be premium, eaten straight from the carton, and shared. Tonight it's Chaney's butter pecan, . She passes it back to Raylan.
"Yeah, Art says there's an instructor retiring in December. Roger knows me. We worked together before. I'm first on the list, but there's nothin' before then." He takes a bite and holds it out to her.
She swirls the spoon around again and licks the ice cream off, before handing it back. "You can have the rest."
She slides off the bed and paces back and forth in the small room, hands shoved in the pockets of her jeans. "I was just hoping we'd be settled before…" She pauses and lifts her shirt to show him the undone snap. "I can't button my jeans now. In six months…" She frowns as she does the calculating. "I'll be as big as a house."
He grins at her from the bed. "You'll still be beautiful."
She rolls her eyes. "Whatever. It's not a great time to be moving anywhere. But maybe that's what you're counting on." Too late she realizes how bitchy she sounds.
"Winona…"
"I know…there's nothing you can do about it. I get it. I do." Crap. Now she's close to tears, which she seems to be about a hundred times a day lately. It's completely normal, according to the baby book, but unfamiliar territory to her.
He sets the carton on the bed and goes to her. "Hey. I told you; I'll quit. We'll go somewhere…start over. Really, if that's what you want."
She puts her arms around him and lays her head against his chest. "Can we just get out of here?"
Raylan tenses, but he tightens his arms around her and kisses the top of her head. "I'll tell Art tomorrow."
She laughs up at him. "No, no, Raylan…I mean can we get out of here." She sweeps one arm out, encompassing the tiny motel room. "I don't think I can stand living in this place another week, let alone six more months."
"If we move, we lose the maid service." He says, raising an eyebrow.
"That's okay. I didn't have a maid before and it was a big house."
"You want to keep the house?" Raylan asks. "We could probably stop the foreclosure if I put some money in..."
She shakes her head. "No. I don't want to live in that house anymore. I want something that's just ours."
"Alright, then." He says. "We'll start lookin' around."
"Thank you." She smiles up at him.
He tips her chin up to kiss her and as the kiss goes on she arches into him, feeling how much he wants her; wanting him back. They don't even bother moving the ice cream carton.
