CHAPTER 70 – THE SCHEDULE

Two days later, Jack decided he needed help with resistance.

He had resisted Elizabeth before. But that had been years ago.

The first day that they had known each other, he had resisted the temptation to tell her that she was quite attractive for being such a bother.

The second day that they had known each other, he had resisted the temptation to tell her that she was actually not as spoiled as she had first seemed and that perhaps she'd be okay on the transporter if she toughed up a little.

By the end of the first week that they had known each other, he had resisted the temptation to reach out and move a loose tendril of hair behind her ear.

The second week they had known each other, he had resisted the temptation to hold her hand as they walked down the corridor next to each other.

By the third week that they had known each other, he had been resisting the temptation to kiss her for the first time, ignore the absurdity of his feelings, declare his love for her, and to make passionate love to her.

And then, after they had eventually held hands, and kissed, and laughed together, he had turned on her. Resisting her pull again. Telling her they should return to being friends. In those early days of their relationship, when he hadn't been so confident in their relationship and his insecurity made him question whether they had been right for each other, he had rejected her.

But it had been a long time since then.

He remembered back to their first flight when Elizabeth had a tried a variety of ways to 'innocently' make him think about her. There had been the tangling of her hair in her bathing suit strap and asking for his help. She had also dropped her panties and bra on the floor for him to pick up. Left the bathroom door ajar while she showered. Allowed him to think she had had a nightmare when in reality the only scary thought which she had had was that he wasn't going to kiss her. Let him think she was hurt when she had merely tapped her knee against the edge of the berth.

She had been adorable, well-mannered, casual, . . . and entirely beguiling. And not the least bit innocent when it came to getting him to desire her.

He smiled when he thought about her antics, and then smacked himself on the thigh to stop his grin. Stop! Do not think of her being adorable. Resist the temptation.

If she reacted the same way now as she had then to his cool attitude, he was a goner. She would never put up with him withholding affection.

Her previous "innocent" attempts had turned him into a love-starved fool. He didn't want to think about what kind of pathetic defenseless mess he'd be in if she tried more forcefully to get his attention

The first flight to Coal Valley had been weeks and weeks of him resisting the temptation to pull her into a kiss. . . . and pull her into his bed. The fact that he was rarely alone with her because of sharing quarters with Seth and Carl had helped keep him from falling totally under her spell. Just as sharing quarters with Candy and Becca on the return voyage to Earth had lessened the opportunity for Elizabeth and Jack to be intimate.

Jack sat on his bunk and tried to think about something other than Elizabeth. But she kept coming to mind. From a few feet away, he could hear plinking sounds of hundreds of drops of liquid hitting the shower floor.

His wife was in there, separated by a thin wall, naked under a stream of water.

Jack needed roommates. That was clear to him. He needed someone to keep him from being alone with his wife for at least the next four months. He needed excuses.

Especially at night when she was dressed in skimpy clothing and lying horizontal on a mattress.

Wait! I have a roommate, he remembered with a start.

So what if he can't talk yet?

So what if he doesn't understand the ways of the world?

So what if he doesn't understand that in a marriage sometimes it's best if the husband and wife aren't left alone together?

He's still our roommate.

"Little buddy, you're going to come in handy", he said happily as he looked over at his son playing on his enclosed berth.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth, a towel wrapped around her damp body, asked when she came out of the shower room and saw Jack typing on his computer. Her wet hair made her look fresh and vibrant.

"Making up a schedule."

"Of what?"

"Of who will take the baby."

"What are you talking about?" she asked in confusion.

Elizabeth, unaware of Jack's overwhelming occupation with her naked body, dropped her towel on the floor and stood in front of her locker while she counted her panties to make sure that she had enough until laundry day.

Jack took a deep breath and put his hand to his forehead- much like a defendant on trial who has just listened to the testimony of an eyewitness – with perfect vision and the morals of a saint – placing him at the scene of a crime with a motive and with the murder weapon in his hand. He was a goner.

Finally, Elizabeth indifferently chose a lacy blue pair and slipped them on. If the act of putting on clothing should have made Jack find her less desirable, it had the opposite effect. He decided that lacy skimpy articles of underwear should be banned from space flight.

"I'm making a schedule," he said proudly as he avoided looking at her. "Of how we'll spend our time over the next four months. I think this is a great opportunity for us to spend time as a family."

"Of course, we will. We'll be the three Musketeers. There aren't too many places to get away from each other on a transporter. Which is actually good. You know how I feel about families spending time together. That gets lost so often."

"Yeah, right," Jack said agreeably. "That's what I was thinking."

"So, what's with a schedule?"

"Being on the transporter's not just a good time for the three of us to be together, it's also a good idea to spend one-on-one time with Acorn. To give him attention."

"He gets a ton of attention already. Why do we need a schedule?"

"He's a growing boy. If we have a schedule of one-on-one time, he won't get forgotten."

"Forgotten?" Elizabeth said with raised eyebrows just before she slipped her legs into a pair of jeans. "I forgot birth control, Jack. I did not forget giving birth to a baby.

"I didn't mean that," he replied apologetically. "I'm just thinking that we should have a schedule – even if it unfortunately means that you and I can't spend as much time together – so that he gets some undivided attention and doesn't feel like a third wheel."

"Like a third wheel?" she scoffed. She sat on a lower berth and unrolled a pair of ankle-length white socks. Jack tried to ignore her toes which he suddenly found enticing. "He doesn't even know what a wheel is."

"My point exactly!" he told her. "There's a lot of stuff he doesn't know. Things I can teach him."

"You're going to teach him what a wheel is?" she asked with a short laugh.

"Sure. And other stuff."

"You're serious? You think we need more time with him? He's practically attached to my hip or breast as it is."

"That's you. I think more time with me might be good. So, I can teach him things."

"Like what a wheel is?" she teased.

"Forget the wheel," Jack muttered. "We'll spend time as a family obviously, but then I'll take him for a bit while you do whatever you'd like, and then when I'm on rounds, you'll take him."

"What if when you have him, it's my time to breastfeed him?" she challenged with slight amusement at Jack's obsession with being a good father.

"Good point. I'll need to know your times of that."

"How about whenever he's hungry," she laughed. She took off the jeans she had just put on and folded them before putting them back in her locker, from where she pulled out a pair of shorts. "I may go to the gym after all," she said as she stood in her panties and contemplated whether to exercise or relax.

'We'll work something out," Jack replied. He paused as he looked at her bare legs, and then quickly returned his gaze to his computer screen.

"Honestly, Jack, I don't think we need a schedule. Why don't we just spend time together unless one of us is busy. And we can have Abigail watch him when we want to spend time just the two of us or need a break."

"Because this is good parenting. He always needs to be with one of us. I read something about it. And one-on-one builds a natural bond of trust and enjoyment."

Elizabeth humorously narrowed her eyes at him. "Where? Where did you read this?" she challenged skeptically.

Jack waved his hand dismissively. "In some parenting thing."

"So, you want alone time with him? Without me?"

"Right. Like sometimes when we have down time, I'll take him for a walk and you can read or talk to friends –"

"What friends?" she interrupted as she put on a bra and fidgeted with the clasp. "I know Abigail. That's it."

"You'll meet people," he noted as he pretended not to notice that bra and panties were a matching set he had bought her because he found them incredibly sexy. "And when I'm on rounds, you'll be with Aaron."

"So, the only time you and I will be alone with each other is when he's sleeping?" Elizabeth slipped a tee-shirt over her head and then shook out her damp hair. "Fine, whatever."

"Um, that reminds me," Jack replied. "I was reading about a family bed. I think we should do that."

"A family bed? You're joking. We got him used to his own bed weeks ago."

"Right. But that was before I read this article that its good for babies to share a bed with their mothers and fathers. For at least a year."

"A YEAR?!"

"It's called nesting. Or something like that."

"Nesting?"

"Or something like that," he answered evasively without looking her in the eyes.

"Jack, have you looked at the size of this room? Hummingbirds have nests bigger than this room."

Jack scanned the room. It was small. Only about ten feet by ten feet, and with Elizabeth in it with him, it seemed even smaller. For some reason, her chest seemed more voluptuous. Jack felt the walls seem to close in on him.

"I think Aaron is fine sleeping by himself," she noted.

"No," Jack declared. "Aaron needs body contact when he sleeps. It's how many cultures do it."

"What cultures? Because not my culture. Maybe a culture of something in a petri dish, which is how small this room feels, but not my culture."

"He's your son and you don't want to have a family bed with him? Some family we turned out to be. So, we're only a family when it's convenient for you?"

Elizabeth looked at Jack like he had gone daft. "What has gotten into you? You were fine going to work and leaving him with me during the days. You were thrilled when he finally moved into his own room and he didn't wake you up when he wanted to nurse, or when he was sucking loudly on his thumb."

"That was before. Now, I've educated myself on how to be a better father. And it involves having Aaron as an integral part of our lives –"

"An integral part of our lives?" she interrupted. "Of course, he's an integral part of our lives! He's our SON."

"- and that means that whenever he's asleep one of us should be with him," Jack finished.

"Are you telling me that when he's taking an afternoon nap, one of us needs to be actually holding him?"

"Yes. It's important for his development."

"What development? How does sleeping in our arms during nap time help him learn his ABCs? Or how to count? Or crawl? Is he going to be sleep crawling?"

"It seems obvious that I'm the better parent here," a haughty Jack said with a tinge of disgust at Elizabeth's lack of parenting skills.

"And at night you want us all three to share a bed together? Here? In this cabin?" Elizabeth questioned. She stood up from the berth and began pulling her hair into a pony tail. When she lifted her arms, the tee shirt accentuated the outline of her breasts.

Jack shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Obviously we all three can't share a berth on the transporter, but I was thinking that we could alternate nights. One night, I sleep with Acorn, and the next night, you sleep with him. I'm putting it in the schedule. He'll alternate berths between us."

"What?!"

Elizabeth looked gob-stopped. "Jack, you're a great father. You don't need to worry about that. You're awesome and Acorn loves you. He doesn't need to sleep with one of us every night."

"He'll love it," Jack informed her.

"I know he'll love it. I'm not worried about him. But he kicks and grabs my hair. And he snuggles so close that I get all hot. Don't get me wrong. I love him and I love when he falls asleep in my arms, but I don't want him sleeping with one of us every night for the next FOUR MONTHS."

Jack looked at his son and then at his wife who hadn't yet put on her shorts. She had put on a tee-shirt without checking the name. His eyes were drawn to the words printed on the bottom edge of his shirt which was resting on Elizabeth's upper thighs. Barely covering her panties. PROPERTY OF JACK THORNTON.

He gulped and quickly turned back to his computer screen. He didn't immediately answer but pretended to studiously contemplate the spread-sheet he was making. "Hmm. . . . . You can take nap time. I can take night time. I don't mind letting him sleep with me every night. That way, he'll get a good night's sleep and you can have a berth to yourself. Every night."

UP NEXT: CHAPTER 71

P.S. One of you readers actually predicted they'd be making a schedule. 😊

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!