Church Folk - Michele Andrea Bowen [76]
"Ouch! Baby? Why you poking me in my arm like that?" "Wake up, we're at Thay's house."
Hearing the car roll in, Thayline and Willis came out of the house. Willis came down off the porch and started unloading their luggage as Thayline, a female version of her little brother, pulled her housecoat around herself and said, "Baybro, you planning on spending the night in the car? Or can you get out and help us with these bags—half of which I believe belong to you?"
Theophilus didn't say anything to his sister. He didn't like hearing his sister's mouth. Thayline had been getting on him about one thing or another since they were little kids. He sat up, rubbed his chin and moved his jaw muscles around for a few seconds.
Essie opened her door and got out, causing Theophilus, who had been leaning against her, to fall over on the seat.
"Baby, why you let me drop down like that?"
Essie just looked at him, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm tired and not in the mood to hear any mess from you," she said.
"That's right," Thayline contributed. "The rest of us are tired, just like you, Theophilus."
Finally Theophilus got out of the car, grumbling to himself. "First Essie poking me in my arm and Thay worrying me about some luggage and everybody complaining because they're tired . . ."
He was still annoyed that Essie had poked him so hard and it made him crankier still that she had spoken to him so sharply. He wondered what was eating at her.
The smell of coffee, pancakes, and bacon wafted its way up Essie's nose, luring her out of a heavy slumber into that drifting-in-and-out phase of sleep. At first she couldn't tell if the bacon and pancake smells were real or part of her dreams. But the weight of the brown leg swung casually over her hip let her know that she was awake and those smells were as real as the man lying next to her. The breeze circulating around the room from the open window was chilly. She pulled the spread up over her shoulders.
Theophilus moved around and pulled her into the warm spot between his legs, letting his fingers travel leisurely down her bare arms and the length of her back to rest around the contours of her bottom. A soft sigh escaped from his lips as he pressed her body into his, enjoying the feel of her own soft warmth up next to him. He rolled over on his back and pulled Essie on top of him, making the bed creak loudly from the combined weight of his body and hers.
"What's wrong?" he whispered in her ear when he realized how tense she had become.
"The bed creaks every time you move around."
"And?" he murmured, pulling at the narrow strap of her pale yellow nightgown.
"And someone might hear us."
"Hear what?" he said, his voice half filled with sleep, half filled with desire. "You think somebody might hear me in this room with my wife? Is that what they will hear, Essie?"
"Well . . ." she said kind of hesitantly.
"Well, you worry too much," he said softly and pulled one of her legs up so that her knee rested on the side of his waist.
Essie relaxed a little and Theophilus pulled the opposite knee up to his waist and whispered, "Is that quiet enough for you?"
When she didn't say anything, he pulled the nightgown up to her waist, slipped his hands inside her underwear and wrapped his hands around her bare bottom. He always wondered why his wife wore panties under such sexy nightgowns— especially those come-up-to-the-waist cotton panties she seemed so fond of sleeping in. He knew that as long as he lived, he would never fully understand the ways and thinking of women.
He was about to ease off her underwear when Thayline yelled from the kitchen. "Baybro! Baby doll! Breakfast almost ready. You two better get up and come eat before your food starts to get cold."
"Shoot," Theophilus growled. His sister had the worst timing of anyone he knew.
Essie pulled away from him and said, "We'll be right there, Thay."
Theophilus sat up in the bed watching Essie get herself