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Paige reached across the table. “These things happen.”
Rhea hadn’t realized until that moment that she was crying. Not so much that she couldn’t breathe, but enough that she had something to brush away when she touched her fingers to her cheek.
“I love you,” Rhea blurted.
Paige squeezed her hand. “I love you too. Your dad’s gonna be okay.” She smiled. “I know some great vegan recipes he’lllove.”
Although Rhea laughed, she couldn’t help but think,Great, now something else for him to complain about.At least her dad was still around to complain about something.
Was Paige delighted to have her father-in-law move in? Ha! No!
But she kept a stiff upper lip as she moved her gym equipment out of the downstairs bedroom and helped Rhea put fresh sheets and blankets on the double bed. She cleared the way from the bedroom to the bathroom across the hall, which now had to be retrofitted with handlebars and a seat for Danny to use when he wanted to bathe himself. Walking through the first story of her house and looking for all the ways a man in a wheelchair might struggle opened her eyes to the fact she and Rhea had too many cords running across the hallway.
She went to the bookstore and consulted recipes for those recovering from heart problems. She asked her coworkers for workout suggestions, and it so happened that one of the D-list celebrities overhearing the conversation went through the same thing with his father.
All that was missing was the therapist’s perspective.
“You two have been through alotthis summer,” she reminded the couple sitting together on her couch for the first time in weeks. “It’s quite impressive you’ve navigated this as well as you have. Most couples find it difficult to communicate what’s going on and what needs to be done, but you two seem to have come to a decision quite quickly?”
“I thought over all of the details before I told her,” Rhea said. “I wish there was another way less disruptive to our life, but it is what it is. I’ve gotta take care of my dad.”
“Do you agree, Paige?”
“Of course I do. He’s family. I’m not going to tell my wife she can’t do what she needs to do for her family.”
“How do you think having an older male in the house is going to affect your marriage?”
Paige hadn’t anticipated that question, and she had a feeling it was mostly directed at her. “When you put it that way… it’s not like I’ve never lived with a father figure before. I grew up with a dad. He’s still in Anaheim.”
Dr. Seville grinned. “Not quite what I meant, Paige.”
Rhea stiffened beside her wife. Paige took that as her cue to assuage some nerves. “It will be a huge adjustment, yes. Her father and I have never had much of a relationship. After fifteen years, I sometimes think he still sees me as the phase his daughter is going through.”
“That’s not true,” Rhea muttered. “He respects our marriage.”
“I’m sure he does. I only mean he doesn’t know how to relate to me at all. I’m not the guy he always envisioned you marrying. I’m not even a butch woman. Your father understands masculinity and the feminine people in his direct family. When you spend your whole life thinking your daughter is gonna marry a guy like you,Ican be a shock.”
“I’m pretty sure my dad thought I was gonna marry some art nerd with glasses.”
“Hon, that’syou.”
Dr. Seville gave them new homework to focus on over the next few weeks. She asked them to concentrate more on creating small intimate moments in between the stressful stages of moving in an older man with health problems. For Paige, that wasn’t much of an issue. For Rhea, it all but killed her libido and the part of a woman who took complete ownership of “her castle.”
But it didn’t happen immediately. Paige merely anticipated it.
Danny moved in on a Friday when Paige was at work. She returned home at six to discover a massive wheelchair in the living room and Rhea giving a nurse the tour of the house. She was one of the nurses who would be stopping in every other day to check on Danny and allow Rhea to work and rest as necessary. Paige was relieved to know the burden of errands wasn’t on her, especially since stopping at the grocery store on the way home often added another twenty minutes in traffic.
Yet she knew this was the end of spontaneous dates in the evening and on the weekends. It was the end of relentlessly flirting in the car because nobody else was there with them. It meant staying quiet in their bedroom because Rhea was convinced her father could hear them fooling around, even though he slept like a rock one floor below them.
“I promise he can’t hear us,” Paige softly cooed to her wife when they were in the middle of undressing beneath the covers. “Stop thinking about your dad while I’m feeling you up.”
It had been longer than Paige wanted to admit. Was this how Rhea felt when her wife’s needs lay dormant for so long?So the tables turn…Paige had spent the past two weeks fantasizing about her wife feeling ready to make love again. It didn’t have to be bombastic or even a marathon session like the weekend by the lake. She was completely happy with a vanilla quickie right before they fell asleep. Besides! Even if her father-in-lawcouldhear them (and he couldn’t!) surely, he would understand that every married couple had needs? That they needed to bond the old-fashioned way?
Except Rhea would apparently rather die than have sex while one of her parents was in the same building, asleep or not.
“I’m sorry.” She rolled off Paige and covered her face with her hands. “I can’t get into it. I promise it’s not you.”
“It better not be me.” Paige tossed back the comforter and got up to use the bathroom. “I’ve been working out more often lately.”
