A Time to Dance/A Time to Embrace by Karen Kingsbury Page B

don’t appreciate you inviting her here to parade around my house flirting with my husband eating my food at my table. Are you reading me?”
    John had stormed out of the house then, refusing even to acknowledge Abby’s tirade. Back then it had seemed ridiculous. Like maybe it was that time of the month or possibly Abby was frustrated about her hair or something. Looking back . . . well, he knew that she’d been more right than he could have imagined. From his current vantage point, it seemed Charlene had used the dinner to make her attraction to him known.
    John leaned forward again and sifted through the papers on his desk. He’d asked Charlene about the dinner since then, and each time she’d denied having an agenda. “How could I have known things would get like this between us?”
    How did they get like this, anyway? John had asked himself the question a hundred times if he’d asked it once. It wasn’t really Charlene, was it? It was Abby. Too busy with the kids and their schedules and her father to even ask about his day let alone attend Friday night games. Basically, she had forgotten about him. Left him to live his own life while she managed the lives of everyone else around her, always complaining about something. Ever since life had gotten busier, she was constantly blaming him, accusing him of not helping enough around the house, not being involved enough with the kids’ lives. He was doing everything he knew how to do, but it was never enough. She’d turned into a meanspirited shrew.
    All things considered, any man would have been weak in those circumstances.
    At first it had been lunch with Charlene in his classroom, and then an occasional phone call after work. Still, it wasn’t until four years later that Charlene began having serious trouble with Rod.
    “I have no one to talk to,” she’d tell him. “Meet me here before school. I just need someone who understands.”
    And so—without telling Abby or the kids—he began getting up earlier and arriving at Marion High half an hour before classes. John remembered that not once that year did Abby even ask why. It wasn’t every day, of course, but in time he and Charlene began meeting in the weight-room and working out together before classes began. Occasionally there’d be teasing and rib-poking between them and a rare tickling match or two. But he’d been up-front with her about his situation.
    “I don’t believe in affairs, Charlene.”
    Once when he said that, she came up behind him and started rubbing both sides of the base of his neck, seemingly concerned only about the tension in his back. “Who’s having an affair?”
    She was so innocent, so sweet and fun to be with. He’d convinced himself she was harmless, and there was nothing wrong with a back-rub now and then after working out. He remembered laughing lightly and lowering his head, enjoying the way her fingers worked themselves into his muscles. “Okay, so it’s not an affair. I just want you to know where I stand.”
    She ran her fingers lightly down the sides of his arms and whispered. “Don’t worry, Coach. I’m not trying to seduce you.”
    John had done a quick check of his emotions and realized she didn’t have to try. Just being near her . . . He’d reached up and caught her hands, firmly taking them from his arms as he turned around. “Look, Charlene. I care a lot about you, but I could never do anything to jeopardize my marriage. I mean it.”
    Charlene grinned at him then and shoved him roughly on the shoulder. “Yes sir, Coach. I’ll just be your buddy, then. That’s all I want from you, anyway.”
    John had risen to his feet and noticed that he towered almost a foot above her. “Let’s keep it that way then, okay?” But even as he said the right thing, an intense desire began to take hold of him. He wanted to kiss her, could feel himself drawn to do so. It wasn’t yet seven in the morning, after all, and the kids wouldn’t come around for another