Wallflower Girl

Chapter 27

"Smells good, sweetheart!" Nick announced as he opened the door and poked his head around, grinning cheekily. There was no Patricia to be seen. He closed the door and craned his neck to peer around the corner into the kitchen. "So where is my pretty baby?" he asked of the house, a teasing I'm-going-to-get-you edge to his voice.

She wasn't in the kitchen. He sniffed the aroma coming from the baked chicken dinner on the stove. "Mmm. Yummy," he said, checking in the laundry room off the kitchen. She wasn't in there either, and he figured she may have been hiding in the bathroom. He crept back through the living room, hands at the ready to clutch his lovely and intensely ticklish young wife.

The bathroom was empty. He flung back the yellow shower curtain ready to grab her but no, not there. "Hmm. I wonder where my little sweetheart could be," he said in mock confusion as he stalked toward their bedroom. The baby room door was open and he glanced behind it but she wasn't in there. The yellow plush area rug on the floor and the cheerful yellow curtains did make the room look inviting. Thinking about making the baby who would live in that room increased Nick's urgency considerably.

"I wonder where my pretty girl is hiding," he went on as he caught a glimpse of her through the crack in the open bedroom door. It looked like she was hiding behind it, pressed back against the mauve wall beside the wardrobe.