And he knew what was good now.
He felt her stir beneath his touch. She shifted sensuously in the bed. He loved how she moved, as if her body were relishing the contact with the sheet, finding pleasure in its touch, sensitizing it ready for whatever the day would bring.
She moaned lightly and rolled toward him, nipping him playfully on the side, while moving up her head until it was next to his. She smiled.
“Good morning husband.”
“Good morning wife.”
She rolled over as if to get up from the bed, laughing, except he held her hand tight.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Anna laughed and fell back into bed. “To Matta. He must be awake by now.”
“Let sleeping boys lie.”
“It’s not like him. He’s usually bouncing off the walls by now.”
“He’s still fast asleep, or else we would have heard him on the intercom. He’s tired from all the activity yesterday. He’ll need to sleep.”
“You mean it’s convenient if he sleeps.”
“As it happens, that is also true.” Zahir’s hand curled around the curve of her waist, and swept lightly up her body before pulling her to him once more. “Now, where were we?”
Before Anna could remonstrate Zahir’s lips made sure she wasn’t going anywhere.
It was another hour before she left to shower.
Zahir couldn’t remember when he’d felt so at peace. He listened to the shower running, mingling with the rain that now angled against the window and relished the bone-deep, heavy feeling that swamped him. How had she done it? How had she got to the point where she’d captured his heart? He hadn’t even seen it coming. Because there was no strategy to be aware of. Because she did it simply by virtue of being Anna: giving and generous. Tricky. He smiled. He should have known that the only way to beat him was to use methods with which he was entirely unfamiliar.
He propped himself up in bed when she emerged from the shower and watched her dress.
“Do you think this is a spectator sport?” She said without looking over her shoulder.
“Very much so. Unless you’d like to make it an audience participation sport.” He started to get out of bed.
“No!” She giggled. “Get back to bed. I need to get Matta up and ready.”
“I told you we should have brought his nurse.”
She came and sat on the side of the bed. He pushed back a lock of her hair that fell over her shoulder. His finger caressed the bracket of her smile.
“Zahir. We are a family now. We don’t need a nurse.”
He hadn’t thought he could feel any more than he had. But he was wrong. He pulled her to him and kissed her gently on the lips.
As he leant back in bed again, his hand stroked down her hair, her back and lingered on her bottom.
“Then, go, get Matta ready and we will have a family day out.”
She laughed. “So normal.” She turned suddenly and stood up and began to walk away. When she turned back he could see a slight frown settle on her forehead. “You know, that was what I always wanted.”
“And now? Is ‘normal’ enough for you or is it freedom that you still crave?” He stopped smiling. “Tell me Anna. Which one do you want most?”
“I’m a woman, Zahir. I want everything.” She smiled over her shoulder. But he knew her light words covered the truth. He felt his light dim. Perhaps he would never be enough for her to wipe out her past, to believe that they had everything together, that she didn’t need to keep on looking for that elusive something that led her on and on to that goal of freedom.
Zahir and Anna lifted Matta on the count of three, swinging him between them as he squealed with delight.
The rain had diminished to a light drizzle and Matta, loving the novelty of it, had insisted they walk in the rain. Laughing they came to a halt outside a brightly-lit bar.
“Look, Mom, there’s Uncle James. He pointed to a tall man, with blonde carefully tousled hair and a huge, friendly grin, who was just about to enter the bar. “Uncle James!” Matta went running up to the man whose face lit up further at the sight of him.
“Mattie! Look at you! You’ve grown so tall. You’ll be as tall as your daddy soon.”
Zahir felt anger flood his body. Who was this stranger who was lifting Matta into the air? Frowning, Zahir looked at Anna who was smiling at the stranger before meeting Zahir’s gaze steadily.
“Zahir,” Anna walked across to Matta and the stranger, “this is James.”
James kissed Anna on both cheeks and Zahir could see a true affection existed between them. Then James turned to him.
“Abdie’s brother. It must be. You look so much alike.”