O = Obfuscation
For today’s A-Z, we are talking about obfuscation. Webster’s defines obfuscation as “to be evasive, unclear, or confusing.” In most DD relationships, It is considered a form of lying and strongly discouraged. However, Lainie, like many of us, struggles with that particular rule. No matter how much she logically knows that any deviation away from the truth is probably not a good idea, sometimes she finds herself giving into the temptation to be deliberately vague and hope for the best. Unfortunately, that generally doesn’t work out well, and Grant really doesn’t appreciate it.
Grant came in and tipped up her face to kiss her. “How was Denver?” He asked.
“It was fine,” she said noncommittally.
“Did the girls have a good time?” Grant asked.
“Yep,” Lainie said. After all, they’d had a wonderful time that morning. So they’d had a bad into the day. That didn’t mean the whole day was bad. The girls have had a good time, in the beginning.
“Great, you didn’t let them buy out the whole store, did you?” He teased.
“Of course not,” Lainie said. “We had to leave at least a few things for the other customers.” She managed a small smile. It was an old jokes, years old, and one he asked nearly every time they went shopping. At least when he was around to know they went shopping. There had been years when he hadn’t had much of an idea what they were doing. The familiar teasing was a comfort, a welcome reminder that a lot of good had come from this move, even if Kathleen hated it. Lainie turned back to the cookbooks and flipped through a few more pages. “How hungry are you?” She asked Grant.
“I could eat, but I’m not starving,” Grant replied. “Why?”
“I was thinking of making veggie lasagna, but that takes a while. Are you up for that?” she wondered.
“That’s fine.” Grant said. “I can go shower and let the girls show me what they got today. Whose turn is it to help with dinner?”
“It’s Natalie’s,” Lainie replied. “Can you ask her to come down?”
“Sure,” Grant said, heading upstairs.
Humming to herself, Lainie began pulling out ingredients - zucchini, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, noodles - and gathering them on the counter. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, she called out, “Nat?”
“No, it’s me,” Grant replied from behind her. Surprised, Lainie turned to him. He was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, looking distinctly foreboding. “What happened in Denver?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Lainie said. “I told you it was fine.” Even as the words left her mouth, her stomach sank a little, knotting with dread and anxiety.
“So what’s this that Natalie is telling me about Kathleen having a meltdown about uniforms? Because she seems pretty upset for nothing to have happened.” Grant said.
“Okay, so Kathleen got upset and had a little meltdown,” Lainie admitted. “I’d forgotten to tell her that the school’s here require uniforms. Natalie sprung it on her in the middle of the store, and she didn’t take it well.”
“Didn’t take it well?” Grant echoed. “What exactly happened, and I mean exactly, don’t you dare try to sugarcoat it or leave anything out. I will ask Natalie if I have to.”
“You’ll do what?” Lainie said, outraged. “Nice, Grant, pitting my own child against me. I’m not a suspect to be interrogated. I’ll thank you to leave your heavy-handed tactics at work.”
“I wouldn’t need to ask Natalie if you had just been honest with me from the beginning,” Grant pointed out. “If you had told me the whole story when I asked how the day when instead of trying to brush over everything we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Tired of increasing chaos in his family life and the distance that is growing between him and his wife, Lainie, Grant Taylor decides the only way to save his marriage is to get back to the domestic discipline lifestyle he grew up with. When he finds Corbin’s Bend on the Internet, he is certain it is the perfect place for them to start over.
Exhausted and tired of juggling everything herself, Lainie reluctantly agrees to her husband’s suggestion. However, she is new to the lifestyle and more than a little uncertain about it. To make matters worse, their 15-year-old daughter Kathleen is convinced they had moved her into some kind of weird spanking cult. She is miserable and not at all shy about letting everybody know it.
Will moving to Corbin’s Bend be their saving grace, or will it be the final straw that tears them apart?
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