I stopped next to one of the big bay windows that look out over the backyard, and my eyes went to the gazebo where dad was sitting on the glider with my son asleep on his chest, the children’s book he’d been reading to him still open as he read to the sleeping boy.
Every once in a while, he’d smile down at his grandson and kiss his tiny little head before going back to his reading. Little Natalie put her head down on my shoulder as it was close to her naptime as well; thank heaven, I could do with a break.
Ever since I decided to spend only three days at the office per week and stay home with my family, I’ve been more tired than ever before in my life. Maddie, on the other hand, is in her element. She’s blossomed in the last two, and a half years or so into the amazing creature I always knew she was.
She runs our home with an iron fist, making sure that everything runs smoothly, especially our finances, she’s still cheap as hell, but we balance it out with compromise. I may not be allowed to buy her a hundred-thousand-dollar bracelet, but I can give her that same money to play the market. She gets the bracelet anyway for her birthday, Mother’s Day, Xmas, the kid’s birthday, my birthday, any excuse I can come up with to spoil her.
On the other hand, Rene has totally self-destructed. After I had Diego call the cops the night of our reception party and the subsequent restraining order, things just seemed to spiral out of control more and more. Last I heard, she’d moved out of town. Diego and the rest of his team do a routine search every three months to make sure she doesn’t return. I walked upstairs to the nursery to put my daughter to bed before going back to my business and missing my wife.
Later that night, as we went to bed as I used the special massage ball on her back, I raised a very important question. “Baby, we need a new gate for the stairs.”
“Why, we just got that one.”
“Why? Because this afternoon, after your daughter’s power nap, she flung her little ass out of her crib and toddled to the gate, where she proceeded to climb over the shit. By the time I got to her, she was hanging by one arm all but swinging over the stairs with her tiny behind.”
Her eyes were horrified. “What?”
“Yep! I scolded her, but the way she grinned and drooled, I’m not sure she took me seriously.”
“I’ll have a talk with her in the morning.”
“Yeah, you do that,” I mumbled something about thank fuck this one is a boy as I looked over at her seven months pregnant tummy.
All while she was nursing, she was safe, but as soon as she weaned the twins who seemed to want to do everything early like her, I nailed her. The six weeks she needed to heal after giving birth was the hardest in my life, so pretty much since she got the all-clear until now, I was in her at least twice a day on average. So much for kids changing your life in that regard. Though I think Maddie was as horny as I was, and that helped a lot. That and her promise to me while giving birth that she’ll not let our lives change for the worst because we have kids.
I hadn’t realized that that was a fear of hers until then and had gone out of my way ever since to keep things between her and I was close to the same as possible. It’s easy if you compartmentalize. There’s me and Natalie’s time, me and Garrick Jr’s time, even me and dad time, and of course, always and most importantly, there’s me and Madeline time. I’ve been doing it this way ever since she brought them home and will continue for as long as there’s breath in me.
As to how this one came to be, I laid behind her after putting the ball away with my hand on the hard mound of her tummy. I think it was maybe two weeks after she cried to me that the twins no longer wanted to nurse that I’d come home early one day while the kids were napping to find her asleep in her bubble bath, something she rarely got to do anymore.
I remember lifting her from the tub, still dressed in my suit. “Hi, baby.” She was soft and warm from the water as her lips sought mine and her legs went around my waist. “Do me before they get up.” She licked my neck and bit my ear. I’m pretty sure he was conceived with me fully dressed and his mom in melting soap suds.