by M. Clarke
“Jenna, can you go to lunch today?”
“Hold on.”
I waited…waited…waited…and then she finally came back. “Yup, I can. Max said to tell Matthew he’s looking forward to it.”
“Great, I’ll be over by eleven thirty.”
“Sounds like a plan. I can’t wait.”
“Bye.”
Just as I clicked to end the call I heard, “Mommy, why is Daddy rubbing your butt? Do you have a boo-boo?”
Matthew and I parted our bodies so fast I almost dropped the phone. Addy was holding Mason’s hand. Wearing the same stoic expression, they waited for an explanation, more Addy than Mason.
“Fuck,” Matthew whispered.
“Shit,” I said a bit louder.
Matthew and I exchanged glances at that moment. We both had that bad habit and had promised each other that we would try our best not to cuss in front of the children, but once in a while we would slip up. My face felt burning hot as I gazed at our children’s innocent faces. Just as it started to cool down, Mason made it flare up again.
“Shit,” Mason repeated nonchalantly.
Matthew burst out laughing when Mason repeated my word like he was calling for me. I wanted to laugh too but held it in.
Oh God! We were terrible parents. I lightly elbowed Matthew in the ribs and walked toward Addy to answer her question. “Yes, Mommy fell, but I’m much better now. Thanks for worrying about me, sweetie.” I kissed her forehead and then Mason’s.
“Shit,” Mason said again.
“No, Mason. That’s not a nice word.” I shook my head and placed my finger over his lips so he could understand what I was trying to tell him. In the meantime, I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. It didn’t help that Matthew was snickering behind me.
Addy pointed at Matthew with a giggle, finally realizing what he’d said. “Daddy said a bad word too.”
Matthew weaved around me, lifted Addy up to the ceiling, and started to tickle her. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did, Daddy. I heard.” She let out the cutest sound.
“Put her down. You’re going to drop her.” I knew he wouldn’t, but it always made me nervous when she was up that high.
Matthew did what I’d asked and then said, “Get ready. We’re going to Connor’s house.”
“Yay!” Addy jumped up and down, clapping. “We’re still in our PJs. We need to go change. Mason and I will be right back. I’ll help him change.” She grabbed Mason’s hand and led him upstairs.
I knew we’d made the right decision to adopt a child from China. Not only for Mason’s sake, but for our family’s. Having a second child had brought so much joy into our lives. I also didn’t want Addy to be the only child and miss out on having a sibling to turn to. She had her cousins, but it wasn’t the same. I knew this because my memories of growing up with my younger sister, Rachel, were the best ones I had. Now that we were both grown up and had families of our own, we had more to share. I couldn’t wait to see them on Christmas Day, and my parents as well.
Matthew lifted me up and placed me on the counter. I wrapped my legs and arms around him to pull him close to me.
“Soooo,” he started to say, looking at me with a loving gaze, “I guess we’ll have to continue tonight.”
“Unless you want a quickie,” I teased. I wanted to toy with him, even though I knew we couldn’t have sex.
His eyes lit up. “You’re teasing me. It’s not nice to tease, Be…cca.” He drawled out my name as if it was a long word. “But then it might be fun to punish you later tonight.” He dove in for a kiss, giving me his love and passion, along with his tongue. It was the kind of kiss that shot down to my sex, the kind that would stay with me all day, and the kind that was going to make me want to put the kids to bed early.
I slowly opened my eyes as my chest rose and fell when he pulled away. “Wow!” I said, building up his ego more. That sexy smirk I loved to see was plastered on his face.
“I’m glad I can be your ‘wow’,” he grinned. “I’ll be your wow, wow, wow tonight. So think about that all day while you’re having lunch and shopping with Jenna.”
I laughed softly, enjoying his playfulness. “Don’t worry, handsome. I will.” I jumped off the counter, purposely wiggling my ass on the way out.
“Hotter than a Victoria’s Secret model,” I heard Matthew say.
“You bet your ass,” I said out loud so he could hear me on the way up the stairs. Fuck! Addy and Mason were already dressed and coming down. I really needed to watch what I said. “Both of you look so cute.” I placed my hands on my face, hoping the sound of my enthusiasm would make Addy forget that I’d just used the word “ass.” But I didn’t need to try hard. They were freakin’ adorable.
Chapter 3
Jenna
“They’re here,” I exclaimed. “I’ll get the door.” I opened the door to see Becky and her family. “Becky, Matthew, Addy, Mason,” I said, greeting each of them with hugs and kisses, and then they exchanged hugs with each member of our family. Even Max and Matthew gave each other a manly hug. While the husbands headed to the family room, the children ran upstairs to the play area.
“So, you’re ready?” Becky looked so excited.
“Yup. Let’s get them settled. I’ll drive.” I went to the kitchen to check that I’d turned off the stove, made sure the refrigerator was closed, and then I stared at my kids in the family room to see if I’d forgotten anything. The children had run downstairs after picking out Star Wars lightsabers from the toy chest and were pretending to battle each other.
“Jenna,” Max said, massaging my shoulders. “You can go now. I’m not going to eat our children.”
I laughed and so did Matthew and Becky. “I know. You’re going to be okay with Cassie, right?”
“Actually, I’m going to take her to my mom’s house so that I can run around with the boys. If we end up going to Chuck E. Cheese or the park, you know I’m going to have to be right on their tails. But if we end up staying home, don’t worry, she’ll be fine.”
I nodded, relaxing into Max as I took a deep breath. It wasn’t like I’d never left the kids with him before. Maybe all the stress was getting to me. “She’ll be waking up from her morning nap soon. You’ll keep the monitor close to you, right?”
Cassie had woken up when we were having breakfast, but had fallen asleep again shortly afterward. Hopefully she wasn’t getting sick. I couldn’t help worrying that something was going to happen.
“Of course.” Max let go, pivoted me around for a moment, and kissed my lips. He then tapped my butt to push me onward.
“After Jenna leaves, can you massage me, big brother, and touch my ass?” Matthew asked, using a childish tone. He was sitting on the sofa next to Becky with his legs slightly apart.
“Hell no,” Max chuckled, looking at Cassie’s monitor on our granite countertop.
Becky and I laughed.
Becky got up and grabbed her Louis Vuitton purse next to the sofa. “Come on, Jenna, before Matthew gets jealous of Manna.”
“Who?”
“You know how you blend the names together by putting the guy’s initial in place of the first letter of the woman’s name?”
“Yes, I know,” I said matter-of-factly. “I just never thought to combine our names together.” Then I looked at Max and smiled. “I like that.” I turned to Becky. “Macky,” I giggled. “I like that.”
Becky shook her head with a laugh. “You’re so darn cute.”
“Macky?” Matthew furrowed his brows, seemingly unhappy with the way it sounded. “How about Betthew and Jexwell?” He let out a hearty laugh.
We all had a good laugh. Becky cut the conversation short by picking up my black Chanel purse for me, placing her hands on my shoulders, and leading me toward the garage.
“Bye, boys,” she said.
“Manna. Macky. That’s so funny,” I repeated and laughed to myself until I got in the car. “Where to?” I asked, turning on the engine and
pushing the remote to open the garage door.
“Need to shop for kids’ stuff?” Becky clicked her seatbelt to lock it and I did mine.
“Yup,” I said, putting the car into reverse and backing out of the driveway.
“Toys ‘R’ Us?” She checked her phone and laughed.
“Sure. Want to shop first before we have lunch?” I asked. Since we’d had a late breakfast I wasn’t that hungry.
“Sounds good to me.”
I cruised down the street, glancing at Becky. “What are you smiling at?”
She shook her head with a grin. “It’s Matthew. He texted me to say he missed me already.”
“Awww,” I gushed.
Becky scrolled down the screen of her phone a bit. “Then he said to get something for him at Victoria’s Secret.”
I smiled. My phone beeped with the sound of a text coming through. I reached inside my purse that was set beside me and handed my cell to Becky. “Can you see if that’s important?”
Becky clicked it on. “It’s from Max. He texted, ‘Have a good time. TKLS!’” Her lips curled into a smirk and there was a spark of remembrance in her eyes. “I remember what that means.”
“No, you don’t.” I tried to hide my flushed face, but Becky knew me all too well. I signaled, looked over my shoulder, and then turned left. “You’re going to the Knight Fashion Christmas party, right?”
Becky put away her cell in her purse. “Matthew wants me to go. Since Rachel and you will be there, and to support not just my husband, but my two brothers-in-law, Max and Jax, I’ve decided to go.”
“That’s sweet of you. I’m glad you’re going.” I paused for a second and said, “Jachel.”
“Huh?” Becky pinched her brows together, looking confused.
“Rachel and Jackson.” It was all I had to say.
“Oh.” She laughed. “I get it now. Jachel. But that really sounded funny.”
I nodded to agree. “It kind of does.” I laughed again.
“In the new year, we’re going to start Addy with piano lessons,” Becky changed the subject. “She’s already in little league soccer and art lessons. Our schedule is going to be crazy soon. I’m sure Mason will want to do something too, or at least we should expose him to children his own age.”
I agreed. “Yeah, Max wants Connor and Christopher to take karate lessons on top of their soccer. We want to start exposing Connor to an instrument soon as well. He seems interested in guitar, but we’ll see.”
As we chatted about our busy schedule at work, we reached our destination. After I parked, we headed inside to grab carts.
“Can you believe we’re at a toy store instead of shopping for us?” Becky shook her head. “I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. We’re both married and have children. Not only that, I still can’t believe we married the brothers and have the same cool parents-in-law. I would die if I couldn’t get along with my in-laws.”
I checked the aisles and headed toward the Star Wars section. “I know what you mean. Some of my coworkers talk about their in-laws, and I feel so sorry for them.”
“Yeah.” Becky agreed sympathetically and then pointed. “Look at all this Star Wars stuff.”
“I can’t believe Addy likes it too. I think it’s so cool that she does. She’s not just a girly-girl, but she can act like a kick-butt girl, you know what I mean? I think she takes after her mother.”
Becky examined a Star Wars Lego set and placed it back. “Ain’t nothing wrong with being a kick-ass girl. She won’t take shit from anyone, except her parents and family. I have to admit; I was surprised by how much she liked the movie. After that, Matthew watched all the other movies in the series with her. She loved those too.”
I pulled out a Millennium Falcon gift set and realized Connor and Christopher each had one already, so I placed them back. “Yeah, Connor does too, but I’m not sure if Christopher is just following in his brother’s footsteps or he is genuinely into them. He copies everything that Connor does.”
Becky and I glanced down the shelves, then gazed at the next ones, unable to pick anything to purchase. The boys had so many Star Wars toys already.
“I guess that’s to be expected,” Becky said. “Rachel did that when we were young. She even tried to dress like me, speak like me, and she followed me everywhere.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said softly. “Growing up I always wanted a sibling, as you already know. My mother couldn’t have any more children after me. And it took her a while to conceive me. She had many miscarriages. I gave birth to three beautiful healthy children. I feel so lucky.”
Becky placed her hand on mine. “I know what you mean. I wasn’t even supposed to have carried Addy to full term. They said it was either her or me, but we both made it through.”
“I know.” I caressed her arm. “She’s a miracle.”
“Look at us.” She sniffled a little. “We’re surrounded by toys and unable to pick anything. Our kids are so spoiled, and we have tears in our eyes as we talk about them.”
I smiled. “I know. This was supposed to be our day. But I think after you become a mother, your time can never fully be your own because deep down you know your kids come first in your heart, soul, and mind.”
“So true,” Becky agreed. “And they’re spoiled as heck. I don’t remember having half the toys Addy has.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I shook my head, thinking how overindulged they were.
Becky leaned closer. “Want to know a secret? Sometimes I buy the toys for Addy that I want to play with.”
I laughed softly, because I knew exactly what she meant. “Yeah, me too. Do you need to stop by the book section? I need something to read.”
“Sure, why not? Even though I read for a living, browsing for books still made me happy. Maybe they’ve stocked one of my authors. Besides, our kids already have everything in this aisle. Let’s go.”
When we got there, I asked, “Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you’d never married Matthew?”
Becky picked out a book that had a cover with a flower on it. “Yes. Don’t you with Max?” She didn’t wait for my answer and spoke, “The New Beginning. This looks like a good book.” She handed it to me. “Oh, sorry. Anyway, don’t you?”
I took it from her, felt the softness of the cover, and sniffed the scent of the
fresh book. “Yup, I did. I would probably have married Luke.” Becky made a gagging face. I stuck out my tongue. “We’d probably have about two children. I would love them, but I wouldn’t have been deeply in love with him, if you know what I mean. He’d probably have cheated on me, and then maybe I would have found Max later. You know what they say—soul mates have a way of finding each other. How about you?”
Becky picked up another book with the cover showing a man holding a woman in an intimate way. She turned the pages. “You know my history with men. I would have probably married an asshole. And I most likely would have cheated on him. Maybe no kids. I only liked the idea of kids after I fell in love with Matthew, but knowing I couldn’t—well, more like I shouldn’t because of my kidneys.” She placed the book back and continued, “So to sum up our lives, they would have sucked. So I’m thankful for how my life has turned out so far. And I need to thank you, ‘cause if you hadn’t given Max a chance, I might have never met Matthew.”
I shook my head while my lips curled crookedly. “I don’t know…you know how I feel about fate? He would have found you eventually, that’s my theory.”
“I hope so,” she said softly. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Becky grabbed her cart.
“Wait. I’ve been eyeing this cover.” I picked up a book. The cover art intrigued me. It was a picture of a young girl running in the forest.
“You’re one of those.” She dragged out her words.
I looked at her confusedly. “One of those?”
She took the book from my hand and placed it in my cart. “You’re a cover whore.” Then she push
ed her cart forward.
“What?” I laughed, catching up to her. “Never heard of that before.”
“It’s okay. I’m one too.” She winked. “Let’s go get some lunch and take care of us.” Becky weaved the cart into the long line.
“Right behind you,” I replied, wishing we had a “go to the front of the line” pass.
Chapter 4
Becky
After we had eaten, we decided to go to the mall. Being that there were only two weeks left till Christmas, I realized I needed to get on with my shopping.
“What’s going on now?” Jenna asked, picking up a red cashmere sweater in Nordstrom.
I was scrolling through my phone again instead of helping her pick out a gift for her mom. “Guess who it is?”
“Matthew again?” she laughed softly, looking at a lavender one this time.
“He’s asking when we’re coming home.”
“Tell him never.” She placed the sweater in front of her. “Small or medium for my mom? What do you think?”
I texted Matthew back: Jenna said never. “I think medium. Only because I think when you get older, you like to wear things a little bit baggier. My mom used to wear medium, but sometimes she buys a larger size.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she agreed, and placed it over her shoulder. “It’s so hard to buy gifts for our family and friends that have everything.”
“I know, right?” I picked up the phone, hearing the buzz of it vibrating in my bag. “What are you getting Max for Christmas?” I asked and then looked down at the text message from Matthew.
Matthew: Tell Jenna I’m going to kidnap Max and her children and she’ll never see them again.
Me: Why do you need me home soon? I thought you gave me the day off so I can catch up with Jenna and go shopping.
Matthew: You’ve been gone all day. I miss you.
I laughed to myself and texted: I’ve only been gone for three hours.
Matthew: It’s been 3 1/2.
