Angry at the answers I already knew, I turned into a shopping center and stopped to buy a dozen roses before racing home. I found Laura was in the kitchen with TJ and Ruthie, a fresh batch of cookies cooling. Pearl and David, meanwhile, were giggling and kissing between bouts of tossing flour at each other.
Laying the roses on the table, I took Laura in my arms. “What’s all this?” she asked, laughing.
“This is your loving husband doing something he should have been doing all along,” I told her. I gave her a passionate kiss; a real barn-burner, not some affectionate peck.
She pulled back a bit and softly scolded, “Tom, the children are right here!”
“Ah, good point!” I said. I turned and addressed the kids.
“Let me tell you kids a story. This happened years ago, when TJ and Ruthie weren’t even thought of; Pearl was in Mommy’s tummy but we didn’t even know it yet. It was so long ago your big brother Lucas was still a baby, just starting to eat solid food.”
Four sets of young eyes were on me. Good. “I’d just met your Mom and already knew I loved her, but wasn’t sure if she loved me. We loaded everybody into the motorhome to go mall shopping, and had a great day as a family. I was super happy, and the only thing that would have made it better was knowing for sure your Momma loved me back.”
I looked at Laura. “Do you remember that day, Momma?”
Smiling, she nodded. “I do, and you were in trouble. I was really mad at you for stuffing the kids full of corn dogs and candy, and told you if they got sick tummies that night and barfed, you’d be the one cleaning it up.”
I laughed at the memory. “Yeah, you were mad enough that I was worried you’d kick me off the farm.”
I turned back to the kids. “But Mommy didn’t kick me off the farm. Instead, after she finished buckling everybody in their car seats she leaned over and gave me a kiss. The fact she kissed me in front your brothers and sisters let me know she loved me too. I’d never ever been so happy!”
I stopped talking for a moment; TJ and Ruthie were hanging on every word like they were hearing a fairy tale, while Pearl and David were certainly listening with interest.
“Here’s the thing,” I said in a quiet voice, “It’s been almost 20 years, and Mommy still makes me feel that same way every single day.”
Then I looked into Laura’s eyes, “Every word of that story is true, you make me happy every single day and I’m a lousy husband because I haven’t told you that enough. I’m so sorry!”
Laura was smiling, her eyes brimming with tears. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she pulled my face down to hers. “Tom McFarland, you are a wonderful husband, and I forgive you,” she whispered, and then kissed me like she used to when I’d come home from my work trips, a real can’t-wait-to-get-you-naked kiss.
Before my dick could even respond, the romantic moment was broken up by the beeping of the oven timer. Laura whispered in my ear, “We’ll finish this discussion later,” kissed me quickly, and turned to take the cookies out.
I sighed, announcing, “I’m going to go install the towel racks in the new unit,” and headed for the door.
David piped up, “Mr. McFarland, can I help you with that?”
“Yeah sure, David. Given that fact you’ve decided to marry Pearl, if you want to, you can call Laura and I ‘Mom and Dad’ now.” I figured if the kid so brazenly sleeping with my daughter was at least trying to bond, why not?
I grabbed the new towel racks from the back of the Ford, and had David get my drill, stud-finder, and ruler. Having zero experience at manual labor, David mostly watched as I started the installation. I was again reminded how much David’s personality matched our son James; I got the impression he wanted to open up about something on his mind, but was struggling with it. I decided to prime the pump.
“I built this unit anticipating one of our adult children would live here,” I began, “and I was thinking it might be Amelia when she comes back from college. If you and Pearl are going to get married, I guess now that’s going to be you two. Unless the two of you want to move somewhere else.”
I looked at David, and saw he was a little bewildered. “I, uh, hadn’t given it much thought. I’ll have to ask Pearl.” The ice broken, he seemed to gain a little momentum. “Hey, listen, Tom, er, I mean Dad, I wanted you to know something.”
Here it comes, I thought. “What’s that, David?”
“The story you told about how you loved Laura since you met her? That’s how I feel about Pearl. It’s not just physical, right? She was so caring and sweet that I fell in love with her hard. Like, super hard. If she broke up with me, I’d curl up and die. That’s how you feel about Laura, right?”
I’d never thought about it in those terms exactly, but David was right. I thought back to the day Ruthie was born, and Laura had almost died from hemorrhaging. If she hadn’t survived, I would have been completely and totally lost. That’s what my wife meant to me: damn near everything.
“Yes, David, that’s exactly how I feel,” I told him, “I’m glad you’re that way with my daughter. As long as the two of you feel that way, you can always make things work.”
~~~~~~~~~~
After dinner, Laura asked TJ to get Ruthie’s teeth brushed and put her to bed. I felt bad for TJ, he didn’t mind taking care of Ruthie at all, but at 12 years old he should have been playing Fortnight with his friends online, or doing something equally mindless. This was the same kid who’d declared his devotion to Natty when she was feeling unloved. He was almost too perfect; it like he emotionally leap-frogged from childhood straight into adulthood. As his father, I definitely needed to get him to un-adult, maybe get into a little trouble.
My thinking was cut short by the feel of Laura’s body coming up behind me, pressing her chest into the small of my back as she wrapped her arms around my waist. “Hey there, lover,” she whispered, “we were interrupted this afternoon. Take me upstairs and tell me again how I make you happy every single day.”
One of her hands dropped down from my waist to the crotch of my khakis, and caressed the material over my cock. “You better be careful,” I warned her, “you’re playing with a match and about to light my fuse.”
She kissed me on the shirt between the shoulder blades chuckled, “I happen to know what you have in your pants is way bigger than a match. Follow me!”
She took my hand and led me upstairs into our bedroom, then locked the door. I moved to take her in my arms, but she surprised me with a strong push that landed me face-up on our bed. Before I could recover, she straddled my chest and began unbuttoning my shirt. The pale skin of her face was flushed, a sure sign of lust in my trophy wife.
I reached up and began unbuttoning her sleeveless blouse. I loved how it looked on her, especially the bare arms, but what lay behind the buttons is what held my interest now. Once the last button was released, I reached up and cupped the freckled fleshy globes that filled her bra. Over the years of our marriage (and three babies) they’d grown so now my hands could barely contain them. Not that I was complaining.