“I wear it right now, Momma! I wear it right now!”
Gerty set aside her pale blue silk pajamas as West threw his Buzz Lightyear onesie at her and started taking off his shirt.
“Yeah, you can put it on right now, buddy,” she said. “But Daddy’s down there to help you.”
She tossed the pajamas over to Mike, who caught them and flapped them out, saying, “Come over here, bud. I’ll help you.”
West had already stripped down to his underpants, which coincidentally, were also Buzz Lightyear-themed, and with his chubby toddler body, he rushed over to his father.
“Put ‘em on, Daddy.”
“I’m putting them on. Turn around, my friend.” Mike got West to turn and back right into him, and the little boy practically sat on Mike’s shoulder as he lifted one foot and then the other to put on his new pajamas. Mike zipped him up to the waist, and then turned him so he could finish, and Tag started to clap.
The others joined him, and then West thrust both hands up in the air as if he had transformed into a superhero, and he buzzed and made truck beeping noises as he flew around the room.
“What’d you get, Gerty?” Opal asked.
Gerty showed her the blue silk pajama set. “They’re my favorite. I’m like an otter in the sheets, slipping around.” She grinned and nodded back to her. “What about you?”
In Opal’s condition, she didn’t exactly enjoy wearing pants, and she’d been opting to wear big, loose dresses for the past couple of months. Thus, Tag had picked out a nightgown for her in a pale peach color that highlighted the darkness in her hair and the olive tone of her skin.
“Oh, that’s so pretty,” Gerty said as Opal held up the nightshirt. “What’d you get for Tag?”
Tag looked down to his lap and lifted his black and white pajama set. “This seems to be made of flannel. I’m going to be way too hot in these.”
“No, they’re shorts.” Opal reached over and moved aside the top to reveal the bottoms.
Tag lifted them, and sure enough, the pajama set didn’t come with pants.
“And they have that cotton bamboo lining,” she said. “It’s cooling.” She put her fingers under the collar of the shirt and pushed it out so that he could see the inside lining of the fabric.
“Wow,” he said. “These are really nice, honey. Thank you so much.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“I’m the lumberjack,” Mike said, and he belted out a loud laugh as he lifted a pair of soft, elastic-waist pants that were the color of denim and a plaid shirt in red, brown, and white with an ax printed on the chest pocket.
Tag laughed too as the women giggled alongside them.
“You’re always saying you wish you had more time to be a cowboy,” Gerty said.
“You know you could quit,” Opal said. “You’ve been the CEO for a long time.”
“Five years is not a long time, sissy,” he said. “Daddy did it for thirty.”
“Well, you’re not Daddy,” she said.
Mike and Opal’s parents had been staying with them since Thanksgiving, and Tag glanced over to the pair of them. Opal’s father was a tall, broad-shouldered man whose personality, intelligence, and quick wit had not been diminished by age. He was pushing ninety now, as he hadn’t married his wife, Bree, until he was fifty years old.
“What’d you get, Momma?” Opal asked.
Bree lifted a very sensible set of pajamas that would work for a Colorado winter as well as it would a Wyoming one. She loved purple, and this eggplant set came with white trim along the cuffs, hems, and collar.
“I’m pretty sure this is the same set your father got for me last year,” she said, beaming at him with all the love in the world.
“Hey, when you’ve found a good thing, you don’t deviate,” Wes said. “I got a couple pairs of those slicky shorts I like,” he added, holding up a gray pair.
“Do you not wear a shirt to sleep, Daddy?” Mike teased.
“I do,” Daddy said. “Whatever I had on that day does a good enough job, so we don’t need to be spending money on a shirt just to wear to bed.”
