“Morning… Mrs. Grassi,” I said, going to the foot of the bed.
Her hand went to her heart.
“God, I like the sound of that.”
“You know what I like the sound of?” I asked.
Then I grabbed her ankles, pulled her down the bed, spread her legs, and buried my face between them to show her.
Roe - 9 years
“That’s better, huh?” I asked the infant who was looking up at me with round, trusting eyes from the changing table in the nursery.
It was a room that had gotten a lot of use over the years. Like the other Grassi couples, once we started, we just couldn’t stop.
“No more spittle, no,” I cooed when something out the window caught my eye.
I sighed and reached out to push the window open.
“If you throw that at your little brother, I’m going to make you go to grandma’s all weekend to weed her garden!” I yelled down to the six-year-old who was about to toss what looked like a muddy ball of leaves at his little brother.
Weeding was the ultimate punishment in the Grassi family. Everyone hated it. It worked like a charm. Except for Adrian, who really did need a hand now and again with all that work.
“Boys,” I said, getting a mouth-bubbly laugh from our youngest—and only daughter. “You wouldn’t throw mud, would you?” I asked, lifting her up in her cute strawberry-printed onesie. She made little popping noises with her mouth. “Exactly. Disgusting. I’m worried I am going to need to hose them off before they come back inside.”
“Thought I heard you,” Milo said as we moved down the steps to find him dropping his keys into the dish inside the front door. “How are my girls?”
He moved over to wrap an arm around me, pressing a kiss to my head, then to our daughter’s.
“We’re good. Just got changed. Was about to try to figure out what to throw together for dinner.”
“Or we could order from Lucky’s and make life easier.”
“I’ve been keeping a terrible secret from you for years,” I told him, watching his lips quirk up.
“What’s that?”
“I only married you for the food connections.”
“Might be a little truth in that,” he said, reaching for the baby.
“Nope. You’re on boy duty.”
“Why? What did they do?” he asked. We’d been at this long enough to be suspicious whenever the other tried to push off the older three onto the other.
“Well, they’ve put the past week of nonstop rain to good use.”
“They’re covered in mud, aren’t they?”
“Only from head to toe.”
“Would you be furious if I hosed them off like a dog?”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“Alright. I’ll see what I can do about that. You wanna order?”
“Already on it,” I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket.
