“ I love to have it right before a big trial.It calms me down for some reason.”He moved to sit beside her, and she smiled at him.“ I can’t seem to get enough of you.You’re all I ever thought about when I was thinking that there might be a woman out there for me.”
“ I never thought that I’d find my one true love in you.It’s why I kept pushing you away.Fat lot of good it did me.You worked your way into my heart anyway.And I couldn’t be happier.”He said he felt the same way about her.“ I don’t know how I survived without you all my life.Now it’s almost as if you’ve been there for me forever.I can’t wait to see what the next fifty years or so brings up.Do you want to have children?I’d love to have more than one.I was an only child, and I hated it.However, maybe I was lucky in that.They might well have turned out to be just like my parents.”
“ I’d love to have children with you.However many you want.”She said that she thought that two would be enough.“ I’m willing to keep practicing with you until you’re ready.”
“ I might be broken if we keep making love like we did tonight.”He said that he loved her and couldn’t wait to have children with her.Then he told her about the first time he’d met her and how he’d seen her in his mind, heavy with their child.“ That’s so sweet.And we didn’t even love each other then.I do love you, Zander, and will for the rest of my life.”
“ We’ll be married in the morning, then we’ll have to plan for a honeymoon.Someplace warm.But we’ll have to wait until after Christmas.It’s in a couple of weeks now, and I can’t wait.Everyone is going to have wives for our first Christmas together, and Martha would have been so proud of us all.”
Getting back into bed, they were snuggled up against one another before falling asleep.She couldn’t get enough of Zander holding her, and he seemed to have the same feelings.Closing her eyes, sated and full, she knew that she was going to have the best day of her life tomorrow and become Mrs.Olivia Erickson.She couldn’t wait.
~*~
It was three days before Christmas, and he was getting excited about having his family come over to his house on Christmas Eve.They were going to be hitting all the homes of each other and exchanginggifts.Then on Christmas day, they were going to meet at his house for dinner and fun.He had the biggest house by far and was willing to host his family every year if asked.He was happy to be able to have them come over for all the holidays.
Zander was glad that he and Olivia had gotten married yesterday.They had planned for it to be the day before, but they didn’t get up until after noon and were too late for the planned wedding.All his brothers stood up for him, and their wives stood up for Olivia.It was about as big as a home wedding would have been with the dozen or so of them there.He couldn’t have been happier with the turnout.Even the weather cooperated in that the sun was shining and the snow was piled high off the streets.
“ There’s some speculation about the Marsh family and them being put in different prisons.A source told me that they’re plotting when they’re together, and it doesn’t bode well for the other inmates.”Zander asked Demi what he meant by that.“ I have a friend who works the kitchen out at the prison.He said that he’d heard that since they were in the same prison together, they’re making trouble for others around them.And when they do get together, not as often as they’d like, they have their heads together like they’re planning a big cue or something.He said that the officers are trying to keep them apart, but it’s difficult to do with so many prisons there.”
“ That’s just what we need.Them having people on the outside doing their bidding.Do you suppose they will be separated?I mean, I couldn’t believe that they were put in the same prison in the first place.Hell, I didn’t know they had coed prisons, and I’m an attorney.”Demi told him why they were coed.“ I guess I can see overcrowding as an issue.I never really gave it much thought.But I can see them getting into trouble with their plans.They just don’t think that the law pertains to them in any way.Have you heard anything about how they’re going to do that?I mean, separate them?”
“ He told me that they usually move them in the middle of the night.Just wake them up and tell them that they’re going someplace and take them there.It works out better when the people are about half asleep.Plus, there isn’t any trouble with the other inmates when it’s done that way.”Zander nodded and looked at the plate of food in front of him.“ You didn’t care for it, did you?”
“ No, I love it.I just wish I’d have known that I was going to be tasting for you today.I wouldn’t have eaten so much lunch before coming here.I really love the chicken salad.The grapes in it are perfect.And are those raisins in it?”He told him they were cranberries.“ They’re perfect when you take a bite and bite into one of them.I love the sweetness of them, too.”
“ I forgot to put walnuts in it.But I suppose that’s all right with you since you can’t stand them.”He said that he thought he might like them in the salad if he were to put a few of them in it.“ I will next time.”
They talked about the other items on the list of food he was trying out and decided that his brother was an excellent cook.He asked him about cooking for the school still, and Demi said that he was having fun with that.
“ The boys eat on the days that I make pancakes.Usually they eat at home, but on those days.I’m having a lot of fun seeing all the kids, too.Even some of the parents are coming in to have some breakfast and helping to clean up afterwards.It’s been working out well for the system, and I get to spend more time with my kids.”Demi had two little boys with Mandy.They were her nephews, and they’d adopted them.His brother was great at being a dad, and he was going to come to him for advice when his own kids came along.“ I’m sure going to have fun when our own children are going to school there.I might be doing this until I’m in my eighties and still having fun.”
“ I can see you doing that too.”He told him he didn’t care for the pie he’d made, and Demi was all right with that.It was too sweet, and Zander had a sweet tooth, too.“ If I think it’s too sweet, then you know that it’s sweet.”
They talked about the prison moving the Marshes around and other topics that came to their head.That was why he liked hanging out with Demi.He was the one brother who could keep up with his conversations when he was jumping around.When he was ready to leave, hating that he didn’t have more time to spend with his older brother, he got a much-needed hug.When asked why heneeded it, he told him that with the holidays coming up, he seemed to miss Martha more.
“ I know what you mean.That first Christmas with her was a blast.Even Thanksgiving, too.We’d never celebrated those when we lived at home, and it was nice to be able to spend our first one with her.”Demi agreed.“ They only got better as the years went by.This will be our first Christmas without her, and I find myself wishing that we’d had one more year with her.”
“ I wonder if that would have been enough with her.I mean, we’d say that we only wanted one more with her, then there would be the next with her because of all the kids we’re going to be having.”He said he’d not thought of that.“ I think about her a great deal.Without her, there is no telling what we’d be doing with our lives.I know that we’d not be as wealthy and happy as we are right now.She taught us that.”
“ She taught us a lot of things that I still use to this day.”Demi agreed.“ I just wish the women could have met her.I know she would have loved them all as much as she did us.”He decided to change the subject.“ They’re calling for snow tomorrow and Christmas week.I hope it’s not too bad that we won’t be able to travel.I know that most of us have four-wheeled drive cars, but if it gets too deep, we might have to postpone getting together until it mellows out.”
“ I’m going to each of our houses even if I have to walk.I want this holiday to be epic, and there will be no snow deep enough to keep me from doing that.”They both laughed and knew that they’d have to postpone the holiday if it got too bad.But since it rarely snowed all that much where they lived, they thought that they’d be all right.“ The kids are so excited to be having Christmas this year.I think it’s their first one where they’re going to get gifts.I know how that feels for them.”
“ I know too.It’s been a long time in coming, and I’m looking forward to having my first holiday at home.Who would have thought that we’d be having wives this time?Not to mention children on the way and here too.”Demi said that he was going to make the holidays special for his kids every year.It’s been a long time in coming around for them, and I want them to have something to look forward to all year.They all believe in Santa Claus still, so that makes it fun too.”
After they parted ways, Zander made his way home.Olivia was working today at the store, and he was happy for her.She seemed to be enjoying her work more simply because she didn’t have to worry about her parents anymore.He knew that it did him good knowing that they couldn’t come to get him.
Getting home in time for dinner, he decided that they were going to have his favorite meal.Once the biscuits were made up, Hari baked him a couple so that he’d make it to dinner time.With a bit of honey on them, he really did enjoy them while waiting for Olivia to get home.
“ I’m home.”She came in the door and was covered in snow.“ It’s really coming down out there.I hope that it only goes for a bit longer.I don’t want to be snowed in this week.It’s the busiest days of the store, and I’m really booked up.”
“ I would imagine that you are.Those people who wait until the last minute are nuts.”They both laughed because he’d been one of those last-minute shoppers until this year.“ How have the tips been?I’m betting good.”
“ Not so much.People are just angry about the prices and having to pay me, too.I got to the point today that I just wanted to tell them all to fuck off and to leave me alone.I didn’t have any robe shoppers today, but it was just as bad.Who buys their wife a vacuum for Christmas and thinks that she’s going to be all right with that?That’s something that you might buy for the house because yours broke down, but not as a holiday gift.”He said that he’d keep that in mind if they needed to get a sweeper.“ You’d better.I’d hate to have to hurt you over one.Get this, this guy bought one of our top-of-the-line sweepers that also doubles as a carpet cleaner.He bought all the attachments, thinking that she’d love it even more.I would have vacuumed his dick right off of him had he done that to me.”
He loved it when she got all riled up like she was.She had no filter when she was angry about something like gifts.He really was going to remember that for the future and tell his brothers about it, too.There wasn’t any point in them being in trouble with their wives when he could save them the trouble.
Tomorrow she had to work again, and he was tempted to tell her to stay home instead.She seemed kind of depressed about the gifts that people were buying for their spouses.He wondered if the wives were telling him to go to a special shopper, hoping for something romantic, at the very least something that they wanted rather than something that they could use around the house.A lot of wives were going to be disappointed when they opened their gifts in the next few days.
