A/N: Ha ha it's Jim's birthday and the kiddos are planning a surprise, but ultimately interrupt their parent's time together ;) Then I'm gonna try and write the day out for the family. Enjoy xx Mariah
Ages -
Jim - 46
Melinda - 42
Katie - 17
Aaron - 13
Mackenzie - 7
Mackenize had been the one to wake first and woke up Aaron before making him come with her to wake up Katie to help them make breakfast for their father's birthday.
"Now, remember, be quiet," Mackenzie whispered loudly as her older siblings followed her out of Katie's room.
"We are being quiet, Kenz– you're the one being loud!" Aaron sighed.
"Am not!" Mackenzie wasn't being quiet anymore, not aware of her own volume.
"Are too! Shhhh," Aaron said, shaking his head.
"Both of you, shut up!" Katie hushed, putting a finger to her lips and looking worriedly at their parent's bedroom door. "You are both going to wake mom and dad if they aren't up already. C'mon, I'm gonna make the eggs and coffee. Aaron, you're on bacon duty."
"What about me?" Mackenzie asked, still not trying to be quiet when they were walking down the stairs.
Katie moved past both of her siblings once they were off the to continue into the kitchen with her younger siblings following closely behind. "You can do the toast, okay? Just make sure not to burn it," she said, winking at her. "And use your quiet voice."
As they moved into the kitchen, she went to work and grabbed the pan, turning the burner on and starting the eggs before going around the kitchen to start the coffee. Aaron set out to do the bacon like he usually did when they were at the cabin anyway. Mackenzie had brought a chair over to bring her up to level with the toaster.
"Are you sure daddy wants eggs and bacon?" Mackenzie asked, tilting her head. "He always makes us pancakes or french toast, maybe we should make that?"
"Dad knows I can't make that stuff from scratch like he does and I'm the best at scrambled eggs." She explained, shaking her head. "So that's what we're making."
"It has to be special, Katie. She's right," Aaron added. "He always makes it special for us when it's our birthdays."
Katie considered this as she turned the burner off under the eggs, seeing they were done. "Maybe… but I always burn the pancakes."
"If that happens, we will cover them in peanut butter! He always adds that, remember?" Mackenzie lit up immediately, hoping she would give in and make the pancakes.
"Fine. We can make pancakes," she said, nodding.
Agreeing on this, the three children set to work and found the ingredients they needed. The bag of flour was stored on the top shelf, and Katie grabbed it easily with both hands; meanwhile, Aaron had grabbed the baking powder, sugar, and salt.
"What else?" Mackenzie asked, pulling on her sister's hand. "Can I help?"
Once she set down the flour, she led Mackenzie over to the fridge. "You can carry the milk and butter," she said and grabbed the eggs as she handed her little sister the jug and stick of butter. "You can help stir too."
"What else do we need?" Mackenzie asked again once they had returned, looking at their ingredients on the countertop. "Doesn't daddy put oil in it?"
"I can't remember," she admitted, frowning thoughtfully. "Maybe we don't need it? I think this is enough to make pancakes, right?" Neither of her younger siblings made any argument, and so she bent down for the cupboard below to find some bowls. "Okay, I'll start – Aaron, can you get me a whisk?"
Her brother opened one of the drawers, searching among the utensils and humming. "We need scales too – Dad always measures the flour out properly."
"Well, I don't know where the scales are. I'm not wasting time looking for them," she said, vaguely annoyed. "I know how much we need – it's not that hard."
"But it has to be perfect for daddy," Mackenzie reminded her sternly. "Everything has to be perfect."
"It will be. Can you back off a little? You're in my space," she huffed, shaking her head as she poured a large amount of flour into one of the bowls. Once Katie was finished, she turned towards the seven-year-old to speak to her again, "I know what I'm doing Mackenzie because I'm the oldest and I'm in charge– I was here before both you two."
The little girl straightened up, nudging him hard with her elbow and reaching for the sugar. "That doesn't mean anything! Let me do some of it, he's my daddy too!"
"That's too much!" She said sharply as she grabbed the bag from her little sister. "Now, I have to put in more flour to make it even. Please go sit on the other side."
"I wanna help, Katie. Please?" Mackenzie whined miserably from where she stood on her chair.
"You're only seven, you can't help that much!" She tutted as she added the salt and cracked a few eggs in the bowl. "I told you that you could stir."
Mackenzie's face screwed up, bottom lip trembling – she looked dangerously close to crying. "But…but… but it's daddy's birthday…"
"You can pour the milk in," she amended hurriedly, passing Mackenzie the jug. "Here, I'll grab the measuring cup, just don't drop it, okay?"
There were many nice ways to wake up in the morning, but this was perhaps the best of them for Jim: his wife nuzzling against his neck, her hands roaming over his chest and pulling him toward her.
"Mmm," Melinda breathed in his ear, voice filled with desire. "Happy birthday, honey."
Jim gasped out a laugh, stretching beneath her and winding his arm around her to pull her close. "So it is… I'm already dreading it."
"Why?" she asked, leaning in to kiss him again.
"There are only four more years until I'm fifty, Mel." He sighed.
"Does that matter? I think you look even better than you did when you were thirty," she said as she ran her hands up his rock hard stomach and over his taut chest.
"Yeah, you think?" He asked, perking up just a little.
"You had less chest hair," she said pointedly, earning a slight slap on her ass and she giggled. "What? I'm not complaining… I'm trying to make you feel better."
"Well, I think of a way you can make me feel much better," he chuckled, grinning to himself as his fingers rested on the hem of her lingerie. "May I?"
She nodded, unable to stop herself from smiling widely as she pressed small kisses to his face.
His touch seemed to burn against her skin as he rolled her onto her back and slipped the strap off her shoulder, both of them extremely eager. There were certainly worse ways to start off a birthday, that was for sure.
"Is this… new?" He smirked, leaning down to kiss her chest, his hands roaming.
"Yes," she hummed, giggling. "You like?"
"Melinda, I love it-"
There was a knock on the door as Mackenzie giggled, "Daddy, we made you breakfast!"
Jim immediately jerked away, hurrying to get back to his side of the bed; flustered, while Melinda pushed herself into a sitting position, pulling up the strap of her nightgown up while she laughed and kissed her husband's shoulder.
"They just love you," she said against his skin.
"Not enough to leave us alone for thirty more minutes apparently," he rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, leaning up to kiss her again as the door swung open.
"I'll definitely be wearing this again tonight, so don't worry…" She whispered teasingly in his ear as she began to pull away.
"Happy birthday, daddy!" Mackenzie announced cheerfully, clambering onto the bed and giving her dad a big hug.
Aaron came in the room next with a tray of food in his hands and Katie came in behind him with a card and two cups of coffee, handing one to each of her parents as she sat on the bed beside her mother.
"We made you breakfast," Katie informed him as she set the tray down in front of him. "See? Pancakes, eggs, bacon and coffee!"
"Yeah, I see that," he laughed, rubbing the top of his head. "You…You three made this?"
"Of course, we did. It's your birthday," Katie said, handing him the card next. "It's a tradition. You always do it for us so we thought it would be nice to try and do it for you this year."
"Katie did most of the work," Mackenzie took over for talking, bursting with excitement. "But I got everyone up really early to do it and made Katie make pancakes from scratch like you do! Sorry, we didn't make you any, mommy," the six-year-old added, casting a slightly worried look at their mother. "We would have but it's daddy's birthday and we wanted it to be special."
Melinda was grinning, shaking her head. "No worries, I'm not offended at all, baby – I completely understand." She sipped her coffee and leaned back into bed. "Thank you for remembering to bring me coffee though."
"Do you like it, dad?" Aaron asked.
"It's perfect. Thank you," Jim smiled.
"I knew you'd like it!" Mackenzie exclaimed happily.
Her husband chuckled, gazing at them all fondly as he moved the tray out of the way just so he could hug them each first.
Melinda couldn't help but watch them with a growing smile, eyes glazed over and filled with love and adoration for their family.
Her alone time with her husband could wait until that night, when the two younger children were with Jim's mother for the night – for now, however, she was more than content to spend the first part of her Saturday morning cuddled up in bed with her family.
After going downstairs to make breakfast for everyone else who hadn't eaten, Jim and Melinda were cleaning the kitchen while Aaron and Mackenzie got dressed. They were all going to go to the movies. Katie had declined, saying she had plans, but didn't say much more.
"Why do you think Katie doesn't want to go?" Jim asked, drying his hands once they finished the dishes.
"Do you really want to know why?" Melinda turned toward him and began drying her hands off.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you know?" He asked.
"No, but I have a hunch." She pulled her phone out of her pocket. "She has been talking an awful lot about this boy she's been tutoring to me. He's a little younger, and a senior." After seeing the look on his face, she laughed slightly, "And that's why I haven't mentioned it."
"Why does she want to date a high schooler when she has already graduated?" He sighed, shaking his head and turning to lean against the counter.
"I mean it's probably just a summer fling. She's still seventeen for another month or so," she asked, rolling her eyes and throwing the dish towel at him.
"Did you want that at seventeen?" He asked, drying his hands off.
"I only wanted to be seen as someone other than a freak," she said and shook her head. "I am just happy that Katie doesn't have that problem."
"You were never a freak, Melinda," he whispered in her ear just before she turned to look at him, and he cupped her cheek.
"You didn't see me in high school," she muttered.
"I've seen enough pictures to know that you still would've taken my breath away, Melinda," he said and sealed their lips together for a proper kiss, soft and gentle and with just the right kind of spark to slowly bring slumbering flames to life.
She sighed into the small space between them when their lips parted again as he gently squeezed her waist. His eager smile was mirrored by hers and he doesn't even have to ask to know where she would like this to go.
Then he remembered their plan to go to the park and wrapped his arms around her in a hug instead. "I would've asked you to prom in a heartbeat," he told her.
"That's why I love you, Jim Clancy. You're the kindest man," she said as she hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go for at least another minute. "That's why I had a family with you."
"Ahem," Katie cleared her throat.
As quiet as their oldest daughter was like Melinda when she wanted to be, they didn't know how long she had been standing there.
"Oh, Katie. You startled us," he chuckled, turning to see her.
"By us, he means him." She shrugged, peering past her husband to look over her daughter.
Katie was wearing a dress and tights since it was a bit nippy outside, a light pink one with spaghetti straps that she remembered getting with her at the mall.
"Well, I just wanted to say I'm on my way out. Going to the library, and maybe lunch." Her phone buzzed and she glanced down at it briefly, a smile appearing on her face. "Definitely lunch. I'll keep in touch, okay?"
"Lunch with who?" He asked.
"Just someone from school," Katie replied, looking down at her phone to reply. "His name is Evan. If you need to know."
"That's the biggest crock I've ever heard, and you know it. Who are you going with?" He asked.
Katie crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes. "I thought you trusted me?"
"Jim, if she wants to keep it a secret for now… let her." She spoke up, glancing over at Jim. "She's more than old enough to have her own life."
"I agree with her, and I have to get going." Katie turned on the heel of her sneaker.
"Just be careful," Jim said, folding his arms in front of his chest.
"I always am," Katie replied and closed the door behind her.
"She's going out with that senior, isn't she?" He sighed as he walked into the foyer. "C'mon kiddos, Let's get going!"
"Totally," Melinda replied as both Mackenzie and Aaron came barrelling down the stairs. "Just don't think about it right now, okay?"
"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." He muttered and opened the front door.
"Don't worry, she'll be right as rain soon. You enjoy your free night, hon!" Delia's parting words and giggle follow Melinda through her drive home and into the kitchen from the side door of her now silent house.
Mackenzie had been in a mood when she left her and Aaron with Delia. The little girl hadn't been too pleased when Jim had gotten called into the hospital and all plans were ruined at the park, but that's how it had to be when emergencies happened at the hospital.
At least she knew her daughter would kick up just as much of a fuss when it was her who was gone.
Her steps took her into the hallway, where Jim's coat was now hanging on the rack. It's all about bad timings today, she mused and sighed. They must have missed each other by minutes.
She locked the front door and peeked outside to see that she had missed Jim's truck in the driveway beside her because she was so occupied. Katie had texted about sleeping at Hannah's across the street and saw her car parked in her usual place.
Melinda headed upstairs and saw that Jim's briefcase sat innocently on the bed in their bedroom and she walked to her closet, sliding off her jeans and unbuttoning her blouse. She wanted to undress before seeing him again and pulled on the purple nightgown she'd bought specially for his birthday.
"Jim?"
There was no answer, but then footsteps sounded in their bathroom. A smile spread over her lips and she turned to open the door just as he stepped out of the bathroom. Only his quick reactions kept her from falling to the floor. His strong arms held her securely and they both shared a look of surprise before laughing, but she could see his pupils dilate when the current situation finally sunk in.
"Alone at last?" he asked.
The rasp in his voice sent a tremor through her. Her husband was naked save for a pair of boxers after an apparent shower, hair still wet and sticking up in places.
She swallowed, nodding. "Alone at last, birthday boy."
A constellation of freckles on his neck was the last thing she saw before he commandeered her thoughts and attention away, heated lips pressing against her own in a long-anticipated kiss. It left her breathless, mindless in its wake as something heady possessed her.
Something heady that was fanned into flames when he found her neck and began – no, resumes – to suckle at her pulse point. He continued just where they had left off this morning, and she found herself right there with him.
"Mmm, I've wanted you all day," he murmured against her neck before engaging his lips again. "I've wanted to see you in this dress again, all day." His kisses almost burnt on her skin as he maneuvered her backward, his body pressing into hers with every step.
She hummed, winding an arm around his back while tugging at his hair in response. The low pitch of his moan vibrated on her skin, leaving her tingling and eager for more. Her back finally collided with the bed and Jim moved on top of her, one arm coming up to frame her face as his mouth moved along to lick at the hollow of her throat and kiss its way up until his lips finally connected with hers again.
She sighed, pulling at him to keep him close. A shiver goes through her, leaving goosebumps all over her side when he slid his hand through her hair and lightly scratched her scalp in the process.
"I want you so much," he gasped into the dwindling space between them, light blue eyes meeting hers.
A smile plays around her lips as she echoed him. "Here I am."
His hands rushed to undress her, pulling at the fabric of her lingerie until they found a way to slip underneath in search of bare skin. He's in luck, sending more shivers down her body at the contact, and together they pull the garment over her head to throw it aside.
Jim drank in her revealed naked body with the intensity of a starved man, lavishing her chest and shoulders in eager kisses and adoring caresses. His mouth latches on to her nipples, teasing them to hardness and her head fell back against the wall with a deep sigh, eyes closed in pleasure as her grip in his hair tightened, keeping him just there.
Slowly, her free hand glided down across his back and stomach, feeling the familiar hard muscles underneath her fingertips. She found him straining towards her already, tenting the soft fabric of his underwear.
It took mere moments to free him and his head rested in the valley of her breasts as he watched her progress with panting breath. A deep sigh echoed between them as her hand slipped beneath the open garment.
"Ahh, yes!" The grip on her waist tightened when she took him in hand properly, stroking him to full hardness as he resumed his ardent ministrations. "Oh, Mel…"
A heated glance and an intent nod was all that was needed. He kissed her once more before pulling away to open the side drawer for a condom and she pulled him back.
"No. I don't care," she whispered. "I want you, and I hate those things." He was on her again the moment she had pulled on him, leaving a blazing trail of kisses behind as he made his way down her body.
His tongue probed her navel before he slid between her thighs and his tongue explored her even further. Between that and his nimble fingers, Melinda doesn't even bother to quell her moans. He worked her open, diligently yet impatient, spreading her increasing juices around until she was a writhing mess before him.
"Jim, please…" She begged.
Jim sighed as he moved into the cradle of her thighs, one hand braced next to her head as he kissed her deeply, longingly. "Eager," he chuckled against her lips, much to her dismay. "I thought that was my job, on today of all days."
She reached out and finally guided him into her, groaning in delight as he pushed forward to fill her. His movements were short and to the point, the intimate friction between them intense enough as it was. Melinda clung to him, to the sheets beneath her, barely holding on as his thrusts quickly saw her climbing to new heights before she finally had to let go.
The release burned through her like a wildfire, laying her to waste only to be reborn from the ashes. He was waiting for her when she blinked back to life, greeting her with a smile.
"Hi, there," he sounded just as breathless as she felt.
"Hi," she breathed and he chuckled in reply, tilting her head up to better catch her lips.
His gaze never left her as he cradled her head and gently rocked into her, movements slowed down to a gentle rolling – like little waves breaking on a beach. Her hand found its way into his hair again, making him shiver as she slid it through his locks and tugged gently, urging him into another kiss.
She let her hands glide over his heated skin, connecting his bronze freckles all across his chest and arms. He moved willingly when she motioned for him to roll over, settling against the pillows as she moved above him. His hands glided across her skin as she took him back into her. She caught one hand with hers, lacing her fingers with his as they settled on her waist.
It felt wonderful, and yet it wasn't enough… with her burning need for release now sated, she hungered for a more profound connection.
"Hold me," she sighed, tugging at him.
Jim sat up with a smile and circled her with his arms, one hand pressing between her shoulder blades while the other reached the small of her back. They pulled her close against him as she slowly began to rock in his lap, completely surrounded by him.
Their heads rest together and they spend their time trading kisses and smiles, murmuring sweet nothings, swallowing sighs and groans as she finally settled on a deep, gyrating rhythm for herself. Hungry lips resume their work when she leaned back in his arms and it doesn't take long until the molten heat begins to gather inside her again as he lavished her breasts and upper body with his delightful attention.
His fingers soon move to draw delicious circles between them, spurring her on as she sought more friction this time. Just a little more, to get her there. A series of well-timed thrusts finally made her see stars again and she rushed towards them with a helpless cry.
She revels in the sensation, feeling him move against her, inside her. Every thrust brought them a little closer to completion. She watched his face draw tight in concentration as their pace increased and moaned in encouragement, spurring him on.
A sudden hitch, a deep groan and a pulsing warmth signaled his release deep inside her. A wave of something rushed through her at the sensation, concentrating low in her belly in a gentle tingle that made her sigh and shiver.
Jim slowly stilled in the aftermath and hummed, forehead resting against her as they both tried to calm their racing hearts and panting breaths again. She held him close, unwilling to sever their connection just yet.
Smiling, he shared an Eskimo kiss with her. "Worth the wait?"
Melinda rolled her eyes but grins at him nonetheless. "Worth the wait. You just know how to show a girl a good time, Mr. Clancy."
He chuckled, fine laughter lines wrinkling around his eyes. "Good. Because I don't think there's a good chance for round two any time soon. I'm an old man now."
She carded her hand through his sweaty hair – sprinkled with some grey here and there, she noticed not for the first time and smiled. Her fingers scratched along his scalp, causing him to purr softly. "Let's see how you feel about that after dinner, hm?"
He hummed but smiled ruefully. "I'm pretty sure we missed our reservations at Lento's by now, love."
"Even better," she smirked. "I don't feel like sharing you tonight."
As they laid there on the bed, curled up together and basking in the blissful aftermath of their love-making, Jim couldn't help but reflect that, as birthdays go, this one was definitely one of his favorites yet.
Even better, he thought happily, was that there were so many still to come with his beautiful wife and family.
