Chapter 2: His, Hers and Theirs
The morning came long before we'd even prepared ourselves for it. Sunlight poured right into our room, covering the cold that had formed from the snow on the windows overnight and melting it away as I lay somber and thoughtful in Mort's arms. To be quite honest, I couldn't even remember how we'd made it to the bed. Unless we just made love from one inch of the house to the other, which judging by the look on his waking face alone, it is entirely plausible.
I had lain looking at him for a while before he began to stir. I counted every one of his eyelashes because there were so many. I wondered what color our new baby's eyes would be; green like mine or chocolate like his. Max and Maddie each had taken on one of ours, and same with our noses. Max had Mort's nose and Madeline had mine. But this new baby would be a different experience, a combination of everything I supposed, something to think about for the next eight and a half months.
I couldn't believe we were doing it again. Oh sure, I'd hoped, but never imagined it would come so unexpectedly, so out of nowhere. I still couldn't even figure out how it had happened since we'd prevented it for almost four years now; unless it was some sort of Christmas miracle.
Mort cracked his jaw with a wide mouth, same as every other morning, and glanced at me through the tired slits his eyes were in as he teased.
"What are you lookin' at?"
I smiled and turned on my side in his arms, patting his cheek.
"The man who knocked me up again..."
"Oh." He chuckled and tapped on my back. "Well, you're welcome."
Nuzzling back down into the crook of his arm, I kissed the skin on the left side of his chest softly. His skin, that cinnamon skin that drove me crazy, felt so warm under my lips I nearly fell back to sleep. And had it not been for his determination to twist and glance as the alarm clock, I would have still been wrapped in his skin.
"Shit." He mumbled, sitting up and pulling me with him. "Hon, its ten thirty."
My brown twisted, too lost from sleep and sex to think straight and I replied ignorantly.
"So?"
He was already across the room, pulling on his jeans and a wrinkled shirt when he turned back to look at me with an obvious grin.
"Uh, so we have to get to the airport…screaming, obnoxious family members…ring any bells, babe…?"
My eyes shot wide about the same time I leapt out of the bed and ran naked for the bathroom. I turned the shower on instantly and yelled out at him, "Get the kids up!"
As I jumped under the water, I could just make out him mocking my command and laughed. "Oh yeah sure…you take your time in the shower…I'll just wrestle the lions alone!"
I darted down the hallway, my feet freezing on the cold hard wood as I hurried toward the kids' rooms. Of course when I got to Maddie's room first, she was nowhere to be found. I ran through their shared bathroom toward Max's room, and discovered the same thing.
"What the hell…?"
I shook my head and went back out to the hallway again, heading down to the living room instead. I could just make out whispers; unintelligible ones mixed with giggles, and skipped every other step until I saw two pairs of little boots poking out from around the tree at the bottom of our main staircase. The both of them sat patiently on the couch, munching on a shared box of cheerios and smiling up at me, already dressed and apparently ready to go.
"Daddy!" Madeline shouted out as she barreled towards me and into my legs.
Max got up slowly, like the devil himself and came to meet us, looking up at me with wide eyes and crossed arms. "You're late you know."
"Yeah, yeah buddy…come here…" I growled with a laugh and lifted them both under my arms in a swoop, as they screamed with giggling. "Making me look bad in front of Mom again, huh munchkins…?"
I flew them over my head and twisted them both around at the same time for minutes on end, never once noticing that Roxanne had finished showering and stood dressed and ready at the door watching us and tying her hair up anxiously. It wasn't until I heard her motherly, affectionate tone that I slowed the motion of my near puking offspring and looked up.
"Let's go children."
Her crooked brow was an obvious tease when I saw her smiling back at me with the door wide and keys jingling, and I carried the kids out into the snowy driveway while she locked it behind us and followed.
"You got them up and dressed quick. Super dad much?" She teased, not having a clue at all that our kids were quite capable of beating us to the punch of readying themselves for the day. I didn't let her think for a second that they did it on their own. They're still young enough that I can take advantage of their underdeveloped brains.
"Oh yeah…" I replied back. "…no big deal."
She smiled walked beside us as I carried the kids, still screeching all the way to the truck.
"To the airport, astronauts!"
And still I have to ask myself, how the hell do I deserve all this?
Ashville Regional Airport – 11:35 am
"Okay, so take Max and find your parents. They're getting out at Gate…" I scanned the map I'd found at the front and their information from the phone calls the day before. "…256."
Mort nodded and threw Max into the air, where he eventually landed on his shoulders, the way that always made me so nervous.
"Be careful with him, please." I urged as he rolled his eyes and tugged on Max's little hand.
"Maxwell…tell Mommy to stop worrying."
I glanced up from my immature husband's eyes to the strangely more mature ones of my four year old son, ten feet in the air. He smiled down at me with jelly smeared at the corner of his mouth and shouted, "Stop worry-ying Mommy!"
Mort looked at me the same before he turned to walk toward his parent's arrival gate, and whispered as he kissed my forehead, "Don't worry Mommy." And then they were off together and I finally took notice of Maddie tugging on my jeans.
"Alright, alright Bug. Come on." I lifted her onto my hip and started walking in the opposite direction, fast; at the highest speed I could manage in fact.
We weren't going to be able to get as close to the gate as I would have liked, with security measures as deadly as any terrorist in this town, but I could still see the gate across a hundred seats or more. Maddie and I stood waiting for only a few minutes before we saw the plane pull around the lane from the runway and begin unloading passengers through the large door. Dozens of people emerged, all kinds of families and spouses, lovers and friends, and eventually almost when I wasn't even looking close enough, I saw the twirling movement of a brown, curly haired little girl, as she bounced and skipped through the door with her pink suitcase and fuzzy pink scarf to match.
My Emily, still more like me than she ever will be like Sydney.
I smiled and moved around from the corner where I was waiting, holding Maddie as I came close enough to shout out, "Em!"
Her bright blue eyes darted through crowds to catch mine and lit up instantly as she ran from where I saw Sydney, Robert and Jake all walking casually.
"Aunt Rae!"
I couldn't believe she was almost nine or how big she'd gotten since she had come to stay with us in the summertime. Emily stormed toward me, pulling at her suitcase and flipping her curls everywhere. I knelt to steady myself with Maddie and catch her as she pummeled deep into my arms, squeezing tight and laughing.
"I've missed you!"
"Aw, I've missed you too."
She pulled back and stood between my legs, hugging Madeline as tight with a kiss on top of her head.
"Missed you too, little Maddie." Maddie returned with a giggle and a shift down from my hip and legs as she darted around with Emily nearby.
I stood just as Sydney pulled me into a strong, longing hug, the first since the Christmas before. It had been difficult for her to get away at all this year, understandably so with Robert's new accounting firm opening up in Manhattan and her running all the books for him.
"You look so good, honey. Is this what the woods does to a girl?"
I bit my laugh with a lip as I stared at her city manicure and highlights, "I don't think you'll ever know the wonders of natural beauty treatments, Syd."
She shook her head and patted my cheek sarcastically. "As if I would want to."
It felt good to be in my big sister's arm again, much better than I imagined it was going to feel when my own mother showed up in her private jet. She refused to fly commercial, of course.
Robert hugged me tight too with a kiss on top of my head, before pulling back, making a joke about the size of our little airport compared to JFK, and then walked away to quickly take a call. This, I knew was just the beginning of the next week with him.
Jake stood by with a funny grin on his face, one I think I'd seen before, a long time ago and I curled my index finger at him with a smirk, begging him to come to me. And he did, gripping tight around my waist as he pressed himself to me. I laughed, not expecting it, but finding it too humorous to joke about it. The pictures Syd had been sending didn't do him any justice; he was growing up to be quite the handsome young man, at all of thirteen years old.
We moved back from one another as I messed his dusty, skateboarder hair, and laughed.
"Quite the little punk."
"Yeah, you just wait. I'm gonna teach Max everything I know this week."
I gripped with a humorous fear and shook my head at him and pulled him into a half headlock as we walked to follow after everyone else.
"Don't you even think about it..."
He laughed out as we stumbled along together, my arm around his shoulder as he finally asked:
"So where's your baby-daddy at?"
I turned my face down at him quickly, with a smirk and narrowed eyes.
"What?" I laughed, "Mort's my husband, goofball."
"Yeah, I know. But he was your baby-daddy first."
I rolled my eyes, pulling him closer and tighter and then glanced up to see none other than my 'baby-daddy' walking across the terminal towards us. His mother was brushing something off his shirt while his dad and brother teased and poked fun at something, and I smiled in excitement just to see them all again.
I watched as Emily and Maddie skipped along together toward everyone, and watched as Mort caught Emily deep in both of his arms, swinging her around as his mother took Madeline into her own arms.
Me, Sydney and Jake approached quickly too, with Robert off somewhere nearby on his blackberry, or blueberry, or whatever. Mort's parents and his brother Sam's wife Kate chatted with Sydney, catching up from the last Christmas they'd spent together, while I took Jake over to kick Big Sam himself in the butt when he wasn't looking. I am a terrible influence.
"Hey now, what's the big deal?!" He shouted sarcastically and turned to see me holding onto Jake protectively and laughing. "Well, my my my…Miss Roxy, you're lookin' good enough to eat, as always."
"Gross." Jake replied before I could and walked away in disgust.
"Good job scaring the kid, Sam."
"Eh, he'll get over it once his voice cracks."
He smiled wide and sweet, the way I always adored about Big Sam, so named because of his height, his bulked size, and his reputation as Captain of his Illinois high school and college football teams. He looked over me again teasingly and pulled me into a huge bear hug, even managing to lift me completely off the ground.
"How did my nerdy little brother get so damn lucky?"
I leaned back, still in his arms but at the height of his eyes and smiled.
"I guess he picked up a thing or two from you."
"Yeah…" he chuckled loudly and dropped me back down beside where Maddie and Emily stood. "…sneaky bastard stole all my best lines, I bet."
"You mean the cheesy ones? Those are yours?"
Sam shook his head with a bellow of laughter again, "Touché', little Rox," and Mort tilted his face into our conversation finally, punching his brother in the shoulder before stepping behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist, his head on my shoulder.
"She's only little because you're a beast."
I knew I was in the middle of some 'brotherly affection' and quickly tore myself from his arms to return to my relatively normal sister, and to finally throw myself into the arms of the man and woman who I wished could have been my parents all along.
"Roxanne, sweetheart."
"Mom. Dad."
I sighed thankfully while in Mort's parents' arms, thanking them just for coming to save me from the rest of the demons I would have in my house for a week, and they laughed with equal sentiments. But it was when I pulled back to talk and smile with the both of them that his mom, Jane, held my face gently in her hands and stared at me with a curious, almost all knowing eye and then lightly smiled.
"You are positively glowing, honey." I smiled, flattered by the comment of course, but not the least bit worried until she looked into my eyes closer, more determined and then softly whispered back, "When did you find out?"
Her grin was wide, and when she glanced back to Todd, Mort's father, he looked down upon me the same way, as if he understood and knew the same secret.
"When did I find out…what?"
"Oh Roxanne, you can't hide it from me."
"Better believe her darlin'," Todd added, "She's brilliant at knowing these things."
"At knowing what?"
His mom leaned in to kiss both of my cheeks and then whisper in my ear softly, "You're giving my son another baby, you beautiful girl."
I laughed happily with a grin up at Mort's dad and squeezed his mom in for a warmer, tighter hug, thanking her the whole time for just being her, and for understanding, and for seeing the signs and the things that my mother would have never noticed until month 8 or year 22 of a life.
Mort came over to join our private little conversation a moment later, proven simply by the touch of his warm hand on my lower back, caressing gently through my sweater. His mom pulled away, smiling at the both of us, with her hand still on my cheek reassuringly.
"Your secret is safe with me, honey. Let's just hope it's another set of these, gorgeous, little sweeties."
She knelt down below all of us to squeeze and kiss and joke with the twins as they giggled and held onto her tight. I was glad they had this with Mort's parents, because mine were the exact opposite most of the time.
Mort kissed me quick before we all began to move away through the airport and towards the lobby. Sydney and Robert as well as Sam and his wife Kate had each rented a car for the week, so that they could go sight-seeing and do other things when they needed, without bothering us for transportation. It was good, because we only had just enough room to get Mort's parents home with us in the Explorer. My own parents wouldn't be flying in on the company jet until six, and even then, they would be driving their awaiting Mercedes rental. I tried to ignore the thought of it, their necessity to be so flashy all the time, but found it was impossible as usual, and so I covered it up with the smiling, easy going faces of all my other family instead.
Mort held my hand as we walked in a quiet privacy from the rest of the suddenly huge group, saved by his brother and my sister who held the twins on the way out. He nudged my arm when I began looking out at the runway tracks of the private airport terminal in the distance.
"They'll get here okay, don't worry."
I laughed under my breath, not quite thinking what he thought I was.
"I'm not worried about them not getting here. I'm worried about them actually being here."
He joined me for a short chuckle, having known all too well by now about my hushed mental relationship over my parents.
"I'm sure it won't be so bad."
My husband was trying, as adorable as could be, he was and I had to give him that much.
"I hope you aren't going to be the judge of what 'so bad' is this week?"
He laughed one more time and squeezed my hand tighter as we followed his parents out to the car garage.
"I'm only the judge of what's 'so good', like these jeans you're wearing," He chided devilishly in my ear with a bite of his lower lip, "…they are so good…"
I shook my head, rolled my eyes and rested my head on his shoulder as we watched my sister, Robert and the kids already loading into their rental SUV and handing Maddie off to Mort's mom, and where Sam and Kate were doing the same with Max.
Once we'd found our car a few flights up in the garage, we drove down to meet everyone else in their cars and led the way back through Ashville and the mountains where our house was hidden away. Mort's parents asked us all kinds of questions on the way there, about the new baby we had just found out about the day before, about our writing and work, and about the house. Jane played with me and the twins in the backseat, while Mort and his dad talked about sports and the economy and the new Pacino picture in the front of the car.
And the entire way back home, all I could think about was how ideal a moment it really was. With two grandparents who loved their grandchildren more than life itself, and actually bothered to visit numerous times during the year, instead of only the one. I thought about how Mort and his parents had been able to understand one another after all he'd gone through just to save himself and them, and how even in changing his name, leaving the state, getting a divorce, and going on a whirlwind adventure with a pregnant girlfriend, they still had nothing against their son. I thought about how perfect that was and how I was glad they accepted me as a daughter just the same.
I'd never ever, truly been a daughter before. Just a financial dividend really.
