Groomed For Love

Naomi opens the front door, lighting up my world with her smile. It’s been a long day taking care of the security business down in the city, but I’m home now.

Once we married and the kids came along, mom finally agreed to move into a retirement home so she could get the help she needs with the full-time nursing staff.

She got her grandbabies and we decided it was best with the growing family to move upstate into her old place.

We take the kids to see her whenever she asks but is happiest seeing them online, no dogs are allowed in the nursing home so we time those visits carefully so one of us is always with Moose, Bella, and the puppies.

I call them puppies still, but Zak and Pace are fully grown now, even though they still act like puppies. Having the kids around helps everyone burn off their excitement.

I can hear Moose barking hello to everyone and in seconds they’re all racing towards the front door.

“Daddy’s home!” Natalie squeals, lisping a little and showing the space where her wobbly front teeth were this morning.

“Who’s this pretty girl?” I ask her, feigning surprise and asking her what she’s done with my daughter.

“It’s me, daddy, it’s me,” she shouts, jumping up and down while she explains how brave she was when she wiggled her teeth out all by herself.

“Natalie? It is you,” I tell her, sounding relieved, and picking both her and her brother up I carry them both inside.

“The tooth fairy’s gonna give me lots of money,” she continues, interrupted by her brother, Cole who starts whining about how unfair it is he has all his teeth and is gonna miss out.

Mommy hooks an arm around my waist, ignoring the pair of them, and kisses me. “How was your day, hun?” she asks, letting her hand slide down to my behind and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Letting me know she has something for me as soon as the kids have gone to bed.

She whispers a little of what she has planned into my ear so only I can hear, but it’s drowned out by the shrill sound of kids and then the even louder sounds of four dogs barking.

Setting the kids down, I suggest they go play in the yard until I get dinner ready, promising them both I’m sure the tooth fairy can understand the situation and leave them both something special.

“You spoil them,” Naomi reminds me as I put my arm around her and pull her close, both of us standing by the back door and watching our babies play with the dogs.

“I know,” I agree. “But it’s really me who’s been spoiled rotten. I’m the luckiest man alive don’t you know?” I remind her. Kissing her gently on the lips, asking her to tell me what she was whispering a moment ago.

The telephone rings, right when she gets to the interesting part.

“Let the machine get it…” But she shrugs and warns me I’ll just have to wait and see what she has in store before she picks up.

It’s her brother, Chet. Keeping an eye on the kids outside, I make my way into the kitchen and start preparing dinner for us all.

Naomi and Chet were never close, but like all miracles, once we married and had the kids our family grew, and it includes Chet and my mom as well as us.

It’s good to hear her happy to hear from him. It took a while, but they’re closer than ever nowadays.

I call out for her to say hi for me and she relays Chet’s howdy back to me.

He worked security for me for a while but in the end, it wasn’t for him. No hard feelings from me, I appreciated his honesty.

I’ve got a pretty tight team down there now and a manager who runs things. I only head down to the city when I really have to.

He runs the dog salon now, who knew that was his calling?

It was perfect timing because with Natalie on the way I didn’t want Naomi working so hard. She wanted to run the salon though, right up until her last few months with our second baby.

Since then, being at home in the country with the kids and four dogs, I think she’s found her true calling.

Supermom, darling wife. Best friend. Lover.

She’s everything I need and I tell her I love her a dozen times a day, each kiss and touch of her hands is as electric and magical as the day we first met. Maybe even more so.

Setting dinner into the oven and finishing up the salad, I hear her signing off from her brother and she calls the kids inside to wash up.