“Oh, darling,” Mom says again, giving me a pained look. I squeeze her hand briefly and don’t press the matter any further. I know what she means because we’ve had the same discussion before. They have to go back. Just like I had to stay. Sometimes, no matter how tempting the alternative might be, you know that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
“You’ll need a lift to the airport in the morning?” Jonas asks, glancing at my dad between spooning baby food into Billy’s mouth.
“Just like always,” Dad says, nodding. “That’s alright, isn’t it?”
“Of course,” Jonas smiles. “Anything for you guys.”
“Well, in that case,” Dad says, starting an old familiar joke that makes us all roll our eyes and groan. “I’ll take a sports car if you’ve got one on hand.”
“Just tell me where to send it,” Jonas says, shaking his head as if to say that my dad is impossible.
He really is.
After all the fuss of eating – and making sure that the kids eat without making too much of a mess – the dinner has gone by all too fast. Looking around the table, I realize that this is once again the last night I’ll get to spend with my parents for a while. Every time they come to stay, it always goes far too fast.
“Next time, we’ll have to come to Texas,” I say. “Now Billy is old enough to fly, we don’t have any reason not to.”
“Unless you decide to have another one,” Mom says, raising a knowing eyebrow.
I glance at Jonas.
“Well, never say never,” I laugh. It’s true that we have a lot of kids already – four bundles of energy that keep us busy from dawn ‘til dusk, and often right through the early hours as well. But with each one we have, the desire to grow our family doesn’t diminish.
Seeing how great a parent Jonas is helps. I see how much love he has to give to our children, and I don’t see any reason not to extend that to more beautiful beings.
“Come on, we’d better get back,” Mom says. “We’ve still got to finish packing all of our stuff out of your spare room, you know.”
“Alright,” I say, feeling the bittersweet sensation that always comes with an ending, the joy that it happened, and the relief that you can get back to normal afterward, but also the continued wish to spend that time with the ones you love more than anything.
Still, it will be nice when they’re gone – not that I don’t love having them around. But having your parents holed up in your spare room puts far more of a dampener on things than even having four kids does – and if we’re going to get busy making a fifth, Jonas and I are going to need a bit of privacy.
We walk out to the car together, all bundling in. It’s not exactly a glamorous or flashy car – not like the sports car that dad mentioned earlier. We have to have a large SUV since there aren’t many other options. One more kid, and I guess we’re going for a minivan.
Or just a van, knowing our lot and their propensity for picking up after school hobbies already.
“This really has been nice,” I say, hugging my mom before she gets into the car.
“I know, darling,” she says, smiling. “And there’s always the summer vacation. We’ll make sure Texas is ready for you.”
I glance back at our brood, catching Jonas’ eye for a moment as he shepherds our girls to actually get into their seats. He smiles at me, still so full of love and happiness after all these years.
Having four kids together, working together, moving out of the city, and living together while working from home – it could have destroyed us. But being so close all the time only reminds me all the more of the thing I know deep in my bones to be true. Jonas is not only the man I love. He’s the man I am meant to be with, was always meant to be with, and nothing is ever going to change that.
“I don’t know about that,” I say, returning my attention to my mom with a joke. “I don’t think any state could ever be ready to have us descend on it.”
We hop in the car, ready to go home, happy and tired from a week well spent.
This is my life and I wouldn’t have it any other day.