“Okay, okay. We can have a nap after we eat,” I tell them all, reserving a special glance for my real baby.
The love of my life and mother of our children. Children who’ll be old enough one day to have kids of their own.
Maybe then they’ll appreciate ‘nap time’ the way mommy and daddy do.
Even after all these years, she’s what makes me smile. What I burn for and who can give me advice or just talk about the weather with.
She’s my everything.
My all. Penelope completes me and is us all.
While she keeps a close eye on the grill and the corn we managed to grow ourselves for the first year ever, it's chow time at the Masters’ place.
With the only five invited being us, because it’s all we really need.
Although, there’s always room at our table for another mouth to feed. Always room for another Masters kid.
Fed, watered, and washed up, it’s easy enough to get the kids interested in having some downtime.
The older twins can manage themselves, and I finish clearing up as Penelope sets little Piper down for a few hours.
I growl low when I feel her arms hook around me, digging her teeth through my shirt into whatever she can get a hold of on my back.
“You ready for a lay down too, P?” I ask, feeling myself stir to life already.
“Maybe I just wanna nap for a while. Is that okay?” she asks, and I turn to hold her.
Dish bubbles on my fingertips that I wave for a second.
“Like magic,” I say, leaning down to peck her lips.
“You don’t have to ask, P. If you wanna nap, we can just nap. You do look a little tired,” I tease her, squealing like Piper might when she whacks me with a dishtowel.
“I said for a ‘while’ not a hundred years,” she taunts me. “When I wake up, I want you to…” But she doesn’t finish.
She always knows just when to leave the gaps in my mind.
Letting me plan what we’ll do. How we’ll feel together.
Every time is like our first time, and every moment a gift.
“I love you, Penelope Briggs-Masters,” I whisper, kissing her again.
“And I love you, Jett Masters,” she answers right back.
She never tires of saying it just like I never tire of hearing it.
My next trick?
I’ll have to wait until she wakes up from her nap. Then we can explore it together.