Today. Tomorrow. Always (Free Falling, #3.5)(2)
Her laughter filled the room again as the boy and I watched, staring intently for two totally different reasons. I’m sure seeing Sam made him think of snacks and hugs and whatnot. Me? Not so much. Hugs weren’t exactly what came to mind.
“Ha! Found ‘em,” she announced, hopping up with her keys in hand. She dangled them triumphantly in my face, although I had no idea what was going on.
“Congratulations?”
She rolled her eyes at me with a grin. “Your son here is a menace to society.” Before going on, she landed a kiss on my lips and lightly pinched Anthony’s cheek. He smiled and rested his head on my shoulder, popping his thumb into his mouth in place of the pacifier he’d lost.
“Thanks to him, I’ve spent the last hour looking for my keys.”
“Nah… you have zero proof he did it,” I rebutted, defending my son despite fully believing he was responsible. He’d done the same thing to me about a week ago. I was ready to leave for work, only to find that my keys were missing. That time Sam and I found them in the back of his toy dump-truck. Since he started walking a few weeks back, things have been coming up missing left and right.
“No, no, no… don’t let that cute face fool you. The little booger stole them, and then hid them, because he enjoys seeing me search all over the house like a crazy person.”
As if he knew he was in the hot-seat, Anthony reached for his mom and she gladly accepted the tight squeeze he gave her neck, making sure he knew she wasn’t really upset. With my arms now free, I could greet my wife properly, grabbing her, pulling her close as she eased our little boy over to her hip. I sought a kiss and she gave me what I was after.
There was a high-pitched giggle and a screech off to my left as the kiss with Sam deepened, keeping it PG since we wouldn’t be getting any alone time until later tonight.
“I think he’s watching us,” Sam said breathily as her lips moved with mine.
“Let him. The boy has to learn from somewhere.”
She shoved me away a few inches when she burst out laughing. “Get your hormones in check! What’re you gonna do when our guests get here? Three whole days of no… contact.”
Did she just say three days? Since when did we start caring if someone was around or not?
“Terrell and Maisha are hardly guests; they’re family,” I countered. “And besides, with the whole… ‘kid situation’ we have going on here—” I paused to gesture toward our son. “I’m pretty sure they know we have sex.”
“AJ! Don’t say that word in front of him!” Sam screeched, trying not to smile as she covered one of Anthony’s ears with her free hand and pressed his other to her chest. “All we need is for our parents to call to talk to him and he blurts that out.”
I imagined the scenario she just described and smiled. “C’mon… Tell me that wouldn’t be funny, though.”
She couldn’t even deny it, giggling a bit at the thought. “Oh my gosh… I can’t even deal with you two right now. You’re both trouble.”
She handed my namesake back over to me, mussing his dark curls with her fingers right after. “I’ll be back in a few. My plan was to be done at the store by the time you made it home, but somebody decided to mess up my plan. I won’t mention the perp’s name, but he’s the shortest person in the room. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
A kiss went to Anthony’s cheek and then mine as Sam passed by.
I followed her with my eyes. “Need me to do anything while you’re gone? The guest room’s all set?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yup, I freshened up the sheets and everything while he napped. But if you’re looking for something to do, could you put him in the tub for me? I still have to cook when I get back and I don’t want to have to worry about it after they get here.”
“No problem.” I headed toward to the stairs to run the bathwater.
“Don’t forget to put a towel down on the floor first. You know he likes to splash,” she warned, as if I hadn’t done this a hundred times before.
“Got it.”
“And don’t forget—”
“—the faucet cover so he doesn’t bump his head. I know,” I said with a laugh, already halfway up the steps. “I’ll handle bathing the boy; you go do your thing at the store and quit worrying.”
When I turned around, she was standing in the foyer. A warm smile crossed her face as it often did when she watched me with our son. She knew I had things under control. “Ok… I shouldn’t be gone long.”
“Be careful,” I said as she turned to leave.
“I will; try to stay out of trouble. Both of you,” she called out, closing the door behind herself.
I turned toward Anthony and he smiled like he knew what was going on. I shook my head. “Geez… Mommy doesn’t let us have any fun, does she?”
*****
It’d been about four or five months since our last trip to Boston to visit Terrell and Maisha and now they’d finally arrived to spend my birthday weekend here with Sam and I on Staten Island; hanging out, catching up. After dinner, the ladies made their way into the living room and Terrell and I decided to sit poolside. Every so often I’d glance over, peering through the sliding glass doors at Sam. I’d catch a stray smile on her face here and there, reminding me where our son had inherited that ‘I can get away with murder because I’m adorable’ expression from. That face—it felt like I’d been staring at it my whole life, but I still hadn’t gotten used to how beautiful she is.