“Talk to me, Suze,” Tim said falling into the chair next to her on the grassy sweep behind his brother’s house.
Suzanna swiveled her head toward him. “Ma-ma, Dada, Me-me. That’s it, that’s all I can muster at the moment. Sorry. Get back to me, okay?”
Tim reached over and kissed his wife’s cheek. “Ally said Margo this morning. At least I think that’s what she was saying. Mostly, I was trying to get the poor cat’s tail out of the kid’s mouth.”
“Margo’s been a brick, hasn’t she?” Suzanna said, reaching for her glass of iced tea—in which all the ice cubes had melted long ago, when she’d first tried putting the sixteen-month-old twins down for a nap on a blanket safely located outside the fenced-in pool area.
“Yeah, well, they’re asleep now, and we can maybe have some grown-up talk.”
“About what?” Suzanna said, putting down her glass after taking a sip of watery, lukewarm tea. It seemed like the only hot tea she drank was cold, and the only iced tea she drank was always warm. She didn’t even want to think about the temperature of her mashed potatoes last night when she’d finally gotten to sit down at the dinner table.
Tim took a deep breath, then took the plunge. “Jack and Keely have offered to take the twins after the season’s over, so that you and I can go away. Have a real honeymoon, like maybe a whole week’s worth.”
Suzanna was silent for so long that Tim leaned over once more, gave her a little nudge. “Did you hear me?”
“Shhh,” she said, her eyes closed. “I’m trying to imagine it. You, me, and nobody else? You’re kidding, right? And where would we go? I mean, not that it matters. I can be embarrassingly overjoyed to go food shopping on my own.”
“I know I’m not home enough, babe, but the season will be over in two months.”
Suzanna stood up, and he took her hand, walked with her toward the pool area. “Unless—until—you make the playoffs. Realistically, if we put in time enough for the World Series, we couldn’t get away until the third week of October.”
He slipped his arm around her, nuzzled the side of her neck. “Paris has to be terrific in October.”
“Paris?” Suzanna’s face went white beneath her tan. “Oh, no, I couldn’t—we couldn’t do that. That’s too far away from the babies.”
“Hey, I thought you said you’d like a vacation from them. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember you saying those exact words after Ellie climbed out of her crib the other night, and we found her in the kitchen.”
“I know, I know,” Suzanna said, then bit her bottom lip. “Couldn’t we be away... but closer?”
Tim pulled her toward Jack and Keely, who were preparing hamburgers and hot dogs on the gas grill located inside the pool fencing—a safety precaution Keely had insisted on to protect curious little hands.
“Hey, get this. You guys offer to take the Terrible Twosome so I can whisk my wife off to Paris, and she says that’s too far away.”
Keely placed another hamburger pattie on the grill, and smiled at Jack. “Told you. That’s five bucks you owe me, buster.”
“What?” Tim asked, looking at his sister-in-law. “But you’re the one who suggested Paris. Oh, wait a minute. You set me up, didn’t you, Keely. Jack and me both.”
Jack made a face. “It’s embarrassing. The woman will do anything for a sure five bucks. I think she’s going to be a very bad influence on our children. Hey, Candy—not so hard!”
Candy giggled as she walked along the outside of the fence, half-leading, half-pulling her fuzzy black cat, Brownie, by his leash and halter.
“Remind me to give Brownie some extra catnip tonight,” Keely said, lining up rolls on the top shelf of the grill. “I guess we should just be grateful she isn’t trying to drag Johnny.”
“My son doesn’t have a halter,” Jack said huffily.
“Just wait. I find him trying to climb up on the kitchen counter one more time, and he will.”
Suzanna slipped her arm through Tim’s. “That’s it, Keely. You’re so busy with your own two. How could you even think to offer to take our girls on, just so that we can go away?”
“Oh boy here we go,” Jack said. “Never tell this woman she can’t do something.”
“Smart-aleck,” Keely said, stepping closer to Jack, so that he put his arm around her. “Seriously, Suzanna, I’ve got it all figured out. Mrs. B. and Aunt Sadie will be here, and you know Uncle Joey and Uncle Bruno would have to be beaten away with sticks, to keep them from helping. My biggest problem will be keeping Joey from saying “youse kids” so much that the children pick up on it. Don’t worry about a thing. Really.”
“Okay?” Tim said, leading Suzanna back toward the blanket spread under a large oak tree, and to the two sleeping toddlers.
“Look at them, Tim,” Suzanna said. Ally was on her belly, her knees tucked up under her, her rump in the air. Ellie lay sprawled on her back, her head resting on the stuffed rabbit that went everywhere she went. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
“I do like them with their eyes closed,” Tim said, earning himself a half-hearted poke in the stomach.
He looked down at his daughters, his girls, his babies, as Suzanna unfolded a light, lacy blanket and spread it over them.
Three redheads. The love of his life, and a pair of angels, both the picture of their mother, who had given him even more of Suzanna to love.
Suzanna stood up once more, and wrapped her arms around Tim. “I love you all, so much. So very much.”
“And I love you, babe,” Tim said, turning her fully into his arms. “What do you say we go home for an hour, and let Keely and Jack practice being baby-sitters a little?”
“Do we dare? The girls will be up soon, and tearing all over again. We don’t want to give Keely and Jack a reason to beg off, do we?”
“Good point,” Tim said, “but I think we can risk it. Think about it, Suzanna. A whole hour. Alone. You and me. Me and you. A whole hour. Do you remember what I can do in an hour?”
Suzanna looked at her babies, and then at her husband. She had the whole world here... but, once in a while, she wanted her whole world to be Tim, only Tim.
“Not Paris, Tim. But how about New York City? I could go to Manhattan, and not worry.”
“New York City it is. But what about now?”
Suzanna’s smile was positively evil... He loved it when she was evil.
“Race you to the car,” she said, and he ran after her, knowing she’d let him catch her.
* * * * * * * * *
Find out how Tim’s twin brother, Jack Trehan, met his true love Keely in
LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY by Kasey Michaels.
Read on for a sample!