You see, I already have four children, and they are mine in every way, including in name. They hyphenated their last name, adding Jacobson to it, when I adopted them all. But they had my heart long before that.
Gabby will start college in the fall, and while she’s a brilliant, beautiful, sweet girl, she is still a teenager, and teenagers are challenging by nature. She wants to grow up, and I desperately want to keep her a child. I’m not getting my wish. She’s becoming her own person, and she’s leaving Katie and me behind.
Alex just turned eleven, and he’s still obsessed with sports. I’m coaching his Little League team and his football team. Sometimes I have to do it with Hank strapped to my chest, but we get the job done. Alex is still hesitant to call me Dad, but when he has to make portraits of his family in art class, he makes me the biggest figure in the picture, and I know I play a very important role in his life.
Trixie, on the other hand, started calling me Daddy as soon as we signed the adoption papers and the court granted the name changes. There is nothing that warms my heart more than having that little girl look up to me and take my hand. Every now and then she still asks for blue raccoon spray. It’s usually when Alex runs into her room and farts on her, but still…
Hank is turning two this weekend, and he’s walking and getting into everything. You can’t set him down without having him take off and run in the opposite direction. Thankfully, we still have Sally, and we’ll have him for many years to come. Just last week, Hank ran away from Katie when she was unloading groceries from the car and Sally dragged him back by the tail of his shirt, with Hank kicking and screaming the whole way. He flopped down on his diaper and screamed bloody murder. Sally licked up the side of his face, and Trixie patted Sally on the head and promised him a new tutu for saving her little brother.
We did decide to move to the lake at the end of the summer. We moved right in with Pop. I’ve never regretted it. Pop’s health is good, and he’s just as cantankerous as ever. He keeps the kids entertained, and he has Trixie and Alex fishing with him every afternoon. As long as Katie’s not around, they get to keep the fish.
Right now, we’re in New York to attend Fred and Laura’s wedding. Katie was way too pregnant to fly, so we drove all the way up. Imagine driving for a whole day with four kids, a dog, a very pregnant wife, and a grumpy old man. We tried to board the dog at the kennel, but Trixie cried so hard when we left him that we had to go back and get him. We paid a big pet deposit so he could stay in the hotel with us. If he craps on the floor, we’ll all be in trouble.
I set his leash on the side table. “Are you hungry?” I call out to Katie. I walk to the mini fridge and get a bottle of water. Katie’s lying on the bed, bare-ass naked, and the dog climbs up on the couch in the living room. They’re both flopped out like they’ve never seen a bed before.
“No, I’m not hungry,” Katie calls back. “My back hurts, though. Come and rub it for me.”
I smile to myself. I am chief cook, bottle-washer, and back-rubber around here. You should see me when I clean. I am too sexy for my shirt.
“When are the kids coming back?” I ask.
“Not for hours,” she says as I rub her back. “That feels nice.”
My wife is completely naked and we are all alone. “Hey,” I say as I scoot up closer to her, “do you realize that we’re all alone?”
She smiles at me over her shoulder. “Did you have something in mind?”
I kiss her naked shoulder. “Only if you fee like it.”
“I feel like it.”
I get up to go and close the bedroom door, because Sally’s on the couch, and just in case the kids come back too soon, I want to be prepared. We’ve become really good at doing this quickly. When you have four kids, you learn some shortcuts.
I reach into her luggage, get out her shiny little toy, and carry it to the bed. I toss it to her and she turns it on. She doesn’t roll over. She’s too pregnant and that belly gets in the way. She just places it on the right spot and sighs a happy little sigh.
“Don’t start without me,” I complain. I shuck my clothes quickly and slide in behind her, and then I slide inside. And within minutes, she’s coming apart around me, and I’m finishing inside her.
I’ll never forget to be grateful that I have this every day.
“What do you want to do now?” I ask her. “You want to sleep?”
She rolls onto her back and her big belly stands up tall. “No, I don’t think I can. I’m hurting a little.”
“Hurting how?”
“Hurting like tightening up. That’s all. It’s probably nothing.”
“You should have told me. I wouldn’t have done what we just did.”
“What we just did is good for us, Jake.” She turns her head to face me. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“You want to go walk around some?” she asks. “I haven’t seen this part of the city.”
We’re in the heart of New York.
“You know that place that they film for TV, the tattoo shop, that is near here. I think it’s called Reeds’.”