Page 12 of More Than Dad's Best Friend

It’s like I have my own real life superhero…and that’s exactly what he is. Even though he tells me I’m the real life Wonder Woman.

“All sorted. Now…where were we?” he asks as he slides back into position, sitting on a footstool as he take my foot in his lap and begins massaging the ball of my foot, and then the inside of my arch…and finally gently stroking my Achilles.

“We were in absolute bliss. That’s where we were,” I smile, as my head rolls back and I melt into the La-Z-Boy.

“We sure were,” he adds.

I open one eye and shoot him a sideways look.

“How could this be absolute bliss for you? I’ve got mom bod, swollen feet that probably stink from running around the house all day, and you seem intently focused on really giving me a good massage.”

“The answer is in your question,” he says, and just continues along doing what he was doing.

“Huh?”

“I’m intently focused on you. Have been since you turned eighteen. Remember?”

“Oh, I remember all right.”

“That’s how I get my happiness. From my three girls.”

“You always say that.”

“Because it’s always gonna be true.”

He continues working on my feet as if what he’s saying is the most natural thing in the world.

“You know what else is always gonna be true?” he asks as he stands up and carefully places my foot on the footstool like I’m made of glass.

“What’s that?”

“My love for you,” he says as his lips gently find mine…before turning not so gentle.

“I recognize that kiss.”

“That’s the one that led to the twins,” he says.

“It sure is.”

“And they’re down again and should be completely out for a good hour or two.”

“An hour or two!”

“Shhh! You’re gonna wake them.”

“You want to ravish me for an hour or two?” I whisper.

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“Because I want to ravish you for the rest of our lives.”

“Awwww,” I say and pull his face into mine.

He scoops me up out of the chair and tiptoes into our bedroom.

“Aren’t I heavy.”

“Light as a feather. And as a matter of fact I want you to be a lot heavier.”

“Well if you don’t stop feeding me chocolates I will be.”

“Not only in that way,” he says, looking at my stomach. “And it’s time to do something about that.”

“About what?” I kid.

“About the lack of a child in your stomach. I don’t like it. Not one bit.”

“Well then, get to it, sailor!” I playfully tease.

But Myles doesn’t take it as a joke, ripping my clothes off me and diving in like a man who’s been locked up in prison his whole life and just saw his first women in twenty years or more.

“Are you still gonna find me beautiful when my belly’s big and stretched and we’re old.”

“Even more so,” he says immediately, not letting his words break the trail of kisses he’s leaving right down the middle of my chest that will take him right between my legs.

“I don’t believe it. How is that possible?”

He freezes, and stares me down with that feral look he usually reserves for the bedroom, but when he’s about to take me…not for a moment like this.

“Because knowing you’re carrying our babies…knowing our children live inside you…knowing that you and only you give them life and without you we couldn’t even have children…it’s just…”

He’s not choked up, but he is absolutely sincere…and it melts my heart.

He leans in and kisses me right on the lips.

“It takes two to tango,” I say. “And that goes for making a family.”

“We were already a family at two,” he says. “Just me and you.”

“What are we now?”

“Now…we’re perfect. We’re home.”

I couldn’t agree more.

EXTENDED EPILOGUE

Myles

Twelve years later

“No more babies, Myles,” my wife says as I chase her around the house.

“Just one more!”

“You say that every time…and last time we got two! Again!”

It’s true. I do say that every time, which is why we’re at seven children now.

There’s Madison and Marion, our first set of twins, and also Micah and Maxwell, our most recent bundles of joy. In-between are Maya, Matthew, and Madelyn.

Lucky seven…but can eight really be enough?

Not for me, at least not when it comes to her.

“I’m gonna get ya,” I say as I round the corner of the living room in our new house. We had to upgrade as our family continued to grow. Now we live just outside the city with plenty of room for the kids to play outside and our dogs to run around and roll in the grass, sniff things, and lounge until their hearts are content.

But I’ll never be content…when it comes to her.

“Oh no!” she playfully says as I close the distance before wrapping her up around the waist and lifting her off the ground.

“Got ya!”

“You always had me.”

“Are we gonna have another baby?” Maya asks.

“It looks that way, doesn’t it,” I say.

“Myles!” Morgan scolds me. “We’ll have to see if a stork swoops in in a year or so,” Morgan says to Maya before giving me a playfully dirty look. Sometimes I forget what you can and can’t say to the kids, although there’s one thing I always tell them.

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