Playing for Keeps (21 page)

"
Most people," he agreed. "So tell me about your phone call home. How did it go?"

"
I don't know. I was so lonely and sad. I just wanted to hear their voices. I told my dad I had gotten my heart broken."

Rob stared straight ahead at the road.
"Aw, Maddie, it makes me want to cry when I hear you say that. I feel so awful."

"
Hey." She squeezed his arm. "That was then, before you came back with the superglue. It's all good now, baby."

"
Is it?" He glanced sideways at her briefly.

"
You know it is. I couldn't be happier than I am right now. Well, maybe about thirty minutes from now I'll be a little happier, if you're not too tired."

He laughed.
"Never."

"
So anyway," she went on with her story. "My mother told me to come home, her answer to all of life's problems. She said they knew a construction worker wouldn't be good enough for me."

He laughed again.
"Now, whose parents do they sound like? So when did you tell them I was a construction worker?"

"
I didn't." They glanced at each other quickly. "Remember the dirt cheap rent I got from the extremely kind Peabodys? Apparently, they were spying for my parents, in return for a little extra rent money. I was so pissed. I gave them my notice the next day. They were embarrassed to get caught, but at that point, I just wanted out. I found the place in Lapham, and it was owned by a big ol' company, so I took it, and moved."

"
Jesus," Rob muttered to himself. "And I thought my folks were manipulative. Sounds like we have a match made in heaven."

"
Maybe that's what we need to do. Send your parents my parents name and address, and vice versa. They can sniff each other out and decide if we're all worthy."

"
Maybe." He chuckled. "Let me give it a little more thought. The main thing we want to remember is this, you and I are getting married, regardless of who approves or doesn't approve. The only opinions that matter are yours, mine, Sophie's and Sam's. Those last two are a given, by the way, so it's actually up to you and me."

"
I agree. Just try to change your mind this time, mister."

"
I won't even joke about that. We need to set a date, and set it soon."

She smiled at him as he pulled into their driveway and stopped.
"I'm in no hurry. I've never felt more secure about anything in my life."

Rob put the SUV in park and turned to Maddie.
"I like this new grown up, more confident, you."

"
I hope so." She leaned in to him for a kiss.

"
But every once in a while, do you think I might get to see a little bit of my Wild Thing? She turns me on, big time."

"
Oh, definitely." She kissed him again. "Let's get these kids to bed, and we'll see what we can do."

They got a good night's rest and decided to take a day to relax before going to empty Maddie's apartment. They ate a picnic by the pond, watched Sophie and Bo chase butterflies, and played with her on the swing set Rob had built. He carried Sam around wherever they went, and Maddie nursed Sam under a shade tree in the afternoon. Sophie and Rob stretched out on the blanket by Maddie, Sophie fell asleep instantly and Rob followed Maddie with his eyes.

"
You're going to get tired of staring at me." She smiled at him lazily.

"
I never will. I love to look at you and our beautiful son."

She handed Sam over for burping and lay back on the blanket.
"I think Soph has the right idea. A nap sounds pretty great, right about now."

Rob made a spot for Sam on the blanket, and surrounded him with their cooler on one side and picnic basket on the other, so he couldn
't get rolled on. Bo took a position by the baby for his nap, too.

Rob rolled next to Maddie and they kissed passionately.

"Ah, much better than a nap," she mused, and they kissed again.

"
There's time for both," he murmured, lips still touching, and kissed her for a few more minutes. Then they wrapped their arms around each other and closed their eyes.

"
It's quiet," Maddie commented, and listened. She could hear Sophie and Sam's gentle breathing, Bo's soft snoring, and the beat of Rob's heart. Maddie was as happy as she could imagine being.

"
It's nice."

"
It's perfect." She ran a hand over his chest and reached for his hand. Her fingers intertwined with his, and she sighed.

Chapter
Nine

They enlisted Smoky and Dugout to help move the rest of Maddie's stuff. It went fairly quickly, and Sophie helped Maddie clean each room as it was emptied. She met with the agent for the landlord and returned the keys; they would try to rent it and save her the last two months rent payments.

The men unloaded everything into the garage at the house. Maddie would sort it later, but there was no hurry. She was glad to be moved. Rob
drank a beer with his friends before they left, then he returned inside to Maddie and the kids. "That's taken care of."

"
Thank you." She crinkled her nose at him as she stirred some spaghetti sauce on the stove.

"
My pleasure. Now you're really here, with no place else to go."

"
Look at you, Mr. Insecurity all of a sudden! Why would I want to go anyplace else? I love it here."

"
I know. I just need to get that wedding band on your finger, then I'll believe all the good things that have happened to me this week are real."

She grinned.
"It does seem too good to be true, doesn't it? Everything is finally falling into place."

"
Finally. But I don't want to close my eyes unless you or Sam is in my arms. I'm afraid if I open them, it'll all have been just a dream."

"
Aw." Maddie put down her spoon and went over to him. "We're not a dream, sugar. We're here, and we're staying."

"
Thank God." He kissed her, but backed off. "I'm grubby. Do I have time for a shower before dinner?"

"
Sure, go ahead."

He gave her another quick kiss and went to shower.

That night, lying in bed, Rob said
"We need to decide some things about the wedding."

"
Okay. Such as?" She snuggled next to him.

"
Everything! Do you want a small wedding or a big one? A church wedding, white dress, and the whole deal?"

"
Ooh, not really. Do you?"

"
Well, no, but what do you want?"

She stared at the ceiling.
"I imagined just a few friends and family out here in the back yard. Maybe we could set up a canopy or something, to dress it up a little bit. You could wear jeans and a nice button-down shirt, and I could find a pretty dress."

He looked at her.
"It's the only wedding either one of us is ever going to have, Mad. Are you sure that's enough for you?"

"
I'll go fancier if that's what you want. But I was really thinking low-key, romantic but laid back, considering I may be nursing our son at the altar…so to speak."

He chuckled.
"It sounds terrific to me. I just don't want you to be disappointed later."

"
Not possible." She rubbed her hand over his chest. "Why don't you try to find a justice of the peace that would be willing to come out here, and set the date with him? We'll work backward from that."

"
When are you thinking?"

"
Sometime in July, before Sophie leaves."

"
I was thinking about that, too. I had an idea I wanted to run past you. You and Sophie seem to get along well."

"
You know we do! I love Sophie, and she loves me."

"
I know. I was just…well…what would you think about Sophie living here with us full-time? Visiting her mother on weekends?"

Maddie looked at
him. "Do you think Dionne would agree to that?  I have serious doubts that she would."

"
I don't know. Sophie starts kindergarten in the fall, and that brings a lot more activities into her life. I saw what Dee's schedule was like. She was already juggling Soph from daycare to a babysitter at night when I wasn't there. She might not want to admit it, but I think Sophie would be happier here, with her family instead of going from sitter to sitter."

"
But, Dionne doesn't think of me as Sophie's family. She told me that she never would."

"
That was before. We're getting married, and with Sam, we have a family. We have a nice house and the schools in Meridan are good, probably smaller than the ones in the city, which I think is a plus. I feel we have a good case to get Sophie full-time."

"
You sound serious. Will you pursue this if Dionne says no, in court, I mean?"

"
If you're with me, I will. I'm not going to do anything you don't agree with."

"
Don't you think, since Dionne is a lawyer, that she's going to have an edge on you? She knows how to work the system."

He shrugged.
"I know how to work Dee. But, you're probably right. She'd be a bitch to go up against. I'm just hoping it doesn't go that far. I really think Sophie would enjoy living here more than she would in the city. And I'm going to go for it, if you agree."

"
I do," she said.

He grinned again.
"I've been waiting to hear you say those words."

After making several phone calls, Rob found a judge who would come to the house and marry them in late July. That gave them a little over a month to make their plans and figure out their main concern, what they were going to say to their parents.

After a couple weeks in the house, Maddie felt settled. Her boxes were unpacked, and she
'd gotten rid of the furniture they would never use. Some of her furniture would work in the expansion Rob was designing for the house, so they left it covered in the garage.

He drew up plans to add five rooms to the house: an office, a family room in the back, two bedrooms and a bathroom. His crew would be finished with the house they were working on at the end of July,
then they were all taking two weeks off. They'd start on Rob and Maddie's house in mid-August. When the remodel was done, Rob would go back to work with them on another new house.

"
It's going to be beautiful." Maddie looked over Rob's shoulder at the plans.

"
I just hope it's big enough."

She laughed.
"Maybe we need to talk about the size of our family. I was kidding when I said I could handle six kids by myself. Those kids all went home at the end of the day."

He looked at her.
"If you don't want more kids, then we've been living life on the edge here for the past couple of weeks. We should start using birth control again."

"
I know it. I want more kids, but I'm not sure how many. You're talking about four, and wondering if that's enough bedrooms."

"
Theoretically they could sleep two to a room, so this gives us room for eight."

"
Eight?" Maddie screeched.

Rob laughed.
"Or, we could save one of these rooms for a guest room, like I had envisioned. Why don't we take the babies one at a time as they come to us? Somewhere down the line I think we'll know how many we want."

She smiled and hugged his neck.
"I think that sounds really good."

They spent their days sleeping late, lounging by the pool, taking long walks around the pond and naps in the shade. Maddie thought it was the most perfect life she could imagine—until she started throwing up in the mornings. She tried to keep it to herself, until she was absolutely sure. But, she knew what it was. She'd been nauseous for weeks when she was pregnant with Sam. This time, she felt tired. She was afraid it was because she was nursing Sam, who was now just three months old. She hated to stop breastfeeding him, but decided it was probably the best thing for her. She decided to talk it over with her doctor when she went for her first appointment.

She
asked Rob to watch the kids so she could go shopping. She went to the doctor and had her pregnancy confirmed. The obstetrician agreed, if she was tired she might want to stop breastfeeding. She went to the drugstore and got prenatal vitamins, iron supplements, along with baby bottles and formula for Sam.

"
Hello." She entered the house and set her bags on the kitchen table, then wandered into the living room.

"
Hey, pretty mama." Rob smiled at her from the rocking chair. "Sorry, I didn't know you were almost home. I just fed him the bottle you pumped."

"
That's fine." She waved her hand, and put kisses on Sam and Rob's heads. "Where's Soph?"

"
Asleep in her room."

Maddie nodded and held up the baby bottle.
"How'd he do?"

"
Drank it fast, spit up some."

"
I have no idea how much he drinks, since I've been nursing. We'll have to figure that out."

"
Does it matter?"

"
No, but I've decided to stop nursing and put him on formula. We'll have to experiment to see how much he drinks at first."

"
Good!" Rob smiled. "Now I can help feed him."

"
Definitely." She dropped into a chair. "I will appreciate the help. I'm beat."

He looked at her.
"Anything else you want to tell me?"

She smiled.
"You know, don't you?"

He smiled back.
"I suspected. Pretty close quarters here, when someone is throwing up every morning."

"
And I thought I was being discreet."

"
You were. In case you haven't noticed I have a thing for watching you. So—?"

Maddie smiled again.
"You're going to be a daddy again. In March."

"
Yee haw!" he hollered loudly, and Sam cried. "Oh, sorry, son. Shhh." He rocked the baby, and grinned at Maddie. "I'm so excited!"

"
I could tell. I, on the other hand, am terrified. The baby will be born in March, and Sam will turn one in April. Are we fucking crazy?"

He stood up and sat back down on the arm of her chair. He kiss
ed her on the side of her head. "We may be crazy, but we are in love. And everything's coming up roses for us, right now."

She leaned into him and put her head on his arm.
"That's because we've been having fun goofing off all summer. We haven't dealt with any of the issues that are going to be troublesome."

"
I know." He rubbed his hand over her hair. "And I'm going to get started on that this weekend, when I take Sophie to the city. Friday night, I'll drop her off for dinner with my parents, so I can talk to Dionne in private about the custody arrangements."

Maddie nodded.
"But what are you doing about your parents?"

"
Still mulling that one over."

"
You've been mulling for weeks." Maddie stood up and faced him. "Maybe I just need to go with you and meet them, face to face."

"
No, I don't think so." He shook his head. "They were pretty hard on you, and I'm not willing to subject you to them again, until I know how they're going to act."

"
I can take it."

"
You don't have to
take it
from my parents, is all I'm saying. I haven't spoken a dozen words to them that didn't revolve around Sophie since last summer. They pissed me off, and I'm not going to bend over backwards for them. If someone's going to give in this time, it'll be them."

"
I don't want to keep them from their grandchildren."

"
I don't either. But unless they have the proper attitude, that might just happen."

"
So what should we do?"

He inhaled slowly
then let it out. "I was thinking about what you said the last time we talked about them. Maybe we give them your parent's name and address, and tell them when the wedding is. They'll check you out, and show up or not at the wedding. It'll be their call."

"
I was joking about doing that."

He shook his head.
"It may be the way to go. We can send your parents the same note, with my folk's name and address, the date of the wedding and directions on how to get here. What they choose to do with it will tell us volumes."

"
Scary." Maddie leaned into him, and Rob hugged her waist.

He lifted her shirt
and kissed her bare stomach. "Hello, new baby. It's your daddy. I'm going to talk to you every day until you're born, so you'll know me when you come out of there." He kissed around her belly button and rubbed over her lightly with his free hand.

"
Sam didn't have any trouble getting to know you." Maddie smiled down at him, and ran her hands through his hair.