Gentle, Sweet Love

Before I knew it, it was time for the kids to start school. The elementary school bus came for Seth about thirty minutes before Morgan's four-year-old kindergarten bus came, so after seeing Seth off, I returned home for fifteen minutes, then left again. I could tell that Morgan was just a little nervous on her first day. As she stood there in her new yellow dress with the matching bow in her hair, i could see the apprehension in her brown eyes.

"Everything's gonna be all right," I soothed. "Seth had lots of fun in four-year-old kindergarten."

"But what if I hafta go to the bathroom?"

"Just raise your hand and tell the teacher."

She grimaced. "And what if I get hungry or sleepy?"

"You'll have a snack time and a nap time." To me she looked so small climbing up the big steps of the bus, and suddenly I was glad to have the twins to keep me company for the morning.

The day passed swiftly, and soon it was time to pick Morgan up from the bus stop. I put the sleeping twins in their car seats and drove them to the bus stop to wait for her. To my tremendous relief, she was all smiles when she got off the bus. "We played ring-around-the-rosy!" she exclaimed.

"That sounds like fun," I replied. "I know you like to play that."

"Yeah, and we made necklaces out of fruit loops. See, here's mine." She showed it to me.

I laughed. "Better be careful to keep it away from the twins. They'll think it's a snack."

A couple of days after that, Seth brought home a form. "Can I be in cub scouts? Please, Mommy?" he begged.

I glanced over the form. "Sure, I don't see why not." I filled the form out and put it in his backpack the following morning. That Friday evening, I received a telephone call.

"My name is Cindy, and I'm the den mother for the cub scout group in this area," she told me. "Our first meeting will be Tuesday evening at three o'clock."

"Great! Seth and I will be there," I told her.

The following Tuesday evening, I dropped Morgan and the twins off at my parents' house and then drove to Cindy's house. She'd given me directions over the telephone, so I didn't really have any trouble finding it. I was amazed to see how big and nice it was. "Wow, her husband must earn about a million dollars a year," I remarked, feeling a tiny prick of envy which was quickly followed by guilt when I thought of how hard Maxim worked to provide for all of us.

Cindy herself turned out to be a slender, stylishly dressed bleach blonde. "This is my son Trey," she told us. Trey was blond and was slightly taller than Seth. Several other mothers and sons were there: Sarah with her son Mitchell, Renee with her son Gabriel, and Chris with her son Cory. The first meeting mostly consisted of getting to know each other and discussing things like uniforms and books. That Saturday, I took all four kids with me to the boy scout council where the store was. While there, I met up with Renee and Gabriel.

"This is my daughter, Hannah. She's ten." She nodded toward the bored-looking blonde girl who'd accompanied them. "My, you must sure have your hands full!" She gazed in amazement at my children. "I've always wondered how people with twins handle all the extra work."

I shrugged. "You do what you have to. Also, my husband helps out a lot."

"Lucky you. Mine's a truck driver. Sometimes he's gone for weeks at a time."

I found all the clothing Seth would need and his book, paid for them, and went home.

At the next cub scout meeting, all the boys brought empty three-liter bottles to make terrariums. First Cindy gave the boys a lecture on photosynthesis, and then she and I helped them cut off the tops of the plastic bottles. Then they added pebbles, soil, and seeds. "I'm gonna grow my very own plant!" Seth said proudly as I drove home.

"That's right," I replied. "Just remember to put it in a sunny place, and don't forget to water it every day!"

At first Seth was very conscientious about watering the plant, and he was thrilled when the first green shoots began to peek up through the soil. However, one day he didn't go to the plant as soon as he got home like he usually did. "Caleb's Dad got him this great new game!" he told me. "I can't wait to see it!" Caleb was the little boy who lived next door.

"Aren't you gonna water your plant first?" I asked.

"I'll do it later," he promised. He stayed at Caleb's until almost dinnertime, and by then he was tired and hungry and had completely forgotten about his plant.

"Do you suppose I should water it for him?" I asked Maxim as we were lying in bed together that night.

"No," he replied. "Seth has to learn responsibility. And you know what? I forgot to give you your spanking!"

"Sounds like I should be the one spanking you," I remarked.

"Ha ha ha, very funny." He reached for the pink paddle, and I got up on my knees in bed and bared my bottom so he could let me have it.

A couple of days later, the shoots had stopped growing and turned yellow with brown around the edges. "Seth, if you don't water this plant soon, it's gonna die," I told him.

"I'll water it as soon as I finish watching this movie," he told me.

A couple of days later, the shoots were completely brown. "Mommy, my plant!" Seth wailed.

"I told you over and over again to water it," I reminded him. He ran to his bedroom, and a few minutes later, I heard him sobbing. I felt a twinge of guilt but then remembered what Maxim had told me.

Seth's eyes were still red, puffy and swollen when Maxim got home. "What's the matter, Sport?" he asked my son.

"My plant died, Daddy!"

"Oh, that's a shame! Didn't you water it?"

Seth nodded.

"Every single day?"

Seth looked guilty. "Well...no..."

"Well, that's what happens when plants don't get enough water, son. They die."

"If I ever get another plant, I'll never forget to water it. I promise!"

Maxim chuckled and ruffled his hair. "It'll be OK, Sport."

"But how?"

"You'll see. Come and eat your dinner, now."

After dinner, Maxim went out for awhile and returned with a seedling. Patiently, he showed Seth how to remove the dead plant and replace it with the living one. "Oh, thank you, Daddy!" Seth exclaimed.

"It's all right." Maxim chuckled. "I know we won't have to remind you to water this one, will we?"

"You sure won't!"

"We'll see." Maxim winked at me.

Seth did have more success in keeping his second plant alive. We kept it a secret from the rest of the cub scout den, of course, and none of them ever knew the difference. When Seth won an award for having the healthiest looking plant, I felt a tad guilty but still didn't say anything.

October arrived, and the twins' first birthday quickly approached. "I can't believe it!" I said to Maxim. "It seems like only yesterday they were being born, doesn't it!"

"It sure does!" he laughed.

Although they'd both been a bit small at birth, they were both well within the average weight range for their age when I took them for their one-year physical. "They're some of the healthiest one-year-old children I've ever seen," Dr. Tanner's nurse, Penny, told me as she weighed and measured them. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!"

"I've been breastfeeding them since they were born," I told her. "And of course they're eating lots of different foods now as well, but I want to wean them and start giving them whole milk soon."

"You can," she replied. "They're ready. Try bottles first, and once they're used to that, you can switch to sippy cups."

After the twins' dinner that evening, instead of nursing them, I gave Caitlin a bottle. She turned away from it. "Come on, sweetie," I gently urged her. "You're old enough to drink milk like a big girl now! Isn't that great?" The next time I offered the bottle to her, she angrily pushed it away and cried. I sighed and offered the bottle to Courtney. She turned away from it and gave me a bewildered look as if to ask, What in the world is this?

"It's good, Courtney," I told her. "Try it."

She took a sip and grimaced. "Aw, it's not so bad!" I told her.

"It's real good, Courtney," Morgan told her sister. "I have it every morning in my cereal."

After much coaxing, I finally got Courtney to take a few sips, and after watching her sister drink from the bottle, Caitlin was willing to try it herself. Neither girl drank more than a couple of sips each, but it was a start.

I was feeling especially feisty that night. Instead of waiting for Maxim to reach for the pink paddle, I grabbed it on my own and handed it to him.

"Naughty, haughty!" he said. "Just for that, I'll spank you extra hard tonight!"

I quickly shed my pants and bent over the bed. Wham! Bang! Pow! The blows came over and over.

"Had enough?" he finally asked me.

"Yes!" I gasped.

"Are you going to remember whose job it is to grab the paddle from now on?"

"Oh, yes, Daddy!"

"I think I'm in the mood for some pussy eating," he growled.

In no time I was lying on the bed with my legs spread wide. He parted my pussy lips and began to lick my juices, running his tongue over and over my swollen clit. I felt my orgasm building into a crescendo, and then it washed over me, causing me to writhe and squirm in ecstasy.

I had a lot of fun planning their first birthday party. I decided to use a ladybug theme and decorated the entire house with ladybug posters and pictures and bought a ladybug tablecloth, red and black paper plates and plastic silverware, and dressed the twins in matching ladybug outfits. Then I remembered that Morgan had a shirt with a ladybug on the front of it and put it on her. "Now I'm a ladybug too!" she exclaimed.

"Now I'm the only one left out!" Seth complained.

"You have a shirt with a frog on it," I reminded him. "And frogs eat ladybugs," I whispered in his ear.

He grinned. "Oh, yeah!"

All our friends and relatives, including Ilya and Misty, came to the party. Secretly, I wondered whether there would be any rivalry between Misty and Lily, but they both seemed genuinely happy for one another, laughing together as they compared baby bumps while a bemused Ilya looked on proudly.

"So how does it feel to know you're gonna be a Dad soon?" I asked him. Twice over, I wanted to add.

"Fantastic!" he replied. "I always just assumed I'd live my life in service to Christ, but as it's been His will for it to take a different turn, I'm certainly thrilled at the prospect of experiencing the joys and challenges of parenthood."

"And since you've had the training, you can even christen your own child, right?"

He laughed. "That would be a bit like performing my own wedding. Someone else would have to stand in for me as a proxy, and Misty and I just don't want to do it that way."

I looked around to see what Chad was doing and saw him talking with Andy and Denny. Just then, a mint green Hyundai pulled up in our front yard and Jane emerged from it and made a beeline for Lily. "Hey Lily, you forgot and left your..." Suddenly, her eyes met Denny's and her mouth fell open. "Hi," she said with an embarrassed giggle, struggling to hide her discomfiture.

"Hi." He grinned and stepped toward her.

"I'm Jane, Lily's sister."

"Nice to meet you, Jane. I'm Denny."

They stared awkwardly at one another for a few seconds, and then Denny broke the silence. "It's a great party, if you don't have to dash right off."

She glanced down, suddenly shy. "Well, I guess I could stay for just a little while." Soon the two of them were chatting animatedly with one another. Maxim and I exchanged glances and grinned.

The party began to break up not long after that. Denny and Jane were the last two to leave. After everyone had gone, I cleaned up the mess, stripped the twins and gave them a quick bath, then settled them down for a nap. After that, I joined Maxim, Seth, and Morgan in the living room, where they were watching television. I sat beside Maxim on the sofa, where he gave me a quick hug. "Great party."

"It was," I agreed. "Denny and Jane make such a nice couple, don't you think so? After being alone for all this time, I think she's learned her lesson about how to treat men."

"I think so, too." He kissed my cheek. "After all, everyone deserves a second chance."

"Nervous?" Maxim asked me one morning not too long after that.

"A little bit," I admitted. "I've never been away from the twins for a whole day before."

"They'll be fine," he assured me. It was my first day of work since Caitlin and Courtney had been born. After Seth and Morgan had both boarded their respective buses, I kissed my husband good-bye, put the twins into their car seats, and drove to the home of Laura, who'd graciously agreed to babysit them for me. When we got to her house, I put them into their stroller and rolled it to the front door. Laura was still in her pajamas, eating a piece of toast, when she came to the door.

"I really do appreciate this," I told her.

"It's no problem at all," she replied.

I never could have imagined how hard it would be to say good-bye to Caitlin and Courtney that morning. "Be good girls for Miss Laura," I told each of them as I kissed their chubby cheeks.

"Oh, we'll have lots of fun, won't we, girls?" Laura said to them.

Neither girl cried, but as I walked back to my car, I felt as if I was leaving a part of myself behind.

My hands were shaking as I pulled into the hospital's parking lot. Having seen all too many pediatric cases in which youngsters had accidentally swallowed poison or fallen from a great height, I was worried sick about the twins. In my imagination, I kept seeing Laura running into the emergency room with one or both of my babies unconscious, bleeding heavily, or even worse. I almost regretted my decision to return to work.

"Welcome back, Lacy!" Helen exclaimed as she saw me entering the hospital to clock in for the first time in a little over a year. She came over to give me a hug, and I smiled in gratitude.

"How are the twins?" asked Danielle. "Are they completely weaned now?"

"Yes, they're both used to drinking milk from a bottle now."

"And how about you?"

"My breasts kind of ache and feel heavy sometimes, but other than that, I'm fine."

I'd just begun to get accustomed to my normal work routine again when it happened. Two prison guards entered the hospital escorting a man bound in chains into the emergency room. "He was in a prison fight and got cut up pretty bad," one of them explained. "I'm sure he'll need stitches."

The man had a deep gash that went all the way across his face, but even so, I recognized him right away as the man who'd attacked Maxim in the hospital parking lot several years previously: Trina's real boyfriend and Luke's biological father. I remembered him from his assault and battery trial. He was groaning in pain and cursing, swearing to kill the fellow prisoner who'd cut his face.

"Lacy, what's wrong?" asked Danielle. "Get a move on! This man needs help!"

"I...think I'm gonna be sick," I muttered, running for the bathroom. Once there, I had to really struggle to stop shaking and get my breathing under control. How could I possibly help the monster who'd tried to kill the man I loved? Even though I hated him and wanted him dead, I realized that it would go against my professional ethics to refuse to help a patient in need, regardless of who they were or what they'd done. I knew what I had to do and, with a resigned sigh, returned to the emergency room.

By now the man had been heavily medicated and so had finally stopped ranting and raving. The physician had arrived and was preparing to sew the wound closed. Someone thrust a wad of gauze into my hand. "He's still bleeding pretty heavily," they told me.

Without a word, I took the gauze and stood wiping away the excess blood as the edges of the wound were stitched together. I'd gotten used to the sight of a needle with thread piercing flesh a long time ago and so didn't feel squeamish at all. However, I did feel extremely uncomfortable standing so close to Maxim's attacker and heaved a mighty sigh of relief when the operation was finally over and the semi-conscious man, who'd received a local anesthetic, was wheeled to recovery.

"He's gonna have a pretty nasty scar for the rest of his life," one of the other nurses remarked. Good! I thought to myself. It serves him right!

I was so badly shaken by the experience that it temporarily took my mind off my concern for the twins. I tried but wasn't able to put the incident out of my mind for the rest of the day. I was happy when my work day finally ended and I could return to them. I drove to Laura's house and rang her doorbell. She was holding Courtney when she opened the door, and I could see Caitlin sitting on the floor playing with blocks a few feet away.

"Mama!" Courtney reached for me.

"Hi, sweetie!" I took her into my arms. "Have they been all right?" I asked anxiously.

"Everything's been fine!" Laura assured me. "We watched Disney channel for awhile, went for a walk, and then had lunch and took a nap. They've been playing ever since they woke up."

"Thank you so much for watching them."

"No problem at all!"

I put the twins into their car seats, picked Seth and Morgan up from their after-school programs, and returned home, where I started dinner. Maxim arrived a few minutes later. "Mm, something sure smells good!" he remarked as he entered the house. He came to me and gave me a hug and a kiss. "So how was your first day back at work?"

"It was all right." I forced a smile, knowing that he didn't really need to hear the details of my morning. "How was your day?"

"It was all right." He gave me a puzzled smile that told me he knew something serious was on my mind but he'd wait until I was ready to talk about it.

Seth and Morgan talked excitedly about their day at school during dinner, and afterwards, Maxim helped me with the dishes and getting the twins settled. I read Seth and Morgan their bedtime stories and then got ready for bed myself. I was taking my earrings out and putting them away when Maxim walked up behind me and began kneading my shoulders.

"Oh, Maxim..." Suddenly I was crying hard, and he held and comforted me. "Nathan Phelps came into the emergency room today. He got into a fight in prison, and the other guy cut him across the face really bad."

Maxim froze, shocked.

"I had to help with the surgery to sew his face back together," I continued.

"When you're a professional, that's all you can do," Maxim pointed out. "Similar things happen to me sometimes. One time this guy cursed me out thoroughly for giving him a speeding ticket, and then later the same day, he was in an accident and was trapped inside his car. I had to help cut him free. Never before have I ever seen anyone as embarrassed as he was when he recognized me. You just have to put your personal feelings aside and do what you have to do."

"I know." I sighed. "But I don't think Nathan's even sorry for what he did to you."

"That doesn't matter." He held me close, and I basked in the comforting softness of his pajama top and the aroma of the soap he'd showered with. "I'm really sorry that happened to you, Lace."

"Yeah. Well, at least it's over with now, and I'm here in my favorite place: your arms."

He chuckled softly. Then he made gentle, sweet love to me, and we fell asleep in each other's arms.