“I was so worried Mom would get mad because I let you paint over my lunch box.”
Chuckling, I ask, “Did she?”
“No, she was more impressed with the detail you put into the rose.” She giggles. “She joked and said she was going to take it from me and use it as her lunch box at work.” She grabs it and sets it on top of Gemma’s baby book. “When I got home each day for the first few weeks, I hid it in my room because I was worried she’d actually do it.”
I laugh. “Can you imagine your mom strolling into the post office carrying that around?”
“Why not?” She shrugs. “I loved this thing and was so proud to carry it around.”
I lean over and kiss her temple. “I think you were a bit biased.”
“Maybe, but it’s still a beautiful lunch box.”
She leans over and puts the lunch box back into the box along with all of the other things we’ve collected over the years. Four-leaf clovers sealed in plastic, the multitude of things I made her out of seashells, receipts of our first official date, two positive pregnancy tests, and a bunch of other stuff.
“Tell me a story,” Molly requests quietly.
Reaching over her, I grab Gray’s baby book and open it to where his first baby tooth is taped to the page.
“Remember when Gray lost his first tooth?”
A soft smile graces her face, and her eyes momentarily light up. “Yeah, we had a spat on how much he should get for his first tooth.” A light giggle leaves her lips. “I wanted to leave ten dollars, but you said if we start out leaving them so much, they’d expect to get at least that much for each tooth.”
I nod, my lips tipping up at the memory. “I went back after you had gone to sleep. I was going to switch the two dollars we left him for a twenty-dollar bill. But when I went into his room, he was already awake. I caught him just as he found the two dollars. He was so excited. There was no way I could have traded the money after that.”
“Why were you going to trade it in the first place?” she asks. “You were pretty adamant about only giving him the two dollars.”
I shrug. “Because you wanted to give him more, and I wanted to give you what you wanted. Besides, after thinking about it, your reasoning made sense. A first tooth should be given more.”
Gemma’s baby book is turned to her first tooth, and Molly looks down at it. “That’s why you suggested we give Gemma more money for her first tooth.”
“Yep. That’s also why I talked Gray into trading me his two dollars for a twenty-dollar bill.” I chuckle when I think about that conversation. “He didn’t realize he was getting a really good deal at first and refused. All he knew was he was giving up two pieces of paper money for only one. I had to end up giving him twenty one-dollar bills before he would agree.”
As I was hoping, Molly laughs. The sound is magical and lightens some of the darkness slowly consuming me.
Grabbing both of the baby books, I place them back in the box before putting it on the floor beside the bed. I turn to Molly and lift her up, settling her down on my lap facing me. Her knees hug my hips as her ass sits on my thighs. I brush back her red locks and stare up at her as she looks down at me.
“I love you,” I whisper quietly. “If there was anything, anything at all, I could do to take this from you, I would.”
Her eyes glisten in the lamplight. “I know. I love you too.”
She tilts her head down just as I lift mine and our lips meet. I kiss Molly gently, like she’s the most precious thing in the world to me. Because she is. There is no other person who can compare to her.
After a moment, I lift her up, turn, and gently set her on the bed. Her eyes stay on me as I slowly undress my wife until she’s lying before me naked. I don’t take the same time and care when I take my own clothes off. The need to be against her, skin to skin, is too strong to waste time.
Once we’re both naked, I settle on top of her, my arms protectively caging her in beside her head. The warmth and strength of her legs when she wraps them around my waist feels amazing. Molly and I have always fit perfectly together.
Her lids fall closed, and a tear slides from her eye when I slip inside her. I kiss the wayward tear away.
My movements are slow as I slip in and out of her; both of us treasuring the moment. There’s no urge to move fast or go deep. I want this feeling to last as long as possible, knowing there will come a time I’ll never feel it again.
We make love for an hour, our hips moving in unison. After, I fall to her side, and she turns to face me. We’re so close our noses touch, and our arms are bound tightly around each other.
A few minutes later, we drift off to sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
MOLLY
A week later, we pull into Mike and Laura Bradshaw’s driveway. Today is our weekly dinner with Lincoln’s parents. Lincoln wanted to cancel this week’s dinner, but I told him no. We already had to cancel last week because that was the day I fell in the shower, and Lincoln was worried another incident would happen. I may not be as close to his parents as he is to mine, but I still love them dearly, and I know they love me and their grandkids just as much. There are so many people I need to cram a lifetime worth of time with. Lincoln’s parents are two of them.
Before Lincoln, the kids, and I make it up the steps—with Lincoln at my heels watching my step—the door is swung open and Laura appears. Her eyes immediately seek me out and her expression falls. This is the first time I’ve seen her since we found out about my illness. The day after we were given the news, Lincoln offered to tell his parents by himself. I was exhausted from the turmoil of the previous day and still distraught over the possibility of the kids having the same disease, so I accepted.
I’m not surprised when I’m immediately enveloped in her arms as soon as I take the last step. She squeezes me so hard that I wheeze out a breath.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” she whispers against my ear. “We’re here for you. Whatever you may need, all you have to do is let us know.”
“Thank you, Laura,” I whisper back.
We pull back, and after she brushes her fingers against my cheeks like a mother would a child, she turns to Lincoln. He gets the same hug and some whispered words before she switches her attention to the kids. Thankfully, the somber look vanishes from her face first, and she replaces it with a bright smile.
“Come here, you two.”
As one, both kids walk to their grandmother. I’m only mildly surprised when Gray doesn’t put up a fuss. He’s been more affectionate the last couple of weeks.
Inside the house, the kids immediately go to one of the spare rooms where they keep Pumpkin, Lincoln’s parents’ guinea pig. She was a rescue someone brought into the clinic a couple of years ago when they found him wandering around their yard. Laura happened to be in the office that day dropping something off. She immediately fell in love with the orange guinea pig and adopted her. She has her own room to roam around in, but anytime the kids are over, she’s brought out with the rest of the family.
Moments later, Pumpkin comes waddling around the corner with the kids trailing behind. I squat down and run my fingers over her coarse hair.