“I remember all too well, and it went by in a flash. Enjoy every minute of it, you two. You won’t believe how soon you’ll be empty nesters.”
“That seems like a lifetime from now,” Maddie said.
“You’ll be shocked at how fast it goes by,” Big Mac said.
“We’ve already seen that with Thomas,” Mac said. “How is he already six?”
“And full of beans,” Linda said.
“We wouldn’t have him any other way,” Mac said.
Big Mac could tell his son was thrilled to be home and to have his family under one roof for the first time. He and Linda made dinner, helped get the three older kids bathed and ready for bed and read them the required three stories before they headed home, promising to be back to help out tomorrow.
“I’m spent,” Big Mac said. “How can three little people run two experienced grannies ragged?”
“Speak for yourself. I’m as fresh and perky as I was first thing this morning.”
“Sure you are,” he said, laughing.
“My back is killing me from hauling baby Mac around. He’s a chunk all of a sudden.”
“He’s growing like a weed, just like this family of ours.” Within a year, they’d have fourteen grandchildren, including the new twins and Adam and Abby’s quads. Evan and Grace and Grant and Stephanie had joked about feeling like slackers because they were expecting “only” one baby each.
“We’re going to need a spreadsheet to remember all the birthdays,” Linda said.
“It’s a good ‘problem’ to have.”
“It sure is. I was thinking earlier today about the first time I ever came here, the day after we met when you wanted to show me the marina you’d just bought.”
“Ah, yes,” he said, chuckling. “The ferries were canceled, and we had to spend the night in the spider room.”
Linda cringed and shuddered the way she did every time he mentioned the spider room.
“I was lucky you ever talked to me again after that,” he said, smiling at the memory.
“Oh please. You had me so hooked on you after twenty-four hours together, I would’ve followed you anywhere you wanted to go.”
“That’s all it took, huh? Twenty-four hours?”
“I think it was more like twelve.”
Big Mac barked out a laugh. “It took about twelve seconds for me to set my sights on you.”
“I love thinking about those early days and all the days that’ve come since then.”
“I do, too. We couldn’t ask for more than all six of our kids happily married, fourteen grandchildren here or on the way and all of them living close enough to spoil any time we want. And when the baby boom settles down a bit, we’ll get back to traveling.”
“I’m with you, sport.”
Big Mac parked the truck in the driveway of the “White House,” the name locals had given their home overlooking North Harbor, and leaned across the center console to kiss his bride. “That was—and is—all I need to hear.”
* * *
While Maddie tended to fussy babies, Mac checked in with the older three, starting with baby Mac, who was halfway asleep in his crib, and then Hailey, who was already out cold, before ending up in Thomas’s room. “Move over. I’m coming in.”
He’d missed his son’s husky giggle and the way he followed Mac around with hero-like worship. Thomas had been nine months old when Mac met Maddie. He’d formed an instant bond with the little boy, who was now his son. “I heard you were very helpful with baby Mac while we were away.”
“He’s so cute and funny. I like helping with him.”
“And you like pushing your sister’s buttons.”
“What buttons does she have?”
“It’s a figure of speech.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s another way of saying you like to annoy her.”
“She annoys me! Why’d you have to get me two more baby sisters? There’s more of them than there are of us. And Mac is still too little to help me fight them.”
“You’re not going to fight them. You’re going to love them.”
“Someday, maybe, but right now, they’re just a pain.”
Mac had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Sometimes he had to remind himself that he was the parent now and no longer one of the kids.
“I wish Connor hadn’t died,” Thomas said.
The reminder of the baby they’d lost sent a jolt of shock through Mac. “I do, too, buddy, but if he’d lived, we might not have Mac.”
“Why not?” Thomas asked, his soft blond brows furrowing with confusion.
“I’ll explain how that works when you’re older, okay?”
“Why is there so much secret stuff I can’t know until I’m older?”
“Because you need to be older to understand it. I promise I’ll tell you all the important secret stuff when you’re ready.”
“How will you know when I’m ready?”
Mac kissed the boy’s forehead. “I’ll know. I was once a six-year-old boy with lots of questions myself.”
“You were never little like me!”
“Yes, I was!”
Thomas cracked up laughing. “Nuh-uh.”
“Uh-huh. Now go to sleep so you’ll grow up to be big and strong like Daddy.” Mac flexed his muscles to make his point.
“I’m glad you’re my daddy.”
How could five little words nearly bring him to tears? “Being your daddy, and Hailey, Mac, Emma and Evie’s daddy, is my favorite thing in the whole wide world.”
“But mostly you like being my dad, right?” Thomas asked with a sly smile.
“You’ll never get me to admit that.” Mac was endlessly amused by him and could never admit that he’d always have an extra-special place in his heart for the boy who’d first made him a dad. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You guys will be here, right?”
“We’ll be here, buddy.”
He left Thomas’s room and returned to the master where Maddie was breastfeeding one of the twins while the other slept on the bed next to her. Breastfeeding twins was an Olympic event, and Maddie was a gold medalist. She made it look easy when it was anything but and had joked that her overly large breasts were finally coming in handy.
“Can I get you anything?” he asked.
“If you could hand me my water, that’d be great.”
Mac walked into the room, retrieved her thermal cup of ice water off the bedside table and handed it to her.
“My hero,” she said, smiling up at him.
“Sure, I am. I’m the reason you’re breastfeeding twins.”
“That’s definitely all your fault, but they sure are beautiful.”
“Yes, they are. They look just like their gorgeous mother, and thank goodness for that.”
“I see you in them, too. Evie does this thing with her lips when she’s annoyed that reminds me of you.”
Mac glanced at the yellow bracelet on the baby Maddie was feeding. Yellow for Emma, pink for Evie. Mac sat on the edge of the bed, wanting to tell her what Thomas had said about Connor, but not wanting to upset her on what had been a great day for their family. “I’ve never felt more useless than I have since I’ve watched you feed twins.”