myself at any point in the future as a mother. I thought of my townhouse and how nice it was. How mature, calm, soothing, and pleasant it was. Children would disrupt everything I’d worked so hard for.
Miriam came into the kitchen with Adeline in her arms. The baby had tired eyes and a pacifier in her mouth. She was dressed in a plaid sleeper, and when Miriam handed her to me, I saw the front that read “Santa’s Favorite.” The baby immediately grabbed hold of my gold hoop earring and tugged.
I winced, pried the earring free, and removed both from my ears just to be safe.
Robert chuckled. “Sorry, Kat. Earrings and necklaces are her favorite thing right now.”
I massaged my earlobe. “Apparently.”
Miriam and Bobby went into the dining room to set the table. He shrieked and squealed, and Miriam laughed, and I winced at the pitch of the sound.
“You get used to it after a while,” Robert said.
Blushing, I shook my head. “Oh, it’s fine. It’s just been a long day. I might be a bit on edge. You know how it is with work sometimes.”
Robert put on a pair of oven mitts and opened the oven. He pulled out a perfectly golden, crispy-looking lasagna, and the kitchen immediately swelled with the smell of cheese and spaghetti sauce. My mouth started to water. Addie dropped her head and spat out her soother so she could suckle at the top of my breast.
“Uh, no thank you,” I said, turning her around so she was facing outward.
Robert laughed. “She’s probably hungry. I’ll warm up a bottle.”
Once he warmed up the bottle, he handed it to me. It wasn’t the first time I’d fed the baby before. I sat on the bench seat in their kitchen nook while she ate and Robert put the final fixings on dinner.
Ten minutes later, we were all sitting around the dinner table, Adeline included. She had just started using her high chair, I’d been told, and Miriam cut up some lasagna into tiny pieces and put it on the plastic tray for her to mush with her tiny fingers and spread all over her face. I wasn’t sure the kid ate any of it.
Bobby sat in his chair beside his mother like a big boy. I sat across from them and beside Robert, who sat at the head of the table. Bobby had his plate of food and his parents never commented on how much he should eat. The food was there, and if he didn’t want it, he didn’t have to eat it. I knew from experience however that he would not get something else if he was hungry later. Mom would reheat his plate and serve it to him again. I wasn’t sure if it was a good strategy or not.
I knew shit about kids.
Miriam sipped her wine and smiled at me from across the table. “I’m glad we were able to do this. It’s been a while since Robert and I were able to cook for someone and feel like normal humans.”
“This is nice,” I agreed, even though my heart yearned to be home sweet home.
It was hard to talk about anything of substance at the dinner table because we had to entertain the kids. Bobby wanted to tell stories. Or rather, he wanted to talk at us. He couldn’t pronounce all his words clearly, so I had a hard time understanding him, but his parents picked up every word. By eight o’clock, it was his bedtime and Adeline was tired again, so Robert took the kids upstairs to start the night routine and put them to bed.
Miriam and I finally had a sliver of time without any minis running around.
We moved to sit in her living room. The lights were on dim and the atmosphere was cozy and warm beside the fire with the tree lit. I had to admit, even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of Christmas, Miriam and Robert did it well. Their children were lucky to have parents who cared enough to make memories like this for them.
“I can’t believe Christmas is so close,” Miriam said with a sigh. Her cheeks were flushed from the two glasses of red wine she’d had. Like she’d said, she hadn’t drunk hardly at all since she got pregnant with Bobby three years and ten months ago. She was a lightweight. “You should’ve seen Bobby when we were putting the tree up. I’m telling you, Kathryn, it was the best feeling in the