Doug and Bob shot across the yard and made it to the park before she could get the baby carriage to the ground. Charles and Ben were trailing after their older brothers, but Ben tripped and fell. Ben cried and waited for her to come over to him.
She stopped pushing the carriage and knelt beside him. Pulling up his pants, she saw the pink knee and patted it. “You’ll be fine. No blood. See?”
Ben inspected his injury with tear-filled eyes. Assured that he was going to be alright, he nodded and stood up. She kissed him on the top of his head and noted he didn’t take offense to it.
“At least you’re still young enough to enjoy some motherly affection,” she commented.
He smiled at her and took a step forward.
“Um...Ben? The ball?” She motioned to the brown ball in the grass.
“Oh!” He ran over to retrieve it and came back to her. “It’s my ball.”
“Yes, it is.”
They walked to the park where his brothers were already kicking their own ball around.
“Not their ball,” Ben said, holding up his ball.
“Nope. That is all yours.”
He nodded and hugged it. “All mine.”
She chuckled and stopped at a bench. “Yes, it is. Now, go on and play. I need to take a break. You boys wear me out.”
She sat down and waited for Jessica to arrive. As tired as she was, she couldn’t deny that she was happy.
Jessica came along about ten minutes later, holding her four month old daughter.
Margaret’s eyebrows furrowed. “You didn’t bring her in a carriage? Aren’t your arms sore?”
“Nelly’s not heavy,” Jessica replied as she sat beside her and set the girl on her lap so she could sit up and study her surroundings.
“She looks so big from the last time I saw her.” She glanced at her own daughter who had fallen asleep. “I suppose it won’t be long before Charlotte’s off running around with her older brothers. I kind of enjoy babies.”
“Me too. But that’s why we can have more than one, and then, after that, we get grandchildren!”
Margaret laughed. “You are always thinking ahead, aren’t you?”
“I take time to enjoy the moment too.”
“Yes. I know you do. How are things with Tom?”
“They’re fine. I think he’d like a boy some day, but he was tickled pink when he first saw Nelly.”
“I think men like the idea of having a son to follow in their footsteps.”
“How did Joseph feel about having a girl?”
“He was relieved. He said at least a girl won’t pee in his face if he changes her diaper.”
Jessica gasped. “He changes diapers?”
Margaret smiled. “He had to do that and more with Ben and Charles before he married me.”
“But now he has you to do that.”
“Maybe. But if he wants me to have the time to cook, he has to chip in and help. You think I can handle all these children without a helping hand?”
Jessica seemed to think about it.
“You just wait until you have a couple more children and talk to me about what is and isn’t a man’s job in the house.”
She sighed. “You’re probably right.”
Two distinct sets of laughter caught Margaret’s attention. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Peter with Debra and his mother. They had apparently decided to take a stroll through the park, and Debra held his arm on one side while his mother held his arm on the other.
Margaret nudged Jessica in the side.
Jessica looked up from fussing over her baby and turned her gaze in the direction Margaret motioned to.
“I know just the color that will suit your new home,” Connie said to Debra. “Yellow.”
Debra nodded. “A cheery yellow might work. It certainly is a friendly color.”
“That it is.”
“And the fence needs to be white. I always wanted a white picket fence,” Debra added. “It’s been a childhood dream.”
Connie turned her attention to Peter and said, “That settles it. You’ll paint the house yellow and the fence white.”
Margaret wondered how he’d take this apparent running of his life, and maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised when he simply smiled and agreed to what his mother and his wife wanted. In fact, she couldn’t recall a time when Peter James looked happier.
The three passed Margaret and Jessica with a polite greeting that the two women returned. Then they continued to their conversation to discuss the types of flowers Debra would plant in the front yard.
Margaret and Jessica watched them for a good minute before Margaret turned to her friend and said, “There goes the most content man in the world.”