Afterward, they went to the bed and breakfast. Marnie was out front, sewing another patch onto Larry’s jean jacket. She waved, looking like an excitable grandmother. She set the jean jacket on the side table and busied herself with taking the babies’ bassinets and setting them up in their usual room.
With the baby monitor clasped safely in Kenzie’s hands, she sat with Marnie and Bryce at the porch table, enjoying a slice of pie and a glass of wine and watching the golden sun retreat behind the trees. Marnie updated them on the Cambridge happenings since their last trip, which had been nearly three weeks before.
“There was another mugging, but the guy was caught,” Marnie said, looking at Kenzie with knowing eyes. “Turns out it was the school substitute teacher. He just needed a bit of extra cash. And he would steal bills right out of teachers’ purses!”
“Wow,” Kenzie said, wondering if this was the same man who’d mugged her. She hoped he was behind bars somewhere, not attacking unsuspecting, frightened, pregnant women.#p#分页标题#e#
“What else? Larry’s dating someone new, but I’m expecting that won’t last much longer than a few weeks, maybe less,” Marnie said. “You know how it is with him. He’s always on that bike of his. You aren’t going to let your kids ride on motorcycles, are you, Kenzie?”
Kenzie turned toward Bryce, shrugging slightly. “Their father appears to like to take risks. If it’s bred into them, then I don’t really see why not. As long as they always wear their helmets.”
Bryce laughed. “That Carter’s already up to something. I can see it brewing behind his eyes.”
“He’s silly. Our girl’s going to discover the cure for cancer. But Carter? He’s going to drive across the earth on a motorcycle, giggling all the way. I can already see it,” Kenzie said.
“Well, I have to admit, when Bryce first told me you were pregnant, I was a bit nervous. Didn’t know how he’d take to being a father. But I see it’s going rather smoothly, so alone up there in the mountains.”
Kenzie, Marnie, and Bryce enjoyed a beautiful evening together on the porch, with an exhausted Kenzie returning to the bedroom just before eleven to check on the still-sleeping babies. She collapsed beneath the covers, grateful for their good friends and their community.
Bryce arrived moments later, creaking the door ajar. He gazed at her from the bright light of the hallway, looking blissfully happy, if a little tipsy.
“Come to bed. You’re going to wake the babies,” Kenzie whispered.
Bryce began to undress, revealing his muscled torso. He wore only his boxers and stood above her, watching her feign sleep. “I know you’re still with us, Kenzie,” he said quietly, kissing her cheek.
“I’m exhausted,” she whispered back.
“You’re beautiful,” he answered.
He joined her beneath the covers, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her passionately, adrenaline pulsing through his blood. Her body turned toward his, and they made love in the safety of the bed and breakfast, beneath the twinkling stars of Cambridge, Vermont. They collapsed, sweating, in one another’s arms, realizing that the strain of being parents, and of having Kenzie’s mother around, had kept them from making love for several weeks—perhaps a month.
“Let’s never wait that long again,” Bryce said, kissing Kenzie on the nose. “I missed your body. I need it.”
Kenzie agreed, passing out in his arms. They slept until the babies began to cry at the crack of dawn, when they rose like haggard soldiers, ready to fight the battle of being parents. They fed the babies and changed them, kissing their dark-haired heads and playing with them until they collapsed back into their bassinets, their little hands forming fists planted near their ears.
They drove back to the cabin that afternoon, as Bryce was anxious to get started on his building project. When they arrived, Kenzie strapped the babies into her chest carrier, telling Bryce she would leave him to his “loud project” and go for a walk through the woods with the babies. Kenzie felt the fuzz of their hair against her chin as she began walking through the forest, thinking she’d go as far as the lake. As she walked, she heard the first noise of a roaring chainsaw and knew Bryce was in his element.
Kenzie gave thanks for the past year and a half as she crunched through the dead leaves from last winter and trudged through the mushy grass from the last rain. The trees gave her shade, yet the weight of her babies made her neck sweat. The babies were both much heavier than they’d been in the womb, making her back ache when she carried them on her chest.#p#分页标题#e#