BOOKER

I make my before-bed rounds to ensure the house is buttoned up. After locking the front door and turning off the porch light, I kill the lights in the living room and check to make sure the dying fire is properly banked. Then I head upstairs. This is one of my favorite parts of the day, when the kids are tucked in their rooms and it’s just Lena and me for a while.

It was a great day and as I wash up and brush my teeth in the bathroom, I can’t help but think what a lucky bastard I am. I have a profitable business that allows me to make payments on our home during a time when far too many men are out of work or have had their wages cut back to poverty levels. More importantly, I have the loves of my life and a small, but golden, group of friends. My dad and I have a good relationship—which reminds me, I need to call him tomorrow to see how his bank is doing. Walla Walla county banks opted not to participate in the banking holiday the rest of the state is currently in the midst of. I want to know how that’s working for them.

Lena and I even have a guarded relationship with my mother these days. I will never again feel the same about her as I once did. But shortly after Jack was born, Edna accompanied Dad out of the blue on one of his trips to see us. She apologized with what appeared to be genuine sincerity for betraying our trust, as well as for her inexcusable behavior the last time she was in our home. And she asked to be allowed a relationship with her new grandson.

Lena was the one to point out Edna and Dad are the only grandparents Jack and any future children would ever know. So, after much discussion between Lena and me, and not until Mother accepted the ground rules we made damn sure she understood were nonnegotiable, did we give our permission. She knows one negative word about their mother to our kids and it will be the last time Grandma Edna sees either one of them. There will be no third chances.

Like I said, a guarded relationship.

I let myself into our bedroom a moment later and suck in a breath as I watch Lena with her arms in the air, dropping a nightie over her head to slither down her nude body. I will never tire of seeing this woman unclothed. No, her beautiful breasts aren’t quite as high as they once were. Neither is her waist as narrow as it was when I bought her those first five gowns back in ‘26, and her stomach now possesses some pale silvery stretch marks. But those changes? They’re courtesy of the incredible kids she bore us. There’s not a flawless-bodied female in the world who could tempt me from my wife’s side. Being loved by Lena is the best thing that ever happened to me.

“Hey, beautiful,” I murmur, crossing the room.

She flashes me a dazzling smile. “Hey, yourself, handsome.”

Reaching her, I bend my head to kiss the lips she puckers up at me. We linger over the kiss a while before finally pulling back. I brush a tendril of hair out of her eyes. “Let’s go to bed.”

“Oh, good plan. I’d rather be laying down when I tell you I need to cut back to Fridays and Saturdays at the club.”

“Can’t work with the lack of sleep any longer?”

“Not three days in a row,” she agrees. “I’d like to shoot for two, though.”

“You ever regret turning down the Black Door offer, Lena?”

“No.”

“You sure? I have no doubt you’d be a huge star now.”

“Maybe. But here’s the thing.” She climbs into bed and flops back, reaching to bunch the pillow under her head. “I want a loving family so much more than a successful career. My biggest wish was always for someone to love me. And when it looked like that wasn’t in the cards, I just wanted to be good at something. Now here I am, with my biggest wish fulfilled. As for my backup plan, right now that’s being a good mom and wife.” She tilts her chin to look up at me. “And a good singer. You know I love making music, Booker. But I didn’t know what it was to have a mom growing up and I want to be around for our babies. They’re still at an age where they’re asleep before we leave and only rarely have they woken up to find Mrs. Tilley instead of us.” Lena waves an impatient hand. “Sorry, you know all this.”

“I do.” I’m kicking off my trousers but pin her in my sights to let her know I take her issues seriously. “I also know Jack and Lucy get up ungodly early and you and I get home late. I could kind of see this coming. You’re good about letting me sleep in weekdays. I haven’t been great about doing the same for you on the weekends or noticing you’ve been burning your candle at both ends. I should have—it’s not like I don’t know damn well how hard you work taking care of the kids and the house and running the choir you started at Seattle Children’s.”

I get in bed and roll onto my side to face her. “You want to quit entirely?”

“No! Oh, honey, no, I don’t. I love all those things and I don’t want to give up the club until the kids start to realize one or both of us aren’t here most evenings. I can honestly say I don’t feel a single pang about dropping a night from my schedule, though.” She laughs her infectious whole-hearted laugh. “You gotta admit, sleep is so darn seductive.” Turning over, she spoons her butt against me.

Wrapping an arm around her, I rearrange her until we’re both in our sweet zone. I’ve actually been thinking I might want to switch to a business with more regular hours, myself, when the kids are a little older. I haven’t determined as yet what that business might be, but I’ve never lacked imagination. The perfect idea will occur to me sooner or later.

But for now? “What do you say we change up the schedule so you sleep in Saturday and Sunday mornings?”

Lena sighs contentedly. “Oh, have you got yourself a deal.” She turns in my arms, kisses me from my jaw to my Adam’s Apple, then slips her hand down my chest on an ever-southbound journey. “Interested in sealing that deal, Big Boy?”

Oh, yeah. Always.