It’s painting day, and Grace couldn’t be more excited. We’ve taken as much as we can out of her room to make it easier for us to move around. She was thrilled with the pale pink that Karen chose, and now it’s time to get the entire room done. Lucky for us, her room isn’t huge, and Karen has already done the trim of the room. She’s worked on it a little bit each day this week so that we’d only have the main walls to do today. We made sure to buy the color in a good paint that will mainly cover in one coat, hoping to only have to do touch-ups after we finish. Her bedroom set will be here next Saturday, at which time we’re kicking her out of the house and she won’t be allowed back in until it’s done.
Karen comes in wearing the same yoga pants and t-shirt she’s been wearing to paint all week. She literally raced home from work, changed her clothes, and painted for about forty minutes until we had to go. We’re lucky Mom has recovered from her illness. She’s been helping get things ready for football while Karen worked on the room so that we could be ready for today.
“Ready to do this?” she asks, totally excited.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
We pour paint into two rolling pans and get to work on opposite sides of the room. “How’s Jason been? He seems like he’s handling everything well.”
“He’s good. I told him it was over.”
There’s nothing I want more than to adopt Jason and marry Karen, but it’s not my call. I turn back to the wall and begin rolling out paint.
My brain is on overdrive. The room is silent which leaves nothing more to do than think. We’ve been dating for a few months. I know people would say I’m insane, but our situation is so different. We knew years ago we should’ve been together, but our paths were laid out and we were taken in a different direction. Now that we’re finally together, there’s not a soul on this earth I would rather be with and I know she feels the same way. I see it in her eyes when we make love. Now I just have to figure out how to make it happen. My arms are hard at work painting while my mind is reeling with ideas on how to have the kids help me ask her. She would love that, and it would make it so much more special.
“I’m done with this wall.” Karen pulls me from my thoughts. When I turn to face her, I can’t help but laugh. She has paint spots all over her beautiful face. “What’s so funny?” She plants her hand on her hip.
“You have paint splatter all over your face.”
“Oh yeah, you should see your head?” I look in Grace’s mirror, and sure enough my bald head is covered in pink paint splatter.
“That’s quite the look. Does it turn you on?” I pull her close to me and plant a kiss on her lips.
“Babe, when it comes to you there isn’t much that doesn’t turn me on. I even love watching you on the football field. The focus and fierce look in your eyes while you’re out there coaching those kids.” A smile spreads across my face. I just figured out how I’m going to do it, but I have some planning to do.
“What are you so happy about?” She presses her lips to mine.
“Oh, nothing.” I feign innocence.
“You’re full of shit. I can tell you’re up to no good.” She points her roller at me. “No problem. I’ll come up with a way to get it out of you.” She steps out of my hold and goes back to rolling the next wall. “You’re lucky we have to get this done so your daughter can sleep in here tonight.” I continue working because she’s right. The weather is getting cool so we need to be sure we can air it out and close the window before bed. We’ve been lucky with the weather so far, but there’s no way we can leave the window open all night.
It takes us about another hour, but we manage to finish painting the room. We close the door and leave the window open. Karen sets a reminder on her phone to close the window around dinnertime so the room will warm up in time for bed.
The kids are all playing a game downstairs. They look so cute playing together. The weather is really raw today, so they’re staying inside. Jason makes a funny face, and Grace falls back on her elbows laughing hysterically. I look at Karen with a smile. “Look at them,” I whisper.
“I know. It’s awesome to see them all playing nicely.”
“Okay, okay, it’s Grace’s turn,” Gabe announces.
Grace scoops up the dice and rolls them to take her turn. She cheers excitedly when she gets the number she wants. Gabe and Jason shake their heads. “I can’t believe she’s beating us,” Jason says with frustration.
“Dude, she’s just lucky.” Gabe takes the dice and rolls them, growling when he doesn’t get the number he wants. “This game is awful.”
“Oh, Gabe, don’t be a sore loser.” I take the last few steps down the stairs and into the living room.
“I’m trying not to, Dad, but this game is seriously out of control.” I raise my brows at my kid.
“It’s Chutes and Ladders. How out of control can it be?”
Karen cracks up laughing. “I’m going to go shower. I want to wash this paint off before it becomes permanently stuck to my skin.”
She runs back upstairs, and I decide to take that opportunity to talk to the kids. “Okay, everyone, listen up. This is important, and I only have a few minutes before Karen comes back.”
They all huddle and Jason asks, “What’s up?”
“How do you kids feel about Karen and I getting married?” I ask, a bit nervous.
Grace claps happily, and Jason and Gabe look at each other before turning back to me. Gabe says, “That means we’ll be brothers.”
“It does, but I want everyone to be ready when I ask Karen. It can’t be just Karen and I that have to be ready. You kids have to be on board too; that’s very important to us.”
“I’m cool,” Gabe says.
“Me too,” Grace announces.
“Jason?” I look at him. “If you’re not ready, I understand. You just went through some stuff with your mom and dad, but know I’m here for you.”
He looks at the floor then to Gabe, Grace, and back to me. “Do you really love us?” His eyes instantly well with hurt.
I look him in the eye and with sincerity I reply, “With all my heart. We all do.”
He smiles. “I’m in.”
I pull the three kids in for a quick hug. “Good, because I want you all to be part of the proposal.”
“Cool, what do we do?” Jason asks.
Checking the stairs to ensure she isn’t coming, I add, “I have some planning to do, but we’ll do it one week from tomorrow.” I go into all the details of how I want this to go down. They add their input, and we bounce some ideas off each other. The smiles on their faces as we discuss this is exciting.
“What are you all up to?” We all jump and turn to discover Karen at the bottom of the stairs with her hands firmly planted on her hips and one eyebrow raised.
“We’re just discussing a movie for tonight.”
“In a football huddle?”
The kids and I look at each other cautiously then back at Karen. She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I’m going to help your mom with dinner.”
“That was close. Remember this is a surprise, not one word of this to anyone or it’ll be ruined.”
They all agree, and we really begin planning the movie we’ll watch tonight. It’s become our thing to watch movies on Saturday evenings with the kids. It’s a great way to relax before a day of football.