by Sadie King © March 2024
Five years later…
“Grace…”
I walk into the living room, and there’s a squeak as my foot comes down on a colorful plastic toy. I pick it up and throw it in the wicker toy box. It’s one less toy off the floor, but with two kids and a wife like a whirlwind, I’m losing the battle at keeping a tidy cabin.
Kiera sits on the play mat holding a toy airplane in the air. In her other hand she holds a doll which she’s tied a piece of string and a makeshift parachute cut from a plastic bag to.
“Have a good jump,” she says to the doll as she flings it from the plane.
Keira laughs, but my heart clenches. Just what I don’t need. A daughter who wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
“Where’s Mommy?”
Kieran looks up at me with solemn eyes, green like her mother’s. “I’m not supposed to tell you.”
I give Keira a stern look, but she doesn’t flinch. If she’s not supposed to tell me, then Grace is doing something I won’t approve of.
“Is she climbing the oak tree again?”
Kieran shakes her head.
“Did she take the dirt bike out?”
She shakes her head again and I run a hand through my hair, wondering what other crazy activity around this place I’ve missed. Or maybe she’s gone for a nap.
“Is she with Joe?” I ask hopefully.
Keira frowns. “He’s sleeping,” she says disdainfully, having forgotten it wasn’t that long ago that she had afternoon naps.
“She’s on the roof, Daddy. She went up the ladder.”
“On her own?” I take a deep breath. No matter how hard I try, I can never stop my wife from taking risks. We found out this morning that she’s pregnant again, and Grace agreed to take it easy. Going up a ladder isn’t my idea of taking it easy.
“Are you mad, Daddy?” Keira looks up at me with worried eyes.
I ruffle her dark curls, just like her mother’s. “No sweetie, I’m not mad.” There’s no point in getting mad at my wife.
“Can I watch Pepper Pig?”
“Just for half an hour, okay? Then we’ll turn it off once Joe wakes up from his nap.”
I put the TV on for her and head outside to find Grace. Sure enough, there’s a ladder propped up against the side of the cabin.
“Grace!”
Her face appears over the side of the roof.
“What are you doing up there?”
She bites her lower lip, looking guilty.
“I wanted to hang some lights, but then the view up here is great…”
Typical Grace to get distracted by a view.
“You should come up.”
“Onto the roof? Why?”
She smiles her mischievous smile and wiggles to the edge of the roof; she turns around and lets her skirt billow in the wind. My eyes go wide when I look up and straight into the pink folds of her most intimate place.
“Are you wearing no panties?” I hiss.
She giggles. “It was hot.”
It sure fucking is. I’m as hard as the wood of the ladder I’m clasping.
“Why don’t you come on up?”
The smile she gives me leaves no ambiguity over what she wants to do up there.
“You want to…” My voice drops to a whisper in case the kids hear, “…procreate on the roof?”
She laughs. “Why not? We’ve done it in every room of the house and against every tree in this section. Why not the roof?”
There are a hundred reasons why we shouldn’t do what she wants to do on the roof in the middle of the day.
“Because our kids are here.”
She shrugs. “They’ll be okay for five minutes. I’ve got the baby monitor, so I’ll know when Joe wakes up.”
My mouth drops open. After five years or marriage, my wife can still surprise me.
“Hold on.”
I glance in the window to check Keira. She’s sitting cross-legged with her eyes glued to the TV, which isn’t great. But for five minutes…
I can’t believe I’m considering this.
“Are you coming up? ’Cause I’m getting awful lonely up here.”
We may fall off; we could slip and injure ourselves; we could put a hole in the roof. Someone could turn up and see us. All the excuses run through my head. But life is for living, and my wife’s on the roof with no panties.
I ignore the excuses in my head and climb the damn ladder…
An ex-soldier bent on destruction and a curvy girl with a secret that will change his life…
Read April and Delan’s story in Knocked Up next.