The New Ever After (The New Ever After Series)

by Farley, Julie

  He had also learned that his wife could act crazy and unpredictable about their seemingly stress-free life. He knew there were reasons for it, but he had a hard time understanding the inanity of it.

  He decided it was time for them to take a real honeymoon, something they hadn't had an opportunity to do yet. Maybe getting away from everything for a week would help her relax. When he got back from his run, he set his plan in motion. Donna and Phil, Hank's parents, had mentioned that they would love to take the big kids to the beach for a week. He called them and coordinated the dates, and then he called Heather's mom and arranged for her to come and take care of the twins. He divulged his plan to Jenny while she was still at work and Heather had left to run some errands.

  "You better tell Heather. She doesn't do surprises well. Remember how she handled being surprised about the night away in Georgetown," said Jenny.

  "I will. I'm just not going to tell her where we're going. I'll tell her tonight after we're done babysitting your kids so you and your husband can go up to Wild Cougar...I mean Wild Ginger… on us."

  "That's what I hear. Not necessary but thank you." Jenny hoped it would be a good thing. She and Matt hadn't had an opportunity to spend much time together lately. "I'm done here so I'm going to scoot. I'll bring the kids over around 6."

  "Sounds good."

  Jenny left and Heather was home a few minutes later.

  Peter spent the afternoon writing and Heather got all of her end-of-the-school-year admin stuff done. The kids were home from school before Heather and Peter knew it and they were getting ready to babysit.

  Jenny and Matt dropped the kids off at six, and the kids played in the pool while Peter grilled burgers. Heather looked out her window and watched it all taking place. It felt like she was in a little snowglobe world that couldn't possibly be real. A hot man was cooking her dinner, the kids were smiling and splashing in the pool and the weather was perfect. But then as usual, something happened that forced her into reality. Tonight it was George biting Emily.

  After they got the twins down and the older guys were still playing, Peter decided it was as good a time as any to talk to Heather.

  "So, we are finally going on a honeymoon."

  "What?"

  "I am taking you away for a week a couple of days after school ends. I'm not telling you where, and I will handle all the packing. Donna and Phil are going to take the big kids to the beach, and your mom is staying with the twins."

  Heather was a little taken aback. She didn't like to be surprised or to feel like someone was taking control of her life. And once again, bossy Peter was telling her what to do.

  "We can't do all that. It's not fair to ask anyone to do that for us."

  "It's totally fair. And I already did it and booked the trip. There's no turning back."

  "You should have talked to me about it. I could have figured out what to do with the kids instead of forcing them on people. We are married. Remember, we’re supposed to make decisions together."

  "I didn't force them, and everyone was ecstatic to do it. I wanted this to be a surprise so I couldn’t tell you about it. I did follow the request you made in Georgetown and I told you about the trip and didn’t just whisk you away."

  Heather put down the rag she was using to wipe the massive expanse of a kitchen island she had. She looked at Peter and sighed and said, "Whatever."

  "Seriously? We are not going to fight about this." Peter walked right up to Heather and put his arms around her waist. "Believe me, you're going to be happy when we get there. We need this. We've never had time alone like this before. I want some time alone with you away from all of this craziness. I want to have seven nights just like we did in Georgetown."

  "I do too but I’m not sure about leaving the kids for that long. And I don’t want to get on any airplanes. You know I feel like I’m going to die every time I step onto one."

  “I know all that. I get it. We won’t die. I promise.”

  Jenny walked in as Peter kissed Heather on the lips. She cleared her throat to announce her presence.

  "Hey! How was dinner?" asked Heather. "Where's Matt?"

  "He had some work to do so I dropped him off at home before I came to get the kids. Dinner was fine. Matt was on another planet. He checked his phone about fifty times, and we didn't really have much meaningful conversation. But, hey, the food was good."

  "Bummer. Maybe it's work that's making him like this," said Heather, noticing a worried look in Jenny’s usually calm eyes.

  "That's his response. Victoria was at the bar with some of her tennis cronies."

  "Yuck," said Peter. There was no love lost between Peter and Victoria.

  "Did you talk to her?"

  "For a minute. She was a little giddy and flirty with Matt. I think she had one too many of the special cosmos."

  Heather knew how good Wild Ginger’s cosmos were and had given them up after she had a few and then got her skirt stuck in her underwear a few weeks ago. She usually followed the rule that they were like nipples. One is not enough, three is too many and two is just right. She just couldn't imagine Victoria having too many. But maybe it only took one for Victoria to be silly.

  “She flirted with Matt? I can’t imagine Victoria flirting at all,” said Heather.

  “Well, I guess it wasn’t really flirting as much as simply acknowledging him and being polite.”

  "Yeah, she’s hardly ever either of those things," said Peter.

  "Thank you guys so much. And now, I will take my kids and get out of your hair."

  "Wait, did you know about this little trip that I don’t want to go on?" asked Heather.

  "I just found out today. Sounds awesome."

  "She's not so happy that I surprised her. You were right. She doesn't do surprises well."

  "Told you!"

  "Then I'm mad at both of you for not telling me."

  "You'll get over it," said Jenny and collected her kids and went home.

  Chapter 9

  Before she knew it, Heather found herself in the last week of school. As she enjoyed her cup of morning coffee before the kids woke up, she thought about all she had to do during the week. In the land of one-upping, planning the end of the year classroom party was not a task for rookies. She was in charge of planning Henry’s first grade picnic. Gracie had two projects and a three-hour recorder concert and Hayes had an awards assembly. Heather had allowed each of the kids to invite three friends over for an end-of-the-year pool party. She invited Jenny and Janie, Peter's sister. She knew there would be a mad dash to pack and get ready for their trips. Peter had coordinated as many details as he could to make the trip easier but packing three kids was never easy.

  "Morning, sunshine," said Peter coming up behind her and giving her a kiss. He had just returned from a run and was sweaty, but sweaty Peter was still yummy. "What's with the furrowed brow?"

  "Just thinking about our week. Between picnics, assemblies and recorder concerts we are going to be on the go quite a bit."

  Last year, Peter, Jenny and Heather's mom had helped by going to a lot of the end-of-year activities since Heather was on limited bed rest while she was pregnant the twins.

  "We'll get it done and then we can breathe when we arrive at our secret destination."

  Breathe...the mantra she had lived with since Hank died and Peter came into her life.

  "What's today?" asked Peter.

  "Running around getting stuff for the party on Friday and for the first grade picnic. I'll make a little to-do list for the week and that might make me feel better."

  Peter heard George yelling over the intercom and went up to get the twins. If George was yelling, poor Emily was surely awake. A second later, Heather heard Peter calling her on the intercom, so she ran up to the room to see what was up.

  "Hate to tell you, but I think we have a wrench in the schedule," said Peter holding George up.

  George was polka dotted.

  "Holy Cow! What the heck is that?" Heather pu
t him on the changing table and took his onesie off and found the polka dots all over him. He didn't feel feverish. "Look's like we're going to the doctor. How does Emily look?"

  Peter checked and reported she looked ok.

  "You mind bringing them down and I'll wake the rest of the crew for school?" asked Heather. She loved a day that started off with a big wrench in it before 7 a.m.

  "No problem."

  Heather went to Hayes' room first. He begrudgingly woke up and got in the shower. Henry was already up hiding under his covers playing a game on his Kindle. Heather shooed him into his shower and went to wake Gracie, the not-so-sleeping-beauty.

  "Time to get up, sweetie." Heather could never believe that this quiet, reserved little girl could become such an ogre when you woke her up.

  "NOT YET!" Gracie yelled.

  "Yes, yet," replied Heather as she took the covers off of Gracie giving her a blast of air-conditioned cool.

  "Mooommmmm, I don't want to get up."

  "It's the last week of school. Let's go. You're almost on summer vacation."

  Heather forced Gracie to pick clothes the night before to reduce the amount of drama in the morning. Peter sometimes volunteered to wake her up as she yelled at him a little less. Heather was amazed at how he stepped into the role of stepdad so easily. He was a natural with the babies and not afraid of anything even diapers that turned into massive explosions. His sister, Janie, had trained him well with her own kids. It paid to have a dad who had been a doting uncle.

  "Gracie, let's go. George is sick, and I need to take him to the doctor." Heather hoped hearing her brother was sick would get her out of bed...and it did.

  "What's wrong with him, Mom? Is he ok?"

  "He has a rash. No fever."

  "It will be fine, right?"

  "Yep. Just has a few extra polka dots."

  "Where is he?"

  "Peter took the twins downstairs. Get dressed and head down there."

  Heather ran into her room to change into her mommy uniform of a running skirt and tank top. She wasn't sure she would fit a run in, but she put the outfit on for its ease and ability not to show dirt. Wearing exercise clothes provided an excuse for the rest of you looking not-so-perfect. No one really knew if you had just returned from a run. There was no need for makeup, and hair could be pulled back. Quick, and hence the reason it was the uniform of choice for mothers in Heather's zip code. Mothers dressed in Lululemon were a dime a dozen at Kroger, Target and the elementary school. Heather heard yelling as she made her way back downstairs.

  “Mom, Henry’s sagging again!” yelled Hayes.

  “Henry, Peter told you if he caught you sagging again he was going to buy you short khaki shorts,” said Gracie.

  “Peter doesn’t understand cool,” said Henry.

  “He understands it better than you!” said Hayes.

  “Pull them up or I’m throwing them all away,” said Heather.

  Henry shook his head and pulled up his pants so no one could see his Star Wars underwear hanging out anymore.

  They got the kids off to school and Heather took George to the doctor while Peter stayed home with Emily. The pediatrician saw Heather right away and asked her a bunch of questions.

  "Has he had a fever?"

  "No, he's been grumpy this weekend but no fever."

  "He probably had a fever, but you didn't even realize it. I think he has roseola."

  She went on to give Heather the details. Of course, there was nothing to be done and since the older ones had had it when they were young, they wouldn't catch it. Emily probably would shortly. Heather felt like Mother of the Year for not realizing George had most likely had a fever over the weekend.

  She headed home to the list she had never had a chance to make this morning. Peter was on the patio with Emily, and Heather gave him the details. She grabbed her paper and planned out the week realizing the sick twins would not be attending any of the events that were on the calendar. Heather would be flying solo. Something she had been used to but didn't relish going back to. It's only for a couple hours at a time, Heather rationalized.

  As soon as Heather sat down with her list, she got a text.

  10:37 Tanya: What color hanging basket are you going to get for Henry's teacher? I don't want all of the first grade teachers to get the same color.

  Heather had no clue what color to get so she picked what she thought would be easy to find and made a mental note to write it down. She also wasn’t sure why it mattered if each teacher got the same color plant.

  10:38 Heather: pink

  Number one on her to-do list was now to buy a pink hanging basket. Heather got through the rest of her list and the rest of her day in a quieter fashion than she had this morning. She made a list for Peter too and sauntered into his office while the twins were sleeping to give it to him.

  "Hey, beautiful."

  "I have a list for you."

  Peter grabbed her and put her on his lap. "I'll do the list if you do something for me."

  "I'm gross and not even showered yet."

  "Let's fix that." Heather had a shower fetish that had started when they had begun dating and had only grown after the twins were born. Peter planned to take full advantage of it this afternoon.

  "Upstairs, now."

  Heather smiled and knew there was no escaping an amorous Peter. Using sex as a tool to procrastinate checking off items on her to-do list was something she was fine with. She ran out of the office and up the steps. He caught her on the third step and picked her up.

  "Can't get away from me that easily."

  "Who said I was trying to? I just wanted to get to the shower first."

  Peter carried her into the bathroom. Heather lifted her tank top over her head, and Peter couldn't resist kissing her nipples. She slid her hands down to her running skirt and pushed it down to the floor. Peter was still dressed, and his hands were too busy so she lifted his shirt over his head. She fumbled with the button on his shorts and ended up accidentally pulling it off.

  "Nice, Mrs. Adamson. You're that anxious to have me that you need to rip my clothes off me?"

  "I'm just trying to release all my pent up stress."

  "I will help you do that anytime."

  She knew Peter was happy that with all of the stress she felt it didn't seem to affect her sex drive.

  They walked over to turn on the shower and spent the next fifteen minutes getting clean in a very dirty way.

  "Just for that, I will do anything you have on that crazy list downstairs."

  "Thank you."

  Chapter 10

  Henry’s picnic day arrived on one of the hottest days in June so far. The school decided if it was over 90 degrees at picnic time, it would be held inside. The temperature hovered at 89 at 11:00 so they stayed outside. In order to beat the massive line of first grade moms at the Chick-Fil-A drive thru, Heather offered to buy Henry a Lunchable. He was thrilled with the idea and ordered a make your own pizza. She ran to Kroger to pick it up along with the popsicles for the class and a quick iced tea for herself at Starbucks. She arrived at school and set up her blanket and the teacher’s present in the designated spot for Henry’s class. Henry was thrilled to have a normally outlawed Lunchable for lunch. He opened all of the packets for his make your own pizza and got to work. In true Henry fashion, he managed to get the entire packet of sauce on the front of his shirt, and Heather realized she forgot to bring napkins. Tanya stopped by Heather’s blanket and noticed the mess.

  “Need some help?” she asked.

  “Yeah. You don’t happen to have an extra napkin do you?”

  “Of course, let me get it.”

  Tanya returned with a linen napkin that Heather was afraid to use knowing the sauce would stain it indefinitely.

  “Nice lunch! Do you know how many different food dyes are in there? Not to mention the calories?” asked Tanya.

  “Who cares? I love it!” said Henry, taking the pressure off of Heather to answer the question.


  “It’s time to present the teachers their gifts and hand out the popsicles,” said Tanya. “Do you have some words prepared to say about Mrs. Thomas?”

  “Ummm…I was just going to thank her,” said Heather.

  “You should highlight some of the special things they did during the year. Think you can handle that?”

  “One thing I can handle is putting some words together, Tanya,” said Heather.

  Tanya walked away and Heather tried to think of something special the class had done in first grade. She couldn’t come up with anything, probably because Henry hadn’t told her much and because with three of them in school she felt lucky to remember his teacher’s name most of the time. She decided to say a simple thank you in her style, which meant pulling at the heartstrings. She got everyone’s attention with the lure of popsicles.

  “Mrs. Thomas, each and everyday we kissed our kids good-bye and put them on the bus. We did that knowing you were on the other end to greet them, love them and keep them safe. You made it easy to send them out into this sometimes scary world. Thank you for being the first grade teacher they will remember for the rest of their lives.” Mrs. Thomas wiped away a tear and hugged Heather.

  Heather moved on to the next task, passing out the popsicles. Three of the moms turned them down for their spawn because apparently Heather had bought the popsicles with Yellow No. 5 in them.

  She survived the picnic and was very happy to check all of her room mom duties off of her list for the year. Her next task for the day was outfitting Gracie for her recorder concert tomorrow. She needed a white button down shirt with a Peter Pan collar and a khaki pleated skirt that went to the knees. Heather sent Henry off on a playdate for the afternoon because it was a school tradition that kids didn’t stay for the remainder of the day after their picnic. She left Peter at home with the twins and headed out to search for the proper outfit for Gracie. After scouring Kohls, Target and Lands End, she found items she thought would suffice. Although she was sure Gracie would protest, as the collar was not a round one like it was supposed to be. She was confident a square collar would not ruin their lives and she was determined to finally get home and take a swim in her pool. She pulled in the driveway and carried the bags inside.