Page 77 of Adding Up to Love
“And as best I can tell,” Alex continued, “we have approximately—” He squinted at his pocket watch on the nightstand. “—thirteen minutes until little Henry comes bounding in here to see his mummy.”
“Thirteen minutes is not much time.”
“Thirteen minutes is plenty, my dear,” Alex said, positioning himself between her thighs and sliding into her.
When they had each found their release, Fern curled herself into Alex’s body, gently stroking the hair on his forearms. “Are you meeting with your teaching assistants today?”
Alex nodded, kissing Fern’s hair and stroking her collarbone. “I am. I taught most of them before, but it’s a new role for them.” He started teaching graduate-level mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the previous year, excelling in his role as a classroom teacher.
His palm settled on her curved lower abdomen and stroked gently. “You’re starting to show now.”
Fern sighed. “I’m happy the illness has gone away. It would set a poor first impression if I cast up my accounts on the first day of classes.”
He chuckled and bent down to kiss her growing stomach. “You know, you could be having twins.”
Her eyes widened in horror, and she pinched his cheek. “Oh, you bite your tongue.”
Alex feigned a scowl and kissed her again. “I’m proud of you, you know.”
She smiled serenely. “I know you are.” Fern barely had time to kiss him before their door opened and a small strawberry blond head popped around the corner.
“Mummy? Papa? You ‘wake?”
Fern grinned. “We are, my darling.” Henry, named for his godfather, crossed the room in a flash and jumped on the bed, giving his father just enough time to pull on his robe and wink at his wife. She pulled her covers high as she sprinkled kisses over the boy’s chubby face.
“Before you go, will you respond to Rose about Christmas? I want to make sure we book on the same voyage.”
Alex nodded and placed a tender kiss on his wife’s forehead, noting her apprehension. The relationship between Fern and her twin had evolved significantly over the past decade. Despite finding themselves both living in America, they had seen each other only twice, although they corresponded often. They planned to travel together with their families to visit Boar’s Hill for the holidays, marking the first time they would sleep under the same roof since she left England ten years ago.
“Can I play with the globe, Papa?” Henry was already spinning the globe on his father’s dresser with abandon, the entire apparatus teetering wildly. Deciding a moment of distraction was worth the object’s potential destruction, Fern and Alex took the moment to put on their robes and sneak one last kiss.
A knock on the door interrupted them. “Is Henry in here?”
Alex sighed. “Yes, Mum. He’s currently bent on world destruction.” When Fern and Alex welcomed their daughter Emily during her second year of studies, Mrs. Carroway gladly left Birmingham to assist her son and daughter-in-law. Fern had developed a fast camaraderie with his mother, finding a kindred spirit in the book-loving woman.
“We will never have a peaceful morning again, will we?” Fern remarked as she hoisted Henry onto her hip and carried him downstairs. They purchased their brownstone on Observatory Hill three years prior, when John Joseph Sylvester’sProsody in Verse Vol. IIwas published posthumously. His will indicated the proceeds from its sales be distributed to its contributors. An account established in the name of Eliot Dickinson and Alexander Carroway was replenished monthly as royalties came in.
“I can’t imagine spending a chaotic morning with anyone else,” Alex said, grunting as Emily threw herself into his legs and launched into a recitation of Anne’s most recent adventures in Green Gables.
A few hours later, the children successfully settled in with their tutors and Mrs. Carroway, Alex walked Fern to the gates of Radcliffe College, as was their tradition on the first day of classes. He straightened the lapel of her forest green jacket and kissed her gently. “Go change the world, my love,” he said with a proud smile.
She grinned in return. “I shall.”
