“I’m sure they had the best of intentions.” He brought the warmed cloth out, and carefully peeled off the tiny diaper. “I didn’t hear any bubbling or gurgling. Just spitting. And I’ve got to tell you, that’s not a remarkably serene sound effect.”
Maddie couldn’t help laughing. At that moment, her milk let down. “Oh, my gosh!”
“What is it?” He stared at her, pausing in his diapering.
“I let down! I let down! It really works!” Grateful delight ran all through her. “I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to breast-feed!”
“Why wouldn’t you? You’ve got more-than-satisfactory equipment.”
She let that go in her joy. “I don’t know. I just was afraid I couldn’t.” Staring at the baby suckling earnestly now that he was being rewarded for his trouble, Maddie smiled in dizzy relief. “I got nervous when I couldn’t let down. And there are all these people in the house, which I love, but it’s…”
“Hard to relax.”
“Yes! And then there’s the formula cans.”
Sam finished diapering the baby and cradled him to his chest as he sat on the edge of the bed. “Formula cans?”
“Well, there’s so much pressure, Sam! I know this will sound neurotic, but it says right on the can that ‘breast milk is best. But if you choose not to feed your baby breast milk,’ etc. etc. I mean, how is that supposed to make a woman feel?”
“Pressured?”
“Exactly! I couldn’t get pregnant the normal way. What if my other equipment failed me?”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
She missed him staring at her breast, which was free of the towel she’d draped over her shoulder. “It all just made me tense, I guess. I’m so happy I can breast-feed my babies!”
He shook his head. “I think you should kick everyone out of the house, except me. This is time you should spend relaxing.”
“I have privacy in my room, and our moms have decorated it beautifully. I’m supposed to feel like I’m in a jungle, far away from everything, among the natural elements of life.”
“It’s certainly got that primitive feel.”
She shook her head at him. “I must have relaxed when you made me laugh, enough to let down.”
“Glad I’m good for something.”
“Precisely. Because if anyone had told me you’d be the instrument of my relaxation, I would have been very concerned.”
“Stranger things have happened, I guess. Why don’t I diaper that greedy little guy if he’s through, and you three can take a nap?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you being so caring?”
“I was always caring, Maddie. I simply want us to go back to what we had before.” He helped her up and toward the bed, taking the baby from her. “You know, our natural element.”
Tucking Henry next to her body, she said, “Our primitive instincts.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, we’d gotten so calendar-happy. It’s tough to get passionate when you feel like you’re playing beat-the-clock. Not that I’m complaining about having sex. Just the performance thing started to weigh on me.” He glanced at her. “I knew I was letting you down. And when the doctor mentioned my potency, I knew I was holding you back from what you wanted most. That’s not what marriage should be.”
“Oh, Sam.” She stared up at him, feeling regret for everything. “I am sorry about all that.”
“Well.” He finished wiping and diapering Hayden and tucked the infant next to his mother. “Good to see that I wrung out some powerful babies, after all.”
“You did.” A slight smile curved her lips. “Dr. Maitland told me there was a major explosion in the old petri dish.”
Sam nodded at her, not believing a word but enjoying having his vanity soothed. “You know, this is the first time I think I’ve related to you how insecure I’d been.”
“Oh, Sam, I never thought you were the problem. I thought it was me! It’s terrible not to be able to give your husband a child.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “You with your breast milk hang-up and me with performance anxiety. We should do something about our neuroses.”
“We did. It’s called separation.” She closed her eyes sleepily, lulled by Sam’s deep, comforting voice.
Sam looked at his wife and the two content infants hogging the king-size bed, a threesome he wasn’t invited to join. He sighed and went to sit on one of the striped chairs. “So, Sam,” he thought to himself. “Everything’s in good working order now. What next? What’s the opposite of neurotics who separate?” He laid his head back against the chair back, pondering the ceiling. “Secure people who stayed married to each other.”
Maybe. Trouble was, Maddie had already given him a definite no to that suggestion. She was probably right. She was happy now, as she’d said, and more than anything he wanted her to be happy. “Hey, Jane,” he murmured softly, “any room in your jungle for this Tarzan?”
The phone rang, startling him into an upright position. He snatched the china floral phone, answering it so Maddie wouldn’t waken. “Hello?”
“This is Dr. Abby Maitland. May I speak to Maddie Brady, please?”
He resisted the urge to growl Maddie Winston. “She’s asleep.”
“Is this Sam?”
Well, at least Dr. Abby knew the origin of the sperm. “Yes, it is.”
“How’s my patient?”
“Doing fine.”
“How are you doing?”
He frowned at the physician’s interest. “I didn’t just give birth, so I’m not the one you should be concerned about. Maddie is. So if there’s anything you can tell me about how to make this easier on her, that would be appreciated. Any special dos or don’ts?”
“She needs lots of rest and TLC,” Abby said. “A healthy diet, lots of fluids. No lifting except for the babies, of course, and no sexual intercourse for six weeks.”
“Ah.” Six weeks! “I’m so happy I asked.”
“I’ll just bet you are.” Abby laughed. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you have any other questions. Please mention to Maddie when she wakes up that I’d like to speak with her.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
He heard the laughter not concealed by her professional tone, and hung up the phone, highly disgruntled. Maddie turned over on the bed, her legs smooth and gleaming in the afternoon sunshine lighting the room. He bit his lips and drummed on the sides of the chair.
Six weeks! Thank goodness he’d already warned himself that until he and Maddie worked things out, she was hands-off to him. But oh boy. There was no question he was still desperately attracted to her.
Sam was an old-fashioned guy. If any more of his children were destined to be born, they weren’t going to be stirred in a petri dish or shaken in a tube!
The only way future babies were going to be whipped up would be by him and Maddie finally getting together—naked, skin-to-skin and primally synchronized.
Made