Gansett Island Short Story

“Mommy,” Thomas McCarthy said over a mouthful of spaghetti, “where do babies come from?”
His mother, Maddie, who’d been in the middle of taking a drink of water, coughed mid-swallow, and water came flying out of her mouth and nose. Her three-month-old son Mac, asleep in her arms while she ate with one hand, came to life with a mighty howl after being doused by cold water. Maddie soothed the baby while she continued to cough water out of her lungs. She glared at her husband, Mac, who stared at her with a deer-in-the-headlights look that made her laugh as she coughed.
What a shit show.
“Mom!” Thomas said. “Stop coughing and tell me where babies come from.”
“Ask Daddy,” Maddie managed to choke out. “He’s much smarter about those things than I am.”
“Even though you had baby Mac in your belly?” Thomas asked.
Her husband raised a challenging brow in her direction. “Yes, Mommy. After all, you carried our babies. You would know better than me.”
Maddie glared at him. “Babies come from mommies and daddies who love each other.”
“Like when you and Daddy were wrestling and I thought Daddy was hurting you?”
Maddie whimpered as Mac rocked with silent laughter. She would kill him later—and she would make it hurt. She’d hoped Thomas had forgotten about the mommy-and-daddy-wrestling incident, also known as him catching them having sex and then thinking Mac was hurting her because Thomas thought she was crying. That still ranked as the single most embarrassing moment of her life. “Just like that,” she muttered. “Eat your dinner and don’t talk with your mouth full.”
“I want a baby,” their two-year-old daughter, Hailey, said.
With his face gone pale with shock, Mac reached over to wipe spaghetti sauce from her mouth. “No babies for Hailey as long as Daddy is alive.”
Maddie rolled her eyes at him.
“Babies,” Hailey said emphatically, giving her father a pointed look as she banged her spoon on her high chair tray.
“Can I take baby Mac for show and tell about where babies come from next week?” Thomas asked.
“I need a drink,” Mac muttered. “A very stiff drink.”

“We’re presiding over a three-ring circus in this house,” Mac declared when their three children were tucked in for the night.
“I was thinking earlier that it’s a full-on shit show.”
“That, too.”
“I have a feeling this is the calm before the storm,” Maddie replied, rubbing lotion into her hands before she slid into bed next to him. “I hear the teenage years are even worse.”
“That’s not possible.”
“I’m afraid it is.”
“I’m going to need to be medicated long before we get there,” Mac said. “Where do babies come from? He’s five for Christ’s sake. Why is he asking that already?”
“Probably because they had baby birds and bunnies visiting school the other day, and that has him wondering where baby humans come from. Not to mention he has a new baby brother.”
“Who he wants to take to school for show and tell about where babies come from. Is it too late to homeschool him?”
Maddie laughed. “Are you going to take that on in addition to running the marina and a construction business? Because I’m not doing it.”
Mac flopped back against his pillows. “I’m traumatized. I need you to distract me.”
“You’re a mess.”
“I freely admit that, so the least you can do is take my mind off my troubles. Your children are terrorizing me.”
“My children?”
“Our children.”
“So you want to do the thing that could lead to more of them?”
“Don’t say it like that, or you’ll ruin it for me forever.”
She leaned over to kiss his chest. “I doubt that’s possible. You like it too much.”
He sank his fingers into her hair and sighed as she kissed her way to his belly where she outlined each of his abdominal muscles with her tongue. “Madeline…”
“Hmm…”
“What’re you up to down there?”
“Some of this.” She slid his boxers down to expose his hard cock and ran her tongue over the tip. “And some of that.” Sliding her tongue down the shaft, she took one of his balls into her mouth and sucked gently.
He went rigid under her, his cock surging and leaking with pre-cum. “Jesus,” he whispered. “Maddie…”
“Don’t bother me. I’m busy homeschooling my husband.”
He laughed and then gasped as she stroked him while she continued to tease his balls with her tongue. “Fucking hell,” he said through clenched teeth. “Get up here before you make me come.”
“Isn’t that the goal?”
“I’d rather go with you than by myself.”
With her obnoxiously large breasts—made more so by breastfeeding baby Mac—hanging low over his chest, she moved so she was on top of him. “Is this what you wanted?”
Nodding, he brushed the hair back from her face and gazed at her for the longest time.
“What? Do I have spit-up on my face or something?”
“Nope. I just like to look at you.” With his hands on her face, he kissed her. “I continue to be amazed that this is my life. That you and the three hooligans are my life. What would I ever do without you to keep me sane and entertained?”
“You’ll never have to find out.”
Smiling, he said, “How about I show and tell you where babies come from?”
Maddie was still laughing when he kissed her with deep sweeping strokes of his tongue, turning them so he was on top without missing a beat in the kiss. “First,” he said, kissing her neck as he eased her nightgown down to expose her breasts, “a daddy accidentally knocks a mommy off her bike and then has no choice but to move in with her and her baby son to take care of them while she gets better.”
He tongued her nipple, which tightened and tingled. “Then, she puts a curse on him and makes him fall madly in love with her and her son, forcing him to abandon his previous life of debauchery and sloth.”
Mac set her on fire for him, as much with his words as the insistent tug of his lips on her nipple. And, she never got tired of reliving the way they fell in love.
“During a tropical storm, she gave him a beautiful baby girl name Hailey, who will not be allowed to date ever, and later, a son named Connor, who left them far too soon.”
Maddie’s heart ached at the memory of Connor, who they’d lost before they ever got to meet him.
Mac kissed her belly and nibbled on her hip bones as he pushed two fingers into her slick heat and sucked on her throbbing clit. “And then she gave him another beautiful son who she wisely named after his amazing father and grandfather, hoping he’d be just like them, especially his father.”
She choked on a laugh even as her body tightened with impending release. Her husband was always entertaining, never more so than when he made sweet love to her and told her favorite bedtime story.
Taking his cock in hand, he replaced his fingers with the urgent press of his erection. “And when Daddy loves Mommy, they get babies, beautiful babies who are far too smart for their own good.” He surged into her, triggering her climax. “Shhh,” he said, kissing her to muffle the sound of her cries. “We don’t want Thomas thinking Daddy is hurting Mommy again. Daddy would never hurt Mommy. He loves her so much that sometimes he worries his heart will burst with love for her.”
He brought tears to her eyes as he whispered in her ear and drove his cock into her.
“Mac…”
“What, honey?”
“Love you so much. So, so much.”
He picked up the pace, driving into her until his body stiffened as he came with a low moan before collapsing on top of her.
Steeped in contentment, Maddie ran her fingers through his hair.
“And that, my sweet love, is where babies come from.”
She fell asleep with her husband wrapped around her and a smile on her face.