The wind gusted hard into Jim as he reached the front door, followed by Abby. After venturing out into the raw winter night, the only thing he could think of was cozying up to a roaring fire. A couple fingers of bourbon would be awfully nice too. He held the door as his eldest daughter passed him before he hurried inside himself. He closed the door behind him, locked it, and flipped the front porch light off.
Overflowing with energy, a blur of brunette hair met him at the front door, hugging him even with his wet jacket. Bouncing from foot to foot, she began pelting him with questions.
"How was the class? Is it snowing out? What are you doing right now?"
"Hold up there Britt. Let me get out of this wet coat and warm myself before you pepper me with questions. It's colder than a polar bear's toenails out there."
Jim marveled at his second oldest daughter's vivacious spirit. Britt never seemed to stop moving. She brimmed with a nervous exuberance. She bubbled with positivity; always eager to help and spend time with the family.
Life blessed Jim and his wife, Donna, with four beautiful daughters. Two years her senior, he met his loving wife while working a summer job at a local pizza place. She came in with a few girlfriends right before the restaurant closed one night. They didn't sit in his section, but he ended up serving them when their designated server bitched about having places to go. He volunteered to take over the young ladies' table and his life changed. After finishing her meal, Donna ditched her friends and stayed with him while he finished up his closing duties. He walked her home and saw her every night for the rest of the summer.
Summer ended and she went two states away to college. They talked on the phone a few times a week but weren't officially a couple. They decided neither of them should miss out on a full college experience. Those first few months were difficult, separated by a few hundred miles, each aching for the other as the semester crawled forward.
Before winter break, she teased him by saying that she had a surprise for him. He made guess after guess to figure out what the surprise may be; however, she never budged. He was anxious to see her when she came home. Finally, the day came when her exams finished, and she came back for break. He saw a wrapped present for him when they embraced. With a radiant smile on her face, she implored him to open it. Inside, he found a sweatshirt with his college's name on it. A little confused, he thanked her and said that he could never have too many of these. Her smile remained while she shook her head. "Silly, that's for me. I figured I'd need it to fit in next semester around campus." That was how she told him that she transferred to join him. Jim lifted his love, spinning her and passionately kissing her.
If the few months apart seemed to endlessly stretch on, the rest of their college years flew by. By the beginning of her sophomore year, they had moved in together, finding a small house not far from campus. He proposed to her the summer after that, using his first post-graduation paychecks to buy her a modest ring. They married the January between semesters of her senior year. Right after the wedding, she became pregnant with Abigail, everyone called her Abby.
Twenty-one years later, Jim and Donna were still hopelessly in love with each other. Abby and Britt, officially Brittney, were two years apart, twenty and eighteen years old respectively. Claire came six years later, a last-ditch effort at trying to expand their family. Ten-year-old Dana had been a complete surprise. Donna started taking birth control after Claire's birth. Somehow, Dana beat the odds and made their family complete. After that, Jim and Donna agreed they needed to be more than sure. Jim had religiously worn condoms since, while Donna continued her previous birth control.
Now, Jim, 45, and Donna, 43, were about to become, what they considered to be young, grandparents. Last Spring Break, Abby met and fell in love with an enlisted Marine named Seth. She fell to pieces telling them that Seth and she were going to be parents. She insisted that they would be keeping the baby and now he wanted to marry her before his next deployment that fall.
Abby expected condemnation and lecturing. Jim and Donna, though disappointed by the turn of events, however, expressed nothing but happiness. They told her that no matter what happened, Abby's baby would enter the world surrounded by the love of family. They did tell her that maybe she should wait to get married, advice she ignored when she married Seth in September, before his deployment overseas three weeks later.
Despite the marriage, Abby decided to accept her parent's invitation to live with them until her husband's return. She knew that bringing her daughter into the world would not be easy without Seth. She'd need all the help she could get and figured she'd find none better than her parents.
That is how, the week between Christmas and New Year, Abby came to be accompanied by her father to her Lamaze class that blustery night. Normally, Donna would take her to her class, offering advice and adding additional pointers on their drive home. Tonight, her mom was sick, a nasty sinus infection. His wife, shivering under two blankets and prepared to be knocked out on cold medicine, asked Jim to take her place.
Jim originally planned to do nothing that night. The two younger girls had gone with his parents after Christmas, and there was a full slate of college bowl games he could watch while enjoying a nice glass of whiskey, or several.
He knew, though, that his wife would never ask him to take her place at the Lamaze class unless it was impossible for her to go herself. After checking with Abby to make sure it was ok, he assured Donna that he would take her place. He told her to get lots of rest and asked if she needed anything before turning their bedroom light off and closing the door.
The nasty, late December weather did not cause the class to be canceled. Abby and he bundled themselves up in thick winter coats and left for the class. Though he drove cautiously, they were the first to get there. Abby showed him around and led him towards a circle of chairs in the large room. Walking behind her, he glanced down and noticed the sway of her hips. She wore a tight pair of maternity yoga pants. The swing of her walk caused her pregnant booty to jiggle. As she sat down, it dawned on him just how far along she was, her ample breasts perched on top of her swollen, pregnant belly. The sharp V of her t-shirt revealed her cleavage.
Recognizing Britt's excitement, Abby interjected while she could get a few words in.
"It is freezing cold out there. I am going to go soak in the bath for a bit to defrost then head to bed."
"Alright sweetie. Get warm, relax, and have a good night. Have nothing but the sweetest dreams," her father said as he stepped over to hug her and give her a kiss on the cheek. Abby turned and took the stairs slowly, using the handrail to brace herself.
"As for your questions," Jim said, removing his scarf and unzipping his jacket. "The class was fine. It is snowing but should pick up shortly. I am going to go check on your mom, change, and come back down and catch up on the game. If you need something to do, you can add some wood to the fire. I wouldn't mind if it is blazing when I come back down."
"Ok, dad. I'll get the fire ready then I want to hear more about Abby's class." Jim loved her exuberance. Though Britt was a great athlete and popular at school, she always seemed her best at home with her family. He could count on her warm, inviting smile to greet him when he got home every day, and her eagerness to converse about his day. He hung up his jacket and turned toward the steps.
Britt passed by him, lightly brushing his arm, as she gracefully ascended the steps.
"I'm going to change too. I'll be right back down and have that fire roaring for you," she said over her shoulder. She reached the top before he had taken the first step and disappeared down the hallway. His ascent was much slower.
He reached the hallway and peered into each door as he passed. Abby's room was the first on the left and closest to the steps. The door was open without anyone inside. Across from that was the room that Claire and Dana shared. Claire was twelve and about to get to the age when she shouldn't be sharing a room with her elementary school aged sister. He'd promised Claire that when Abby moved with Seth, she would get her own room; a promise cheered by both of his younger daughters.
The next door on the left opened inward and Britt burst past him and hurdled down the stairs. She had changed and was back on the move. He glanced into the teenager's room. Dirty clothes covered the floor. Clean clothes hung from partially open drawers, as if escaping their wooden confines. A mix of schoolbooks, shoes, and other assorted teenage girl bric-a-brac took up the bed. A calendar hung on the wall opposite the door, several days crossed out leading up to a red-circled date, today. He would have to have Donna stress the importance of keeping the room clean to his most precocious daughter.
Across from Britt's room, he heard running water filling the bathtub. Even through the closed door, a melodic whisper of song could be heard, Abby being a choral singer all four of her high school years.
Passing a closed linen closet, Jim arrived at the door to the room he shared with his wife. He gently turned the knob and pushed the door inward. Stepping in, his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He could make out the sleeping form of Donna on the bed, covered in a couple blankets. He fussed with them before grabbing the cup of water off her nightstand. He turned to his dresser and with a reflex borne from habit, pulled a pair of athletic shorts and a worn t-shirt from the drawers.
With his clothes and the glass of water, he entered the adjoining bathroom. Making no noise, he closed the door before turning on the light, shocking his eyes in the process. He changed, leaving his spent clothes in the hamper, before filling up the glass with fresh water for his wife. Returning to her bedside, he placed the glass on the nightstand before delivering a light kiss to her forehead. He could feel the fever radiating from her skin. She moved slightly, emitting a few incomprehensible words of a fever dream, then returned to her unmoving slumber. He wished her sweet dreams and to feel better before tiptoeing backwards, letting himself out of the room.
His daughter's sweetly sung song continued from the girls' bathroom as he passed, louder now that the tub's faucet had been turned off. He moved down the stairs and towards the living room.
The sight of his daughter on her hands and knees presented itself to him as he entered the room. Propped up on the floor, Britt tossed two pieces of chopped wood into the fireplace, then stoked the fire with a metal poker. A pair of shorts, he recognized as once belonging to his wife, grabbed her hips. The material hung from the rolled waist, sloping down across her cheeks and loose against the back of her thighs, probably a size big for her. A loose t-shirt, this one belonging to him, draped across Britt's back and shoulders. He thought that he'd worn it yesterday; she must have gotten it from his hamper.
As he approached the bar cart he kept in the living room, Jim cleared his throat, successfully garnering her attention. Britt looked over her shoulder, welcoming him with an excited, "Hey daddy!"
