“I’d rather be anonymous,” I replied.
“Good luck with that!” She went back to reading, and then looked up and said, “You’re in charge of your son. I want to find out more about you.”
I snorted at that and dropped my briefcase. I went out through the patio door to the pool area. Dum-Dum immediately started barking happily and scrambled up the steps at the shallow end. “Oh, shit! NO!” The dog bounded towards me and tried to jump up on me, and when I pushed her away, she paid me back by shaking herself vigorously. She only weighed 35 pounds, but she must have had at least that much in water in her fur. My suit was going to the cleaners. I rubbed her head and she ran back to the pool and jumped in again. Charlie never got out, but simply waved and said hello.
I waved back and then went inside. “One of these days we need to invent a doggy water vacuum. Shove a wet Dum-Dum in one end, straight from the pool, and five minutes later a dry and fluffy Dum-Dum comes out the other.”
Marilyn smiled at me. “I never knew you were so wonderful,” she teased, tapping a finger on the article.
I muttered something and went to the bedroom to change. Our daughters were still snoozing. I tossed my now wet suit jacket and trousers into the pile for the dry cleaners, and pulled on some swim trunks and a sport shirt, then wandered back to the kitchen barefoot. Maybe I could jump in the pool, too.
“Since when do you get to decide who I can and who I can’t speak to?” asked my wife.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
She waved the magazine at me. “Since when do you get to decide if I talk to a reporter?”
“What? That wasn’t about you, that was about the kids!”
“You should have asked me!”
Charlie came in at that moment, dripping on the kitchen linoleum. I looked outside and saw Dum-Dum sleeping on the deck. “Are you guys fighting? Cool!” he said.
I looked over at Marilyn and just rolled my eyes. She snorted out a laugh and said, “No, we weren’t fighting. Mind your own business.”
“You want fighting? I’ll show you fighting,” I said, balling up a fist and waving it around in the air.
“I want fighting!” Charlie came over and balled up a fist of his own, and made a wild roundhouse wing at me, all the while laughing. I blocked the fist with my own, and then gently reached out and poked him in the nose. He jumped back a few feet and then ran from the room, to turn and run back to the archway. “Let’s fight!” I balled up both my fists and advanced on him, at which point he yelled “Can’t catch me!” and ran squealing and laughing down the hallway.
Kids! I turned back to Marilyn and wrapped my arms around her. “Want to fight?”
“No!”
“You sure? I hear make-up sex after fighting is pretty good!”
“You’re more trouble than you’re worth! I think I’m going to turn all the kids on you, see how you fight your way out of that!”
Charlie came screeching back through, yelling, “You can’t get me! You can’t get me!”
Marilyn pushed away from me and tried to snag our son. “If you wake your sisters up, I’ll catch you alright!”
I headed outside. “I’m going for a swim. You should put on that little string bikini and join me.”
The girls began fussing. Marilyn answered, “In your dreams!” I laughed and left, while she went to the twins. Charlie was banished outside a minute later, and he jumped back into the pool. Dum-Dum continued sleeping on the deck in the warm sun. Charlie must have worn her out. I pulled off my shirt and did a cannonball into the pool near my son, and then did a few laps, while he laughed and tried to hold me back. We horsed around, and the next time I looked at the dog, she was laying on her back, all four paws up in the air, squirming around with an itch, and snoring. Charlie really had worn her out!
Dinner was hamburgers on the grill, with the girls working over cut up burgers without rolls, and their brother, mother and me eating cheeseburgers with all the fixings. The twins were covered with ketchup and grease when they finished, and I offered to just dunk them in the swimming pool, but Marilyn called me a barbarian and took them inside for baths.
“Daddy, what’s a barbarian?” asked Charlie.
I laughed. “I guess it’s me. You’d better go ask your mother about that.” I laughed some more, when he ran off after Marilyn.
A moment later I heard his little voice going, “Mommy…” I laughed some more.
I swam a bit more, and then went inside and opened a bottle of Pinot Grigio and brought it and a couple of glasses outside with me. Marilyn was in the laundry room at the time, searching for some clean pajamas for the kids, and I held the wine and glasses up and tilted my head towards the back deck. “Let me get these guys to bed first,” she said.
Twenty minutes later she came through the patio door and flopped down beside me on a chaise lounge. “Tell me again why I wanted children,” she told me.
I chuckled and poured her a glass of the Pinot. “Can’t help you there. I just wanted sex. You’re the one who wanted kids!”
“You’re no help!” She took the glass from me and said, “Thank you! Thank you!”
“What did you tell Charlie about barbarians?”
Marilyn laughed hard enough to spill a drop of her wine. “Speaking of barbarians — He’s a whole tribe all on his own! I can’t wait until school starts and he goes all day long, and not just mornings.”
I glanced over at her, and noticed the drop of wine on her tee shirt. “You spilled some wine. Take your shirt off.”
Marilyn rolled her eyes. “Forget it! You have ulterior motives! I fell for that once before, and look what happened!” I smiled and topped off her glass. After a second, she drank some more, and then said, “No, no, no! That’s not going to happen! You’re just trying to get me drunk and have your way with me!”
I gave her my most innocent look, and just gaped in a silent protest. I kept topping off her glass, and when the bottle was done, I went inside and opened a second.
Marilyn promptly held out her glass for a refill. “It won’t work, you know,” I was told.
“What won’t work?”
“Getting me drunk and thinking it will make me horny!”
“Never crossed my mind!” I had to laugh at this, since the way my wife was talking, she was getting both drunk and very horny! “I’m shocked you could think that of me!” I poured some more wine in my own glass. “Sure you don’t want to take you shirt off? What if you spilled some more wine?”
Marilyn snorted and sipped some wine, but then she sat upright. Setting her glass down, she peeled her shirt off and tossed it on the table. Then she took her glass and lay back on the lounger. She noticed me watching her, and said, “Don’t get any ideas! It’s hot out here!”
“Whatever you say, honey. What about your shorts?”
“It’s not that hot!” was her reply. I just shrugged. Five minutes later she unzipped her shorts and pushed them off as well, to leave her in her panties and bra. She looked at me accusingly and said, “It’s still warm. Don’t get any ideas!” She finished her wine and I poured her some more.
“I didn’t say anything,” I said innocently. I glanced at my watch. It was almost eight, and while it was still light out, the kids were in bed. I looked at Marilyn out of the corner of my eye. Working out with me in the mornings had done her a world of good. She had a few stretch marks, but nothing to be ashamed of, and she was fairly tight and toned. Her bikini cut scar was mostly gone, and what there was was hidden by her underwear. She had on ‘everyday’ underwear, but still looked pretty good. I could feel my dick stiffening as I looked at her. Then I saw her glancing in my direction, and she had a ghostly smile on her face.