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Come and rest your bones with me. Driving slow on Sunday morning and I never want to leave- Sunday Morning, Maroon 5
Will slowly comes to consciousness when he feels a tiny hand pat his cheek. A poke of little fingers to the eyes and nose followed by more pats on his cheek awakens him.
There can only be one culprit: his little boy.
Will hears newspapers crumpling and in the fog of his still sleep-laden mind, hears his wife’s voice quietly telling the baby to let daddy sleep.
The little boy in question was currently sitting up in his parent’s bed in nothing but a diaper, with one of his chubby dimpled hands firmly enclosed around a chilled teething ring that was stuffed in his aching mouth. The other hand was patting and poking his father’s face as if to rouse him from his sleep.
Will smiles when he cracks one eye open and the first thing he sees is his son; with flushed cheeks and sleep-mussed blond hair. Ben gurgles and smiles when he sees that his daddy is awake, jerkily waving his unoccupied hand up and down in excited greeting.
Will is glad to see his son so happy. The baby had been teething for the past two weeks and having a tough time. Barely eating or sleeping and being extra clingy. This also meant that he and Mac were hardly sleeping. Will had been up with Ben last night (relieving Mac, who had been bearing most of the load during the week because as she liked to remind him, it was his face on TV every night and he couldn’t be showing up with bags under his eyes every day. Ben had also been clingy, especially with her because when you’re not feeling well all you really want to do is lie on top of your mother), walking him up and down while he rubbed his face in Will’s shirt trying to find some comfort from his sore gums.
But it was Sunday today, which meant that they could sleep in and stay in bed all day if they wanted to. They could have a lazy Sunday. And to be completely honest, Sundays were the days he missed MacKenzie the most during their time apart. For some reason he found Sundays to be the hardest, the days where he would yearn for her even more. Maybe it was because Sunday is a day that seems solely reserved for family and lovers, and there were days when he would avoid leaving his apartment on Sunday in fear of being confronted with happy couples and families on the street. Now his life was so full that his days of being a lonely guy holed up in his place high above the clouds seem so far away, like a distant memory. Almost like they belonged to another person. Sure, life wasn’t perfect but it was good. Though he always remembered how lucky he was, Will was all the more grateful for his family on days like this.
Will groans as he rolls onto his side to face MacKenzie and Benjamin, hearing his bones pop with the movement. His wife is sitting up in bed with what seems like a million pillows supporting her back reading the newspaper, while sipping on some coffee. Will loved to see MacKenzie like this. Her brown hair in a messy bun on top of her head, in one of his old tee shirts, make up free and still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He couldn’t believe that she was his wife.
It was early September in New York so it was still warm outside and Will could see the sunlight streaming in from the crack in the curtain, and bathing the room in a warm yellow morning glow. The world outside still seemed sleepy and slow and Will is happy.
“Too late, I’m already awake”
She puts the newspaper down and turns her head towards him with a smile.
“Hi” she says leaning down behind Bens back to plant a soft kiss on his lips. He groans when she pulls back and Mac laughs. He leans over and sneaks another kiss on the exposed flesh of her stomach where her shirt has ridden up.
“So it looks like he’s feeling better” Will notes nodding his head towards their son who was attempting to pull himself up by gripping his hands on the side of Will’s torso. Ever since he started crawling, Ben had been constantly pulling himself up on every available surface and crawling all over the place. Will and Mac were always hunched over and walking behind him, least he stumble into something dangerous (though every floor of their brownstone was baby proofed and there was no obvious danger, they still worried).
MacKenzie nods. “Isn’t that right, darling? You’re feeling much better this morning”.
She then proceeds to tickle his back causing him to drop down on the bed in a fit of giggles. Will takes the opportunity to pull the baby up to his pillow between him and Mac, planting a kiss on his little cheek. He thinks to himself that he and MacKenzie made a beautiful child. With his blonde hair and Macs eyes, the kid is a looker. And he likes that his son looks like him. Will never much looked like his own father who had dark hair and darker eyes than him (although, in retrospect his resemblance to his mother could have been the reason his father was so hard on him, more so than his siblings). Will is glad to have someone who is the best parts of himself and Mac.
“That’s great, right buddy?”
Ben babbles something unrecognisable in response, whilst kicking his legs out in front of him. Will really was glad that Ben was feeling better. He had heard of ( okay, well not really heard, more like read on parenting message boards while freaking out over how much pain his kid was in) terrible teething stories and although Ben had his moments, it was not as bad as it really could have been. While MacKenzie was the one who freaked out whenever Ben got sick or had the slightest sniffle, Will was the one who obsessed about the bumps and scrapes that came with being a child. He hated seeing the scratches and bruises that sometimes dotted Bens perfect baby skin and it was all just a little too familiar for him. They reminded him of a time when him and his siblings were too small to defend themselves against their father and had bruises as a result of his anger.
Will runs a hand down Benjamin’s plump check, rosy as a result of the fever from teething. Ben grabs at his finger, pulling it up and into his mouth gumming it happily, teething ring momentarily forgotten. Will can feel the tips of his bottom two teeth beginning to spring.
“Did you rub some more teething gel on his gums?”
“Yeah, when he woke up about an half an hour ago” Mac says looking down at her two boys happily. “Benji and I were just reading the paper quietly when he decided that it was time for daddy to wake up, and he gently tried to wake you up”
Will laughs at that lifting his eyes from Ben to Mac. “There was nothing gentle about that wake up”
She laughs with him and shrugs playfully while folding the paper and placing it on the floor on her side of the bed. She slides down and burrows back into the blankets and cuddles closer to them. “Sorry, Billy. Do you want me you kiss it better?”
She looks up at him with raised eyebrows and her bottom lip tucked beneath her teeth. She was just too damn sexy for her own good. Will groans and slides the hand which wasn’t in Ben’s mouth up her bare thighs. When had she lost her pants?
“You can’t tease me like that when there’s a baby in our bed”
Mac just giggles again; fully aware of what she was doing to him and leans over for another leisurely kiss. Just when he really starts to get carried away, they’re broken apart by a slobbery hand hitting their joined mouths.
MacKenzie pulls away with a chuckle while he flops onto his back in frustration, and she peppers her son’s face with kisses. “Someone wanted all mummy’s attention”
Ben just laughs more at Mac’s kisses, while Will tries to calm down. The room is cool from the air-conditioning but he feels hot (and bothered). MacKenzie picks the baby up and puts him in a sitting position.
“Benji, do you think we could convince daddy to bring us breakfast in bed?”
The baby squeals happily, bringing his abandoned teething ring back into his mouth.
“Then maybe, mummy can give him a nice thank you later on”
Will can’t help the smile that breaks out over his face at the sight of the two of them together. He was a lucky man. He sits up in bed and runs a hand over his face while throwing the covers off his body. He stands at the side of the bed and looks down at them.
“What would my two favourite people like for breakfast this morning?”
MacKenzie pretends to contemplate the question for a moment. “Hmm…bacon and eggs for us and some frozen grapes and baby cereal for this little one”
Will gives them a small salute and proceeds downstairs to the kitchen getting together all the stuff that he need to cook. He’s grateful once again that it’s a Sunday as this means he can indulge a little in not so healthy food. Ever since he found out he was going to be a father, he had dutifully joined Mac in her healthy eating. He was serious about not dying. It had gotten a little crazy when Benjamin was born because MacKenzie went into overdrive, obsessed with having everything all organic and natural.
He digs the frozen grapes out of the freezer for Ben and decides to take them up to the bed room to let the baby munch on them while he’s cooking. They were slowly easing him into solid foods now that he was almost eight months old, and his wife had read that frozen grapes were great for teething babies. She was all about exploring natural cures for teething aches and this really seemed to be working.
He gets up stairs and hands the plate to Mac who Mac puts the bowl of frozen grapes in front of the baby and Ben immediately reaches out for one, and studies it carefully before he stuffs it into his mouth, gnawing noisily and gratefully.
Will chuckles as he watches his son eat, moving out of the bedroom and back down to the kitchen to check on the bacon and eggs, happy that Ben has his appetite back. Not really worrying about the mess that will likely reside on the sheets because its Sunday and there really is nothing better than staying curled up in bed with the people you love on a lazy Sunday morning.
But things just get so crazy, living life gets hard to do. Sunday Morning rain is falling and I’m calling out to you.