More To The Litter

Chapter 6

Frank reached over, gently holding both my hands in his.

"I promise you'll be okay," Frank said. "Just don't come here on your own. Make sure that you're always with someone."

"I wouldn't never wanna come out here alone," I said. "And no one else likes water except for you, I'm the only neko I know that even slightly likes water."

"Well, I just wanted to make sure," Frank said.

I smiled softly, kissing Frank's cheek.

"Daddy, can we do some baking tonight?" I asked. "We can have cookies together after dinner, some nice warm chocolate chip cookies."

"Sounds perfect," he agreed.

"And it's supposed to storm too, we can just start a nice warm fire in the fireplace and cuddle up eating cookies with the storm going on outside," I said.

Frank smiled, pulling me over to sit on his lap. I shrieked as the boat rocked, clutching onto Frank.

"Daddy, can we pretty please just go back to the cottage?" I begged.

"Just wait a minute, I wanna take you somewhere," he said.

Frank continued rowing as I sat there in his lap, looking over the edge into the dark waters. We got to the other side of the lake where there was a little beach surrounded by pretty sunny trees. Frank held my hand, helping me out to the land. I took off my lifejacket and smiled when I saw a blanket laying there with a picnic basket.

"How did you get this set up?" I asked.

"I had a buddy of mine do it for me," he said.

I smiled, sitting down on the blanket. Frank opened the basket and pulled out little containers of snacks. There were grapes, cherry tomatoes, apple slices, juice boxes and sandwiches.

"Oh, Daddy, this all looks so yummy," I said. "Thank you so much."

"Of course," Frank said. "I know that the pregnant mothers aren't supposed to stress but you stressing isn't good either. And I know that you've been stressing, you keep worrying about the babies."

"Because everything needs to be perfect for them," I said. "Things can't be unperfect."

"Everything will be perfect," he said, gently squeezing my hands.

I smiled when he pulled away to open up the food containers. I gently played with the sand, smiling softly.

"Aren't you excited for the babies?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course I am," he said.

But he didn't sound very enthusiastic.

"So, I was thinking," Frank said as he quietly ate one of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, "Jamia is moving out when the babies are born and we're both going to be busy. She used to be the one to do most of the cooking and cleaning for us because that's what I paid her to do, that and be your babysitter. I was thinking that maybe we should hire a housekeeper now to do the cleaning and things like that."

"That sounds good," I said. "You're gonna be working and I'm gonna be busy with four kids and Mia Bia is getting her own apartment, she's did all the cleaning. Having someone else to come in and do the cleaning will help a lot. It's so hard to take care of four babies at once so I won't have any time to clean."

Frank handed me a sandwich and I ate happily. We finished eating happily and I laid down on my back on the blanket. I looked up at the soft, fluffy white clouds in the pretty light blue sky. Frank held my hand as he laid down beside me.