Chapter 48

It was 6:23 when Andi and Paul crept into the house. Andi put on coffee while Paul brought in a large, covered baker’s pan, larger than any normal sheet pan. He placed it on the formal dining table and uncovered it: there were buns and rolls, ham egg & cheese on bagel, donuts, coffee cake, and fruit salad.

Paul put the bagel sandwiches in the microwave oven while Andi went upstairs. She first checked on the twins who were sound asleep, Wonka laying on a rug at the foot of their beds. Wonka appeared to be asleep, but his eyes traced every move Andi made.

The bedrooms in the house were arranged in two rows of three, divided by the grand staircase. The two bedrooms at the balcony end of the row had their own bath and walk-in closets, so one was the Master, the other was the “other-master” for lack of a better designation. The only difference was the location and the view out of the window. Paul had chosen one master to sleep in, only because the construction when that room was rebuilt was complete first, but as soon as Andi moved in, she disagreed with the view. It looked straight into the neighbor’s tree. The other overlooked a quiet street in a peaceful village. She moved all of Paul’s clothes and toiletries to the master bedroom of her choice after she redecorated the room.

When Andi and the twins moved into the house, Paul had moved onto the couch in the media room rather than one of the other bedrooms to deal with the desire to ‘commute’ in the middle of the night before the wedding. With Paul out of the way, Andi was able to complete the move without his knowledge, so when he came to change clothes one day, he found his room to be completely empty.

Hearing splashing across the way, he walked into the other master bedroom and found it tastefully decorated, his clothes neatly hung up in the walk-in closet, and in the bathroom he found Andi and the twins splashing in a sea of bubbles the large freestanding tub. When he walked in, the twins held an armload of bubbles up to their chests and screamed. “You taught them that?” he asked Andi. She smiled and nodded.

“It’s a skill that may come in handy someday,” she smiled and lifted a couple of handfuls of bubbles to her chest to end the twin’s demanding “Momma! Cover up like me!”

Paul gave her a kiss and said, “I love the room.” And that was all that was said about her redecoration.

Andi found John and Macy snoozing in the “other-master” bedroom and roused them. She checked the remaining bedrooms, but they were all unoccupied except for the twins’ room.

She went down to the kitchen to mention this to Paul, but he was gone too. She went down to the basement and found Gus and Lucy snoozing in each other’s arms while Spaceballs played on the big screen. She bent over the back of the couch and shook Lucy’s shoulder gently and Lucy slowly came to consciousness. She looked up at Andi and said, “Hey, sexy.”