The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona

Soaking Up the Last Rays of Summer

Arizona's POV:

The sunlight was streaming through all the skylights in the treehouse and the stained glass window, as we started to wake up the morning after the BBQ. I could hear the party rental company in the backyard and my Father's voice. He wanted to be in charge of not only the party set-up, but also the clean-up too, which, was completely fine with me.

It was probably sometime around 7:30 am, I was guessing by the height of the sun in the sky at that point in August. For a change, we had slept in for us. Callie was her usual "cheerful" self trying to wake up that morning, until I wrapped my arms around her waist and spooned her. 

"Good morning beautiful girl of mine. Did you sleep okay?" I kissed her check, as she snuggled back into my body and grunted a bit.

"Morning sweetheart, I did. Did you sleep well?" Callie had rolled over to face me when she kissed me and then curled tightly into my chest and front side of my body. She was beyond adorable, but obviously trying to evade waking up fully. After all these years, I know the tactics she uses to stay in bed. She knows, I know, cuddling into me is one of them, but I still find it beyond cute when she does it.

Unfortunately, she was right though, this was a tactic that works most weekend mornings and sometimes on weekdays to stall me out a bit. Since we had so much free time that morning, her cuddling totally worked. Within minutes, I could tell my wife was trying to fall back asleep. For once, I let her and laid awake holding her while she snored for another 30 minutes.

When she finally did stir, Callie realized she had been drooling and immediately apologized. "Arizona, I am sorry, I didn't mean to drool on you when I went back to sleep." Callie started trying to dry my chest off with the top sheet on the bed.

"Callie, it's okay, it's not a big deal, just your saliva. You fell back into a pretty deep sleep, so it's totally understandable."

"You have been awake the entire time I fell back to sleep on you? Why didn't you get up? Now I feel really bad."

"Callie, I was enjoying the mostly quiet treehouse and just enjoying holding your warm body up against mine. It felt good to have you in my arms, my love." We started kissing for the next few minutes until finally getting up and getting dressed from our available clothes stored in the treehouse bedroom.

We didn't see my Dad, as we crossed the yard and went into the house via the back door by the kitchen. Turns out he had stepped inside to get more coffee before heading back out to supervise the party clean-up. 

My Mom was sitting at the kitchen table, having coffee and working on crocheting something. She always had a crocheting project going since I can remember. It's not till the last few year that I found it reassuring to watch her work, probably because it took me back to happy moments in my childhood.

"Good morning everyone." I hugged and kissed my parents, before grabbing a bottled water out of the fridge. Callie had poured some coffee and plopped down next to me and close to my Mom, at the kitchen table.

"Girls, I can make you some breakfast, if you like? Either that, or I know you like croissants, so I picked up some on the way over if you'd rather have those."

"Barbara, the croissants sound incredible, thank you so much for buying those. That sounds perfect after all the rich foods we ate yesterday."

Callie made quick work of spreading a thick layer of peanut butter on her pastry she had cut in half, lengthwise, while I had melted butter and a little honey for my croissant.

"Mom, after breakfast we are going to go get ready for the day, is that okay? I hate to leave you alone in the house."

"Oh Arizona, I'll be just fine. I have my crocheting and lord knows if anyone knows the phrase, "Hurry up and wait, it's the wife of a Marine. Why do you think I started crocheting all the time in the first place?" I had to laugh out loud, as I too knew that phrase all to well.