Blended Family

Lin

Pippa and I knew we had to be careful.  We still didn't really want the kids having to worry about a relationship between us.  For now, we snuck into each other's rooms at night and stole kisses when there were no kids around.  It was our little secret.

Pippa's nightmares were subsiding and I liked to think I had a little something to do with it.  Sometimes she whimpered in her sleep and when I rubbed her back she'd calm down.  When she did wake up screaming I held her tightly and pressed kisses to her head.

We were careful but something was bound to happen at some point.  One night Alex woke up from a nightmare and wandered into Pippa's room seeking comfort.  She climbed onto Pippa's bed like she'd done before and found me in there as well.  She didn't seem to mind or understand.  We both talked to her gently as she recounted her nightmare.  Pippa assured her it was okay and rubbed her back until she fell asleep again.

I woke up to a kick in the balls.  Thank you, Alex.  Once I'd adequately recovered and saw that Alex was awake, I scooped her up to take her to the kitchen for breakfast.  I happened to come across Joey in the hallway as we walked out.

"Why were you in Pippa's room?" she asked me.

"Just getting Alex," I fibbed.  Alex was clueless but Joey was old enough to realize that Pippa and I were sleeping together now.  She eyed me suspiciously but continued back to her bedroom to change.

It was hard not to freely kiss and touch Pippa.  As I held myself back yet again that morning I began to wonder why we were still keeping things a secret.  Joey and Elliott were old enough to realize their parents dated other people.  I'd had other women around Joey before and I'm sure Pippa had done the same with Elliott. 

After everyone had left for school I caught Pippa's wrist and pulled her onto my lap on the couch.

"Ooof!" she said, draping her arms on my shoulders.  I looked up at her, admiring the view as my hands rubbed at her lower back.

"This is killing me," I told her honestly.

"What?"

"Keeping my hands off you around the kids," I said.  I had always been an affectionate person.  It went against my personality to not touch her and show her I felt.  "Do we really need to keep it a secret anymore?"

She seemed to ponder that for a moment.

"I mean...would Elliott have a problem with it?" I posed.

"I don't think so," she said.  "Would Joey?"

I shook my head no.  I had a feeling she was onto us anyway.

She shrugged her shoulders.  "Why not then.  We should have a family meeting tonight."

That made me smile.  "Family meeting?  What is this, the Brady Bunch?"

She laughed and ruffled my hair.  "You know what I mean.  I don't think we should just start making out in front of them.  We should officially tell them."

"I agree," I said.  Jack started crying, interrupting our moment.  Pippa went to get him and I started cleaning up the breakfast dishes.

After dinner we had Joey and Elliott come back to the table.  We served them cheesecake to make this a little easier to swallow.  I didn't think they'd had a problem, but a little cheesecake never hurt anything.

"What is this?" Joey asked us.  "We haven't been fighting."

"It's not about that," I assured her, looking across the table at Pippa.  "We actually have some news for you."