Page 115 of Talk Bookish to Me

I rub my eyes with one hand as I pick up my phone with the other to check the time. It’s only 9:46 p.m. but it feels like 4:00 in the morning. Parent sleep deprivation is so very real. I drop my phone back onto the nightstand with a groan.

Motherhood has, without a doubt, been the most earth-shatteringly wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, but it has also been the most physically and emotionally draining. When I found out I was pregnant, it was one of the happiest days of my life. When I found out that I was pregnant with twins, I almost fainted in terror.

Ryan has been beyond incredible. He was able to take four months off work for paternity leave when the babies were born and I honestly don’t know what I would have done without him. When we first got home from the hospital and I was still sore from my C-section, he must have changed a hundred diapers with barely any help from me. He made sure that the fridge was stocked and my pump parts were clean, and minus the fact that he gets about three more hours of sleep a night than I do, I’d still give him a five-star dad review.

I hear his footsteps coming back down the hall and I already know what I’m about to see. I turn onto my side and smile as he enters our bedroom with both Tim and Mia in his arms.

“This,” I say as I sit up, “goes against everything we read about in the baby sleep books.”

“I know, but they told me they want you to tell them a story.”

“Really now?” I hold out my arms to take Mia as Ryan sits down on the bed with Tim already back to sleep and nuzzling into his shoulder. With my daughter safely in my arms, I pull her bunched-up pink onesie away from her chin.

“And what story do you want to hear tonight, little lady?”

She reaches her chubby hands up towards me and I lean down so she can touch my cheeks. Yes, she’s basically rubbing drool into my face but I’m grossly okay with it. I lay her down next to me on the bed as Ryan lays Tim beside her.

Now, I know I’m biased, but I do think my babies are the cutest things to have ever crawled this planet. They’re both blonds but have my brown eyes. Mia is slightly chunkier than her brother but that’s only because Tim is taller. I used to think they both looked just like Ryan, but I see more of me in them every day.

I lean over to give Tim a kiss and have to chuckle when I see his little cheek pulled back in a half smile. His name fits him so perfectly. My mom said Dad smiled in his sleep, too. Mia tugs on my hair a second later and I twist my head away, trying to untangle my ponytail from her crazy strong grip. I’ve lost more than enough hair post-babies, thank you very much.

Ryan rubs Tim’s stomach and looks over at me. “How about I do the story tonight?”

“This should be interesting.” I slide down the bed until I’m snuggled up next to Mia. I tickle her neck as Ryan lies down on his side next to Tim, propping himself up with one arm.

“Once upon a time, there was a strong and very handsome cowboy who met a princess when they went to college.” Ryan winks at me and I roll my eyes as he goes on, “The cowboy fell in love with the princess at first sight. He was so excited to meet her that he sat right next to her and do you know what? The princess was reading a book that was very inappropriate for a princess to be reading.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” I coo to Mia. “I think the book the princess was reading was romantic and classy and the prince was probably illiterate.”

“Excuse me, who’s telling the story here?”

I make my eyes big for Mia and she giggles as Ryan continues, “Anyways, somehow, the cowboy got the princess to fall in love with him. But then, a terrible curse was cast upon them. The cowboy was banished and the princess forgot all about him.”

“How terrible,” I say. “But are you sure that’s what happened? Maybe the cowboy was a bit of a narcissist at the time who deserved to be banished after neglecting the princess.”

“No one knows for sure since the curse made everyone’s memories fuzzy. All the cowboy and the princess could remember was that they loved each other very much.”

“Oh, I see.” I look down at Mia and her eyes are starting to flutter closed. The foolish hope that I may actually get a decent stretch of sleep tonight starts to bloom inside me. “And what happens next?” I ask quietly.

“The cowboy never forgot the princess. He always hoped he would find her again and then, one day, he went to a party at his friend’s castle and guess what?”

“What?” I whisper. Tim is snoring and Mia’s eyes are ninety percent shut.Dear Lord, let this happen.

“The cowboy found the princess. He pulled her into his arms and they immediately fell back in love and got married with zero issues whatsoever.” I try not to laugh as Mia finally dozes off after her two-hour refusal. I hold up my hand and Ryan gives me a silent high-five above our now-sleeping children.

“That was a really good story,” I tell him.

“I learned from the best.”

He switches off the bedside lamp beside him as I shift onto my back, trying to get comfortable without waking the babies. “So how does it end?” I whisper into the quiet of our moonlit room.

Ryan pauses, tiredly smiling over at me and saying, “It doesn’t.”

I grin with a dreamy look in my eyes as he slips out of bed, gearing up to carry the twins back to their room. My gaze falls to Mia and Tim one last time before my eyes slowly close.

“I couldn’t have written it better myself.”