A Thing Called Love

Chapter 19

Fall passed and turned into winter. The snow once again began to fall and with it came the bitter cold. It was so hard to believe that just last year Rosemarie and Elvis had walked across the Christmas Market nearly undetected. Elvis told her that this year he wouldn't be able to go and Rosemarie didn't question him on it. Everyone knew where he was stationed; he simply wouldn't be able to have a good time.

As the school year went on, Rosemarie had begun to miss it less but now she couldn't help but think of the holiday activities she would have worked on with her class, their infectious excitement over Christmas. Of course Elvis was almost as excited but it wasn't the same. She had her niece still, and they had been babysitting her quite frequently in the last few months.

"You miss seein' little kids every day," Elvis said, breaking Rosemarie out of her thoughts as he entered their bedroom, his shoes discarded by the door.

"Yes," she admitted with a sigh. "I suppose that I do."

"We'll have our own." Elvis took a seat beside her causing the bed to dip under his weight. He reached out, swiping a strand of her hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered too long on her neck after the task was complete. "Lots of em. Five."

"Five?" she echoed.

"Uh-huh. First we'll have a boy-" He began to kiss the back of her neck in between his words. "Then a little girl, so she got a big brother to look out for her. Then twins-"

"Twins?"

"Uh-huh. I'm a twin, remember? Twin boys. Identical ones. Then one more little girl so we don't got a little girl surrounded by nothin' but boys. We'll be done by about 1969...1970."

Rosemarie turned to deliver a smack to the back of his head. Elvis cowered, covering his head with his hands as he burst out in gales of laughter. "Aww, come on, baby. You love kids and handled a whole class full of em."

"Handling a class of kids is different than handling your own. You don't take them home for one so you still get to sleep through the night."

"Ah, I'm gonna be up at night anyway so I'll help you take care of the babies."

Rosemarie shook her head but smiled at the same time. "We'll have as many kids as god wants us to have. I believe that we'll be send the ones meant for us."

"Couldn't agree with ya more," Elvis said, wrapping his arms around her from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder. She inhaled the subtle smell of his perfume and aftershave, mingling with the natural smell of him.

"You like to tease."

"Tease?" Elvis repeated with mock outrage.

"Yes, sir. I know my husband."

"I would hope that you would." He planted a wet kiss on the side of her face. "So...Christmas is different for you, right?"

"No, honey. It's Christmas. It's the same."

Elvis laughed. "You done told me that Baby Jesus brings the presents instead of Santa."

"Not baby Jesus. The Christ child."

"Like that ain't exactly the same thing."

"Why are we talking about this?"

"When we have kids do you wanna do the December 6th thing your sister did with Dani?" Elvis asked instead of answering.

"Saint Nicholas Day? Why not? Don't you?"

"Sure I do. Our kids are gonna be half German and all that. I better start practicing a lot so I'll know more German when they start talkin'."