“I wanna show you somethink,” he said and I smiled as I ruffled his hair.
“Sure. Let’s just leave mommy rest, okay?” I said as I took him on my shoulder and walked out of our bedroom. Lucas laughed all the way to the kitchen and I left him on the kitchen counter as I looked in the kitchen. “So, whatcha wanna eat, kid?” I asked as I took out milk and stuff for sandwiches.
“Mommy always make pancakes.”
“I guess she’s not in the mood today. Give me a chance, buddy.”
“I wanted to show you somethink!” Luke said with a wide smile. “I made a he… air… heli...”
“A helicopter?” I asked and he nodded excitedly. “Okay, show me.”
“We not gonna eat before we play? Mommy always…”
“It’ll be our secret, okay buddy?” I told him as I scooped him on my arms. He started shifting and laughing, and yelling to put him down, but I knew he was just being spoiled, because he liked my attention. I let him on the floor as soon as we reached his room and he started running around, collecting toys.
I was pretty proud of his room, and Emma often laughed at me because she thought I didn’t have enough childhood since I decorated my child’s room with such enthusiasm. How could you not decorate your kid’s room without Spider-man on the ceiling, Hogwarts wallpaper on the walls, a closet that looked just like Iron Man’s armor and toys from Marvel’s? And I loved playing around with Lucas. But sometimes the kid has too much energy for my liking.
“Look, Daddy,” he said giving me something that resembled pretty much a… Transformers car maybe? But how could I say that to my two year old without breaking his heart?
“Oh, that’s awesome!” I said and his smile widened. “It’s so much better than my last one.”
“Not wolly, daddy, I can make you one and play togethel,” he said with an innocent look and I smiled.
I loved Lucas from the very first second Emma told me she was pregnant. That happened after a couple of months after I decided not to marry Monica and choose Emma instead. And I haven’t regretted the decision not even for a minute. My relationship with Ben was great again since I broke up with Monica. But he didn’t get back with her in the end. He was happy with a girl he met about a year ago, but he was still a convinced bachelor, and he also said he was planning on moving back to L.A. sometime soon. And maybe if he moved and he could manage to run the company from L.A., maybe I could do the same. We were thinking about having a branch in Los Angeles, so maybe it was possible.
Of course he visited us a lot, and he was Luke’s godfather, alongside Gabrielle. He liked coming back with me in L.A. sometimes, but his life was always in New York, and in L.A. he complained about the warmth, or air, or anything.
It’s still weird to think about it like that, even after two years. But it felt right. Spending time with Lucas was the greatest thing in the world. He somehow resembled his mother, but I think he looked exactly like me and had the same energy and he would totally be just like me. Emma said that was a good thing, so I believed her. And of course, it was my favorite time of the day when I got home back from work and saw them together, Emma reading him stories or playing, and Luke complaining about the fact she wasn’t good at it. I used to play with him all the time and Emma said she had no idea she had two kids. But she loved that.
“So Uncle Rick came by earlier…”
“How long have you been up, monster?” I asked and he just shrugged.
“I don’t know, Uncle Rick woke me up and he played with me for a while, but he says he… and Auntie Monica is… going somewhele. To visit my granny, I guess. And he said he’ll miss me and he hated the fact that you're not up yet because he wanted to talk to you, but…”
“Okay, I get it. He shouldn’t wake you up at these hours.”
“Uncle Ben he says you’re a lazy ass. What does that mean? He says I ask you.”
“What?” I laughed and Luke looked at me in surprise. “That means you shouldn’t listen to what Uncle Rick says. He’s not a reliable person.”
“What does ‘leliable’ mean?”
“You can’t trust him, he’s not mature enough,” I replied taking a Transformers robot. “I love this one.”
“I knew you were the same age as Luke! And I also know someone didn’t eat this morning.”
“Hi, mommy,” Luke said running towards her and she lifted him up and raised an eyebrow at me.
“What? I asked him if he wants to eat.”
“You did not,” Luke replied and Emma laughed.
“You’re awful as a dad,” Emma continued as she planted a kiss on Luke’s cheek. “Come, buddy, I’ll make you something.”
“Daddy doesn’t know how to make pancakes, does he?” Luke asked and I laughed, still holding the Transformers robot in my hand.
“Who cares about it? We play together, buddy.”
“Mom… said that’s greymailing…”
“Blackmailing,” Emma corrected him sweetly and I laughed. “But yeah, he doesn’t know how to make pancakes. I’ll make you some if you want to.”
“Yes. But daddy can eat with us too, right? Even though he can’t make pancakes.”
“Yeah, I guess he can,” Emma shrugged and I walked to her and kissed her softly on the lips and she smiled.
“I don’t like you two,” Luke said and we both laughed. “Mommy, could we go to the palk today? Now that daddy’s home?”
“Um… Could we?” Emma asked looking at me with a smile and I nodded.
We walked together towards the kitchen, me holding Lucas in my arms and Emma just laughing about the fact I let my kid starve because I wanted to play with him. I sat on the table with Lucas next to me who talked non-stop about toys and about Rick playing with him, and that he wanted to go out and play.
Usually we had play dates with our neighbors, Gabrielle and Jensen, but after a while it got pretty disturbing that he was always assaulted by fans and stuff, and we started to go separately, even though we spent the whole time together. Since Jensen and Gabrielle’s girl was only a year older than Luke, it was obvious we had more in common than we did with Rick and Monica who were still acting like teenagers. They were barely dating for a few months now and I never knew if they were serious or not.
*
“Hey, remember when I told you our kids we’ll be just as adorable as Travis?” I asked and Emma looked at me and nodded simply, her eyes wide.
I smiled, remembering her shocked expression when I said that. I actually meant the fact that our kids we’ll be adorable, but maybe her mind struggled at the fact that we could have a baby together, although now it’s not that impossible, considering we already have Lucas.
“You were so cute then,” I said and she blushed. “You still are cute, love. Anyway, I wanted to say that I was right about that… But our kid is more adorable than Travis. He’s the most adorable, isn’t it, love?”
“Yes…” she managed to say and I smiled. “You were so mean that day!”
“Mean?” I asked and laughed.
“Yes. You just couldn’t be so careless after you said something that big? I mean, I thought you meant…”
“No, you didn’t. You understood perfectly what I said, Emma, stop cutting around the bush,” I casually shrugged and she stared at me in disbelief.
It was so nice to notice that after all the time we’ve been together Emma could be speechless at something I say to her. And I love when she blushes. I turned to her and kissed her and she immediately kissed me back, wrapping her arm around my neck and pulling me closer to her. I turned to look at Lucas, who was having too much fun in one of the swings.
“Hey, listen… I was thinking about Prom… and the way we met,” Emma started as she shifted to look at me, her hand still in mine.
“That was… something,” I said and Emma laughed.
“Yes, but I remember the feeling I had that day, you know?” she started, and her tone was so sweet and dr
eamful. A breeze blew a little too hard, making her blonde hair swing around her beautiful face. I smiled, and she looked at me confused. “Anyway, I was thinking about the fact that I really thought it will be special… like… I don’t know, have memories that in 5 years I would still smile when I think about them.”
“And did you?” I asked and she looked away.
“Well… not really,” she admitted and I sighed, looking over at Luke, who was still in the same swing. “I mean, five years ago I barely graduated, and we were… like… living together and… Well, I tried not to think about Prom for a long time,” she confessed and I nodded.
Actually I was thinking about it pretty often, especially when I was too close to her, and remembered the moments we shared that night, but if I told her that would sound too boyish.
“What about now?”
“It still is pretty weird,” Emma said. “It was such an amazing night, but I was so immature about it, talking like that about Gabrielle, and enjoying she was so crushed because she was a bitch in high school, but no one cares who you were in high school, because then life happens, and it won’t spare anyone. And then you and I were nothing, and…”
“I wanted us to be something, you didn’t,” I casually said, and Emma gasped as she widened her eyes.
“It wasn’t like that, I couldn’t-“
“Let’s not go there, okay?” I said as I removed my arm from her waist.
“What? Why? Why?” she asked again and grabbed my hand.
“Because I still remember that fucking e-mail you sent me, and I think it was one of the stupidest things you’ve ever done, Emma, besides dating Alec,” I said and instead of smiling, she stiffened.
“I’m sorry, I don’t… I’m sorry.”
“God, I love you,” I said and turned and kissed her. “I’m over that, Emma, what’s the matter with you? High school was like 10 years ago,” I laughed and she slightly relaxed.
“Do you ever… regret coming with me to Prom? And… Everything?” she asked and her voice was so sweet and low.
“You want me to be honest?” I asked and she nodded, moving her head once up and once down. “Hmm… Tough one,” I said. I loved this – teasing her, no matter how hard Emma would hate me afterwards. “Of course not, baby,” I said and she gave me a punch in the shoulder. “It’s the best decision I’ve ever took,” I smiled, and kissed her again. “Besides marrying you, of course. And Luke,” I continued, moving closer to her and kissing her passionately.
Somehow neither of us cared that we were in a park, surrounded by kids and mothers who glared at us because of our PDA. I couldn’t keep my hands off her, it was like I wasn’t fully aware that I was married to Emma and we were supposed to be together forever. And the thought of it sounded really great. I think I knew from the very first moment when I saw her, as beautiful and selfless. I was just stupid for ignoring it for too long.
But it was true. And there we were, standing on a bench and watching our two years old son playing in the swing with the cutest smile I’ve ever seen. He seemed so happy and I knew that it was the only thing I’ve ever wanted.
“I love you, Emma,” I said as I kissed her lips once more.
“I love you two, Nicholls,” she replied and squeezed my hand.
And that felt good. No. It didn’t just feel good. It felt perfect.
The End
Perfect Match Page 43
