Page 45 of Paper Flowers (Stonebrook #1)
Once our plates are to our liking, my grandma says how thankful she is to see her family together.
“This dinner would have made my Eugene so delighted to know his family is happy and is finally loved.” She doesn’t bring him up very often and when she does, she catches us all by surprise.
Luke reaches for my shoulder as his arm is propped over Sadie’s chair.
I look at him and smile through my tears.
I know she said that because of him. She knows how much he loves me and how important those two are to me.
With dinner done, Luke is doing the dishes with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his veiny muscular forearms just does something to me.
How does doing the dishes turn me on? Taking my eyes off his body, I put all the leftovers in containers and placed it all in the fridge.
The way my kitchen island is set, we get a clear view of my living room.
Everyone’s gathered in the living room, watching as Sadie and Tessa play on the play mat Sienna brought over. Luke brought a pair of pajamas for Sadie to change into after dinner, so she can get cozy and move around better with Tessa.
Luke suddenly stops to dry his hands and reaches for his phone in his front pocket. “Sadie, Uncle Liam is calling!” Luke calls out. Sadie’s whole body lights up and runs to Luke as he answers his FaceTime. Letting Sadie hold it she’s jumping up and down.
“Happy Thanksgiving, Girlie!”
“Happy Thanksgiving Uncle Liam! Guess where I am?”
“Oh, I love guessing games, okay. Uh, you’re on the moon?”
“No silly! I’m at Dayna’s house. We had dinner with her family.
Cara is here, that’s Dayna’s best friend.
Her mommy, daddy, grandma and her sister Sienna and her husband Shawn and the cutest baby named Tessa.
She’s the cutest. Come look!” Sadie proudly shows Liam my niece and moves on to everyone else.
“This is my Uncle Liam, he is the bestest lawyer in New York City. That’s really far. Uncle Liam, say hi!”
She pans the phone across the room, showing off the chaos of my family in full holiday mode.
When it lands on Cara, Liam’s voice cuts through, warm and familiar.
“Hi Cara-Jane,” he says with a wink. He’s the only one who still calls her by her full first name.
The rest of us have long since shortened it to just Cara, but not Liam.
Cara gives a quick wave and smiles–soft, maybe a little shy.
There’s something unspoken in that exchange.
Something that says I’m not in the loop.
My grandma lets out a quiet giggle. Sadie brings the phone back to Tessa, who makes grabby hands for the phone.
The little girls burst into laughter as Luke gently extracts the phone from Sadie and Tessa’s hands.
“Those two only met today and they’re inseparable already.” Luke says.
“Girlie found herself a lifelong best friend. Hey— I gotta get back to my meeting, I was hoping to catch you before the night was over. I’ll let you get back your family time. I love you Girlie, love you Lukey.”
“Love you more Uncle Liam!”
Luke hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket.
“This has been one of the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a while. I’m going to get going, I want to give my dad a call before it gets late.” Cara says. “Thank you for having me, Evans and Becketts. I’ll see you three at school on Monday.”
After Cara hugs my parents and my grandma bye, Sadie is waiting by the door to give Cara a hug goodbye. “See you at recess, Cara!” Sadie has memorized the teachers’ recess duties and thoroughly enjoys when Cara is on duty.
“Thanks for everything, Cara. I love you so fucking much.”
“Love you more, Dayna.” Closing my front door, I walk back to the kitchen in time to see my niece waddling to the bag of books and toys.
She pulls out a board book and hands it to Sadie.
Then the two little girls lay on the play mat.
Sadie starts to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
She reads with confidence and asks for help when she doesn’t know a word.
Tessa is fully engaged as a one-year-old could be.
“Makes you wonder if this is how she will be as a big sister.” Luke says as he brushes his lips to my cheek pulling me from my thoughts.
“She’s having so much fun with Tessa.” I say as I dry the dishes and put them on the counter.
Sadie points to the book and asks Tessa which animal she likes most. Tessa just pulls on Sadie’s dinosaur pajama top and that makes her belly laugh.
“You’re tickling me Tessa!” My parents laugh along with the girls.
Sienna and Shawn are cuddled up on the sofa admiring their daughter.
My grandma is taking pictures of everyone as they are.
I’m going to miss her the most when everyone leaves tomorrow.
She looks at me and smiles. I give her a small wave and she points her phone towards me and Luke.
We both smile for her and she moves on to take photos of the girls playing. I love that woman so much.
“You know, once we’re home, she’s going to ask for a baby sister.” Luke catches me off guard and before I can react, he bumps his hip playfully against mine. I let out a small giggle but my hand moves to my belly instinctively, like my body is responding before my mind can catch up.
Luke notices this of course. His gaze drops to where my fingers rest against my stomach. When I look up at him, he’s already grinning. That knowing, teasing kind of grin.
We’ve had sex multiple times without protection already and I know now is the waiting game.
I haven’t given it much thought to it or I’d make myself obsessively crazy over it.
As far as I know, I’m not but maybe I could be wrong?
He must see the million questions that are running through my head and leans further into me, lowering his voice low enough for me to hear him.
“Your thoughts are so loud, I can hear them.” His lips graze my temple, lingering for just a second before he whispers, “I’m pretty hopeful, I already got you pregnant.
I can’t wait to see you carry our baby— see your belly swell with our littlest one.
Don’t overthink this, love.” His words settle deep in my chest, grounding me, filling me with something both terrifying and beautiful.
I take a subtle deep breath, titling my head slightly to meet his ocean blue eyes.
“You are perfect, you know that?”
“You never lied to me before, don’t start lying to me now.” He says playfully, bringing me back to our late-night phone call when he couldn’t sleep.
A loud giggle leaves Tessa pulling us out of our bubble. Sadie is pretending to be a dinosaur stomping around while Tessa tries to mimic her moves. In an ungraceful way, Tessa tosses her white hair bow barrette off of her head. Getting slightly tangled with her straight blonde hair.
“She never likes to keep them on.” My brother-in-law, Shawn says as he tries to maneuver the bow out of her hair tenderly. Once he has it out successfully, he hands it to my sister. Sienna stands up and heads to the kitchen for a refill of her wine glass.
“Sadie’s headbands always wound up like eye masks in the car when she wore one.
” Luke adds to Shawn’s comment from behind the sink.
“That’s actually really fitting considering she needs the room to be pitch black when she sleeps.
” I say as I take a sip of apple cider. Not knowing if I’m carrying Luke’s baby, I subconsciously poured myself a glass when I poured it for Sadie.
If any of my family members noticed, they didn’t say anything .
With my sister’s back towards the living room, she looks at me and Luke. “Are you two planning on moving in together?” Sienna asks.
“I’ve been staying the night a few times with them through the week. We haven’t talked about me officially moving in.”
“But you are talking about it, right?”
“Of course we are.” Luke says with a huge grin and kisses my cheek as he dries his washed hands.
He heads to the living room floor to play with the girls.
He takes off his boots before he plops down on the play mat.
My niece crawls to Luke, and he picks her up over his head.
Sadie laughs as she says “Baby Tessa is a pterodactyl!” Seeing him rolling around with them and being his playful self gives me a glimpse of what our life could look like sooner rather than later.
Tessa tries to swipe Luke’s black rimmed eye glasses off his face.
He moves his face away quickly before she makes contact.
He sets my niece down gently to take his glasses off and hands them to his daughter, “Sadie Girl, can you give these to Dayna for me?” Sadie runs over to hand me her dad’s glasses.
With Sadie back in the living room Luke pulls her in and lays both girls downside by side and tickle attacks them. Laughter erupts and my heart flutters.
Sienna looks over her shoulder at her daughter giggling.
She takes a sip of her wine and clears her throat.
I know she’s about to say something. She’s been awfully quiet tonight.
“There’s no way Dean would have sat on the floor like that and played with your niece or any child for that matter.
Luke is a gem. I see the way you two were with each other over dinner.
It was almost like it was before with you two only now, the gravitational pull is much stronger. ”
My sister has never really commented on my relationship with Luke or anyone. For her to say that, I know, what we feel between each other is felt by others.
Sadie is knocked out at my side between Luke and I, while my niece Tessa is sprawled out on Luke’s chest. He tired them both out and now they’re sound asleep.
My sister is taking a much needed relaxing bath in my tub while my brother-in-law catches up on work.
He is a history professor in our hometown.
My grandma is seated next to me and I’m taking all the snuggles I can get from her.
My parents brought their Santa Clause movie collection with them but we only get through the first movie after Thanksgiving dinner before we all fall asleep.
The living room is dark. With only the glow from the tv, I steal a peek at Luke.
He’s snoring softly, his legs are crossed at his ankles on the ottoman and he has a protective hand over Tessa’s back.
She’s gripping one of his shirt’s buttons with her mouth slightly open, so contently.
My heart is in a puddle with the sight before me.
My mom, who is on the other side of Luke, catches me looking at him and she smiles.
“I love this for you. Even if this isn’t the way you thought you’d have a family, it’s so good to see you truly be loved and appreciated.”
Leave it to my mom to bring out tears I didn’t even know were waiting to fall. In such a short time, Luke and Sadie have become my family. There’s one thing I’ll never question, and that’s how deeply I love them. Every day, my love for them grows stronger than it was the day before.