Love & Football

Chapter 22

:: Emma's POV ::

"Mommy wake up! Wake up!" Noah's overly eager voice quickly pulled me out of a sound sleep.

"Noah what are you doin?" My voice was definitely laced with sleep and my eye lids were too heavy to fully function; I fought them just enough to see him hovering over me.

"I think Santa came!" He bounced with excitement and I had all I could to function.

"It's still night. Santa didn't come yet bud." JJ's gruff sleepy voice unexpectedly sounded from behind me. His chest sent a vibration down my back when he spoke as he continued to hold me against him, "Why don't you try sleeping a little more. We don't want him to forget us."

"Come on, let's go lie down." I began to get up when JJ stopped me, his lips finding my shoulder.

"I got him baby. I'll take him back." He threw the covers back and slid out of bed.

At this point I knew it was very possible I could be losing my teddy bear for the rest of the night. JJ seems to be able to fall asleep just about anywhere and a lot of times it involved putting Noah to sleep. It was the sweetest site to see but I always joked that it was actually Noah who was putting JJ to bed.

I attempted to wait for him to return but could no longer fight the sleepiness that was overtaking me and my eyes fluttered closed. I was certain he had fallen asleep in Noah's room and wouldn't be returning anytime soon and I was going to need all the rest I could get. Noah was sure to be up within the next couple hours eager to open his presents and the next time I knew we wouldn't be able to get him back in bed.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Noah’s voice woke me once again pulling me away from my peaceful slumber, “Santa really did come. He did!”

“He did?” I forced my eyes open to look at the clock that rested on JJ’s bedside table. 7:12. I was actually surprised that he slept that long and I pulled myself up to a sitting position.

“Yeah and there’s lots of presents down there.” Noah was bouncing up and down, the smile on his face completely priceless, “Can we open them?”

“Yeah babe. Of course. Just let me get up and brush my teeth.” I rubbed my eyes and pulled the covers back as I slipped out of bed, “Where’s J? Is he up?”

“No. He’s sleeping.” Noah shook his head, his tone of voice changing to one of disappointment; worried that JJ may miss out on Christmas morning.

“Why don’t you go wake him up?” I suggested and his eyes immediately lit up.

“Okay!” Before I knew it he had run out of the room and back down the hall to his room, or what would be his room once we officially moved all of our things in.

I laughed to myself before walking into the master bathroom to make myself look half way presentable. After throwing my hair up into a ponytail I reached into the brush holder for my toothbrush and proceeded to brush my teeth. A slow moving JJ caught my eye through the mirror as he walked into the bathroom, his athletic shorts hung low on his hips exposing the waistband of his boxer shorts and I couldn’t help but to take in the site, it was definitely something I could get used to seeing every morning. I dropped my toothbrush back into the holder and turned to greet him

“Merry Christmas.” I stood on my tiptoes and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Merry Christmas beautiful.” His lips landed on my forehead before we parted ways.

I left him to freshen up and took Noah downstairs, or I should say he took me downstairs. Pulling me straight to the Christmas tree that was exploding with presents. I was sure his eyes were going to pop out of his head.