Love, Zoey

Chapter Twenty-Six

Y'all! Boom-Chicka-Pop! I wrote an entire chapter in a day, yes I will hold for applause ;) 👏🏻👏🏻

It is so so so much harder for me to do his chapters. I usually take a week to do it. Usually I just steal sentences my boyfriend says so that they are always something that a guy would really say, but he has been training for the entire month of February and won't be home for a few more weeks.

  Needless to say, my Valentine's Day had absolutely no excitement 😂 I got a phone call though because he figured out how to get at least that to me.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to all of you for the support you have given me! Ohmygoodness, I am so blown away by the love you give out to me, sometimes it feels like bucket fulls! You guys are the reason Zoey and Beck are finding their way to each other.❤️❤️❤️

Beck's p.o.v.

"Do you want another pillow? Want more popcorn? I tried to split it evenly, but you are welcome to take some of mine." I sounded like a fifteen year old boy on his first date.

Way too excited to please her and be in her attention.

She smiled graciously and took both of the bowls from my hands. "Thank you so much."

          The little kitchen that we were in felt tight, I only had about two feet of space for my crutches.

She was only about a foot or so away and I had to remind myself not to reach out for her.

          Zoey went over to the bed and jumped up onto her side, stretching out her legs and deliberately placing the bowls between us. "What movie did you end up picking?"

          "Warm bodies."

          My crutches were loud as I made my way back to the bed. They made a scratching noise each time the pads on the bottom hit the floor and then my useless legs dragged a little, my bare feet making their own noise as I tried to find use for them.

           "Isn't that the one about the Zombie that turns good?" Zoey let out a little chuckle.

           I situated myself beside her, fitting my body in the space she provided. Grateful I had changed into my pajama bottoms when she was in the shower so that she didn't have to help me with that as well.

"Yes." I explained. "I figure the zombie part worked for me and there is a little bit of romance within it that I thought you would like."

           I remember when this movie came out and she had been talking about going. I went to ask her out, hoping that she would want to go see it and James had told me that wasn't a good idea for me to pursue that .

           He had been so protective of her when we were younger. Didn't let her come out with us to anything. Threatened us all not to try and flirt with her, let alone getting close enough to date her.

At the time I thought it was ridiculous, but since I had Lilly I understood where he was coming from.

You have to take care of those you truly love.

"Do you want to pull the comforter back and get under it?" Zoey asked gently. "I can help you."

I hated that she had come to expect this weakness from me. My lower half was useless.

Nodding was the only response I could give so she got up and returned to my side of the bed.

Her hands reached at my sides and started pulling on the blanket. I pulled myself up and Zoey quickly pulled it out to my knees. Then she lifted both of my legs, one at a time, tucking them beneath the blanket.

I reached over and turned off the lap that was beside my head.

Her steps were quite when she made her way back to her side. Zoey's legs went to tuck themselves beneath the blanket and I noticed that her toenails were a bright pink color. "Pink?"

The rush of blood to her cheeks made them pink. "I bought this nail polish called piggy paint that little girls can wear. Lilly wanted me to match so I bought a pink color for me as well."

I wanted to tell her how much I loved that she loved my daughter. I loved that Lilly called her mommy, that she wanted to go to her arms even if it meant she didn't want to go into mine.

Ana was not ready to be a mother, but Zoey was.

"And now the two of you match?" I couldn't help but chuckle at the small smile on her face. Her cheeks had a soft pink color from her blush.

"Not perfectly, but close enough that it looks good." She turned back to the screen. "Ready to watch this movie now?"

I grabbed the remote and pushed play. Zoey leaned over and turned the lights off.

The room went dark, the only light was soft from the screen and I could hear Zoey munching away on her bowl of popcorn. I didn't turn to look at her, I knew she would be embarrassed again if I did.
I kept my eyes on the screen the entire time, watching the zombie R find love.

Zoey would laugh out loud at points, snickering when things were only entertaining.

           I realized right then that no matter what, I was going to fight for her to stay, because I couldn't even think of a day when she wasn't at my side.