Forever Yours [Series Two of Bittersweet Disasters]

[58] You Know You Want It, Baby

♥︎♡♥︎ DEZERAE PARKER ♡♥︎♡

{4:58 pm} I'M STARTLED AWAKE TO THE sound of someone knocking rapidly on my bedroom door. Opening my eyes, I rub them and put my glasses on. "It's open," I call out. My eldest brother opens the door and steps inside, cracking it shut behind him. "Hey, Bubba," I reply, forking over a smile, "what's up?"

"I was talking with Nova," he answers, "and she told me that she really enjoyed spending time with you earlier. What'd y'all do?"

I sigh softly as I brush my fingers through my [dark] hair. "We just talked." I shrug simply, like it's no big deal. Because it isn't.

"About?" Jake cocks an eyebrow and gives me a curious look.

I sigh heavily. "It's not my information to share," I acknowledge. "You'd have to ask Nova that."

He nods. A moment of silence passes between us before he speaks up again, "What time will Kaiden be home?"

"He gets off at 9," I answer, scratching my wrist. "So he should be around 9:30 or so. Why?"

He shrugs. "Just wondering." He goes to exit my room, but then stops and spins back around to face me. "Are you feeling ok? You've been asleep for a couple hours now."

"I'm fine," I reply, brushing it off. "I guess I was tired. Where are Devin and KJ?"

"They're watching a movie with Jace, Lily, and Matthew in the playroom downstairs."

I nod. "I'll be downstairs in a minute," I reply. "I just need to go use the bathroom."

Jake nods and smiles at me. He exits the room and I climb out of bed.

{5:03 pm} When I get downstairs, I go and stand in the doorway of the playroom to see what the kids are doing. I glance over and notice the futon is still laid out into a bed and Devin and Lily are asleep on one side and Jace is laying on his stomach on the other side on his phone. Then, I glance over and realize that KJ and Matthew are laying in the double papasan chair, watching the movie. I peer at the TV screen and notice it's one of the movies I absolutely adored as a child—"Aladdin". I smile at that and then enter the living room. Plopping down beside Nova, she beams at me as she leans closer to me. "Thanks for letting tell you all that earlier," she whispers in my ear. "I appreciated it."

"You're welcome," I smile.

That's when Jake comes into the living room and asks, "So what do y'all wanna do for dinner tonight? I'm not really in the mood to cook anything and I'm sure Aiden and Trent don't want to have to cook anything."

"We could just order pizza!" Jace replies cheerfully as he comes bouncing into the living room.

Jake chuckles softly but sighs. "Dude, I don't thi—"

Trent cuts Jake off. "Pizza sounds fine to me," he answers. "It's a quick and easy thing and nobody has to go pick it up, we can have it delivered."

Jake glances between all of us. We all nod in response and Jake gives us a thumbs up. "Alright, I guess I'll order the pizza for us in a little bit."

We all smile at him. He comes over and plops down on the other side of Nova. Jace also comes over and crawls into his mom's lap. I observe silently as he starts fluttering his eyes closed slowly. "Mama," he whispers softly, "I wanna go to outer space. Can we-we go to the moon?"

Nova giggles softly as she gently brushes her fingers through his dark hair. "Sure, bud," she responds, "whatever you want."

Jace forks over a small smile and then completely shuts his eyes. 'He's so adorable!' I thought. 'I cannot believe somebody as cute and adorable as him has already been through so much in short lifetime!'