3 Years

26 - Loose Ends

"I'm sorry, but coming home to a smoking microwave once is one time too many," Nini laughs. I see he's a lot like Jayden, Lauren observes.

"The place was still in one piece though."

"No thanks to you!"

They've been telling stories, just tying up any loose ends the kids have. Nini and Ricky have told the twins many childhood stories, not getting too far into their high school or college days. Ricky was laughing so hard his stomach hurt.

"Remember the time when you were helping Lolas cook steak," Lauren directed at her brother, "and they had to step away for a second, and you almost caused a kitchen fire?"

"But, but, I didn't."

"Yeah, because I ran in and turned the heat down before it could get out of hand!" Ricky smiles at their banter. He wishes he could've been here with them instead of only knowing their lives through recalled memories.

Nini looks at her phone and realizes how late it is. "I think it's about time we wrapped up for the night." The twins whine, but she counters with not wanting to deal with grumpy teenagers tomorrow.

They huff before finally standing off the couch. "It was nice to finally meet you..." Lauren says, trying to figure out what to call Ricky.

"Ricky for now. There's no need to rush anything," he reassures. The children nod at him before walking towards the stairs.

Once they're upstairs, Jayden says, "That went better than I thought it would."

"Yeah. I hope next time will be a little less awkward."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'll walk you out," Nini offers. Ricky nods his head and follows her to the door. They step out onto the porch and into the cool summer breeze flowing through Salt Lake. "I think tonight went very, very well."

"I think so too. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought."

"I'll be honest; I thought they, especially Jayden, would just... lose his mind," she chuckles.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, um..." Her pause worries Ricky. "I don't know if I should tell you this, but... the twins didn't necessarily have the highest thought about you before recently."

Ricky's heart drops a little, but he's not surprised. "I mean... I don't really know what I'm supposed to say. I, um... I'm not all that shocked though."

"I want you to know that I think tonight really helped change their minds," she says. "I've never talked bad about you though. More like, uh, changing the subject," she nervously chortles.

"Don't worry, I get it." They stand there for a moment, and Ricky just focuses on the way the moonlight is hitting her face. "I, uh, I hope that there are more opportunities in the future to help shift their opinions in the right direction."

"Of course. I, uh... I like having you around again."

"I don't plan on leaving ever again." Silence falls over them, and Ricky knows he needs to get a grip on himself. God, he wanted to kiss her again; he really did. Despite wanting that cloud nine feeling to come back, he decides against it. "I had fun tonight."

"Me too. I think the twins had fun also."

"When should we do this again?"

"Whenever. Just no surprises; I think they've had enough of that recently."

"Got it," he chuckles. He pulls her in for a tight hug that turns out to be too short for their liking. "See you soon?" he says when they pull away.

One of his curls had fallen to his forehead, and Nini can't help but giggle. "I see Herbie's still around," she says, trying to move it out of the way.

"He's not going anywhere," Ricky laughs. "Stop trying to fix him," he says, playfully swatting her hand away. He shakes his head, and his curls fall back into their messy place.

"I'll see you soon."

"Later." Nini goes back inside and watches him walk away until he's out of sight. What the hell just happened?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No... fucking... way," they say over each other. Nini was telling the gang on a group FaceTime call about what happened during dinner. She couldn't believe some of the events that were coming out of her mouth.

"See, nothing blew up in your face," Kourtney said.

"What happens now?" EJ asks.

"I... I don't know."

"Well, you want him more involved in their lives, right?" Gina says. Nini nods. "Just have him over more. Baby steps."

"Yeah, ok. That's pretty simple."

"Does this mean we're allowed to talk about Ricky in front of them now?" Big Red asks.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Because there are so many embarrassing stories we need to discuss." That gets a laugh out of everyone.

"Yes, Big Red said something right," Carlos laughs.

"Hey!"

"We will eventually. I think we need to let the twins process everything that just happened," Ashlyn reasons.

"But what about after that?" Nini asks.

"Nini, don't stress about it right now. One thing at a time," Seb says. One thing at a time. Pfft, who does he think I am?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually, a few people hop off the call (aka those with children), and it's just down to four. "Nini, be honest... how are you feeling after tonight?" Kourtney asks.

"I... I don't know. I'm obviously happy he's back and that tonight went smoothly, but... I guess I'm just scared of something going wrong."

"What could go wrong? And be realistic," Ashlyn says.

"Uh, I'm... I'm scared of him leaving again."

People are silent. Well, they are for a moment. Big Red nudges Ashlyn over and says, "Nini... do you still love Ricky?"

Her eyes widened. "I... I'm not sure. A part of me always will; he's the father of my children. I don't know if we'll ever have that same relationship as before though. I'm afraid the new information of having kids will scare him off."

"I guess that's understandable, but do you really think he would do something like that?" Ashlyn asks. That was probably Nini's biggest fear right now.

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