"Suddenly she realized that what she was regretting was not the lost past but the lost future, not what had not been but what would never be." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
~Present~
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"Honey, I'm home!" A bright voice calls from the coat room, resounding through the large house. I laugh.
"In here, baby!" I'm in the large, white marble kitchen, slicing up vegetables for dinner. There's a few pots and pans sizzling quietly on the stove and some background pop music playing from the kitchen speaker.
The first thing I see when he walks through the door is his wide smile, so warm and almost sparkling. Then his mop of curly brown hair, his tan skin and chocolatey eyes.
"How was work?"
"It was really good," Liam replies, walking towards me and kissing my cheek before heading to the sink to wash his hands. "But I missed my favorite wife." I grab a spatula and raise it up in the air.
"Favorite, huh? How many other of your wives did I have to beat out to win that title?" I gesture towards him accusingly with the spatula and then go back to sifting some vegetables around on the stove. Liam's eyes are sparkling.
"Only two or three."
"So you don't even know how many wives you have?"
"I know which one's my favorite!" We laugh and I shake my head, turning the stove off and grabbing plates to slide the food on.
"Can you do me a favor and ask Max to set the table?" Liam salutes me playfully.
"On it." He walks a few steps over to the spiral staircase and begins bellowing at the top of his lungs. "MAX! COME SET THE TABLE FOR DINNER!"
I smack my forehead and shake my head.
"I meant go up and ask him, quietly." Liam looks at me with faux innocence.
"Oops. Too late now." He kisses me again, lightly on the lips this time and he tastes like peppermint.
"Ugh." A voice announces from behind us and I turn to see my oldest son, Max, looking disgusted at our light PDA. "Get a room."
"Don't talk to us like that, we're your parents!" I scold him, grabbing a pitcher of water from the stainless steel fridge and placing it on our long, beautiful matching white marble table.
"Well then don't do that in front of me." He whines and stomps over to the cooking area, grabbing cutlery and plates to set the table with. I can tell Liam is about to embarrass our son even more by putting on an even bigger display of affection, but before he can grab me a door slams from the hallway.
"I'm home!" I wriggle away from Liam to look down the hallway, smiling at my daughter, Charity, home from soccer practice.
"Hey, sweetie, come on in and wash up for dinner. We'll eat in about ten minutes or so." I wipe my hands on a towel I've been holding.
"Okay, I'm going to take a quick shower then."
"Hurry it up!" Liam shouts to her from behind me as she bounds up the stairs. I hit him with the towel.
Ten minutes later, the table is set. Max is slouched down at the table, nose buried in his phone and Charity is jogging down the stairs, hair wet.
"Did you tell your siblings it was time for dinner?" I ask her as she takes her seat at the table.
"Yeah they said they're coming, they're just finishing packing up." I nod and start bringing the rest of the food and sauces to the table. As soon as I've set the last dish on the table a flurry of children come stampeding down the stairs.
"What's for dinner?"
"I'm starving!"
"Are you going to drive us straight after dinner?"
"Hi, Dad!"
Liam smiles and kisses their heads as they take their seats at the table.
"We're having scrambled eggs, grilled peppers and bacon and we will head over once dinner is all cleaned up, yes." I swiftly answer their questions and I'm the last to take my seat. I take a breath, surveying the table. Max and Charity are on the other end, the twins, Chloe and Lucy are in the middle and Logan and Vivienne are closest to me.
There's a general murmur of excitement for dinner and soon the table is busy as everyone gets served.
"Sweetie, how was soccer?" Liam asks Charity across the table.
"It was good, but varsity is kicking my a...butt." She hastily finishes. I mouth a thank you to her. I don't mind my older children swearing so much, but I don't want them doing it in front of their younger siblings.
"You were going to say ass!" Logan gleefully shouts, scrambled eggs all down his front.
YOU ARE READING
Stardust & Smiles ✅
Romance♥️"If this isn't love then I don't think I'll ever fall."♥️ Lily is a young adult with a few disastrous secrets. First, her dark past and the accompanying anxiety formed from the trauma of her past relationship she can't seem to forget, no matter h...
