Falling Effect

41. Precious Moments Ruined

Evelyn walks over, kneeling down in front of him, she places her hands out. "Asher! You talked!" She says as he grabs onto her hands, his little legs wobbling as he took a step until she picked him up. She looks over at me with a grin on her face and tears in her eyes. "Did you hear it?"

"I did." I say, my face starting to hurt with how hard I was grinning.

She hugged him before she pulled him back a little. He grabbed her face and leaned forward, kissing her as she smiled. "Hi baby." She says, smothering his face with little kisses as he lets out a big belly laugh.

"Let's go eat."

✳︎

Asher's pretty much been saying Mama all day when he wanted her attention. It's like a new superpower he didn't know he had, and let me tell you, he was using it.

"Ma ma." His little voice rang through my ears as he reached for Evelyn from the stroller. She unbuckled him before lifting him out of it as I continued to push the stroller down the street. He looked over at me, waving as I smiled and waved back.

"Are you saying hi to Dada." Evelyn asks, kissing him on the cheek. To say, Evelyn was trying hard to get him to say multiple words in one day, was an understatement.

"Babe, he's not going to say both today. It's alright." I say, chuckling.

"I know, but if you say it even more now that he has said a real word, he'll say it sooner." She says, looking up at me.

Asher points up at a tree as we pass it. "You see the leaves Bubby?" She asks, smiling over at him.

We turn the corner of the street, stopping in front of our go-to Italian restaurant. I reach over the stroller, pulling the door open and Evelyn walks in, me following after her.

We quickly get seated and our drinks and breadsticks brought out to us.

"It all sounds good right now." Evelyn groans, slipping a pacifier in Asher's mouth as he sits in a wooden highchair.

The lights were slightly dimmed as music played softly in the background. The restaurant was only slightly fancier than Olive Garden, but casual enough you could still wear jeans and a t-shirt, well, if you're a guy.

"I know. Why must neither of us be picky eaters?" I ask as she laughs.

"It would make meals so much easier... And cheaper." She says, as I let out a soft chuckle. Taking a sip of my Coke, I glance over at Asher who is currently banging his hand on the table. Evelyn reaches over, pacing her hands on top of his, "Hey, no. We don't do that, Asher." She says and he starts to fuss. She reaches into the diaper bag, that's on the stroller, pulling out his lion stuffed animal. "Take your lovey, Bub." He instantly calms down, grabbing ahold of the stuffed animal.

The waitress comes and takes our orders before saying it would be out soon.

"I know he's still got a couple of years but, have you thought about school at all?" Evelyn asks as I look over at her.

"What about it?"

"Well, would our kids actually go to school, or is homeschooling the route we should go?"

"Kids? Plural?"

"Oh my God, that is not me saying I'm pregnant."

"Damn." I say as she chuckles, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, I've thought about it. With the ways schools are these days and the fact that I'm kind of famous, I don't think we should send them to school. Maybe for like Pre-School and then pull them out for kindergarten."

She thinks for a minute, "Yeah, that could work. They need to be socialized."

"Sports teams." I say, grinning.

"Plus then, you guys could come to every away game." I say as her face lights up.

"Think about the traveling experiences our kids are gonna have." She says, reaching her hand up as I high five her. "We're going to be that super cool family that travels everywhere and has a famous hockey dad."

"We already are baby, we already are." I say before our waitress brings our food out.

We both dig in, lapsing into silence, only talking every couple of minutes. "Oh. I forgot to tell you-"

"Mr and Mrs Rhodes?" A male voice interrupts me as we both turn our attention to a young male, maybe in his early 20s.

"How can we help you?" I ask and he hands out a large yellow envelope.

"You have been served." He says as my stomach drops and I grab ahold of it. He walks away as I slowly turn back towards Evelyn.

She swallows slowly and I drop my gaze to the envelope. "It's for the both of us?"

"That's what he said." I say before ripping it open and pulling out a couple pieces of paper stapled together.

I quickly scanned over the words until I froze on a sentence. I scoff.

"What is to Greyson?" She asks as I re-read the sentence over and over again, making sure I read it right.

"Your dad is filing for custody of Asher."

Word Count: 1,355