The Joxes

Chapter 35

There's no way I could ever deny that Elena wasn't Noah's mother and Noah wasn't her son. They responded so well, so befitting that I felt like an outsider. The constant thought of them being my real family, a family I created was too extraordinary to believe it was mine.

The richest thing I've ever accomplished was my family. All I ever cared for was a family.

"Jaxon?" Elena calls, standing in front of me. She touches my shoulder and my eyes actually open and I wasn't in an impaired state of mind. "Are you alright?" Noah walks past her and enters the kitchen to greet Brenda while also claiming a seat at the island.

I nodded, "Yeah. I'm just thinking." I take Elena into my arms, resting her body against mine and holding her loosely, but befitting.

She rests her hands on my arms and smiles softly, lowering her voice. "Yeah, about what?"

"Just how lucky I am if I am patient."

She smiles and lifts her finger to run a wet, loose lock of hair into place on my wet forehead. "You're not lucky. You're just blessed. Blessed with a healthy expanding family and a life that one cannot replace with something better."

"We're getting a little too Shakespearean, don't you think?"

She chuckles underneath her breath before kissing me. "I am just glad all our problems are gone and we can focus on something that matters: us."

"Did you tell Brenda about..."

"Yeah, I thought she should know since she has as much of a part in this as us," Elena responds, almost in a predicable manner that expected me to create an argument about it. She tugs at my shirt collar smooths it out, sliding her hands down my shoulders and keeping me leveled. "She's grateful that it's done. It's over with and there's nothing to worry about."

Brenda stands up and swings her purse over her shoulder and reaches us. She smiles, "Well I will get out of here. Kevin and I were supposed to get dinner."

"Why don't you guys join us for dinner? We can celebrate the good news of being problem-free."

"That sounds great, but we've been planning this dinner for a while."

"It's Brenda and Kevin's fourth anniversary," Elena announces, nodding her head.

My eyes widen as I didn't of it as that. "Oh, right! Sorry-"

"No, don't apologize. It's not an important date for you to remember." She waves me off, excusing my mistake. "Thank you for taking care of our issue. It feels good for him to get the result he deserved."

I nodded, "Yeah, it's no problem."

Brenda hugs me and I hug her back. "It means a lot. I'll see you guys later." She scoots around me and exits the house, taking an umbrella into the air and lightly jogging towards her car.

Elena stands by the door and waits for her to pull off before closing up the house. I walked into the kitchen and Noah's pulling out his drawing from earlier. He hands me a wide sheet to share his creations. "I guess I'm going to have to start drawing a sibling."

I look over at him and Elena comes inside the kitchen and goes straight to the fridge. "How was your day, Noah?"

"You're having another baby?" Noah jumps the gun and looks at Elena with stunned eyes. He seemed so cool earlier, but clearly, it disconcerted him now.

Elena turns around after getting the hamburger meat out from the fridge. "Yes. It's not a bad thing. There will be just another kid running around. Don't you want a brother or sister?"

He looks at me and shrugs his shoulder. His eyes go back to Elena as he answers her question, "Yeah, but I didn't think it would be so soon. Is it a boy or girl?"

"We don't know yet," I chime in. "It's too early to tell."

"We're hoping for a girl, but we'll be just as happy with a boy." She walks over to Noah and rubs her hand on his, comforting any dissatisfaction. She raises the hamburger meat. "Hamburgers and french fries for tonight."

Noah dips his eyebrows. "Trying to butter me up? I love hamburgers and french fries."

"Well, anything for my understanding son." Elena rubs his shoulders and looks at me with passive eyes.

My eyes alternate as I turn in my stool.

.......................................................

After dinner, I was stuffed. Noah and I sat on the couch watching football as Elena disappeared upstairs for the night. My watch chimes which indicated that it was nine o'clock. The game ends with our team winning its fifth game in a row.

Noah cheers, jumping on the couch, "You owe me fifty bucks! I knew we were going to win!"

Elena would hate that I'm also teaching Noah how to have fun while watching football by creating bets to make the game a little more interesting, but I always wanted a dad that would find something exciting to bring to the table. Even something as simple as gambling.

Noah boastfully pounds his victorious balled fists into the air and cheers. "You owe me fifty bucks, pay up!"

I go into my pocket and take out fifty and hands it to him. He snatches it and looks at it with his yearning eyes. "It's bedtime," I announce, getting up.

"But I'm not tired."