All You Need Is Love

Chapter 21

The girl opened her arms and embraced Nicole in a hug. "I've missed you! It's been so long." She says before releasing her from her grip. Upon doing so, her gaze met mine.

"And is this the famous Michael that I've heard so much about?" She asks.

I'm not sure how to respond. I open my mouth to say something before Nicole beats me to it.

"Yeah," she nervously chuckles. "That's him." She directs her gaze towards me. "Michael, this is my sister, Robyn. Robyn this is my..." she hesitates before continuing, "friend, Michael."

I cringe at her choice of words knowing that it wasn't wrong nor right.

"Friend?" Robyn asks. "That's not what Mom told me y'know-"

Nicole interrupts her "Yeah okay, where is Mom anyways."

Robyn sighs. "She's upsatairs with Dad. They've been at each other's throats all morning; they probably didn't even hear the doorbell." She looks at me and shakes my hand "It's nice to meet you, Michael."

I smile. "You too, Robyn. Can I just say you two look really different for being sisters?" I say while fixating my eyes on both of them standing next to each other.

"Oh, I'm adopted." Robyn says. "I was the plan B for when plan A wouldn't show up, but it turned out Plan A was on the way the whole time, she was just super late to the party." She says while playfully rolling her eyes at Nicole.

"Oh, shut up. You know you're the favorite." Nicole says while hitting her arm.

"Yeah." Robyn says playfully.

"Hey, where's Drew?" Nicole asks her.

"Oh, he had to work today. You know how he is; never missing an opportunity to make a dime." she looks at me. "Drews my husband, also known as the ultimate workaholic."

I nod. "Oh well, that's a shame I would've loved to meet him!"

Suddenly, from the next room, a little girl of about 5 years old emerged from the doorway and ran towards Nicole.

"Auntie!" she says as throws her arms around Nicole's legs and hugs them.

"Well, I guess you can meet part of him. Michael, this is my daughter, Carter." Robyn says while gesturing to the little girl. She was basically a mini version of her mom except her blonde curls were tied into two pigtails.

"Aw, she's adorable!" I say as I crouch down. "Hi, there." I say while giving her a small wave.

She backs up from me and hides behind Nicole's legs.

"She's just shy." Nicole says while patting the back of Carter's head.

She slowly peeks her head out from behind Nicole's legs to look at me again."You're pretty." She says to me before releasing her and running away back into the room she emerged from.

Robyn laughs. "I better make sure she doesn't destroy anything. Nice to meet you, Michael. And nice to finally see you again, Nic." she makes her way to next room while shouting at Carter to put something down shouldn't have been messing with.

Nicole turns to look at me. "See? I said you looked good and kids don't lie; neither do I."

I smile, knowing that this is the first time someone has ever made this much of an effort to make me feel good about myself. I don't think she'll ever understand how much her words mean to me.

I must've been smiling a little too much because Nicole was quick to snap me out of my thoughts. "Hey! Don't get cocky, now." she says while nudging my arm playfully. "Can you help me put these gifts under the tree?"

I nod and we each pick up the stack of boxes we set down on the floor. I follow Nicole to the living room where the Christmas tree was set up and adorned with white lights and golden ornaments. She crouches down and begins to arrange the boxes beneath it. I study her for a moment, taking in every movement she makes; how every motion is flawless. I think about how it was nearly 5 months ago when I met her for the first time and how much life has changed from then to now. Where would I be without her? Possibly stuck in the same endless cycle of helping everyone else with their problems and never focusing on mine.

I always wondered why I let my dreams go so easily. Why I never pursued a music career, why I allowed myself to get to this age and be so far behind. I used to think it was God punishing me, but now I realized it was because I was meant to be with her and the large distance in age between the two of us didn't matter. Had I done anything differently, I wouldn't be standing here with the girl I was certain was the love of my life. And even though we agreed not to put a label on us until we got her parents to accept us, I already knew in my heart:

she was going to be the one for me whether it worked or not.

She catches me looking at her "What?" she asks. "Is there something on my face?"

I shake my head. "I love you." I say.

She stares at me for a moment, then drops the gift in her hand while rising to her feet. She had a look in her eyes that I faintly recognized; the same look she had that night in the car when we were all over each other.

She didn't say anything for a moment. She opened her mouth like she was about to, but changed her mind and put it on mine instead.

My eyes widened in shock not only because I wasn't expecting it, but also because her parents were upstairs and could come down at any moment and find us like this, and the idea of entertaining that narrative was not the greatest.

I tried to move my lips away from hers, but with every attempt, she deepened the kiss.

"I love you." She kept saying in-between kisses as her hot breath crept down my neck, sending shivers down my spine.

I gave into her, kissing her back equally as aggressive. I put both of my hands on her waist, stumbling backwards and falling onto the couch with her on top of me. I ran my hands up and down her back, causing her to moan into my mouth.

The sound of that sent my imagination into an automatic spiral of what other things I could do to her to get that same reaction. I felt myself get instantly hard beneath her.

"Damn it, Nicole we'd better stop before-" I was suddenly interrupted.

"Ewwwww!" I hear a small voice yell.

Nicole and I jerk our heads around see exactly what I was afraid of: little Carter with her index finger pointing at us and her free hand covering her eyes...

and her two not-so-pleased grandparents standing right behind her.