Snapshots

He Loves Her and He Loves Her

He loves the way her voice sounded when she was humming some love song and pulling cookies out of the oven. Because it's Riley's birthday, it's her eighteenth birthday, and everything has to be perfect. He loves the way she looks at him while he attempts to wrap Riley's present, shaking her head and laughing at him. He loves when she takes it from his hands and puts it in front of her, rewrapping the bright pink phone case perfectly. He even loves her when she starts to wrap him.

He loves her red dress and the way it sparkled in the green and red Christmas lights. He loves her even though she didn't bring any gloves and complained to him the whole time they were walking. He loves her when she slurred out a sweet "but it's Christmas, Lucas" when she had had just a little too much to drink at Charlie's party, and he even loves her when her cheeks were bright red and her nose was runny and her body was on fire from the 101 fever she had because she insisted that he take her to go play in the snow with no jacket, no hat, and no gloves.

He loves the way that her hair falls over her shoulder and onto his desk, covering the math notebook that he was trying to take notes in. He loves that she distracts him to no end, and he loves that after school every day she would send him her notes, because she could feel him staring at the back of her head during class.

He loves it when she holds his hand and tells him she could picture her whole life with him, the quiet episode of some random tv show playing in the background. He loves it when she falls asleep on his chest, and he loves it when he wakes up with her still quietly snoring next to him. And he still loves her when they are sitting at her mother's kitchen table, getting a stern talking to from Shawn, all the while giggling to each other and picturing themselves back in bed, watching the sun rise through her window.

He loves her when she has tears running down her face and is screaming at him to go away. He loves her when she closes the door in his face and when she doesn't call him back for a week. He even still loves her when she ignores him at school and when she starts to skip class just to avoid seeing him. He especially loves her when it is three in the morning and he hears a knock on his window, tears in her eyes again, apologizing because it wasn't him that made her mad, it was that her dad showed up and her mom had been crying all week, with no help from Shawn who was out on business and had to drive home from California. And his heart breaks but he extra loves her when she asks him in the smallest voice he thinks he's ever heard to please hold her and make it all better.

He loves her when she sits on his lap and his friends all continue their conversation, ignoring the pair as they smile to each other, foreheads pressed against the other's. He loves her when she comes to his baseball game and cheers in the stands with his mom, and he loves her when she goes out with him and his team afterwards. He loves her when she talks to his team, and he especially loves her when she wears his letterman jacket on game days.

He loves her when she tells him to quit flirting with her, even though he wasn't, he was merely trying to get her to make out with him instead of doing her algebra homework. He loves her when she finally gives up on the textbook assignment and comes to sit with him against the foot of his bed. He loves her when she's kissing him, and she tastes like the strawberry Chapstick she had just put on her lips. He loves her when she shifts her body to be facing his, and he loves the way her hands feel, tangled up in his hair. And he particularly loves her when her tongue is swirling around his neck, leaving a bruise that he knows is sure to earn him a beating from Shawn. He loves her as she takes off his shirt and he loves her as his hands find a comfortable and familiar place on her waist.

He loves her when the power goes out in her apartment and she suggests they go to the rooftop garden to watch the stars, "because if we're going to be in the dark it might as well be fun, Lucas." He loves her as she points out constellations to him, tracing them with her finger. He loves her when she gets a call from her best friend, answering immediately, and he loves her when she lets him lay his head down in her lap, talking about something he didn't understand about Charlie and Riley and the food chain of high school, and he loves her when she wakes him up with a kiss on the check, apologizing because she didn't think Riley would talk for that long.

He loves her when they sit in her living room, watching a movie with her mom and Shawn and his mom all together, and he loves her when she leans up against him and sighs happily, because this is what she had always hoped her life would be like. He loves her when she eats the last bite of his popcorn and when she picks the worst movie and when she ends up talking over the whole thing anyway. He loves her when he watches her clean up from dinner with her mom and his mom, and he loves her when Shawn leans over and tells him how much he appreciates all that Lucas has done for his daughter.

He loves her years later when he watches her clean up from dinner with her mom and his mom, and he loves her when he asks Shawn if he could marry his daughter, and he loves her more, if that's even possible, when Shawn says yes.

He loves her as he watches her walk down the aisle, a tear in both of their eyes, and he loves her when she says, "I do," and he loves her when she kisses him in front of all his friends. He loves her when they spend their first night together in their house, and he loves her when she smiles at him and he knows that he made the right decision.

And he didn't think it was possible, but he loves her even more when they're in the hospital and the doctor hands her their baby girl. And he knows that he loves Maya, but he loves this new girl so much more.

Because he's loved her since the seventh grade, and she's loved him just as long. It was him and her and her and him and now it was him and her and baby girl, and when he looked at his wife he thanks his lucky stars that his mom moved him to New York when he was thirteen, because he wouldn't have met her otherwise. And when they drop their baby girl off at her first day of Kindergarten and his very pregnant wife is crying, he knows that he loves her and he loves her and he loves her.