four years later.
nina rested her head on ricky's lap and he ran his fingers through her hair as they sat on a soft, patterned picnic blanket in the under a tree of the field they went to every time they were in salt lake.
however, it was different now. the field was smaller as houses started to be built on the surrounding edges, leaving just the space of the center and few plots of land in between each house.
yet, the center wasn't completely free, the city had decided to make a small play structure out of wood to make it more homey and kid friendly. there were a couple kids and their parents, who were watching them, run around as they went from the slide, to the small treehouse, to the monkey bars.
"hey, love?" nina grabbed her husband's attention, looking away from the book he was reading.
"yes?" he looked down at her continuing to stroke her hair.
"do you think we'll ever settle down?" she questioned.
"what do you mean? we have settled."
"no, i know, but we have a house in salt lake and a house in la, don't you think it's tiring going back in forth every couple months?" she asked.
he thought for a second before answering her question, "it would be ideal to stay in one spot, but what about work?"
"i can manage the salt lake branch of salrob music," she told him, "and you can work in the building here. we don't necessarily have to keep travelling for your music."
"you want to stay in salt lake?"
"why not?" she smiled, "almost everyone is here."
"really?" he smiled a cheeky smile, trying to see if she was joking.
"yes," she laughed. "i couldn't imagine a future elsewhere."
"and if i have to go on another tour?"
"then we'll go together, but that only lasts a few months." she pointed out, sitting up and facing him, "come on, think about it. after your tour, we'll get to come home and we won't have to worry about leaving again so soon."
"are you sure that's what you want? what if you want to go back to la?" ricky asked.
"then we'll go back. we'll get an air bnb, stay for a month. we could stay with my moms or ej," she said. "but i want to live here." she stared him dead in the eyes, trying to get any response.
ricky saw her convincing expression. she had that look that she would mask on during presentations when she tried convincing her clients into signing with her.
before he could answer her, he heard a small screech, scream like sound coming from a little kid.
"mommy! they're here," she yelled, running towards her parents. "i saw the baby!" she said, sitting in her dad's lap.
"you did?" the dad replied with a gasp.
"yea! it was sleeping," she dragged the word.
"and you, missy? when are you going to sleep? it's almost time for your nap," he said in a feign angered tone.
"mommy said i can skip my nap today cause we're seeing everyone," she said matter of factly.
the dad looked up to his wife sitting in front of him, with his mouth slightly open in disbelief and shock.
"nini, did you tell alex that she could skip her nap?" he raised his eyebrows.
"no," she replied, obviously lying.
"yes you did! you said 'don't tell daddy but you don't have to nap today.' it's bad to lie mommy."
"and what did you do? you told daddy," nina said, attacking her with tickles.
"st- stop," she said between laughs.
"only if you keep my secrets."
"deal," she squeaked, putting her pinkie out.
the mother and daughter pinkie swore before alex picked up a strawberry from the food laid out in front of her, and started eating it, aggressively pushing back the hair dangling in front of her face.
"we're here!" a man exclaimed extravagantly, stopping in front of the family.
"los, not too loud, you're going to wake scarlet," seb half whispered, setting a stroller in front of the blanket laid on the ground.
alex stood up quickly and went up to the baby in the stroller who slept soundly.
"scar, wake up," she said, making the adults laugh.
"aren't they the cutest?" seb said.
"adopting a kid was definitely one of the best decisions i've ever made," carlos thought out loud.
"auntie kourtney, auntie ashlyn!" alex yelled as she ran up to the two wives, hugging their legs.
"alex!" they exclaimed.
"hi damian," alex said to the toddler who was about the same age as her.
"hi," he replied. "look what my moms let me bring," he lifted up a toy he had in his hand and they both sat next to the adults, fascinated by the small plastic object.
"he's been running around all day," ashlyn said, letting out a sigh. "it was almost impossible to get him dressed."
"we thought we would be the last ones," kourtney laughed.
"you're good, ricky and i came early so alex could let some energy out."
"we aren't late to the party are we?" big red asked, sitting down next to everyone. "xavier kept bothering jake while he was getting ready."
"daddy was taking too long!" the slightly older boy whined. "you said 12:00 on the dot and it was 12:01."
"ok, sorry. i was the wrong one," red faked annoyance then laughed.
"you should've heard them bicker in the car," jake, reds husband, used his hands to make puppets who kept talking.
"aww, just like how red was in high school," carlos teased.
"carlos, that was you, not me," red said, causing everyone to laugh.
"veronica, stop running, you're going to trip over."
"alex!" the little girl ran up to the group.
"ronnie!" alex hugged her before they sat back down and watched damian explain his toy with xavier.
"gina, oh my god!" they all exclaimed, overlapping their voices.
"surprise!" she said, holding her very pregnant belly.
a round of congratulations could be heard from everyone as her husband ran up behind her, carrying all the bags from the car.
"i take it they all know?" he joked.
"somehow they knew before i told them," she said sarcastically.
"huh, wonder how that happened," he chuckled, placing a hand on her belly.
"hey david, how've you been?" ricky asked the man.
"good, good. ronnie was telling me how excited she was to see all her friends again."
all the adults looked towards the children taking turns playing with damian's toy. they were all talking over each other and all of a sudden, the baby in the stroller in front of them started crying loudly.
alex and veronica got up and went up to the baby, seeing that her pacifier had fallen from her mouth.
"fix it," veronica whispered to her best friend.
"me? i don't know how to fix it," she whispered back.
"damian, fix it. she keeps crying," veronica told the young boy.
he sat up and looked at the baby who was still crying, "scarlett be quiet." the girl kept letting out loud screams and the kids looked at each other, damian shrugging his shoulders before sitting back down.
"you guys are such babies," xavier said, walking over to the stroller and picking up the pacifier, placing it back into her mouth. the crying immediately stopped and the boy looked at the two girls. "babies," he repeated before sitting back down next to damian.
"xavier, you're only two years older than us," alex whined.
"but i go to elementary school now, which means i'm smart and you're not."
"that's not fair, we're in pre school and we're smart," ronnie fought back.
"babies go to preschool."
"xavier, don't be rude." jake, his dad, scolded. "you used to go to preschool too."
"when i was a baby," he mumbled.
"okay," kourtney interrupted, making all the eyes land on her. "do you kids want to play grounders?"
they all verbalized positive sayings and stood up.
"okay, let's go to the park, yea?" she told them.
"last one there is a rotten egg!" damian yelled before running through everyone and making it to the play structure before them.
"that's not fair damian!" veronica yelled, running after him.
"i'll get the rest of the stuff from the car sweetie, i'll be right back," gina's husband told her, giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"i'll help, i think i left something in the car too," red's husband spoke, jogging after david.
"i better help kourt with the kids, there aren't many eyes watching them," ashlyn said.
"i'll come with, xavier gets real mad if he doesn't get chosen for grounders," red laughed.
"me too, i've been in the car for way too long. i need to stretch these legs," gina stood up and followed.
"oh no," carlos said, looking at the, now, crying baby. "scar, what's wrong, babe? i think i'm going to take her for a walk. she likes the movement."
carlos took the stroller and started walking through a path that was leading to the playground, soon meeting up with the friends.
"oh, the baby bottle!" seb had a light bulb moment, taking out a bottle of milk from their prepared baby bag. "i'll bring this to los, scarlet might be getting hungry."
now, it was just ricky and nina left on the picnic blanket. they decided to stay back, instead of going to where the crowd of people were. instead, nina put her head on ricky's shoulder and held his hand as the both of them watched their friends, who they considered family, play in the distance.
"i miss days like this," nina said.
"me too, love." ricky replied. he let a couple minutes pass as they watched everyone laugh and run, before asking, "are you sure?"
nina looked up at him, a smiled painted on her face. "salt lake?"
he nodded. she looked back at the play structure and held her eyes on alex who was at the top of the treehouse. she waved at her mom and dad and nina sent a small wave back.
"i'm sure," she said before placing her head back on his shoulder.
"okay," he put his arm around her shoulder and started rubbing it. "if we're going to stay in salt lake, would you want to move? the house we have now is so far from everything."
"i never thought of that. what would you suggest?" she asked after a moment to think.
"what about here?"
"here?" she asked, surprised. "like the field?"
"why not? there are still a couple plots without houses, and this way we could design the house the way we want to. it's perfect."
"okay."
"really?"
"this place is the foundation of our relationship. i can't imagine anywhere better."
ricky gave her a kiss on top of her head and saw her staring at everyone with a smile on her face. "since we're going on about the future," he started, "hypothetically, if we were to have another kid, what would be your thoughts."
she lifted her head to look at him, "that's a big commitment," she told him. "are we ready for another?"
"now is the best time as ever," he said, "i just finished with my tour and i haven't started anything yet for my next album. why not... try?"
"i have been having a bit of baby fever around scarlet," she smiled. "what about alex? you think she'd be a good big sister? what if she gets jealous."
ricky looked up from his wife and to his little girl, "look at her," he directed to his wife, "she can't get enough of scarlet."
"it's a big decision, ricky," she looked at him.
"take all the time you need, love."
"i just-"
"mommy, daddy, look!" they both heard alex yell from behind the play structure, across the field.
they looked at each other before walking side by side towards the little girl. nina took her jacket and pulled it close, as ricky wrapped his hands around her. a smile grew on both of their faces and ricky could see a tear shed from nina's eye.
alex was running around with her friends as they laughed and squealed. nina looked up at ricky with a soft smile and ricky kissed her forehead.
"okay," she mumbled. "let's do it."
ricky wrapped his arms behind nina and rested his chin on her head as they watched their little girl.
"can you see mommy and daddy?" she stopped to yell. "there's so many!"
"we see," nina answered for the both of them.
the girl continued running and laughing, chasing her friends in the small area under a tree as she yelled:
"fireflies!"