1 year after the Mexico trip
Noah's POV
"Noah, I just heard from Lexi that everyone made it to the beach," Elle called to me from the living room.
I walked from the kitchen into the living room before responding to her. I didn't want to make too much noise, no point in interrupting nap time if we don't have to. Our new house is quite a bit bigger than our apartment was and we're not quite used to not being able to talk to each other from any room without yelling. "Nice of her to make sure we know everyone is in Mexico without us," I responded sarcastically.
Elle smirked at me and my grumpiness. "You mean, like the year after Leah was born when Lexi and Darren missed the trip and you and Aaron texted Darren about everything you guys were doing?" She's right, I guess we'll have to take the payback.
"Do you feel bad that we're not there with everyone else?" I asked Elle, pulling her away from the laundry she was folding to sit next to me on the couch. We've been back in LA for almost 6 months now and as much as Elle says she is happy to be back in our hometown and close to our families, I can tell how much she misses our friends back in Chicago. Not that we have time for friends or much of anything else these days anyway.
I thought when Elle and I got back together everything was finally perfect. And it was perfect with just the two of us then. But, I didn't realize how much better everything could get, until we had our baby girl, Harper, three months ago. I mean, maybe I wouldn't mind adding another two or three like her sometime in the future, but right now, with the three of us, this is perfect. I was so happy when Elle agreed with me that we were ready to have a baby. Elle isn't big on change and there was so much with this. Having a baby is change enough, but we also moved back to LA, Elle quit her job, and moved away from pretty much all of our friends. You can't change too much more than all that. I've loved all the changes, but I know that has been hard on her. Don't get me wrong, our time in Chicago was amazing, but I always felt like it was temporary. LA has always been our home and I knew someday we would be back. My job, our life there, the only thing that wasn't temporary was our friends. That is the one part of this that has been hard on me too.
Elle and I knew how lucky we were in that we had the means for Elle to stay home. I was able to come back to the job I left when we moved to Chicago and it was no surprise that my family was able to help us with buying our first house. Elle wouldn't need to go back to work if she didn't want to. At some point, I think Elle will want to go back to work. She's a wonderful mom but she is such a social person, I know she'll be itching do something where she is around more people again. I know Elle has her career dreams and I don't want her to miss out on her goals.
Elle started to pull away from me and stand up from the couch as she answered, "Of course, I miss being with them on the trip, but I'm not upset about missing it. I wouldn't trade what we have now for anything."
I wrap my arms around Elle, pulling her back next to me and into a kiss. "Me either. Although, I could have gone for a little more sleep last night. Is there something we could trade to get Harper to start sleeping through the night?" Elle giggles but then her eyes flash at me in frustration. She's trying to get up but I'm still holding her on the couch with me. I know how much she tries to get done around the house while Harper is sleeping and I'm always trying to get her to take a break.
Elle finally relaxed against me. "At the moment, I'm just hoping she'll stay asleep long enough for me to get showered and ready for lunch at your parent's today. It would be nice if we could make it on time for once."
"We're only going to my parents' house. It's not like you have to do much to get ready."
"Noah, I haven't worn anything but t-shirts and sweats in forever and I honestly don't remember the last time I got a decent shower. Let me take the one chance to act like a normal human being before I go back to the life of new motherhood. Not that I can wear any of my old clothes anyway."
"So, you should go shopping and buy new clothes." That seems like an easy solution to me. We can afford her to buy more clothes if what she has doesn't fit. What's the big deal?
"That's not the point, Noah. I just feel like I'm never going to go back to the way my body was before this."
"Well, I think you look beautiful." Elle laughed, unbelieving. "I'm serious, Shelly. Do you think I'm less attracted to you because you haven't lost all the weight from having our baby 3 months ago? That's ridiculous. If anything, I'm more attracted to you now after you had our baby."
Elle rolled her eyes at me, "Whatever. There's no way you are as attracted to me now as you were before I was pregnant."
"Do you remember what I looked like during my second year playing football at Harvard? That was the best shape I've ever been in during my life. There's no way I look close to what I looked like then. Are you less attracted to me than you were then?"
"Well. . ." Elle pretends to think about it. She starts to giggle when I shoot her a murderous look. "Of course, I think you're as hot as you were then. But, you're still in great shape."
I pull Elle in to my lap and start kissing down her neck in the way I know she loves as I respond, "Exactly and so are you. In fact, maybe I should show you how attracted I still am to your shape now."
+++++
Weekly lunches with our families had, for the most part, moved out of the restaurants and to either my folk's house or Elle's Dad's. With a 3 month old, it made it so much easier for us to go to one of their houses, where they already had most of the baby stuff we need, rather than to a restaurant where we would have to pack up half the stuff from the nursery before leaving. Even with that, it seemed like we could never make it on time these days.
So, we're going to end up late to this week's lunch too, but this time it is all on me and I don't feel even a little bad. Elle and I needed that time together and I think she needed to know how attracted I am to her, regardless of how unattractive she feels these days. Harper didn't nap long enough for us to finish getting ready after Elle and I finished with each other, so we had to take turns taking care of our little angel while the other one got ready.
We pulled up to my parents' and before I even had the car in park, Brad ran out to help us carry Harper and the rest of her things into the house. Brad loved being an uncle and had let us know he was ready and waiting to start babysitting. We loved the idea of some extra help but we're both pretty sure he has ulterior motives and one of his main reasons for wanting to babysit is to impress girls. I can't say I blamed him, it wasn't a bad play, but I wasn't sure I was going to let him use my baby girl to try to pick up girls. My Mom wasn't far behind Brad, it has been a few days since she's seen Harper and you'd think it had been months. Now that we're here, I can't imagine not living so close to our families. They have made things so much easier on us, always willing to help out with anything we need. Elle and I had some discussions about staying in Chicago for a couple years after the baby was born, and even taking the wrath I'm sure we would have gotten from my Mom if we had decided to stay out of the equation, we knew how much it would be worth it to be close to family.
Watching our families gather around Harper, I'm not sure why Elle and I even come to these anymore. Maybe we should just drop her off and go back home and nap or have a repeat performance of what we were doing earlier this morning. Harper seems to be the only one of us our families are interested in seeing anyways.
Once lunch was over, I left Elle sitting at the dining room table talking to her Dad, with my Dad and Brad talking about sports at the other end of the table. My Mom had taken Harper to change her diaper and try to get her down for her afternoon nap while the rest of us finished eating. I found her sitting in the living room holding the sleeping Harper.
"Do you want me to take her up to the crib for you?" I asked. My Mom pretty much had converted my old bedroom into a nursery as soon as we found a house and I moved back out of my room.
Mom looked at me like I was crazy for a second, then smiled over at me and responded, "No, I will sit here and hold my grandbaby as long as I want and I don't want to hear you complaining that I'm spoiling her." I took a seat on the couch next to them and noticed she was watching Harper now with a wistful look on her face. "You know, honey, I used to worry so much about you."
I feel like I know where this is heading, we've had a similar conversation several times since high school. "I know, I was dumb when I was a teenager – all those fights and everything."
"No, that's not what I meant. I mean I did worry about you then too, but I knew you would eventually grow out of that. I was just thinking about how hard things were after you and Elle had broken up. You seemed to be doing so well at Harvard – with football and your grades, but I could tell how unhappy you were. I thought things would improve once more time had passed and you had a chance to get over her, but they never did."
"I know, I remember those days well, although I try not to think of them much now." Now I'm looking wistfully at my daughter. Mom and I both laugh briefly at the expression she makes as she changes position in her sleep.
Mom looks over at me and continues, "I'm sorry you kids had to go through that, but in the end, maybe it was good for you to realize what life apart was like."
"I don't like to think that any part of that time was good, although I'm sure it did make us realize that we were willing to put in the work we needed to on our relationship in order to stay together forever."
"It was so hard to sit back and watch you two, seeing you both so upset by the break-up, but both of you doing whatever you could to avoid seeing each other. I wanted to intervene but knew this was something you two had to figure out on your own. You'll see someday when your baby grows up and goes through love problems of her own."
"I don't know what you mean, Harper is never growing up," I joked. That's the last thing I'm ready to start thinking about. "You never intervened, though, really? I seem to remember a certain family lunch years ago where Elle and I were very surprised to be in the same room together again and I believe you and Elle's Dad knew something about that."
"Well, I wouldn't call that intervening, I think we just both forgot to mention to you two that the other would be at lunch, but I guess that gave you guys the push you needed. Anyway, it makes me so happy that you two found your way back to each other. You both do realize you are doing a wonderful job as parents, right? I know how hard this time in your life can be, when you're living on so little sleep and spending all your time taking care of your little one. Always wondering if you're doing the right thing in the decisions you make. You guys do look tired today, though. Just remember I'm always here when you need anything and I'm definitely here to babysit!"
Elle walked in and sat next to me on the couch, leaning in, so I could put my arm around her. "Dad kicked me out of the dining room and said that he, Matthew, and Brad were going to take care of cleaning up. What are you talking about in here?"
A brilliant idea popped into my head, so I decided to go for it. "My Mom was just offering to watch Harper tonight, so we can sleep through the night. What do you think?"
Elle asked excitedly, "Are you serious, June? That sounds amazing! You don't think she's too young to stay overnight?" Elle and I hadn't spent a night away from her yet. I hope my Mom doesn't let on that she didn't actually make this offer. Elle hates to ask for help and I'm sure she wouldn't go for this if she realized it wasn't my Mom's offer.
"Yes, that's a great idea," My mom caught my look to her, and she seemed to realize just in time what I was trying to tell her, "I mean, of course I'm serious, I'm happy to! We'll be fine for the night and you deserve a break."
As hard as it was for us to leave Harper at my parents' when we left for home that afternoon, I knew this was exactly what we needed. Elle and I finally had a chance to talk about something other than whose turn it was to change a diaper or what was for supper. It's nice seeing Elle look a little less tired and stressed as we relax and enjoy our time hanging out together. Sometimes we try to do too much without relying on offers of help and I realize we need to remember to put ourselves first every once in awhile if we're going to survive this parenting thing. I'm listening to Elle animatedly tell a story of our first trip with her company to Mexico and I think to myself, we may not be sitting on the beach with our friends this weekend, but I'm sitting here with the love of my life and I couldn't ask for anything more.
A/N – And that's the end of Part 2! Thanks again to everyone for reading, especially for all the votes and comments! I don't have any immediate plans to write more, but I never planned for a part 2 either, so you never know what will happen. 😄