Lennox POV
"Best frienddd." Brandt sang into the phone, sticking his big head into the screen. He knows I'm not calling to talk to him, why is he doing this?
"Uh, uh. It's great to see you, love you. Where's my child?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously Len? We're gonna be back home in a couple hours." Beckham came walking back towards the bed carrying the plates from room service we had order for breakfast.
I cut my eyes at him, silently daring him to say something else. He did not. "I'd like to see my child now," I turned my attention back to Brandt who let out a dramatic sigh.
"One second." He set the phone down and seconds later I could hear Knox's babbles, and it didn't take long after that for the world's cutest baby to appear on the screen.
"Hi Stink!" I cooed in return causing him to squeal excitedly, a large gummy grin spreading across his face. I love being my baby's favorite person, it's the best feeling ever. "I know, I'm happy to see you too."
Knox babbled excitedly waving his arms around. I let out a small sigh as I watched him. I miss him. I miss Jayce as well, but it's different with Knox. Not because I carried him but because he's so little. When I got custody of Jayce she wasn't a baby, she was two. And Jayce was not your average two year old, she could hold entire conversations, knew how to work the microwave and only needed to wear her pull-ups at night. When I got Jayce-Lynn she was just a tiny person, she functioned like a person. Babies are so... Dependent. That's what makes me so anxious about leaving Knox. Especially Knox, he spent the first month of his life in the NICU.
"Princess.." Beckham stared at me with a perplexed expression, "What's the matter?"
"We're leaving."
"Yeah in a few hours."
"Nope right now. Brandt, I'll talk to you later. I gotta call the pilot and tell him to start up the jet. Kiss my Bug for me!"
"We're not leaving Lennox." Beckham announced as I hung up the phone.
I mean I'd be willing to entertain that statement if he didn't sound completely preposterous. I'm a new mother, and I miss my baby. So we're going home, that's really all there is to it so I won't be arguing about this with him.
"You seriously want to leave? We barely get any time to ourselves."
All I did was rise from the bed and make my way over to the luggage across the room, beginning to repack my suitcase.
"Len..." Beckham whined.
I sighed softly, "I don't expect you to get it, but yes. I seriously want to leave now."
"Why would I not get it? I'm also his parent, I miss him too."
It took everything in me not to scoff. Beckham is barely a parent. He helps with Knox, when he's around to. When he's around to being the operative statement. Beckham's demanding work schedule means he spends significantly less time with both kids than I do.
"What's his favorite toy? His favorite book? Favorite TV show?"
"You read him books?" He muttered in confusion causing me to shake my head, "And his favorite shows is CocoMelon."
"It's a tie between the Bachelorette and Octonauts." Knox watched with Gia and I, and he's been hooked ever since. Now I make sure to set all the episodes to record since it comes on past his bedtime and he watches with me the next day. He's very into it. I think it makes him feel grownup.
Beck let out a chuckle shaking his head, "He likes the Bachelorette?" The sound of his phone pinging drew his attention away from o as he checked his text messages. "Yeah, actually we should head back."
"Oh my godddd." Of course now he wants to heads back, his motivation to do so obviously being work related.
"Don't be mad." Beckham cooed till his arms around my waist from behind. He planted kisses along my neck, "You want Daddy to make it better, hm? Wanna sit on my face?"
"No!" I smacked my lips together in irritation. He's always trying to solve our problems with sex. But on the other hand, it might actually make me feel a little bit better.
"... Yes."
"MiMi!" Jayce-Lynn all but tried to tackle me the second Beckham and I walked through the door, "I came back home and you were gone!" She exclaimed wrapping herself around my legs.
"Hey..." I handed my bags to Beckham so I could pick her up, taking her into my arms. She's starting to get too big for this. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you Bug." I cooed rubbing her back. "How about this, we can spend the wholeee day together tomorrow. How does that sound?"
"Can we have a fairy tea party?!" She gasped excitedly, her eyes immediately lighting up.
"Of course we can have a fairy tea party." I kissed her cheek before setting her back down on the ground. "Where's your brother?"
"With Uncle Brandt. They're filming TikToks."
"I'm sorry, they're what?"
I set Jayce back down on the ground, swiftly walking down the hallway towards Brandt's room. I could already hear music blasting from outside of it before I even walked in.
Uber ride to my house, I called a taxi
I'm picky with my women, I'm deciding
I entered the room to find Brandt moving Knox's limbs trying to get his tiny body to execute the choreography something like a marionette doll. Knox is barely crawling yet Brandt is trying to use him to film TikTok dances. Though, I blame myself for expecting anything else from him.
"Oh hey Len," Brandt called over his shoulder, his attention still very much so on the screen in front of him. "Did you see my vlog?"
Now he's vlogging?! I would expect this kind of behavior from Blake since she's obsessed with social media. This is a lot, even for Brandt.
"Mmkay, we're done. Gimme my child." I shook my head walking over to him taking the giggly baby out of his arms. "Did you have fun with Uncle Brandt, Stink? Did you?"
I hope you did, because you probably won't be left alone with him again. Though I didn't say the last part out loud.
My favorite person squealed in response, kicking his chubby little legs excitedly. I'll take that as a yes. "You did!" I exclaimed animatedly gently tossing him into the air before catching him back into my arms.
"You seem happier." Beckham mused watching us from the doorway where he was leaned against the wall.
I snuggled Knox, kissing his forehead. "I told you I missed my baby."
"Our baby." Beck immediately corrected. He hates when I do that. I don't understand why. Knox being my son doesn't make him any less Beckham's son. Two things can be true at one time. He can be equally ours without me having to verbalize it every time I refer to him.
"Yes Beckham, our baby." I rolled my eyes setting Knox on my hip. "I'm gonna go put him down for his nap now. I'll catch up with you later?" It was less of a question and more of an announcement as I strode back over to the door.
"Wait.." Beckham placed his hand on my hip stopping me, "Come find me after? I still need to review your business plan."
"Yes I will find you afterwards." I conceded. Beckham leaned down giving Knox a kiss on the cheek and me a quick peck on the lips before releasing me.
I headed down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Bug, come here!" I called out for Jayce-Lynn. While I'm getting Knox's bottle together, I may as well check to see if she's eaten something. I don't doubt that Brandt fed her... I just don't think it was real food. She probably had a PB&J and a bag of chips. She needs to consume something that actually contains nutritional value.
She came scampering into the kitchen not too long afterwards, with that terrible little dog at her heels. I try my hardest to forget about it's existence, but it keeps popping it up. Making it an impossible feat.
"When did you last eat?" I inquired, shifting Knox in my arms as his bottle heated up in the bottle-warmer. "And what did you eat?"
"I had chips!"
"And?"
"Just chips." She deadpanned as though it was obvious.
"Sit down. I'm gonna make you a grilled cheese really quick." She's having carrot sticks on the side of it, but she doesn't need to know that.
I quickly began whipping together her grilled cheese. Knox's bottle was warm by then which made the process take a little longer than it needed to, as I had to cut the stove off to feed and burp him, then resumed preparing Jayce's lunch afterwards. She wanted to pitch a fit about the carrots but knew better than to risk waking up the baby who was now half-way to sleep.
"Eat your food babe, I'll be back to check on you in a minute." It's about time that I recused myself and took Knox to his nursery... He's starting to get a little heavy.
I was finally able to let out a sigh of relief once I set him down in his crib. He looks so cute when he's sleeping. "Sweet dreams broke bestie, I'll check on you soon." I smiled softly kissing his forehead.
Yeah I've turned into one of those moms. I love it though. After spending much longer watching Knox sleep than I probably should have, I grabbed the baby monitor off of the dresser finally exiting the room. I should probably go find Beckham now because he wants to talk... About whatever it is he wants to talk about. It didn't take long to find Beckham, who was where he usually is, his home office. Go figure.
"Is Knox asleep?" He questioned as I walked through the door. I nodded my head in confirmation.
"He went down pretty easily, he usually does." Unless the TV is on, I've never heard of a baby having a television addiction but I swear he does. Now I have to go out of my way to limit his screen time. Which is hard because he doesn't do much and tummy-time is not an all day activity.
"So before you tell me about your business proposal.." Cue my eye roll, "Eliana called with some good news."
Eliana is Niall's publicist, it's kind of weird that she's calling Beckham to talk about me. Since it's allegedly good news, I'll humor them.
"Which is?"
"You're gonna be on the cover of Sports Illustrated."
"Oh my god!!" I squealed jumping up off of Beckham's lap in excitement. "You're shitting me, you're not serious. Because why would Sports Illustrated want me on their cover?"
"They've been doing this whole rebrand centered around women's empowerment, and you're a Mom who's a PreMed student and they loved your interview with Robin Roberts. So they want to do a feature on you for SI Swim. And I think this would be the perfect opportunity to announce your new business venture, sooo. Business plan." Beckham gestured with his hand waiting for me to say something.
"It's called Xen by Len, pronounced "Zen" but spelled cooler, just because. It looked better when I wrote it out. Plus Lennox is spelled with an X too, so." I shrugged my shoulder nonchalantly, "Also I don't have pitch-deck or anything because I was not about to let you assign me homework. Absolutely not."
"Len, Len. What is it?"
"Oh yeah... It's a body care line. So like scrubs, body butters, sunscreens, etc. Because you know, I'm studying to be a doctor and I think a skincare line from a future doctor is a nice selling point."
Beck nodded his head approvingly, "Yeah that'll work. I'll set a meeting with one of Dad's contacts in that industry, get you started on product development. Thank you." He grabbed my hand pulling me back towards him, "I know you didn't want to do this but it's gonna be great."
By this, he's referring to launch a business. He's absolutely right, I do not want to do this. Unfortunately it's necessary given our contract. Also necessary for the De Loughrey family to keep up proper appearances, I've already been publicly accused of gold-digging by Brynlee. Which is ironic given the fact that Beckham is the one who technically trapped me.
"Yes De Loughrey, I'm sure the photoshoot will be great," I teased causing him to let out a small chuckle shaking his head.
"So, what is this I'm hearing about Brandt and Knox trending on TikTok?"
"Now they're trending?" I raised an eyebrow taking my seat back on Beckham's lap. "I told you we couldn't leave him with the baby overnight."
Finally an update. A little sweet filler chapter. The next one might be similar as well, but as we know in the De Loughrey world things never remain too uneventful for too long.
Also things are finally winding down for me at school, fingers crossed I'll be able to update more regularly. I've been so MIA cause I'm in the process of trying to graduate early!
*One more thing, forgot there are new readers here. No comments means no updates, this is how things work here. I feel motivated to write (consistently) when I read your comments, and see how you're enjoying the book. And when there are no comments, I just updated whenever I feel like it.
~Lee