Melly and I walked out of the church with our family, greeting everyone who stopped by to say, 'hi'. Melly and I had been attending the same church since forever, so we know almost all of the faces that attends mass every single Sunday. The church seats has been filled this morning because of Easter, making us see a lot of old faces that we thought we would never see again after middle school graduation.
Melly smiled and shook hands with an older woman named, Matilda, having our son adjusted to one of her hips.
"A pleasure to talk to you again." She said, politely.
"I saw your parents just leave from the back of the alter. Why didn't you go with them?" Matilda said.
Melly paused for a second, stroking Danny's hair as she comes up with a good cover up on why she isn't with her biological mother and father. She rarely likes to talk about her parents, claiming that it's like those are old wounds that she like to ignore. She's used to calling my family, her family now.
"Derek promised me to take me home, afterwards." She stated.
"Oh well, that's nice. You take good care of her, son." Matilda, said.
"I always do." I smirked, receiving a light smack on the arm from Melly for being cocky.
Matilda laughs at our interaction, before she waved good-bye at us to go to her car.
Melly looked at me, taking my hand again as we approached my newly painted, 2000 Nissan Maxima. She opened the back door to buckle Danny in his seat, before she closed the door and came to take her place in the passenger seat. I turned on the ignition and drove us out of here. When Melly saw that we weren't going home, she turned to look at me.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
"On a date." I simply stated, as I reached to take her hand on the center console.
{_}
"And we're here." I told Melly as we pulled into the park.
Melly looked up to view her surrounding, her face lighting up at the fact that we are at Somewhere Only We Know. The sunlight glistened on the plants that makes the land and the blue lake sparkles, making me want to take a swim in it. I smirked at my fiance before I stepped out of the car, opened the trunk, and got a picnic basket out. I looked up to see Melly walked up to me with Danny facing forward in her arms once I've heard two doors slam shut.
"Picnic on Our Hill? How romantic." Melly squealed, content at the effort that I made for our Easter Sunday afternoon.
"Anything for you two." I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and kissing her head. I bent down a little to kiss Danny's. "Now give me my son, while you carry the basket."
"Our son." Melly corrected me with a smirk.
"Now you know how I feel every time you call him your son." I said, picking our son and putting him over my shoulders. My hands were holding tight to his little legs, so that he wouldn't fall off.
"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes, picking up the picnic basket.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, young lady." I joked.
"You're not my dad." She retorted, laughing.
I saw a blush creep on her face as she said that. Clearly, she's still getting used to this kinky stuff that we do together when Danny's not present.
"Excuse me? You want to repeat that?" I dared her.
"I said, you're not my dad. Problem?" She raised an eyebrow at me, daring me to answer her back.
"Danny's here. I rather not." I said, looking up at the kid on my shoulders. He smiled at me, making me smile back.
The baby squealed in happiness as he wrapped his arms around my neck, laying his cheek on top of my head as if it were a pillow. This little guy is really special. He looks at me as if I were his hero and that I can do no wrong. He looks at his mother as if she were the queen in his world, always protecting him from harm, which is true. He's full of joy and laughter that no one can truly get over it. He enjoys being sang to and he loves games simple games such as peek-a-boo and patty-cake. If someone were to tell me that I would having an awesome time with my son the way I do now, I would've looked at them as if it were crazy. I probably wouldn't want to try it out this soon. But now that I am trying this whole parenting-thing out, I don't want to let go. He's my baby boy, I can't imagine my world without him now. And I don't want to either.
Melly snapped a picture of me on her cell phone, smiling at the sight of her fiance and her son spending some time together the way we are. She turned around to set up the picnic blanket and basket by our tree, before settling herself down on it. I sat down besides her, settling Danny between us. I opened the picnic basket, bringing out the sandwiches that I made for us. Danny started to babble nonsense with Melly mimicking every noise he made. He looked at her with admiration in his eyes probably surprised to see that someone could speak his language. He put his hand on each side of her face as Melly inched closer to him to attack him by planting kisses all over his face, making him laugh. I laughed at how cute my little family is snapping a picture of them as well. I quickly posted it on Facebook with the caption, "Melly attacking Danny with love."
"I love you, baby." Melly said, making Danny babble in response.
She breathed a laugh as she rose up. She sat the baby on her lap as he flailed his arms all over the place, cooing in response.
"Thank you." She said as I handed her a ham and cheese sandwich.
She moaned as she took the first bite of her sandwich. I digged into the picnic basket to pull out non-alcohol, sparkling apple cider and two champagne glasses. I popped the bottle opened and poured the juice inside the glass. I pulled out Danny's bottle and gave it to Melly so that she can feed him.
I held my glass up and said, "Happy Easter, Melly."
"Happy Easter to you, too." Melly said, clicking my glass with hers.
"Happy Easter, Danny." I said, clicking my glass with his bottle making the little guy smile.
Melly did the same, before taking a sip of her cider as I took a bite of my sandwich. It's so nice to be out here, eating lunch with my family as we rest in shade away from the warm, golden sun. I reached out to hold Melly's hand as we continue to eat in silence. We watched as birds flew by to get something to eat. Once she finished, she laid back on the blanket with Danny lying on his back on her chest. I laid back as well, looking as the clouds go by.
"Look Danny, it's a boat!" I said, pointing at figure in the sky.
I looked to my side to see him smile at the water-mobile figure as it passed along the blue sky.
"Oooh, what about that ducky over there?" Melly said, looking at the other figure.
"What about that car?" I said.
We spent most of the afternoon, spotting a lot of different cloud shapes just to pass the time. We played airplane and a few other baby games that makes this baby laugh and squeal in joy. Melly and I also let out some laughter as we innocently teased each other with different baby toys that we brought with us to entertain Danny. All in all, we had a fun afternoon that we took a picture of so that we may remember this moment forever.
Image above is Drake Bell's real life nephew, Hudson. He is who I have in mind as the child of Derek and Melly. Enjoy. 1 chapter down, 12 more to go.
Song Credit:
Song: Chasing Cars
Artist: Snow Patrol
Album: Eyes Open
Year: 2004