3 years later
Elle's POV
"I think Leah has a dirty diaper and it's your turn to change her, Noah." Noah had been chasing Leah around our apartment much of the afternoon. She wasn't quite walking yet but she was a fast crawler and wanted to get into everything. We didn't have our apartment baby proofed enough for her now that she could move so quickly. I had finally gotten her to sit on a blanket on the floor to read a book with me when I noticed the smell coming from her diaper.
Noah was lounging on the floor next to us and I could tell he didn't want to get up again. "What do you mean it's my turn? I changed the last diaper."
"But that one was just wet. I changed the last dirty diaper." This was one argument Noah Flynn was not going to win with me.
"Okay, come on Leah. Let's get you cleaned up." Noah smiled at Leah as he picked her up and her eyes lit up as she gave Noah a slobbery smile. He carried her into the bedroom and I heard her start to laugh as he was tickling her.
The doorbell rang and I went to let Lexi in. Noah yelled from the bedroom. "If that's Lexi, maybe she can change the diaper."
"Noah, that's the whole point of us watching Leah for her, to give her a break!"
Lexi walked into the apartment looking much more relaxed than when she dropped Leah off with us that morning. Leah had recently turned one, she was born a few weeks before Lexi and Darren's second anniversary. Noah and I absolutely loved her and had offered to watch her for the day. Today was Lexi and Darren's third anniversary, which also meant it was an anniversary of sorts for me and Noah. I'm not sure what to call it, I guess the anniversary of us both realizing that we weren't getting over each other and we needed to start talking to each other again. Regardless of what you call it, we will be celebrating tonight!
"Thank you so much for watching her for us! Darren and I had a wonderful day!"
"You'll have to thank Noah, it was his idea, and he has been so good with her today." I loved seeing Noah with Leah. He was very sweet with her and I could see what an awesome dad he would be someday. Noah and I hadn't talked much about having kids yet, but now that the wedding is behind us and we have been spending more time with Leah, I think we are getting closer. Before we spent so much time with Leah, kids were more of a distant idea. Like we knew someday we would have them, but it was so far in the future, it didn't really seem real. But, seeing our friends have a baby made having a baby of our own seem so much more real.
"Look who's here Leah, it's your Mommy!" Noah walked back into the living room carrying a very happy Leah.
"I'll go get all of her stuff." I could still hear Lexi and Noah talking while he handed Leah off to Lexi as I walked into the spare bedroom to pick up her toys and diaper bag.
"Thanks, Noah, I hear you've been really good with her."
"Yeah, I never realized how much fun babies could be."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to start asking you when you're going to start having kids. I've heard from Elle that you guys are already getting that question a lot from your families." Ever since the wedding, our families, well mainly June, had been starting to put pressure on us to have kids. I think partly because they thought we would move back to LA when we decided to start our family. June even threatened to move to Chicago if we had a baby here.
Lexi's phone buzzed and she started laughing to Noah. "There's a text from your brother. You know, Lee was so much more fun to set up than you were. He was always happy to go out with the friends I set him up with and he still thanks me for introducing him to Ashley. Their six-month anniversary is coming up and he texted to thank me again. I think I set you up with every female friend I had and I don't remember you ever getting past a second date with anyone or thanking me for setting you up."
"What can I say, I was waiting for Elle." Aww, I walked back into the room and gave Noah a kiss on his cheek.
Lexi looked at me smiling. "You know this was all part of my plan. Fixing Lee up with a girlfriend in Chicago, that way he'll never want to move back to LA. I know there's a better chance of you two staying in Chicago if Lee stays also."
I held out one of Leah's toys to her and gave her a hug. "Nice try but Lee will still have to deal with his Mom if he decides to stay in Chicago permanently. It may work for a little while, but as soon as he gets married and they start thinking about kids, there's no way he'll be able to survive June's guilt trips trying to get him to move back. Now, I think I almost have Aaron and Josh convinced that they need to give up on the cold dreary winters of Chicago and move to sunny LA, so they can hang out by the pool any time of year. Then, when we're all in LA, you and Darren will have no choice but to move there too. You'll miss us all too much."
Noah and I both want to move back to LA to be closer to our families at some point, we're just not sure when yet. Probably when we have kids, which I feel like we're getting closer to know that we've been spending so much time with Leah. Although, now that Lee is in Chicago, I'm not sure I'll be able to leave, since all my closest friends are here. I mean, I know I'll be happy wherever Noah is and we both want to be close to our families again. I just know how much I'll miss all of them, especially Lexi, the first girl best friend I've ever had. Ever since I first mentioned to Lexi that Noah and I had started talking about leaving Chicago, she has been trying to convince me to stay.
"Yeah, you better keep working on Darren for that. He would have to spend his summers in Chicago, so he wouldn't miss the home Cubs' games."
Noah grinned at that. "I will definitely miss hanging out with Darren at all the baseball games."
"We'll send you and Darren back to Chicago together for baseball season."
Noah pulled me close for a kiss. "Shelly, you know you would never survive that long without me. We don't need to talk about this yet anyway, we haven't even decided when we're going to move back yet, so there's nothing to worry about now."
"You're right. We'll just enjoy our time here all together while we have it. I better get Leah home before she starts getting hungry and cranky. Thanks again for watching her for us. Love you guys."
"Bye, Lex! See you soon!"
After saying goodbye to Lexi and Leah, we both collapsed on the couch in front of the tv. Having a baby around was fun, but exhausting.
After our trip to Mexico when Noah and I got engaged, Lee continued to complain about me not taking him on the trip for the next month afterwards. I finally told him that Noah was always going to be my plus one and the only way he could guarantee his spot on a free trip to Mexico was if he got a job where I worked. I kept talking about how awesome my job was and finally won him over because he decided to apply. I knew it was a lot more than the Mexico trip. I had been talking to him for months about how much I loved my internship and how much I was looking forward to working there after graduation. Plus, I had been trying to talk him into getting a job in Chicago ever since Noah and I decided that we would stay here after I graduated. Noah ended up finding a new job in Chicago after the special project he was on finished up not long after our trip to Mexico. Once he finally told me what was going on at work, he knew that he could also tell Darren, and it wouldn't somehow get back to me through Lexi. Darren introduced him to several people he knew in the same industry and one of Darren's contacts was able to help Noah get a job at a new company. Noah is much happier where he is working now, but he's still staying in contact with his old boss in LA, in hopes that he may be able to go back someday.
I was worried Lee's parents, especially June, would be upset with me when he announced he would be moving to Chicago after graduation, since Noah had already followed me here. Surprisingly, June never complained. She said that if she couldn't have her boys in LA, at least they were both in the same place. Both of our families make frequent trips to Chicago to visit us.
Our second anniversary is coming up quickly. Our wedding was the weekend after Thanksgiving, one year after our reconciliation. We were married in LA and thanks to all the help I got from June and Lexi with wedding planning, everything turned out beautifully. Lee went through an online certification to perform marriage ceremonies, so he could officiate our wedding. That worked out well because Noah and I would have had a hard time figuring out if he would stand up for his brother or his best friend. I ended up with Lexi as my Matron of Honor and Aaron was Noah's Best Man.
We've had our ups and downs during our first two years of marriage, much like any couple does, but our love for each other has always stayed strong. Every once in a while I find myself reminiscing about our relationship in high school, after the kissing booth, how new and fun it was, with us sneaking around and all of our firsts together. I sometimes wish I could go back and experience it all again, especially knowing that we have our happy ending. Knowing that those fights and break-ups weren't really the end of the world they felt like at the time. Or even looking back before we got together, when I had a crush on Noah or when he was just Lee's older brother who sometimes would play with us and would sometimes pick on us, but who was around in so many memories I have of growing up. I love that we have this history together and I know someday when we've been married for twenty years or fifty years, we can look back and remember how important we've always been in each other's lives. Maybe we'll even tell our kids about some of our crazy stories. Definitely not all of them. But, I'm looking forward to the rest of our love story.
A/N - Thanks again to everyone for reading my story! I've had so much fun with it, I'm sad it's over!