“The minute you let her under your skin then you begin to make it better”
Struggling to open up the door with the toddler in her arms Waverly finally managed to get the thing open without dropping a sleeping Eleanor on the ground. It was a small miracle as her bag clattered to the ground instead.
Of course all of the commotion made B rush to the doorway to greet her and she couldn’t have been more thankful as he took her daughter’s warm body out of her arms and leaned down to pick up the items from her dad for her birthday. So maybe it was one of those moments she was relieved that he’d inserted himself into her life and made himself a bedroom in the apartment as well.
“Why didn’t you call me? I would have carried her down here”
Placing her things down on the couch she watched him as he carefully took Eleanor’s coat off of her and cuddled her little body to his chest as if she were precious gold that he knew he needed to protect. It was moments like that that assured her that what she’d done hadn’t been the wrong thing.
“Elise is here, I wasn’t going to disrupt you two.”
She shook her head at him, walking closer as she started to remove the Mary Jane shoes from Eleanor’s feet. The little girl never once waking from her spot now curled up in B’s arms as she took the blue ruffled trench coat and floral dress from Jack and Janie off of her. They worked as a team to change her into the warm pajamas on their way into her bedroom.
“You are a disruption… she is never”
Her laugh was quiet and genuine as he placed Eleanor in her bed and pulled up the pink ruffled comforter around her, tucking it in close by her body and surrounding her with pillows as she turned on the nightlight and dehumidifier before making her way back to the bed and pressing a kiss to her daughter’s forehead.
She couldn’t help but wish he was Jude with every move that he made. She’d gotten so accustomed to crawling into bed beside the two of them that the night before had been hell and she was almost positive that tonight would be the same exact way, some birthday she was having.
“How was your night?”
Almost as if he’d read her mind she huffed out at him in response as she lightly closed the door, leaving it cracked just enough that Eleanor could get out if any nightmares were to occur and she needed to get out of the room in the middle of the night.
“It was nice, spending time with dad and Fi. I don’t know if we’ve ever actually done that.”
She’d never missed a birthday with Fiona, and she’d also never spent one with just the two of them (and Eleanor). They’d surprised him by dragging him to dinner and to look at Christmas lights. It had been a calm and peaceful day all and all, a relaxing evening. But she couldn’t help but feel like something had been missing all day. She’d probably checked her phone well over a hundred times to see if that missing thing would change.
“He didn’t forget Wave”
He really needed to stop doing that. Lifting her head she rolled her eyes at him. She knew he didn’t forget, Jude had always remembered her birthday and he’d always gone way above and beyond. Not that she’d expected him to do that this year, not after what the day prior had turned into. But she’d at least expected a text message from him.
Before she could take a step away from him his hands were on her shoulders as he pushed her forcefully down the hall to the master bedroom. She didn’t feel like doing this, if he was grounding her to her room to mope for the night he could have at least let her…
“Your boyfriend was here. I let him in and put his prints in that damn lock so that I don’t have to again.”
Her bed was littered with gardenias; their white peddles covering the top of her bedspread. Passionflowers sat in a vase beside her bed with a purple bow accompanying them with two small boxes and a card.
Walking further into the room she ran her hand against the white flowers there.
“There are also chicken nuggets and espresso drinks in the fridge from me but I guess that doesn’t count for much now.”
With a wave of wrist she attempted to tell B to go away. Which she heard him huff for a moment and instead of retreating right away walked closer to her. His lips catching the side of her head.
“Happy birthday Snow. I told you he loves you, now if you’ll excuse me, my girlfriend and I were watching some blonde haired god who has some thunder power she can’t seem to stop mooning after.”
Girlfriend. Well that was a nice change to hear him say, it was about time he said the word and she didn’t feel any resentment or herself cringe in the slightest over it. She liked Elise, otherwise she wouldn’t have hired her to work at Yesterdays. Boy how they’d grown up from the days that she would have done anything to scare his hookups away.
Hearing his footsteps retract from the room she finally reached for the card: Beautiful, I’m sorry for the way Saturday went. I guess we both have some thinking to do. I hated not spending today with you. I don’t regret her, not for a single second. I don’t think I could love you more for giving her to me. Don’t interpret anything I said Saturday to mean anything different. You mean everything to me, so does she. I love you Waverly Rose. Happy 27th Beautiful –J
Hugging the card to her chest for a moment she reached for one of the boxes. Carefully she pulled at the green ribbon until it came loose and she could remove the cover of the box. Inside was a small sprig of mistletoe. The memory of ten years prior came swarming back to her.