Until Sage (Until Him 2)
Kim
One week later
HEARING NASH CRY, I blink my tired eyes open. “Sleep baby, I got him,” Sage whispers, touching his lips to my forehead then lips before he slides out of bed. Rolling to my side, I watch him walk across the room to the bassinet and pick up his boy and rest him against his chest with one hand on his back and one on his bottom. Seeing him hold our son so carefully, my heart warms in my chest. “How about you and I get a bottle and watch some TV?” he suggests, and I smile at that then watch the two of them leave the room thinking no fairy tale has ever been better than this.
Three weeks later
WALKING OUT OF the kitchen and into the living room with a fresh bottle for Nash, I smile when Nalia’s eyes meet mine. “I think he’s getting cuter by the day,” she tells me, looking down at my son, who is now wide awake and looking up at his auntie. The week after we got home, Nalia called and asked if she could come visit for a couple weeks to spend time with her nephew. Sage and I both immediately agreed. It’s been awesome having her around, and I know her being here is good for Sage. He misses his sister; everyone misses her, and we’re all glad she’s back for a while, even if it’s just temporary.
“He does get cuter by the day, doesn’t he?” I hand over the bottle to her, and she adjusts him in her arms, settles him against her chest, and then pops the bottle in his mouth like a pro.
“Totally. I sent my mom a couple pictures,” she says absently, and then her eyes fly up to meet mine as her face pales. “I—”
“It’s okay. I get it. I mean, I don’t get it, because I don’t have any kind of relationship with my birth mother, but I get why you want that.”
“Sage—”
“He’s dealing with it,” I cut her off then drop my voice. “Your brother loves you, and even though he doesn’t want to have a relationship with her, he respects that you do.”
“I wish he would talk to her and get to know her the way I have.”
“Don’t count on that happening,” I say, and sadness fills her eyes, making me feel guilty. But I’ve talked to my husband about this, and he is very firm in his decision. “Who knows what the future has in store for them, honey? But you can’t force that on him if he’s not ready.”
“You’re right, and on the plus side, since he’s been with you, he’s gotten better about talking to me about her. So maybe one day, right?”
“Right,” I agree, and then I look down at my boy and feel my face get soft when I see he’s already asleep.
I don’t know what kind of relationship Nash and Ima will have in the future, but I know she loved him beyond measure. And as he’s growing up, that’s exactly what Sage and I will tell him.
Sage
One year later
“DADA, DADA, DADA,” Nash sings as he waddles around the living room in a T-shirt and diaper, through the hundreds of toys that have gotten scattered across the floor since he got up this morning.
Pulling my eyes from my boy, I look at my wife, who is curled into the corner of the couch asleep, and I smile. She’s tired; it was a long night and an early morning. Since Nash started teething, his schedule has gotten jacked. Last night, he was up until three in the morning. The good thing about it is he’s happy when he’s up. The bad thing is neither of us gets much sleep.
Moving across the floor on my hands and knees toward my son, I watch his eyes light up as he grins. Crawling toward him slowly, he laughs then runs off with me chasing after him. I listen to his laughter fill the room and grin as I catch him and toss him up in the air, making him giggle and babble away. Holding him against my chest, I kiss the side of his head then let him go when he wiggles, wanting down.
As I lean back against the couch, I stretch my legs out in front of me and cross my ankles. Our wedding picture on the mantel catches my attention, and I smile as I study it. The photo wasn’t taken by a professional. My mom just so happened to take the perfect picture on her cell phone. In the photo, Kim and I are standing front-to-front, me looking down on her smiling, her head thrown back in laughter as a million dollars in Monopoly money flutters to the ground around us. She didn’t know I had that planned, so when it happened, her reaction was priceless.