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I move us so that we’re now both lying on our backs with our faces pointed towards the sky, holding hands. No more words are spoken. Eventually, Emily rolls to her side and puts her head on my chest and her leg over mine and I pull her tight into my side. I swear this woman has done more for me and my sanity than any shrink will ever do. She gets me, and she gives me so much more than I can ever give back to her.
Friday morning, the women brave the mall and all the Black Friday shoppers while the three of us men stay home, watch football and continue to recover from our food comas from the day before. I don’t know how the girls were all up and out the door at the butt crack of dawn this morning. It was like they didn’t have a care in the world while we were all still sleeping.
I only know when they left because Emily came by my make shift bed and kissed me on the cheek and ran her hand through my hair before she left. I didn’t open my eyes, but I felt it all, and I had sweet dreams for the rest of the morning.
Robert is in his recliner, Liam is hanging off of the love seat, and I’m sprawled out all over the couch when the girls come home hours later. It takes everything I have to pull my comatose ass up to a seated position to greet them. Ireland doesn’t give me much choice but to wake up as she runs over to me and jumps into my lap to tell me all about her day. A day that included lots of crazy people at the mall, lots of secret shopping for Christmas presents, lunch at Romano’s Macaroni Grill and her first pedicure. She takes off her shoes and socks and shows me her adorable little pink toenails and tells me how much it tickled. She had ‘so much fun’!
“Sounds like you had a great day, Princess. What’s in the box?”
She jumps off of my lap and grabs the box from the table. It’s over half her size and looks like a little house.
“Mrs. Fanua and Kate got me an early birfday present, and it’s the best! We went to Build-A-Bear and I got to make my own stuftie, Jonafon! I got to pick the bear, and sprinkle all her stuffing with love and then help with the machine while she got stufted. Then, I got to pick an outfit for her. Wanna see?”
“Of course I do. Let’s see whatcha got?”
She’s talking so fast she can barely breathe and I can’t help but chuckle as she digs into the box.
I look up at the girls and they’re all watching us with huge smiles on their faces. I figure out why a moment later when Ireland pulls out her stuftie. She’s a pink bear with white on the bottom of all four of her paws and she’s dressed in a police uniform. Once again this little girl has me in the palm of her hand, and is slowly melting my heart into a big pile of goo. I know she has Mick in her life too, but I still can’t put into words how it feels to see this damn bear.
“Wow, Princess, I like her a lot. She’s a police bear huh?”
“Yep, just like you and Uncle Mick. Pretty cool, right?”
“The coolest,” I say memorized by this little girl and everything she makes me feel.
“Tell him what you named her,” Emily says from across the room.
“Oooh, you’ll like it, Jonafon! You know how mommy calls you Georgia after your state? Well, I named my bear Savannah after your city! Now she has a nickname like the rest of us! Do you like it?”
What in the world is happening to me right now? I think you could knock me over with a feather. This little girl and her damn bear have just rocked my world. I am completely thrown off balance over a stuffed animal that happens to be named after me, and the big brown eyes that are looking up at me for approval.
“Like it? I love it! I think that name is perfect, Princess.”
She takes her bear, runs to the guest room and comes back with her stuffed Frank. She sits on the floor and starts introducing the two while she enters her own little world of make believe.
I get up, walk over to Fiona and Kate, and thank them with hugs. They say it was nothing, and since her birthday is Tuesday and they won’t get to be there, it was the least they could do. While talking to them, I feel a hand on my back as Robert steps up next to me and says, “That right there, son is what it’s all about. You are a lucky man, if I do say so myself.”
“Don’t I know it,” I reply back and catch Emily’s eye across the room. She’s standing there with a simple smile on her face. It’s a smile that says she loves me without words. Robert couldn’t be more right about me being a lucky man. The luckiest if you ask me.
“Dude, she’s a ten. She’s hot as hell, smart, funny, and puts up with you and your little dick. How the hell did you land her?” Liam says as we drive home from picking up lunch from Chick-fil-A.
“Man, you wish that was true. If Emily was the kiss and tell kind of girl, I’m sure she would clear that shit right up for you. But, like you said, she’s a ten and therefore not that kind of girl. To answer your question though, dude, I don’t fucking know how I got so lucky. Not just once, but twice. I ask myself that same thing every damn day.”
I think Liam can feel the change in the conversation from shit talking to a bit more serious as he changes his tone.
“She’s the one. I can see that, man. Don’t fuck it up,” he says falling into big brother mode.
“I don’t plan on it, but thanks for the vote of confidence and words of wisdom, old wise one.”
“I’m not fucking around here, J. She is the shit, and she makes you happy. You haven’t been happy in years. She’s brought out the old you, and I like it. Even seeing you with Ireland is something I never thought I would see. Not that I didn’t ever see you having a family, because I did, but I never would have thought your one would really mean two. Those two are special, and I hope you have plans to make that shit permanent.”
Liam Fanua talking about relationships and marriage is new and surprising. It takes me a second to shake it off before I can respond.
“Thanks, Liam. That means a lot especially, coming from a dog like you. I do want to make it permanent. She says she’s ready, but I’m still afraid that it’s moving too fast and she’s not as ready as she thinks she is. I’m working on it, but I can’t push too hard or too fast, ya know?”
“No, bro, I don’t. Hard and fast is just how I like it, and I don’t ever hear any complaints, if you know what I mean.” He says as he lifts one of his eyebrows. “So no, I don’t know.”
“Shut up, you’re such an idiot. You do know exactly what I mean, but enough about my love life. What about yours?” I deflect.
