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I think I'm going to be sick. And Dakota knows it too. Her and the girls keep looking over at me and I swear I hear them giggle. To my defense, I'm not well-versed in the flying on airplanes department. And one would think that being up on scaffolds for a living would be practice for taking off on a plane. But no. It's not the same and I feel the nausea creep up the higher the plane ascends into the air.
"Need me to take Mae?" Dakota whispers over the aisle. We had to sit in separate seats. The baby, being three months old, is in my arms sleeping like an angel while I try to hold down my breakfast burrito from this morning. The girls take up the other two seats next to Dakota across from me.
"No, I-" I stop myself short because I know if I continue to talk, I'll chuck. So I opt to shake my head and close my eyes like a wuss and now I know the girls are laughing at me. But I shake off the entertainment I'm providing them and focus on holding my daughter tight while I suffer through my first plane ride.
A few hours later, we land at DIA and I'm amazed I didn't lose my breakfast on my seat neighbor. But I'm more surprised that Maelie is still sleeping.
"Nolan, you really don't like flying on planes, do you? You should probably get out more." Emsley teases me in her sassy little tone and both Dakota and Aria join her in a giggle. I just roll my eyes with Maelie strapped to my chest in her carrier and reach for Dakota's hand.
"You may think it's funny now, but you won't be laughing when I make you sit next to me on the flight back home and I really do get sick." I ruffle her hair with my other hand, and she makes a bleh sound. We've quicky learned that kids love to make sounds that dictate they think things are gross. Which to them, is almost everything.
"That would be a very awful thing to do, Daddy," Aria sticks up for Emsley as we continue to travel through the airport to get to our luggage station.
"She started it," I joke, and Dakota gives my hand a little squeeze.
Maelie starts to stir in her carrier and almost immediately follows up with tiny cries.
"Well, she lasted this long," I say as I stop walking to adjust her, making sure she's comfortable.
"She's probably hungry. I can take Em with me to the bathroom to change her and prep some milk for her?" Dakota looks at me as she riffles through the bag for a clean bottle.
"I wanna go with Nolan. I can give him some pointers on how not to be a big baby on airplanes," Emsley chimes in, jumping up and down.
"Not very nice, Em." Dakota shoots her a stern look in which she returns one of her own that pleads an apology.
"Yeah, and I wanna go with my little sister," Aria adds.
"Okay. Aria, go with Mae and Dakota. Em, these better be good pointers." I smirk at her and she reaches for my hand. I pass off the baby and give Dakota a kiss before we take our separate ways.
I stay put though and watch for a few seconds making sure that the girls make it into the bathroom, and I take Em toward the direction of the luggage carrousels.
"So, what's your secret?" I ask her.
"When are you going to marry my sister?" Emsley questions and I have to stop in the middle of airport-foot traffic at the blatantness of the question.
"Wow. Okay there, little one. Why are you asking?" I feel like a baseball was just thrown at my chest, but her eyes look at me with innocence and curiosity. I feel a little bit of guilt when I see the way she looks at me. But Dakota and I agreed that marriage wasn't super important to us at the moment. Then again, that was a while back when we first found out she was pregnant with Maelie.
"Aria says that Dakota isn't really her mommy until you guys get married. So, we was just wondering if you were gonna have a wedding like the one we're going to?" Emsley smiles at me as we approach our carrousel. I stop at the base of it and focus my eyes on the suitcases spinning around it to watch for ours. But I'm distracted at what Em just said to me.
"Aria told you that?" I ask as I rub the back of my neck.
"Yep. And she said she'd really like DJ to be her other mommy. And she feels like Maelie isn't her real sister 'cuz of it. So, you should marry my sister." She leans up on her toes and also watches the bags going around the luggage carriers.
It's crazy how honest kids can be when they're this age. And I know they don't mean to do harm but their honesty. But it makes me wonder if Dakota has said anything to the girls or if the girls have talked to her about this topic.
I do have a ring. It was my mom's. My grandma gave it to me to have just in case I ever felt like I'd spend the rest of my life with someone. In reality, that means that I should have used it to propose to Jessica. But I didn't feel right passing down my mother's ring to someone I had doubts about from the beginning. So I kept it safe and got her the pretentious, big-ass diamond that she picked out.
After I took Dakota to my mom's headstone that day, I went home and found her ring. It was a magnetic pull really. I wanted to make sure I still had it. An though it's not an engagement or wedding ring by any means—my mom never married—it's still a beautiful ring. It's an oval opal with diamond accents over a white-gold band. It's got a vintage feel to it which, honestly, fits Dakota's vibe if you ask me. But when I found the ring, I zipped it up in a tiny bag and hid it in my wallet.
I pat my pant pocket to make sure I have my wallet and my heart warms at the idea that I might actually use this ring to propose to Dakota. But only if it's what she wants.
"Has DJ talked to you girls about this? Has she said anything?" I decide to ask Emsley in hopes that I might get some more intel on what Em knows. But I should know better. I mean, the girl kept the gender of Maelie hidden from everyone. Even Aria.
She looks up at me with a sneaky little smile on her face, her bright eyes wide.
"Listen, Nolan. One thing you gots to know about me, is that I'm a really good secret keeper. Let's say DJ did say something to us, I wouldn't tell you." She giggles and I roll my eyes to myself.
"I think that's ours!" she shouts as she points to a large purple bag making its way toward us.
