A/N: This isn't the story I mentioned to a couple of you in reviews. This is a different story I got the idea for yesterday. Shout out to ghostgirl19 for helping me out on a couple of details. :) Title is a line from Mine by Taylor Swift. I highly recommend you watch the video for it if you haven't; it's adorable. Enjoy!
Emma Novoa awoke on a Friday morning to two of her favorite things: warm sunlight flooding in through her bedroom window and her amazing shirtless husband planting feathery kisses along her neck. She giggled and sighed with bliss. "Good morning to you, too."
Jax removed his lips from his wife's neck and grinned at her with that eternally perfect smile of his. "Awe, look who's beautiful when she wakes up." He cupped her face in his hands and pecked her on the lips. "And when she makes breakfast." Another peck. "And when she gets home from work." Another. "And every moment of every day."
Emma chuckled and placed her hands on her husband's face. "Well aren't you sweet." She kissed him but this time it wasn't playful; it was passionate. They deepened the kiss until Emma's hands were in his short black hair and she was quietly moaning into his mouth. Jax pulled her thin yet curvy lingerie-clad body on top of him and reverted to planting kisses down her neck. She closed her eyes and felt like she was on Cloud 9 until—
"Again?"
The husband and wife broke apart and turned to look at their doorway. Standing right inside of it was their adorable five-year-old daughter, Ahna. Her name had a double meaning. Anna was Emma's favorite character from her favorite Disney movie Frozen and Leanna was Jax's late mother's name. The A-N-N-A in both was pronounced like A-H-N-A, so they'd decided on that unique spelling for their daughter's name. With a dad named Jax and a mom who held the title of the Chosen One, it was necessary the little girl follow the special name/title pattern her family had going. Her middle name was Marie, in honor of Emma's late mother Maria.
Ahna held her teddy bear to her stomach and said, "You guys wrestle a lot."
Emma blushed.
Jax chuckled. "Morning, Ahna."
"Antonio Rueda and Jessica Miller wrestled at school yesterday. But they were wrestling cuz they were mad at each other and plus they had all their clothes on."
"Ahna, why don't you go get ready for school and Mommy will get breakfast started?" her mother desperately suggested.
The small, long-dark-brown-haired girl shrugged. "Okay." She turned around to exit.
"Ah ah," her father said in a reprimanding tone, halting her in her tracks. "Where do you think you're going?"
"My room..."
"By walking?"
Panic washed over Ahna's face as she realized her error. "Oh..."
"Ahna, what did I tell you about doing things the powerless way?"
"The powerless way is for humans and Millers," she recited solemnly, eyes on the floor.
"Correct. Now," he grinned, "how do Novoas do things?"
"The magic way!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"Excellent! Show your mother what we've been working on."
Ahna took a deep breath then closed her eyes and waved her index finger. A swirl of blue-violet magic enveloped her and then she disappeared. A second later, she squealed, "I DID IT! I DID IT!" from down the hall.
"Great job, sweetie!"
"THANKS, DADDY!"
"Did you see that?" Jax asked as he turned to his wife, heart swelling with pride. "She's improving!"
But Emma wasn't returning his smile. She was giving him The Look.
"What?"
"'Humans and Millers'? Really?"
"Oh, come on. It's funny and you know it is."
"Jax, she goes to school with Daniel's kids! She needs to get along with them, not act like she's better than them."
"Em," Jax said without a hint of humor in his voice. "It's not acting if she is better than them. Which she is."
Emma whacked him on the arm which only made him laugh. "What? Our DNA versus Daniel and Sophie's. It's not shocking we produced the better offspring."
"This is serious! You're not the one who goes to her parent-teacher conferences. I like to get good reports from Ms. Novak, not—"
"Mhm," Jax mumbled, climbing on top of his wife and kissing her jaw line.
"Hey, we were having a conversation—"
"Mhm." He trailed kisses from her jaw line down onto her neck.
"Jax!" But her protests were futile. She was completely incapable of resisting him and the smile on her face proved as much.
"I think our conversation was done," he murmured as his lips approached The Place on Emma's neck, the place that was her total weakness. He kissed it gently at first and then began to nip at it, causing her to lean her head back and let out a pleasurable exhale.
"We can't," she managed between breaths. "I have to shower—"
"Good idea…"
"Not like that! I mean shower-shower, by myself. Ahna has to be at school by nine and it's already eight and I haven't even started on breakfast and—"
"Magic."
"You know how I feel about using magic for mothering duties."
Jax finally stopped kissing his wife's body. He groaned with annoyance then lifted his head to look her in the eyes. She was giving him her infamous puppy dog eyes, which made any resentment he felt toward her "fulfilling my mothering duties without magic gives me a sense of accomplishment" philosophy temporarily melt away. Because Emma didn't just find Jax irresistible; Jax found Emma irresistible, too. He climbed back onto his own side of their luxurious king-sized bed and propped himself up on one elbow so he was facing her. "You owe me," he conceded.
"I'll stop by the house during my lunch break," she promised. "Think you can get away at noon?"
"I have my own company; I can do whatever I want."
She gave him a slow, passionate kiss on the lips then whispered, "Perfect."
He shook his head. "You, my dear Chosen One, are the sexiest woman alive."
"And you, my rebel with a halo, are the sexiest man alive."
"I know."
"Cockiness is not attractive, Jax!" Emma playfully yelled as she climbed over top of him to get off the bed.
"Yeah, sure. That's why you married me."
Emma bit her lip as her husband's signature smirk turned into that grin that to this day made her heart flutter. She shook her head and walked into their bathroom to get her morning routine started.
Twenty minutes later, the couple was downstairs, looking gorgeous and dashing as ever. While Emma preferred to shower the old fashioned way, she'd come to rely on magic for primping. She'd cast a few spells and in just fifteen seconds, her dark brown hair was dry and in perfect curls, her makeup light on the eyes and bold on the lips (berry pink lipstick much), and her outfit business-perfect (pink blazer over a black top, black pencil skirt, and pink heels Maddie Rueda had insisted she borrow #TheDiegoEffectFTW).
Jax did not prefer to shower the old fashioned way (unless of course his Em was accompanying him) so he'd taken care of that and everything else about his morning the magic way. He was wearing one of his many custom-tailored black suits with a white dress shirt, blue tie, and black dress shoes. It was his unofficial I'm The CEO of This Company and Yes I'm Hot But I'm Madly in Love with My Wife and I Always Will Be So Look Away and Get Back to Work uniform.
Now Jax was sitting at the dining room table while Emma put the finishing touches on her famous French toast.
"Doesn't it look horrible?" she asked, placing a few blueberries off to the side of Ahna's favorite Dora the Explorer plate.
Jax tilted his head and re-examined the blueprint his wife had given him. "I'm not seeing what's so horrible about it. It's almost the same design you came up with."
"It's obvious." Emma used magic to make her and Jax's plates appear on the table while she carried Ahna's over by hand. "BREAKFAST IS READY!" she hollered over her shoulder. She sat down and sighed. "Katie's design doesn't incorporate any glitter."
"Ohhhh." Of course. Now he saw it. In Emma's blueprint for the latest client of the company she worked for, Designs 4 U, there was lots of glitter: on the love seat, on the posters, on the gypsy beads hanging in front of the closet. Katie Rice's design, on the other hand, was more business-y and sharp-edged. "Well, your design is clearly better. You said Alexis's parents described her as an eight-year-old girly girl who likes gymnastics and cheerleading. No girl who fits that description wants the room Katie designed. It's too adult."
"Exactly!" Emma shoved a forkful of French toast in her mouth with frustration. "I'm glad someone understands. It's so unfair Katie got that promotion. I work my butt off everyday yet she's the one Lisa—OH MY GOSH!"
"What's wr—WHOA!" Jax followed his wife's gaze over to the archway between the kitchen and the dining room. There stood Ahna in almost an exact replica of the lingerie number Emma had woken up in.
"Ahna!" Emma wiped her mouth with a napkin and got to her feet. "What are you wearing?"
"Do you like it?" the little girl asked, running over to her parents.
"Where did you get that from?" her mother asked, trying not to let her voice infliction give away how much she was freaking out on the inside.
"I used magic!"
Emma shot her husband a glare. He pointedly ignored it and asked, "Why?"
"Because I wanted to look like Mommy. My nightgowns are boring. Hers are cool!"
The adult witch's face flushed a deep red as she shot a spell at her daughter. Instantly, her outfit changed into a very cute, very kindergarten-appropriate blue and purple plaid dress with white tights and Mary Janes.
"Heyyy!" Ahna whined with that signature expression of hers that meant she was about to cry. "Why'd you do that?"
"Sweetie." Emma wrapped her daughter in her arms and walked back to the table. She sat the little girl on the chair next to hers. "Mommy's nightgowns are for big girls only."
"Why?" Ahna asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, um… because you're not allowed to wear them until you get married."
"Oh." The small child tilted her head thoughtfully. "When will I get married?"
"When you're thirty-five," her father answered, casting a spell in his head to refill his coffee cup.
"But you and Mommy are only twenty-eight. Thirty-five comes..." She counted on her fingers. "Seven numbers after twenty-eight. And I wasn't born until after you were married! And I'm five and twenty-eight comes..." She counted on her fingers some more. "Twenty-three numbers after five. So you were twenty-three when you got married. Or younger."
Jax pointed at his wife. "She gets her math nerd abilities from you."
Emma smiled as their daughter put a couple of blueberries in her mouth. "Ahna, you'll get married when you fall in love with a guy who..." Her heart melted as she watched Jax tap away at his iPhone 52. He had his game face on, undoubtedly sending out commands to his staff (or as he called them, his "troops"), already taking care of business before his actual work day began. "Well, a guy who's like your father."
"Awwww..." Ahna looked down with disappointment.
Jax had been smiling at Emma but now he contorted his face with fake offense. "Hey!"
"Ahna!" her mother said with surprise. "Don't you want to marry a guy who's nice, cute, charismatic, and fun?"
"Well yeah, but..." She sighed. "I was planning on marrying a boy in my class, Christopher Planter."
Emma smiled at how adorable that was before realizing something. "Wait a minute. You've told me about Christopher Planter. And I've seen him when I go in for parent-teacher conferences. He's nice, cute, charismatic... He's a lot like your dad."
"Yeah but he doesn't talk funny."
Emma laughed so hard she had to step away from the table and try to catch her breath.
"Hey, you!" Jax cast a spell to tele-transport Ahna onto his lap. "I do not talk funny! I have an accent."
"You do so tawk funneh—AHH!" Ahna squealed with laughter as her father launched a tickle attack on her. "STOP IT!"
Emma took a picture with her own (pink and purple glittery) iPhone 52 then started a new text message. "Andi is going to die when she hears about this!"
"Speaking of the future Mrs. Harper, what time are she and Kurt coming over?" Jax asked, allowing Ahna to escape and run back to her own side of the table.
"They said seven, but you know them. They'll probably be working on new designs for Zombie Apocalypse 16 until 7:30, which means dinner will be pushed up to eight and drinks to nine..."
Leave it to Emma's best friend Andi Cruz to not only meet the son of the creator of her favorite video game, but catch his eye and end up engaged to him, too. They'd dated for two years before Kurt popped the question last spring. Their wedding was set for this upcoming summer and was going to be—of all things—zombie-themed. The two were a match made in Arcade Paradise.
"Auntie Andi and Uncle Kurt are coming over?!" Ahna asked with a mouth full of French toast. The sight triggered a memory in Emma's brain. It was sophomore year and the Witches' Council was trying to break up Emma and Daniel. Agamemnon had cast some spells on Emma while simultaneously stuffing his face with French toast. At the time, Emma had been angry with him for trying to end her relationship with the human. But now? She wanted to throw herself at the elder wizard's feet and thank him. She smiled to herself and made a mental note to send him a glitter basket later.
"Yes, they are," Emma said, magically redoing her lipstick then returning to her seat.
Tonight was a big night. Andi was going to tell Kurt about the magic realm. There was a lot to cover—Andi being Emma's guardian, Emma and Jax both being magical beings, Emma being the Chosen One—and the still short and usually fearless woman was terrified of how her fiancé would react. That was why they were going to have a nice, peaceful dinner then break the news to him over drinks. But Kurt was a cool guy; Emma highly doubted he'd flip out over the whole magic thing whether he had some alcohol in him or not. Not to mention he loved Andi way too much to call off their engagement over something she loved.
"Yay!" The little girl clapped her hands with excitement. She absolutely adored Andi. In fact, the two were so close Andi had asked Ahna to be her flower girl. Ahna was elated and couldn't wait to be in the wedding. She loved Kurt and Andi together. "Kandi is my OTP," she announced.
Her mother raised an eyebrow. "OTP?"
"It means one true pairing."
"I know what it means. I'm just wondering how you know what it means."
"Krista and Antonio say that all the time about people they think look cute together," Ahna explained. "They learned OTP from their Aunt Gigi's articles."
The woman shook her head, a faint smile on her lips. For the entirety of her and Jax's senior year, Gigi Rueda had referred to them as the OTP of Iridium High. "Of course they did."
"Finish your breakfast," Jax instructed their daughter, finally putting his phone away. "You don't want your mother to be late for work."
For the next few minutes, the family ate in silence. And then:
"When can I drink?"
"When you're thirty-five."
Emma laughed. "When you're twenty-one, if you promise to be responsible about it."
Ahna smiled to herself. She was too shy to admit it, but her parents were another one of her OTPs. Her daddy was looser about magic things than her mommy, and her mommy was looser about human things than her daddy. And they loved each other and her so much. She hoped when she married Christopher, they had a family as amazing as hers. "I promise."
"Good. Now." Emma folded her hands in her lap and sat up straight, silently cuing Ahna to follow suit. "Tell me what you're not going to do today."
"I'm not going make fun of Jessica's antique hand-me-down bike from her dad, I'm not going to use magic to get her detention, and I'm not going to call her dad a mama's boy." She leaned across the table and, holding her hand up to the side of her mouth to create a barrier between her and her mother, whispered, "At least not to her face."
Her father smirked, copied her hand barrier gesture, and whispered back, "Atta girl."
Emma raised her eyebrows. "I mean it. I want no bad behavior reports from Ms. Novak." She grabbed her plate and walked over to place it in the sink.
"So if I get in trouble?" Ahna whispered.
"You know the spell." Her father wiped his hand across his forehead and winked.
Emma turned to look at the two of them suspiciously. They flashed her their adorable grins in response. Ahna had Jax's smile which meant Emma stood doubly no chance of playing a successful Bad Cop right now. She half-smiled and said, "Get in the car…"
Ahna giggled. "Bye, Daddy!" She ran around the table and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Bye, angel," he said, returning the gesture.
Ahna walked to the door, cast a spell in her head, and watched as her backpack zoomed through the kitchen and dining room and into her hands. "I love doing that!" she squealed. She put her arms through the straps, stepped out onto the porch, and skipped across the driveway. She cast a spell to open the Novoas' garage door then skipped inside toward her mother's vehicle. It was a red SUV with a license plate that read GLTRLUV. Next to it was her father's black SUV with a license plate that read JAXYWXY.
Jax stood from his chair at the same time his wife was returning to the table. "Noon," he said. "Don't forget."
"Oh, trust me; I won't."
The two magically made their car keys appear in their hands as they walked toward the front door.
"Don't let Katie get under your skin," Jax advised, grabbing his leather jacket from the coat closet. "She wishes she was half as creative as you and she's jealous because she knows she's not."
"Thanks," Emma replied with a smile. "Don't let the troops stress you out. If you lose any sales, just remember that you always win in the end. They'll see."
Her husband grinned and pulled her in for a kiss. "I love you, Emma."
"I love you, Jax."
The married couple exited their house hand in hand. Sure, the walk to the garage was a short one, but no way would they pass up an opportunity to express their affection for one another. Inevitably, Jax and Emma reached their vehicles. They shared one last kiss before parting ways. Both the man and the woman were thinking about today's business tasks, annoying co-workers/employees, and how Ahna's day at school would go.
But more than anything, they were mentally counting down the hours until noon.
I'm not sure if I'll post more chapters. I might, but please don't pressure me to. And before anyone asks, no, no possible future chapters will include their lunch break. XD