Chapter 20: Trip to Florida!

It was now towards the end of the school year and I was happier than I ever had been in my whole life. I had Nick with me pretty much 24/7, in fact one day I thought of a question that would change my families lives forever, but I would have to approved by my kids first.

It was the weekend before the last week of school and I went and sat on the couch in the living room where Brendan, Kirsten, and James sat watching one of Brendan's favorite movies. Brendan was sitting on the floor in front of the TV. I had sat down next to Kirsten who laid her head right in my lap. I mouthed to James to hand me the remote and he did so looking at what I did next all confused. I pushed pause on the movie as Brendan complained and turned around, "Mom…why did you stop the movie? It was getting to the best part!" Kirsten had sat up by this point and she was looking at me curiously.

"I need to ask all of you something, but I don't know how each of you will take it."

"Mom, just tell us. It can't be that bad." Said Kirsten.

"Fine…How would you guys feel if—if I asked Nick to move in with us?" I was looking down, for I had no idea how they would take it. Especially if they knew about it when I asked.

"Yes mom yes!" Cheered Brendan and I had to look up and smile at him. He was so cute when he's excited. He adored Nick as his own father. I saw it.

"I thought you would never ask mom. Of course Nick is allowed to stay here." Said Kirsten also smiling at me.

James nodded, "I'm pretty much out of the house anyway but I approve. It's about time though. Kirsten's right." He gave me a big grin and I couldn't help grinning back.

"Thank you so much my wonderful kids." I hugged Kirsten as Brendan rushed up to me also giving me a hug, "Now let me go ask Nick, I hope he says yes."

"Of course he will mom. He would do anything for you." Said James, "Go get him."

With that I got up and walked upstairs into my bedroom pulling out my phone and dialing his number.

"Hello?" He was so cute when he answered the phone. Even though he had speed dial and knew it was me calling he still answered the phone like it could be somebody else.

"Hi Nick."

He sighed breathing deeply, "Miley…You don't realize how much I missed you last night."

I giggled remembering. See he had come over right after school and we hung out all afternoon until late night, well early if you consider ten early. But I had sent him home so I could ask my question to the kids without worrying about him eavesdropping in on the conversation. "And I missed you just as much Nick."

"When can I see you? Can I come over now?"

"Sure. But first I have a serious question for you."

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing's wrong Nick just—"

"What?"

"Would you like to move in here?"

"Yes…Hey its fine if you don't want to."

"No no! I will, I will…But that means I've got to pack all my things and I can't see you…"

"Why don't I come over and help you out?"

"Oh please! I need to see you!'

I chuckled, "Yes horndog. I'll be over soon."

"Hey!—" Before he could retort any further with my comment I hung up on him and laughed. I knew exactly what he really wanted. He probably just wanted to make love to me, which I wouldn't mind much, but now we need to get him ready to be moved into my house. With that I started picking out clothes to wear. I ended up wearing jeans and my stripped green and while tank top. I then came back downstairs to the living room.

"What'd he say?" Asked Kirsten.

"He said yes, but he needs help." I said grabbing my keys that were on a book by the door, "James would you mind watching them for today? I'll pay you."

"Alright…But no money. I'll take them over to Samantha's I need to help her with Josh."

"Alright thanks so much sweetie…I love you all." I said as I left the house to the car.

I arrived at Nick's place and I went up to ring the doorbell. It opened right away as Nick stood before me. He must've been waiting by the door, since I ended the phone call. "You, Miss Miley are in deep trouble."

"And why is that?"

He didn't even say a word as he just leaned over and kissed me, only until we're out of air did he pull away. I realized my hands were around his waist and his hands were on both sides of my cheeks. "Because you shouldn't just assume that we would have sex every time we see each other. I was raised better than that, I love you Miley."

"And I you Nick. Come on, let's get started. You have got a big house mister." He chuckles.

"Yeah I know." He took my hand and then led me inside, "So what room first?"

"It's your house."

"Fine, let's go do clothes. Get the basics done first upstairs."

"Alright. Got any boxes?"

"Sure, head on up to the room and I'll go get them."

I nodded as I walked upstairs to his massive bedroom. The only problem with this house is trying to sell it. It'd probably be worth at least a million, but who would buy it? The economy isn't in that great of shape. I started taking out the drawers and putting them on the bed to sort. I noticed that his drawers were actually somewhat neat. I was surprised.

I had already sorted through one of his short drawers by the time he came back in with a couple of boxes. "Oh I'm not allowed to sort through my own clothes now?"

"No, you can still sort, but this is the pile of clothes I want you to have." I pointed to another pile, "And that's the pile I want you to get rid of." I crinkled up my nose up as an effect.

He looked at the pile and noticed the top shirt was an orange BSU shirt. "And why are you getting rid of this shirt!"

"Because orange is so not your color! Plus BSU is a crappy school anyway."

He shrugs, "I forgot I even had this shirt. Alright I'll get rid of it." He chuckles.

"Good. I have to go pee, but keep sorting."

"Okay okay." With that I walked into his bathroom…The disadvantages of being pregnant, that's for sure. This was at the top of my list. After I finished up I looked around. The painting in here was beautiful, that it would be one thing that will be going into my house and staying is going to be that painting. I came back into the room and I saw that Nick was just finishing up the shirt drawer. I noticed that he had snuck in some of the shirts I threw out and he discarded some ones that I had purposely kept, so I guess it evened out. "Hey Miley?" He said throwing the last shirt into the box that was going to my house.

"Yes?"

"Did you ever think about moving here instead?"

"Well—yeah…But I can't just let my kids change school so quickly, the year's almost done but Kirsten just settled into her middle school."

"And do they want to not move out here? James is done."

"I know, it's just I have lived in that house for almost twenty years, I can't leave it."

"Because of Lucas." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Michael—I—"

"Hey, it's okay if you want to keep those roots. In time you might want to come live here…I'll just keep this house bought, I won't try to sell it unless you are absolutely sure you don't want this house."

"Thanks. Maybe eventually when our daughter is born, but not now." He nodded as we worked in silence. Eventually it was too silent for too long and I spoke up, "I hope that you aren't mad at me…" I said throwing a pair of socks in the garbage because they had holes in them.

He automatically stopped what he was doing and stared at me, "Miley I would never be mad at you, except for when you sent me away, but that doesn't count. I love you for anything that you decide." He came up to me and gave me a big hug as I clung desperately to him. He was going to live with me! My true love was going to live with me! I was so happy.

It was a more comfortable silence as we went back to work. Occasionally we talked about our past or what happened when we were apart. He listened attentively and almost always kept his eyes on me when I spoke.

I had just finished telling him about a funny story that related to college and marching band in the same phrase when it came to lunch time. We stopped working. In fact, we had just finished sorting his clothes and bedroom. Meaning all the things and keepsakes in the room. We decided that his bed was better and would get rid of mine because it held memories of Liam too much. Same with his dresser and desk. Mine would have to go. At least my clothes were staying! I would have to clean out Lucas's clothes though.

We came into the kitchen and decided on making homemade macaroni and cheese and hot dogs with chocolate chip cookies for desert. He did the cookies and I worked on the lunch. Soon the kitchen had the aroma of the cookies and mac and cheese. My stomach started growling and our baby started kicking a little. It was probably just as hungry as I was. I didn't quite get the chance to have breakfast this morning because all I thought of was Nick and the question I would ask him. Soon the food was cooked and the cookies were baked as he flipped on some Christian station on the radio so we could eat with music in the background.

I ate about three servings worth of food plus a couple of cookies as did Nick, but he ate four servings. How on earth he could eat so much and yet still be skinny like he is, is beyond me.

Soon we cleared the dishes and we made a great team in cleaning up as well and then it was time to go back to work. We decided on his bathroom and office next. Since those would probably take the rest of the afternoon. I just had to make sure I was home before dinner or James would get on my case for spreading all day with Nick. He shouldn't be complaining much anyway since he spent most of his time at Samantha's house with Josh. At least he still had friends he paid attention to like Josh the drummer. I wonder if James ever told his best friends about Samantha? Well it's none of my business so I won't ask.

All too quickly it was time to head on home. We had accomplished not only the two rooms we decided on but three. We did his walk-in closet. He sure had a lot of clothes!

"Well, thanks for coming down Miley. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah yeah. You just wanted to see me."

"Well of course. I had promised to you that I would never let you out of my sight and yet you kicked me out of the house."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to eavesdrop on the question, I was going to ask you."

"Oh okay." He smiled at me, "Well then I apologize." He leaned over and gave me a kiss. By this time we had reached his doorstep and going towards my car.

"Hey Nick?"

"Yes?"

"Do you want to come for dinner?" By this time he opened my door and I was sitting in the driver's seat.

He gave a small smile, "I thought that you would never ask." With that he shut my door and went around to the passenger's side. I drove off grinning hugely. Gosh I sure loved this man!

We arrived at my house and we held hands as I walked in the front door. "I'm home!" I called out to the supposedly quiet house. There was a pitter patter of feet as I heard Brendan crashing down the stairs, "Mommy!"

He ran up and gave me a big hug, Kirsten was trailing behind him, "I just finished his homework mom."

"Well good for you sweetie." Usually I helped Brendan with his homework on Saturday's but since I was gone I'm glad Kirsten had taken over. She was growing up and she would be a fine young lady, I could tell. I just didn't get why the elementary schools gave homework before the last week of school, it just didn't make sense, but oh well. I'm not the teacher at least. "Did you get your homework done?"

"Yeah, I did mine with Brendan, just when he needed help really, but he understood mostly everything anyway."

"Well good. Where's James?"

"Upstairs talking with Samantha." She shivered, "If I have to hear his sappy voice again, I just might puke."

I chuckled, "That's okay sweetie, you'll understand someday." I just hope that day is a very long time from now. I didn't want Kirsten to grow up that fast!

"Alright. What's for dinner? And is Nick staying?"

He nodded as Brendan cheered, "Yeah! Daddy's staying!" Everyone froze and everyone but Brendan turned to me, watching me carefully for my reaction. This was the first time Brendan had spoken to Nick saying dad when he was in the room. Brendan suddenly catching on turned to me, "Mom?"

I just smiled, "It's okay really…I just need to get used to it that's all." Nick then put his arm around my back and rubbed my shoulder in a comforting way. I gave him a reassuring smile, "Really, it's fine." As they were still staring at me, to break their reverie I said, "So who wants pizza tonight?"

Brendan screamed, "Yeah! Cheese cheese! With Sausage!" That was his favorite kind of pizza to eat.

"And what would you like Kirsten?"

"Supreme please." She was still looking at me curiously, but she turned around and left the room.

"And you Nick?"

"Whatever you get. Does James want something?"

"He just likes peperoni. I'll just split up Kirsten and Brendan's, they don't need a full pizza but James almost always does."

"Sounds good to me." With that I walked into the kitchen to call the pizza place for delivery. I could hear Nick messing around with Brendan in the front room. They were laughing with each other too. At least they were happy. When I got done with the phone call I hung up and walked into the music room and shut the door. I'm sure Nick would know exactly where I went too. He would figure it out pretty soon enough.

I sat at the organ this time. We had an electric organ but it was one of the best that it felt like it was a pipe, when it really wasn't. It was totally amazing. Plus the fact it was almost exactly like the church one. Good so I could use the same stops when I did the special music at church. I started playing a Toccata by Bach and I lost myself in the fast song using the full volume of the organ as it vibrated against the walls and floor. It was a very good thing we had made this room sound proof or I think that I could wake up the whole neighborhood at night when I played.

As the last chord rung out Nick walked in smiling. "That was amazing Laura." I let go of the keys.

"Thanks."

"Hey, pizza's here."

"Oh okay." I got off the bench and took off my organ shoes.

"Hey don't worry about paying, I already did."

"Nick! How much do I owe you now?"

"Hey, we're under the same roof now Laura. You owe me nothing. Your money is my money, remember, and what I have is yours."

"But you're rich and it just feels weird."

"I just have money, and my parents were rich, not me. It'll just take some getting used to; don't worry about it too much."

"Oh fine…" He gave me a kiss on the forehead which was very sweet I thought and he said, "Come on, let's go get some food. I'm hungry."

"We just ate a couple hours ago though!"

"I'm a guy Miley…"

"Point proven." I said nodding in agreement. He grabbed my hand and we walked into the living room. The smell of pizza hitting my nose as soon as I walked in the room. A movie was already starting.

We said a fancy quick prayer and dug into the meal. Since Kirsten had chosen the movie it wasn't completely G-rated. It was pg-13 but at least it was appropriate enough for Brendan to watch. Just some kissing scenes, but he would just close his eyes anyway. He thought it was 'gross' and I kept telling myself that it was a good thing he thought of it that way right now. He wasn't supposed to think of it as a good thing anyway at his age.

Soon I noticed the pizza all gone and I turned to Michael who was giving me a cheesy grin. "What?" He asked.

"You really had to eat the last slice?"

He looked into the now empty pizza box as if he had to double check that the pizza was gone. "Guess I did. Want me to get you a couple cookies?"

"Yes, I deserve one."

"Alright." He stood up and then walked out of the house I stared at him very confused on what he was doing.

"Mom, where's dad going?" Asked Brendan.

I jumped. Man the whole 'dad thing' was going to have to get used to, because I knew it was going to happen pretty soon. "He's apparently going outside, I'm actually not quite sure where he is going."

A couple seconds later he walked back in and he was carrying a bowl of the chocolate chip cookies he baked earlier today. Brendan seemed to figure out almost right away… "Cookies!" He screamed jumping up and running to Nick.

"Ah ah ah." Said Nick, "You're mother gets first choice." He said walking over to me and holding out the dish full of cookies. I went and chose two of the most chocolaty ones I could before he turned to Brendan who was almost jumping up and down in excitement as he wanted the cookies that bad. I ate one as James and Kirsten took their share. Nick then came down and sat next to me eating the cookies as we finished watching the movie.

After it was over all the kids went and headed to their rooms, doing whatever they wanted until bedtime. After contemplating the pros and cons of the situation. I decided it would be fine to ask him. If you're confused, you should be. See my family and I took a trip to Walt Disney World, Universal Studious, and Busch Gardens every four years just so our family could experience it. This was James's last year and Brendan was only four years old at the time and Kirsten was Brendan's age, and she even barely remembered it. At least it would be cheaper this year since two people of the family aren't going to be coming. But Nick was another thing. Should I invite him? Is he really truly a part of our family now? I'm still trying to get over that. I should ask him since he is moving in and all. "Hey Nick?" The credits had finished up by now as I was thinking and now it was playing the main menu over and over again like it usually does.

"Yes my love?"

The way he said that made my heart flutter, "Um…I have a question to ask you."

"It's not bad is it?"

"No not at all…see our family takes a vacation trip every four years to Florida and…I was wondering if you wanted to come with us?"

"Well. Why Florida?"

"Think about it Nick, it'll click—"

"Oh that kind of vacation!"

"There you go." I smiled as I could hear him take a big sigh. "What's wrong?"

"Are you sure you're not going to give me the cold shoulder when we come back, just like you did from Naomi's concert?"

I chuckled, "No. I could never leave you ever again."

"Good. You better not. So you are driving?"

"No, we're flying because I'm pregnant…" I said sarcastically, "Of course we're driving! It'll take awhile but we'll make it fun none the less, at least we don't have to take the van…There's enough room in the car, and it has better gas mileage too."

"We will have stops correct?"

"Right of course. I can't sit for long hours in a car; it has never been my nature to."

"Awesome, so when do we leave?"

"Right after school gets out on Friday."

"Okay…let me come take you to school and then come pick you up after school. But grab the kids and then head to Florida."

"Sounds like a plan. I love you Nick."

"I love you too. Am I spending the night here?"

"Of course!" I said as we both got up.

He chuckles, "Just checking." He said giving me a kiss on the forehead as I just smiled as we walked upstairs to bed. Life just couldn't get any better could it?

I know it's been awhile but I have now officially completed this book in writing and editing, I hope to get it published by next summer. The characters names of course won't be Miley and Nick, but you could buy the book. It may seem soooo different but the basis is the same, that's how much editing I've done! Thanks goes to NileyFreakk my most loyal reader! :D I just wish there was other's of you out there to shout out. Just a couple more chapters left of this! And believe me you want to read the end! :D