"Are Aunt Tori and Uncle Andre coming over today?" Chelsea asks her father
She's sitting on a stool at their kitchen island, coloring in one of her coloring books, looking up every so often to watch her father as he moves around the kitchen.
The agonizing heat of summer is starting to fade and while the weather is still considered 'warm', fall is starting to show its head in Hartford. Fall Sundays in the Oliver household can only mean one thing: football. Starting that weekend and continuing every weekend through mid-February, Beck's house will be full of people ready to watch whichever game happens to be on. Most people in the area are fans of the New York Jets, as Connecticut doesn't have its own football team, and Beck is an admitted fan.
"They sure are." Beck tells her as he grabs a bowl out of one of the cabinets "Just like last year."
"Grandma and Grandpa too?"
"Yup, they'll be here too."
"Is that it?"
"Uh, no, actually..." Beck tells his daughter as he opens a bag of chips and begins dumping them into the bowl "My friend Jade is going to come today too."
With he and Jade taking their relationship in a much more serious direction, they had decided that it's an okay time to start introducing her to Aspen and Chelsea. They'll meet her as one of his friends first, of course. Beck wants his girls to be comfortable with Jade and her being around before he introduces her as someone more serious. He doesn't want to rush things, both for the sake of his relationship and his daughters' well-being, and he wants to do things right.
"Who's Jade?" Chelsea scrunches her nose up "I've never met her before."
"I know you haven't." Beck chuckles "That's sort of why I invited her. She just moved here this summer, and she doesn't know that many people yet. So...I thought it would be nice if we invited her over to watch football with us today."
"Does she know Aunt Tori and Uncle Andre?"
"She does a little bit, yeah." Beck nods "She actually used to go to the same school as Aunt Tori's friend Cat, when they were your age."
"So she does know some people..." Cheslea remarks as she picks up her crayon to begin coloring again
"Well, I still thought it would be nice to invite her over." Beck sighs
He can tell already that Chelsea isn't going to be receptive to the change. It makes sense, he supposes, her life was so inconsistent for the first six years or so, of course she'll dislike any disruption now that she finally has normalcy. Something as minor as another guest to a Sunday gathering is no reason to throw a tantrum though, but then again he doesn't want to make a big deal until he sees how his daughter actually reacts to Jade's presence.
"Dada!" Aspen giggles, reaching out to her father from her highchair
"Do you want some more strawberries?" Beck coos "Here you go."
He puts some sliced strawberries on the tray in front of his daughter, replacing the ones she had already eaten. Both of his girls like fruit, and actually prefer it to fruit snacks or candy. Aspen smiles at him as she takes the fruit in her hand and presses it to her mouth, making a 'mmmmm!' sound to communicate to her father that she thinks the snack is tasty.
"Mmmmm is right!" Beck chuckles as the doorbell rings "Chels? Can you go let Grandma and Grandpa in?"
"Got it!" Chelsea assures him as she hops down from her stool "I'M COMINGGGGG!"
Beck can't help but laugh at his daughter's forwardness as he continues moving around the kitchen, prepping all of the snacks for the day's events. There are burger patties and hot dogs in the fridge as well that either he or his father will throw on the grill for dinner when the time comes.
Tori and Andre arrive not long after his parents do, and they all retreat into the living room where the TV is to watch the game. Jade arrives about ten minutes later, and Beck can feel the butterflies welling up in his stomach as he walks her in. Not only is she meeting his parents for the first time, she's meeting his girls...and they're definitely more important than his parents at this point.
"Mom, Dad...this is my...friend, Jade." He chooses his words carefully, because he knows Chelsea is listening
His parents know that she's his girlfriend, of course. Everything he had read online about introducing young children to new partners has advised him to be careful about the language he uses in children's presence.
"Hi." Jade waves hello
Beck can tell just by her tone that she's nervous, and he can understand why. She's the outsider in this situation, everyone else knows each other well and has for years.
"Hi Jade." His mother stands up and offers her a hug "It's nice to meet you."
"Oh!" Jade is a bit surprised by the hug "You too, Mrs. Oliver."
"You can call me Priya." She assures her "We're all adults here."
"Alright." Jade nods "Nice to meet you, Priya. And...?"
"James." His father smiles "You can call me James."
"Or Jimmy O." Andre chuckles "But only after he's had a few beers!"
"I think I'll stick with James." Jade laughs "If that's alright..."
"It's perfectly alright."
"And you know Tori and Andre."
"I do." Jade nods "Hey guys."
"Hi!" Tori smiles "I'm glad you decided to come over!"
"And then this is my daughter, Chelsea..." Beck gestures to his older daughter, who has busied herself with her barbie dolls on the floor
"Hi Chelsea..." Jade kneels down so that they can be at a similar eye-level "I'm Jade, it's nice to meet you."
Chelsea doesn't say anything in response, but gives Jade a small wave before returning to her toys. Jade stands up again, feeling a bit defeated. Obviously she hadn't expected the little girl to leap into her arms and instantly become her best friend, but she still doesn't feel like Chelsea is very happy that she's there.
"She's shy around new people at first." Beck tells her quietly "She'll warm up to you."
He walks over to the other side of the room where Aspen is playing and picks her up, causing the baby to squeal with laughter as he blows raspberries on her cheek and carries her back to Jade.
"And this..." He positions Aspen on his hip "Is Miss Aspen! Pen or Penny for short. She turned one in June and she loves making new friends. Can you say 'hi', Pen?"
"Hi!"
Aspen reaches her hand out to Jade, almost like she's waving at first, but then reaches both arms out as well, leaning away from her father and towards the woman he had just introduced her to.
"Oh! Hey you..." Jade chuckles as she takes the baby in her arms "Well, it's nice to meet you too!"
Jade can't remember the last time she held a baby. None of her friends, even the ones back in LA, have kids yet, and while her brother is much younger than she is...even he is close to adulthood now. Aspen doesn't seem to notice her awkwardness, or if she does...she doesn't react to it. The infant makes no attempt to lean back towards her father or gesture that she wants back on the ground, and is quite content to play with Jade's hair.
"I think she likes you." Beck smirks
"I think so too." Jade smiles at him "I like you too, Miss Aspen. Do you want to watch the game with us?"
Jade ends up sitting on the end of the couch, beside Beck, with Aspen on her lap. Eventually the baby grows bored of the boring game on the screen and begins fussing to be put down. Jade can't blame her, she's not really much of a football fan either until the playoffs roll around and there's actually something at stake. Aspen seems to sense this and pulls at Jade's hand, almost like she wants her new friend to follow her.
"What's up, Aspen?" She asks
"She can't talk yet." Chelsea tells her matter-of-factly, still playing with her toys "She only knows a few words."
"She won't learn unless we talk to her like we're having a conversation, remember?" Beck says to his older daughter "She learns by listening, you did the same when you were here age."
Aspen continues to pull at Jade's hand, and Jade looks to Beck for an explanation. Beck only shrugs and offers her a look of encouragement.
"You're right, Pen. This game is getting boring!" Tori says, standing up and grabbing the baby's other hand "Let's go play with your toys."
Tori offers Jade a smile and winks, and Jade nods in agreement, standing up as well. The two women each hold on to one of Aspen's hands, the baby toddling between them as they slowly walk over to where she had been playing originally before Beck picked her up to introduce her to Jade.
"Chels?" Beck tries to grab his older daughter's attention "How about you go play with them? You can show Jade which toys are Aspen's favorite."
"I want to play Barbies..." Chelsea responds without looking up from her own toys "I'll stay over here."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Beck looks over to Jade and offers her a look of sympathy but she only shakes her head, a signal that he should leave Chelsea alone to do as she pleases. He remembers what she had told him, about how her father tried to force his own choices on her and how poorly that had turned out, and then nods in agreement before turning his attention back to the game.
"These look fun!" Tori smiles, grabbing one of the brightly-colored silicon blocks on the floor "Do you want to build with blocks, Pen?"
"Yeah." Aspen nods, grabbing the block from Tori
"Chelsea was right about her only knowing a few words." Tori says to Jade as the two of them start assisting the baby in building her tower "As far as I know it's only 'yeah', 'woof', and 'hi'. Oh! And 'dada' but that one was a given."
"Dada!" Aspen squeals, pointing to Beck
"Hi Aspen." Beck grins, waving to his daughter
Aspen waves back and then occupies herself with the toy blocks again.
"Oh my god, that was cute." Jade chuckles, continuing to stack blocks as well
"They're both complete and total daddy's girls." Tori says quietly, intending for only Jade and no one else to hear "It's adorable."
"It makes sense, I suppose." Jade shrugs "Given everything that they've been through with their mom."
"True." Tori nods "But even if she hadn't...done everything that she did...I think they would both still be obsessed with him. He's obsessed with them. He's such a good dad."
"It seems like it." Jade agrees
She won't admit it to Tori right now, not in front of Beck or in front of his family, but the fact that he's a good dad makes Beck even more attractive to her. That isn't something she's ever really considered in a partner, well...at least not in new partners, the thought had crossed her mind with her college boyfriend once they had gotten serious, but seeing Beck with his daughters makes her, dare she say it, love him even more.
"Eh!" Aspen pats Jade's arm
"Hi Aspen." She chuckles "Can I help you?"
The baby hands Jade another block and then crawls into her lap, almost as if she had known her for her entire life and not just half an hour.
Unbeknownst to them both, Beck is watching Jade and Aspen more than he's watching the game. It's relieving, in a sense, that Aspen took to her so quickly. It makes sense to him that of his two daughters, the younger one would be more accepting. Aspen has no memory of Alyssa, and therefore no judgement. Chelsea remembers her mom, and has some recollection the pain that she caused even though he did his best to shield her from it.
This is a step in the right direction, most definitely. He knows that Chelsea, while she might be giving Jade a bit of an icy shoulder now, has the potential to come around still. Aspen likes Jade, his parents seem to like her, and he loves that. He can see more Sundays just like this one in the near future, maybe even in the distant future too.
Jade turns over her shoulder and notices him watching, and offers him a big, reassuring, smile before turning back to Tori and Aspen. Beck smiles too, then turns his attention back to the TV.
Maybe, just maybe, his stroke of bad luck in relationships is ending.