"Penny, you look so pretty!" The small child exclaims as she watches you put on the finishing touches to your makeup for the night. Her father is currently sitting on your couch, nervously twisting his fingers together, and you find yourself laughing at the fact that he can kiss you, he can allude to other sexual activities, but the sheer thought of a date is causing him to stutter. "What's that?" she asks, pointing to the item you were currently holding up to your open eye.
"This is mascara." You explain to her, holding out the wand for her inspection. "It's used to make eyelashes longer and darker." Lex nods her head, her bangs flouncing over her eyes.
"Can I wear some for my birthday party next month?" You look over at her and smile, twisting the mascara closed and picking up your favorite lipstick.
"Maybe in about another ten years," you say to her, peeking at Luke in the bathroom mirror. He's nodding his head, a look of panic on his face when he had heard his daughter's question.
"How long did you wait until you wore makeups, Penny?" she asks, reaching into your bag to pull out a small eyeshadow palette and you chuckle.
"I was sixteen." you tell her, piling the makeup back into your bag and storing it under the sink before you moved over to make sure that Sergio's box was clean and washing your hands, lifting Lex up so that she can wash hers as well.
"Sixteen, that's forever away!" The small girl exclaims, racing out into the living room and sitting next to her father. "Doesn't Penny look pretty, Daddy?" she asks, tugging on his jacket. He turns his head to take in your appearance as you walk into the room, black heels situated on your feet and a bright purple dress which accentuated your hips with a modest v-cut neckline, displaying a hint of cleavage. His mouth is open, his eyes roving from your head to your feet and back up again as he nods, licking his lips before he realizes that he's staring at you.
"Let's get you to Abuela's house," he says to Lex, hefting her up onto his hip and walking over to the door, making sure to hold it open for you as you pass by him. The drive only lasted a few minutes, all of them punctuated with rushed words of what Lex planned to do with her grandmother on their sleepover, and it all started with painting her nails. You laugh as you reach into your purse, handing her your favorite shade of blue nail polish, and smile when she begins to gush out her thanks.
"You didn't have to do that," Luke says when he pulls the car into the driveway of a two-story green home. You shrug your shoulders and take a deep breath, keeping yourself buckled as Lex begins to undo her seatbelt and race out of the car.
"Aren't you coming?" she asks, looking at you through the window you had rolled down. "I told Abuela all about you," she tells you as she opens your door and takes your hand. You look over at Luke who is smiling and rubbing his hand across his jaw, his fingers grazing over the stubble that you find yourself wishing was scraping across your skin. Before you could come up with an excuse to stay in the car you hear another voice join yours, calling out for her son and granddaughter.
"Abuela, Penny is here!" Lex says, racing up the driveway in order to greet the older woman. "Can I have my five dollars?" You take a deep breath, steadying yourself in your heels and exiting the car with assistance from Luke, your hand sliding into the one he has held out for you. He keeps his hand wrapped around yours in silent support, but you know that he's enjoying the fact that his daughter trapped you into meeting his mother on your very first date. You realize that while you and Luke had been exploring your feelings for one another for several months, neither of you wanted to cross over into the next steps of a relationship until you had sat down with Lex. You walk up to the woman and reach out to shake her hand but let out a small yelp when she reaches forward to wrap you into a warm hug.
"My name is Maria," she says, leaning back and smiling at you, the corners of her eyes crinkling. She had shining green eyes that matched Lex's and you realize that she didn't get those from her mother like you had originally thought she had. There was a soft glimmer in her eyes as she looked at you with a small smile as you return her hug before pulling away from the older woman.
"Penelope," you reply "it's lovely to meet you." You say, tucking a piece of hair behind your ears. Luke has crouched down in front of Lex with his hands on her shoulders and was giving her instructions that she was to behave for her grandmother or else there would be no ice cream for a week. You find yourself smiling softly at the display, your heart beating faster in your chest as you watch Luke with his daughter. And you shake your head to clear your thoughts of what could come to be between the two of you. You had found yourself thinking about your future with the two of them more and more over the past few months.
"She loves you," Maria whispers, leaning over to you. You smile and nod your head, your eyes flickering from her son to her for a moment.
"I love her too," you whisper back. Luke begins to stand after giving his daughter a hug, kissing the top of her head in the process. You watch as Lex walks over to you and opens her arms for a hug as well. You lean down and wrap the small child into your arms, wishing her sweet dreams and telling her that you will see her soon.
"Ready to go?" Luke asks, placing his hand on the small of your back, leading you towards the car. Speechless you nod your head, waving to Maria and Lex. "Thank you, Mami," he says, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "I'll call you after dinner to check in on her."
The restaurant is quiet tonight, you realize, when you see the waiters milling around and you're thankful for that. Luke is looking at the glass the waiter had poured his beer into with a grimace and you clear your throat causing him to look up at you from the glass.
"I get enough Italian food at work from one of the Agents on my team," you begin tossing your head towards the entrance. "Let's go find a pizza." Standing from the table you reach your hand out to him and watch as he clasps his hand in yours. He pulls out his wallet with his other hand, opening it on the table and tossing several bills onto the top of the bare plates before he leads you out of the restaurant. His hand on the small of your back, fingertips leaving a fire underneath your dress, and you're pretty sure that you've made up your mind in this moment. You had known him for over a year, Lex was aware of your relationship, and you wanted him so badly that it hurt you sometimes.
"Sometimes I forget that I used to spend Friday nights on dates and not curled up on the couch with Lex." You turn to look at him in front of the restaurant with a smile as you both wait for the valet to bring the truck around to the front.
"I've been to fancy restaurants in my life," you say to him, leaning up to place a kiss on his cheek. "I laugh too loud, talk too fast, and drink too much to be able to conduct myself properly." He helps you into the front seat of the truck, reaching into buckle you again and this time when he pauses his face in front of yours he leans in to gently place his lips to yours. "Besides, I can't kiss you in a stuffy restaurant." You whisper against his lips as your mouth curls into a large grin.
It takes you a few seconds to pull up a pizza place on your phone and he holds your hand as you direct him. His thumb rubbing over the back of your hand a delicious distraction from the nerves that are currently coursing through your body. When you're seated inside the restaurant, with a bottle of beer placed before him, you see him relax. His posture changing as he loosens his tie, shrugging off his jacket, and leaning down into the booth.
"We've known each other over a year, Luke." You reach out to pull your beer to your lips, wrapping them around the opening, and watch as his eyes darken in the dim lighting.
"I don't want to screw this up..." he says, gripping his own beer in his hands and picking at the label on the neck. "I stopped wishing you would come along a while ago, sure that no woman would want to be with a man who had a daughter." He looks up at you with a half grin and a shrug of his shoulders.
"I can't speak for other women," you begin, reaching out to lace your fingers with his on top of the table "But it doesn't matter to me that you have a past, and a really adorable daughter that came from that past. It's their loss and my gain." You watch as he leans down to press a kiss to the back of both of your hands.
"How did I ever find you?" He asks, staring up at you in amazement. You let out a laugh and shrug your shoulders.
"I'm not coordinated at all and I literally ran into you, had we been on the street there would have been insurance claims involved." You move your hands back as the pizza arrives and you both take a slice and blow on the food before placing it in your mouth. It doesn't escape you as to how your eyes dart to the side of you, waiting for Lex's little hands to reach out to grab a piece of pizza, and you find that you miss her. He places his piece back on the table and wipes his mouth with a napkin.
"I stood there on purpose," he admits looking at you with a large grin. "I saw you running down the aisle and I knew I had to talk to you." You sputter and toss a crumpled napkin at him, landing the toss on the tip of his nose, and glare at him with amusement in your eyes.
"You did not, I wasn't paying attention," he cuts you off with a shake of his head and a large smile.
"No, I had a carriage, Pen, why else would I have all that stuff in my hands?" He says, letting out a laugh as realization dawns on your face.
"You staged the whole thing?" You ask him quietly, looking down at your hands. "Why?"
"Lex helped, she piled everything into my arms," he says, taking another sip of his beer. "I don't believe in love at first sight, but something told me I had to talk to you. I'm glad I listened." He finishes his sentence and his slice of pizza before reaching in for another.
"I was a mess that day," you tell him, picking at the crust of your unfinished slice. "I had run into my ex-boyfriend minutes before leaving work and he was parading his new girlfriend around. We had just finished a terrible case and I hadn't showered in two days."
"You were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in that moment," he whispers, plucking the food out of your hand. "Look at me," he demands, tilting your chin up in order for you to look at him "you are beautiful, inside and out. Let me take you home?" he asks, and you find yourself nodding at him, standing on shaky legs after you slide out of the booth. You're hyper-aware of his hands as they run down your back as he guides you to the truck. You find yourself quiet as he drives you home, his right hand laced in your left with his thumb rubbing back and forth across the top. Silently you watch the street signs roll past, each inching you closer to your home and the decision you had already made previously in the night. A soft song filters through the speakers and you hear him humming along, a soft smile creeping onto your face at the fact that it was a children's song, one of Lex's favorites. When he pulls up to your house and places the car in park you turn to him and place your lips on his, tugging on his tie gently, and it doesn't take him long to recognize the invitation.
"Thank you for coming out with me," he says once you arrive at your front door, watching you unlock it before you turn back to him in the hallway. He reaches up to place a hand on the door above your head, his other hand reaching out to grip your waist, pulling you closer to him, his tongue darting out to lick his lips. You find that your eyes are trained on his lips, captivated by the way the dim light of the hallway glistens off of the now moistened skin. You nod your head leaning forward to press your mouth against his, letting out a low moan when his hand leaves the door to cup the back of your head as he presses his body against yours. You realize that he was protecting your head from the force of the door as he slammed both of your bodies against the wood. He pulls away from you and leans his forehead against yours, his breath coming out in short gasps as you reach behind you to turn the doorknob, your hand reaching out to drag him into your apartment. You let out a breathy moan as he lifts your dress up your thighs before he picks you up, your legs circling his waist as he carries you past the doorway of beads and into your bedroom.