"That's the last of it," Luke announces as he closes the door behind the pair of you with a wide smile. You watch as he places the box in the middle of the room with a wide smile, turning back to you and looking extremely proud of himself. "For such a little apartment, you had a lot of stuff."
"I like this," you tell the man with a dramatic sigh as you peel off your sweatshirt and tighten your ponytail. "I don't know where any of this is going to go."
"About that," Luke says, gripping your hands in his and guiding you past the kitchen and into the dining room. It wasn't often that you made your way to this part of the house, never needing to venture here. He opens the door and ushers you into a small room painted in a bright pink with yellow horizontal lines.
"What is this?" You ask, walking down the two steps and further into the room with a wide smile.
"This is...well Lex's idea honestly," the man admits as he reaches up to scratch at the back of his head. "She always loved going to your apartment and thought it would be cool to kind of recreate it here. So we picked out the paint and cleared it out while you were at work last week." He finishes reaching down to scoop Sergio into his arms with a smile, scratching the cat under the chin.
"You didn't have to do this..." you trail off, letting your eyes take in the full sight of the background from the bay window.
"I know you don't really like change, and you've been in your place for almost a decade, it's going to be an adjustment but when you need a break from the monotony of the rest of the house you can come here." He says, coming up behind you to wrap you in his arms, sans Sergio. "And that doesn't mean that you can't change the rest of the house, I think we need a lot of color around here." He whispers into your ear, pressing a kiss to your neck.
"I can keep my couch?" you ask him, turning your head to look at the side of his face with a wide smile.
"Yes, but the bed has to go," Luke replies with a serious look on his face. "Trust me, my back was killing me for a week after sleeping on it."
"I don't know, I think it's pretty comfortable," you reply as he scoffs, turning in his arms and snaking your arms around his neck. "Care to demonstrate a comparison for me before Lex and your mother show up?" He nods vigorously, using his hands on your hips to gently guide you up the steps and back to the other side of the house, and before you know it he has you pressed up against his door.
"I love you," he whispers.
You decide that there's nothing worse than being mid-coitus, completely enraptured by the feeling of his body against yours when you're unceremoniously disrupted. The loud bang of the front door being thrown open and the echoes of her little voice yelling out for the both of you. The situation would be entirely hilarious except for the simple fact that neither of you wanted to be caught. Jumping from the bed an apology spills from your mouth as you race to the bathroom door, snapping it shut behind you.
"Penelope, damn it, we'll be right there Lex!" You find that you can't stop the laughter that bubbles up in your throat, leaning your head against the back of the door. "You can come out and get dressed now." When you eventually pull the door open, you've securely wrapped yourself in a spare sheet. He's sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling socks onto his feet.
"It's like getting caught by your mother," you whisper, letting the sheet pool around your feet as you bend down for your clothing.
"My mother is here," Luke whispers back with a groan, his face displaying agony at the fact that his mother had walked in on him. Another bubble of laughter bursts from your throat and you pause in the middle of getting dressed. "I'm going to need you to put clothes on," the man says, as he stands and turns away from you.
"Oh, right," you mutter, reaching out for the pair of leggings he had previously ripped off of your body and the t-shirt he had been wearing. "You're going out there first."
"After you locked yourself in the bathroom? You can face her first." The man says as he turns to look at you, softening when he sees you in his clothing.
"She's seven, what're you so afraid of?" You ask him with a smirk as you walk over to him, placing a kiss on his bare arm. You take a few moments to let your hands trail over the dips in his stomach, tracing his muscles while he looks down at you through abnormally thick eyelashes.
"Questions," he answers, turning you around and pushing you out the door, snapping it closed behind you. "She's going to have questions," he tells you through the door while you roll your eyes, making your way down the hall and into the living room.
"Penny!" Lex exclaims as you enter the living room, you wave to Maria who is looking at you with a knowing smile. "Why are you wearing Daddy's shirt?" she asks, pulling on the hem.
"I uh, mine got dirty during the move," you tell the girl.
"Abuela took me to play mini-golf, and then we ate tacos from a truck, and then we went to the store, and then it was time to come home but you and Dad were in the bedroom. Abuela told me to not go back there, but I had to know if you liked the colors of the room?" Lex asks, climbing up onto the couch and curling herself into your side.
"I love it, Lex, it was very thoughtful of you." The small girl looks up at you with a smile as you feel Luke's head dip down past your face to press a kiss to her forehead. He stops to press a kiss to your cheek before walking over to his mother, who begins whispering to him in Spanish.
"They're talking about me," the small girl says with a sad look on her face. "I told Abuela about...about that, my mo...can I call her Robin?" you nod your head at the child with a soft smile. "and I think she's upset with Daddy."
"Do you want to help me with something Lex?" Standing you hold your hand out to her and grab the smallest box off of the pile in the middle of the room. Laughing you realize that you recognize this mountain from two years ago. You lead her back into the bedroom, giving Maria and Luke the privacy they needed. "When I first learned to write my mother gave me a notebook," you tell the child as you settle yourself onto the floor near your side of the bed. "And she told me to write down everything and anything I wanted." Reaching into the box you pull out a tattered spiral notebook and hand it to the girl, pulling a new notebook out from the box as well.
"What did you write about?" Lex asks you with wide eyes.
"Well at first, I wrote about anything that came to mind, but around the time I was fourteen I started to detail my days." You explain as you pull out the other journals, piling them onto the shelf on your side of the bed.
"Why?" You turn back to Lex while holding your current journal in your hand.
"I don't ever want there to be anything left unsaid, between me and you, or me and your dad. So I write it all down." You hand Lex a pen and the new notebook with a smile. "I write things down in case I forget, or in case I need to look it up later, but you can write for whatever reason you want to."
"Can we start now?" Lex asks as she uncaps the pen and lays on her stomach on the floor. You nod at the child, looking up to see Luke and Maria standing in the doorway as you settle yourself onto the floor beside her, pulling your journal and pen to you.
"Of course we can," you tell her as you begin writing.
My boyfriend is afraid of his daughter which is hilarious all things considered.
A/N: Thank you all for your patience as you waited for me to update! It's appreciated. I skipped over the hard stuff in order to get this to you.