"Nice work today, Noah. I'm very proud of you," his hockey coach tells him upon pulls up into his drive way. "If you keep up the good work, when we start playing games, I'll put you as center."
The ten year olds face lights up. "I can't wait!" he says as his hands fumble with the seat belt. Pushing aside his shaking hands, Clove releases Noah from his hold with a smile. He smiles back.
"Thank you very much for the ride, Mr. Alexander. I'll see you at school tomorrow, Clove," Noah waves as he hops out of the car and runs to the trunk to grab his hockey bag.
"You're very welcome," Mr. Alexander answers while taking the bag out of the car and hands it to the boy.
With the bulky bag around his shoulder, Noah climbs the steps two at a time. Taking his key out of his pocket, the boy opens door and walks into a silent, empty looking house. Noah frowns. Dad and Annie should have been home from lunch by now.
Walking further into the house, he picks up on the low murmurs filtering out from behind his Dad's and Annie's room. Their voices mix with other distorted voices that Noah doesn't recognize. So he knocks on the door.
"Dad? Annie? Can I come in?"
Noah can hear them shuffling in the room before his Dad's voice gives him permission to come in. Once he opens the door, he is shocked to see them lying there with Annie snuggled up against his half-naked father. It is as if they went right back to bed after lunch.
"Hey, kiddo. How'd practice go?" Finnick asks with a smile as he twirls a lock of Annie's hair around his finger.
"Good. Coach said I get to play center for our first game."
"That's fantastic, Noah! We're very proud of you, even if your father doesn't know what 'playing center' means," Annie teases and pokes Finnick in the side, causing him to jump as he shoots her a look.
"I do too! I was paying attention when you and Johanna crash coursed me," he protests. Annie giggles as she leans up and kisses him just below the jaw. Noah stares at them blankly.
"Why are you guys in bed at 3 o'clock in the afternoon?" He asks bluntly.
The adults exchange a long, soulful look before Finnick meets Annie half way into a kiss.
"Ew, gross!"
Finnick laughs, "It's just a kiss. You give girls kisses all the time."
"Yeah, on the cheek. But you're my dad, I don't wanna see you kiss your girlfriend on the lips," Noah wrinkles my nose. Finnick shrugs as Annie pulls away from him and pats the space between them for Noah to join them in bed. Crawling up onto the Queen sized mattress, Noah fits perfectly into the space Annie made for him.
"You still haven't told me why you're in bed with no clothes in the middle of the afternoon."
"It's Sunday, can't we be lazy?" Finnick asks, running a hand through his son's sweaty, brown hair. Noah frowns, swatting his father's hand away.
"No clothes and you're wearing your glasses; you never wear your glasses."
"You shouldn't make absolute statements, Noah," Annie warns. "Your father does wear his glasses … on occasion."
"Mostly when you ask me to, though," Finnick smirks at Annie but Noah blocks them before his father can kiss her again.
"Ugh! Enough with the kissing, I think I'm going to puke," the boy's noise wrinkles again as he pretends to gag. Finnick and Annie laugh as they run their hands through boy's hair.
"We love you, you know that right?" Annie says, as she mops away the sweat on the back of his neck with a Kleenex.
"Yeah?" Noah raises an eyebrow at her. "And I love you guys too. Is there something wrong? Is someone dying? Oh, wait! Annie's having a baby isn't she? It's okay y'know, I'm not going to get jealous if you have to pay more attention to it than me."
Finnick's euphoric smile drops as his face grows pale. Shaking his head, Annie intertwines their hands in Noah's lap, "Nothing like that," she laughs lightly. "Your father and I … we are going to get married."
Noah blinks once, twice then three times before his entire face lights up and he screams in delight. He throws his arms around Annie, first, before kissing his father and holding onto him. The sheer thrill and excitement of having Annie as his mom distracts Noah from his previous questions.
It isn't until he is thirteen that he figures out what his parents were doing in bed that afternoon.