Five Years
Chapter Seven
Disclaimer: I do not own anything mentioned in the following fanfiction, except for the character of Penelope Richmond. She is of my own design.
"James, Jake, I'm...."
She'd barely taken a step into the house when her eyes set sight on one of the most perfect things she'd ever seen before in her life.
Jake was sitting up on the counter in the kitchen, a big mixing bowl in one of his tiny hands and a spatula in the other, his face screwed up in concentration as he mixed the bowl's contents with all his might. James was standing close beside him, loose white shirt on his chest and a smile on his lips as he coached his son in the art of mixing as he chopped something with the kitchen knife, the pair of them oblivious to the fact she was there.
She had to admit it; James was turning out to be one hell of a Dad. This was the third whole day he'd had with Jake and it was if he'd been around for the kid's entire life. It was breathtaking and heartbeat fastening how fantastic James was; she found the things she'd fallen for so badly in him coming to light through fatherhood, something that although she was wary about, she couldn't deny.
"Hey! When'd you get home?" James said after about two minutes of her just standing at the door, leaning against the doorframe as she appreciated the sight of the two of them together.
"A little while ago. What are you two doing?" she asked with curiosity as she finally entered, chucking her bag and purse towards her desk and hanging her coat on the hanger, moving towards the hallway to get changed. She reappeared a second later, dressed in slim dark blue jeans and a casual grey v-neck shirt, her hair swept up into a messy bun and her face free of the make-up she wore to class.
"We're making you dinner, momma!" Jake called from his spot on the counter as Penelope moved to the fridge to grab something to help, both she and James laughing appreciatively.
"Ah, ah, ah. Didn't you hear your son? We're making you dinner" James chided as he removed the package of shrimp she had in her hands, tossing it into the sink as he gently placed his hands on her hips and guided her out of the kitchen, gesturing to the sofa.
"So what am I suppose to do?" she exclaimed as she collapsed on the sofa and smiled, unable to take her eyes off the perfect image of Jake and James in the kitchen together.
"You're supposed to pour yourself a glass of wine, sit over there, and tell us about your day. Right, Jake?" James asked as he looked up from his chopping board with mischievous eyes, Jake's head bouncing up and down in agreement.
"Right!"
"So how was your day, Pen" James asked as he gave her a knowing smirk, looking back down to his board before looking up periodically to her.
"It was fine, thank you very much. But really, I would like to help" she said as she rose from the couch and moved back over to the kitchen, hearing James chuckle appreciatively.
"We try and do something nice and here you are, fighting the system. So typical Penny" he said wisely, glancing over his shoulder to her as she moved to Jake and the bowl of batter he was mixing, dipping her finger in to get a taste.
"Oh my god, James. What the heck is that supposed to be?" she exclaimed as she put the batter encased finger into her mouth and almost gagged, spitting it out immediately as she moved to the sink to flush the stuff out of her mouth with water.
"Chocolate chip cookie batter. What's wrong with it?" he asked concernedly as he moved over to the bowl of batter in Jake's hands and tasted it for himself, giving her a confused taste.
"What's wrong with it?" he asked as he went back to his chopping board, finding nothing wrong with the offending batter that Jake was peering down at.
"What's wrong with it? The fact that after tasting that I'm hypertensive, that's what's wrong with it. Gosh James, how much salt did you put in there?" she teased as she gulped down a glass of water, laughing in between sips as she watch James squirm.
"Enough" he said nonchalantly as she laughed again shaking her head.
"A dash, James. Cookie recipes call for a dash" she explained as she pulled out a cook book to show him.
"That's what I did" he miffed, not looking over his shoulder this time. She laughed and went over to him, clapping a hand on his shoulder reassuringly as she looked over at him.
"A dash of your fingers, not of both palms" she explained, pinching some salt from her salt tin and throwing it over her left shoulder for good luck.
"Whatever, its not that bad" he said again in the same miffed tone, avoiding eye contact. She laughed again and shook her head, sighing. Typical James, refusing to admit he was wrong over something so petty.
"James, seriously. Try it again" she said as she took a spoon out from a drawer and took some batter, holding it out to him to try. She watched him advert his face but keep his eyes on the vegetables he was chopping in front of him, avoiding eye contact.
"I already tried it, it's fine" he said in disregard, Penelope readjusting the spoon to try and get it into his mouth
"No, seriously, try it—" she said, but was cut off by a sudden movement he made that caused her to drop the spoon, the batter landing on his shirt, the yellow substance slowly dripping down his chest.
"Oh no" she muttered, glancing up at him sheepishly in apology. She watched him look down at the offending batter on his shirt and then mechanically look up at her, mischief and danger in his eyes.
"You know what this means, don't you?" he asked menacingly as he put down the knife he was holding, turning to Jake and the batter.
She knew what he was going to do. It was an unrequited rule with him she'd learned during the three years at the Academy; if you ever spilt, dropped, or tossed food at him, he would begin a full out food fight. It was something she'd learned very quickly after accidently spilling a glass of water on him. The debacle ended ten minutes later with a potato the size of a grape fruit stuck in the clasp of her bra.
"James, seriously, I didn't mean to—" she started as she backed away from him, getting cut off as he threw a handful of wet batter at her, the substance hitting her face and chest.
"You know the rules, Pen" he said as she stood there in shock, the batter seeping into her shirt. She heard Jake laugh appreciatively as James just smiled arrogantly, her blood beginning to boil.
She had two options. One, shake it off and walk outside, avoiding the food fight that was bound to ensue, resulting in a devastating clean up later. Or two, grab the batter bowl and kamikaze his butt with cookie dough in an act of random fun she knew would be a highlight to her week. She weighed her options. A week ago, she would have just walked away. But now that he was here, in her life, and bringing up a part of her she'd forgotten about, she found that that wasn't the case anymore.
"Jake, give Momma the bowl of batter" she said robotically, making her choice while moving over to Jake on the counter who held the big bowl out at arms length, a shocked look on his four year old face.
"Prepare to die" she threatened sarcastically as she scooped up a handful of the batter and whipped it at him, making contact with his body despite his protest as he raised his empty cutting board to shield himself.
"Oh no you don't" he retorted as he grabbed a bowl that had been sitting on the counter with saran wrap over top of it, James pulling it back to reveal the dark, sticky substance that could only be brownie batter.
"I'll never go down without a fight!" he cried as she moved to avoid the handful of batter being thrown in her direction, her back catching the tail end of the batter ball.
This went on for about another twenty minutes at least, Jake getting involved as well as he lobbed handfuls of flour whenever told to in order to create a fake smoke screen. The next thing she knew, she was holding up a dish towel as a sign of peace, the now empty bowl at her side as she stood up, standing up and walking into the ravaged battlefield that was now her kitchen.
"Truce?" he asked a second later, a towel in his hand as well with the empty batter bowl in the other.
"Truce. Oh my god, look at this place" she said as she looked around, almost every surface of her kitchen covered with yellow and brown pockmarks of batter.
"Momma and Dad made a mess" Jake called as he joined them, clumps of batter and flour covering his tiny, four year old body.
"We sure did kiddo" she sighed, giving a desperate chuckle as she looked around the room again, looking at the mess.
It was so typical James; make a mess now, clean it up later. She was more of the preventative type; don't make a mess now, don't have anything to clean up later. She sighed again and shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly at the prospect of how much work was ahead of her.
"This place is a mess" she muttered, looking back up before cringing visibly at the sight of her absolutely destroyed kitchen.
"True, but so are we. Come on, let's get cleaned off" James said as he clapped his hands together once and then put them on her shoulders, guiding her to the back door.
"James, what the hell—" she protested, begrudgingly taking steps towards the door before stopping as the back yard came into view, automatically seeing what he was talking about.
"Oh no" she said, putting on her foot brakes as she went against his movement, turning to face him with a threatening look on her face.
"Oh yes" he teased, bending down and picking her up around the knees so that she fell over his shoulder, Jake cheering as he pushed open the door for James and Penelope, who was struggling against his grip.
"James, put me down, the water is going to be so COLLDD!" she shouted, yelling at the end of her sentence as she was doused with cold water, hearing the tick, tick, tick of the sprinkler that was running in the back.
James ran through the spray of water several more times before putting her down, both of them significantly soaked as Jake continued to run through the water jet, giggling playfully to himself.
"See, all clean" James shouted over the noise of the sprinkler, giving her such a winning smile that she had to laugh, pushing her wet hair out of her face.
"God, I haven't done this since I was a kid!" she exclaimed as she felt the water come over them again, closing her eyes to shield them before opening them back up, outright gasping at what she saw.
It was by far one of the most attractive things she'd ever seen. The sun was setting and casting a pinky orangeish glow, setting a romantic lighting on everything. His hair was plastered to his forehead and drops of water were falling from his nose but that wasn't what had captured her attention. The white shirt he'd been wearing had become almost transparent after running through the sprinkler, showing off the expanse of his chest and the definition of his muscles. She remembered how achingly she'd longed to drag her hands down his abs so long ago and as she looked at him then and there, she couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to do it all over again.
"You got a bit of dough in your hair" he said as he took a step forward, reaching out a hand as he pulled some dough from her hair, keeping his searing blue eyes locked onto her's.
She'd recognize the look he was giving her now anywhere; sure, her memory of that night five years ago was fuzzy at best, but she'd never forget the look of fire in his eyes when they'd collapsed onto her bed after a night of drinking. Every time she went over the night in her head blaming herself for the entire debacle, she remembered that look in his eyes and remembered that he'd wanted her as badly that night as he wanted him. She felt her heart skip a beat just by looking into his eyes, the feelings of eight years ago once again slowly reviving themselves.
He slowly tugged the dough from her hair, letting the back of his fingers trail down her jaw line before he tossed the stuff to the side, his eyes still locked on her. She was just opening her mouth to say something with she heard Jake yell in jubilation, clapping his little hands together.
"Momma, Daddy, come through the sprinkler with me!" he called as he rang through the water again, giving another shrilly giggle as he looked expectantly at his mom.
Pen tore his eyes off of James and looked over at Jake, giving her son a friendly smile before looking back at James, her heart still skipping beats as he gave her a wicked smile, her knees wobbling threateningly. The fire had changed to mischief in his eyes as she grinned back, trying to keep the butterflies in her stomach down. It was as if the eight years had done nothing for the way she felt about him; she was trying her best to keep everything at bay but it was if everything he did managed to break down her defences.
"Yeah," she started, keeping her eyes on James, soaking in his gorgeousness.
"Be right there"
((Author's Note: Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay! Hope you liked the chapter, I really enjoyed writing it. The food fight to me is just adorable, so hopefully you feel the same way. This should be day four with Jake, so he has another nine to go, I think. Anyways, lemme know what you think of it, alright? Thanks in advance, you all ROCK!))
