A few days later, Will sat on the couch, laptop in his lap while he worked on a final draft of his next article. He wasn't getting a lot done, he kept sneaking glances at Paul and Arianna playing together in the floor. It hadn't taken Paul all that long to get past her shyness and get her to warm up to him. She was happily sharing her blocks with him and he was teaching her how to build a sky scraper.
Ari laughed and Will smiled when the building got too tall and became a leaning tower. Paul scrambled to catch it but he wasn't fast enough and it fell completely over, breaking over Paul's head. Paul laughed and fell over, playing dead.
"Gin… Gin…." Ari cried happily, and Paul dutifully sat up and started building the tower all over again. Over and over and over again Paul built the tower, let it fall on his head and fell over to play dead, never complaining one little bit. Paul was a natural with kids; Will couldn't believe that he didn't realize how much he would have to offer a child.
After a good hour of them going through the same scenario, Will decided to rescue Paul. "Come one Ari, it's almost nap time." He said, getting up and picking her up off the floor.
"Noo, gin… pwease…" she cried squirming to get down.
Will laughed, "We should probably let Paul rest before he gets a concussion." He said tickling her side.
She giggled and squirmed until Will put her back down. Then she ran back to Paul… She promptly sat herself down right on his lap. "No nap…" she said defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"But daddy says you have to take a nap sweetie." Paul said. "You are a growing girl and you need your rest. You go ahead and take a nap and I will stay right here till you wake up." He said.
She looked at him sternly.
"I promise." He said solemnly.
She blinked a couple on times and then seemed to relent. "Otay." She said, turning to Will and holding her arms up so he could pick her up again.
Will leaned over and hoisted her into his arms. "Thank you." He said quietly, before he pressed a quick kiss to Paul's lips.
Paul smiled and winked at him. "You gotta know how to handle the ladies, man." He teased.
Will blushed, "Be right back."
About 30 minutes later, when Will came out of the nursery, Paul was on the phone.
"No I can't come today, cancel it and I will come tomorrow." He said. Then he listened for a couple of minutes. "Well then it will have to be day after tomorrow. Whatever I have to do, I just can not make it today." He listened another minute and then thanked the person and disconnected the call.
"What are you cancelling?" Will asked.
"My physical therapy session for today." Paul answered.
"Paul, no you need your therapy. Why would you do that?" Will asked surprised.
"Because I just promised your daughter I would be here when she wakes up." Paul said.
"But your therapy is important. Ari will understand." Will said. "Call back and tell them you are going to make it."
"Nope." He said stubbornly. "I am not letting the first promise I ever made to your daughter turn into a lie." Paul said, "My therapy can wait."
"Okay," Will said, swallowing around the lump in his throat. "Well we could go with you." Will said.
"No, it's okay, Ari needs her nap, and besides it isn't like I am going to be going back to baseball anyway. I can do my therapy at my own pace, there's really no rush." Paul said.
"Okay if you are sure." Will said, feeling terrible. If he had known that Paul had a therapy session scheduled for today, he never would have let him promise her that he would be there when she woke up.
"I'm sure." Paul said, pulling Will into a hug.
"So…" Will said, "I can order us some lunch or we could wait and go out when Ari wakes up but, …. Full disclosure…. dining out with a toddler is not a lot of fun."
"We can do whichever one you want to do." Paul said. "It really can't be that bad."
Will laughed, "Eventually you will see… but for today I guess I will spare you, and order us some Chinese so we can hang out in front of the TV."
"That sounds great too." Paul said.
Will made the call to order the food and then turned the TV on handing Paul the remote. They decided on an old action movie and settled in on the couch Paul sat on one end and Will laid down and put his head on Paul's legs.
Paul smiled down at him and carded his fingers through Will's hair. He was glad that Will was so comfortable with him, in such a short time.
"It's been a really good day." Will said. "Thank you for being so sweet to my baby girl, she obviously adores you.
"I love her already." Paul said.
"That makes me happy." Will said.
"I'm just glad she likes me." Paul said, "I was worried."
Will laughed. "You're such a big kid yourself, you had nothing to fear." He said.
"Hey!" Paul said, "I resent that." Giving Will's hair a gentle tug.
"OUCH." Will said.
"Serves you right!" Paul said.
Soon there was a knock on the door, Paul urged Will up and went to get the door. He paid for the food and closed the door. "Hungry?" he said.
Will stood up and went to the kitchen to get a couple plates and he and Paul took some of the food to the living room where they sat on the floor in front of the table and ate while watching the end of the movie.
Will had brought the fortune cookies and dropped them in the middle of the table, and when they were done and pushed their plates away, Will took one and handed Paul the other.
"You first." Paul said, indicating that Will should open his first.
Will cracked his cookie open and popped half of it in his mouth then looked at the scrap of paper. "You will have many happy days soon." He read aloud.
"Interesting…" Paul said.
"Ha!" Will said, "That's not really a fortune or a prediction. They can't predict something that already came true. I have had a lot of happy days lately."
"I'm glad you're happy." Paul said.
"Me too." Will agreed… "Your turn." He pointed to Paul's cookie.
Paul opened the cookie and threw half of it onto his plate, then he unrolled the paper that fell out of his cookie. . "Accept what comes to you each day." He read, then looked at Will and smiled.
"Sounds pretty open ended." Will said.
"Could be anything." Paul agreed, tossing the other part of the cookie onto the plate.
Will raised his eyebrow, "You don't like fortune cookies?" he asked.
Paul shook his head… "Nope they are kinda gross, they don't really taste like anything."
"Okay then." Will said, getting up and picking up their dishes. He went and dumped the trash off of the plates and rinsed the plates off putting them in the dishwasher.
Will walked back toward the couch, but stopped just short of sitting down when there was a knock on the door. He walked over and opened it.
"Hi grandma." He said when he saw Marlena standing there. "Come on in." he offered moving aside.
She stepped in the door and looked around the apartment, smiling warmly at Paul. "Nice to see you again, Paul." She said.
"You too, Dr. Evans." Paul said politely.
"Have a seat grandma." Will said.
"Oh no.." She said. "I didn't know you had company, and I don't want to interrupt. I just came by to tell you how great I thought your article was and to see how you are doing. I can come back some other time."
"You're not interrupting anything." Will said. "We were just watching some TV while Arianna naps."
"How is Ari doing?" She asked. "It feels like I haven't seen her in weeks."
"It's been a couple weeks I guess." Will said. "She is turning into quite the little Sami Brady." He teased, "She is very demanding and is a master at getting her way already."
Marlena rolled her eyes comically. "Well then I don't have to tell you that you are going to have your hands full then, do I?"
"Not at all." Will said. "But I am working hard to not let her get too far out of hand."
"Good to hear." Marlena said., she looked at Paul, "Have you met Will's mother yet?" She asked.
"No Ma'am, I haven't yet had the pleasure." He answered.
Will and Marlena looked at each other and Will snickered. "He has no idea what a treat that is going to be." Will laughed.
Marlena shrugged her shoulders a little. "She has calmed down some since she married EJ, amazingly." She said.
"Yeah, I guess that is true." Will said, "But I don't really want to scare Paul away yet." He said dramatically.
"OH Honey…." She said, "In all my years I have found it is always better to deal with your challenges head on and not hide your skeletons in the back of your closet." She said, only half teasing.
"Oh, I'm not hiding mom… you know the minute she thought I was hiding her she would come here, guns blazing so to speak… " Will said. "I'm just carefully avoiding for the moment." He said laughing.
"Alright Alright! Point taken, but in all fairness, I am going to tell you that she told me she hasn't seen you or Arianna in way to long and she was going to make it a point to come and see you soon. So maybe…. You should go see her first, before she shows up, when you are um… entertaining friends." She teased.
"Thanks for the warning Grandma. I will take Arianna over there tomorrow." He said.
"Speaking of taking her to visit family, has she been to see Gabi lately?" She asked.
Will nodded. "Rafe took her a couple weeks ago, and I am taking her again next weekend." We try to take turns."
"You are an amazing father, I have never been prouder of you." She said.
"Thanks Grandma." Will said.
"I have to run, John is meeting me at the club for dinner and drinks." Marlena said, giving Paul a little wave and kissing Will on the cheek.
Will walked over and just as he opened the door, there was a tiny cry from the baby monitor. "Sounds like someone is awake." He said giving his grandma a hug.
"I will get Ari." Paul said going into the nursery.
"So did you really come by to say you like my article and warn me about mom?" Will asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
Marlena gave him a smile… "I really did want to tell you all that…. And check on you." She said.
"So it was a scouting mission." Will said.
"I just wanted to see how things were going with Paul, and it seems like they are going really well." She said.
Will was touched that she wanted to check on him. "Things are great!" he said.
"Good." She said, "See you later."
Will watched her go then closed the door and went to rescue Paul in the nursery. It sounded like Arianna may be giving him a hard time in there and he didn't know if Paul had ever changed a diaper before, or if he would even want to.
When he got to the nursery Paul was sitting in the rocker with Arianna in his lap, she was snuggled into his chest sniffling. "Heyyyy." Paul crooned softly to her. "It's okay Ari, I've got you."
"Hey Princess, what's wrong?" Will asked kneeling down beside the rocker.
Arianna looked at him wide eyed, then lunged for him. Will took her and carried her into the living room. He sat on the couch with her and held her on his lap for a few minutes.
Paul followed them watching carefully. "Guess she doesn't adore me as much as we thought." He said, sitting down in the chair.
"She just has to get used to you." Will said, "I guess she thought I left her."
Arianna sat quietly with Will for a few minutes, then eventually she squirmed down, until her feet were on the floor. She toddled over to Paul and took his hand.
Paul picked her up and nestled her in his arms, but she was having none of it. She squirmed and squirmed until she was down and then took his hand, tugging at him until he got up. She led him back over to the blocks.
She sat down and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to do the same. When he followed her example she handed him a block… "Gin." She said.
Paul looked at Will, pleased that she hadn't forgotten their game. He took the block and began building the tower again.