Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter. Contrasting the last one, this one has a bit of a happier ending! When relationships break down and children are involved, plain and simple, it is so hard. It's challenging when parents move on and find new love as well. In this chapter, however, we see a sweeter side of that. I knew that when I decided it would be Justin and Eli who end up together for good and in a twist of fate, Lucy and Sammy fall in love as well, a question I even asked myself was 'how will Justin and Sammy's children feel about it?'. We know how close Eli is with the kids. But Lucy is their hired nanny. So what happens to that relationship? Let's see, shall we? :3
Ages:
James: 52
Jorgie: 13
Darcy: 11
Zack: 8
Layla: 4
Sammy: 38
Lucy: 37
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentioned!
When James poked his head around the door from the inside of the bathroom and only the sounds of the toilet flushing filled his ears, he knew that it seemed awfully quiet. It was too quiet. And that could mean only the one thing.
However, he at least gave the situation the benefit of the doubt by allowing the hissing of the toilet system to come to an end before he gave the area a proper scanning with his eyes and ears too. He properly emerged from the family bathroom and greeted me with a smile already tugging at his lips.
I was sworn to secrecy. I would give nothing away. James began to scan the hallway with far slimmer eyes. It was quiet. It was far too quiet. And that could mean only one thing.
An exasperated sigh catching at his throat and a hand wandering through still silky lavender locks even at that age, he headed back into the kitchen and tried to appear as stern as he could. But of course, like me, he was always swept up in the innocent chaos.
And when he came face to face with what he feared, the dismay in his voice was tackled by his good sense of humour and it won, causing him to exclaim in such a way I could hear from back on the window sill outside the bathroom door.
"Oh c'mon, you guys, I told you that I wouldn't tolerate any of that." Was his way of greeting the children again after his bathroom break, those then wider meadow green orbs of his looking from face to face of each child. Darcy. Zack. Layla. He settled on Jorgie because I knew that he had left her in charge. "This isn't funny anymore." A hint of seriousness washed over him as he acknowledged the oldest of the four. "You've got to stop."
From the way that his tone inflected with the last word that he uttered, it made it clear that his prior sentence wasn't actually strictly true. And as I strolled in from loitering elsewhere and brushed in between James' ankles, he knew that anything else that he would go on to say would be rendered futile.
After all, they were only trying to be sweet. James couldn't tell them off at the best of times, let alone when they were planning a thoughtful surprise.
"But this is our house." Zack was prompt to argue, taking a step away from Darcy who was folding napkins while trying to keep Layla out of mischief with her toy doll. The way that his arm shot out in front of his two sisters and gestured to Jorgie made it clear that she wasn't included in that statement. "We can do this if we want."
After the eight year old boy tried to make his case, my eyes flicked to Jorgie and I noticed that her mouth was beginning to press in quite a tight line at how that she had been addressed seriously by her father and then excluded from Zack's gang. My own mouth threatened to mirror hers in a wobblier fashion.
Still, before that could be the case, I saw strength in her that I knew was from growing up in the household that she had. She knew how to fight her own corner and find her voice. Even her sweet self, argued against James.
"It would have been wrong for me to stop them when I think it's a nice idea too." Jorgie spoke her truth, her fingers attaching to the ribbon at the end of her plaited locks before she joined her father by his side, and not because of the way that Zack had cast her aside momentarily. "They're pretty dead set on it."
The lavender haired male might have been in charge on that afternoon but he knew when to listen as well as to guide. His expression softened as he heard his daughter out, his head tilting on the one side as he understood her plight. He was about to speak of such, reaching a ring clad, gentle hand out to cup his daughter's face as she stood by him.
However, he wasn't granted the time as someone else decided to pipe up. Keeping quiet for a good few moments prior, Darcy then chose to leave her napkin folding station and Layla under the (not so) watchful eye of Zack.
She too stepped forward and addressed James. Unlike Jorgie, she had the beginnings of a frown knitting her eyebrows together as she conversed with her grandfather.
"You can try and stop us if you really want but we can all be stubborn if we put our minds to it." Darcy's calm and unchanging tones were hard to dismiss at the best of times but especially for James. A glance towards her younger brother, she then brought him into the conversation. "Especially Zack." The eight year old boy didn't know whether to nod his head or cry out in hurt! "Please. We are just trying to do something nice."
I observed as the boy with buoyant hair made up his mind and decided that he wanted to have a sour expression while remaining silent in response to his sister's words. But then I focused on the way that James' hands stopped tracing through part of his hair for good and sought refuge in his pockets.
I knew that Darcy took notice of this as well. And she too knew what it meant.
James switched his eyes from each of the face's looking back at him from the kitchen, all except Layla who was far too busy stealing a ribbon from one of the napkins in order to stick it to the bald head of her baby doll, clearly inspired by the fashion of Jorgie.
If James looked at those sweet faces any longer then he knew that he was going to cave. Needless to say he was going to cave anyway! But he looked to the ceiling for a brief moment to really decide on his response.
At long last, it came. The children waited with hidden baited breaths.
"Fine." He conceded, his voice showing no hint of annoyance, merely just acceptance instead. Zack forgot his prior vinegary expression and promptly fist pumped instead, encouraging Layla to do the same but she whined when she preferred to clutch her baby instead. Darcy was more casual. A step forward and James bent down to his knees to offer some ground rules. "But are you prepared to accept the consequences? I can't bail you out if your Papá turns around and is displeased with what you have done."
Darcy might've been slow to show her gladness that she was being granted permission but she was ready to be quick in order to accept James' conditions. She could only open her mouth, though, as Zack stopped teasing Layla by lifting her arm away from her little doll in order to fist pump and he took his own step forward, showing no qualms in asking James a question as they were eye to eye.
"What does that mean?" he asked. It could have been a sly tactic, I thought to myself. I saw the way that James softened on the ground even if he had hardly appeared stoic to begin with. He reached a hand out and ruffled Zack's unruly batch of hair.
Then, he stood back up to his full height in order to look down at the child but only physically. His hands were back in his paint splattered jeans pockets as he prepared to explain.
But because Darcy had experienced a long time of being one of the few people who answered his questions, she got there first.
"It means that if Papá doesn't like what we've done then we have to manage the upset for ourselves. Grandpa won't bail us out." She explained, her body then turned towards her only younger brother as she filled him in to the best of her ability.
Jorgie listened as she heard these words and I did too. You could clearly see Zack's mind ticking over, his eyes flickering from side to side and a slope in his neck as he considered.
He had a burst of energy once he had decided. He nodded so vehemently that his hair seemingly bounced in every direction.
"Of course." He agreed, not understanding why anyone would not after those seemingly easy conditions.
I don't know whether it was the way that the children were so ready to do anything for what felt right to them or the sweet eagerness of Zack, but James had his own things to say not long after the eight year old child.
He was back down with his kneecaps against the kitchenette tiles.
"I wouldn't drop you in it. But I might not be able to defend you either." He gently warned, it seeming very important to him that even if he had tried to guide them in another direction, he still felt that they should make their own decisions at the end of the day. "I'm just warning you that it could be a risk. It might not be what they want."
Layla was looking over at the scene at that point, not that she really had any clue what was going on. So I decided to take some steps towards her, jumping up onto the kitchen island counter above her and looking down on her.
Her head turned and her aquamarine eyes searched me instantly and they smiled while her lips didn't move, making me feel extremely weak at the knees. It was funny how I still didn't realise just how much I could adore children that weren't in my own little family.
Although Jorgie was one of the first of the children to get her point across, she had also decided to stay quiet when she knew that, at the end of the day, it was Darcy and Zack's battle to wholly fight. But her observant and diplomatic self knew when it was necessary to pipe up.
She found her voice all over again, her fingertips pressing against each other as she wanted to show that she supported the younger ones in doing what they wanted to do.
"They're being very kind." Jorgie pointed out, needless to say straight away feeling her father's naturally adoring eyes honing in on her face. Her fingertips pressed closer together before drawing away for good. "How could anyone be mad at that?"
And with that, the departing of Jorgie's fingers was like the shutting of a book. The closing of a chapter. There was no more room for debate. Seemingly, it was happening. And James showed that he got that message by getting back up off the floor again for a second time.
The children started to turn back towards each other to continue with their plans. But just one more time, they were stopped by a bit of guidance coming their way. Nosiness that was disguised by guidance! I had seen it many times before in parents.
"What are you going to cook for them exactly?" James wondered. I knew why he was saying this. He wasn't ignorant to the fact that whatever they wanted to prepare would mean him doing roughly fifty percent of the work or more!
Seemingly, that was one of the reasons why Jorgie, Darcy and Zack had prepared to huddle together. That question was still up for debate. And they hadn't quite decided on it yet. One of the oldest girl's with hair the same shade as her skin wasn't shy about admitting this.
"We're still working that one out." She confessed, the causation of this being a hint of a smile quirking up the side of James' lips. And then like it often was, she was struck by inspiration as soon as she had confessed her truth. "Ooh, maybe we will use your phone to order the takeaway that Papá likes."
And when Darcy's hand shot out to the being of James in order for him to hand over his phone rather than place his hand in hers like would have usually been the reason for this gesture, he discovered himself to react as if Zack had spoken of this.
He fought fire with fire that hadn't even been there!
"No you will not!" he retorted, catching himself of guard with the certainty in his voice, even if his tone had hardly risen at all. Taking a moment to run a hand through his locks after his outburst, his head swung from side to side, his widened eyes explaining as much as his words. "If Sammy sees that you used my phone, I will be just as guilty as the four of you in his eyes."
In spite of it all, Darcy felt the corners of her mouth widening as she knew that her grandfather had a point there. Zack's nose was starting to crinkle together after hearing lots of long words which were basically another way of saying 'no'.
Meanwhile, I couldn't ignore the way that silently, Jorgie's head tilted on the opposite side of the shoulder that had a long plait draping over it, privately noticing that her dad had said that he wouldn't tell on any of them. Now she wasn't so sure.
She couldn't dwell on it for all that much longer either way. Zack stopped focusing on wholeheartedly trying to turn his nose into a crumpled piece of paper and found his voice again instead.
"We'll use Jorgie's phone instead then." He said, giving the teenage girl another reason to stop her inward observations. Her plait drooping over her right shoulder felt her own head turning towards and past it. "Your credit card is attached to that phone as well."
It was quite a satisfying moment to encounter as James had to have a moment to himself to soundlessly inhale and look directly to a bland cupboard in the kitchen rather than anywhere else. All those years later of causing me and my best friend's problems by trying to steal me, he was finally getting his comeuppance!
I didn't bother to hide my giggles and my grin and Layla was quick to copy me in between holding her baby doll out for me to admire. How brilliant it was for James to come up against yet another child who had an answer for everything. Now he knew how it felt!
He forced his gaze back to all the children. And it travelled back to Zack in particular as he encouraged himself to relinquish.
"….Fine." he conceded, speaking not of anything else and certainly not the way that all three of them had him wrapped around his pinkie finger. His hand shot into the back pocket for his jeans and when it appeared again, a mobile phone was handed over to Darcy even if it had been Zack's words that caused that possibility to be able to happen.
From not moving my studious gaze away for a single second, I couldn't help but feel that it was worrisome that Darcy knew the password on his phone straight away and got into it without a hitch. But that wasn't my business! And James couldn't worry about it either, though I could have sworn that his eyebrows were starting to draw closer together.
He couldn't worry about that and he couldn't fret about the children's surprise for Lucy and Sammy going down completely the wrong way. Out of nowhere, Layla decided it wasn't enough to raise her little baby up towards me and to have me wave down at it over and over again.
Her attention belonged elsewhere, she decided.
Layla shot like a rocket across the kitchenette floor, colliding into the kneecaps of James in order to offer him a hug. The 'oof' sound that escaped from his lips made it clear that she collided with elsewhere other than his legs and Zack was quick to stop watching Darcy accessing the food delivery app on James' phone to laugh heartily and comment.
"Nice one, Layla! Right in the-"
James didn't let him finish that sentence. He cleared his throat, also covering up anymore sounds of pain that wanted to escape.
"Little Miss Riff, you ought to slow down there." he didn't look at the eight year old boy out of a warning or otherwise and while he didn't crouch in front of that child that time, he bent his body towards her while standing. He understood when Layla held her baby doll out to him like she had been doing to everyone else. "She's very nice, isn't she?"
James made the effort to run his fingers over the bald head of the baby and tickle her under her plastic earlobe as well. However, that was seemingly not enough for Layla who tightly drew her eyebrows near together, so very closely resembling her other father who wasn't the one on the receiving end of a surprise in a couple of hours.
Layla didn't just show her displeasure with an expression either. She directed her grandfather.
"You have to hold her." She told him, holding the baby further out and waiting for him to take hold of her in his arms as she would, embracing her close and rocking her tenderly.
Normally, James would have done this in an instant. But he was starting to hear Darcy and Zack conversing to each other, speaking of how they were going to raid the freezer instead and make their own version of a takeaway. After all, the girl of the two had enough skills in the kitchen to do more than just phone a fast food restaurant.
James felt his neck flushing the same temperature as the imagined oven as he thought about having to keep Zack from any antics near the blazing thing. He tried to hide it by smiling sweetly and fairly, cupping the side of her cheek and under her ear like he had done to her toy.
"Oh, I'm a bit busy right now, sweetheart." He told her, it not being put on the way that his eyes darted between trying to give Layla his unconditional attention and an explanation while making sure that her eight year old brother was marching towards the freezer rather than the oven. "I have to help out here. I'm sure you understand, don't you?"
Layla's little hoop earrings refracted a beam of light at the same time that her expression couldn't have been further from the opposite! She practically had one long eyebrow with how close they were together.
It was telling as she drew the baby back to her chest, protecting her. Then, she couldn't help but mutter her own response.
"Eli would." She grumbled. It was amazing how two short words could cut like a knife and get their point across in an instant.
Layla was no fool. She always knew using her step-father could get just about anything from anybody. Especially her Papá. And especially her grandpapa too!
James looked as though he had a boiled sweet stuck firmly between his lips before he evened them out, attempting a composed smile that was more like a sugary one. I knew that I wasn't mistaken to hear the torrent of air lacing his words as well.
"Oh, really? Well good old Eli." He said, surprising me by catching the side eye of observation that I was giving him. I don't know if it was that that caused him to have a change of heart or Layla was just really good at getting what she wanted! Hands outstretched and a plastic baby was thrust into them. "She's so lovely, isn't she? I'm going to love holding her."
My attention flickered from that scene which was causing bemused tickle in my throat to the one that had Zack flinging the freezer door open and tugging out piles upon piles of frozen food that he deemed appropriate for the meal that they were preparing.
Jorgie gave Darcy a break from guiding her younger brother and decided to do it for her, a fair hand wrapping around his shoulder before he could yank out yet another bag of frozen fries.
"I don't think they need curly ones and wedged ones and skinny ones." She suggested and it wasn't the temperature of the freezer that would go on to hit her with a wave of ice. As soon as she said this, she could feel from Zack's shoulder the way that his demeanour stubbornly changed.
He looked at her with quite an icy stare! Jorgie realised that she didn't know how Darcy did what she did so frequently and remained unscathed. She wouldn't bother again.
I didn't have the chance to swallow my titters or show a look of sympathy towards Jorgie for only trying to do her father proud by keeping everyone else in check. That same father of hers was also having a hard time.
Layla had decided that it wasn't enough for him to be standing back up to his full height and rocking her baby doll in the crook of his arm. She had started to hold her empty arms out to him again. James quickly caught onto that message as well and spoke in a weary fashion.
"Oh, I'm holding onto you as well, am I?" he questioned, his tone of voice like the kind of breeze that could cause a tree to bend sideways. But then, his expression smoothed out and in one spritely motion, Layla was lifted onto his hip too and the four year old child was wrapping loving arms around his neck. "How lucky am I, eh?"
The sound of a kiss being planted on Layla's cheek filled the kitchen. James would be rendered pretty unhelpful to the children preparing the surprise if he had to hold onto both the yellow haired girl and her bald doll the entire time. But I observed that maybe that was why he gave into that so quickly. He couldn't have been accused of encouraging them if he didn't help out all that much!
I found my lips elevating in the corner and the edges of my eyes creasing as I thought to myself. It was times like this that made it seem like James was scared of Sammy but that couldn't have been further from the case! How peculiar that would have been if he was unsettled by someone so like him in his younger years.
The truth was, he wanted things to go well for him. They had started to seemingly go that way, especially in recent months. He didn't want anything to ruin that happiness. But like Jorgie poined out, something nice was being done. And how could anyone he annoyed about that?
"Wow, you can carry a lot." Darcy complimented Zack after together with Jorgie, the two girls had convinced him that the slender packet of fries would suffice and he carried that bag as well as the nuggets and vegetables over to the kitchen island top. "I think we can handle the cooking from here. Why don't you go into the hall and getting it looking tidy and romantic?" After compliments came a suggestion. The eleven year old girl really was an expert at getting him to comply. "The fairy lights are untangled. They just need to be hung."
For half a second, both Jorgie and Darcy watched as Zack's arms prepared to raise and then fold in defiance at the way that he was being told what to do. But then he decided that smoothing out the glittery curtains and adding mile upon mile of fairy lights to them seemed far more fun than cooking. He could even wrap himself in some of the lights like a bandaged mummy if he had the chance!
His arms flopped by his sides and although he didn't nod, he prepared to saunter off. It was James who interjected a baby doll in one arm and a proper little person in the other.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." He began, not wanting to give anybody a fright and certainly not wanting to grab Zack by the collar. Instead, he somehow stopped him in his tracks and spun him back around to face the girl's again without even touching him. James was looking at Jorgie and Darcy too. "Are you sure that's a good idea? It would be just him alone doing that." I listened equally as much as anybody else. He skirted around his true intention to not hurt the boy's feelings. "Isn't there something he can do in here and then you can all decorate the hall together?"
A single beat was missed. A single pause occurred where Darcy avoided Jorgie's gaze and she stared straight ahead to no particular place. Then, a split second later, her brown eyes wandered to the ceiling so she could come up with her response.
When it was decided, she put it forth to her grandfather without any qualms at all.
"Would you prefer it if he got the glasses out of the cabinet and poured the drinks, carrying them over to the table too?" she wondered, her tone of voice speaking far more than her words could have done.
Thankfully, Zack was none the wiser and instead seemed quite bummed out that he was getting – in his mind – a demotion. Jorgie, however, caught on and she did so at the same time as her father. She watched as it looked like he had a hard sweet in his mouth for a second time.
His lips were forced to even out again before speaking; wholly understanding that Darcy made a valid point.
"Fine." He relented, but in his mind he couldn't help but feel that he would regret doing that. Nevertheless, he turned back to Zack and this time made contact with him, the tips of his toes lightly touching against the side of his ankle. "Go ahead and have fun decorating for them. I trust you to put your creative spin on it."
And with that, Zack didn't just put a spin on his creativity in the near future. He shot out like a rocket into the hallway and whirled and twirled as well, undoubtedly very pleased that he had kept his old job!
James breathed out a silent capsule of air when he was out of sight. He wouldn't know what he would have done if he had decided that handling glass and pouring drinks was way more fun and that he wanted to do that instead.
Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about that. And he was certainly brought back to the task at hand when Darcy sauntered over to him, a levelness still being a major part of her disposition but coy mischief lacing her being as well.
She copied his prior actions towards her younger brother, her hands on her hips as the tips of her toes reached out to his kneecap as she stood in front of him.
"What about me, do you trust me to get the oven on and cook everything up?" she wondered, noticing the way that he didn't understand the edge to her voice straight away before he caught on, shaking his head fondly at her. That head motion from side to side switched to up and down. He didn't need to tell her twice that he had no worries about that. "Alright then. Do you think you and Jorgie can get the table looking pretty and nicely laid?"
From still lingering on the kitchen island top, I watched the way that although Jorgie's shoulders twitched upwards like she was preparing to jolt herself into action straight away, she still took a moment to pause where she also swung her eyes over to the silhouette of her father.
He was to be her partner in crime for that task and she couldn't be gladder. But there was still a small part of her that waited for his permission. Jorgie and Darcy and me as well saw him smile over at the children straight away but also portray a level of casualness.
"Oh, I certainly could." He began. Darcy was certain that she could sense a catch. She hardly ever missed a trick. Thankfully, it wasn't a bad one. Layla felt another kiss planted on her cheek and arms hugging her closer to him. "And I think little one and her friend would be brilliant at helping out her big brother with the lights."
A third kiss to Layla's cheek. Then she was planted down on the ground before she even had a choice. Her initial reaction was to frown, reaching her hands back out to her grandfather yet again. But her little toy was soon entrusted back into her hold and the smile that she received from James showed her that he trusted her with other things as well.
And just like her deep purple haired father that James held equally as dear as Layla did, she knew that she could not resist living up to this and pleasing everyone by showing what a wonderful job she could do with Zack.
Layla clung onto James' knees one last time. And then a determined little knot in her brow rather than a forlorn one, she shot off out of the room with her doll and she knew that she had good work to be done.
A smile on her face, Jorgie nodded almost approvingly of this moment before she at last headed over to the dining table to inspect it before giving it a makeover with her father. And before that same man could join her, Darcy caught her grandfather's gaze in between pre-heating the oven and getting out ingredients for homemade tomato sauce.
Like often, she didn't bother to stop herself from speaking her mind, a gently clenched fist around a bag of tomatoes.
"Were you just saying that to get rid of her?" Darcy asked, the directness of her words and gaze cutting like a knife and if the more animated side of James won on out then he might have felt himself tripping on the kitchen tiles!
He might have chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, pushing his chin length locks back now neither hand was occupied by a doll or a child. But he did not react dramatically. He spoke honestly. And his laughter evened out to a smile before he prepared to join Jorgie at the dining room table.
"I thought that you deserved some peace while you work your magic." His response sounded, hovering near to his thirteen year old daughter halfway through his words and bringing her into the conversation also. He also brought the side of her face into his hands while his mouth stopped smiling but his eyes did not. "And there's no greater time than quiet time with my favorite girls."
And with that, even Darcy couldn't stop herself from nodding and showing the smallest fragments of a smile too before cracking on with what she needed to do, finding me hovering close next to her as she prepared her homemade tomato sauce. She would never be able to get rid of me!
I knew there would have been a time where she wouldn't have believed him quite so readily – she wouldn't have believed anyone quite so easily. But why lie? He was one of the people in her life who had shown with actions equally as much as with words how much she was family to him. And it was true.
I thought of this as James' hand left his daughter's face even though it would have liked to linger there for quite some time.
Being a parent had brought him unconditional joy. He never would have dreamed that it would be the same when he became a grandparent for the first time too. And especially with the older ones. He loved nothing more than being around them, mischief and cheeky antics and all. It didn't matter to him that some had threads of his blood pumping through them and some of them just had his heart beating in his chest for them every second of the day.
No matter what. No matter where they came from. They belonged to him as well. And he could not be more proud at how quick they were to do something thoughtful for somebody else. Among many other reasons, that was one of the top ones why he had allowed them to run free with their desires.
"I'm quite surprised that Darcy and Zack have managed to lead you astray, my sweet Cherub." James broke his own thoughts as much as he broke my own, no longer just observing the way that Jorgie was inspecting a crisp white table cloth and instead reaching for the other end of it so they could smooth it over the table together. A quirk of the head. A pause. He considered. "Or is it the other way around?"
The two of them were waving and fluffing the table cloth like they were in a laundrette so half of it was covering Jorgie's eyes. She was concealed. When they lowered it together, she sensed the mischief within her father's meadow green orbs and almost instantly, she couldn't stop herself from mirroring it in return.
She shook her head and the shake of her head said everything. But said proper words too.
"I've always been dragged into the middle of their antics, you know that." she spoke her truth quietly and calmly with still a hint of a child that had been caught raiding the biscuit tin. Apparently not quietly enough because Darcy heard it over whisking the roughly chopped tomatoes together with a fork. "And I've helped Justin with Eli over the years." She continued. She went on to respond to her father's silent crane in the neck with an arch of a brow too. "So why wouldn't I take the opportunity to give Sammy some joy as well?"
These words should have made James' heart sing. And they did. From finally pulling myself away from what Darcy was doing and deciding to make myself useful by gathering that I could be trusted enough to get hold of drinks glasses and select drinks and pour them into them, I knew that James' heart was soaring so high that it flew out of the house and above the roof.
However, he didn't allow his actions to speak this as much as he would have liked. With a glow warming his cheeks and a sparkle in his iris nevertheless, he interacted with his daughter, still wanting to hold her in his arms like he would have done when she was Layla's age and younger as she broke her distance with him briefly to fetch the plates and folded napkins to display them.
"You're not giving yourself enough credit." He began, his cheeks the hue of the roses he had handed out all over throughout a number of years and his gaze following Jorge's every move in the softest, most paternal of ways. It was like there was no better sight to him. And there wasn't. Even when she was looking back at him quizzically. "You're your mother's double in that regard, my love." He explained, hands loosely resting on the back of a chair for something to do. "You can't resist a bit of romance."
And with that, the animated and giddy side of his personality won and was set loose for me to see. As if he could not resist just holding onto the chair anymore, he suddenly was at the feet of his daughter and he swept her off them, dipping her. He might not have been able to lift her up onto his hip anymore, but he would embrace her in other ways. That would always be the greatest thing about being her father.
Jorgie's cheeks copied his own in becoming the same shade. Her eyebrows broke their distance with each other as she was backwards in his arms and looking at him, disagreeing. The glint in her own irises, however spoke of the truth.
"I think that might be you." She said and no sooner had she done this, her hands moved from limply being by her sides while she was held and instead moved around her father's neck, hugging onto him and not letting him go. How lucky he was. To have Layla there before. And Jorgie there now. It was his lucky day as much as it was Sammy's. "You're crazy about all things love."
A hum from James was the only thing that spoke for a few minutes while Darcy looked onwards, shaking her head fondly but the closeness in her own eyebrows portraying gladness to witness such a sight rather than disgust.
James stopped dipping his daughter and encouraged her back to her feet, a hand on either side of her cheeks as if she was small enough for him to need to guide her with a chubby hand clasping onto his.
He was quick to respond, content to send himself up.
"Or just plain crazy." He retorted, a shrug rolling off his shoulders before he pulled his daughter into his arms, embracing her. She had grown an awful lot since he first met her. But he would always feel at home when he was holding her near. And she felt the same way when she had her head on his beating chest.
And speaking of crazy, someone else who was often deemed that name decided to crash the scene there and then and he did so in such a way that made all heads turn. And if that wasn't enough, then heads turned and necks slanted at the way that Layla coyly hid half behind her big brother when he made his presence known, making anyone wonder if she was the true culprit!
I was in the middle of pouring fizzy drinks into fancy cut glasses when the eight year old boy's tone filled the room.
"Do you think I could get some help over here?" he asked, for a rare occasion asking for assistance. And no wonder! He hadn't been able to resist wrapping himself up in lights like a bandaged mummy after all. And Layla had probably encouraged him. Needless to say, it had gone wrong. But it still looked kind of impressive.
Jorgie was forced to leave her father's embrace when, after a seed of a kiss was planted to the top of her head and a sigh was directed towards no one other than Zack and Layla too, James made strides with his legs over to him to help him out in any way that he could.
Darcy got back to her food preparing and Jorgie decided to head back out into the hall with Layla now that she was done with the dining table. The four year old girl's hand in hers and the baby doll in the other one as she headed off, she knew that if it was a disaster on Zack then it would be a disaster out there too!
Zack rose a hand towards the fairy light that was tightly coiled around a sprig of hair of his, trying to bravely smile but ending up wincing. Fortunately, James was there to reassure him with kindness and a bit of humour too – the best kind.
"Don't fret about it, Zack, I'll sort you." He chose to comfort him at first, going down onto his knees for yet another moment that day. He might as well have stayed there! He might have to for all the hours he might have been tangling his grandson. Even so, Zack felt a brief, reassuring hand brush over his forehead. "Worst comes to the worst, we'll stick you out into the hallway and you can be like a Christmas tree in the corner of the room."
Because of the mess that he had got himself in by bundling himself up in the fairy lights, Zack didn't laugh and instead he whined! Darcy could not stop her chuckles though. And I couldn't either. James was the same about his own joke.
But he soon set to untangling his grandson and he was right by telling him not to worry. After not much time at all, he was untangled and he at least had Jorgie helping him out that time so things could run a lot smoother. And thank goodness for it! Time was drawing closer to when Sammy would return and James would not be in charge of the children anymore.
It was lucky that I had helped out in the way that I had, carrying drinks over to the table. And now that I was done, I was able to assist in any way that I could. I darted into the hallway and make sure that the decorating there was going down without a hitch under Jorgie's supervision. It was. She got a lot done for having one hand containing Layla's toy doll!
I sprung back into the kitchen, assisting James with lighting candles and picking out the music that should play on the radio too. I hopped back onto the kitchen island top; being Darcy's next in command when she needed someone to sample her own recipe of tomato sauce. Needless to say, that was the best job!
In the end, however, the best of the best was the effort we made and the sight of it all when our hard work had been completed. The time to Sammy returning home was quickly approaching. Nobody knew how he was going to react. But I, like the others, reminded myself that while how he felt was important, how we felt was equally that way too.
What was important was that we felt that we had done the right thing and that we were pleased with our efforts.
It was funny how quickly it had turned into 'we' from it being Darcy and Zack's idea with Layla and Jorgie too. But that is how it is in families, isn't it? You all get dragged into each other's business. For better or for worse, for good or for causing chaos! You're never in much alone. You often have someone there. To share happiness. Or share repercussions! Whatever it was going to be, I knew that, contrary to what James had said, we would all stick together.
Another amusing thing was how frantically everyone stopped lounging around in each of the room's and admiring the handiwork when a car started pulling into the driveway and needless to say it belonged to Sammy. I had never seen anybody spring into action so fast and me included!
A wave of the hand and hasty mumbling noises escaping from lips, James directed Zack to stand by the door leading to the kitchen because he was to be showing them into the room. The girls knew to disappear into the kitchen. They were intended to be there to assist the guests with anything that they needed.
I hopped onto James' shoulder because I was trying to be casual. I ended up nearly vaulted off his shoulder with the speed in which he moved to loiter by the door as soon as he heard a key sticking into it from the other end and turning.
He might have been the one to make a wrong move in the end as Sammy wondered what on earth was going on from the moment that he stepped into the house, someone lingering on the doorstep behind him.
"Guys, I'm home. Do you want to come and say hi and bye to Lucy before she heads off?" he called into the hallway, greeting his children before he had even had a chance to step a proper foot in the door. Their feet twitched on the flooring. Zack hadn't been noticed. But James had. Sammy's eyes widened and his angular face sucked in more. "Whoa, James, you gave me a fright." He spoke with a serious knot in his brow, though for once, his expressive self hadn't jolted an inch. "Will you fetch the kids for me? They're still here, I presume?"
Sammy gave me a nod, making me think that I wasn't included in the people who had made him jump. I tried not to puff my chest out and thought of other things instead.
It was hard to believe that with James' track record but the truth is that he is a terrible liar! And when he gets caught out on something, you can almost instantly know. This was one of those moments.
"I uh… I…" he tried to begin but he did not know where he was going at all. He caught sight of Lucy patiently yet curiously waiting on the door step, wondering if she was going to say goodbye for the day to the children as well or just to Sammy.
James at least then had something to do and he raised a feeble hand and waved to Lucy. She was none the wiser, thank goodness! Demurely, she smoothed down her skirt before not hesitating to wave back.
In the meantime, Sammy barged back into his own house properly, leaving the front door wide open and Lucy still standing there.
"Dude, did you clean up my house?" he spoke to James, somehow noticing how spotlessly the hallway had been cleaned by Jorgie but not the shimmering curtains that had been added to the doorway leading to the kitchen, nor the fairy lights draped around. Sammy continuously turned towards him. "I appreciate it, James, but I don't need your help getting-" he didn't finish that sentence. At last, he caught sight of something else. "Zack?"
Before his sharp features could portray a soft level of dismay as he wondered why he was standing right there but had been ignoring his offer of saying goodbye to Lucy, it was like a dam of realisation had been burst and a bigger torrent of realisation couldn't help but slap him in the face.
His eyes shot to each individual thing.
The cleanliness of his house. The draped lights. The glittery curtain. The smell of food. The distant scent of lit candles. The girls nowhere in sight. James' perfect swirly writing on a chalkboard turning the name of the house into a restaurant instead.
Sammy's almond eyes stopped observantly darting and prepared to bed into James seeing as he had noticed his little token last of all. His jawline threatened to hollow out more than usual as he realised what he had stood by and allowed to happen.
However, he didn't get a chance to because Zack stepped in. it seemed like James might not have been prepared to bail the children out. But the eight year old boy was ready to do it for him.
"Don't be upset. We just wanted to do something nice." He offered, his usually lively eyes evened out with seriousness as he looked upon one of his father's before turning his head backwards towards the kitchen where he knew his companions were not only lingering but listening too. "Right, you guys?"
He summoned them. Slowly, they made their presence known one by one. Darcy. Jorgie. Layla. Of course her baby doll too. Two of them appeared ginger while one of them was beaming gladly and the other had a plastic expression.
Sammy quickly twigged what was going on because it was not the first time. He thought about shutting the door gently behind him but that would have been seen as rude to Lucy standing there. He thought about telling them off. But that would have been the wrong thing to do. He could see that the last thing that they wanted was to upset him.
It seemed to be a contagious action when he went down onto his knees against the hallway carpet.
"Guys, you have got to stop doing this, okay?" Sammy's eyes showed a wide mix of seriousness and dismay as he tried to get through to the children. I couldn't help but feel that it was to be no avail. James' lower lip fell into his mouth as the younger tattooed male continued, ring clad fingers gesturing to express himself. "We are taking things super slow, you know that. I only told you because I trusted that you would give us space to learn to properly become us." I heard the quiet plop as James' lip fell back out of his mouth. I then heard Sammy's continual voice. "This isn't right."
I wasn't surprised when from the other side of the door step; Lucy began to get the wrong idea. When the front door gently fell more shut because of the breeze, her patience did not wear thin but what she thought was realisation hit her.
It was her turn to poke her head around the door. She didn't know whether her face should be known or just the wave of the hand.
"I can see that you've got things to sort out, Sam. I'll see you all later." She began, a perfectly pink manicured hand poking through the gap in the door and waving as well as her understanding albeit shy face peeping through. She prepared to continue. "I'll-"
Yet Lucy wasn't given the permission to. The door didn't slam into her face because of the wind or otherwise. Sammy didn't turn around to face her and cut her off. It was Zack who decided to do that. He risked a much bigger telling off than before by barging past his kneeling father and going to talk to Lucy himself!
"Come in." he spoke to her, his voice rising in pitch as he addressed her and contrasting the way that he hoped that it would come across as final, level-headed and most of all, gentlemanly. All the same, Zack clutched on Lucy's hand and invited her in through the door. Then, James and I watched as he addressed his then standing father. "We've made dinner for the two of you and we really want you to have it." he continued, not blind to the way that Sammy was trying to control the situation. His arched brow faltered. Zack wanted the last word. "Please." His voice deepened and it softened. "She's not just special to you and we want to show you both."
And with that, I don't know how on earth Sammy was possibility going to resist! I practically melted like the candle wax on the dining room table as I lingered on James' shoulder.
The Alolan male's expression could be angular at the best of times. However, there and then was one of the moments that it smoothed out no matter how much he tried to resist. At first, he looked over at his son and held onto his shoulder, not showing yet whether he was going to comply or not. Then, his gaze glanced to the girls.
Jorgie. Darcy. Layla. Yes, her little doll! No doubt did they all think the same things as Zack even if they hadn't expressed them. Sammy's eyes wandered to James but for once they looked through him. He didn't even bother to look at me. His eyes searched for Lucy who, while she didn't refrain from taking the eight year old's boy and being invited into the house, she still didn't allow herself to be completely tugged into it all until Sammy felt the same way.
Sammy felt a soft hand on his shoulder and eyes the colour of spring looking into his. It was up to him. It was up to him how much or little he wanted. In the end, it was clear that he wanted everything. Though he came out with words that contradicted this!
"We just ate out, you know…" he bluntly mumbled with a ring clad and tattoo decorated hand running through his brunette locks. But because it had not gone unnoticed to Zack from the minute that his shoulders started to soften, he started to hurry up his motions.
He stopped merely holding onto Lucy's hand and he crooked his arm instead, intending for her to link hers with his in a gentlemanly fashion. The girls finally piped up, showing that they were in it just as much as Zack was.
"This way please, Miss Bolton." Darcy and Jorgie both chorused and Layla tried her best to do this too, only just catching on to the last word or two. But she said it with her heart just as much as the older two. And Lucy felt as though her heart was going to burst when she was encouraged in through the shimmering curtains with Zack accompanying her and the girl's encouraging her.
Sammy didn't know if his heart was going to burst either or it was a blood vessel! He had tried so hard to do things right. He had calmly explained that he and Lucy were indeed together now and while he wanted to be honest about the same thing, they would take things slow and they didn't need to be a family straight away.
He had tried at least! He had tried. But it seemed that he had failed. And it was something that he needed to be okay with failing at.
Seeing Lucy disappear into the curtains while being led by his children and Jorgie too made him more content than ever to do this. Additionally, it was the way that she turned over his shoulder before disappearing completely to make sure that he was following that combusted his heart the most.
He just had to follow their example. Which he did. He just had to follow in their footsteps. Which he then did too. Another hand running through his hair in a different kind of disbelief, he knew that magic was waiting for him on the other end.
And left behind but not feeling left out at all, James and I watched everyone else head elsewhere and prepare to experience whatever was meant for them. We shared a look. But more importantly, we shared the thoughts that we wordlessly shared.
That was what families did, didn't they? They took hold of hands and guided and directed. And then, when the time was right, they watched them walk on alone with their heads held high and walk onto where they were destined to be.
At that point, it was still very uncertain what was around the corner for Sammy and Lucy. But if that day was anything to go by then they didn't need to worry at all. They had a gaggle of children ready to not only support them but to encourage them.
Some people aren't born family. But they become that they. From a sweetly guiding hand. From daisy chains linked together and shared between each other. From a look. From a kiss. From a chapter of a story. To making their own stories.
As I think back at this time, I can't help but think that everybody I love isn't just one chapter in my life. They are my whole story. And back on that day, I couldn't wait to see Sammy and Lucy's unfold. After all, those two were almost more deserving of a happily ever after than anybody I knew. And I knew that they would get it. They would get their happy ending. They would get it - if it was the last thing that Darcy, Layla and in particular, Zack, would do!
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) I so loved getting to write James as a grandfather here. It's something that I never have really tackled here. It was interesting to show his relationship with Jorgie halfway through too, seeing as it's mostly portrayed when she is very little. But she is a teenager here and as you can tell, they are still awfully close! This chapter felt simplistic and close to the kinds of things that I used to write about once upon a time. I'm definitely going to write more about what happens when Sammy and Lucy continue to remain together. And who knows, maybe I'll write more about other parts of their relationship too :P Thanks again for reading and I will be back again on Wednesday so see you then!
Amy signing out :)