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Thirteen

The sun shines through our window and into my eyes, stirring me from my sleep. Sebastian breathes slowly next to me and I watch his chest rising and falling beneath the sheets. His hair is a bit longer again and he has a bit of stubble along his chin and jawline.

The man really was hand crafted by God himself. That is the only way for him to be this beautiful.

I curl up closer to him, my head resting on his chest as I breathe him in. I need this smell in a candle.

I feel his hand move up to my head and his fingers begin to run through my hair.

"Good morning." Sebastian mumbles in his deep morning voice.

"Morning." I sigh, shutting my eyes and focusing on the feeling of his fingers running through my hair.

The past few days have been pleasantly quiet. Aurelia spent a day with Carlie and that allowed us to have a chance to find her a new therapist. Sebastian still isn't sold on one for himself yet. Until he is able to find one, I'm trying to help him as much as I can.

Aurelia is still calling me mommy and my heart soars every time I hear the word come from her. The only sound that comes close to beating that is Sebastian telling me he loves me.

I swear I would set the world on fire for that little girl.

Alexia has been strangely quiet. I've started wondering when she inconveniently pop back into existence. All I know is, if she runs her mouth the way she did last time, Sebastian won't be stopping me as easily.

I try to push those thoughts away and remind myself to just enjoy the present. The future can be dealt with later.

"Babe? Are you asleep again?" Sebastian asks and I slowly open my eyes.

"No. Just laying here." I say quietly.

Sebastian doesn't say anything, instead I feel him kiss the top of my head and wrap his arms around me. The feel of his skin against mine is absolutely intoxicating. We had been so busy trying to deal with errands the past few days that we hadn't slowed down enough to just enjoy one another.

The papers for me to become a legal guardian for Aurelia were filed yesterday and we went out last night to celebrate. Aurelia wanted to go to the trampoline park, so we spent hours jumping around. It made me feel like a kid again. Like life isn't all doom and gloom. It was nice to just enjoy watching her smile and laugh.

However, I could definitely feel the lasting effect of jumping on trampolines for hours at a time.

I groan a bit as I slowly roll over onto my back. My legs feel like noodles.

Sebastian laughs a bit before rolling over onto his stomach, throwing an arm over my waist.

"Sore?" He taunts.

"No. Not at all." I lie. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction.

"Are you lying to me?" He asks, picking his head up to look at me.

"Nope." I say quickly, looking away from him. Sebastian sighs before pushing himself up and moving to hover over me.

"You're a terrible liar." He grins wildly at me and I feel butterflies erupt in my stomach.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I giggle a little as Sebastian moves his head down into the crook of my neck leaving a trail with his lips.

"I'm talking about the fact that you are definitely sore, but I'm about to make it worse." He says lowly into my ear and suddenly all the humor melted out of my body. A shiver went down my spine at the sound of his voice, his lips ghosting over my ear.