Amelia quietly slipped out of bed once she realized her son was awake and babbling to himself, and she knew if she didn't quickly attend to him, he'd start wailing causing the rest of the house to wake up. As much as she savored her sleep she enjoyed the early morning feeds, no one else was up, allowing her to be solely focused on her son. She quietly slipped out the back door to get settled on the lawn chair, and was startled when she saw Maureen, almost forgetting the two had come to visit.
"Good morning." Maureen smiled, nursing her thermos of coffee.
"Morning." Amelia reciprocated settling in the chair next to her.
"Hope you don't mind I came back here. Eric is in a work call and I tend to distract him, and I just found myself out here."
"No not at all." The neurosurgeon responded truthfully as she guided her son to her breast, which he eagerly latched onto. "Thanks again for taking the kids for the day, it was much appreciated."
"Of course. We had a great time with them." The older woman smiled kindly, putting Amelia at ease. She tried so hard to make a good impression on her boyfriends parents and now felt at ease knowing they thought she was good enough for their son. "I don't know how you and Link do it, especially in a pandemic. I mean you can't take em to the park, museum, or anything."
"Me either." The woman absentmindedly chuckled, she was just taking it a day at a time. The women turned around once hearing the door open to reveal the oldest child.
"Auntie Amelia, I have a proposition for you." Zola smiled as she walked further into the backyard still in her pajamas.
"A proposition huh?" The woman chuckled, it always impressed her when her niece would use a vocabulary word out of reach for a girl her age in the proper manner.
"Yep, I think we should not do school today, stay in our pjs, build a fort in the living room, and have a movie marathon." The girl announced jumping on the balls of her feet, as much as Amelia wanted to oblige she knew she couldn't.
"We can this weekend, but I'm sorry we can't just not do school."
"Ugh, but mom would let us." This caused Amelia to laugh.
"We both know your mom would not in any capacity let you miss school if you weren't sick."
"It was worth a shot." Zola shrugged.
"It was, but I'll let you pick what we have for dinner tonight."
"Pizza?"
"You've got it."
"Do you think Link will still help me with my report."
"I'm sure he'd love to, just let him sleep a bit more and once he wakes up ask him." Zola nodded and ran back into the house, Amelia sighed in relief there wasn't a tantrum.
"You're good with kids, especially remediating a situation." Maureen commented, admiring the younger woman more.
"I try." Amelia chuckles, Maureen has only seen the kids well behaved and not in their tantrum state.
"So, I hate to be blunt, but my son doesn't tell me a thing, are the two of you planning on getting married?"
"Oh, umm." Amelia blushed awkwardly shifting her son. "Not at the moment, we're going to wait until things calm down a bit."
"As long as it's in the cards."
"I think it will be." The neurosurgeon smiled, thinking about Links plans to get married in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
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Bailey had an hour break before his next Zoom started up, so Link took the opportunity to take him out on their daily walk and get his energy out around the block while he tried to lull his son. This time though his father tagged along, he still had a lot of resentment towards his parents but was trying his best to be civil.
