Third Time's The Charm

Chapter 7

The day had finally come! It was time for our first official visit with Ezra. Maya and I had planned an entire day with him down to the minute, hoping to spend as much time as possible together. We were to pick up Ezra from the group home at 11 am, so naturally, Maya and I had been up since six trying to get ourselves ready. Everything had to be perfect.

"Bambina, did you grab the Spiderman?!" I yelled from the kitchen.

"Just finished wrapping it," she responded, making her way over to where I was standing.

"Is it weird that I'm nervous?" I asked as Maya wrapped her arms around my waist and placed her chin on my shoulder. She spun me around so that I was now facing her, "not at all.  I am totally freaking out too." We stood there for a while as Maya just held me, silently reassuring me that everything was going to be okay.

"Okay, as much as I love having you in my arms I'm going to end up burning the french toast and we only have about forty five minutes until we have to leave," I said, placing a kiss on Maya's lips. We finished cooking our breakfast together and took our time enjoying our meal before making our way to the car.

It took us about twenty minutes to get to the group home. Maya and I had sat in complete silence most of the drive, only exchanging small smiles and touches providing reassurance and comfort for one another. We had just pulled into a parking spot when Maya suddenly broke our deafening silence, "Shit!"  she screamed.

"What?!" I responded, jumping a little.

"I left the Spiderman on the kitchen island,"

"Maya, that was your only job!" I said, slight irritation in my voice, " please tell me you're joking,"

"Of course I'm kidding," she said, a mischievous smile appearing on her face, " I was just trying to lighten the mood a little bit. Sorry, I should have chosen a better joke. Are you ready?"

"Yea, you really should've. I'm already nervous as it is and that didn't help at all. Yes I'm ready" I responded, still slightly annoyed at Maya's bad joke. We made our way into the facility and were immediately greeted by Angie.

"Hey! It's the Bishop-DeLuca's! How are you ladies?" she said excitedly.

"Nervous but excited," I chuckled.

"That's to be expected. Just so you know, Ezra hasn't been able to stop talking about his visit with you all week, he's very excited. He even enlisted mine and the headmaster's help in picking out the perfect outfit for today," she said, a bright smile on her face. Hearing that was like music to  my ears. He was excited! It was something he really wanted to do and not something that was being forced on him. "Well, I'll let Sister Linda know you've arrived," she said as she made her way to the back office.

"This is really happening," I said, taking both of my wife's hands in mine.

"It is," she said as she placed a soft kiss on my lips, smiling into it.

"Eeeeeeew," we heard as we broke apart. We turned in the direction of the little voice and saw Ezra standing a few feet away from us holding his hands over his eyes. He wore the cutest little red and black plaid flannel along with some jeans and tan boots, which strongly resembled the popular timberland boots.  Maya's cheeks immediately flushed red with embarrassment, not only had we been caught by the little boy but the headmaster as well.

"I'm sorry bambino, it won't happen again," I chuckled.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Maya. Ezra looked up at Sister Linda who just gave him an encouraging smile and nodded in our direction.

"Yes!" he said as he ran over to us, taking both of our hands.

"We will have him back by dinner," I said.