Forever and ever 2. The adventure starts now.

Part 9.

Being back in London felt great. Not only were we back together as a family again, but our semi-normal everyday lives had returned as well. Wether it was going to the park, visiting grandparents at the weekend, going for coffee with the girls, or Tom... going to therapy. Yeah, he had started again, or rather continued where he had left off. And I was happy about that. Every time he came back from therapy in the evening, he was always super worn out and extremely exhausted. Those were usually the evenings when he fell asleep in my arms while I massaged his scalp or stroked his back. But I think it did something for him. He seemed stronger during the day. Played with Parker every spare second and brought a smile to his son's lips that no one else could replace. He really was Parkers Hero.

But even after two weeks, Tom and I were still busy unpacking wedding presents and putting the bouquets of flowers we had received all over the house. Can you imagine that we got so many flowers that we now had bees living in our house? I was not a fan of that, and Tom even less so.
"Put another bunch of flowers in my bedroom and I'll throw the stupid flowers in the face of the person who gave them to us." He cursed, watching as I placed another bouquet in a vase full of water. "When did people stop giving real gifts to the wedding couple? Like... an murano glass bowl or- some expensive wine! The main thing is something useful."
"Maybe because not everyone wants to give such an expensive bowl to a couple they barely know. Like this person's flowers, who are Nikolas and Lorry?" I read the names from the small note stuck in the flowers, furrowing my eyebrows.
"My mother's friend's second cousin." He answered, confused himself, then took in the pattern on the cup he was holding. "Don't ask me, I think most of them discreetly put their names on my mother's friends list to be there. And being my mother, she passed the list on to me like this." Made sense. A lot of people came that I didn't know, I just assumed that Tom knew them, but turned out, that wasn't the case. My phone started ringing just as i was putting the flowers next to the tv, but since my phone was on the kitchen island, which i wasn't near, I asked Tom to pick it up.
"Hey, can you get that? I think that's Ciara." I wanted to meet her for a coffee since we only saw each other briefly at Nikki's party last weekend. There was still a lot I wanted to talk to her about. Like the exact details of the honeymoon, she was really keen on that. Or how the meeting with her old school friend was, which she had told me about a few weeks ago.
"Sure!" he called back and picked up the phone for me. "Yellow?" He answered. "Oh no it's Tom here." He let out one weird nervous laugh, and then it became quiet. I wondered what Ciara was telling him that he was listening to in such trepidation, but I would eventually find out myself. I tiptoed back to the island where he was sitting and placed myself next to him. My hand was curiously on his shoulder, trying to make eye contact so he could tell me what Ciara was saying. But instead he shook my gaze off and focused on the bowl of fruit in front of him.
"No Friday at 8 Suits us great!" I frowned. Tom has therapy at this time of day, which might suit me but definitely not him. What did Ciara want?! "Uhu, yeah by-" He stopped in mid-sentence and looked at the display only to see that the person had already hung up before he was able to finish his goodbye.
"So?" He finally turned to me, put my phone aside and gave me one of his desperate smiles, which he only gave me when he had to confess something. Like that one time he spilled flour all over the kitchen trying to make bread and didn't want me to find out. Or that time he threw away Parker's favourite dummy, which led to Parker crying for a fortnight until he got a new favourite dummy.
"Sooo.... great news!" He chuckled, a chuckle that screamed 'Gosh i'm so dead.' "We have a dinner date with your father next friday." My smile disappeared in an instant and was replaced by a serious look of anger as he tried to laugh it off.
"We what?!" My palm hit the marble slab harder than I had intended, causing my husband to flinch slightly under my gaze. "What about your therapy?"
"It only goes until 7:45 pm, I'll manage to be at the restaurant by 8." But I wasn't so sure. Somehow he would manage to not show up on time, leaving me alone with my father.
"Fine! But if you screw up being there on time then-" I was at a loss for words, no punishment came to mind and that made Tom smirk in amusement. He stood up, his body so close he had to bend his head to talk to me.
"Then what, Darling?" He stroked his fingertips provocatively down my arm, thinking he had won when I couldn't think of anything to say and his smirk only widened.
"Then I won't have sex with you for the following month!" I got him with that. His hand fell to his side, disappointed and offended, lips almost wide agape as I walked past him to look for Parker.
"Seriously?" He yelled after me, but I was already in Parker's room, lifting him on my hip while I was putting away the pencils he had been drawing with.
"I'm hungry." Parker's body lay tired in my arms, the children's clock on the wall already showing half past six. I wiped his brown curly hair out of his eyes while I thought about what we could have for dinner.
Unfortunately, I was also a bit tired and didn't feel much like cooking, so it was hard for me to think about any dish.
"Tommy?" I called for him, and not even 5 seconds later he was standing in the doorway, with only the light from the corridor shining at us.
"Yes Darling?"
"Can you cook today? I'm super tired and want to give Parker a bath before he goes to bed." Tom took a few steps towards us and lifted Parker out of my arms to give him a kiss on the cheek.
"Of course I can." and he gave parker another kiss on the forehead before hugging him tightly. Parker by now so tired, he rubbed his eyes and yawned into Tom's arm before leaning his head against his chest, closing his eyes. "Go give him a bath, and when you're done I will be too, yeah?" He was great. So great, I yawned and.... gave him a kiss when I was done before disappearing into the bathroom with Parker.

~
"Pawty!" he cried while I brushed his wet hair back. He was wearing one of his Toy story Woody styled pyjamas but was still trying to reach for his cuddly toy lying on the bed which was 2 metres away from us. So I got it for him and rubbed his skin with moisturiser afterwards.

The house already smelled wonderfully of garlic and roasted vegetables, making me wonder how Tom had managed to achieve a good smell instead of a burnt one since he was a novice at cooking. But when I heard Sam's voice ringing through the kitchen, it became clear. I placed Parker in his chair and then went over to Tom who was mixing the pasta and sauce together. In front of him, leaning against a bottle of oil, was his mobile phone, Sam's face all over the screen, showing his older brother what to do.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and glanced at the Pasta.
"That smells delicious baby." I planted a quick peck on his cheek, letting him know he was doing a great job.
"Oh hey Y/N!" Sam spoke up over the video call, waving a hand at me.
"Hello mr.Holland!" I waved back and smiled broadly, his chef's hat sitting on his head, and apron around his torso like the chef he was.
"Teaching my husband some skills?" I smirked, gave Tom a quick teasingly look.
"Always. I'm glad he at least knows how to cook pasta by now. Took him 22 years." We both giggled, Sam still cooking in his kitchen while Tom rolled his eyes, lifting the pan to give the noodles a shake.
"Alright, enough flirting for today." He interjected.
"Well, bye Sam." I said, not wanting Tom to actually get jealous.
"Bye Y/N!" he gave me another quick wave of the hand, concentrating on his own pan in hand again afterwards.

I grabbed Tom's jaw once more when Sam wasn't looking and gave him a long kiss on the lips. So long, our eyes closed while my tongue devoured the inside of his mouth. Spit already tasting like the sauce he had prepared, knowing he had tasted it. And damn Sam's cooking could make me moan, he was that good. Tom would certainly have dropped the pan if Sam hadn't interrupted us.
"The fuck- ewww! rent a room you pervs!" I stuck my tongue out at Sam, watching him make gagging noises.

Afterwards we had dinner, just the three of us. Calm and with a lot of laughter. And I put Parker to bed while Tom washed the dishes. I know, not very fair where he had already cooked, but he insisted on doing it, knowing I was tired.

But after 15 minutes of caressing Parkers back, my eyes almost fell shut. The orange light of the bedside lamp was quite hypnotic.
"Good night sweetface." I whispered and gave Parker one last kiss on the forehead, thinking he was asleep.
"Don go mommy.." he whispered, holding onto my hand with his one hand, in the other arm, pawty. I couldn't resist his brown googly eyes, nor could I find the strength to fight them. Only 5 more minutes... I told myself. But 5 minutes turned into 10 and after 10 I passed out. Didn't wake up until 20 minutes later, when I felt a shaking underneath me and noticed Tom's muscular arms carrying me up the stairs.
"Thank you..." I murmured, planting a quick kiss on his throat.
He didn't answer, I thought, but was already half asleep again. When he lowered me into the soft bedding and covered me up afterwards, I immediately fell into a deep sleep.

~Posting today since it's the first of december!~