2022 WATTYS SHORTLISTED || After being forced into a marriage by her devoutly religious parents, Aspen's husband is diagnosed with a life-limiting illness, and she must find her purpose as well as fight feelings for her husband's nurse. || Aspen Wat...
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"Ick! Ick!"
His chubby cheeks are red, and he's rubbing his eyes. The poor little guy is exhausted, and no wonder. He's half an hour past his usual nap time, and though he doesn't know it, he's just met his biological mum for the first time since he was born.
"You're tired, little man. Mummy will take you home for a nap, okay? I'll see you tomorrow," I tell him before putting him in Mum's car.
"Kiss, Ick!" He reaches out, so I lean down. He gives me a slobbery, toddler kiss with an exaggerated mwah and a smack of the lips. Before Gabriel, I'd say it's gross and disgusting and something only Georgie used to do. After she was born, she was everything. Then she died, and I never wanted to see another child again. In fact, I swore off having my own because I didn't want to have one and have him or her suffer as my sweet baby sister did. As a toddler, she'd leave me with slobber after chasing me for a kiss, leave dribble all down me after she'd fall asleep in my arms, or as a baby when Mum would let me feed her once in a while, she'd puke up on me and leave me smelling like baby milk.
It was smells that would both fill me with pride and leave me paralysed after she died. Mum fostered one other baby in the time between her and Gabriel, and I hated it. But then Gabriel came to live with them, and we all fell in love. The smell, the toddler kisses, the grins and laughs and the way he eats his toes is so cute.
I wonder if subconsciously I knew; if somehow I knew his biological family would be important to me one day.
"She's amazing," Mum says as I stand up from the car. "Took that in her stride. Look out for her now; she'll probably react."
"I know. Are you sure about tomorrow?" I ask.
She grins. "Nicholas... Georgie would welcome it. You know she would. Something good can come out of tomorrow, and I'm excited. The ring is gorgeous, by the way. That's even if you make it until tomorrow before you propose. I know you, my son, and you'll probably do it tonight."
A grin dances on my face. "I don't know yet. It's gotta be the perfect moment."
"Your father proposed to me while he was cooking a roast dinner. The gravy burnt to the saucepan because he decided to do it midway through cooking, the idiot. He's bought me a bouquet of sunflowers an hour before, and he told me he kept looking at them while he was cooking and got inspired."
I snort. "Of course he did."
Mum shrugs. "The right moment will strike you. If you think this—" She points to Gabriel, who's now fallen asleep in his car seat, with his bear over his face. "Will make things worse, then I don't think it will. She just... thrived. It'll be weird when he gets older and we have to deal with it, but by then you'll both be married, and it won't matter. We can work with this. In fact, I kinda like it. It's quirky. Georgina would love it, wouldn't she?"
