𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖

The first shift after paternity leave.

I sat down on the terrace with my coffee and enjoyed the peace. The house was probably only this quiet in the early morning and late evening hours. Aurora and Leano are the best, but sometimes I wish I had my life back before we had kids. I miss the time together with Kira, I miss being with her without some child suddenly being hungry. Kissing her, cuddling with her, sex. Nevertheless, I love them both more than anything and wouldn't swap them for anything in the world. I sat outside for a while until I heard the door open and Kira stepped out. She was wearing her very short pajamas. She always says she only wears them to breastfeed the babies easily. But I think differently. She was carrying the baby monitor in her other hand. "Good morning, beautiful," she said and sat down next to me. "You're up pretty early, are you nervous?" I'll be honest, I rarely admit it, but yes I am nervous. I started Lucy's education, but now, she's a lot further along than she was then. What if I.. "Stop it," Kira said, playfully punching my arm, "you're thinking too much. You're Tim Bradford, come on, give yourself some self-respect" I smiled. Kira has always been a very positive person and that's one thing I love about her, but I also know that she struggles with self-doubt herself. She just doesn't always show it and likes to bottle it up until she breaks down. I pulled Kira closer to me and enjoyed the time with her. After a while, Kira took out her phone and typed furiously on it. "Is everything okay?" I asked. "Did you know that Nolan bought the house that's standing empty at the back of our street?" I scooted away from Kira a little to get a better look at her and raised my eyebrows. "What?" Kira turned her phone around, and I saw the chat from the gossip group from the station. I looked up from Kira's phone, and Kira just shrugged her shoulders. The house had been empty for a very long time. The owners had split up shortly after we moved in and no one could keep the house on their own. "Does Nolan know we live here?" "I don't think so, I mean where," Kira said and leaned against me again. "I don't know how I feel about it, I mean Nolan's ok, but he talks a lot and I like to separate personal life from work, and if I have to see Nolan every day now, I don't know." "I understand, but Nolan has a right to live there, there's nothing we can do. Besides, look on the bright side, date night and Nolan looks after the kids," she said proudly. "Okay, point taken."

We enjoyed a few more minutes of quiet until I had to get ready. "Are you coming to take a shower?" I asked with a mischievous smile. She was just about to answer when noises came from the baby monitor. She looked at me apologetically and said, "Tonight I'm all yours," she said and kissed me on the lips and disappeared into the house. I got ready and enjoyed my time in the shower, then got dressed and packed my bag. I went into the kitchen and saw Kira swaying to the children's music playing with Aurora in her arms. As it was still quite early, and it's the middle of December, the Christmas tree that Kira and I decorated last week lit up the room on its own. I'll be honest, Kira has to convince me to decorate the Christmas tree every year, but it gets easier every year. The sentence "It's our children's first Christmas" was enough, and the sparkle in their eyes was unforgettable. I can't even believe that both babies are almost 2 months old now. They still sleep a lot, but are already super active, looking around, starting to recognize our voices, I'm looking forward to when they both start crawling and walking.