I'm New York City

thirty four

Seeing Sage immediately jump up and run into her father's arms was the most heart warming thing, but I couldn't help but feel a little jealous. I watched as he released kissed her head as she had her whole body wrapped around him, with her face buried into his chest.

"Oh, I missed you so much princess," Joe tells her sweetly, giving me a warm smile.

He basically had to pry Sage off when he came over to me and I melted into his arms. I missed everything about this, his body, scent, and voice.

"Why are you here early? I didn't expect you until a couple weeks?" I ask him, pulling away from our embrace.

"We got a lot done the past couple months, so they decided to start our break early. I didn't waste any time and got on a flight," Joe smiled.

Sage's smile grew even wider, just staring at Joe. Ivy was still at school, so I knew she would be really surprised to see her dad home.

"I missed you so much," Sage tells him once again and wraps her arms around him. I started to feel unsteady. What kind of Mother am I to be jealous of my husband who my children obviously loved more than me?

"Come on, let's let Dad get settled back in and we'll get the cookies out of the oven," I tell Sage.

Joe goes to head upstairs with his bags and Sage follows me into the kitchen. I carefully take the tray of freshly baked chai cookies out of the oven and place them on top of the stove to cool off.

"Wanna try one?" I ask her, carefully blowing a cookie that I broke in half.

Sage nodded her head as I gave her a small piece, knowing she wasn't so fond of this flavor.

"Mmm, perfect!" I exclaim.

Sage giggles, shaking her head as she dusts her hands off and washes her hands. Soon enough, Joe comes back downstairs with a bag in his hand. I already knew that it was gifts.

"What's that?" Sage asks as Joe sets the bag down on the kitchen table.

"Why don't you take a look?" Joe smirks.

Sage digs through the bag, slowly pulling out a box of shoes. Sage looks absolutely shocked when she looks at the box and then back at Joe.

"No way,"

Sage opens the box to new pink and white Adidas Sambas. She gasps, taking the shoes out of the box and basically holds it like holy grail.

"Would that go perfectly with your collection?" Joe asks making Sage immediately nod her head. I chuckle at how excited she was.

"Now there's something in there for your mom too," Joe says pointing to the bag again.

Sage looks and me and pushes the bag towards me. I wasn't really expecting anything, nor did I ask for anything. I pulled out a small box from Pandora, looking at Joe confused. I already have a necklace that he gave me with his initial on it.

When I opened the box, it revealed a beautiful gold bracelet with the initials 'S' and 'I' dangling from it. My hand flew to my mouth as I gasped at how insanely gorgeous it was.

"Oh, Joe," I whisper, putting the bracelet on. It fit perfectly and I already knew that I'd be wearing it everyday.

"You already have a piece of jewelry with my initial and I know you have many for the girls, but this is identical to mine," he smiled, giving me a kiss on the lips.

I didn't think it was possible to love this man as much as I do now. Sage tried on her new shoes and they fit her perfectly. Ivy also got a new pair of shoes, but in the color blue. There were still a couple hours before Ivy comes home from school, which meant it was Dad and Sage time. 

There really wasn't much to do today since Joe had come home all of the sudden. Joe and Sage laid on the couch watching Disney movies on replay while I started on dinner. Ivy didn't have any activities after school today, so I'm expecting her to come home right after her classes. 

"Hey," Joe says from behind me. I basically melted into his touch and he wrapped his arms around me. 

"I missed you, so much," I whisper.

"I missed you even more than you could imagine," he says back.

"What's got our daughter so happy today? I would like to think that it's because of me, but she's been on her phone a lot constantly," he asks.

I shake my head, "Oh god, I don't even know. She's been like that for a couple days now. I honestly feel like she's talking to a boy... she told me she's talking to her friends, but she's never acted like this before. She even asked me when I had my first boyfriend!" I explain to him.

I watch as Joe's facial expressions change, getting curious by the moment. 

"A boy? From where?" Joe asks in an annoyed tone.

There has only been so many boys in Sage's life around her age and I had a good feeling that it was the boy from James' birthday party. Knowing that he slept over there too made me even more irritated.

"One of James' friends. They met at the birthday party," I tell him.

"I don't like this," he smirks against my neck.

"You think I do? I absolutely hate this. I don't know the kid, they met once, she isn't allowed to go out without me now," I chuckle out.

We hear the front door open and then slam shut. "I'm home!" Ivy yells, making me hold back my laughter. 

We hear footsteps running towards the living room and watch as she basically jumps onto her older sister who pushes her off.

"Cuddle time!" Ivy yells.

"Ew, no! Mom! Dad!" Sage yells, making Ivy turn around.

"Daddy!" Ivy screams, running towards the kitchen.

Joe bends down, opening his arms to Ivy who jumps into them. She basically squirms from joy as she engulfs him into the bigger hug. 

"Well, that was quite the entrance," Joe laughs.

I shake my head, he doesn't even know. This is basically Ivy's routine every time she comes home from school and her first mission is to annoy Sage.