After a messy divorce, Joe Jonas finds himself lost within the inability to move on with his life. That is, until he unexpectedly starts to feel a love he never thought he'd experience again, let alone with a stranger.
First Installment of Trilogy
We were woken up a little less than two hours later since we officially fell asleep by two screaming angels begging for pancakes. Every time we closed our eyes in an attempt to get some rest, our mouths stayed open in conversation.
"Sounds like we've been summoned," His morning voice croaked out.
I smiled, picking at his curls just because, "Go take a shower to wake up. I'll take care of them."
"No! I want Daddy's pancakes!" Willa protested, jumping on the both of us with no care except when it came to her request.
"I'll make them in a few minutes," he groggily replied, picking her up and laying her down as his little spoon, to which she tried fighting away from his grip in a fit of giggles, "We're just going to take a little nap together first."
"No! Pancakes, Dada!" Delphine chimed in, grasping Joe's arms to try to help her sister escape.
I sat up and placed Delphine in my lap, "C'mon, girls. Why don't you show me all your presents that you opened yesterday?"
Joe let Willa go, sitting up himself as I lowered my legs down until my feet hit the vinyl flooring. He grabbed my arm before I was able to make another step, causing me to turn to him.
"Thank you," he smiled and kissed me, "I appreciate you."
On the way of following the girls out, I grabbed my laptop, keeping my word of looking at therapists today. It was way overdue.
It didn't take long for Joe to appear, freshly dressed for the day with his hair still damp. Willa and Delphine were only halfway done with presenting their Christmas presents when he started preparing pancakes from scratch. He made it easy to be enamored by him.
"Can you do the flip?" Willa asked, running into the kitchen to watch her dad closer with admiration.
"Putting me on the spot, huh?" he grinned before focusing on flipping the pancake flawlessly. Was there anything this man couldn't do?
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I picked up Delphine and stood next to Willa, giving Joe an audience.
He looked up perplexed, "Did I not rub in my moisturizer all the way or something?"
I chuckled, "No, Babe. You're just...you."
"Are you sure? Because you're looking at me the same way when there was dirt on my face," he brought out core memories of when we first met and the field of yellow flowers.
"Which time?" I replied, making him remember who we used to be, who we lost sight of along the way.
He smirked, recalling our past memories as well, "Both."
Seeing how he was almost done stacking a few pancakes on two plates, I grabbed Delphine's highchair and placed her in it at the table after planting a kiss on his lips. Willa took a seat next to Delphine, eager for breakfast.
I didn't blame her. I knew I would be begging him to make some for me once they were served, smelling the sweet syrup dripping on top of the fluffy cooked batter.
"I already know," he stated, giving me a wink as he put the plates in front of them, "Yours are coming up next."
"You know your food is my love language," I responded, grabbing my laptop from the living room and opened it up at the dining table after taking a seat across from Willa, leaving a seat in between Delphine and I for Joe.
"Any catch your eye?" he asked, glancing at my screen as he sat down with two more plates of stacked pancakes.
I sighed, "I don't know. I forgot how awful therapy hunting is."
"You can always request for those free fifteen-minute phone consultations beforehand to see if it's a possible good fit," he advised, taking a bite off his fork, "Hey, off-topic for a second, but you still have a Christmas gift waiting for you."
"I thought you said you needed to add a last-minute touch?" I questioned.
"I did," he answered, "When you fell asleep, I took that as an opportunity to finish it."
"Wait, I thought you fell asleep with me!" I exclaimed, "When did you go to sleep?"
"I didn't," he chuckled, taking a USB out of the pocket of his jacket, "Here. Perfect time to have your laptop already open."
I deliberately took it out of his hand, surprised I hadn't heard him get up but also feeling awful that he pulled an all-nighter for me. Once I plugged it in the side of my laptop, I clicked on the icon that had popped up, seeing a bunch of audio files titled with numbers, "What's with the numbers?"
"They're dates," he explained, "I wrote a song for you on days I felt myself continue to fall deeper in love with you. Each one is titled as that specific date."
"Joe," I slightly pouted my lip, melting in a puddle of sentiment, "In love with me?"
"I am," he bashfully smiled, "I'm in love with you, Taylor Lynn Baird."
Keeping it PG, I moved a few pieces of his hair as he stared at me with his golden eyes in amorousness. My hand moved to the side of his neck, locking my lips with his, "I'm in love with you, Joseph Adam Jonas."
I went to click on the first track, the date being the first time we met on the trail, before Willa yelled out in a sing-song voice, drawing out the last word, "Daddy's in love!"
Joe stifled a laugh, sounding more like a gasp of air being expelled from his nose for a split second, "There is one track that includes the girls. I'm honestly surprised they were able to keep it a secret from you for this long."
"I already know it's going to be on repeat," I replied, antsy to hear this album he put together just for me, all about me. About us.
Hearing the first few seconds of the ballad, my phone buzzed, a notification text from Liv popping up. "Ugh. Sorry," I groaned, pausing the song, "I forgot to tell you. Liv got admitted in the hospital yesterday. She said she'd text me when she was discharged so we could head on over to her parents' house."
"Is she okay?" he asked, concern filling his expression.
Reading the text, I responded to Joe, "She wouldn't be waiting for her discharge papers if she wasn't. They're going to up her dosage and go from there."
"Did you ever open her Christmas present?" he reminded me.
"Oh shit—shoot! Shoot!" I corrected myself, "No, I completely forgot. Hold on, let me go get that real quick so I can finally have time to be wooed some more."
Joe started to clean up the dining table, letting the girls waddle back into the living room surrounded by all their toys they were showing off earlier to me, while I grabbed Liv's gift and brought it out with me to the couch.
I casually moved around the green and red crinkle paper, peeking at what was inside before rapidly covering it back up, "Actually, I think it'll be better if I open it in front of her. It's more personal, you know?"
"I get that," he said from the kitchen, "I'll get the girls changed in a minute while you get ready and then we can head out."
"No, no," I opposed, "How about this, you get some sleep and I'll go myself. It's not that big of a deal."
"Are you sure?" he walked up to me, his hands at my waist, "I'm okay. It's nothing I haven't handled before."
"I'm sure," I grinned, wrapping my arms around his neck, "Plus, today's your last day with them before they fly back to London."
"You're coming back later, right?" he asked, his mind still not entirely at ease with me leaving.
"I promise," I stated, putting out my pinky to interlock with his as we kissed our thumbs, pressing them together to seal my promise. It might have been cliché, but it was our thing.
