Stolen Moments of Love

Noah

"Good night," I whisper and disappear into my house. It's the same ending that has been happening for weeks, he walks me to the front porch, kisses me good night and expects me to let him in. I won't though and it's not because I don't like him or because I don't want him to come in, it's because I'm scared of his reaction to what he will find.

First, he'd see little shoes all over the entryway, then he'd walk further into the house and see toys scattered all over the floor. Finally, he'd see pictures of a little boy on almost every wall, this would lead to him asking about who that little boy is. This would lead to me telling him that that little boys name is AJ (short for Avery James), my adorable three year old son. Which would be terribly awkward considering he doesn't know I have an adorable three year old son.

I step out of my shoes and take my jacket off, I move to go to the kitchen when there's a knock at the door. I rush to open it, thinking it's my mother dropping AJ off, "Hey, AJ, how was.." the rest of my sentence trails off when I see it's Noah, not AJ.

His face scrunches realizing I said another guys name, his green eyes looking angry and hurt, "Who the fuck is AJ?"

"Um, hey No, what're you still doing here?" I ask confusedly.

"Well I started to leave but then I came back to ask why I never make it past your front porch but I guess I know why now," he spits out, turning to leave again.

I reach out and grab his arm, he shrugs off my touch but doesn't move any further off the porch, "Noah, it's honestly not what you think, I swear," as I talk I see my mothers silver SUV pull into my driveway, "and if you wait a few minutes you can meet him yourself."

I move past him and sigh as I walk out to get my son, this was definitely not the way I planned to tell him but my life hasn't exactly been going as planned for awhile now so it doesn't really surprise me. I open the back door of my moms car and start to unbuckle my sleeping son from his car seat, "Hey Ma, how was he?"

"An angel as always, you know I love my grandbaby."

"I know you let him get away with murder," I mumble as I open the last buckle on his car seat and carefully maneuver his resting body out of the car and into my arms. His face is pressed against my shoulder and his soft weight balancing on my hip feels right at home.

My mom practically has her face pressed against the glass when she says, "Is that your handsome man I see over there?"

"Yeah, much to my dismay, bye, Ma, see you soon." I close the door and see her wave before backing out the driveway.

With that I walk toward my front door and toward uncertainty, I meet Noahs' questioning stare but continue past him, open the door and walk in. I turn around when I don't hear his steps following, "Well are ya comin'?"

He moves to enter the house, pausing briefly before fully coming in and shutting the door behind him. I watch him take in everything in, from the messy little boy things to the pictures on the wall, "Excuse me for a moment, I'm gonna go lay him down, I'll be right back then we can talk."

He nods once and I navigate my way to AJ's room, its a cute room designed solely by me. Painted a light green and decorated to a jungle theme, its perfect for a little boy that loves animals. I lay him down on his bed, smooth the hair off his forehead and kiss his cheek. I linger in the doorway watching him a moment longer, savoring the peacefulness of a resting baby before I walk out.

I find Noah still standing in the hallway, his back is to me, he's staring at a photo collage of AJ, the biggest picture is my favorite. It's of AJ on his first birthday, cake is everywhere and he couldn't look more proud of himself, a big cake covered grin on his little face.

I'm startled when Noah speaks first, "You could've told me ya know," he turns around to look me in the eyes, "It's not like I would've wanted to stop seeing you, I love kids, you know that."

I study the carpet at my feet, noticing that I probably need to vacuum, before I speak up, "I know but there's a difference between 'I love kids' and 'I don't mind dating a girl who has a kid', it's not really fair to ask you to stay, to understand that he will always come first but that doesn't mean you're not important too. It's not fair that when you spend the night you'll be woke up at early as fuck o'clock by a small body jumping on the bed. It's not fair to you and that's why I didn't tell you. I didn't want to lose you." As I talked one lone tear made it's way down my face.

Another pair of feet come into my space and his steady hands reach out to grab my own shaking ones. I finally look into his eyes, "Valarie, I like you. A lot. The more I get to know you, the more I start to realize I'm falling for you. And this? I swear this makes me love you more."

His hands are still holding mine steady but my heart beats wildly out of my chest. The words 'love you more' echo around in my brain. He loves me... and as I stare into his eyes, I cant help but feel stupid because there it is, plain as day all over his face.

"Noah, I'm falling for you too and I want this more than anything, but I need you to understand that this won't be like dating another girl, it's like you're dating me and AJ. We're a package deal."

"I know you are, Val, I want you and everything that comes with you."

With those sweet words I stand on my tip toes and place a single closed mouth kiss to his lips, I rock back onto the soles of my feet and grin up at him, "So, want a tour of the house? You can meet AJ when he wakes up from his nap."

"Oh, I would love that and I definitely want to see your room, maybe even your bed," His eyebrows raise suggestively as he smirks. I roll my eyes knowing we wouldn't be getting up to anything because a napping three year old is only a room away.

I turn to walk back toward my room anyway and don't have to look back to know he's following close behind, I know after today he'll always follow me, no matter where we go.