In years gone by, Troye and I would have gone to a party or watched the midnight fireworks in the city. But this year, we turned down all party invitations and made no plans to go to the city. Instead, we decided to stay home and have a quiet night together with Riley.
"I can hardly believe we're about to start a new year." Troye sighed, curling up beside me on the sofa. I wrapped an arm around him and pressed my lips to his temple.
"Mm. It means Riley's birthday is coming up. And our three-year anniversary." I agreed. We fell silent for a moment, the only sounds in the room being the crackling of the fire and Riley's slow breathing as she slept peacefully nearby.
"I love you, Connor." He muttered after a while, his hand coming to rest on my chest, right over my heart. "I can feel your heart telling me that you love me."
"You're such a sap sometimes." I replied with a laugh, pulling him to sit on my lap, his legs on either side of mine.
"Only for you." He promised, connecting our lips in a kiss more passionate than we'd shared in a while. His hands, which had been resting innocently on my waist, began to snake under my sweater and dance dangerously low on the skin of my lower back. I laughed into the kiss as my own hands rubbed up and down his thighs.
"As much as I love where you're going with this, Troye, our daughter is sleeping right there." I whispered against his lips and he pulled back with a groan, looking over towards Riley.
"I can't wait until she's old enough to leave her alone for a while. I need some time with my husband."
"Don't say that. I don't want her to ever grow up. I want her to stay our little girl forever."
"No matter how old she is, she'll always be our little girl. Our sweet angel. Our princess." I opened my mouth to reply just as the doorbell rang. Unfortunately, the unexpected sound woke Riley who started to cry. Troye climbed off of me and went to pick her up, leaving me to answer the door. I pulled the door open to reveal our neighbour's son, Mike, standing on the porch, his coat pulled close around him to keep the cold out.
"Hey, Mike. Come inside, it's freezing out there." I said, shivering myself when a cold wind blew through the door, watching as he kicked off his snow-covered shoes and stepped inside. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm sorry if I woke up Riley." He replied, his face falling as he heard her cries. Mike was a wonderful kid, recently eighteen and the kind of boy every parent would be happy for their daughter (or son) to bring home.
"It's fine. She was due to wake up any minute anyway." I jumped when Troye spoke from directly behind me. I hadn't heard him move.
"Oh. Okay. Um, I was actually coming over to kind of talk about her." Mike said and I frowned. "Nothing bad. It's just that I'm about to head over to a friend's place a few streets over and I know they've got fireworks to set off. I wasn't sure how Riley is with loud noises and stuff since it's her first New Years and there's going to be fireworks close by."
"That's very thoughtful of you." I told him with a smile. "She seemed to be okay on Fourth of July but we weren't near any fireworks then."
"I just figured I'd let you know they'd be close, just in case. And say Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year to you too." Troye agreed as Mike reached towards Riley carefully and slowly.
"Hey pretty girl." He laughed as Riley grabbed hold of his finger, bringing it up towards her mouth.
"Riley! No!" Troye scolded when he realised what she was doing and pulled Mike's finger from her grip, causing the boy to frown in confusion.
"What did she do?"
