No Place Like Us || e.d.

- 29 -

Nikki's POV

The following morning, I walked into my room and saw Ethan and Alissa snuggled up together.

"Ethan, I– never mind."

I quietly got ready for the day. I saw Jason running in and I picked him up before he jumped onto the bed.

"Let your sister and daddy sleep okay? We're gonna go buy stuff to make food for them." I kissed his cheek. I got Jason out of his pjs and we were off to buy breakfast ingredients.

"What do you want to eat today?" I placed him in the toddler seat.

"Pancakes." he said excitedly.

I don't even know why I asked if I already knew what the answer was going to be.

"What kind of pancakes?"

"Can you put chocolate chips in it and then put strawberries on the top?"

I grabbed some whipped cream, paid for everything, and went home.

"Do you want to help mommy cook?" I carried the food in. He nodded.

"Can we eat waffles instead? Uncle Grayson said he got us a waffle maker."

"Well okay."

I grabbed one of the step stools and had him put ingredients in the bowl.

"Can I pour it into the pan?"

"How bout you put the syrup and whipped cream on the table for me."

"Okay. Can I take the strawberries?"

I washed the strawberries, handed him the basket, and he took it to the table. I turned around to grab some plates and caught him munching on some strawberries.

I took out forks for all of us and two knives for Ethan and I.

A few minutes later, I saw Alissa run out of the room and into the kitchen, followed by Ethan.

"Did you brush your teeth yet?" I asked her.

She nodded.

He walked over to me and gave me a kiss.

"Good morning." he smiled.

"Good morning."

"Did you guys go somewhere? Why is Jason all dressed up?"

"We went out to get ingredients for the waffles. I didn't know we had a waffle maker until Jason pointed it out. Apparently Grayson got it for us."

"He didn't want pancakes?"

"He did at first, but then he changed his mind."

"I want some strawberries too!" Alissa yelled.

"These are for me!" Jason argued.

"Hey hey hey. We're all going to share the strawberries okay? These are for all of us." Ethan walked over to them.

"J, how many do you want?" I asked.

He held up two fingers.

"What about you, Lissa?"

She held up two fingers as well.

"And I'm assuming you want three." I looked at Ethan.

"Wow you know me so well."

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes.

"I have practice today, but when I get back we can do some family stuff or something."

"You're gonna need rest."

"It's only gonna be two and a half hours."

"'Only'."

"Daddy are you leaving us today?" Alissa asked.

"Only for a few hours okay?"

"Promise?" she held out her pinky.

"I promise." they intertwined their pinkies as I brought their plates over and sat down.

"Mommy knows how much whipped cream and syrup I want." Jason and Alissa said.

"It's not much, I'll demonstrate one of them and then you can handle the other child."

Ethan's POV

"Now it's your turn." she handed me the whipped cream and syrup. "What a natural."

"Learned from the best."

She turned around and made our waffles.

"Did you keep the same diet you had while you were pregnant?"

"I got off track a few times. I still worked out every now and then. But don't worry, I made sure the doctor cleared me to workout. I lightened my reps until she said I can't workout for the rest of the pregnancy."

"Oh."

"Maintaining my diet wasn't too bad. I mean there were weeks where I had like 5 cheat days a week but you know. Gotta do what you gotta do to satisfy your needs."

"But they were in the womb."

"It's what we call 'cravings'."

"I didn't sign up to be attacked"

"But you– What time is your practice?"

"12-2."

"It's 10."

"I have two hours."

"What'd you wanna do when you get home?"

"First I wanna shower and rest up for a bit. Then maybe we can take the kids to the movies or something?"

"Down."

"Is there anything you kids wanna do?"

"Can we go to grandma's?" Alissa asked as she took a bite of her waffle.

"I'll meet you at my mom's later today then."

"Sounds good to me."

Nikki's POV

About half an hour after Ethan left, I got a call from one of his teammates saying he got injured. So I dropped the kids off at my mom's and headed over there to go make sure everything was okay.

He seemed fine when I got there, but I stayed lingering for a little, just in case.

"Heard you got a girl now Dolan."

I don't think this conversation's gonna go very well.