Broken Handcuffs [III]

xx.

It was safe to say that Lana got enough excitement from her work, especially with Nicole and April now having sessions. Whenever Nicole left, she thought about her own life. Nicole was in a bit of a love triangle— scratch that, a love triangle in its rarest form. She loved two women, one of them allegedly attempting to sabotage her life while being the love of it, and the other being the physical enemy and turning into a great ally. It was one of the things you'd never heard about unfolding in reality. Lana was blessed to be a part of the ride and to help both Nicole and April get to their destinations.

The question was: what was she going to do about her own path? Her own journey? Lana was taken out of her thoughts when she heard loud footfalls against the hardwood floors of her foyer. She craned her head back against the couch to see who it was— only three people had a key to let themselves in. She smiled when she saw her son. Getting up, she embraced his bigger, taller form with a happy sigh.

"Hi mom," The nineteen year old boy greeted and hugged her just as tight. "I'm starving," They separated and he grabbed an apple off of the table, taking a bite.

"It's been months since I last saw you, you've gotten so big!" She gushes and pinches his cheeks, making the teen cringe.

"Alright, alright. I missed you too." He playfully slapped her hands away. They both made their way to the kitchen where Lana was checking on the lasagna she had in the oven. "Oh, is that your homemade recipe?"

This made the woman smirk, "What other way to make it?" He cheered and hearing the lock turn again brought their attention to the door.

"I heard my little boy was back home but he doesn't look as little anymore!"

"Ma!" The boy almost left skid marks running to Jennifer and picking her up.

"Hey hey! Easy!" The blonde laughed and was set down. She smiled, "Hey Lana."

Lana nodded her head in good gesture, "Miss Morrison." It made the other woman roll her eyes and they both laughed at the memories. "Where's the little one?"

"Hope is with her great grandma. Jared let me know he was coming back tonight and we haven't had a family dinner in months—"

"You guys stopped when I left?" Jared frowned. "Why?"

Jennifer immediately looked at Lana, green eyes apprehensive and searching for relief when Lana takes the baton, "Well I've been busy with those new clients, and I'm sure Miss Morrison has had her hands full with two children to take care of in Hope and Colin." She playfully jabs at the woman's husband.

"Just because I got a man doesn't mean you have to make fun of him all the time." She shakes her head in mirth.

Lana made a face, "My happy ending isn't a man."

Jared missed this. The moments he was gone on the road, he reminisced to when times were simple, when it was just him and his two moms. Them against the world. Sometimes quite literally. 

"You've never liked Colin, have you?"

"Moms," Jared warned. He knew where this conversation could go without the right steering and didn't want the drama on his first night back. He only got four days with them and wanted to make better memories to take when he went back traveling again. Lana pulled the pan of pasta out of the oven with some tacky oven mitts and placed it on the stove to cool a bit while she set the table. Both Jared and Jennifer fell back into routine easily.