You Have To Choose

Chapter 29

—————————- 10 years later ————-–————
I woke up to the sun shining brightly through the window, sitting up and stretching, looking at the empty spot beside me in the white bed. I looked towards the window, where the view of New York's skyline was staring back at me. I slowly arose, clad in a large t shirt, and padded slowly to the kitchen, where the delicious smell of breakfast was wafting from.

"Good morning, beautiful."

I smiled brightly at the man who stood before me, leaning against the counter with his strong arms crossed.

"Good morning," I leaned in to kiss him softly, "making breakfast?"

"Chocolate chip pancakes, your favorite," he smiled and pulled me against his chest.

"I love you," I muttered.

"I love you more."

The soft sound of crying from the bedroom caused me to back up and begin towards it.

"Nope," he muttered grabbing my shoulders and turning me towards the kitchen table, "relax and drink your coffee," he gestured towards the cup he laid on the table for me, "I'll get her."

I smiled and sat down, sipping my coffee, and moments later he wandered in with our 1-year-old daughter, Abbie cradled in his arms, smiling at her father and holding onto his finger tightly.

He walked slowly over to the framed picture on the wall that Abbie was gazing at.

"You like that? Those are my best friends from when I was younger," he smiled at the photo taken of all of us at the sandlot, holding our baseball mitts in our hands, "that's your mommy, Bertram, Ham, Kenny, Timmy, Tommy, Smalls, Squints," he took the time to point at every person in the photo.

"There's Benny, Aunt Ally, and daddy," he finished and Abbie smiled at him.

"But we actually called him Yeah-yeah," I said, walking up beside Alan and brushing my hand gently over Abbies soft hair.

"Yah yah," Abbie said in a giggly voice, and Alan and I raised our eyebrows and smiled widely at each other.

"Baby! That's your first word," Alan exclaimed happily kissing her forehead as she giggled. I pulled both of them in for a hug and kissed Alan gently on the cheek.

We all began to eat our pancakes and I looked around at the life we'd made with a smile.

"This feels like the perfect moment, I love being here together," I muttered and smiled at Alan and glanced at Abbie, whose face was adorably messy with chocolate chip pancakes.

Alan smiled at me and reached his hand out to put on top of mine, while the other rested on Abbies blonde hair, "I love you both with all I have, all I am, all I'll be, and all I ever was."