LENNOX ▸ RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK

FORTY-FOUR • REKINDLE

When Lenny, Ruben and their now one, gigantic family returned back to England, their lives got hectic again. And even though all the work had started up again, it seemed as though everything in their lives was coming together and falling right into place.

Lenny had extended her contract with the Royal Opera House for the next four years, at least. She had already agreed to do Sleeping Beauty, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carmen, and The Nutcracker.

Ruben was back at Cobham, getting physical therapy for his injury, trying to build his muscles back up again. He was, in fact, meant to extend his own Chelsea contract until the year 2024. He was so ecstatic when he got the news and, in turn, passed his excitement to Lenny, who jumped up and down and prompted the idea of throwing a party in celebration after he signed his contract. In retrospect, that wasn't the greatest idea because she ran right to the bathroom to throw up, cursing herself out for jumping up and down right after she'd had a big lunch.

In the next few days, Ruben, his agent and lawyers remastered his extension contract for the next five years, before finally coming to a conclusion both parties were happy with.

And here they were now at Stamford Bridge, with Ruben's siblings and parents, celebrating his contract  extension signing. For the special day, Lenny found the prettiest pink dress in her closet, making sure she was dressed to the nines.

lennyloftuscheek: yes today is ruben's special day but can we pls take a minute to acknowledge that I clean up n i c e

She walked arm-in-arm with Lavinia towards one of the interview stations, ready for Ruben's photo-op as he signed his extension. The two girls gathered in the best seats in the house to watch Ruben officially sign, with their loud and dysfunctional family of eight others around them. Ruben had invited not only his immediate family but also Lenny's, Jess included.

Now, here the ten of them sat, some playfully bickering with others and the parents proudly taking pictures of Ruben as he sat down at the interview table, Chelsea's head lawyer beside him. She walked him through the contract, urging him to sign where needed and in less than ten minutes, Ruben was a Chelsea boy for at least five more years.

His family hooted and hollered as he finished signing, livening up the conference room and making Ruben himself smile proudly. The photographers had the family walk outside onto the pitch itself, snapping photos of the family as they celebrated this momentous occasion.

"This is cool and all," Lenny started as she stood with Ruben on the sidelines, hand-in-hand, watching Lavinia and Isaac chase each other around. "But the party's gonna be better."

Ruben chuckled, pulling his wife under his arm and kissing her forehead. "I can't wait, babes."

That evening, Lenny ended up being a woman of her word, and she threw the best party Ruben could've imagined for his contract extension. She invited the Chelsea boys, hometown and childhood friends, Ruben's extended family—the works. And they all spent the night celebrating Ruben and all the hard work he'd done to get to such a place at Chelsea.

Lennox was sitting beside his mum and hers when she decided to tell them about the big surprise she had for Ruben tonight. Both mums excitedly hugged Lennox as tight as they could, reassuring her that he would love the present. She told Isaac and Lavinia about it, watching on as they both squealed—it was quite a sight for Lenny to see Isaac squeal—and squeeze her hand, telling her Ruben would love it.

So, at the end of the night, when the party came to an end and all the guests had gone, Ruben and Lennox could be seen resting tiredly on their couch. Lenny's eyes fluttered shut as her hand blindly found Ruben's and held onto it tightly.

"I could sleep for days," Ruben groaned, pulling his wife and resting easier with the comfort of her familiar weight on top of his body. His eyelids followed suit with Lenny's and fluttered shut, both parties absolutely exhausted by entertaining people for the last several hours. Luckily, their rather large family had stuck around to help them clean up afterwards, leaving the house spotless for the night; everyone knew it was Lenny's pet peeve and she couldn't go to sleep with dirty dishes in the sink or the trash not taken out.

As they laid together, a long silence enveloping them and Ruben put on some relaxing hip-hop music on their surround-sound speakers. "That's better," he mumbled against Lenny's hair, hugging her closer as he found himself to be the most content he'd ever been.

Lenny thought this would be the perfect time to give him his present so she slyly reached around the side of the couch, grabbed hold of the bag and pulled it into view.

She leaned away from Ruben, straddling his lap as she showed him the gift bag. "I got you a present."

His eyes widened in shock and excitement. "What? Baby, you didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. Plus, I didn't really have a choice," she mumbled, shrugging as she told him, "Open it."

Her stomach was practically in knots as she anxiously watched Ruben reach into the bag, only to pull out a baby-sized Chelsea blue Loftus-Cheek jersey.

To her surprise, Ruben laughed. "Is this because I joked about how how tiny you were the other day? Funny, Lenny."

When he saw that Lenny was not joining in his laughter, he stopped, reaching out to caress her thighs. "There's something else in there, too," she told him, palms sweaty as he reached into the beg again with the hand that was not comfortably set on Lenny's bare thigh.

He pulled out a small white stick, which showed two prominent pink lines in it. Ruben's jaw dropped as he looked up at Lenny, immediate tears welling his eyes. "Len... are you serious?"

Lenny, with her own happy tears slowly running down her cheeks, nodded her head. "I'm pregnant," she confirmed. She watched as Ruben reached forward, placing his large hand over Lenny's flat stomach.

"There's a baby in your belly?" Ruben softly asked, waiting until she nodded again; this didn't feel real to him. It felt like a dream, one he hoped never to wake from; he was the happiest he'd ever been.

"There's a baby in my belly," Lenny repeated, watching as Ruben leaned forward and gave her the most passionate and loving kiss of their lives. He was beyond happy.

"I'm gonna be a dad," he said aloud, trying to wrap his head around the fact that Lenny's stomach was growing a small human that was the product of true love, half-him and half-her; this baby was going to be the most loved baby in the world. He picked Lenny up off the floor and twirled her around in a hug. "I'm going to be a dad."

Lennox sighed in content when he put her back down and they laid together on the couch, Ruben clutching Lenny's waist and resting his head against her belly. As her fingers ran through his hair, she snorted a bit.

"What?" Ruben asked, looking up at her.

"I just think it's funny that I told you I'm pregnant the same place and position we were in when you asked me to marry you."

It was true; they had been laid out on the same couch, Lenny on top of Ruben, when he'd asked her to marry him. And now, they'd come full circle as she told him they were going to start a family.

"Guess all those honeymoon practice sessions worked," Ruben added lightly, kissing Lenny's exposed stomach with a smirk on his face.

The couple spent the rest of the night, well into the early hours of the morning discussing possible names for their baby. And as they laid together on the sofa and the sun started to shine through the windows, Lenny found herself to be the luckiest girl in the world.

The luckiest girl with the handsomest boy that she'd been in love with since they were kids for a husband.

The luckiest girl with the handsomest boy whose family was only going to grow in size and love.

She couldn't wait to have the baby.

She couldn't wait to spend the rest of her life loving Ruben and their family, loving her life and loving the odd and random second chance she'd had to rekindle her first love.