Elijah pulled into the parking lot of JumpZone and quickly found a parking spot. Nova excitedly unbuckled her seatbelt and looked at the window. Her smile was wide as she looked at the big colorful building.
"Ooh what's that Eli?" Nova asked as soon as Kimberly opened her door so that she could get out. She had grown comfortable with him and preferred to call him Eli since it was easier for her to pronounce.
"I can't tell you, it's a surprise." He replied playfully making Nova frown.
"But it's not my birthday.." she said with a confused frown. Elijah laughed and agreed with her.
"It's not your birthday but it's still a surprise." Elijah couldn't think of anything else to say. "I think you are gonna like it." He added.
Nova excitedly grabbed ahold of her mothers hand. Elijah walked on the other side of Nova towards the big building. With big bold letter saying DEFY. It was a big building full of trampolines. Nova couldn't conceal how happy she was. She bounced up in down as they made it to the door. Kim's face matched her daughters happiness as she looked from Elijah to her daughter. A feeling of content flowed through her.
Never had a man showed so much care for her daughter.. not even Nova's father. Every now and then, the bum would pop up to see who Kimberly was dating, never really care to check on how his daughter was doing. Well.. he doesn't know where I stay, so I won't be getting a pop up from him any time soon.. Kimberly thought to herself.
"Ooh I want to jump in there!" Nova exclaimed excitement buzzing through her. Kimberly snapped back to reality and saw Elijah putting a purple wristband around Nova's little arm as she pointed towards a pit full of foam cubes and spheres. Elijah passed a wristband over to Kimberly.
"Why do we have one?" Kimberly questioned as she looked at the wrist band as if it was foreign.
Elijah smirked, "because we are jumping with Nova." He replied watching as Kimberly eyes grew wide. She immediately shook her head.
"Oh no, I'm too big to be jumping on trampolines, I might break a leg or something." She replied with a nervous chuckle.
"What? That's not fair, you have to participate." Elijah says. "Tell her Nova." He looked down at Nova as she looked up at her mother with pouty lips.
"We on a date mommy! You have to jump with us! Don't be a pooper!" Nova responded, grabbing ahold of her mother's hand with pleading eyes.
Kimberly rolled her eyes playfully, "fine! But only for a little while.." she replied as Nova jumped up and down.
"Yes! Now let's go over there!" Nova pointed before taking off in the direction of her destination. She was too excited to wait on her mother or Elijah. Thankfully, they were able to keep up with her although it being a little crowded. Elijah held on to Kimberly as he guided her towards Nova.
"Nova, you need to slow down." Kimberly said once she saw Nova climbing onto a trampoline.
Nova only nodded her head as she bounced up and down, tossing her hands up in the air. "Watch this mommy!" She yelled before jumping into the pit of foam shapes. The two of the heard her giggles as she flopped down. "Your turn Eli!" She pointed at him with mischievous smile. They had already taken off their shoes before entering so Elijah did followed Nova's commanded and jumped in.
Nova picked up a cube and tossed it at Elijah's head. "Hey! Who threw that?" Elijah wondered playfully. "Was it you?" He pointed at Kimberly who only laughed. "Or you?" He pointed at Nova with a raised brow.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She shrugged her shoulders carelessly. Kimberly giggled as she watched Elijah throw a cube back at Nova who was trying to get out of the pit to jump again. The force of the cube knocked her over making Elijah cover his mouth in shock.
"Oh shit— shoot, I mean." Elijah quickly corrected himself as he looked over at Kimberly to see her bent over laughing while slapping her knee, Elijah chuckled as he looked back at Nova. "I'm sorry Nova—" before he could finish his sentence another foam cube smacked him square in the face, knocking him backwards.
Kimberly and Nova's laughs could be heard as he recovered from being smacked. "Oh? So, y'all double teaming?" He asked, crawling his way out of the pit of shapes.
"Oh, whatever all you talking about Eli?" Kimberly fake an accent as she tried to hold back her laughter.
"Like mother, like daughter." Elijah stated shaking his head as he realized Kimberly had said the same thing as Nova just a few minutes ago. Walking up to Kimberly, she watched him smile at her, wondering what he was up too.
"What are you—" Elijah pushed Kimberly into the pit then turned to Nova with a sneaky smirk. "Your turn." He replied than ran towards her.
Nova giggled as she ran away from him as fast as her little feet would carry her. Of course she wasn't as fast as Elijah, within seconds he had her in his hands and tossed her inside the pit with her mother who sat watching the whole scene play out in front of her. Her face hurt so bad from smiling so hard all day. She was feeling blissful. Words couldn't express how happy she was.
To see her daughter having fun, and full of life was heartwarming. And Elijah.. he was amazing. Her feelings for Elijah blossomed before her eyes and she didn't even realize it.
The three of them played tag, and did some flips on the trampoline for awhile before Kimberly and Elijah took a break and watched Nova bounce around. "I never knew jumping on trampoline would be this fun.." Kimberly said chuckling under her breath.
"You never jumped on one?" Elijah asked putting his attention on Kimberly. She took her eyes off Nova for a second to gaze at Elijah before looking back at her daughter.
"I've never really did anything other than go to a park.." Kimberly shrugged her shoulders. "This is.. my first experience at anything fun as a kid, honestly." Kim confessed.
"What about prom? Or the school dance?" Elijah questioned. Kimberly shook her head with a sad smile. Elijah frowned as questions plagued his mind but he didn't want to intrude.
"I graduated thankfully with good grades, my attendance wasn't so good though, I wasn't able to attend prom or the school dance because of that.. I didn't want to go anyway considering I was pregnant at the time." Kimberly said.
Elijah nodded his head, taking in the information. "Well.. I'm going to change that." He stated making her attention fall upon him.
"What do you mean by that?" She questioned.
Elijah only shook his head with a smile, a plan was forming in his head as he spoke. "Next Saturday, me and you, be ready by five pm."
She wanted so bad to question what he was planning but another part of her wanted the element of surprise. "Okay," she responded putting her attention back on Nova. She could feel Elijah's eyes still on her but she chose to ignore it.
Realizing he was being a creep, he quickly looked away scratching the back of his neck nervously. The two of them continue small talk as they watched Nova bounce around with another little girl. Conversation flowed effortlessly with them, they told a few stories to one another. Talked about their favorite things and more.
———————
How was the chapter?
Are you liking Kimberly's and Elijah's connection?
Let's not forget about how comfortable Nova is with him and how the two of them bond..😁
