•Blue Moon• /Joshua Bassett\

47

The trip to Australia was beautiful, and we absolutely loved it.

A couple months after we returned, it was Josie's first birthday. She was growing so fast, I never realized how fast time actually passed until I had my own child.

For her birthday, we had a birthday party for her at my mom's house since the apartment was small, and plus we could actually do fun things there.

Joshua and I had put in the offer for the house a few days ago, so now we were just waiting for the confirmation or rejection.

"Happy birthday!" I greeted Josie as I walked into her nursery. She looks up from her blanket in her crib to me, a bright smile appears on her face.

Joshua was still in the shower, but it was time for Josie to wake up for the day. "Good morning, sunshine!" I picked her up from her crib, happy giggles coming from her.

As I exited her room, a mop of damp, curly haired appeared. "Josie! Happy birthday, baby!" Joshua happily exclaims. She smiles up at him as he kisses the top of her head.

The three of us ventured into the kitchen to get her breakfast ready. As she got older, she started liking fruits for breakfast, but also ate some baby cereals.

"I can't believe she's already one." Joshua says as I bounced her in my arms. "Me either. I can't believe one year ago I was in that hospital room." I kissed our daughters cheek, earning a little giggle.

As we talked, Joshua got her breakfast ready with a cup of apple juice. When we do give her Apple juice, she loves it! As Joshua set her breakfast down, I set her in her high chair and sat down beside her. The first thing she does is latch onto her sippy-cup.

While she eats her breakfast, Joshua and I grab our cereals and make small talk while watching the birthday girl. "We should have more." Joshua says out of the blue.

A piece of cereal got stuck in my throat, causing me to choke at his comment. "Maybe in a couple years." I choked out, trying to get the cereal piece to go down my throat. Joshua laughs beside me as it finally goes down my throat. "That's what I meant, baby." Joshua laughs.

•••

After everyone cleaned up, we made our way over to my moms house. When we arrived, everyone was already there. Climbing out of the car, I turned to the back seat and started getting Josie out of her car seat while Josh got her presents from us and the things my mom asked us to bring.

Josie and I follow Joshua into the house to be greeted by everyone.

"There's the birthday girl!" My mom and Laura exclaim as soon as they see her. Josie begins to bounce in my arms as she reaches for her grandmas. Once she was in their arms, I joined Joshua, who was putting things away.

•••

My mom, Laura, and I watched as Joshua talked to his dad and some family friends. His curls were peeking out underneath his backwards baseball cap, a red solo cup in his hand while Joshua had Josie in his other arm.

"I can't believe she's already one." Laura smiles at her son and granddaughter. "Trust me, me either. Crazy to thing I was in the hospital one year ago screaming my head off." I chuckled, taking a sip of my soda. "That day was crazy! When I got that call I swear I broke almost law on the drive there." My mom laughs, earning a few laugh from the rest of us.

"The party arrived! Where's the birthday girl?" Iris exclaims as she bursts into the house. With a loud laugh, I joined her at the door. "She's with Josh. Woah." I laughed, noticing all the gifts in her hands.

"I had to bring her gifts, I'm her aunt anyways." Iris flips her hair dramatically as I helped her with some of the bags. Josie's giggle fills the room, earning my attention. Joshua was bouncing her, and it was the cutest scene.

Smiling, I turned back to Iris. "Can I go steal her?" Iris asks. "Go ahead." I chuckled. She happily cheers and makes her way over to where Josh was standing. Taking a sip of my soda, I watched him hand her over reluctantly but not before kissing her cheek.

•••

Joshua was helping Josie eat her cake as my phone went off. Taking my hand off of his shoulder, I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket and stood off to the side.

"Hello?" I answered the call. "Hello! Is this Angel Bassett?" A female voice rings out. "This is she." I replied, watching my daughter and her father eat cake with family. Cake had always upset my stomach later on, so I opted out.

"This is Rhonda from the realtors. We are calling you to tell you your offer was excepted!" She happily tells me over the phone. "Great! Thank you!" I exclaimed.

After a few more moments of chit-chat, we hung up, letting me return to my family. "Mama! Cake!" Josie happily shows me a clump of cake in her hand, offering it to me. "No thank you, baby. Thank you though." I smiled, brushing loose hairs from her ponytail away from her face. She nods and turns back to her grandma Laura, my mom on the other side.

"Who was that?" I heard Josh ask as I heard the gate open. Glancing up, I saw someone I never expected to show up at a family function. Well, more like a couple people.

It was my grandmother on my fathers side, a couple people from her side of the family following. My favorite cousin on his side was standing right next to my grandma. My uncle, my aunt, their two kids, and of course my other Uncle who was the father of my favorite cousin was following behind.

Ignoring Joshua's question, I hesitantly started to walk over to them. "We're sorry we're late to everything. It wasn't right of us to blame you of your fathers accident. Please, forgive us. But! If you can't, you do not have to. We can explain everything if you'd like." My grandmother's sweet smile that I haven't seen in forever appears. Instead of replying, I walked into her arms. "It's okay. I'm just glad you didn't miss too much of my daughters life." I said, holding each other tight.

When I pulled away, tears were brimming both of our eyes. "Oh, how I've missed your hugs." I wiped my tears away from my eyes.

Moving on from my grandma, I turned to Harley. "Lord, I missed you." I sighed, opening my arms for a hug, which she happily accepts. "I'm glad they got over it." She laughs into my neck. "You didn't blame me?" I asked, pulling away. "Nope. But if I went over to your place they would get mad." She smiles. Nodding, I turned to the rest of them and hugged them one by one.

"Oh, how you've grown!" Uncle Shawn, Harley's dad smiles as I pulled away from his hug. "Yep! I'm not a little kid anymore." I smiled, finally noticing the overwhelming gifts in their hands. "We hope you don't mind we got her some gifts." Uncle Paul smiles, motioning to the family. "I don't mind. Thank you, I really appreciate it." I beamed, beginning to lead them over to the rest of the family. "Wilma! Nice to see you!" My mom happily smiles as my grandmother hesitantly sat down beside her. They had always gotten along, it broke my moms heart when everything happened.

"Mama!" Josie's soft voice exclaimed as I neared the two of them. Josh was now standing up with Josie sitting protectively in his arms, his concerned gaze was on me. "Hi baby! How'd you like your cake?" I asked, gently grabbing her from his arms despite his protests. She smiles up at me as I grabbed a baby wipe from the table before wiping her face.

"Who are they?" Joshua asks, stepping a tiny bit closer to my frame. "You won't believe it! Those are family members from my dads side!" I exclaimed as I finished wiping cake off of Josie's face. "Really? And you forgave them?" Joshua asks, a cold tone evident in his voice. "Well yeah, better late then never." My voice falters as I looked up at him.

"Angel-." That's when I knew he was upset. He never called me Angel in a casual conversation. It was always 'baby' or 'babe', never Angel.

"Forget it. Just please throw this away." I sighed, pushing the dirty wipe into his hand and turning away from him without another thought. "Dada?" Josie sadly says as we walked away from him. "It's alright, Josie. He's okay." I sighed, nearing my dads side of the family.