Please Don't Forgive Me

12 years later

“Emma, hurry up, you have to be at school in twenty minutes!” I yelled from the kitchen. She wandered sleepily down the stairs and sat down at the table.

“I was already up,” she yawned. “I was up late doing homework.” I nodded and handed her my cup of coffee. “Where’s Morgan?”

“He left ten minutes ago. Looks like you’re driving yourself today.” She rolled her eyes and lifted the cup of coffee to her lips.

“He only left early because it’s Valentine’s Day and he wanted to see Elle before classes started.”

“You sound annoyed,” I remarked wiping the coffee stain from the counter.

“Do you know how annoying it is to have your brother dating your best friend? All Morgan talks about is Elle and all Elle talks about is Morgan.” She paused taking another sip of coffee. “Literally every notebook she owns is scribbled on with hearts and Morgan’s initials in them—by the way, his initials spell ‘man’," she laughed, “and she has her name scribbled across the pages like ‘Elle O’Callaghan hyphen Nickelsen.” She rolled her eyes. “I love her to death, and apparently so does Morgan, but we’re in high school. Forever is until graduation. Forever doesn’t exist!” I stifled a laugh and looked at her sympathetically.

“Does this have anything to do with the fact that you’re the only one of your siblings without a Valentine?” She rolled her eyes and took a huge gulp of coffee to give her time to formulate a response.

“Well,” she began bitterly, “it isn’t my fault that none of your and Dad’s friends have sons my age.”

“You know Alex—,” she cut me off.

“You know that Myles Gaskarth and I already gave it a shot. It didn’t work. He was a pig and only wanted one thing.”

“Just like his father,” I muttered. “Who says you can’t find a guy outside of our friends’ kids?”

“Dad.” I laughed and started washing the dishes.

“Well, if there’s someone you like, then you should go for it. Who cares whether or not it’s one of our friends’ kids? Just go after some other boy if you want to.”

“Alright. I’ll think about it,” she smiled. “There’s this guy Jeremy.”

“So go for him! Now go. Get out of my kitchen.” She laughed and stood up to leave.

“Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Anniversary,” she smiled grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.

“Thank you. Now go, you’re going to be late for school! I’ll see you later. Home at six for dinner?”

“I might be a little late. I have Kickline and ballet.” I nodded and heard her shut the door loudly.

“Is she gone?” Addison asked with an eye roll entering the kitchen.

“Yes, she’s gone. Why? Are you mad at her for something?”

“No. She’s just so damn mopey.” I sighed and handed her an orange.

“Go. If you hurry up, maybe you can catch a ride with Miss. Mopey. You’ll be late if you walk.”

“Alright. Bye. Love you.” She ran out of the house and I could hear her yelling to Emma who was pulling out of the drive way.

“Trent hurry up if you want a ride to school!” I yelled. He ran down the stairs and into the kitchen clearly frazzled.

“I forgot to get Avery a Valentine’s Day gift. Ah, crap.” I laughed at his antics.

“I’ll take you shopping later. Just tell her she has to wait until the Valentine’s party tonight. Alright?” He nodded thanked me and ran out the door.

“Morning,” Garrett whispered against my skin sneaking up behind me.

“How’d you get here without me noticing?” I smiled.

“I’m sneaky. I can be very quiet. The kids did an amazing job of distracting you,” he laughed. “Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Anniversary,” he whispered.

“You too,” I smiled. “I love you,” I sighed contently.

“I love you too,” he smirked. “How are the kids this fine morning?” I laughed loudly and turned around to kiss him.

“You really wanna know?” I asked with a smirk. He nodded and I took a deep breath, indicating that it would be a decent amount of information. “Brace yourself,” I joked. “Morgan is head over heels in love with Elle. I think he saved up for like four months to be able to buy her gift whatever it is. Emma is absolutely miserable and will probably go around setting fire to anything that reminds her of today. Addison is mad at Emma for being so mopey, because she’s so excited about being with Carter on Valentine’s Day. And Trent is a literal mess because he is afraid since he forgot to go buy Avery’s gift. And Rebekah is still sleeping.”

“She’s seven years old,” he stated, “what could Valentine’s Day do to her?”

“Correction,” I added, “she’s a seven year old girl. And she has a huge crush on Pat and Kara’s son James.” Garrett sighed loudly and tightened his arms around my waist.

“So she’s going to be mopey like Emma?” he asked confused. I giggled and shook my head.

“She’s seven. She’ll probably walk around all day with a smile on her face. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a crush on her too,” I laughed. “They spend all their time together. That’s why every one of our kids likes one of our friends’ kids. And that is exactly why Emma feels so left out. Elle is the only one her age.”

“There’s always Myles,” he suggested. I shook my head quickly. “No?”

“No. It didn’t work. They already gave it a shot.” He sighed and took a step away to pour himself a cup of coffee. “She likes some guy named Jeremy.”

“Jeremy Echeverria?” I shrugged unsure. “Slade’s kid?”

“I don’t know Garrett. I really don’t. She had to get to school so I told her to go for it and I shooed her out of the house.”

“She could do much better,” he sighed. I rolled my eyes and stood with my hand on my hip and a eyebrow raised. “But,” he conceded, “if he makes her happy, then I’m happy.” I smiled triumphantly and climbed the stairs to wake Becca. Garrett followed behind me.

“Rebekah, time to wake up,” I said nudging her. “You have to go to school honey. It’s Valentine’s Day.” She whined in protest and crawled back under the covers.

“I don’t wanna go to school,” she whined. “Not on Valentine’s Day.”

“Why not honey? Did something happen?” She shook her head and I lifted her pillow from her face.

“Because James doesn’t like me!” she whined. “He likes Mindy.” I sighed and ran my hand through her auburn hair.

“How do you know he likes Mindy?”

“Because I just do!” she whined. I spent the next ten minutes trying to coax her out of bed. Eventually I gave up and Garrett succeeded. Ten minutes after that she was sitting at the table staring at her bowl of cheerios, refusing to eat. Another ten minutes later she was standing on the bus stop waiting for the school bus.

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“It was so much easier when they were all little,” Garrett whined. I laughed and smacked him in the head.

“For you maybe. I like that they’re independent now. We have more time for just us now,” I smiled.

“Yeah, but when they were little if they walked in we could lie. When they were little they went to bed early. When they were little we didn’t have to wait for them to leave the house.” I laughed and kissed him softly.

“Well, they aren’t little anymore and they certainly do not go to bed early. But, we have to get up now, because they’ll be home soon.” I rolled away from him, out of his arms and slid my clothes back on.

“You need to brush your hair. You have sex hair.” I laughed and bent down to kiss him on the lips again.

“So do you,” I smiled. “You aren’t immune to it.” He ran his hands through his messy copper hair. “Now get up,” I laughed.

“No, you come back to bed,” he smirked pulling me down on top of him. I laughed as he kissed me and I really wanted to fall back into his warm, comforting embrace. I was about to give in when the front door opened and I heard Emma shriek in anger. “Or not,” he sighed.

“I’m sorry,” I smiled weakly. “Get dressed and come down stairs,” I said standing up and opening the bedroom door. He pointed to my hair and I decided to put it up in a ponytail instead of looking for my hair brush.

“Mom?” Emma shrieked.

“Yes?” I asked descending the stairs.

“Do we have chocolate ice cream? Chocolate something? Something disgustingly calorie filled? Something to just pig out on?”

“What happened?” I asked walking to the freezer to pull out the emergency container of Triple Fudge Brownie ice cream hidden in the back. “Here,” I said placing it in front of her with a spoon.

“He said he’d think about it! Think about it! What is there to think about? Is that a nice way of rejecting me? Because I would have preferred a nice, simple, ‘I’m not really interested, sorry.’ He didn’t even have to include the ‘sorry,’ just an ‘I’m not interested,’ would have been more than sufficient.” I stood behind her and rubbed her back as she dug her spoon into the ice cream.

“I’m sorry honey,” I sighed. “Maybe he just doesn’t really know you, Em. Maybe he never considered it. Maybe the fact that it was Valentine’s Day had him freaked out. You never know.” She shrugged and attacked the chocolate ice cream with a spoon.

“What happened?” Garrett mouthed walking into the kitchen. I shrugged my shoulders and continued to rub Emma’s back. “Hey sweetie,” he greeted walking toward us.

“Ugh!” she screeched standing up and taking the ice cream with her. “I hate men!” she yelled climbing the stairs.

“Did I do something?” he asked. I shook my head. “Did Jeremy say no?” I shook my head. “Is she going to eat that whole thing of ice cream?” he asked in disbelief. I nodded my head ‘yes,’ and let out a small laugh.

“Probably. It’s what we do when we’re upset. You guys just punch stuff or throw stuff. We cry and eat.” He nodded and walked toward the fridge to get a bottle of water.

“Then what happened? Why is she so upset?”

“Jeremy told her he’d think about it when she suggested a date.”

“So,” he shrugged, “what’s so bad about that?” I laughed and picked up a towel, folding it over the sink.

“To a seventeen year old boy, nothing. To a seventeen year old girl it’s the same as a no.” His face contorted in confusion. “Just like to a seventeen year old girl giving up and just walking away is a sign that you don’t care, but looking back before you leave means you’re walking away because you do care.”

“Of course I cared.” I smiled and looked up at him.

“Of course you did. If you didn’t we wouldn’t be standing where we are right now.” I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck.

“I never did ask, how did you like Munich?” I rolled my eyes.

“I hated it!”

“Then why do you always say we should go visit your mom?”

“I hated Munich—past tense.”

“You don’t anymore?” I shook my head and held onto him tighter.

“Nope. Not if you go with me. I hated Munich because there was no you.” He smiled brightly and kissed my lips.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” I smiled. In the distance I could hear Emma’s muffled scream of ‘Fuck Valentine’s Day’ and I could hear the kids pouring into the house.

“Elle said yes!” Morgan shouted running into the kitchen. We turned to look at him.

“You shouldn’t have said anything in front of them,” Addison trilled in a whisper.

“She said yes to what?” I asked confused.

“You didn’t? Did you?” Garrett asked slightly annoyed.

“I proposed.”

“What?” I yelled.

“You’re only seventeen!” Garrett yelled. “Are you stupid? I never would have married the girl I was dating at seventeen.”

“You weren’t dating at seventeen,” I whispered to Garrett earning a glare. “This is your department to deal with,” I smiled patting Garrett on the back. “I have to take Trent shopping for Avery’s gift.” I pecked Garrett on the lips, leaving him here with the mess and motioning for Trent to come with me.

“Hi,” I heard as I opened the door. “I’m Jeremy,” he smiled.

“Upstairs third door to the left,” I smiled. “Nice to meet you.” Trent laughed and the tall boy looked at me dumb founded.

“Thanks.”

“Look Mommy,” Rebekah called running toward me from the bus. “James gave me a flower,” she smiled. I smiled with her and told her to come with us to the mall. She climbed in the car and sniffed the flower, happy to have a Valentine.

“What do you want to get Avery?” I asked Trent as I pulled out of the drive way.

“I’m not sure,” he shrugged. “Something nice, but definitely not an engagement ring.” I snickered and drove down our street.

“Alright,” I laughed. “So you don’t want to be Morgan,” I smirked.

“No,” he laughed. “Not yet.”

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The Valentine’s Party we held every year would be the best that year and every one would finally be happy—even if Morgan and Elle refused to call of their engagement and John was a little upset with Morgan for trying to marry his daughter. In the end we would all laugh it off and remind one another that they wouldn’t actually marry for quite some time. Eventually everyone would have a happy ending.