The Stars Lie

-x- One Year Later –x-

Elise smiled to herself softly as she woke up, cracking her eyes open and looking into the room that she was sleeping in. She’d been dreaming of the night that she’d met her boyfriend. It seemed so long ago, but in reality, it had only been twelve short months ago that she and Matt had met in Las Vegas. Before that night, she hadn’t thought that within a year, she was going to be in a strong relationship, let alone have a child with him. But she didn’t regret a moment of it. She giggled under her breath as Matt moved his arms so they could wrap tighter around her torso, and she leaned into his chest before pressing a lazy kiss to his arm.

Neither of them said anything because neither of them wanted to end the peaceful silence of the morning prematurely. Their little boy was three months old now, and his sleeping patterns were erratic at best. The two of them would take sleep when they could get it, and right now, both of them wanted nothing more than time with each other. The baby, however, had other plans as the sounds of his finicky crying started coming through the baby monitor sitting on the nightstand.

“I’ll go take care of him,” Matt murmured into her hair, pressing his lips to her cheek softly before he sat up. He grabbed the boxers he’d discarded on the floor the night before and pulled them up his legs before he turned to give her a dimpled grin as he walked out of their bedroom and towards their son’s nursery.

Elise didn’t get out of the bed for several long moments, knowing that their son was in good hands with Matt. She smiled when she heard the baby’s gurgling sounds and Matt’s soft voice through the baby monitor. She hadn’t thought she would ever really love Matt when she’d finally tracked him down after their one-night-stand and told him that she was pregnant. It had taken her a little over a week to find him, but she hadn’t even started looking for him until it had been over a month after she’d gotten pregnant.

She got out of the bed a few minutes later and then pulled a robe on before making her way down the short hallway towards the nursery. Her heart warmed when she saw Matt cradling the small baby, a grin on his face as he looked down at their son’s face. He looked up when he heard Elise walk into the room, and he crossed the floor over to her to peck her forehead softly.

“He’s absolutely beautiful,” Matt whispered to his girlfriend as they looked at the baby. Elise nodded. She was glad to know that Matt thought the world of their child the same as she did. Though it had only been three months since he’d been born, she couldn’t imagine life without him now. She loved him more than she’d ever thought it was possible to love someone, and on top of it, she had ended up falling in love with a good man who hadn’t ducked his tail between his legs and ran away the second that he’d been told that she was pregnant.

“I’m going to make breakfast for us and a bottle for Dylan,” she murmured into Matt’s shoulder before she slowly trailed her finger over the baby’s face, a soft smile on her face as she turned to walk out of the nursery.

She knew she was lucky to have everything that she did. She wasn’t even twenty-two yet, and she not only had an amazing boyfriend, but she had a child with him as well. She and Matt had been living together since a few months before Dylan had been born, and things had only gone uphill for them after that had happened. She knew that she had fallen in love with Matt. And looking at the way he would watch her out of the corner of his eyes, or do little things for her that other guys wouldn’t think of, she knew that he loved her as well. It was a heartwarming feeling that she’d never really thought she’d find. She had never been expecting that one-night-stand to go as far as it had, but looking back, she would always thank Carissa for convincing her to take that weekend trip to Sin City.

A few minutes later, Matt came down to the kitchen carrying Dylan with him. The baby boy was wide awake, and he had a huge grin on his face. Though he was only three months old, Elise already thought he looked like his father. Dylan’s eyes were a beautiful hazel color with a slight green tint that, if he was wearing the right colors, made him look like he had green eyes instead of hazel. His grin showed slight dimples, and she knew that he’d knock girls over with his smile when he got older. She couldn’t have had a more beautiful baby, she thought to herself, and she couldn’t have picked a better father for him. Matt grinned at her when he saw the smile on her face, and took the milk bottle from her to feed it to Dylan.

“He looks just like you,” he said softly as he looked down at their son. Unlike Elise, he only saw her features on their son. He had ended up with her nose and lips, and it looked like he’d inherited her hair color as well.

“No, he looks like you,” Elise teased him, reaching up to touch the side of his face softly with her hand. Matt’s breath hitched in his throat as he looked at her, and he then carried Dylan over to the baby chair sitting by the wall. Elise wondered what he was up to, and then smiled when he returned over to where she was standing. “Are you ready to eat?” She asked him softly. Matt shook his head, and then grabbed her hand in his.

“I have something I want to talk to you about,” he murmured into her ear, pressing his lips softly to her cheek before he gave her hand a tight squeeze as she looked up at him. She wondered where he was going with this, but decided to hear him out whenever he decided to speak.

“Alright,” she agreed, smiling reassuringly at him. Matt’s grin faltered for only a moment, and she saw a glimpse of nervousness pass over his face before he let out a deep breath and reached to grab her other hand.

“We’ve been living together for a little over six months,” he murmured to her, his eyes watching hers steadily. Elise licked over her bottom lip and nodded, smiling up at him.

“Yeah, we have,” she told him, her cheeks flushing read as he reached his hand up to touch her hair. She reached to hold his hips as he looked at her for several long moments before continuing yet again.

“And I can tell when I look into your eyes that you love me,” he whispered to her, pushing the hair off of her neck and then pressing a gentle kiss to the sensitive skin there as he dipped his head low. “I know that you love me, Elise, and I only hope that you can see how much I’ve grown to love you. Even if it’s crazy, it’s true.”

Elise’s breath hitched in her throat, but she nodded as she looked up at Matt’s face. A part of her was expecting him to grin at her like usual and say psych! or something along those lines, but he didn’t. He looked dead serious.

“I want to ask you to marry me,” he told her, a soft smile on his face. “But I want to make sure I’m not just going to put you in an awkward position. I want to make sure you’re going to think about you, and not just what would be best for Dyl.”

Elise gasped at his words, and then she felt tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t believe how hard she’d fallen for Matt. She’d never thought about marriage before, but now that Matt was asking her…it seemed like a very beautiful thing. She could wear the white dress and carry the flowers, and he would wear a tux. They could get something for Dylan to wear, and it would be an amazing day.

She knew that she wanted Matt more than anything. As strange as it seemed, she knew she’d never love a man as much as she loved him ever again. He was the only man for her; that one in a million man that little girls dreamed about.

“Yes,” she told him, grinning as she hugged his neck tightly, not letting go as he picked her up and squeezed her back just as tightly. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Matt,” she whispered into his neck.

Matt couldn’t help but feel tears pricking the corners of his eyes. That night in Vegas, he hadn’t been looking for a forever kind of relationship. He hadn’t been looking for love, or for a family. He’d been a little past drunk when he’d hooked up with her, even if he hadn’t let her know that completely. But some things happened for a reason, and Matt had no doubt that he was with Elise now because of fate.