You and Only You

“Babe, guess what,” I said, walking towards Kennedy as he was messing around on his guitar, playing and singing cute little made up songs to Noah.

“What?” he asked and stopped playing.

“Today’s the day!”

“What?” he asked again, but I didn’t get a chance to answer before Noah started screaming and hitting the guitar. Apparently he wanted his daddy to sing to him again. We both laughed and Kennedy strummed a few chords, getting Noah to smile big again.

It was great how much he liked music because it was definitely going to be a big part of his life.

“So?” Kennedy asked once Noah was appeased with one of his toys.

“I scheduled our appointments for today.”

“Really? Finally?”

“Yes finally! I’ve been meaning to do it for so long but things have been crazy and then you were gone, but now it’s the perfect timing really. As long as we do it before Noah turns one.”

“I’m so excited baby,” he said, setting his guitar to the side before standing up and wrapping his arms around me, kissing me on the forehead. “They’re gonna look great. But what about Noah? Are we taking him with?”

“Honey, a tattoo parlor is no place for a baby. Garrett’s watching him. I already talked to him and everything is worked out. Our appointment is at three.” I kissed him sweetly and then went into the bedroom to get dressed and ready for the day.

We took Noah over to Garrett’s parents’ place, where he was staying, a couple hours before our appointment to hang out until it was time to leave.

“Squirt!” Garrett yelled as soon as he opened the door and Noah burst into a fit of giggles, reaching towards Garrett and trying to break free of my hold. He loved Garrett so much. They were best buds. He loved all of the guys in The Maine but there was like a special bond between him and Garrett. It was like he knew that Garrett was his godfather and that brought them closer together or something. I was just glad that it was Garrett because he had always been there for me, he had been there for Noah since he was born, and I knew he would always be there for him.

Garrett grabbed Noah from my arms and started swinging him around and Noah squealed with happiness. I leaned my head on Kennedy’s shoulder and just watched. I loved seeing my kid so happy because it made me happy.

We sat around talking for a little bit and played with Noah until it was time for Kennedy and me to leave.

“If you need anything just call,” I told Garrett as we were walking out the door.

“Oh please, I’m god with babies.”

“Yeah, whatever. Remember when you were afraid of babies?” I laughed.

“That was before I met this rad little dude,” he said tickling Noah.

“Ok buddy,” Kennedy said and laughed.

We both gave Noah hugs and kisses and then we walked out to the car to go to the tattoo parlor.

We got there right around three, filled out all of our paperwork, and headed back to the room to get started. Kennedy went first and I was getting more and more nervous as I watched the permanent ink being tattooed onto the back of his shoulder. This was my first tattoo and I had no idea how much it was going to hurt. Kennedy didn’t show any pain, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to hurt for me.

We talked to Mike, the tattoo artist, about Noah because he was curious once he saw our tattoo ideas. It made things go by faster and almost before I realized it Kennedy was all done and it was my turn.

Kennedy’s looked great so I was excited, but I was still scared. I took a deep breath and changed places with Kennedy, sitting in the chair and preparing myself for the pain.

“Ready?” he asked once he was set up with the new needle and everything was ready to go.

“As much as I’ll ever be,” I said and forced a smile.

But once he started I almost wanted to laugh because it was nowhere near as painful as I had imagined it to be. It hurt a little, but not too much. I kept talking to Kennedy and Mike and I almost couldn’t feel it anymore because I wasn’t thinking about it.

After about a half hour or so he was all done. He gave me a mirror to use to see the back of my shoulder where I now had my son’s footprint tattooed along with his name and birth date, and I was in love with it. Now I would always have a piece of my son with me no matter where I went, and so would Kennedy.

“I love them so much babe,” I said, smiling.

“Me too. I’m glad we finally got them,” he smiled back and I gave him a quick peck on the lips before we went out to pay for our new tattoos.

Then we drove back to the Nickelsen household. Trey answered the door when we knocked.

“Hey!” I said and hugged him. It had been awhile since I had seen him. “Where’s my son?” I asked after he invited us inside and I didn’t see him anywhere.

“He’s sleeping.”

“Where’s Garrett?” Kennedy asked, looking around the living room too.

“Also sleeping.”

I laughed and started walking to Garrett’s room. When I opened the door I couldn’t help but smile. They were cuddled up together on Garrett’s bed, sleeping, and it was the cutest thing ever.

“Kennedy,” I whispered. “Come look.”

“Aww.”

I took my phone out and took a picture quick before either of them could wake up. That was definitely going on the internet. I posted it on my Twitter with the caption “Garrett and Squirt. Best buds.”

I felt bad waking either of them up when they looked so peaceful sleeping, so I just left them and went to talk to Trey for a bit. He said he had come over just to see Noah and it made me giggle. I loved how much all of the guys loved Noah and how much they always wanted to see him.

About ten minutes later Garrett walked out into the living room with a babbling Noah in his arms.

“When did you guys get here?” he asked through a yawn.

“Like ten minutes ago. Check your Twitter.”

He handed Noah to me and I gave him a big kiss on the cheek. I heard Garrett aww and I giggled which caused Noah to start giggling.

“So let’s see these tattoos,” Garrett said after he was done on his phone.

Kennedy and I stood up and turned around, showing him the back of our shoulders with our new tattoos.

“Those are awesome!”

“Thanks! Can you take a picture of them? I need to put this on Twitter too.”

“You and Twitter,” Garrett grumbled as he grabbed my phone from me and snapped a picture.

“Thanks Gare Bear,” I said and grabbed my phone to tweet the picture.

“I told you not to call me that!” he yelled and I just laughed at him. I loved to tease him.

We stuck around for a little bit longer, hanging out with Garrett and Trey, but it was getting late and we had to head home.

We ate dinner, put Noah to bed, and then spent some adult time together until we were too tired to stay up any longer.