After The Storm

“Abs!” I yell as I burst through the front door.

“What?” she asks confused as she walks towards me with Emma in her arms.

“She’s not pregnant. She made it up!” I smile and kiss her quickly.

“Really?” Abby smiles widely.

“Yes really! We’re good baby. She can’t bother us anymore” I smile and set my hands on her cheeks.

“Thank God” she whispers before sinking into my chest and snaking her arms around my waist. I smile to myself and kiss the top of her head as she buries her face into my neck.

I hold her tightly, gently rubbing her back. We both pull away and smile at each other when we hear Emma’s cries from upstairs.

“I’ll get her” I smile before dashing up the steps and into her nursery.

“Hi beautiful” I smile as I gently pick her up from her crib. She whines still, fussing a bit as I cradle her in my arms. She quiets down after a few seconds and stares up at me with her big, blue eyes. Words can’t even describe how in love with her I am.

Parenthood is a funny thing. You spend your whole life thinking about yourself. What am I going to eat? What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? Who am I going to hang out with? But once you have a baby, your own baby, in your arms, none of that matters anymore. Forget all those people you hung out with. Forget the parties, the bars, the drinks. All that matters is this beautiful, delicate child in your arms. It’s like the world stops when you hold them. Nothing bad can get in.

“Do you want to feed her?” Abby asks as she walks in with a bottle.

“Mhm” I smile as I sit down on the recliner in the corner. I adjust Emma in my arms before taking the bottle from Abby and starting to feed her. Abby sits on the arm of the chair and I smile when I feel her fingers playing with the hair hanging at the nape of my neck.

“This is perfect” I whisper and pucker my lips up to her. She lets out a quiet giggle before kissing me quickly.

“I love you, Jordan” she smiles.

“I love you more” I smirk a bit.



A couple months have passed and Emma is finally sleeping through the night, a great triumph for Abby and me. She started laughing now too and it’s the cutest thing I have ever heard.

By now you all know I am hopelessly in love with Abby, and it’s never going to change. I want to marry this girl and I have every intention of doing so. So I finally bought a ring. It’s nothing too fancy, because Abby isn’t into that kind of thing. But it’s still beautiful. It’s a square diamond, not too big but not too small and the band is a bunch of tiny diamonds all the way around. It’s simple, but not at the same time.

It’s Christmas eve, and my family is down for the holiday. Abby’s was able to make it too. Thank goodness, because she almost had a panic attack about not seeing her parents for Christmas.

We all gather in the living room of Eric’s house. Abby curls into my side as my mom hogs Emma from us. I’m not complaining though, because it’s nice to have all of Abby’s attention.

“Nigh nigh!” Parker whines up to Eric.

“You actually want to go night night?” he laughs as he picks up his son.

“Santa!” parker groans and lays his head on Eric’s shoulder. Eric lets out a chuckle and Parker runs around kissing us all goodnight before Eric and Tanya take him upstairs to bed.

“I guess we’ll head to bed too” my dad yawns and stands up.

Abby goes to get up but my mom shoos her away. “I can lay her down” she smiles. We both nod and kiss Emma’s head softly before my mom takes her upstairs with Abby’s parents following.

“I like having them here” I smile as I pull Abby into my lap.

“I don’t. they’re hogging my baby” she groans dramatically and lets out a whine.

“Oh stop it” I laugh and kiss her head. We stay cuddled up on the couch, having small talk with Marc and his wife along with Jared and his girlfriend. We finally all head up to bed around eleven. Abby and I change and I glance over once I’m dressed and see she disappeared. I chuckle to myself and go to parker’s room, where the spare crib is and see Abby leaning over it to check on Emma.

“You just can’t take a break, can you?” I tease as I wrap my arms around her waist.

“I just have to check her before bed!” she quietly groans. I smile and we both kiss her head before going to sleep.

It seems like five minutes later, Parker is running into our room and jumping on the bed.

“Up! Up! Up! Santa!” he screeches and shakes me ferociously.

“It’s too early” I groan into the pillow.

“Up!” Parker says firmly, causing Abby to laugh sleepily.

“We’re up. We’ll be down in a minute” she giggles softly and kisses his head. I let out a groan and pull the pillow over my face. Abby tugs it before I finally give in and let her take it off.

“Merry Christmas, baby” she smiles and kisses my lips.

“Merry Christmas” I mumble into her lips and wrap my arms around her tightly. She smiles and hugs my torso but quickly pulls away when she hears Emma over the monitor.

“I see who gets all your love” I groan and whine a bit as she jumps out of bed.

“I can’t help it, she’s cuter” she winks before rushing out. I let out a tired groan as I sit up in bed and run a hand through my hair. I give myself a few minutes to wake up before I head downstairs, meeting the rest of my family down there.

“Dada?” Parker screeches hopefully.

“Go ahead, buddy” Eric laughs and with that, Parker starts tearing into the stack of presents with his name on it. Abby walks in from the kitchen with a bottle in hand and she sits down on the couch beside me.

“Good morning, princess” I smile and kiss the top of Emma’s head. She smiles a bit with the bottle still in her mouth and I give her my fingers to hold. Abby burps her when she finishes and I take her into my lap.

Her parents get up and start handing out the gifts they brought, causing a chain reaction with everyone else. Abby opens ours as I hold Emma. A couple shirts for me, a new dress for her, a watch and some jewelry along with a couple gift cards. I sit Emma up in my lap and help her open her gifts. She doesn’t really know what’s going on, but she tries her best to pull at the wrapping. I think this girl got a million new outfits. More than she can actually wear. Plus about a hundred new toys that she’s not even big enough to play with yet.

“Jo!” Parker screeches and holds up his new superman action figure.

“That’s so cool, buddy” I gasp and move down on the floor with him. We go through the rest of the presents and I motion Abby to sit with us as Emma starts to get passed around again. I pull her into my lap and rest my chin on her shoulder.

“Hey Parker, there’s one more present left. Can you grab that for me? I think it’s for Aunt Abby” I say pointing under the tree. Abby looks to me confused and Parker hands her the small box.

She slowly and carefully removes the wrapping, like she’s holding an antique and she’s afraid to break it or something. I smile at her and take a deep breath as she opens it, revealing the diamond ring. Her eyes instantly widen and shoot over to me.

I gently take the box from her hand and look up to her in my lap.

“Abby, you know I love you so much. More than anything in this world. I tried to live without you but I just couldn’t do it. And I don’t want to have to do it. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to come home every day to you and Emma, and eventually more kids. I want to go to sleep with you every night and wake up to you every morning. I’m crazy about you; I love you, baby.” I smile nervously and with that, I scoot out from under her and move onto one knee.

“Abby, will you marry me?” I ask softly and look up to her with hopeful eyes. She covers her mouth with her hands and I see tears forming in her eyes as she starts to quickly nod her head.

“Yes!” she blurts before bursting into tears. I smile widely as she collapses into my arms and I hug her tightly.

She pulls away sniffing and I slide the ring onto her finger. She looks at it in awe before attaching her lips to mine.

“I love you” I mumble as I kiss her.

“I love you so much, Jordan!” she whispers and holds my face in her hands as she kisses me repeatedly. I smile widely and our families all get up to congratulate us. The girls all grab her hand and I look to them nervously as they examine the ring.

“It’s beautiful!” they say and I feel myself let out a huff of air I didn’t even know I was holding in.

“Congrats, man” Eric smiles and grips my shoulders.

“Thanks” I beam and look over to Abby. Her dad walks over and extends his hand.

“Congrats, son. And thanks again for asking permission” he smiles and shakes my hand.

“Thanks for giving me your blessing. I love your daughter so much” I smile and stare over at her.

“I know you do” he chuckles and pats my shoulder. I smile to myself and Abby finally sneaks away and makes her way over to me. I wrap my arms around her and kiss her nose.

“Hi” I smile down at her and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I heard my dad. Thank you for asking him first. That means a lot to me” she whispers and kisses me. I smile and kiss her back before kissing her forehead.

“Let’s make some breakfast” I smile. We head to the kitchen and make a big breakfast for everyone in the house.

The day is filled with laughter and some much needed family time. I never realized how lucky I was until I look around this room and see what truly matters; my family and their happiness.