Nirvana

I just really wanna let this fire burn bright

Denver.

3 more days until he was back in Nashville. James had been counting the days down since he left the day before. He wondered what Harley was doing right now. She had been sending him pictures all day yesterday while she was packing up her apartment. The picture of her suitcase full of shoes, the python print ones he’d gotten her for her birthday were on the top, with a bag filled with lingerie beside it had somehow gotten saved to his phone. At least that was the excuse he was going with.

He knew they were bringing her things over to the house today, and he had to admit he was hoping she would send him more pictures. This time of her unpacking her things, hopefully she would send him a picture of the closet once all her things were in it.

He glanced over as Shea took the seat beside him for their team dinner and raised his eyebrow. Shea shrugged in response, took a drink of his water and informed James casually, “Emma and I are talking about having another kid.”

“Really? Wow.” James had to admit he was a little taken back by the random life update from his captain. It was unusual, even more so with how casually he took the spot beside him and told him this. Sure they were all pretty close in Pittsburgh but there was always a conversation leading up to the life changing personal decisions they were making.

Shea could see that surprise on his face so he chuckled and informed James, “This is the part where you tell me something about your life.”

“Oh that’s how this works. Alright.” James responded with a grin. When Shea rolled his eyes, but then laughed a few seconds later James shrugged his shoulders and told him, “Harley’s moving in.”

“Yeah I heard that. Emma won’t shut up about it.” Shea said with a laugh. When James smiled lightly, but looked confused, Shea told him, “I think she’s just happy that Harley’s happy, you know? I mean Em wasn’t exactly thrilled when I went out and found a good looking, bar owning, female friend, but her and Harley are pretty close now.”

“I’m gonna ignore the fact that you just referred to my girlfriend as good looking.” James joked, making them both chuckle.

“Oh, is that how this is gonna be now?” Shea asked, still smiling.

James took a drink of his water, turned slightly in his seat toward Shea and asked, “So does Harley know you’re thinking of having another one?”

“I’m assuming that Em told her. It’s not set in stone or anything, but a conversation is a hell of a lot further than I got the last two times I brought it up.” James could tell that despite the smile on his face and the joking tone that Shea was serious.

So as they waited for their meals and everyone else was otherwise occupied with their own conversations James asked him, “She doesn’t want another one?”

“She’s…she’s Emma. Even after six years I still don’t try to understand her.” Shea told him with a shrug. After a few seconds of silence he curiously asked James, “You come from a pretty big family, yeah?”

“Five of us.” James confirmed with a nod of his head.

“So you’re pretty pro big family then I guess?”

James set his glass down on the table when Shea asked this. He had never truly thought about that, with Sarah he’d only gotten so far as the ring, he hadn’t thought of what would come after that. Shea glanced at his younger teammate, watching him curiously, it was quite obvious that he had caught James off guard with that one. After a silent period where James seemed lost in his own thoughts he pulled himself back to reality and their current conversation and told Shea, “I mean…I guess. I don’t know that five is the number for me. It’s like Harley says, my mom is a saint. I think I’d like a few. Maybe three, but that depends on Harley.”

“Harley would give you a baseball team if you asked.” Shea informed him, chuckling at the thought.

James smiled gently and asked, “Yeah?”
Shea nodded, took a drink and told James, “She’s always wanted kids.”

James smiled to himself and Shea watched him do it, he couldn’t help but grin himself, glad to see he clearly loved her and was interested in a future with her. Craig nudged his arm, breaking him out of his thoughts and asked, “Dude, did smiles rub off on you too?”

Shea let out a booming laugh at James’ expense, clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Smiles…I feel bad for you man.”

“Better than lazy.” James muttered, making Shea choke on a mouthful of water as Craig looked away and chuckled, at the both of them.

- - -

“This place looks pretty fucking spectacular.” Emma told her as they made their way into the bedroom, the final room that she needed to fill with her things. She’d added all the necessary kitchen items that morning, which she was embarrassed for James to admit was most of what she owned, including a blender, a waffle maker, various mixing bowls, a mixer, and even a can opener. She had been reminded by James twice that this was her house too now when she inquired about the office down the hall and the dresser in their bedroom. She now had a full blown office, her computer, printer and binders full of spreadsheets and bar information had up until this point been set up on her kitchen island since she was rarely ever home.

She had Sophie’s boyfriend and two of his friends help move some furniture downstairs, she was confident James wouldn’t ruin the surprise by going down there. She’d never once seen him even go down there before, in fact she wasn’t sure he even knew what his basement looked like. She had one of the contractors working on Diosa order her materials to make a corner bar in the basement, ordered a coffee table made out of a whisky barrel, she was planning on filling the bar with beer and liquor, and her personal favorite thing was the set of customized beer glasses she had ordered late last night when she couldn’t sleep.

Emma pulled her attention back to reality when she pulled a lace bra that left nothing to the imagination out of a bag and asked, “Does this actually work?”

“Like a charm. He stops watching Sports Centre when I wear that.” Harley told her with a smirk.

Emma put it back in the bag and said, “I’m gonna take you lingerie shopping. I swear I could eat breakfast naked and Shea would just ask me to pass the juice.”

Harley couldn’t help but laugh at that, and when Emma narrowed her eyes she asked, “Can’t be that bad Em, he does want another baby, and I’m sure he knows how you make babies.”

Emma rolled her eyes and told her, “It’s not an exaggeration. I love the man but we’ve been together for…. Seven years in March.”

“You’ve lost the spice.” Harley stated, sorting her underwear into two separate piles; when James was on road trips and when James was at home.

“Yes, we have, and I seem to be the only one who’s noticed.” Emma muttered, dropping onto the bed.

Harley glanced at her for a moment before going back to sorting her underwear. She didn’t say anything at first, she just continued sorting the lace from the cotton and the satin from the spandex. Emma didn’t seem too keen on talking either, so they stayed silent, Emma keeping an eye on the baby monitor, smiling at the fact that Hannah was still fast asleep and Sasha was laying in front of the playpen as if protecting her.

Finally Harley said, “Well…you know… I may have some tips for that.”

“For the spice?” When Harley nodded Emma jumped up to a sitting position and exclaimed, “Well why didn’t you say so?!”

“Well when Jarrod and I went through the ‘too comfortable’ around each other phase I took matters into my own hands.” Harley told her, and Emma raised an eyebrow. Harley hadn’t talked about Jarrod in years, Emma and Shea had never met him, but he was the boyfriend that she had opened Diosa with years ago. From what Emma understood they had been together for three years, and he had one day decided he didn’t like Nashville and took off without so much as a word.

“Don’t leave me hanging here!”

Harley couldn’t help but chuckle at that, she finished sorting her stuff before she sat down beside Emma and told her, “I moved the TV out of the bedroom, which if you haven’t noticed there isn’t one in here either. We would spent the night at a hotel every once in a while, or take a night just me and him for dinner.”

“Shea might kill me if we take the TV out of the bedroom, he likes sports centre too much.” Emma muttered, and when Harley sent her a pointed look she added, “And I like Netflix. It would be bad for everyone involved.”

“Hey, you asked.” Harley pointed out, making Emma nod in response.

She placed her sorted out underwear in the top drawer of the dresser, James only had two drawers filled out of the six. There was a bag filled with pants, shorts, and plain shirts, which she folded and put into the dresser, she hung up the dressier tops and sweaters in the closet, as well as dresses, skirts and anything that would require ironing if it was folded for too long. Once she was finished she stared at the integrated shelves that were for shoes and smiled, James had all of his dress shoes shoved together on one shelf, leaving four other shelves for her.

Emma raised her eyebrow at the smile on Harley’s face as they began placing her shoes in the shelves and Harley simply told her, “I love that man.”

“I don’t blame you, he’s a pretty good catch.” Emma told her, making Harley nod in agreement. She let out a chuckle as her phone buzzed and she read the message from James.

I’m missing the pictures.

Harley finished what little she had left to do in the closet, and as they were leaving it she snapped a picture of it, sent it to James with the caption Doesn’t it look so much better with more black and shelves of colorful shoes?

Harley couldn’t help but laugh as Emma instantly went into the kitchen, rooted through the pantry before coming back with the bag of gummy bears that Harley hid from James behind the canisters of pasta. The two girls dropped onto the couch, and settled on watching The Addam’s family, which Harley still considered to be a Christmas movie given the fact that it starts during the Holiday season. Emma opened the bag of gummy worms, took one and tilted the bag toward Harley, who held the hem of her shirt up to make a bowl and took a handful of the gummy worms, dropping them in her shirt bowl.

Emma couldn’t help but laugh at that and ask, “How are you older than me?”

Harley shrugged and said, “Who says I am? Maybe I’ve just been lying to everyone. Maybe I was born in 1989 not 1984.”

“HAH!” Emma exclaimed, before telling her, in a much softer, sleeping baby friendly tone, “I’ve seen your drivers license.”

“At least I don’t have wrinkles yet.” Harley stated, crossing one arm while violently biting the head off a gummy worms.

“Alright Wednesday Addams, calm down.” Emma told her, pausing when she realized what Harley had said. Suddenly her hand flew up to her face and she practically yelled, “I don’t have any wrinkles!”

Harley couldn’t help but bust into laughing before telling her, “No but James does.”

With her hand on her chest Emma let out a breath of relief and said, “Better him than me.”

“He has those little wrinkles by his eyes when he smiles, and also he has bags under his eyes, I’ve offered my creams but apparently he’s too manly for that shit.” Harley told her, making Emma giggle.

“Me caveman, me James?” She asked between fits of laughter, and Harley couldn’t stop herself from tilting her head back and letting out a loud laugh as well. Harley had always made that joke about Shea during the first year they had known each other, it had been so long since either of them had used it.

Harley leaned closer to Emma and whispered, “Maybe I’ll just start putting them on him in his sleep.”

“Why are we whispering?”

Harley shrugged and said, “He probably had the whole place bugged.”

“I would too if I lived with you.” Emma told her, and when Harley gave her a mixture of looks of confusion and surprise Emma explained, “I’d need to be sure you weren’t plotting to kill me or anything.”

When Hannah let out a wild scream, telling them she was awake and needed something, Sasha jumped up and tried to shove his nose through the playpen screen to her. Harley let out a laugh at that, reached over to pet him to calm him down as Emma got Hannah, before Harley told her, “You and Shea should go to a hotel on their next off night. We’ll babysit.”

“Don’t you want to clear that with James first?” Emma asked curiously.

Harley shrugged, “He does whatever I want. I have him trained so well.”

Emma let out a chuckle as she bounced Hannah slightly in her arms and told Harley, “I wouldn’t be surprised, after seeing your bag full of lingerie.”

“A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.” Harley told her with a smile. After a few seconds of silence she told her, “Seriously, they have Wednesday off, you guys could drop Han off after practice and then pick her up the next day.”

Emma wasn’t sure about this, Harley could tell. She was nervous at the thought of spending an entire night, baby free, with Shea in a hotel. She didn’t want it to turn into a fight over having another baby, or for them to spend the entire night not talking or paying any attention to each other. Emma shrugged and said, “Maybe.”

“No maybes. Just do it, don’t think about it. Honestly you both deserve a night off and away from life.”

Changing the subject off of herself and her marriage Emma passed Harley the bag of gummy worms again and smirked, “Does you guys use that tub you have in the bathroom?”

Harley couldn’t stop herself from chuckling and saying, “We did… until the hot tub appeared.”

“Maybe Shea and I should get a hot tub.” Emma mused, looking down at Hannah for a few seconds before shaking her and saying, “Nope, not happening.”

“Oh for the love of god just deal with it, you’re gonna be knocked up again before the end of the season.” Harley told her with a grin.

Emma rolled her eyes, “No way Jose. If anyone’s gonna get knocked up it’s you, what with you two going at it like rabbits all the time.”

“Safe sex my friend, safe sex.”

“That’s good to hear, only not really because I want you guys to pump out a baseball team.” Emma told her, and Harley let out a sarcastic laugh.

“Not gonna happen. Two is the limit.”

“But you two would literally make the cutest little babies in the whole entire world!” Emma exclaimed, watching as Harley grinned.

“Yeah, we totally would, wouldn’t we?”

“If they come out with any hint of the god awful ginger color his beard is I will disown them all as my nieces and nephews.” Emma told her.

Harley shrugged and admitted, “I kind of like the color of his beard. It suits him.”

“Well I mean I’ll say this, at least he keeps himself well groomed. Shea just looks like a yeti when he doesn’t shave.” Harley let out a snort she was laughing so hard and Emma simply said, “I’m glad you take pleasure in my pain.”

“Oh I take great pleasure in knowing that I won’t ever have to stare at James and see that thing Shea grows on him. James knows I love the beard, but I have also made it very, very clear that if he ever lets that thing get out of hand he’s not coming near me or my lady parts.”

Emma let out a strangled frustrated scream and said, “It has been so…so long.”

“How long?” Harley asked curiously.

“Since like… Thanksgiving.”

“That is so beyond sad.” Harley told her, almost not believing it.

Emma looked over at her and asked, “You can’t honestly say that you guys have sex all the time. I mean really, when was the last time you two had sex?”

“The morning they left.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Hoookay
10 more chapters and then this comes to a close
HOWEVER, I have made a sequel for this:
The Perfect Storm

AND
I also decided to write a short prequel type story, detailing how she met the guys and her and Rich's relationship. Depending on whether there's interest in it or not, but here's the link so you can subscribe if you want to:
Diosa

SOOO
As usual thoughts and comments would be wonderful, let me know if there's anything you want to see before this comes to a close (since I do have a few chapters that aren't pre written) and let me know if you want to see the prequel story!