Dolce Vita

“Sloane!” Roman called out the moment he walked into the apartment. He carried the little bag behind his back as he walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter watching Sloane cook. She was rolling dough, her hair was hanging down her back in a braid, she was standing in a pair of leggings and a tank top and bare feet. He set the bag on the counter beside him, walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, placing both palms flat against her stomach. He kissed her neck and told her, “God you're beautiful.”

Sloane rolled her eyes and stated, “You've taken too many hits to the head.”

Roman chuckled but shook his head, pushing his face into her neck as she reached up and ran a hand through his hair. He kissed her soft skin again, and then twice, before pulling away from her just enough to tell her, “I got him something.”

Sloane raised her eyebrows and informed him, “I think he has too much stuff thanks to your teammates.”

Roman shrugged and stepped away from her and toward the other counter, he picked up the bag and told her, “We can finish dinner later, come here.”

Sloane made a point to dramatically roll her eyes but she wiped her hands off with a tea towel and then followed him into the living room. She sat sideways on the couch, curling one leg underneath her while the other hung off the side of the couch as Roman sat similarly across from her. She watched him pull out a pair of the tiniest skates Sloane had ever seen in her life with a big, wide grin and she couldn't help but smile herself.

“I just couldn't not get them, he'll just grow into them.” Roman said as he handed them to her and she flipped them over to look at them.

She set them on the couch between them and got up, telling him, “Hold on.”

He watched her walk into the nursery and a few seconds later she came out holding a little bag herself. She took her seat again and Roman asked, “What is it?”

“It's from Kim.” Sloane told him, pulling the item out of the bag and placing it in his lap. It was a neatly folded jersey, the smallest he had ever seen, and when he unfolded it he found the Predators logo on the front. Sloane motioned for him to turn it around and when his lips turned up into a big smile at the sight of 'Josi' and '59' on the back Sloane told him, “She had it made after we found out and it got in yesterday.”

“This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.” Roman told her, making her laugh. She watched as he placed the jersey onto the couch with the skates and pulled out his phone, no doubt sending pictures to half the team and probably his parents. Sloane was suddenly, once again, reminded of how even though they were in the same situation things were so very different between them. Roman looked up, caught her sad look and tried to cheer her up and remind her that she still had family even if they weren't blood by telling her, “Riley said that her and a few of the other girls wanted to have a baby shower for you, I said I'd run it by you because I wasn't sure if Kim had anything planned.”

Sloane smiled and said, “I don't know what she has planned, she won't tell me.”

“Note to self; talk to Kim.” Roman said, nodding for good measure as he made a mental note to do so. When he realized he hadn't done much to cheer Sloane up he told her, “Maybe we could get your brothers to come out for a bit? And your sister?”

“I appreciate that, but it's fine really. That's way too much stress.” Sloane stated, and Roman knew there was more to the story by the way her eyes drifted away from his and she looked down at her sock clad foot on the couch.

“What's going on?” He asked her curiously.

She sighed, tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and admitted to him, “I already talked to Tony about visiting.”

“And?”

She shrugged, “He wasn't interested. I think it has more to do with Lisa and my mom.”

“What about Austin or Alex?”

She shook her head, “Austin probably can't get time off and Alex can't miss any school.”

“She could come on a weekend you know. It's what three hours?” He was pushing and he knew he probably shouldn't but he just didn't understand why she didn't want her family around, but mostly he really didn't understand why her family didn't want to be around her, especially now.

“My mom would never let her.” She told him, and before he could respond she told him, “Just drop it okay? My family isn't like yours Roman we aren't close.”

He however couldn't drop it like he wanted to, this whole situation was starting to make him angry. He didn't understand it, and the more and more he thought about it the more angry he got over it. So he asked her, “Does your mom think she's gonna win whatever it is she thinks is going on if she just alienates you from your whole family?”

Sloane sighed and folded up the jersey and finally admitted to him, “She wants me to come home.”

“What?” She hadn't told Roman exactly what went down between her and her mother when she called to tell her that she was pregnant, she didn't want to hurt his feelings or make him upset with it. She supposed now she may as well tell him.

“My mom isn't one of those mothers that cuddled her kids and read them books before bed and supported everything they wanted to do growing up. She's not a very warm person if you haven't noticed. She had our whole lives mapped out from the day we were born, and anything you wanted to do that she didn't have in her plans she made you feel guilty for even wanting it until you just forgot about it.” Sloane told him, watching as he kept his eyes on hers with a soft gaze. She was just hoping he was starting to understand the whole situation a little bit better with all this, so she continued, “When Kim and I decided to move here she was furious. We fought for months about it, she tried everything; the crying bit, the poor me I had everything planned and worked so hard on it bit, she even tried the screaming at me for hours about it thing. We were never allowed to make our own decisions, and I was the only one who wasn't following what she had planned.”

“So how did you convince her to let you come here?” Roman asked her curiously.

“I didn't. The day after graduation Kim's dad loaded my car up and we left and my mom was furious. She was calling every five minutes for almost week, and Kim's parents wouldn't even give her our address.” Sloane told him, before adding, “Eventually she came around but she's never been happy about it and she's never gotten over it.”

“I understand what you're saying but Sloane how does it not hurt your feelings that she doesn't want anything to do with you or the baby?” Roman asked her quietly, not wanting to make Sloane upset.

She smiled gently at him and shrugged, “It does, but at the same time I think about how our lives were growing up and I don't want him around that. I want to be better at this than she was.”

“You will.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I will.” Sloane admitted softly, looking away from Roman.

He watched her in surprise by her words for a moment, and finally he tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her eyes to his before he told her sincerely, “You will. You already are, you're already so good at this and he's not even here. This kid is gonna be so loved, and so cared for, and so safe and so so lucky because you're his mom.”

When her eyes teared up she made a point to roll her eyes at him, which made him laugh, before she told him, “Sometimes I worry that we're in way over our heads.”

“We are, but we'll figure it out. Besides worse comes to worse we have a locker room full of guys that will help us when we need it.” Roman assured her.

Sloane smiled and told him, “You know, from the moment I told you the only thing that made me feel calm and know everything was going to be okay was knowing how great of a dad you're gonna be.”

He grinned and asked her, “You think?”

Sloane nodded, “I know.”

Three hours later Sloane found herself waking up to Roman talking, she had fallen asleep on the couch after dinner while they were watching a movie. They were still on the couch, and Roman was laying beside her with his head by her stomach, one hand on it, speaking in German. She had no idea what he was saying and she didn't really care, the sound of him speaking so softly and the smile on his face was enough to make her smile tiredly and run her hand through his hair.

He looked up at her touch, realizing she was awake and he was no longer having a private one way conversation with the growing human inside her. He smiled lazily up at her and said, “Sorry if I woke you.”

She shook her head and told him, “You didn't.”

“Good. You need all the sleep you can get.”

She again smiled, ran her fingers through his hair once more and watched him lean forward and press a kiss to her stomach before he sat up beside her. He kissed the top of her head and Sloane asked her, “What were you saying?”

His cheeks flushed pink and he admitted shyly, “I was just trying to remember the words to this story my mom used to tell me and my brother when we were kids. I think I messed it up really bad.”

Sloane smiled yet again and leaned into him before she informed him, “If you plan on teaching this kid any of the languages you know that I don't I'd like to put a rule in place.”

“What's that?” He asked her curiously, glancing down to look at her.

“You two are so not allowed to have private conversations when I'm in the room, and absolutely no bad words.” When she told him this he let out a booming laugh that actually made her jump, which made him laugh even harder.

Finally, when Sloane reached out and slapped him across the stomach Roman stopped laughing and told her, “I promise.”

“Good, because I'm totally blaming you for the first bad word he ever says.” Sloane stated with a nod of her head when he raised his eyebrow at her. She told him, “He's gonna pick it up watching you play, I've seen the mouth you have on you during games.”

“Oh yeah?” Roman asked her with a smirk, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her tightly into his side. Sloane simply nodded, tucked her head into the crook of his neck and he told her, “You're probably right.”

“Hah.”

“But then I'm blaming his attitude on you.” Roman stated, and when she pinched his thigh he informed her, “You have a lot of 'tude, and sass. I'm actually so glad he's a he and not a she. I don't think I could handle two of you yet.”

“Yet?” Sloane asked with a small smile.

He nodded, tangled his fingers with hers and told her, “Oh yeah, we're at least having one more down the road. Maybe two.”

“Whoa, keep dreaming buddy.” Roman laughed at this.

“You don't want more?” He asked her curiously, they hadn't broached the subject of their future, or more kids since finding out that Sloane was pregnant, so he really didn't know how she felt about it.

She shrugged, “One more, that's the limit. Even numbers only, but no more than two.”

“I can live with that. Two boys I can teach to skate and play hockey.” Roman mused.

Sloane grinned, “They'll both be goalies.”

“Think that's funny huh?” Roman asked her and when she nodded, still smiling, he dug his fingers into her sides to tickle her, making her giggle loudly and kick her legs trying to get him to stop.

“I'm gonna pee my pants and it's gonna be your fault.” She informed, laughing as he immediately pulled his hands away from her side and she told him, “Smart boy. My bladder does not like me lately.”

Roman smiled, kissed her lips softly before he leaned down and spoke directly to her stomach, “Stop using mommy's bladder as a trampoline okay?”

Sloane smiled and told him, “Can you also ask him to stop playing soccer with my kidneys?”

Roman chuckled, and he started speaking softly in German again, rubbing his hand along the bottom of her stomach again. When his hand stopped moving Sloane placed her own tiny hand on top of his and he stopped talking and glancing up at her for a moment. He stretched and leaned up enough to capture her lips with his before he turned his attention to her stomach and continued whatever he was saying.

Sloane couldn't help but joke, “You're already failing on your promise you know.”

“I said we wouldn't have private conversations around you. He's not responding you know.” Roman joked, making her laugh.

She shook her head and was reminded yet again of all the times she had thought of how good of a dad he was going to be. Roman reminded her a lot of her step-dad, which gave her so much faith in him, it also made her excited to watch their son grow up with him as a dad. She couldn't help but tell him, “You've completely ruined me for anyone else.”

“Good, that means you're mine forever.” Roman stated, before he looked up at her with his big, light eyes staring at hers softly, and asked her curiously, “Did you mean what you said about marrying me one day?”

She smiled, ran her free fingers through his hair again and told him, “I meant it.”

“So one day?” He asked her hopefully.

She nodded, “Ask me for real in a few years and I promise I'll say yes.”

“I'll be looking forward to it.”