Chapter Forty-Nine Ryan
One month later
“Everyone ready?”
“Almost,” I say from the other side of the car as Emma and I get Nessa tucked away in her stroller for a walk outside. “I think she’s in there good.”
Emma nods as she adjusts the little brimmed hat on Nessa’s head. The stroller already has a canopy to protect her from the sun, but the four of us have been insistent on making sure that Nessa is as safe and comfortable as possible.
The past month has been a whirlwind of lessons in parenthood and a lack of good sleep.
Even between the four of us, we all still have plenty of responsibilities to take care of, whether it’s housework, childcare, or our jobs that we’ve been doing remotely.
So far, we’ve mostly stayed at Josh’s apartment, but that’s all about to change soon.
“Ready to go, baby girl?” Emma coos at Nessa. Before I can even step toward the stroller, Emma grabs the handle and pushes Nessa to the shaded sidewalk herself.
Emma has plenty of help between us, her family, and Max’s parents, but she stays as involved as possible. Until we convince her to take a long nap or a short outing with her mom. The last thing we want is for her to overexert herself.
“This is a nice neighborhood,” Emma comments as we all head down the sidewalk together, passing by nice houses with multiple stories and fenced in yards.
“Yeah, we came across it not too long ago,” Josh replies as he passes Max and me a wry grin.
I withhold a chuckle and brush my hand against Emma’s back. The guys and I have been in this large, beautiful neighborhood just outside of the city multiple times now.
“It’s so nice to stretch my legs,” Emma sighs in bliss as she strides just ahead of us, her eyes sweeping back and forth. “Oh, wow. Is that a park up there? This place is fancy.”
Max presses his teeth into his bottom lip briefly, stifling a grin that’ll sell us out too quickly.
I playfully nudge him before nodding to Josh, motioning for him to take the lead. Our plan is ready to be put in motion.
Josh puts his arm around Emma’s shoulders and kisses her temple. “We’re so grateful to have you as ours, beautiful. You’ve been the most incredible mom.”
A look of awe fills Emma’s face. “Thank you. You guys have been my rock. You’re amazing dads to Nessa.”
“We have been slacking on one thing, though,” I speak up from behind them as I walk next to Max.
Emma glances over her shoulder at me. “What?”
“That house we promised you,” I tell her.
Emma’s face softens. “It’s okay. We’ve all been really busy.”
Josh gently takes her arm and pulls her to a stop in a large driveway. “We fixed that.”
Emma flashes him a confused look before moving her eyes to the two-story, modern colonial-styled house at the end of the wide driveway. Her jaw drops in shock. “No way. You guys can’t possibly mean…”
I move to her side and kiss her on the cheek. “Welcome to our new home, baby.”
Emma’s eyes immediately start watering as she shakes her head in disbelief. “It’s huge! And it’s so beautiful. Did you guys really buy this house?”
“We needed a place to call our home,” Max tells her as he motions for her to follow us up the driveway toward the porch.
I give Emma an encouraging smile before we all head to the front door. “We found this place on the market not too long ago, and we jumped on it fast after a tour and a meeting with the real estate agent.”
Josh fishes the key out of his front pocket and unlocks the front door so that we can step inside of the large foyer. “We wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Oh, I’m surprised,” Emma assures us as she wheels the stroller deeper into the house, checking out the kitchen with its granite breakfast bar and the living room with its cathedral ceiling.
“There’s four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. A screened patio. An outdoor kitchen and pool,” Max lists off some of the amenities. “Even a theater room.”
Emma’s eyes widen. “Seriously? A theater room?”
“We made sure to get a house that had everything we could possibly want,” Josh tells her before gently taking Nessa out of her stroller and holding her against his chest. “Follow us.”
I take Emma’s hand and follow Josh and Max up the stairs to the second floor where the bedrooms are located. We head down the hallway and walk into the last room on the left side, sunlight streaming through the two windows facing the front of the house.
“What would this room be? A guest bedroom?” Emma asks as she glances around the empty room.
“We were thinking the nursery,” Max says with a warm look on his face.
Emma presses her fingertips against her lips, her eyes glistening. “That would be perfect. This place is perfect.”
Josh gently bounces Nessa as he holds her. “What do you think, Ness? Want this to be your new home?”
Emma turns to me and wraps her arms around my neck in a tight embrace. “Thank you. I can’t believe this is our house!”
I smile as I hug her back, my heart thumping wildly. Witnessing all the joy that she has felt over the past year has made me happier than I’ve ever felt before in my life. That’s all I want for her for the rest of our lives.
Happiness. Peace. Fulfillment. Passion.
I want it all for her and for our daughter.
Emma slips away from me to hug Max, smiling as he pecks her on the cheek. “You guys were really sneaky about this. I had no idea you were house shopping.”
“We were determined to find a place as soon as possible, especially after Nessa came into the world,” Josh replies as he hands our daughter over to me.
I briefly move her hat so that I can kiss the top of her soft head. When I look at her face, she definitely looks like Emma, but she has the dark hair of Max and Josh. She’ll be a perfect mixture of all of us.
“You guys did amazing,” Emma says as she reaches for Josh to hug him. “I’m trying really hard not to cry right now. I’m tired of crying!”
“At least it’s been happy tears,” I point out with a chuckle as I cradle Nessa against my chest.
Emma smirks before stepping away to take another good look at the empty room. Judging from her wonder-filled eyes, I can tell that she’s visualizing what the nursery will look like when we get done decorating it. Whatever she has in mind, it’ll be incredible.
“Remember when I worked for you guys?” Emma asks as she turns to face us.
Josh chuckles. “How could we forget? That was the big turning point in our lives.”
“You flipped everything upside down in the best way possible,” Max says before smiling down at our daughter as he stands next to me. “Now, we have this little one.”
“We went from only caring about SyncUp to having a whole family,” I say, joy and pride swelling in my chest. We’ve come such a long way, and I’m so glad for that.
Even if we didn’t really realize it back then, we were miserable being so alone. Our lives were nearly empty, and we were nowhere near feeling fulfilled.
Not until Emma came back into our lives.
“I guess that’s how crazy life can be,” Emma replies, her eyes glowing with happiness. “We’ve barely even begun our lives together.”
I pass a subtle look at Max and Josh, already knowing what they’re thinking. We’ve also been talking about doing something else that’s very special, but that’s another plan that we have to flesh out and put in motion. When the right moment comes, we’ll show her once again how much we love her.
We’ll do that for the rest of our lives.
“Tired of us yet?” Josh chuckles.
Emma hums under her breath playfully before gravitating closer to us, her hands and lips grazing us. “Never.”
“Let’s not make her regret that answer,” I tell the others pointedly, sparking laughter that fills the nursery-to-be.
We have a lot of work to turn this house into our home, but it already feels like we were meant to be here together. All of the pieces are falling into place, and there’s still so much to look forward to.
There’s no need for me to run anymore. I have everything that I could ever want within arm’s reach.