Chapter 37-Content with Life(2)
Evan was holding onto Matthew, the baby boy observing Evan’s face while he touched it with his little fingers. Matthew giggled when Evan leaned in pretending to bite his fingers, the baby found it hilarious. He was at a stage of exploring, wanting to discover new things every day. Emily told me it drove her nuts because she couldn’t look away once.
“So when are you two planning on having your first one?”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
Emily took a seat next to me on the couch and handed me a cup of hot cocoa with whipped cream, “We’re enjoying our married life first. I mean we’ve talked about it and we do plan on having children, but just not right now.”
“I understand.” Emily trailed her eyes to Evan and Matthew, a small smile spread across her face, “I would have waited too. But since Matthew is here we’re just rearranging our plans. Making new ones which include him too.”
“How is your dad doing?” I asked, knowing he had health issues and wanted to spend as much time as possible with his family before he passed. It was heartbreaking knowing someone was trying to squeeze in so many things to experience life before it would all end, I couldn’t imagine it.
“He is struggling.” Emily admitted, “Nothing we didn’t know, but it still hurts.”
“I know.”
“At least he was there for the wedding and he got to spend a bit of time together with Matthew.”
“You think Max will be okay?”
We both knew Max was a daddy’s boy, it would probably make him feel empty inside when his father wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t know much about his personal life, we did meet up a few times when Emily and Nick were on their honeymoon because of Matthew. It was also the reason I knew Emily’s dad wasn’t doing okay. He was the complete opposite of my dad, but he did make me rethink things. I didn’t want to have any regrets either so I’d try and be as kind to my parents as possible.
Emily smirked, “I think he’ll manage. He’ll focus on his business and maybe trying to settle down and have a family of his own.”
“It would have been better if Laurel met him instead.” I sighed.
Emily narrowed her eyes on me, “What do you mean?”
“Laurel is dazzled by some man-whore, who by some reason is a friend of Evan.”
“He is not like that.” Evan called back, flashing her a playful glare, “Is not attached to anyone, so he doesn’t have to take responsibility.”
“He is not right for Laurel.”
Emily placed her hand on my knee, trying to calm me down, “You need to let her figure things out herself. Trust me when I say that even if you tell her not to see him anymore because he isn’t right for her, she’ll still see him because she is dazzled. It will only hurt you in the end, because you’ll question your friendship.”
I took a sip from the sweet, warm beverage needing it to comfort me because their words didn’t comfort me at all.
“So I just stand by and watch her get hurt?”
Emily didn’t respond to that, instead, she patted me on the knee, “All you can do is be there for her when she needs you.”
We continued to discuss the reasons why I couldn’t interfere with Laurel’s love life and ordered in when Nick joined us. Evan had tucked Matthew in at our guest room where we still had the crib out for him. We didn’t think of putting it away because we knew the boy would be over frequently. Then my husband joined us in the living room and we put on a movie. I was sitting on the floor together with Nick, like the last time we watched a movie together. Evan settled on the couch with Emily. Our night in was quiet, but filled with joy. I was glad Nick returned the favor to Evan and pushed us to make a move because now I was content with my marriage and the people in my life. I knew in the future things would only get better because we were surrounded by good people who cared as much about us as we cared about them.