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Before: Here Comes The Sun


Nick

When I came out of the bathroom, I didn't quite dare to go back out to the living room where the all of the breast feeding was happening, so I went in the kitchen and cleaned up the milk that Ashley dropped. Ashley shuffled by a moment later, "I'm gonna put Zoey in her crib then I wanna talk to you," she said as she went past the kitchen door.

I had a feeling I might be in trouble, though I wasn't entirely positive what for.

She came back a moment later with the baby monitor in her hand, just as I was throwing away the last of the paper towels from sopping up the milk from the floor. I armed the Swiffer stick with a wet towelette and swiped it across the floor. Ashley leaned against the door frame and watched. "There is nothing sexier than a man cleaning the floor," she commented.

I turned like a provocative model and stuck one finger on my lower lip. I had a feeling I was more Zoolander than risque model. She laughed. "You're such a freak."

"You're the one getting turned on by a slob with a Swiffer," I said.

Ashley stepped into the kitchen and took the Swiffer out of my hands, pushed it away, and pulled me close to her. "I lied, there is something sexier than a man with a Swiffer."

"What's that?" I asked, staring down at her.

"A man with a baby as cute as Zozo," she replied.

"Even if he sucks at being a father? And freaks out when you try to breast feed her?"

"Oh Nickolas," Ashley smirked, "Especially then."

"So you're saying I suck?"

Ashley's eyes glittered, "You don't... but I might."

"But Dr. Jorryn said..." I trailed off.


"I didn't say..." Ashley trailed off too, then raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, you mean...?"

"Mmhm."

Ashley and I went in the bedroom and she pushed me back onto the bed and came over, leaning over me. She kissed my neck and pushed my shirt up, her hands running across my chest. My heart pounded with excitement. I mean, this is the shit that we guys dream about, you know? And it was fuckin' Ashley doing it to me. It was like my dream come true. Literally. When I was twelve, my first wet dream had featured Ashley. I don't know why that never tipped me off to my feelings about her. But I was dumb then and now I just was so floored by the fact that this was happening...

Ashley unbuckled my belt and slid it out of the loops of my pants. She tossed it to the side and straddled me, leaned down and kissed my chest in a trail right down the center, to my belly button and onward to the waist of my jeans, which she unbuttoned and unzipped and pulled way. My jeans hit the floor and she ran her hands up my sides and back down, hooking her fingers over the waistband of my boxer-briefs. She leaned down and I closed my eyes, every nerve in my body stretching to that one spot, waiting for her to make contact...

And then the baby monitor went off.

And Zoey was crying.

Ashley looked up at me, like a deer caught in headlights, unsure what to do. Ashley started to lean back in again, and then Zoey let out a particularly wild, desperate sounding shriek and Ashley jumped up, "Nick I'm sorry, I can't ignore her," and she bolted out of the room, calling, "I'll be right back! I promise! Don't move!"

I held my breath. "Oh shiiiit," I groaned.




Ashley

I scooped Zoey up out of the crib and tucked her against me, rubbing her back like they do in the movies. Confession time: I've never been around babies before. I was just as clueless as Nick when it came to how to take care of them or what to do when they cried. Having been in a group home or whatever you'd think I might've seen a baby or two but I never did because everyone in the home was at least six before they moved in. And I'd never stayed with a foster family with kids or anything like that. The closest to contact with a baby I'd ever been was when the other Backstreet Boys had their kids, and even then I didn't really see a lot of Brian or Howie's kids, and I didn't even meet Mason until Kevin went on the cruise in 2011. So my big experience with babies was Ava, and there was so much turbulance going on with Nick and I during that time that I really hardly even saw her.

So this was all new to me. That's my point.

I shuffled through the papers Dr. Jorryn had given me to see if there was anything in them about what to do when she cried. I bounced her gently arm to arm, but she just kept on crying.

A good twenty minutes passed while she cried and I moved her arm to arm and read the papers. Nick came in the room, buttoning his jeans. "Oh sweetie I'm sorry," I said, frowning.

"It's a'iight. Lemme see her." He held out his arms, and I dropped Zoey into them. She continued screaming, and I started flipping through the pages of Dr. Jorryn's Baby Manual as I was now going to start calling it. Nick meanwhile was rocking her gently side to side, staring at her.

"I dunno what to do," I whimpered.

Nick rubbed her back, "Did she burp?"

"I don't know."

He started patting her back gently in a rhythm. She sounded like a teeny tiny bongo. "Little darlin' it's been a long cold, lonely winter... oh little darlin'... it feels like years since it's been here... here comes the sun.... here comes the sun... and I say, it's all right..."

I looked up from Dr. Jorryn's notes and watched as Nick paced in a circle around the room, rocking, patting, and singing to the crying baby as he went.

"Little darlin'... the smiles returning to the faces... little darlin' it seems like years since it's been here... here comes the sun, doo-do-doo-dooo, here comes the suuuun and IIIIIIII sayyyyy... it's all riiiiight..." He was getting more and more into it, and Zoey's cries were getting quieter. He moved a little faster, the rocking becoming more like soft, gentle dancing. "Suuuuuuuuuun, suuuuuuuuuuuun, suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun heeeeere it cooooomes," he sang in a falsetto, "Suuuuuuuuuuuuuun, suuuuuuuuuuuuun, suuuuuuuuuuuuuuun here it cooooooooomes..."

Zoey had officially stopped crying.

"It's all right... it's all right..." Nick finished. He looked up at me, grinning, then looked back down at Zoey, just in time for her to stretch theatrically and let out a belch. "Oh how very ladylike," he said, chuckling. He looked back up at me, and his eyes glittered.

"You, sir, are a miracle worker," I said.

Nick's eyes twinkled.

I walked over and hugged him so we were like a little family sandwich and I kissed Zoey. Then, looking up at Nick, I said, "I didn't mean to leave you hanging before..."

"Yeah hanging was the opposite of what I was doing," Nick muttered. "You stiffed me is more like it."

"I didn't mean to stiff you, baby," I said, but the smirk playing on his face at the innuendo was proof enough that he wasn't upset with me. I blinked up at him, trying to look innocent, "I hope you don't... hold it against me..."

"I'll hold it against you a'ight," he said, "And various other things. In a month and a half you better just be prepared because man am I comin' at you."

"You're gonna come at me, huh?" I asked.

Nick wiggled his eyebrows, "Oh yeah."

"You sound like the Kool Aid guy," I said.

Nick laughed.

"I love you, Nickolas."

"I love you, too."