Raining on Sunday

-James POV-

The first night home after Scarlett was home was a first for a lot of things for me. At first it was a little overwhelming to see the nursery that Eisley had put together by herself, with probably the help of Sidney Crosby. I should have been there for her. I should have painted these walls the light pink that they were. I should of done a lot of things, but I didn’t and all that mattered was that I could be there for the both of them now. “She’s so tiny.” Eisley laughed, admiring her sleeping daughter who was asleep in her crib. “Yeah, it’s crazy. I didn’t think I could love a tiny person so much so quickly.” She hipped checked me, and smiled, leaning down to kiss the baby. “Come on, we have a lot to talk about.” She tugged on my hand, I turned back to the sleeping baby. “What? We’re just going to leave her in here?” I asked. She raised an eyebrow. “She’s asleep, and I have a baby monitor. She’ll be fine.” “What if something happens? She can’t be in here alone.” I looked at her. “James! She’s going to be okay, if she wakes up we’ll be able to hear her.” She pulled on my hand again, trying to get me to leave the room. I snatched my hand back and walked over to the crib and picked up the sleeping baby, who lightly stirred as my hands picked her up. “I want to spend every moment possible with her, I’m not going to leave her in here.” Eisley laughed and rolled her eyes, picking up another blanket and wrapping it around Scarlett.

“So did Sid help you design the nursery?” I asked, afraid of the answer. Eisley scoffed. “No, James. I went out and got everything myself, Sam helped me mostly. Geno came over a couple times to help with painting but that was the extent.” I felt better knowing Sidney had little to no help in assisting her. Scarlett inhaled deeply, snoring a little. We both tried silencing our laughs, “She sounds like her dad!” Eisley exclaimed. We settled down and silence sulked around us. “Thank you for being here, James.” She spoke softly.

“Thank you for letting me be here, I half expected you to throw me out of the hospital yourself.”

“You took me by surprise, I didn’t expect you to be there.”

“Yeah I have my new coach to thank for this. I’m on medical leave until April 1st. Giving me optimal time to learn how to do this dad thing.”

“You’re doing great so far.”

“It’s also giving me optimal time to figure out what’s going to happen with us.”

“James…”

“No, stop. Let me finish. I was wrong for not calling, and I know you tried. I just thought it would be best for both of us if I didn’t, me being in Nashville now. I had no idea how we would of worked out. So I gave up the best thing that ever happened to me. But I don’t want that. I want us to figure things out, if you want of course. I love you, I never stopped. I’m a selfish man Eisley, and I need you. I need the both of my girls. Now more than ever.”

Eisley was hysterical. She cried gently into her own hands, I held Scarlett tighter, and tried to hold back the water that was forming in my eyes.

“Eisley, please. Say something.”

“I am so sorry, James. I love you. This is all my fault.”

“No, no. If anything it’s both of our faults. But we can fix it now. I love you too, Eisley.”

She pulled her hair back, moving it to the side. She pulled a piece of silver around her neck out from under her shirt. It was the necklace I gave her. “I never take it off.”

She really does love me.

-Eisley POV-

I had easily come to terms that I had the easiest baby to take care of, it only took her a couple nights to figure out that she’s supposed to sleep through the night, and only wakes up if she’s desperate for food or a clean diaper. She hardly cries, and has already perfected the art of smiling. For a newborn, she was already making strides. She was only eight days old now, but she was perfect. Today was the day that James and I would go public about him being a father, and our perfect little family. We both had a feeling controversy would be looming over our heads for a while, and that people would be asking a lot of questions. “So how do you want to go about this?” I asked, putting a headband with a boy on the newborns head. “You haven’t instagrammed since you went into labor right?” He asked, playing with Scarlett’s toes. “Nope!” I pulled out my phone snapping a photo of him holding her tiny feet in his hand. “Do you have that picture Sam took? Of the three of us in the hospital?” He asked. I scrolled through mine and Sam’s texts and found it, the picture was of James holding Scarlett, kissing her head, sitting next to me in the bed. I had one of my arms under his holding Scarlett and the other draped behind his shoulder. It was an intimate moment for our family, and Samantha Johnston had captured it. He smiled, looking at it and told me to send it to him. Seconds later, his phone went off and he unlocked it, saving the picture to his phone. “I’m gonna post it on my twitter. Post it to your Instagram.” He said. I nodded, and proceeded upload it, picking a black and white filter. “What do I say?” I asked. He shrugged, and typed away on his phone. “Here this is what I wrote.” He pulled his phone over to me, and showed me.

@jneal_18 Couldn’t be more proud to be a father to this beautiful girl, and couldn’t be more proud of my beautiful @EisleyKempPens for carrying this little one around for 39 weeks. My turn now forever!

I smiled, and typed away on my phone, showing him the caption on my instagram.

@EisKemp: Happiest of little families, welcome to the world Scarlett Katya Neal, our little 7 lb 4 oz beautiful super baby! Already stealing mommy and daddy’s heart beyond comprehension! @jneal_18

I closed out of the app. Almost instantly both of our phones started blowing up with notifications. I rolled my eyes and turned off the ringer, tossing it onto my purse on the floor. “So, what do you want to do today?” He asked. “I don’t know, but I need to get out of this house, that’s for sure.” I laughed. “Let’s go grab lunch, then we’ll go shopping or something. On me.” James nudged, knowing I would bite. “Got the baby for 45 minutes? I have to get dressed.” I smiled. He nodded feverishly and continued playing with Scarlett.

________________________________________________________________________________

“You should just quit and come back to Nashville with me, it would make more sense for you to do that then to maintain a relationship with a distance.” James said, shoving a piece of pizza in his mouth. I laughed at his manners. “I can’t just quit my job James. This is the job of my dreams, do you know how many women get a job like this? None. I’ll just come to Nashville on my days off and you can come to Pittsburgh on yours.” I shrugged. James swallowed his food, and dropped his fork. “That’s going to get so expensive, we can find you a job in Nashville. Coach would love to have you work with him.” I shook my head, I could feel my own selfishness creeping back on me, the reason why James and I didn’t work out the first time. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw a text from Sam flash across the screen.

Sam Johnston: Hey, you busy?

Me: Eating with the family, why?

Sam Johnston: I needed to ask you something, and I’m not sure why I’m doing it over text but I needed to before I agreed to anything.

Me: Quit the foreplay, what’s up?

Sam Johnston: Sid asked me out. I want to make sure it was okay with you.

I stared at the screen, bouncing my thumb over it the keyboard for a few seconds and typed “sure” through all the jealously that was raging through me. I threw my phone into my purse and looked up at James who was putting Scarlett in the carrier wrapped over his chest. “So, you got room for two more in Nashville?” I asked. His eyes widened, and he nodded, smiling. “You hear that? Mommy says I get to keep you!” He cooed at Scarlett.

Notes