“Luke! My little cupcake! How have you been?! Do you know how much Aunty missed you?” Leilah raved as she pulled Luke into a long hug. “Aunty Leilah! You’re hugging me a lot! I can’t bweath!” Luke complained then started giggling when she gave him butterfly kisses. “Okay, that’s enough. We’re in public. They’re going to take you for a pervert,” Nadia said and Leilah pulled away with a smile. “I don’t really care. I mean, look at the healing power of this little face,” She added pulling Luke’s cheeks as he patiently waited for Leilah to be done fawning over him. He was so used to her that he would just wait for the greeting phase to cool down. It was funny how the more composed one is the five year old and not the thirty-something businesswoman, “Aunty Leilah! If you still want to cuddle, we can sit together as we wait for Mommy to wear her dress,” Luke said eliciting another swoon worthy reaction from Leilah. After a few more moments, she carried Luke around on high heels. Somet

Rushing into the apartment, Nadia was greeted by Leilah. She was holding a basin filled with water and a towel looking so worried and pale that Nadia would have feared the worse if she hadn’t known better. “Nadia! I’m so sorry! I don’t know how this happened. He suddenly broke into a fever and I didn’t know what to do. Daniel says that it's normal for children his age but I-” “Calm down! Everything is going to be okay!” Nadia told her with a wry smile. For someone who wasn’t used to taking care of children, a fever is something that they would probably freak out about. She freaked out the first time Luke was sick when he was still a baby. Mrs. Payne had to beat some sense into her back then. It became a learning experience for her later on. Before she could manage to calm Leilah down, Dean rushed past her heading into Luke’s room. “What’s wrong with him?” Leilah asked breaking out of her panic mode. “He had been like that all the way here. I kept telling him that Luke was probabl

Nadia had woken up in the middle of the night to find herself practically in Dean’s arms. He had one arm under her head and the other on her waist heavy and uncalculating with sleep but still close enough to make her heart face fast. Reaching for Luke who was snuggled between them, she checked him for a fever to find that he was still a bit hot. As she got out of bed to fetch the cold compress and Dean’s eyes cracked open as his hand reached for her empty space. The simple gesture surprised her and the familiarity with which he seemed to unconsciously deal with their unusual situation struck her again. Making her way back into the room, she found Dean and Luke snuggling into each other peacefully asleep. Once she changed the compress, she debated whether to get back into bed with them. Her tired body got the better of her and she got back into bed with them. As soon as she could feel their warmth, Luke’s small hand reached to clutch her shirt at her stomach while Dean’s hand stret

“Is it safe to come in?” Dean asked peeking his head through the door. “Yeah, come on in,” Nadia said with a sigh from the kitchen counter. “Woah! Drinking in broad daylight?” He asked glimpsing the wine glass in her hand. “It’s just one glass. And I deserve it after dealing with Donna,” She complained and he smirked. “She sounds like a piece of work,” He said sitting in front of her. “She’s a hard ass who doesn’t take anyone’s bull. She managed to singlehandedly raise me and take care of my mom’s assets and manage them perfectly,” She explained. “Sounds to me like you admire her,” Dean said softly and she smirked. “Of course I admire her. That damned old lady is amazing,” Nadia admitted and Dean chuckled. “Now I want to meet her…” She had messaged Dean as soon as she got the news of Donna coming telling him not to stop by. She didn’t know what was going to happen and she had honestly expected a full-blown fight after ghosting her for five years. But Donna was more worried tha

“Remind me again why are we doing this?” Nadia asked Dean who was standing beside her staring at the chaotic performance in front of them. “Because Donna and Mother decided that we need to be involved in the planning of our engagement party,” Dean answered as he carefully held Luke who was sitting on his lap clapping at the juggling of the clown before them. “ Well at least someone is having fun in all this,” Nadia trailed off and Dean gave her a tired smile looking down at Luke fondly. Looking at the long list of performers they still had to go through, Nadia checked out a few not bothering to even think about going to see them. Who wants a pool dancer in their engagement anyway. “How about we keep it to classical music or something? The list is too long and even though I would like to humor them, I think that they’re trying to find a way to keep us out of the preparations by giving us meaningless tasks.” Nadia complained and Dean nodded. “I agree. Classical is safe, and it would