Sasha said he was an idiot for not giving Noelle a ring, and having the box hold a ring for himself. Even Sunny looked dubious. But when Jameson told Kara what he planned, she gave him a thumbs up. Since she knew Noelle best, he knew he was on the right track. Everything was going according to plan until she cried, and he couldn’t tell if they were happy tears or upset ‘this is the least romantic thing anyone has ever done in the history of the world’ tears.
Her twins had their own interpretation of events, it turned out. The one he was pretty sure was Viviana immediately climbed in her mom’s lap, while the one he suspected was Aviva hauled off and slugged him in the knee. Jameson frowned at the angry little ankle-biter and dodged a whack with a fireplace instrument almost too heavy for her to lift.
Malcolm really needed to baby proof his apartment whether he had kids or not.
Jameson relieved the toddler of the metal implement of doom, and redirected her to the small pile of toys he’d liberated from Kaiser’s place to distract them. It worked, thank God, and gave him enough space to reevaluate the way the rest of the day would go. He’d been doing pretty well with the romantic shit, and Noelle’s face when he showed up in the pajamas had been even better than he imagined. He only wished he’d gotten a picture.
By the time he’d dealt with the somewhat homicidal Aviva, Noelle had wiped her cheeks and reassured Viviana before shooing her to play with the toys, too. Noelle took a deep breath, then managed something pretty close to a smile. “Sorry. This is just a… lot to take in.”
“I get it.” He didn’t, really, but it wasn’t like pointing that out was going to help him much. “Which is why we’ll go as slow as you need.”
The tension eased out of her shoulders and after a slight hesitation, she leaned back against his side. Jameson and the polar bear wanted to roar their victory to the world, but instead he settled for putting his arm around her and dragging a blanket over them to make sure she stayed warm enough. They watched the girls play and for the first time in his life, he actually felt like he had a family and a place to belong.
Before he got too wrapped up in domestic bliss, there were other surprises to set in motion. Jameson meant to get up and continue on with gifts and distracting her kids, but put all that aside when he realized that Noelle had fallen asleep against his shoulder. Her breath whistled softly against his neck. He smiled and moved just enough to kiss her forehead, then settled back to keep an eye on those twins. Viviana might have fooled everyone into thinking she was the good twin, but he could already see the mischief in her eyes. It was just a matter of time until it came out and surprised