Giving You Forever (12 page)

– ALEXA –

Nolan and I did just as he requested…staying in bed, cuddling and watching TV, for the bulk of the day. The only time that we left the room was to get a bite to eat downstairs. It has been the perfect stress-free day.

“So, wanna order out?” Nolan asks, noticing the time.

“Why don’t I cook you dinner instead?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow.

Let’s be honest, I don’t cook. It’s not that I’m not good at it, but I’m just not one of those Betty Crocker–Suzy Homemaker kind of people. I want to be, though, and I think I should start. I just turned twenty-two, I’m getting married in less than ten months, and not long after that we’ll be talking about having a kid. I think becoming domesticated wouldn’t be a bad idea. It has to happen at some point…right?

Giving me a skeptical look, Nolan asks, “Are you feeling okay?”

I punch him in the arm, insulted that this comes as such a shocker.

“What? I can cook!” I respond defensively.

“Hey, if you wanna cook, then by all means, woman, cook!” he smiles, holding up his hands in surrender.

“Good! Because I am,” I joke before pecking his lips and getting out of bed.

“Hey, where ya goin’?” Nolan asks, trying to grab my hand to pull me back down but missing.

“To the grocery store,” I tell him while I grab some clothes to wear out of my dresser. “I need food to make dinner. You wanna come?”

“Can we stop by the gym so that I can check on things?”

Although my first instinct is to give him a pouty look, wanting today to remain work free, I know what a stretch it has been for him to be away even this long, so I happily agree.

“Sure.”

With a smile across his face, he jumps out of bed, throws a t-shirt and jeans on, runs his hands through his hair a couple of times, and looks incredible within minutes.

Darn him for being so naturally beautiful.

“What?” he asks, catching me admiring him.

“It’s just not fair that you can hop out of bed, run your hands through your hair, and still look that hot.”

“Um, have you looked into the mirror?” he answers, running his eyes down my body. “You look fucking hot twenty-four seven. Why do you think I can’t keep my hands off of you?”

A warmness spreads throughout my cheeks, flattered by his words. Sometimes I wonder if he’s looking at the same person when he tells me what he sees. Yeah, I’m a cute girl, I’ll give myself that, but the way Nolan describes me, I’m on a pedestal next to Meghan Fox.

“Come on, doll,” he smiles, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me into his side before kissing my temple. “I wanna see what this fine fiancé of mine is going to cook up for me tonight!”

We stop at the gym first and I can’t believe how great it looks. Apparently, they had a water leak yesterday, but to his surprise, Mike had it all cleaned up and taken care of.

“See, if you just ask for help, people are glad to lend a hand,” I tell him as he continues to inspect everything.

“This time I actually did, but Emma was sick and he had shit to take care of…” He exhales. “I didn’t think he’d be able to come in.” Running his hand through his hair, he raises an eyebrow. “But, I guess he did.”

“Well, it looks great, babe.” I slide my hand along the front counter desk as I walk by. “I’m so proud of you,” I add, smiling up at him.

With his hands in his back pockets, he nods his head in agreement as he looks out over the wide open space. It’s filled with exercise mats, machines and mirrors that line the walls with flat screen TVs mounted in every corner. The sides of his mouth curl up into a smile, and I think it’s finally hitting him. All of this is from his hard work and determination, and it’s actually happening…he’s going to have his own gym. The gym he’s always dreamed of owning.

Coming up beside him, I wrap my arms around his waist and look up at him with pride.

“You did it, babe,” I tell him as he looks down at me, slinging his arm on my shoulder. “All your long days and time away from home have paid off.” I lean up and peck his lips.

“Well, it’s not open yet, doll,” Nolan says with a tight grin. “I still have to hire staff, and there’s a bunch of odds and ends that need to be done. I—”

Pressing two fingers over his mouth to make him stop stressing, I interrupt him, “Nolan, you have a gym. It looks amazing and you’re in the homestretch to getting it open. Be happy. This is awesome!”

Looking back at everything, and exhaling, he looks back down at me with a sweet grin and an added sparkle in his eyes.

“It
is
pretty cool…huh?” His grin grows into an exuberant smile.

I chuckle at the giddy, thrilled look on his face, filling my heart with added love and joy for him.

“It’s
very
cool, babe!”

“Who ya callin’?” Nolan asks as I pull my cellphone out of my purse once we get back into the car.

“My mom.”

“For what?”

“I need her to send me the recipe for her lasagna,” I tell him, putting the phone up to my ear.

“What? That’s cheating!” he exclaims with an appalled look.

“How is it cheating?” I ask, looking at him confused. “I’m still cooking it. It’s just her recipe.”

He starts to respond, but my mom answers the phone, so I switch my attention from him to her.

“Hey, Mom!” I say to her while rolling my eyes at Nolan.

Laughing at my annoyance, he pats my leg, then focuses back onto the road.

I tell her that I’m cooking dinner tonight and how I want to make her homemade lasagna. Apparently she also thinks this is crazy talk because she laughs at me.

“I’m serious! Why are you laughing?”

This warrants another chuckle from Nolan.

“Sorry…sorry,” she says, trying to gather herself. I can almost picture her taking a deep breath and wiping the tears under her eyes from laughing so hard.

I’m glad my mom and Nolan find this so amusing.

“Anyway…” I prompt her to continue.

“Yes, I’ll email the recipe to your phone. Are you going to the grocery store right now?” she asks.

“Yes.”

She continues to tell me what tomato sauce to buy and how to cook the noodles. It doesn’t seem that hard.

“Okay, thanks, Mom,” I tell her after I’ve written down all her extra details.

“You’re welcome, honey. Good luck. Call me if you have any questions…”

“Call us later to make sure we’re still alive!” Nolan shouts next to me so that my mom can hear.

I can hear my mom laughing again as I shoot Nolan a nasty look.

“What? Just in case,” he smirks, shrugging his shoulders.

“Anyway, Mom,” I start, ignoring Nolan’s side comment, “thank you for your help. I may be eating this alone…”

“Oh…come on!” Nolan jokes.

Still ignoring him…

“I’ll let you know if I run into any problems.”

Snickering still at Nolan, she answers, “No problem. Talk to you later, honey.”

After hanging up, I turn to Nolan with an irritated look on my face.

“You’re not being funny, you know that?” I tell him, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’m trying to do something nice for you and you’re being a jerk!”

His smile quickly fades, seeing my obvious frustration for the way he’s acting and treating this as a joke. Placing his hand on my leg and rubbing it gently he says in a remorseful tone, “I’m sorry, doll. I’m just kidding ya. I love that you want to cook me dinner. I think it’s hot as hell that my little sex kitten is going to be stirring it up in the kitchen.”

Tilting my head at him with a smirk, I ask, “Sex kitten?”

His smile returns as he puts his hand up, curling his fingers.

“Rawr,” he growls like a tiger.

Pulling my eyebrows together, I sarcastically tell him, “Don’t
ever
do that again!” I shake my head with a displeased look.

Laughing at my displeasure, he says, “What? Not a turn on?”

“No…not at all,” I confirm.

Our grocery store trip takes much longer than I expected. Although I come here almost once a week to get our normal groceries, I’ve never shopped for actual
meal
ingredients. I usually buy cereal, lean cuisines, coffee, creamer, bagels…stuff like that. The list my mom gave me has fresh basil leafs, oregano, specific lasagna noodles and tomato sauce. Of course, Nolan is like a little kid and throwing random things into the cart, picking food that he hasn’t eaten since he was little. Yes, it’s adorable, but it slows me down tremendously.

Over an hour later, we finally have the car loaded with all of our bags and are on our way home.

– NOLAN –

As Alexa prepares dinner, I’m watching the football game in the living room. I could have sat there at the center island in the kitchen watching Alexa prepare everything, moving around the kitchen with her cute little apron on, but I didn’t want to make her nervous. She probably would have thought I was making sure she didn’t mess anything up, even though I know shit about cooking.

“Hey, babe?” she calls for me.

Glancing over the back of the couch, I answer, “Yeah, doll?”

“I’m almost done…I think. You wanna come set the table?”

I quickly stand up and turn off the television. I’m fucking starving; I could eat a damn cow right now. It’s taken her over an hour to cook this dinner. I almost got up and grabbed something to eat a little while ago, but I didn’t want her to get mad. I already pissed her off earlier, and I didn’t want to fuel the fire anymore. Instead, I’ve been gulping down water after water, trying to keep my stomach at bay.

Coming up behind her at the stove, I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss the inside fold of her neck.

“It smells amazing, baby doll.”

Turning around, flustered, she pecks me quickly before nudging me out of the way.

“Sorry, I’ve gotta get this out of the oven,” she says with a tight grin, grabbing a pot holder off of the counter.

“Nope, do your thing,” I tell her, getting out of her way. “I like this, by the way,” I add, pulling the plates and salad bowls down from the cupboard.

“Setting the table?” she asks, still focused on what she’s doing.

“No,” I turn and smile at her. “Spending the day with you, cooking dinner at home, using our kitchen table…it feels good.”