Six

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So, Rob got an arrow stuck in his foot.

Yep, you heard that right. The dads and Higgins made the decision to play that game where you shoot an arrow into the air and the last one to run away wins. Well, apparently when the arrow landed it went straight into Rob's foot.

Also, he has two more daughters. So in total three. Two of them look nothing like him but then the third is literally the girl version of him. They're nice but they keep trying to flirt with Lucas. I don't know why but every time they do I get this feeling in my gut that I try to ignore.

Now Lucas and I were sitting on the porch swing joking around and laughing.

"What if I were to pick you up and throw you in the lake right now?" he asked randomly.

"I would quite literally murder you and then you'd be the one in the lake." I looked over at him. He looked me in the eye before we both burst out laughing.

Suddenly the door flung open and Becky ran out crying.

"Hey Becks, what's wrong?" I asked. She ran over to me and I lifted her onto my lap.

"The tooth fairy isn't real." she cried into my shoulder.

"What? Why would you think that?" Lucas asked.

"Mommy said she was gonna put the dollar under my pillow because my tooth fell out." she mumbled. I cupped the back of her head and rested my chin on top.

"Well that doesn't mean the tooth fairy isn't real." Lucas told her.

"But she's supposed to put the dollar under my pillow."

"Yeah, but sometimes she's so busy collecting all the other kids teeth that she asks our parents to help out. That's why your mom said she'd do it because you're on vacation so the tooth fairy might not know where you are. She asked your mom to do it." he explained to her. A small smile made it's way to my face. He's so sweet.

"Really?" she sat up a bit.

"Mhm." he smiled at her.

"Hey, I have an idea." I said. Becky looked up at me. "Can you go get some cups and string?"

"For what?" she furrowed her brows.

"You'll see."

- - -

"Can you hear me now?" I asked through my cup phone. All the kids laughed and said yeah. They all started talking to each other and I just smiled.

Bean was in a chest at the end of the bed, Andre was in the shower, Donna was in the closet, Charlotte was on her air mattress, Kiethie was sticking out from under the bed with Curly, and Greg was standing on the bed. 

Lucas was sitting on the window seat with Mia on his lap and Becky next to him. Mia was babbling into the cup making me laugh. Hers was connected to mine and Beans.

"Hello, is this a pretty lady named Abby?" I heard Lucas ask through the cup. I looked across the room at him and saw him smirking while Mia giggled.

"Yes it is." I smirked. "Is this Mr. Lukey Pookie from my kindergarten class?"

His smirk fell as he got an amused smile on his face.

"Lukey Pookie." Mia poked his nose making me laugh.

"Great, you see what you've done?" he asked me.

"If it helps, I think Lukey Pookie is very handsome." I smirked. He looked up at me and shot me that dazzling smile making me bite my lip to hide my smile.

"Hey! Didn't I say no cell phones!?" Dad walked in the room and froze when he saw all of us.

"What's up Dad?" Kiethie asked.

"Are those cup phones?" he asked.

"Yeah. Abby taught us. Cool huh? Hey check out Becky's." 

"Look Dad. I have a cup waiting. I gotta call you back, I'm on with SpongeBob." she told him.

Curly started barking and Bean popped out from the chest.

"Was that a turkey?" he asked making me laugh.

"Yo Andre can you hear me?" Greg asked into his cup. I set mine down and walked over to Lucas and Mia.

"Look mama." she held up her cup phone. I laughed and kissed her tiny hand.

"They're pretty cool huh?" she nodded enthusiastically and started talking to Bean through it.

"Attention children!" Dad spoke into a cup. "There's been a request from the phone company. Would you please install cup phones in every adult bedroom right away?"

All the kids started cheering and running out of the room. Mia didn't leave her spot on Lucas's lap and instead laid her head back on his chest. She looked up at him and smiled. He laughed and pinched her cheeks together making her giggle.

"Did you do this?" Dad asked me.

"Mhm." I nodded. "Lucas helped."

"You--" he pointed at Lucas, "you're growing on me."

"Thank you sir." Lucas laughed.

- - -

Later in the night after everyone went to sleep I decided to go sit on the porch swing. I had my knees to my chest and tears in my eyes.

Mia woke up from a nightmare and my heart has never felt more shattered in my entire life. I just held her in my arms while she kept whimpering 'mama' over and over again. She thought there was monsters that were gonna get her and she said that I let them hurt her. It hurt because I'd never let anything happen to her in a million years.

"Abby." I looked up and saw Lucas walking out of the house with his sweats and hoodie on. I quickly wiped my eyes with the sleeves of my hoodie and wiped my nose.

"What's up?" I asked as I sniffled. He sat down next to me and put my legs over his lap.

"You okay?" he asked. I forced a smile and nodded but he saw straight through it. "It's okay not to be."

"Luke, I'm fine." I laughed dryly but quickly looked away as more tears came to my eyes. I felt fingers under my chin and he tilted my head to look at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern.

"No." I admitted. 

"What happened?" he asked softly as he rubbed his thumb along my cheek. I sniffled and leaned back against the side of the porch swing.

"Mia had a nightmare." I said. 

"Was it bad?" he asked.

"I mean, for a two year old, yeah. Apparently monsters from the lake came and took her and I let them. She woke up crying and I'm surprised it didn't wake you up." I wiped my nose again. "Just the sound of her voice when I held her and she just kept saying 'Mama hold me.' and 'Mama don't let them hurt me.' over and over again. It breaks my heart."

"I'm sorry Abby." he rubbed my leg that was still draped over his lap. 

"Do you ever feel like no matter how good you are at something, you still think you're doing a bad job?" I looked up at him and saw him furrow his brows.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, sometimes I just feel like I'm totally failing at being a mom but I know I'm a good mom. People tell me all the time but no matter how much I hear it, I still feel like I'm doing a terrible job." I looked at my hands that were tucked into my hoodie.

"Hey," he took my hands into his, "you are not doing a terrible job."

"Then why is my daughter having nightmares of me letting monsters take her?" I asked with tears in my eyes.

"It happens all the time." he told me. "Bean wakes up sometimes and comes to my room because he has nightmares. Hell, Donna does it sometimes. But I do exactly what you did. I just hold them to let them know that it's okay. When Mia woke up, what's the first thing that you did?"

"I took her out of her crib and just held her." I shrugged.

"Exactly. You didn't ask her what happened because your first instinct was to help her stop crying and make sure she wasn't scared. And she did because you were right there." 

"My god, stop being so sweet." I laughed and blinked my tears away, looking at the lake. He chuckled a bit and leaned back on the swing. 

"Be careful. Your boyfriend might not like you flirting with me." he laughed.

I furrowed my brows. "I don't have a boyfriend."

"You don't?" he raised his brows with wide eyes. I shook my head. "Oh."

"I get that a lot." I sighed.

"I didn't mean to upset you." he immediately started apologizing.

"Lucas, it's fine." I laughed. "A lot of people think that just because I have a daughter means I have a boyfriend. But I don't."

"If you don't mind me asking, who is her father?" he asked. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay. Um, it's actually one of my friends. We got drunk at a party and ended up sleeping together. He's not really involved in her life but he's not, not involved, you know? Like he helps me out with things for her and he always makes sure I'm not financially struggling with her."

"So you guys are friends?"

"Yeah." I shrugged. "She doesn't call him dad though. It's just not something she sees him as. He's more of just 'moms cool friend' than her dad."

"Does that bother you?" he asked.

"No. I think I make a pretty hot single mom." I smirked. 

"Oh definitely." he nodded with an amused smile.

"I did have one boyfriend though. Tommy Michaels, freshman year." I said.

"Oh, how'd that end?" he asked with a laugh.

"Long story short, don't tell a boy that you wish he was taller." I pursed my lips.

Lucas let out a laugh. "He broke up with you because you said you wished he was taller?"

"Yep." I laughed. "It wasn't really a tough breakup though because he ended up dating another girl who broke up with him for being too short. It was very entertaining to watch."

"Oh my god." he shook his head with a laugh. 

"Enough about my oh so tragic love life," I said dramatically, "what about you mister almost eight pack. Got any girlfriends?"

"Okay, stop making fun of my abs." he told me. I laughed and hit his stomach. "I've only had one girlfriend."

"Seriously?" I raised my brows. "Only one?"

"I'm gonna try not to be offended by how shocked you sound." he put his hands up.

"Oh sorry it's just, you're not exactly bad looking so I assumed you'd have the girls all over you." I said.

"You think I'm good looking?" he smirked.

"Get on with the girlfriend story." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay fine." he sighed making me laugh. "Well, we got together our sophomore year of high school and we were together until the end of senior year so two years. I, um, well I loved her, obviously. And she did love me. We were like the it couple of our high school and everybody wanted a relationship like ours. Honestly, she was the girl I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. I know that sounds stupid--"

"It's not stupid." I shook my head and rested my chin on my fist. "You were in love."

"Yeah, I was. Everyone could see it apparently. My mom always said I looked at her like she was a million bucks. Well, the thing is, after being together for a year and a half, Rachel wanted to you know, take our relationship a step further." he said. I furrowed my brows before realizing what he meant.

"Oh, you mean sex?"

"Yeah." he pursed his lips. "But I just wasn't ready. You know you usually hear stories of how it's the girl that isn't ready and the guy tries to pressure her but it was the other way around. She kept trying to get me to do it with her but I didn't want it to just be some fling. I wanted it to be special but even then I just wasn't ready to do that yet. Well turns out, she ended up meeting this other guy who was willing to take her virginity. Instead of waiting for me, she cheated on me." he looked down at his hands and I frowned.

I took one of his hands into mine and gave it a squeeze.

"It's okay if you don't wanna tell me anymore." I told him softly.

"No, it's just--" he cleared his throat, "it turned out to be my bestfriend." my face fell slightly. I can't imagine how much that must have broke him. "I didn't know until I saw her messages on his phone. They had been inappropriately texting each other and we ended up breaking up the week before graduation. I honestly didn't even want to walk because I was just so bummed out."

"I'm sorry Lucas." I put my hand on his shoulder. "You don't deserve that."

"I know. It's just-- like you said, I knew I was a good boyfriend but I felt like I was a terrible one after we broke up. I kept questioning myself and thinking if I had just done it with her maybe we'd still be together and I would have been happy."

"You can't blame yourself for that." I shook my head. "You weren't ready and if she didn't want to wait for you then that's her loss. You are an amazing guy Luke. And I know we haven't seen each other since kindergarten but I know that any girl would be lucky to have you. You are nice, funny, and absolutely amazing with kids. She's stupid for ever letting you go."

"You think so?" he looked at me.

"I know so." I smiled and kissed his cheek. "And I also know that you are going to find a girl that treats you the way you deserve to be treated. You're gonna find a girl that's you'll love just as much and that you'll get to spend the rest of your life with."

Lucas looked me in the eyes and it was then that I noticed how close our faces were. I swear I saw him look down at my lips but I must be tripping.

"You're a great girl, you know that?" he smiled at me.

"So, I've been told." I grinned cheekily.

"Ha." he laughed and looked down at our hands that were still intertwined. He rubbed his thumb against mine making me smile. 

He turned his head again and this time our noses brushed together. His eyes locked on mine and we both froze. It was like the world around us disappeared and the only thing I could think about was him. I didn't even realize we were both leaning in until I felt his breath on my lips.

Our lips brushed against each other and just as they were about to connect a thud from inside got our attention. We both jumped apart and looked inside the window where we saw Higgins knocked out on the floor by the couch.

Lucas and I cleared out throats and I moved my legs from his lap. 

"We should head up to bed." I said awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah, we should." he nodded. We went inside and up to our room and I went to bed with only one thought circling my mind.

Was I really about to kiss him?

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