This Is Us - Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Wesley toyed with the collar of my shirt as I held his small hips in my hands, running small circles with my thumbs rubbing against his smooth skin.
His plush lips crashed against mine with nearly perfect synchronization as I only took one kiss from him. Pausing for a moment but not daring to open my eyes as I dove in again. My heart ceased to beat for a solid few seconds as I tried to decipher whether or not this was real.
But feeling his tongue snake around mine let me know this definitely wasn't some kind of sick dream. I slowly pulled away, pecking his lips once more before opening my eyes to the shocking sight in front of me.
Wesley's face had been dusted with a light layer of baking flour and leading below his closed eyes were tiny streams staining the flour. Little rivers of wet tears made pushed their way through the flour and down to his chin. His hands balled up in my shirt as he opened his beautiful crystal blue eyes to meet mine and I raised my hands from his waist to his cheeks to wipe the tears away.
"Why are you crying?" I gently cooed as I wiped each tear with my long sleeve and he sniffled.
"How? After everything I've done to you...how could you feel anything towards me other than hatred?" He asked and I leaned forward, kissing his flour-covered cheek tilting my mouth towards his ear.
"Because my love for you will always cancel out any hate," I whispered and he whimpered into my shoulder, snaking his arms around my neck and I held him tighter than before, closing any distance that was once between us. His head rests on my shoulder, giving me full access to his neck as I lay a small row of peppered kisses from his earlobe to his shoulder.
Wesley's soft moans panted into my shoulder was like the musical equivalent of finding that perfect key in a symphony that took five years to complete.
"You okay?" I asked him as I quickly realized I had him pressed against the counter and he might be uncomfortable.
"Mhm," He nodded back and pulled his head back to kiss me again, I ran my fingers through his silky dark brown hair as it slips between my fingertips. I take in his sweet smell of honey and coconut which I had only gotten hints of before but now I could take in every little detail with my heightened senses since the accident.
"Wait, what about the cookies?" He asked in between our passionate kiss and I paused, turning my head to catch sight of the marvelous disaster behind us and groan.
"We can't just let them think we're really shitty parents?" I asked him and he rolled his eyes.
"It's not their opinion I worry about, it's hers," He points up to signal the sleeping little girl we both cherished with everything we had.
"Why do you have to be right?" I asked as I let him go, neither one of us clearly liking the idea of parting, even if it was for a short while.
"Because we'll never hear the end of it. 'But papa, Suzie brought snowman cookies. But Daddy, Dakota brought chocolate chip cookies'," Wesley points out as he puts on the oven mitts and I chuckle at his impression of our daughter.
"She's just like her mother and that means somehow everything is our fault," I sigh with my arms crossed as I watched him place the star-shaped cookies in the oven.
"Personally, I hate that one kid. What's his name? Hassan?" Wesley snaps as he closes the oven door and I know exactly who he's talking about.
"Yeah! I fucking hate that kid. He's all she ever talks about!" I whine and he sets the timer and throws the mitts down with such anger.
"Remember when he shared a slice of his PB & J with her just because she said it looked good! Like who the fuck does this guy think he is? Just wait until field day, I'll show him a piece of PB & J," Wesley growls as he cracks his knuckles and I agree.
"The kid lives right next door, what if she runs away with this Hassan?" I ask him and he sets the timer.
"I should burn one of the cookies and tell her its special so she hands it to him. That should deter him away from her," Wesley plots and I burst out laughing.
"I never knew you were such a crafty savage," I point out and Wes pouts, going under the cabinet and pulling out the cleaning spray for the counters as I grab some paper towels.
"No one touches our little girl. We have to prepare ourselves. She's in kindergarten now but it'll get worse as she grows older and more attractive because we all know she's a social butterfly like Matty," He says and we start to clean up the mess we made together, constantly clashing hands and occasionally lips as we kept getting tangled for unknown reasons.
"Fucking Hassan, he's on the top of the list of people I dislike right above that kid George who handed her that love note asking her to marry him," Wes said and tossed me the roll of paper towels so I could put them away.
"I told Jaydean, she's not allowed to have crushes until she's forty-four and you know what she told me? That's too long Daddy, you're being a little aggressive and I need you to give me some wiggle room," I shared and now it was his turn to laugh.
"You know when we were feeding the pony she asked me where babies came from and I told her, for now, it's the hospital, cause I didn't know what else to say," He explained and he looked over at the oven with four minutes left.
"That's a good placeholder for now. Man, she's getting big huh? I feel like it was just yesterday she was crawling around the place, disappearing and giving us mini heart attacks. Now she's stealing the hearts and sandwiches of little boys making them go hungry for her attention,".I sigh, leaning back against the kitchen island.
"Yeah, yeah she is," Wesley joins me and he tries to do the same, but I hook my arm around his waist and pull him close.
"I-I should get back to the guest house, It's getting late and it's my week to take Jayde to school in the morning," He says but doesn't deny me when I kiss him again, taking his lips in mine which now tasted like sweet raw cookie dough and he groans.
"Don't go, stay here with me. It's been pretty lonely without Matty anyway and I'll take Jayde to school in the morning so you can sleep in," I offer, kissing the tip of his nose as the oven goes off and he nods his head in agreement.
"Okay," he agrees and I turn off the alarm, taking the cookies out of the oven and placing them on the counter to cool since I would just deal with them tomorrow,
Wesley follows me upstairs to the main bedroom where I've been sleeping alone for the past month and instantly takes off his leather boots. Leaving them by the door as I peel off my shirt. He whistles when I do and I ball up my shirt and throw it at him.
"Oooh, I get a strip tease now," he jokes as he starfishes into the bed and I sit down on the edge, knowing what was going to come next. An immense silence fills the room and I look over to find him watching me closely.
"You know, when you were in the hospital, after the accident, Matty said he wanted us to switch places...I wish it was true," he says and I unbuckle my belt, slipping it off and starting to take off my pants.
"I'm not a very religious person but I think life only gives us what we're strong enough to handle. You weren't strong enough for this kind of life but I am so it's okay. I'd rather it be me than you,"
I say as I take the Allen wrench out of the nightstand drawer and start to take off each leg. Loosening it with the screw before pulling it off. Gently rubbing the stumps as I did so but keeping my socks on so I wouldn't scare the shit out of Wesley.
I turn around to find Wesley staring at me, not with disgust or pity but with something else. Matty always treated me the same with or without legs but Wesley gave me a look of beautiful admiration.
With only the dim lamp lights brightening the room, I turned them off and got into bed already feeling comforted knowing he was beside me. I could see him staring at me in the dark and closed my eyes to shut him out.
"Thomas,"
"Hmm?"
"I think you're the strongest man I've ever met,"
He mutters and I was surprised by his soft kiss, assuming he'd probably want to stay away from me with the whole weird legless thing I had going but instead he presses himself to me. Squeezing my muscular arms and as I wrapped them around him.
"Really? Because I don't think anyone is as resilient as you Wesley," I muttered, hearing the gentle smack as he pulled away.
"Don't call me Wesley," He says all of the sudden and I was sort of confused. I opened my eyes to meet his softened gaze as I pushed the silky brown curls out of his face.
"Why?" I asked and he held his hand against mine when I caressed his freckled cheek.
"It's not my real name, It's a name I was assigned by evil despicable people to brainwash me into thinking I was less than human," He confesses and I hold my breath.
I knew he had gone through hell and back and he worked for the government as intelligence but that was it. Matty and I never really asked questions because we feared he would shut us out like he had been hardwired to do whenever someone got too close.
But somehow, I had broken through his code.
"What's your real name?" I asked, feeling guilty for calling him Wesley all these years when Wes was a lie
"It's...It's..." He pauses as if the words are stuck in his throat and I press my forehead to his. Waiting patiently.
"It's Luca," he finally says and lets out a small breath of release against my skin.
"Okay Luca," I gently replied and waited until he fell asleep with his head against my bare chest and his legs wrapped around me. I was about to fall asleep with him but the small squeak of the unlocked door that tore me from that dream.
"Daddy? Are you in here?" Jaydean whispered, and by whispered I mean whisper yelled because she hasn't gotten the whole concept of whispering just yet.
"Yeah baby girl, what's up?" I asked her as she came over to my side of the bed. Luca stirred a bit in his sleep as we had both been well programmed to wake at the sound of her angelic little voice.
I looked over to find our red-headed daughter hovering over me in her nightgown with her stuffed lambie in hand. The lamb she refused to never go to bed without since she was a few months old.
"I can't sleep, It's too dark and the crickets are scary," She yawns with her unique California country drawl mixed with Luca's British accent as she rubs her eyes and I pat the mattress of the California king bed.
"Mmm come here," I groan and she hops in, knowing I couldn't say no to that sweet little face.
"Why are you scared of crickets, they're not going to hurt you," Luca points out, shifting off me as little Jayde decides to climb over me and snuggle between us.
"Because papa, they make this scary noise like eeo, eeo, eeo, and they're everywhere," She whispers, curling up under the blankets and making sure her lamb also has his own space in the bed cause god forbid if she wakes up and finds him squished beneath one of us.
"Did you know you can eat crickets?" Luca adds and Jayde smacks her little lips.
"Eww Papa, that's gross. Daddy, would you eat a cricket?" She askes turning to me and I kiss the top of her little head.
"Only if it was bacon flavored," I revealed and she visibly shivered.
"Eww Daddy! don't kiss me with your buggie eating lips!" She squealed and I quietly shushed her, feeling like her screech was about to blow out my eardrums.
"I mean, I've had sour cream and onion crickets before and they were pretty good," Luca adds and Jaydean wiggles around from the grossness.
"You guys are both so gross! I don't want to talk to you anymore, I'm going to sleep," She huffs and pulls the blanket over her head to ignore us as we laugh over her girlish squeamishness.
"Goodnight nugget," I whispered to her and she softened up when I itched her little shoulder and she wrapped her small arms around me.
"Goodnight beautiful," Luca whispered as well, kissing her head before the three of us fell into a deep slumber.