The Kissing Booth: Unavoidable

Part 2 - Chapter 9

Back to the Present - Noah's POV

Life became a whirlwind after we found out Elle was pregnant.  Suddenly, we had a countdown, and we had so much to do before the time was up.  I was determined to take care of whatever I could, Elle was doing enough.  She was having to deal with the stress of being pregnant, I could handle the stress of everything else.  And there was so much else to deal with.  Elle wasn't wrong when she was worrying about everything we had to get done before the baby gets here.  I felt myself secretly wishing pregnancy would last more than nine months, just to give us more time to get everything done.  Of course, I would never tell Elle that, she would probably kill me at this point.  The plan is for us to be back in LA with plenty of time before Elle's due date.  Before we could do that, I needed to find a job, find a house, sell our condo, get all of our things ready to be moved, help Elle find a doctor in LA, and prepare to have my life rocked with a new baby.  No problem, right?

Of course, our families were ecstatic to hear our news.  I wish we could have been there in person to tell them, but neither one of us wanted to wait any longer after our first doctor's appointment, so it was a Facetime call at the weekly family lunch to give everyone the news together.  I swear, my Mom was the happiest I've ever seen her, even more so than when Elle and I got married.  I was actually surprised she didn't jump on a plane to come see us right after the call.  Lee was so excited to become an uncle, although, I know he, like all of our Chicago friends was going to be sad to see us go.  At least we knew Lee would be making regular visits to LA and we would at least get a chance to see him quite a bit.

Finding a new job ended up being the easiest part of the process.  I had kept in touch with my old boss in LA and although he worked for a different company now, he assured me it would be a perfect fit for me and he would love to hire me.  At least I could check something off the list.  The only issue was that he wanted me to start right away.  I would have to give my two weeks notice at my current job and move to LA right after that.  Elle and I decided that I would stay with my parents for awhile to give us time to find a new place, while Elle stayed in Chicago.  She wanted to finish up a project she was in the middle of at work, so didn't plan to make her way to LA for a couple months.  That would give us time to get all of our stuff packed and get our condo sold.  The downside of that was, obviously, that Elle and I would have to spend some time apart for the first time since I had moved to Chicago.

Neither Elle nor I thought that a couple months apart should be a big deal, especially when we both had so many things to keep us busy, but my overprotectiveness had totally kicked in when I saw that positive pregnancy test and I knew that it was going to about kill me to be away from Elle.  I was a little worried that my anxiety would return once we were apart, similar to when she first moved to Chicago from Boston, so I had a talk with Lee shortly before I left for LA.  He was at our place for supper and I broached the subject afterwards, while Elle was resting and the two of us were cleaning up.

I was passing Lee some of the dirty dishes to put into the dishwasher when I brought up what I had been worrying about since I found out I would be moving back to LA without Elle.  I asked, "Hey, Lee, can you do me a favor while I'm gone?"

Lee grabbed the dishes and smirked at me before responding, "Let me guess, you want me to follow Elle around for you while you're gone?  Or better yet, hire her a security guard?"

I had known he was going to give me crap for even asking about this, he had been making fun of me for reverting back to Flynn ever since I almost got in a fight in Mexico.  I knew I had to grin and take his joking if I wanted his help, though, so I smiled right back at him and answered, "That's not a bad idea, Lee.  Seriously, though, you have to watch out for her for me."