Watermelon

One Step Closer

[spicy]

"What's all this stuff?" Jace asked as he stepped into the kitchen. Shawn was sitting at their little dining table in the breakfast nook connected to their kitchen shifting through several papers.

"Trying to find my birth certificate," he sighed. "I know it's in this pile of papers somewhere."

"Whatcha need that for?"

"Camila and I are gonna go apply for our marriage license once she gets home from work."

"That's exciting. How long after you apply will you actually get the license?"

"In most cases the license is issued right then and there...but since she's not a Canadian citizen it might take a little bit longer to issue. I'm still not sure how that will work. But we already have the application filled out so now it's just a matter of actually presenting it in person with our identification and stuff."

"Oh, cool." Jace sat down in the chair across from Shawn. "So...Chloe's birthday is coming up and I was kinda hoping you could help me out with something."

"Oh yeah?" Shawn glanced up at him with a proud smirk. "And what do you need help with?"

"Well I was asking Camila for ideas on something cute I could do for her that wouldn't cost me a ton of money and she said that what you did for you guys' first date was really special. Think you could help me do something similar for Chloe?"

Shawn smiled. "I could definitely help you do that. When do you wanna do it?"

"Well her actual birthday is next Sunday but she's spending the day with her family so I though maybe we could do it the night before?"

"Sounds good. I'll ask coach if we can use the field again." Just then, they heard a crash in the living room followed by the sound of Maggie crying. Shawn jumped up from his chair, taking only a few quick strides to get to the little girl who was sitting by the bookshelf. "What happened, stinky?" He picked her up into his arms, noticing the large book laying on the floor next to where she had been. "Did the book fall off the shelf?"

"Yeah," she answered in a hiccup through her tears. She lifted her small hand and rubbed the top of her head, where Shawn presumed the book must've hit. "I w-wanna read..."

"Oh, sweet girl..." He kissed the top of her head. "If you want to read, you've gotta get a book off the shelf in your room, okay? You can reach those books. The shelf out here is too big for you still." Shawn grabbed the book that had fallen and flipped it over to see which one it was. He chuckled. It was a psychology book he had read back when he was still in school. "I don't think you'd really like this book anyway, stinky." He held her close until the crying had subsided and she no longer seemed bothered by the little bonk to her head. "Why don't you go into your room and pick out a book? I'll get you a snack and read it to you before your nap."

"Okay," the toddler squeaked before getting up from his lap and waddling off into her room. Shawn stood up and made his way back into the kitchen.

"She okay?"

"Yes," Shawn sighed. "She tried to get one of my books and it fell on her head. Thank god the shelf itself is mounted to the wall. It could've been a lot worse." He grabbed a bag of goldfish crackers from the cupboard and poured some out onto a pink little plastic plate.

"You know, that wouldn't have even been an issue if she didn't like reading..." Jace shrugged. Shawn glared over at him. "What?! All I'm saying is that I've never had a book fall on my head. Reading is just too dangerous. We shouldn't do it."

"Interesting theory," Shawn snorted. "You okay watching Maggie tonight while Camila and I are out?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I'll be playing video games in my room until then." Jace stood up and made his way up to his bedroom while Shawn carried the little plate of goldfish crackers back into the living room where Maggie was already waiting on the couch with a book.