fatherhood // lashton

11

"Can we go play now, grandma?" Leon asked as he jumped up and down on his chair as he was sitting down.

"Are you you done with your food?" Liz asked and looked at the two toddlers by the end of the table. Both of them nodded their heads, making Liz smile.

"Then it's okay to go play" she said and nodded at them. The small ones grinned big before climbing off their chairs.

"Hey," Ashton said softly, catching the attention of the toddlers before they had time to run away, "What do you say before you leave the table?"

Both toddlers looked at Ashton with big eyes, Leon furrowing his eyebrows as he was thinking about what Ashton meant. Peach smiled big though.

"Thank you very much for the food, it was very nice" she said and smiled up at Liz and Andrew with those soft pink lips and those clear green eyes.

"Yeah, thank you grandma and grandpa!" Leon said as he understood.

"You're welcome sweethearts, now go play" Liz said and laughed fondly when seeing the two toddlers run out to play in the garden.

Luke ran his hand up and down Ashton's thigh as they looked at their kids running off while giggling happily. Ashton placed one hand over Luke's and intertwined their fingers, letting his thumb caressed Luke's soft skin.

"She is so adorable and well behaved" Liz said and looked up at Ashton, earning a bashful smile from the older one of the fathers.

"Thank you" Ashton spoke and tightened his grip around Luke's hand under the table, making the blonde smile.

"It must be very comfortable to know the two of them get along so well" Andrew spoke and nodded over to where the two toddlers had ran away before taking a sip of his beer.

Luke nodded his head and picked up his own bottle of beer, taking a sip of it before answering, "Yeah, it's really nice"

"I just have to ask," Liz said and smiled at Ashton, "Peach is a very rare name, how did you come up with it and how did you decide that's what you wanted?"

Ashton bit the inside of his lip, looking like he thought about an answer, before speaking up.

"I never thought about it before, me and her mother had decided on Payton even before the fourth month had gone by, but then Peach's mother died right after the birth. I named our girl Peach because of memories and, yeah, it's more sentimental than it seems, it's not just a fruit" Ashton chuckled lightly but Luke frowned slightly since he's never heard this story.

Luke tightened the hold around Ashton's hand and brought it to his own lap before placing his other hand over it as well, giving Ashton some kind of reminder that it was okay.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't know about her mother" Liz said and Andrew was frowning slightly beside her. Ashton only shrugged and smiled small.

"It's fine, it's not something I avoid talking about, she deserves better than that" Ashton spoke.

"So she's not named after the fruit then?" Andrew asked and laughed warm and friendly.

"Oh no, she is actually. It's not just that I saw the fruit and decided that that was what I wanted to name my child. It was just that Macy, Peach mother, had this weird cravings for that fruit when she was pregnant and I had no clue why since I was so ready to buy her bunch of jars filled with pickles, but that's the only thing she wanted.

"I kind of started to tease her about it and called her Peach and she always acted like she hated it when I called her that but she didn't. We both started joking about it and how our baby would probably turn out as the fruit itself. But when when she was born, she was a really pretty little girl and I hate that Macy never got to see that, you know?" Ashton spoke.