moments ♡

pile ♡

It wasn't often that she woke up to an empty bed. He was generally the one who slept through alarms or tried to convince her to stay in bed and cuddle with him when she had to get up to do responsible adult things. So, when she woke up that Wednesday morning to find his side of the bed cold, she was up and investigating before she gave it a second thought.

She checked the bathroom first, but he wasn't there. The light wasn't on for him to be getting a midnight snack, and the lamp wasn't on in the living room for him to be read-

She tripped. On a leg. His leg. In the dark living room. "Honey?"

"Hmm?"

She reached over a bit to turn on the lamp. "There are a lot of questions I could ask here… Just pick one of them and answer it."

He was sitting on the floor, still clad in his pajama pants while she wore his pajama shirt. His back was against the couch, and his legs were stretched out and crossed at the ankle. His hands were folded neatly in his lap, and he studied his intertwined fingers as if they held the mysteries of the universe.

They probably didn't.

She sank to the floor beside him. "Honey?"

He didn't respond. There was a deep and resounding sadness in his eyes. She sat cross-legged beside him and then reached across him to touch his face, lightly pressing at his jaw until he turned to meet her eyes. "Baby." He looked so heartbroken that she wondered if there had been a phone call with bad news or something, but she would've heard the phone ring if that was the case.

"Am I doing okay?"

She felt her brows furrow as she reached out to brush a strand of hair out of his face and rest her hand on the side of his neck. "Okay at what?"

He sighed. "Being a daddy? A husband? A person? I woke up a few hours ago, and all I can think about is how I should be doing better than I am. I keep replaying times when I should've loved you more or not talked to the kids so harshly or times when I shouldn't have stayed at work so late or opportunities that I missed to be kind and I just feel like-"

She kissed his lips softly, hoping to at least alleviate some of the stress. He sighed, and she felt him relax against her. He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

"There is no one better than you. Not for me. Not for our children. Not for the place in the world that you occupy. No one. You were created for this life - for me and your sweet girl and your stinky boy. No one could be doing this better than you. No one could love us better than you do." Tears had started to fall from his eyes. "No one." She shook her head emphatically. "Only you."

"But I could be doing so much better." His voice was watery and cracking, and tears had started to fall from her eyes, too. "You deserve more than the little bit I can give."

"Babe." She stretched up to kiss his cheek. "You've given me everything." He scoffed. "I mean it. A home. A family. The love of a lifetime. Straight out of a Wattpad book, I swear. I can't fathom my life being any better."

He wrapped his arms around her. "But it could be. I could do better."

She sighed. "You can better yourself all you want, but you are what is best for me. For your children. For your niche on this planet. We can all do better in some way, but as far as I'm concerned… There's no one better than you."

He shook his head, but he smiled a little, reaching out his arms to her. She happily slipped into his embrace, sitting where she could face him. "Thank you," he whispered into her ear. She met his eyes, and his lips met hers. She kissed him long and soft and slow and tender until he forgot why he was upset. She touched his handsome face and made him feel cherished and overwhelmed with how much she wanted him - needed him and craved him.

He laid her out on the floor beside him, bending down to kiss her before stretching his long body out on top of hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips to hers. He was crying, but that didn't matter much as his lips strayed down her cheek, over her jaw and slowly down her throat. She felt warm, but not like she was on fire - more like she was warm and comfortable and still so irrevocably attracted to this amazing man of hers.

The world spun, and the sun rose, and they were laying on the floor, making out like teenagers.

"Dogpile!" Their daughter broke the sexual tension, and, like the seven-year-old she was, dashed down the hallway, flinging herself on top of her entangled parents. She had begun to tickle her papa's ribcage while he tried in vain to get her off his back.

"Dogpile!" A smaller voice from a smaller person came from the 3-year-old little guy barreling down the hallway. He jumped hard, arms and legs stretched all the way out, and landed on top of the tangle of limbs that was his giggling family.

It was in that moment that he realized that he had gone wonderfully right somewhere, because there wasn't a life better for him than this one. 

Author's Note:
Please vote and comment and share and remember that you're almost always doing better than you think you are. Love you!!