Fairytale Gone Bad - {Synyster Gates - Book 2} -

Chapter 9

To be honest I never really gave a second thought about having kids. Not even when my mom dragged me to the kindergarten where she used to work. Some of them were cute and adorable but nevertheless I had always viewed them as unpredictable little humans that pooped non-stop and came without a volume control button.

Now that I was babysitting little River during the week my point of view had shifted massively. Not that he wouldn’t do all that stuff that used to annoy me but somehow it was different now. I didn’t see it as a big deal anymore when he smeared peanut butter over my favorite shirt, when he cried for hours because he had stomach cramps or when he didn’t listen at anything I would tell him. All this didn’t matter anymore because the smile he would sent my way every time he spotted me, the hugs and kisses he would give me when Val or Matt picked him up, his happy laughter when we would have fun together was so worth it. I never understood what it meant to love a child, to receive its unconditional love but the more time I spent with River the more I wished for that exact same love. I would watch Val and Matt smile so happily, it made me smile every single time.

For today Lindsay and I had agreed to meet in the park having a picnic for lunch. It was incredible how much our friendship had grown in the matter of those two past weeks. We had clicked right from the start and it felt amazing knowing we were so much alike.

I sat River onto the stairs and put his shoes on. He was bouncing up and down in excitement about the picnic. It was so adorable.

“Are you excited to see auntie Linds?” He squealed and clapped his hands. He was such a happy kid, with everyone. I chuckled and pinched his cheek, which made him giggle. Picking him up I cuddled him as I carried him to his car seat in Brian’s BMW. I strapped him up, put in the bag with toys and baby stuff, the buggy and the basket with food in the trunk and drove off towards the park.

It was a sunny day; a lot of mothers with their children were out in the park or at the beach. Linds and I actually thought about going to the beach but we would go there all the time and never to the park. When I pulled into the rather packed parking lot my mind wandered back in time remembering the day when Zacky and I had been looking for Brian. I remembered him lying in the dirt looking so fragile and heartbroken. I remembered washing him, helping him to bed, his sleepwalking which thankfully stopped as soon as he had told me about his pain, our first kiss.

Blushing and with my heart racing in my chest I cut the engine and got out. River was still super excited. Surely he would be sleeping like a log later on. He really got lucky parents.  I pulled out the buggy and then came to free River from his car seat.

“Well someone is hyper.” I laughed picking him up. “Can’t wait for the adventure to begin, hu?” God, he was adorable being his happy and bouncy self.

When he was strapped in I grabbed the baby bag and picnic basket and made my way to the entrance of the park. It was so funny. River would point at things and people having me explain what it was. He was so happy that he even started singing a song in his own bubbly language. Chuckling I pulled out my phone and made a small video of it for Val and Matt. It was so obvious that he had a lot from his dad. It made me wonder if he would follow his dad’s example and become a metal god. We came to the playground and spotted Linds sitting on a bench texting.

“Can’t go anywhere without texting Zacks, hm?” I teased her. She looked up and the soft smile of her face got bigger and brighter.

“Hello, my two out of four favorite people.” She hugged first me tightly and then poked River’s chubby cheek making him giggle.

“That just makes me feel reeeaaally special.” I frowned playfully.

“Aw you two are of course on top of the list.”