Call me Lex

He can see the shadow of two pairs of feet through the crack at the bottom of the door, soft whispering that he can’t quite make out and then a small knock on the wooden door. 

“Mhm” Shane just lets out softly, already seeing the doorknob twist slowly and the door slowly creaking open. Once the door opened just enough, a mess of curly hair is pushing through the open space and a toothy smile from Jas lights up the room.

“Uncle Shane!” she whispers excitedly, “Happy birthday!” she adds, as she slinks through the still half open door to rush him in bed. Soon Shane’s vision is filled just with her curls as she jumps to cuddle him in bed, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, squeezing her arms as tightly as she could, causing him to cough slightly through his chuckle. 

“Thanks kid,” he says softly, smiling warmly down at her as she adjusts herself under the quilt to cuddle in next to him. He can’t help the soft chuckle he lets out as she adjusts his arm around her shoulders, to let her cuddle in further. 

“Happy birthday baby,” you say softly stepping up next to the bed, using one hand to brush through his bed head, the other hand holding up a tray. Jas begged you last night to let her help with the breakfast in bed birthday tradition, so she was up early with you, adamant she wanted to cook everything on her own – which really meant helping make the pancake batter, filled with extra sprinkles and making sure the freshly squeezed orange juice was only made with the prettiest of oranges from your orchard.

As you carefully place the tray on his lap, Shane can’t help but smile warmly up at you, his chest tight with the feeling of love he hasn’t quite gotten used to just yet. Wrapping his arm around your waist, he pulls you close to his side, whispering warmly up at you “thank you baby” as you lean down to meet him halfway for a quick peck. Jas might let out a quick ‘yuck’ before burying her face into his ribs, but he just laughs and leans in for another quick kiss, morning breath be damned. Squeezing your hip one time, he leans back, pulling you onto the side of him in bed, mindful of the tray of food in his lap.

“Alright you two, walk me through this spread yeah?” He says as Jas happily starts to walk through each of her menu choices, pointing at each item and declaring which pieces she wants a bite of. It took him a while to even think this future would be possible for him, that he would get to wake up on a day he used to so deeply despise with two of his loves surrounding him, but he couldn’t even dream of having it any other way.