Raging Love(51)

We tucked Noah into the guest room for the night, but after about an hour, I heard the door creaking open to our bedroom. A little boy in dinosaur pajamas came walking over to my side of the bed. “I’m scared.”

It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I suddenly realized how Ty could fall in love with Bella so helplessly. I reached my arms out and pulled the little boy into bed with Colt and I. Once I got him between us, I tucked us both in and accepted him into my arms when he cuddled his little body against me.

I laid there for a while, just stroking little pieces of his hair. I had wanted a child of my own for so long. Being a mother was so important to me and here was this child, who obviously needed and trusted me. Maybe it was God’s plan all along for him to come into our lives. I kissed the little boy’s head and let myself fall asleep, feeling like that empty hole in my heart could actually have a chance to heal.

I woke to Colt talking to Noah. The sun was up and they were both leaning on their elbows in bed. Noah was telling Colt about a mean kid in his preschool. Colt was making faces and reacting exactly the way that Noah wanted him too.

I giggled and caught their attention. “Good morning sleepy head,” Colt said as he tossed an extra pillow my way.

“Not everyone likes to wake up at the crack of dawn,” I mumbled.

“We have a big day today. Conner and I are going to paint Noah’s room while you and Mom are out buying his furniture.”

“Sounds like you have it all planned out.”

“My dad says that we can paint it blue and green. Do you like blue and green? Green is my favorite. What is your favorite color?” The little boys sudden burst of conversation was unexpected. Colt began to laugh at me, as I tried to take in everything that had just come out of his mouth.

“Green is a nice color Noah. My favorite is blue.”

“Blue is cool too. Do you think I could put spaceships on my ceiling?” He asked.

I sat up and walked toward the bathroom. Noah followed behind me, not realizing I needed a private moment. It was a good thing the toilet had its own private door. “Be right back,” I said as I closed the door to relieve myself.

When I came back out he was standing there with his hands behind his back waiting in the same spot I had left him. I gave him a quick smile and grabbed my toothbrush. “Can I brush my teeth too?”

Colt came in behind me and kissed me on the shoulder before reaching in the cabinet to grab one of the extra toothbrushes I had bought during one of my extreme couponing splurges. “Here Buddy. It might be too big for your tiny teeth though.”

He reached as far as he could, but couldn’t wet his toothbrush under the water. Colt lifted him up and let him sit on the sink. We all three brushed our teeth in unison. It was a simple mundane action, but it was so sweet. This was the family interaction that I wanted all along.

When Colt would spit, Noah would spit. He copied his father’s every move in fact. I came out of the bathroom to see them straightening the bed. He tossed the little boy on it and started tickling him. Noah laughed so hard as the two of them bonded. I leaned on the door frame, just watching how happy they were.

Our day of shopping burned little Noah out. At first he was so excited, but as we needed to fill out paperwork and drive to different places, he got tired. By the time we were on our way home he had fallen asleep.

Colt met us outside and offered to carry the sleeping little guy up to our bed. His mother, Conner and I started getting everything out of the car. By the time we made it up to his room, Colt was already back in Noah’s room. “What do you think? Think we did good?” He asked.

I looked around the room. I don’t know when they had the time, but they had painted the room green and blue. Hung from the ceiling were different planes and spaceships. “It looks amazing. He is going to love this.”

“Conner found him some glow in the dark stars too,” he added.

They both seemed so proud of their hard work. Colt’s mother had paid the furniture company to deliver it to our house. We could hear the trucks coming down the gravel driveway, so I ran downstairs to meet them.

Within thirty minutes we had his whole bedroom suite set up. The big surprise was that we had found a real bed in the shape of a train. Since it was a special order, Colt’s mother bought the floor model. This was her first grandchild, so you can imagine how much spoiling was going to occur. It worked out better because I had no idea how the thing was originally put together. It came apart in five pieces, but it was giant. His mother smiled from cheek to cheek as the guys got it all set up.

She had managed to buy him the furniture and also a whole slew of new clothes. I bought him all of his bedding, curtains and some cool toys for his room. It was no wonder he was conked out in the other room. I was about to fall asleep myself.