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“Honey, I’m home!” Jamie called playfully, closing the door behind him and hanging his coat on the hook next to the door.
“Ha,” Eddie scoffed, shaking her head in amusement as she exited the kitchen, wearing an apron and sporting a bit of flour on her left cheek. “Sorry, babe, but it just isn’t as funny the hundredth time. I do appreciate your dedication, though.”
“Well, anything for you,” he replied gallantly, smiling against her skin as he ducked slightly to press a kiss to the flourless side of her face. “I’m guessing you’ve been doing some baking then, yeah?” he asked her humorously, grinning when her hand immediately flew to her cheek.
“Jameson Reagan!” she scolded laughingly. “Were you really going to let me walk around like that?”
“I probably wouldn’t have let you go outside with it still there,” he defended himself. “You look cute,” he added a moment later, enjoying the way her cheeks flushed slightly at the compliment. “What were you making?”
“Oh,” Eddie sighed, leading him into the kitchen, “I think the better question is what haven’t I made?”
Jamie’s eyes widened slightly when he caught sight of the many desserts arranged around their kitchen. Miraculously, there wasn’t a single dish remaining in the sink. “Have you decided to switch careers?” he questioned with a raised brow. “Because I think there’s enough here to stock a bakery in Bay Ridge.”
“Yeah, I was thinking of trying to buy out that drugstore,” she quipped. “No, I just… it hasn’t really been the best week, has it? So,” she continued brightly, refusing to focus on the negative, “I decided to break out the book full of family recipes my grandmother gave me a few years back. Felt the need for some of the staples from my childhood, you know? And I have yet to find any Serbian or Hungarian bakery here that makes them even half as good as my grandmas did, so…” She shrugged. “Made them myself. By the way, we will have to push some of this off on your family. There is no way the two of us can eat all this.”
“Homemade baked goods?” Jamie questioned with a slight smirk. “No, I don’t think they’ll be interested in those at all.”
She rolled her eyes fondly, then glanced at the oven’s timer before returning her attention to him. “How did things go with Mr. K? Everything work out okay?”
“It did,” Jamie replied. “I don’t think anyone will be bothering him anytime soon.”
“Good,” Eddie sighed, relieved. “I’m glad to hear it. It was really nice, you know. What you did for him.”
Jamie shrugged. “He always looked after us like we were his own family, cared about Dad like he was his own son. We were just returning the favor.”
“I know,” Eddie nodded. “That doesn’t make it any less amazing, though. You come from a very long line of good eggs, Jamie Reagan.”
“Thanks,” he chuckled quietly, shaking his head with an affectionate smile.
Eddie returned his smile for a moment before growing serious again. “You hear anything from Fox about her son?”
Jamie shook his head. “Nothing yet. I put in a good word with the ADA. Not much else I can do.”
“No, I know,” Eddie murmured. “I just…” She trailed off, exhaling deeply. “It’s just so terrifying, isn’t it?”
“What is?” her husband asked, mildly confused.
“Just the idea of being parents,” Eddie supplied. “Of having kids, of being responsible for someone else’s actions. You can do everything right, and things can still go bad. They get ahold of something at a party in high school and end up getting addicted for life, or they, you know, get killed at sixteen when they’re just trying to walk across the street, when they’re just trying to help…”
“Whoa,” Jamie interrupted, his eyes widening as he reached out to grip his wife gently by the shoulders. “How long have you been thinking about all this?”
“Why do you think I’ve been doing all the baking?” Eddie questioned exasperatedly. “I’m worried all the time. The world is terrifying, and Sean and Jack and Nicky, they’re just out there in the middle of it all. If I’m this bad as an aunt, who knows how overprotective I’ll be as a mother, and then, you know, our kids, if we have any, would absolutely end up hating me…”
“No, they wouldn’t,” Jamie interrupted patiently. “There’re a lot of bad things a parent can be, Eddie. Overprotective is just about at the bottom of that list. Anyway, I thought you weren’t stressing about kids. We’ve talked about it, agreed that maybe, one day…” He trailed off with a shrug. “I thought that was the end of it.”
“It would be, if everyone else wasn’t asking about them,” Eddie sighed tiredly. “And maybe if it was your family or mine, I wouldn’t be so annoyed by it, but it’s not. In fact, they are just about the only ones who haven’t made me discuss it so far.”
“Well, just ignore everyone else, then,” Jamie suggested. “We’ll have kids if and when we’re ready to have them. And we’ll just… never let them go to high school parties,” he suggested, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Or… walk across streets?”
“Or fly anywhere with them when they’re little,” Eddie added, her voice muffled against his shirt. “I saw a story on the news once about a little kid climbing on the conveyor belt…”
“What?” her husband questioned.
“Nothing,” she sighed a moment later, shaking her head in amusement.
“Look, what do you say we just leave whether or not we have kids, and when we have them, up to the two of us, and to hell with what everyone else thinks?” Jamie suggested.
“Yeah,” she murmured in agreement, her eyes drifting shut. “That sounds like a good idea.” She fell silent for several moments before speaking again. “Thank you.”
He smiled against her hair. “Anytime.”