Skipping up the familiar front porch steps, I stop in front of the front door and knock thrice. After waiting only a few seconds, the door opens and a smiling Novah greets me.

"Layla, sweetheart, come in. How are you?" She gives me a quick hug which I gladly return before she steps back and allows me to slip past her.

"I'm good! How are you, Novah?" I reply as she closes the door and I begin slipping off my shoes.

"I'm great, hun. I'm cooking up some mac n' cheese tonight if you want to stay for dinner?" She offers kindly.

"Oh, that would be great, thank you! Your cooking's the best." I tell her honestly as I hang my coat on the coatrack by the door.

She laughs and waves me off, "You're too sweet. Reece is in his room if you want to go straight through and see him. Liam and Anna have just left to take the kids to the park."

"Thanks, Novah." I tell her with a smile before walking down the hallway and going through to Reece's room. His door is closed when I get there, so I knock a couple times to see if I can go in.

I hear his faint "come in" from the other side of the door and do as he says, opening the door and letting myself inside. I smile when I see him in just a pair of grey sweatpants with no shirt, standing by his dresser and putting his laundry away.

He looks over at me and grins, stopping what he's doing immediately to come over to me. I'm expecting it, but I still squeal when he picks me up off the ground in a hug. He chuckles deeply, placing me back on the floor but not letting go. He has a wide smile on his face as he looks down at me and that smile only widens when I lean up and connect our lips in a kiss.

He hums, squeezing my waist gently in his hands before pulling away. "Hey, Sunshine." He murmurs softly, placing a small kiss to my nose as he speaks.

I grin back, hooking my arms around his neck and leaning back from him slightly. "Hi."

He leans in again, silently asking for permission with his eyes and I gladly give it to him, pressing my lips against his again. And there's that fluttery feeling in my stomach again. This man will be the death of me.

We pull away after a moment and I finally detach myself from him, walking further into his room. "Do you need help putting that stuff away?" I ask, nodding to his drawers.

He shakes his head, "Nah, I only have a couple more things to put away. You can find something for us to watch on Netflix."

I grin and gladly jump onto his bed, immediately snuggling myself under his covers. I grab his laptop from his nightstand and turn it on, putting in the password before going onto Netflix. I start scrolling through the movies as I wait for Reece to join me.

Not a minute later, Reece sneaks in under the covers beside me, gently curling his arm around my waist to pull me to him. I gladly oblige, slipping between his legs and resting my back against his chest as I continue looking for a movie.

"Have you ever seen Me Before You?" I ask, turning my head to look up at him.

He scrunches his nose up adorably and shakes his head. "No, what's it about?"

I grin, clicking on the movie and resting it further down my legs as it begins to play, "Trust me, it's good. You'll see."

He lets out a content sigh, resting his head on my shoulder, "If you say so."

As the movie starts to play, Reece gently runs his fingers along my sides under my shirt, tracing invisible patterns into my skin. Every so often, he taps my side and leans down, murmuring, "Kiss?"

Of course, I gladly do as he asks each time, pressing my lips to his. How could I ever deny him of that when he asks so damn adorably?

Halfway through the movie, my mind starts to wander. When a certain thought occurs to me, I quickly sit up straight with wide eyes. This causes my shoulder to knock Reece's chin and I quickly apologise, giving him a couple pecks on the lips.

"What's wrong?" He asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"Today's our one month anniversary! I completely forgot!" I tell him, moving to the side slightly so that I can look at him with wide eyes.

"Oh, shít," Reece laughs slightly, "I forgot as well. Fúck, that's like one of the most important things about being a boyfriend and I blew it. I'm sorry."

I quickly pause the movie and move the laptop to the side so that I can turn around in Reece's lap to face him properly. I gently cup his face with my hands, smiling down at him. "Are you forgetting that it slipped my mind as well? It's okay, Reecey. It's not really a big anniversary anyway. Six months and a year are probably the biggest to start."

"Yeah, but..." He trails off with a pout, "I want to make everything about our relationship special, Sunshine. I would have taken you out to dinner and bought you a gift... I messed up."

"Baby," I laugh, shaking my head, "None of that matters. I would have liked to have gotten you a present too, but that's not what's important. You're everything to me, Reece. I'm with you for the little things like lazy days watching cheesy movies in bed with you. I'm with you because you're constantly looking out for me and doing little things for me just because. The gifts and the dinners and the celebrations don't matter when I love you for you."

His eyes widen almost comically, "You- what?"

I giggle, leaning down to kiss his lips quickly before repeating myself. "I'm in love with you, Reece Carter."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Can you say that one more time for me? Because I genuinely think I might have misheard you." He blinks quickly, staring up at me disbelievingly.

"You heard me right. I. Love. You. I have for a while now."

He grins then, arms circling around my waist tightly. "I am so fúcking in love with you, Sunshine, it makes my head spin. You don't understand how crazy in love I am with you. I would do anything for you."

"Good. Then the feeling's mutual." I tell him before leaning back down and capturing his lips in another kiss. He doesn't hesitate to kiss me back, sliding a hand up behind my head to grasp my neck. He tilts his head, lips parting to dart his tongue out to play with mine.

Reece reluctantly starts pulling away after a moment to speak, "Actually-" I pull him back in for another peck before he can continue. Then another. And another. And one more before he gets another few words out. "I have something-" A couple more kisses. "-for you." He finally pulls further away from me after one last lingering kiss to my mouth and a quick peck on my forehead.

He gently slides out from under me, getting out of bed to go over to his drawers. As he pulls one open to ruffle through it, he explains, "I bought this a couple weeks ago for you but I didn't know when to give you it. This is the perfect time."

Once he finds it, he closes his drawer and comes back over to me where I am now sitting up, leaning back against his head board. He kneels in front of me – or more like on top of me – with one leg on either side of my stretched out legs, keeping his weight off of me. He's had his hands behind his back since he found the present, but now that he's in front of me, he holds them out to me.

I look down at the gift in his hand and grin. Carefully reaching out, I take the small black notebook from his hands, running my fingers over the leather cover. At the top right corner, my initials have been stamped into the leather.

"There was a place selling these notebooks that you could get engraved and I noticed that your song book was getting pretty full." He shrugs, reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his neck as he smiles nervously. "I don't know, I just thought it was kind of cool-"

"It's beautiful. I love it." I open it up and notice that he's written a little note inside.

For all the songs you'll write about me.

- R

"You've got me there. All my songs are about you." I laugh, smoothing my hand over the page. The paper is a decent weight and thickness, which I like. I'm very particular about my notebooks. Reece knows this. He's hit the nail on the head with this one.

"I'm glad you like it." He tells me softly. "Let's just hope you only say good things about me in those songs."

I roll my eyes, setting the notebook on his nightstand so that I can look up at him and drape my arms over his shoulders. He leans down closer to me, moving so that he is now hovering over me, face just above mine. "You already know that they're all love songs. All mushy and stuff."

He hums, pecking my nose lightly, "Talking about my eyes and my smile..."

"All right, I get it. We've now established that I love you." I chuckle.

He grins, "We have. And I love you too, Sunshine. I always will."

"Always?"

"Of course. Thirty years from now when we've got kids and a house... I'll still love you. Probably even more than I do now. I'll never stop loving you."

"You plan on keeping me around for that long?"

"Sunshine, I'll stick around for as long as you'll have me."

"You're never getting rid of me then. I want to grow old with you, Reece." I tell him honestly.

He smiles, shuffling back under the covers quickly and pulling me into his lap. "I want to grow old with you too. I can already see us in the future with a bunch of mini Sunshine's running around."

"I hope our kids have your eyes." I tell him, looking up into said gorgeous turquoise eyes.

"I hope they have your smile. And your hair." He says, twisting a strand between his fingertips.

"How many kids do you want?" I ask him, snuggling further into his lap, twisting around so I can rest my head on his shoulder. This way, I can feel the vibrations through his chest as he speaks.

"Really, that's up to you, Sunshine. I'm not the one who has to carry them for nine months then push them out." We both laugh and I take one of his hands in mine. "But if I could choose... Probably three or four."

"I've always wanted three kids," I tell him, "In my dreams, I have a boy first. Then I have a little girl. And the last one is a surprise. I want at least one of each though."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I don't know really. I guess I just want to know what it's like to raise both. Of course, if I end up with three girls or three boys, I could hardly complain. Really, as long as they're healthy and happy, there's nothing more I could ask for."

Reece blows out a breath, "Three kids. That's three hearts that could break. I'm gonna have to keep up boxing for a while to teach any potential partners a lesson, huh?"

I laugh, pressing a kiss to the underside of his jaw. "I think the tattoos will scare them off just fine. But we both know you're going to be the softy. There's no way you'd be able to be strict with them."

"I mean, I'd try," Reece emphasises, but he already knows I'm right, "But you're right. I'm the same with my siblings. I can never say no when they ask for things."

I huff, "I'm going to have to be the bad cop in the relationship then, huh?"

"Probably. You're scarier than me."

"Am not!"

"Maybe not on the outside, but you can be scary when you want to be, Sunshine. Never mean, I don't think you have a single mean bone in your body. But if someone is rude or disrespectful to someone you care about, it's like a switch is flipped."

"You say that like you're not the exact same." I point out.

Reece pauses. "Okay, you got me there."

"It's okay, we can both be good cop and bad cop. We'll switch it up." I'm quiet for a moment as I trace the tattoos on his arm and chest. "Do you think we'll make good parents one day?"

"I think you'll be the best mom in the world." Reece replies, his tone filled with honesty.

I smile, "And no one would make a better dad than you."