Chris' lips rested against the mouth of his beer bottle. The smile on his face appeared by natural consequence of watching his girlfriend with his niece. Both Denise and Stella were on their hands and knees searching for a four leafed clover in a patch of what seemed like mostly three leafed clovers. The search arose from Stella spotting Denise's amethyst clover pendant resting between her collarbones. When asked about the significance behind the necklace, Denise explained it was her good luck charm; her favorite number was in association with the number of leaves on a lucky clover. She explained four leafed clovers had never failed her before, they aided her in examinations and other events she felt nervous about; they offered her strength in times of weakness. After hearing that, Stella decided she needed a clover of her.

Chris was about to go over and help when he saw Denise had found one. She held it up with great triumph and passed it to an excitable Stella who immediately threw her arms around Denise to give her a great big hug as a thank you. It was a great achievement for Denise to be liked by a child, especially one who meant so dear to Chris. Before him, the idea of having children perturbed her. She didn't hate children, she just couldn't imagine having to be responsible for another human being. Parenthood was mostly sacrifice, having a child was giving up everything. She feared she was incapable of doing that, to produce and invest a limitless amount of love and commitment with no questions asked. It was an impossible task. What if her child turned out to be a murderer, or just a really terrible person? Would she still feel obligated to love, or would she turn her back on the being she created? She feared things she didn't have control of, or foresight in. Parenthood was like that, unpredictable and chaotic. But so was falling in-love, and she fell in-love with a man she'd do everything she was afraid of without blinking an eye.

Denise hugged Stella back, her gaze slowly trailed the perimeter until she caught Chris in it. Her lips curled into a smile when she saw he was already smiling at her. A chuckle reverberated in her throat when he winked. Her eyes fell to his lips when he deliberately drank his beer in slow motion, the smugness on his face told her he knew exactly what he was doing to her. She shook her head at him with a bit back smile as Stella ran off, then rose to her feet to walk across the field.

"Stop it, Chris," she instructed him when she joined his side.

"Stop what?" He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into him.

"You know what," she chuckled at the cheeky smirk on his face. "So just stop it."

Chris simply laughed and pressed a tender kiss on the side of her head. It was responsive for her to smile and wrap her arm around his waist; her head rested lazily against him as she sighed contently. It'd only been a few days since they officially became a couple, so things were indubitably going swimmingly. It was the honeymoon phase that the two of them didn't think existed. If two people belonged together, time played no part in changing the paradisiac quality of a relationship. It was a forlorn attempt to predict the future, but they were confident things would remain in felicity.

Denise felt her phone buzz in her back pocket and she took her arm off Chris to check it. She'd taken a week off school to spend in Boston with Chris and his family before he needed to dedicate the next nine months of his time to his career. She'd promised her professors she'd do her studies via distance education so every buzz was either another lecture in MP4, or assignment notes in PDF. Chris realized it was selfish of him to risk her education, but he was eager for her to meet his family. They'd already heard so much about her, he had to prove she was as amazing as he'd described. It was easy to forget about his selfish act until her phone started buzzing. But each time he fussed, she would assure him it was fine. It was a week, she could manage a week; it wouldn't be the first time she missed a week of school.

It was, however, the first time she was missing a week of school to be with a boy. If her fifteen year old self could see her now, she would've berated her for putting a boy over her own needs. What stopped her worrying about fifteen year old Denise was twenty-six year old Denise. Twenty-six had always been the golden age for her, it was the age she wanted to have everything sorted: career, house, marriage, and kids. Being with Chris secured the success rate of achieving all that by twenty-six because he wasn't a boy, he was a man. Chris was a man who was going to give her the entire universe when she believed she only deserved a single star; who would love her unconditionally and eternally; who promised to take care of her and put her needs above his; who planned to do anything to help her make her dreams come true. It seemed contradictory of him to make her miss class to spend time with him before he left for his job, but he had something up his sleeve; an act of incredible faith that he'd present her with once she graduated.

"Do you need to get to your laptop?" Chris asked when he saw Denise had received another lecture. "Are you sure?" He asked when she shook her head with a reassuring smile, slipping her phone back into her pocket because she wanted to be present. "I can take you back, we can grab a plate and head back to the house. Ma won't mind, she was actually upset with me for making you miss school," he admitted with a sheepish smile.

"It's alright, it's only a Professor Killian lecture," she shrugged nonchalantly. Upon hearing her least favorite lecturer's name, he felt a little better. "Relax," she urged because she could still see the extreme guilt in his eyes. "I'm a good student, I can manage missing a week. Plus- it's not like I'm not working while I'm here, I am. It's fine, Chris," she pressed her hand against his face as she continued to assure him.

"Okay." He kissed her palm; she smiled and pulled her hand away. She heard Chris chuckle as she wrapped her arm back around his waist. "Incoming," he whispered into her ear and she smiled at Scott, his younger brother, who was walking over to join them. He had a frown on his face which worried Denise until Chris explained, "he's pissed about your hat." She laughed, because of course he was; she was wearing a Yankees cap in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. "I told you not to wear it, but you didn't listen."

"But my Yankees hat looks so good on me," she pouted.

"So will my Red Sox hat, but whatever," he pecked the top of her head.

"You really are smitten with her, aren't you?" Scott teased Chris. He smiled at Denise, knowing his prediction of their bright future was going to come true. It was the right move giving her the endorsement to be a part of their family, Chris' whole family all thought so. "I still remember you arguing with your director because you didn't want to wear a Yankees cap for The Nanny Diaries, and now you're actually kissing the uniform of the enemy?" Chris rolled his eyes and Denise laughed along with Scott. "The girl has got you whipped, man."

"Fuck off, Scott," Chris chuckled, playfully shoving his brother. "This is not whipped, this is love." He said to him, smiling at her; she smiled back. "Yes, I hate the Yankees but- my love for Denise trumps that hate, so-" he took his 'Natural Addiction' cap off his head and swapped it with her Yankees cap; the one that he'd jokingly said would burn his skin if he touched it. "Boom, I've put on the uniform of the enemy."

"Traitor," Scott pretended to shoot Chris a death stare, but he was secretly happy to see how serious his brother was about a girl. In Chris' defense, she was a pretty freaking amazing girl. His whole family agreed and didn't even flinch at the fact she wore a Yankees hat. "We're going to have to disown you after this barbecue, you know that right?" Scott joked, causing Chris and Denise to double over with laughter. "You are a terribly bad influence, Miss Hogan. What's wrong with the Boston Red Soxs?"

"I don't follow baseball, Scott, I just like the hat."

"And if she likes the hat," he swapped their hats back around, "she can wear the hat." Denise felt her smile widen. The act was small, but also huge because of what Chris was like when it came to sports and his Boston teams. "I'll gladly defend her from crazy fanatics like you," he told him, squeezing her tightly.

"You realize that means you're going to have to defend her from yourself, right?" Scott teased and Chris deadpanned him. "Yeesh," Scott held his hands up in surrender and Denise giggled. "I'll back off before he pulls another awful prank on me. Did you hear about the time he made-"

"You pee your pants?" Denise laughed when Scott shot a laughing Chris a disapproving look. "Yup, I know all the embarrassing stories. I'm not only a fan, but I've been friends with Chris for a while now. It's okay, Scott," she called as he walked away, pretending to pout. "I thought it was mean on Chris' part." He glanced over his shoulder and smiled at her, winking; she definitely had his approval. "I'm nailing this whole family meeting, aren't I?"

"Mm hm," Chris nodded, placing both hands on her waist to turn her towards him. "I mean- I did do the hard yards for you, so don't get too cocky." He teased her and she smiled, tugging at his hat before wrapping her arms around his neck. "But come on, did you expect anything less from yourself? You had me at 'thanks for the input I didn't ask for'." He continued to tease her and she laughed, feeling her cheeks heat up as she buried her face in his chest. He laughed and hugged her tightly, mumbling into her hat, "you know I love you, Denise."

"I love you too."