“I want to take Emma to Tennessee with me.”  Justin blurted the words out quickly, hoping that the speed might soften the impact of his request.  Adah gave him a wide-eyed look.

“Tennessee?”

“Yeah.”  He let out a sigh, allowing himself to sit on one of the bar stools in place of his pacing.  “It’s a long story, really, but essentially I have to go grovel to get my cousin back as my personal assistant and she’s in Tennessee.”

“And you want to take Emma with you?” Adah asked, the same look still on her face.  If Justin didn’t already know her, he’d wonder if she was slightly…off.  She seemed to be having trouble understanding his words.

“Yeah.  My grandparents haven’t met her yet, and both my Mom and Dad really want to see her again.  I just…I need a little vacation and I really want Emma to see Tennessee.”

Adah picked up where Justin’s pacing had left off.  She didn’t think that taking Emma to Tennessee was a bad idea, she just couldn’t imagine being without her baby for any extended period of time.  “Justin…I…”  She paused, not sure how to phrase what she wanted to say.  “I don’t know if I can be without Emma.”

“You’d come with me, of course.”  The tone of his voice indicated that this was what he was thinking all along and she was being an idiot for thinking otherwise.

“Oh.”

“I would never expect you to let me take Emma for two weeks without you.”  This conversation was turning out to be more awkward and uncomfortable than he’d originally predicted, which was saying a lot.  “I can give you some time to think about it, if you need.”  Justin didn’t really have time for Adah to think about it.  He’d already booked the tickets and their plane left the day after tomorrow.  He wasn’t stupid enough to tell her that, though.

“No…no I don’t need time.”  Adah took a deep breath, knowing that she was probably going to regret this but having no other choice.  “Yeah, we can go.”  The light  in Justin’s eyes as she answered was enough to set Adah grinning.  His joy was contagious and she knew that she’s just made this man’s day.

“Sweet!”  He scooped her up in a hug, swinging her around the room.  “I’m so excited!”  He set her down, the awkwardness seeming to escape him in his excitement.  Adah, however, couldn’t get over the fact that her skin was on fire from where he’d touched her.  “My baby girl gets to see my hometown!”

“When are you thinking of leaving?  How much time to I have to pack?”

Justin stopped his excited babble to glance over at Adah.  “Oh, right.  Pack.”  He knew it would be fatal to admit that his plans we made, so he fibbed a little.  “I’ll go talk to someone about booking tickets now.  I’d like to leave soon, though, so maybe you could start packing now?  I’m hoping to have a plane for Thursday.”

“Okay.  I’ll start getting things together.”  Adah watched Justin start to scroll through his phone, and she couldn’t help but share a little in his excitement.  Of course, her worry and hesitancy were overruling that joy, but she was trying her hardest to hide it.

“I need to go make a few phone calls.  I’ll come up later and give you the details.  Thanks so much, Adah, this is going to be great.”  He left a kiss on her cheek that Adah could still feel long after he’d skipped out of her apartment.

“Taking a little vacation with baby daddy?”  Sam’s voice broke through Adah’s thoughts and she quickly removed her hand from her cheek.

“Yeah, he wants to take Emma to Tennessee.”  She forced herself to walk into the kitchen where Sam had been giving Emma a snack.

“And you’re okay with all of this?”  Sam sat back down at her chair and shifted Emma’s bottle.  The infant could only hold her bubba for a moment before her grip slackened and the plastic fell.  It was interesting to watch, really. 

“Yeah, of course I am.”  Adah’s tone spoke to the exact opposite.  “It’s his home.”

“And you’re cool with being surrounded by doting family members?”

“Of course.”

 “And being alone with Justin for extended periods of time where you’ll play at Mommy and Daddy and get a chance to see what it might be like if that man were more than just Emma's co-creator?”

If possible, Sam would be leveled with the stare Adah was sending her.  “What are you getting at?”

“Nothing,”  The blond held up her hands in defense.  “Nothing at all.  I’m just making sure you know what you’re getting into.”

Adah’s sigh sounded more like a growl.  “Justin deserves to have his daughter at home with him.  He’s being understanding by inviting me along.  Neither of us would be right to take Emma away for an extended period of time without the other.  That’s all it is.”

“Are you convincing me, or you?”  Sam was thrown another dirty look.  “Hey!  You’re face is going to stick that way if you keep looking at me like that.  My Momma told me so.”

“Just so you know, things between me and Brennan have been fantastic lately and I’m truly content.  I won’t be without my daughter for two weeks,  but I have no worry that things between Justin and I will stay exactly the same and everything will be fine.”  She stalked out of the room, leaving Sam looking at Emma knowingly.

“Of course things between her and Justin will stay the same.  Awkward and charged with completely electric sexual tension.  Nothing new there.”  Emma grinned and let out a giggle at the silly face Sam was making.  “Yeah, you know what I’m talking about, don’t cha, baby doll?”

Another giggle erupted from the little girl.

~*~

The plane ride had been uneventful, which both Justin and Adah were thankful for.  Emma slept the entire way, allowing both of the adults time to relax.  There wasn’t much in the way of conversation, but that was okay because both of them were lost in their own thoughts.

Adah couldn’t help but remember her conversation with Sam a few days ago.  She wondered what her roommate was getting at.  She also wondered how things with Brennan would be while she was gone.  They’d been spending so much time together lately, she didn’t know what the distance would do.

Justin had been trying to figure out how he was going to woo his cousin back into working for him.  He knew that he’d done something to royally piss her off (for the life of him he didn’t know what) and he also knew that it was going to take more than just groveling to get her back.  Women were so damn unpredictable.  At least right now Emma was uncomplicated in her needs and he could make her happy with a silly face or a bottle.  He prayed that she would stay that way forever. 

He prayed really hard.  Often.

“What’s going to happen when we land?”  Adah’s voice broke his thoughts.

“My mom and Paul are going to meet us there.  We’ll just go to the house for the afternoon so we can make sure she gets settled.”  Both pairs of eyes shifted to the sleeping bundle in the seat between them.  She yawned and cooed in her sleep, balling her tiny fists together as she stretched.

“You’re not worried about…crowds?”  Adah had been wondering all morning how they were going to get Emma past any photographers.

“We’ll be pulling into a private terminal.  We wait until everyone else has gotten off, and then the plane will move to the private terminal and Mom will meet us there.”

“Oh.”  So much of this was totally over Adah’s head, but Justin was comfortable with it so she tried to relax.  They’d been the first to board the plane this morning, heading to a section in the back that had been quartered off so it was just the three of them.  The staff had obviously been paid generously to keep their mouths shut, too. 

Oh, the things you could get with enough money.

A noise from Emma stole their attention.  “Hey baby girl.”  Justin shifted the blankets around his daughter and touched her cheek gently.  Her bright blue eyes opened and stared up at him, a grin coming to her face.  “Look whose up.”

Adah leaned over to smile down at her daughter.  It was a tender moment between the three of them and Adah found herself feeling content with the thought that she liked this.  She would be okay if it happened more often.

The captian’s voice came over the speaker to announce that they’d landed and passengers were now able to exit the plane.  Twenty minutes later, Justin and Adah were being greeted by his mother as they exited the terminal gate.

“My baby!”  Lynn gushed, rushing over to the three arrivals.

“Hey Momma,”  Justin grinned, ready to hug his mother when she rushed past him and to the stroller that Adah was pushing.  “Or not.”

“Forgive her, son, she just missed her granddaughter.”  Paul’s voice was filled with laughter at the slighted look on Justin’s face.  “She missed you, too.”

“Right.  I procreate and now I’m chopped liver.  I see how it is.”

“Well, Emma is way cuter than you are.”  Paul’s quip stopped Justin in his tracks.

“Ouch, Dad, that hurt.”  He feigned a shot to the heart, but took Paul’s embrace anyway, patting the other man on the back.  “It’s good to see you.”

“You too.”  Paul set Justin at arm’s length, giving his step son a once-over.  “You look like hell.”

“Gee, thanks.”  Justin stooped to pick up his bags again, falling into step with Paul as they trailed after the girls.  “I haven’t been sleeping well lately.  Emma has a set of lungs on her and she likes to use them.”

“Sounds like someone else I know.” 

Justin grinned.  “Yeah, she’s a regular chip off the old block.”  There was a moment’s pause, “I’m glad to be home, though.  I need a little home cookin’ and some time off.  It’ll be good to show Emma and Adah around, too.”

“How is Adah doing?”

“She’s dating her neighbor.”  It came out so suddenly that it startled both men and Justin felt the heat creeping up his neck.  “Not that it matters.”

“Obviously it does matter.”  The older man could sense his son’s discomfort, but he knew it wasn’t time to push it; that Justin would open up on his own time.  He always did.  “Just focus on enjoying you week.  I hear that Sadie has been slaving away at a triple batch of peach cobbler.”

“Sweet.  I can’t wait.”  There wasn’t any more time for conversation because they’d reached the car.  After Emma was secured into a car seat and the luggage had been put in the back, everyone jumped in the car.  Justin and Adah sat in the back next to Emma.  .  They were sitting closely together, both flushed with the joy of their daughter.  Adah shifted closer to Justin so she could lean over him and fix Emma’s blanket.  Justin’s eyes closed as he breathed in her scent.  He didn’t know he was doing it.

Lynn gave Paul a knowing look as they watched the young parents dote over their daughter and share laughs.

It was going to be an interesting two weeks, no doubt about it.