:: Emma's POV ::

"Oh Emma..." my mother gasped as I emerged from the fitting room at La Reve, "you look beautiful."

I stood up on the platform with the help of Cindy, my bridal consultant. She was sweeter than ever and was so accommodating. I still wasn't telling anyone I was pregnant and it was making dress shopping extremely difficult.

My mom and my sister's kept picking out such form fitted dresses and my grandmother, bless her heart, kept picking out the ball gowns. All styles which I would've loved to experiment with had the circumstances been different.

I opted for the flowy chiffon gowns with the empire waists, it hid my small but ever growing bump perfectly and in all honesty, the styles of these dresses fit my wedding theme nicely; shabby chic with a bit of a rustic twist. My wedding will be the envy of girls everywhere, or at least I believe it will be. I guess time will tell; I'm sure the media will let me know if my upcoming nuptials are a hit or a miss.

"I love it." Holly gushed as she inspected me from all angles, "You look incredible."

"It's romantic." Rachel chimed in offering her opinion.

I looked at myself in the mirror holding my hair up and then putting it down trying to mimic possible hairstyles as I nodded at Rachel's choice of words. Romantic was the perfect way to put it. The way the fabric flowed from my body was perfect and it did make it feel rather fairytale-ish.

"But will it pass the Watt test. That's the question..." I turned to look at some of the most important women in my life to see my mother drying her tears, "Mom, don't cry, you're gonna make me cry."

"I'm sorry honey." She patted her eyes with a wad of tissues, "You're so grown up and you just look so beautiful and I'm just so happy for you."

Here come the tears I was trying so hard to avoid. As if getting married wasn't emotional enough, in the best way ever of course, me being pregnant has kicked my hormones into overdrive. I cried over nearly everything and as much as JJ tried not to laugh when I broke into tears over commercials and every single television show I watched, I couldn't blame him. I laughed at myself too, there was literally no controlling my emotions half of the time, but honestly, there's nothing I love more than being pregnant and I felt guilty for keeping it from my family, I just wanted to make sure we were in the clear before we excited everyone.

"Watt is going to be speechless; I know that for a fact." Jillian answered, a smile on her face as she tried to ease the water works that were taking over the room, "He adores you, I'm sure he wouldn't care if you were wearing a paper bag."

JJ and I spend a lot of time with Jillian and my brother Ben, we always seem to be getting together for dinner or arranging play dates for the kids. The kids all loved coming over to swim; granted they have a pool at their own house, they insist it's just not as cool as JJ's. Personally, I think they come for JJ. He's always running around and playing with them in the yard and the house is always filled with laughter and giggles, I love it.

"What do we think?" Cindy smiled as she questioned my dress options, "Is this one the favorite?"

I looked around at my support group and Cindy followed my gaze, they were all nodding in approval. I turned to look at myself in the mirror one last time and that's when I really got emotional. I was getting married. I was going to spend the rest of my life with my best friend and I felt so blessed. The dress was perfect.

"What does the bride think?" Cindy looked at me for an answer even though I was certain she already knew, "Do you love it?"

"Yes." I nodded as I let out a small laugh through my tears, "I love it."

I was happy. Really happy.

.........................................................

:: Emma's POV ::

I pulled up to the house to see JJ's truck was gone and figured he had gone to get Noah from school. I unloaded the couple bags of groceries that I had and made my way into the house. Today had been such a long day and I was looking forward to being able to relax for the remainder, but not before I had to make dinner for my hungry boys.

I had finished putting the groceries away when I heard the front door open and close and it wasn't long before JJ and Noah appeared in the kitchen but the air seemed to be tense. Noah ran passed me and out the patio door to his swing set JJ had put together for him in the backyard. It was highly unusual for him to not greet me when he came in and it was definitely not like him to come in the house without talking JJ's ear off.

"What happened?" I looked at JJ who seemed just as confused as I was.

"I don't know." He shrugged as he tossed his keys on the kitchen island, "He wouldn't talk to me. He didn't even seem excited to see me when I picked him up but he won't tell me anything."

"It's okay." I reassured him as I gave him a quick smooch, I hated seeing JJ looking so upset, "I'll go talk to him."

He nodded as I walked out to the backyard to find Noah hiding in the small tented area at the top of the playground. I really hadn't seen this side of him before, or at least not in a long time and the last time I had, his father was involved. Oh God, please tell me his father hasn't shown up at school.

"Noah." I called out to him but got no response, "Can you come down so we can talk for a minute?"

Still he was silent.

"Okay, then I'll come up there." I made my way around to the small ladder that lead to the top of the playground and climbed up.

Noah was against the wooden wall, his knees tucked into his chest. The site of him was breaking my heart. I situated myself across from him and he just looked so sad.

"What happened babe?" I reached out for him and rubbed his leg, "You have us worried. Did something happen at school?"

Noah was quiet as I tried to figure out what possibly could have happened. He's in first grade for goodness sake, what could be going on at school? It had to be school, he was happy as could be when he left this morning.

"You have to tell me so I can make it better, okay?" I was lucky enough to get a nod but my hormones were sure to get a hold of me if he didn't speak, I was really worried about him, "Did something happen at school?"

He nodded again. Was my kid really being bullied in first grade? What's going on in this world? I was trying to keep my cool in order to get to the bottom of this.

"Did someone hurt your feelings?"

He nodded again.

"Will you tell me what happened?" Noah stood up and made his way toward the ladder, "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna show you." He answered as he made his way down the ladder.

Show me? Show me what? My mind was racing as I followed him down the ladder where he waited for me at the bottom. He grabbed my hand in his and pulled me across the yard and into the house. JJ looked up at us as he leaned against the kitchen counter, putting his phone back in his pocket, curious to hear about what was going on.

Noah let go of my hand as he grabbed his book bag and pulled out his folder of papers. JJ and I looked at each other briefly as Noah sifted through his papers trying to find whatever it was that had him so upset. I started wondering if maybe he didn't do well on a test or maybe he got in trouble; I was getting antsy.

He finally found the paper he had been searching for and handed it to me. There was a big star and smiley face at the top written by the teacher so it had nothing to do with a bad grade. I continued to read the paper and in bold typed words it read:

My hero is my daddy, because.... he is the best football player ever. He loves me and mommy very much.

Noah's hand writing filled in the blanks and at the bottom he drew a picture of JJ in his Texans uniform with a picture of Noah and me standing beside him. I instantly felt the tears come to my eyes as I looked over at JJ. He had a confused expression on his face as he pushed himself off the counter and made his way towards Noah and I. Ever since we told Noah we were getting married he has been so excited, and it has meant so much to him, now I really understood why. In his eyes, he was getting a daddy.

I handed the paper to JJ and watched him closely as he read it. He looked up at us with tears in his eyes, in all the time I've known him, I have never seen him so overtaken with emotion. I knew he was touched because I was. I could only imagine being in his shoes.

"Noah, this is beautiful. You did a great job." I smiled at him, "Why are you so upset?"

"Connor told me that JJ isn't my daddy and he doesn't love me." Noah joined the crying party as tears streamed down his little cheeks; those words shattered my heart because I saw how much it had upset him.

JJ squatted down to Noah's level and pulled him into his arms. I had never seen him hold Noah so tight, I wiped the tears from my eyes as I admired the site of the two of them.

"What do you think a daddy is?" JJ looked Noah in the eyes, I was wondering where he was going with this but I figured he knew how he wanted to address this issue and I was going to let him.

"Someone that plays with me and feeds me and buys me ice cream and takes me to the park and takes me swimming and reads me books and hugs me and loves me and loves mommy..." Noah rattled off a list of things that he incorporates with the word daddy and I suddenly knew where JJ was going with all of this.

"And do I do all of those things?" JJ asked curiously, waiting on Noah to answer him.

"Yeah." Noah nodded.

"So, what do you think?" JJ looked at Noah, a smile on his face, "Do you think I'm a daddy?"

Noah nodded again, a smile growing on his face and his eyes sparkling with excitement as he threw his arms around JJ's neck. That moment JJ just shared with Noah was beautiful and I was definitely emotional and I couldn't even blame it on the hormones this time, this moment would have brought me to tears regardless. The way JJ handled this situation was perfect for a child of Noah's age; he was way too young to get technical with everything; to explain biological fathers and step fathers and all of that nonsense. I saw the hurt JJ felt knowing Noah was upset and it was heart wrenching. As long as my little boy was happy, that's all that mattered to me. To us.