Outtake: One More Time #Cece #Juan

Hey, loves!

We're back for another outtake this month and also the last outtake this month as I have some interesting things happening next Friday. We'll resume outtakes next month. 

This is also the final outtake I have planned for Cece and Juan unless someone manages to get me interested with an outtake idea for them. This was an outtake I felt was so far in the future from the ending place of the blog series that I thought it would likely be better as a regular Friday outtake.

Thanks so much for loving my words, babes.

XO.

BK

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One More Time

A Cece & Juan Outtake

Cece POV

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"Are you looking, Ma? Are you watching?"

The shouts of her sweet girl had Cece lifting her gaze from the thread that she'd been picking at on the blanket keeping her safe from the sand. She found her daughter running across the beach, each step sending sand flying up around her bare feet. She would never understand why she kept trying to keep the sand out when frankly, it always found a way in. Like right from her daughter's feet.

She really didn't mind.

Juan was quick on Catherina's heels, ready to catch their daughter, or the kite she had finally managed to get into the air, should he need to. He came to a stop when it was clear their girl had everything handled. Her kite flew higher and higher ... until it was probably at the end of its string. The wide smile that stretched across her daughter's face matched her father's while the two stared up at the cloudy sky.

For once, she was thankful that the sun decided to hide behind the clouds. They could appreciate all Catherina's practice finally coming to fruition now that her kite was up in the air and actually staying there. Every day this week, they walked down to the beach with Catherina's new kite in hand. She wanted to do it herself, though. She didn't want her parents to make the kite fly for her.

They always gave the girl what she wanted.

Especially when it was something like this.

Already, she was learning to be independent.

The beach was their happy place. It didn't matter if it was a beach in Cali, one across the country in New York, or even a beach in an entirely different country ... Cece's family found happiness in warm sand and whispering waves.

"I see you!" Cece called back.

Catherina kept one hand tight on the spool attached to the string but used her other to wave wildly at her ma.

"Hold on a sec, Ma," Cece said to her own mother who'd she had been having a conversation with while her kid tried for the fourth time this week to get the kite into the air. "I gotta take a picture of this."

She could hear her mother's question even as she took the phone away from her ear and held it out with the camera up to snap a quick photo of Juan overlooking their very proud daughter flying her kite.

"Did she get it up in the air?" Catherine asked.

Cece laughed.

Even her parents had been invested in this moment. From afar, of course. They were always on one call or another, either with her mom, dad, or brother. Someone from back home. It was the only way they could feel present despite living in California.

"She did," Cece said when she brought the phone back. "Just the right gust of wind, I think. I was distracted for a second and missed it going up into the air."

Catherine sighed on the phone. "Motherhood in a nutshell. We spent immeasurable time teaching you things that you finally learn to do when we're not watching. She'll fly it again, no worries."

Wasn't that the truth?

Then, Cece's mother asked another question. One that had her attention drifting away from her still smiling daughter and husband.

"Have you told him yet?"

"Today," she replied, offering nothing else. "I bought him a gift to tell him."

"Oh?"

"He'll love it."

She swore she could see her mother smile when Catherine replied, "Oh, I have no doubt. Love you, hmm?"

"Forever and ever, Ma."

Cece hung up the phone and tossed it aside on the blanket knowing good and well she would likely be back on the phone with someone from New York before the evening was out. Smiling to herself, she didn't even hear Juan's approach until he dropped down beside her on the blanket.

Bringing sand with him.

Because of course.

Cece's laughter was quickly swallowed up by the kiss Juan leaned over to plant on her lips. All over again, she was reminded why she loved the beach and this man so much as sand tickled over her feet and legs while her husband kissed the very breath out of her lungs.

"Look, look!"

Cece and Juan broke apart to watch Catherina run down the beach in the opposite direction with her kite trailing behind high in the air. She was still just as proud as could be.

Juan resituated himself on the blanket, using his arm and elbow as a prop to watch their girl. With his attention distracted, Cece took the chance to grab the little white box with the gold bow that she'd kept hidden at her back. Setting it directly in front of Juan's line of vision, she took great pleasure in watching him notice the small box.

His gaze lifted to hers.

"What's that?"

She winked. "Open it and see."

He didn't need to be told twice. Soon, he had the top of the box pulled off. The pretty satin bow was discarded with the rest as he pulled out the smallest pair of Nike runners. All white with golden swooshes on the side, the baby shoes matched the current ones Juan liked to wear day in and day out when he didn't have to throw on a pair of loafers or something else to better fit one of his many suits.

"Cece," he murmured, his fingers reaching for the little card dangling from a small piece of leather tied to the strap of the Nike baby shoe. He read the note aloud, "Are you ready to do this one more time?"

He laughed.

Cece shrugged. "I thought you might like that."

Juan nodded, pushing up from the blanket again to cross the space between them. His lips found hers as their daughter shouted down the beach and ran their way. His lips whispered over her grinning mouth when he said, "I like it very much."