Adrian.
I didn't know what to do, or what to say. I stood there frozen.
He muttered breathlessly, "Starlet," breaking me out of my trance.
"Why?" I whispered, suddenly dreading his reply.
"I was scared for you. Being around Moroi just put you in danger, and I thought the best way to keep you safe was to keep you away from us." he looked at the floor, regret, shame, and sorrow prominent on his face.
I stepped forward and took his chin in my hand, forcing him to look at me as tears slowly dropped from my eyes, "Adrian, if you ever do that again, I will have Rose beat you up. Why didn't you at least call me? I didn't have your number. I couldn't tell you about my kids. Our kids."
"I know I know... Wait, kids as in, plural? I knew there had to be more than one! How many!" His face was lit up like the fourth of July as he beamed at me, putting his hands on my stomach.
"Three," I beamed back at him as he stared at his hands that rested on top of my belly in wonder and complete joy.
"Three!" He laughed excitedly then hugged me, after a second he seemed to have calmed down because he jumped away from me muttering quietly, "I'm sorry, you probably don't want me touching you, let alone hugging you like that. I'm so sorry."
"Adrian, I've gone too long without you. Get your ass back over here," I held my arms out for him, and he stepped into my embrace, I felt tears on my shoulder, and I buried my head into his chest and cried with relief at him being back, finally. After several moments I pulled away and stood on my toes to kiss him lovingly. He kissed back with just as much love.
"I love you," we both said at the same time, causing me to giggle, which in turn caused Adrian to have a shit eating grin. I rolled my eyes and kissed him again, making the grin ten times worse. I smiled back at him, suddenly the grin turned to a grimace and he dropped my gaze.
"Adrian? What's wrong?" I asked, worried.
"I don't deserve this. You should hate me. You shouldn't be kissing me, you should be punching me. I'm a horrible person..." his voice dropped to a broken, pain-filled whisper. "I'll be a horrible dad."
"Adrian Ivashkov, you listen to me and you listen well. Yes, you making me come here was a stupid idea, yes, I'm mad at you for it. Yes, I wish you had at least told me or given me a number I could contact you with, but that doesn't make you a horrible person. It just makes you stupid, so in other words, it makes you human. Don't for a second think you'll be a bad father. You deserve more than that. I don't deserve that doubt, but more importantly our children don't deserve that. Our children deserve a father who loves them with all his heart, whether they were planned or not. After today, the fact that you left won't matter, this is the only thing that matters," I took his hands in mine and placed them on my stomach, "got it?"
He nodded so I smiled and kissed him, after a while I pulled away and rested my head on his chest, his arms encircled me and we stood there for a long time before we remembered the others in the kitchen. I took his hand and led him into the living room, where everyone had moved and sat down. As soon as I say down, Kat was in my lap.
"Hey sweetie, how've you been?" I smiled down at her happily.
"Good, how about you Auntie Faye?" She asked sweetly.
"Well right now I'm better than I've ever been before. I've got an awesome niece, an adorable nephew, a handsome fiancé, great friends, and babies in my tummy that I already love," I beamed at her while Adrian leaned down and kissed me sweetly.
"Ewwww," Kat laughed as she scrunched up her face in mock disgust. I punched her shoulder lightly with a joking smile.
Rose was glaring at Adrian and I, although it was mostly directed at him. "If I were you I'd make him suffer..."
"I know, I love him though, and it's not like he knew, and he thought he was protecting me."
"Well there are better ways to do it, I know, but he's back now, and it would be stupid of me to waste the time I have with him being angry. He's here now and that's all that matters in the end." As I spoke Adrian moved to beside me and wrapped his arm around me, kissing the top of my head.
"Still, if you-know-who came back, I'd find it rather difficult to forgive him." Kat knew about her father, Rose had told me she didn't have the heart not to answer her questions when she came home wondering why only her mommy or Uncle Adrian ever came and picked her up from daycare, while all the other kids daddy's picked them up sometimes, but Rose still didn't like to talk about him in front of her.
"I know, but you're also a lot stronger than I am, the only thing that kept me going was my agent and my dream, and later, my kids. If it hadn't been for them, I'd still be curled up in my bed, probably dead from lack of food and water." Adrian apparently didn't like this fact, because he squeezed me tighter, I patted his hand that had been resting lightly on my thigh before I started talking, but had since squeezed it, his short nails digging into my thigh. At my touch, he quietly apologized and loosened his grip. I kissed his shoulder then turned back to Rose.
"I'm not that strong, trust me. And I understand how you feel, but how you can just see him and forgive him, is beyond me."
"He came back as soon as he knew, that has to count for something."
"Whatever," she growled.
"Down girl," Lissa laughed and then continued feeding Deacon. I laughed, and Christian and Adrian joined in, Rose glared, but then smiled and rolled her eyes at us. I turned on Rango for Kat and all of us talked quietly until it was over.
I stood up and stretched my back, "Is anyone hungry?" Everyone nodded or murmured a yes. I stood and at once Adrian stood up with me. I walked into the kitchen and he followed silently. I picked up my phone, which had been charging on the counter and dialed for pizza. I still knew everyone's favourites from the few times Lissa or Christian had made pizza or we'd ordered it as a lunch, so I didn't bother to ask what they wanted. Adrian had his arms around my waist the entire time, and once the pizza guy told me it would be half an hour, he pulled me up to the second floor, where all the guest bedrooms were, and then hugged me close to him, nothing more. We stood there in the hallway until I heard the doorbell ring. I went downstairs and grabbed the four large pizzas from the kid, handing him a hundred dollar bill. I told him to keep the change then brought the pizza into the kitchen, setting it on the island; there were six chairs, so Liss sat Deacon with a toy in his car seat thingy on the ground beside her. We talked and laughed as we ate, and then I gave them the tour.
They'd already seen most of the downstairs, so I took them into the pool room. The pool was enclosed, because both the pool and the hot tub were half inside, half out. All you had to do was swim under the little flaps and you were on the back deck. The back deck was raised off the sandy walk-up to the beach, with wooden stairs leading to said walk-up. The deck was set up for parties, with a mini bar in the corner, lounge chairs and small patio tables lining the railing, which was chic glass. I then took them upstairs to the guest rooms, Lissa took the white room immediately, and Rose chose a room done in enchanting greens, while Kat took one that was done with beautiful, chocolate browns that matched her eyes. I showed Lissa the ocean room, which had been turned into a nursery for the one boy I was having. The yellow room and another room done in orange were for the girls. After they chose their rooms I took them up the spiral staircase to the top floor, which was also my room. They all fell in love with it as immediately as I had, and once they saw the garden, they were hooked. After a few hours of sitting around and talking, I began to get tired.
"Hey guys, I think I'm gonna call it a night. Whoever's the last one awake, can you turn on the security system? The code is two four three two." I smiled at them then headed up the stairs. I was halfway up the second set when I heard Adrian behind me. "Are you stalking me now?" I asked jokingly, throwing a glance over my shoulder coyly.
"Maybe," he smirked, we'd reached the top of the staircase and stepped off of it when he wrapped his arms around me tightly and kissed my neck contentedly. "Hey, Faye?"
"Yeah?" I asked, tiredly.
"I love you," he whispered in my ear.
"I love you too," I smiled at him. We both got changed and Adrian stopped me as I walked towards the bed.
He knelt in front of me and pressed his lips to my stomach, kissing it three times before whispering, "Daddy's here now, and he's not leaving. I love you all very much and can't wait to meet you. I'm sorry for taking so long to get here, but you'll never have to wait for me again. I love you."
I gently rubbed the side of my stomach as a few tears fell at his complete and utter sweetness, and his love for our children. He pulled me into bed, and even though it was huge and he could sleep as far away from me as he wanted, he didn't. He slept as close to me as my tummy would allow, his hands gently resting on it as he almost instantly passed out.
A/N: I am having email issues, and life issues and sickness issues... Be nice and review? Reviews will make me feel better lolz
