End of March

Kayla got Cole off to school, with his new prescription sunglasses, and was on her way to the grocery store with Harlow when her phone rang, connecting through her car's Bluetooth.

"Hello?"

"Kayla? Its Terri. How are you this morning?"

"Great! Do you have news for us?" A call from the social worker always made her heart speed up. "I do. I have a birth mom for you. She loved your and Drew's profile and she's willing to do a semi-open adoption for her baby."

Normally the words, "open adoption" scared her. Semi-open? "What does semi-open mean?"

"It means any contact with her will be mediated through us. She wants pictures monthly, but you'll provide them to us and we will send them to her. She will contact us when she goes into labor and we will contact you so that you can be there to meet your new daughter when she's born."

"Okay. When is she due?"

"May 15th."

"As in, six weeks from now?"

"Yes."

"Wow. Great. Thank you so much!"

As soon as the call disconnected, Kayla pulled over to get control of her emotions. "Mommy?"

"Yeah, Lolo?"

"Does this mean we are getting a baby sister?"

"Yes, sweetie! A beautiful baby girl."

"Yay!"

Kayla called Drew at his lunch time. "Hi, babe."

"Hey! I have news!"

"Oh yeah?"

"We got a birth mom, Drew."

"We did?!"

"Yes. And she's due in six weeks!"

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm so excited. We need to get some baby stuff, Drew. Let's see if Mom and Dad will watch the kids Saturday and we can go to dinner and get baby stuff."

"Sounds great, babe. I'm so happy."

"Me too. I love you."

"I love you too."

Drew hung up the phone and walked into one of his partners' office. "Hey, Joe. I have to put in for some time off."

Elizabeth opened the door to their house a few hours later. "Jack? Sweetheart, I'm home." He didn't answer but her phone rang. "Jack?"

"Hey, I'm out picking up dinner."

"Oh. Okay."

"I promise I'll be there soon. Twenty minutes tops."

"Okay. I'll start a load of laundry then."

"Sounds good. See you soon."

She was disappointed. She had thought he'd be there waiting for her. After three weeks of not seeing each other, she was missing him a whole lot.

Her phone rang again. "Mom?"

"Hi, Kay."

"Hey, guess what."

"What, dear?" she sighed.

"I'm sorry. Are you busy? I can call back tomorrow."

"No, its fine."

"Well, can you and Dad watch the kids Saturday?"

"Sure," she said, another sigh escaping her lips.

"What's wrong, Mom?"

"Just tired, dear."

"Okay. Well, have a good night. Get some rest."

"Thank you. Love you."

"Love you too."

Elizabeth was tired and Jack was taking forever so she took a shower and went to bed.

When Jack got home, he expected Elizabeth to be waiting but all the lights were off. So he put the food in the fridge, thinking maybe she was waiting for him in a bath?

Nope. She was in bed. Sleeping. "Elizabeth," he whispered.

"Yeah."

"Are you alright?"

"Tired. Long drive," she muttered.

"Okay. Well, go back to sleep. The food is in the fridge."

"Okay."

Jack headed down to eat. He was more hungry than tired. He turned the kitchen light on and ate alone at the bar.

Surprisingly, Elizabeth showed up as he put his dish in the dishwasher. "Hey."

"Hey, what are you doing up?"

"I'm hungry."

"Have a seat. I'll get you a plate."

"You know what? I'm not hungry."

He put the food back in the fridge. "What's going on, Elizabeth?"

"I'm a little annoyed at you."

"No offense, dear, but you literally got home an hour ago. I haven't had time to annoy you yet." He smirked at her with his perfect, sexy mouth.

"First of all, an hour is plenty of time, but you weren't here, Jack. I got home and you were gone."

"Getting food for us. To eat together."

"The whole drive home, I pictured you here waiting for me, missing me as much as I missed you."

"You know what? In those three weeks you've been gone, I did not learn to read your mind. And as annoyed as you were with me not being here, I was a bit annoyed that you weren't awake waiting for me in the jacuzzi bath upstairs."

They stared at each other and then burst out laughing.

He walked over, cupped her face with both of his hands and gave her a long, slow kiss. "I did miss you, Elizabeth. I'm lost without you."

She hugged him hard. "I missed you too."

"I feel like three weeks is too long," he told her, still holding on.

"Me too. Let's cap it at two but try to keep it at one."

"Well, next time, I'm going with you."

"Oh good. I told her I'd visit again early May and then I need to stay here to help Ava with the twins for a bit."

He kissed her lips and smiled. "Do you want some spinach ricotta ravioli?"

"Yes please. Thank you for bringing home dinner."

"You're welcome."

Next door, morning

Ava waddled very carefully down the stairs to the kitchen. She couldn't really see her feet anymore so she went really slow.

As she entered the kitchen, she smelled French toast and sausage. "Ben?"

"Hey, beautiful. I made you and Kinze breakfast."

"Thank you, babe."

He handed her a plate with quite a bit of food on it, eggs, French toast and sausage. "I think you confused me with you," she laughed, gesturing at the plate.

He stole a piece of sausage. "The babies need it," he said, putting Kinsey in her high chair and putting her bib on. He then put a good amount of eggs on her tray.

"Most of those are going to end up on the floor," she warned him. "And I can't bend over to clean it up and last I knew we don't have a dog, Ben."

Ben took back half of the eggs and put it in a bowl. "Better?" He bent down and kissed her three times.

"Yeah. I love you."

"I love you more. I'm working on some big audits this week so I'm probably going to be late tonight and a few more nights."

"Okay."

"If you need anything, call…"

"Mom and Dad...I know. Don't worry, babe. I'll be fine."

And she would. She had about eight weeks until her due date and she felt pretty good. She was seeing the doctor every week now and he was recommending a c-section but she was hoping she could have them naturally. Especially with a very soon to be one year old, she needed a quicker recovery time.

"Uh oh," Kinsey said, looking over the edge of her tray.

"Kinsey Chayse, no no," Ava gently scolded. "Eat the eggs."

Ben bent down and picked up the eggs and kissed Ava again. "See you later, honey."

"See you."

Ben chuckled at his daughter dropping the eggs on the floor. Little stinker. She was so cute and he couldn't wait to see what the twins were going to look like.

It was hard to work longer hours. Not the work itself but Kinsey was always in bed when he got home so he really only saw her in the mornings and on weekends. He knew this time of year being tax season, he was going to be busier and it wouldn't always be like this, but it still bothered him.

Ava dropped off Kinsey with Jack and Elizabeth and went to the grocery store, taking her pile of coupons and list of sale items. She had decided upon finding out she was having twins that she was going to forgo nursing them. If she was going to be a stay-at-home mom alone with three kids under two all day, she needed to make sure her hands were as free as possible.

Therefore, after that ultrasound, she bought two cans of formula each week, stockpiling them. She had quite a stash. Today with the coupons, she was going to buy two packages of diapers for newborns and one for Kinsey.

In addition, the freezer was stocked with meals ready to pop in the oven and cook or put in the slow cooker.

When Ben got to work, he double checked to make sure his boss remembered he was taking paternity leave when the babies were born. Henry assured him that everything was set and there would be no issues with him leaving for a month.

He got off a bit earlier than expected so he headed to the grocery store, grabbed a pint of rocky road, her current craving, and a bouquet of flowers.

When he got home, he found her rocking Kinsey in her nursery.

"Hi, babe."

"Dada!" Kinsey said, sitting up and reaching for him.

"There's something on the counter for you," Ben whispered, taking Kinsey. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

Ava gave him a kiss and headed downstairs. She could hear him faintly singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as she grabbed a spoon and the rocket road and curled up on the sofa.

She was incredibly grateful to Jack and Elizabeth for raising such an amazing husband and father in Ben. Yes, he brought her ice cream, but he worked hard. He supported her, making sure as soon as he got home that he either picked up around the house or took over with Kinsey so she had a break.

He rubbed her feet and legs, he made sure she ate enough protein for the babies. He set a bath for her…

"Babe, wanna join me for a bath?" he asked quietly in her ears.

She smiled and leaned back to look at him. "You're pretty awesome, Ben Thornton."

He walked around and held out a hand to help her up. "The water is running."

"But my ice cream…"

"Bring it."

"It'll melt…"

"I'll help you eat it."

He led her upstairs to their master bath. He left the door cracked to allow them to hear Kinsey if she cried.

He had lit a few candles and put his favorite vanilla orange bubble bath she used.

"What are you planning, husband?"

He lifted her shirt over her head and kissed her long and slow, his hands softly resting on her very pregnant belly.

"I'm planning on enjoying a bath with my beautiful wife and babies."

She giggled at the babies fighting for room inside. "I'm not sure I can stretch too much more."

He watched as a knee or a foot poked out. "Be nice to Mommy," he said kissing the bump. "Love you guys."

As they got settled in the warm water, she asked him about work and closed her eyes as she leaned back against his chest. Before long, her exhaustion from yet another day took over. But despite being tired, she was extremely grateful for all of life's blessings.