Chapter 35
Aria's pov
Ezra wrapped his arms around me as we put away the last of my books back into their rightful place in the bookcase. I rested my hands over his and slid my fingers between his fingers as he brushed his lips on my cheek. Even though we're almost done with getting everything unpacked, there's still a bunch of stuff that needs to get done. It didn't help that Oliver decided to wake us up at five thirty in the morning, wanting his bottle and it took us a while to figure out what he was saying. First he started calling Ezra dada again and now he's calling food his bottle. Neither of us have no idea what is going on with him, but I'm starting to wonder if it's because of the twins.
"What's going through that mind of yours?" Ezra asked.
"That the to-do list just keeps getting bigger and bigger. There's only so much time left to get everything done!" I told him.
"Breathe Ar, breathe." Ezra whispered, gently turning me to face him.
"I can't! There's too much to do! We have to make the registry for the twins, get the nursery set up. I have to finish the damn manuscript and start prepping for -."
His lips were suddenly on mine, cutting me off from my rant. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he cupped my face. Pulling me closer to him and slowly ran his fingers through my hair. Just as I melted into the kiss, he slowly pulled away and caressed my cheek with his thumb. Of course he had used that method to shut me up…. not that I'm complaining about it.
"Breathe baby. I've been going through what we still have from when Ollie was a baby and making a list of what we'll need for the nursery." He told me.
"Needed that." I whispered and he chuckled.
"I could tell. Come on, why don't we try to figure out what we want to do for the nursery. Any colors you might want to do?" Ezra asked.
"Maybe a pastel purple or yellow." I told him.
He took my hand in his before leading me out of the office, the boys were fast asleep in their fort in the living room. Kind of surprising that neither of them lost interest in it after five minutes. Walking into the nursery, Isaw how empty it seems without the crib and changing table. I quickly made a mental note that we'll need a new crib and changing table. There were a few boxes of random stuff from when Oliver was a baby. Kissing my cheek, Ezra sat me down in the rocking chair and handed me a pen and notepad that had been left in here.
"We'll need a mattress pad, along with a new mattress and sheets since Oliver has them." Ezra said.
"And a new humidifier, white noise maker, and baby hangers since those are also in the boys' room." I added as I wrote it all down.
"Where are the baby monitors?" He asked, looking through the boxes.
"Remember? We had to throw them out because Oliver threw them in the toilet…. along with a bunch of toys and pens." I pointed out.
"Oh, right." Ezra remembered with a chuckle.
"Hey, what's the matter?" He asked, sitting down next to me.
"How is it that he's already five?" I asked him.
"Because time flies by, making the days feel like they're going by slowly." He said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and kissed my forehead.
"Why don't we wait until tomorrow or the weekend to do the rest of this? We could go have a snack. He suggested and I nodded.
"Luckily for us, the boys are fast asleep and won't even know." He said, getting me to giggle.
He took my hands in his, helping me up before leading out of the nursery. I followed him down the stairs and into the kitchen, being greeted by Fish lapping up some water. I let go of his hand as we went to get the stuff for the sundaes. Grabbing the bowls, I saw the bag of jalapeño flavored pre-made popcorn and grabbed it.
"We got chocolate syrup, cherries, and whip cream. Missing anything?" Ezra asked.
"Can you get the sliced pickles out? Don't judge me, it's your kids who want this." I told him when he saw the popcorn
"Babe, I learned not to judge your cravings when you were pregnant with Oliver. Or even question them." He chuckled.
"We have vanilla, strawberry, or cake batter. Which one would you like?" He asked.
"Mhm, strawberry sounds good." I told him.
"Babe." I giggled as he kissed the crook of my neck.
"How many scoops do you want?" He asked.
"Think I'll go with one." I told him.
I grabbed a container from the cabinet and poured some popcorn into it. Ezra chuckled as he watched me try to open the jar of pickles, he motioned for me to pass it to him. In two seconds, he had the jar opened and
"Thank you…. I loosened it." I said.
"Yes you did." He agreed as I scooped some pickles into the popcorn.
The thought of eating this popcorn and pickle combo is a little scary, but at least the twins are letting me have the sundae without the pickles and popcorn in it. Taking the bag of popcorn, I went to go put it back in the cabinet. As I turned around, Ezra offered me a bite of his, with a dab of chocolate syrup on his upper lip.
"You know, you have a little…." I murmured before pressing my lips to his.
"That's my trick Miss. Montgomery." He managed and I heard him drop his spoon in a bowl.
"What are you gonna do about it Mr. Fitz?" I challenged him.
He smirked before pinning me up against the fridge and brushed some hair behind my ear. Without a word, he cupped my face and grazed his lips against mine. I snaked my arms around his neck and giggled as he slowly trailed his hands down towards my hips, leaving them there. Cupping his face, I slowly slipped my tongue into his mouth. From all the times he got me with that, I finally got him back.
"Mhm, I don't think you'll want melted ice cream babe." He breathed, slowly pulling away.
"Then I'd just eat yours." I teased.
"I know you would." He chuckled.
"This is actually a good combo." I said, eating a handful of pickles and popcorn.
…
"Baby, it's two in the morning. What are you doing awake?"
I looked up from my screen to see Ezra looking over at me confused. One of the twins woke me up to pee a while ago, then I remembered that I wanted to look up color meanings. If I don't do this now, I may forget or worse, we pick the wrong color for the twins' nursery. The last thing we need to do is have the wrong color for the nursery and it negatively affects the twins. Ezra rubbed his face, trying to hold back a yawn.
"Searching for color meanings for the nursery. What if we pick the wrong color for the nursery and end up screwing up the twins physiologically because of it?" I asked as he got out of bed.
"Come on back to bed baby, you need your sleep." He said, sitting down next to me.
"I need to do this now." I told him.
"We have quite some time to do this, come back to bed." He tried and I looked over at him.
"Did you know that yellow could possibly induce anxiety and cause one to be over critical? It also signifies cowardice." I asked, reading from my screen
"And overuse of violet can invoke irritability and arrogance, decadence, conceit, pomposity." I added as he rubbed his face again.
"I'm probably going to regret doing this." He said.
He quickly took my laptop and closed it, setting it aside before scooping me up. Before I could open my mouth to try to get him to reason with this, his lips were on mine. He gently laid us down with him hovering on top. He pulled away and laid next to me, gently pulling me closer to him.
"I need to do this!" I told him and he sighed.
"No you don't, you need your sleep Ar. We can go get the primer and at least look at paint samples tomorrow." He promised.
"Do you want our daughters to be negatively affected by the wrong color?" I snapped.
"You can do this tomorrow, when you are not tired. Waiting to do this is not going to hurt, the twins will be fine. We have time to look at different colors and pick the right one. But you need your sleep." He said softly as I snuggled into him.
"Hate when you're right." I whispered and he chuckled.
"You can be right tomorrow, deal?" He asked and I nodded.
…
The boys and I were setting up the picnic while waiting for Ezra. Malcolm had suggested we go to Starlight Cove cliffs to have lunch because both he and Oliver wanted to have a picnic. Oliver just wanted to play on the beach below, Ezra said we could do that after lunch. As the boys finished setting up the plates, they looked at me for permission to play and I nodded. They were going to wait until Ezra got here to start playing, but I guess they changed their minds about that. Ezra wanted to come with when we left, but there had been some sort of issue at The Brew that he needed to take care of.
"Alright, go have fun you two and we're eating when dad gets here." I told them and they ran off.
Walking towards my car, I smiled when I saw Oliver and Malcolm had started a sword fight with sticks. At least Ezra had remembered to put the toys for them in my trunk instead of his. Wait, did I remember to bring the fruit salad and the sugar cookies we made last night? I know that I remembered to bring the boys' swim trunks for after lunch, actual lunch. Ezra said that he'll bring Malcolm's soccer ball, both of our books, Oliver's hopper ball, both the boys' scooters, and… damn, what else was Ezra bringing? Sighing, I unlocked my trunk and opened it. Staring into my trunk, I felt like I couldn't breathe. There is no way this is happening, my kids are here!
"Hello Aria." Alison said, eating a cookie.
"You're supposed to be in Welby! How the hell did you get in my car?" I asked, smacking the cookie out of her hand.
"Stop asking questions that you don't want the answer to, dear sister." She told me.
"Do not ever call me that! We may share the same biological father, but we are NOT sisters!" I exclaimed.
"Mom? Can we have a juice box?" Malcolm called out.
"Are those my darling little nephews? I want to meet them." She leered with a mischievous smirk.
"Malcom, take your brother and run as far away from here as you can!" I screamed, holding Alison back.
"Mom, what's happening?" He responded with concern and fear.
"Malcolm, do what I just told you." I told him.
He looked at me then at Alison, realizing who she was. As Oliver started walking over towards us, Malcolm ran off and grabbing Oliver by the hand. Alison shoved me into the car as Ezra pulled up. I quickly yanked her hair, pulling her down. From the corner of my eye, I could see Ezra rushing towards us to save me as I grabbed Alison's throat. All of a sudden, Jason jumped out of the backseat of Ezra's car and before I realized what was happening, Jason raised a gun and shot it. Ezra fell to the ground as Jason ran after the boys.
"NOOO!" I shouted as I saw his lifeless body on the ground.
"EZRA!" I cried and slowly stood up.
I may have lost Ezra, but if this bitch thinks she's already won she is mistaken because I'm about to fight blood and tooth to keep my boys safe. No way in hell am I about to let there be a chance she or Jason are going anywhere near my boys. I grabbed Alison by the hair and pushed her against my car as Jason was getting closer to the boys. Just as I started running after Jason, Alison tackled me to the ground.
"NO!" I screamed as Alison pushed me off the cliff and Jason grabbed my boys.
…
"NO!"
Bolting up, I ran my hand through my hair. It was just a nightmare…. or was it? Without looking to see if Ezra was okay, I rushed towards our door, yanking it open and ran towards the boys' room. I quickly looked into their room to see Malcolm fast asleep in his bed and Oliver curled up with Fish at the end of his, I silently sighed of relief. They're okay, my boys are safe and sound, Fish wouldn't let anything happen to them. I jumped when I felt an arm drape around my shoulders, I turned around to see Ezra concerned about me. Without saying a thing, he pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead.
"It's just me Ar. They're okay and you're okay." He whispered, rubbing my back.
"And you're not dead." I said softly, cupping his face and he rested his forehead against mine.
"Aris baby, you're covered in sweat from that nightmare. Why don't you take a shower to calm down and I can make you some chamomile?" He suggested.
"Will you come with me? I don't want to be alone." I asked and he nodded.
He didn't say anything as he slipped his hand in mine, leading me back towards our room. God, that nightmare felt so real. I quickly stepped out of my pants when Ezra slowly let go of my hand to pull his shirt off. He turned around and started unbuttoning his shirt that I had chosen to wear. Just as I tossed the shirt aside, he took my hand in his before walking towards our bathroom once more. Ezra helped me into the shower before getting in after me. I waited as he turned the water on for us, he turned back around and wrapped his arms around my shoulders as the water got to the right temperature.
"There we go." He whispered.
"I love you." I said softly.
"Mhm well, I love you more." He responded and I giggled.
"Wanna play that game huh? Well I'm yours forever." I told him.
"I'll let you win this round." He told me, wrapping his arms around me.
"I would have protected you if I was there." He whispered and I turned to face him.
"You were there, and you got killed! You're not allowed to do anything stupid like that again, I can't lose you Ezra!" I told him as he cupped my face.
"Aria, protecting or defending you is not stupid to me. I'd take a million bullets for you, just to keep you safe." He whispered, caressing my cheeks.
"You're not allowed to get shot again!" I said.
"It's quite unlikely I would actually get shot for a second time." He said and I stared at him.
"Alright, unless you are in legit danger that involves a gun then I won't do anything you consider stupid." He said, brushing his lips against mine.
"Better." I murmured.
He chuckled before gently turning me back around and kissed the top of my head. I giggled as he softly trailed kisses from my earlobe down to my ticklish spot. Snuggling my back into his chest, I found his hands and wrapped his arms around me as the shower began to fog up from how hot the water was. Of all the things I could have had a nightmare of, why did it have to be three in one?
"You're okay Ar, it was just a dream." He whispered, sensing my thoughts.
"Very realistic one." I muttered as he massaged some of my lavender bandy wash into my shoulders.
"Is this your way of telling me I smell?" I giggled, tilting my head back to look at him.
"Not at all." He said, kissing my forehead.
