Part 4
The next day Claire with the strangest feeling. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that she had never been happier in her entire life. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at her finger with the ring on it.
"So it wasn't a dream." she thought to herself and looked at Alex who was still sleeping on the other side of the bed. She didn't want to wake him, but she needed to share the happy news with someone, so she got out of bed and walked over to Charlotte's crib. she was starting to stir.
"Hey angel." she whispered as she took her daughter into her arms and sat on the chair. "Mommy has to show you something." Claire smiled and proudly showed her ring to Charlotte. She immediately got interested and started playing with it. "Beautiful, isn't it?" she continued. "Mommy got it from Alex and she's gonna be his wife. Mommy's getting married." she sighed. "Oh BOM, you have no idea how happy I am. Alex loves us and we're gonna have a wonderful life with him."
"That you will." Claire suddenly heard Alex's voice behind her and turned around.
"Hey you." she smiled and looked lovingly at him. "I thought you were gonna sleep for hours. I hope I didn't wake you."
"Oh no, you didn't. My subconscious woke me up, because it knew that I didn't want to be asleep instead of having a beautiful morning with my new fiance."
"Since when are you so romantic?" Claire laughed as she got into bed with BOM still in her arms.
"Well, what can be better than being in bed with two women that I love the most in the whole wide world." he added as he kissed Claire's lips and Charlotte's forehead. You two are my life now." he let Claire nestle into his arms and started talking to Charlotte. "I'm gonna take care of you and mommy now. We are gonna have so much fun. I'm gonna teach you and your brothers how to ride a horse and..
"Did I just hear you say brothers?" Claire almost choked.
"Could be sisters, I don't care. But we can't let BOM grow up without any siblings, now can we?" he grinned.
"Let's leave this discussion for later, shall we?"
"What's to discuss?"
"Trust me, a lot. Unless you wanna carry the child. In that case, by my guest." Alex's face was now full of grimace. "I didn't think so. So let's say we'll think ahout it later."
"OK, but you need to know that I'm planning an entire soccer team here, so..."
"I said later." she pressed her hand on his lips and cut him short.
"OK, but I won't wait forever, you know." he smiled and kissed the top of her head.
"Yeah, I know." she smiled. "Now please let me go, because I need to go somewhere."
"And where would that be?" he asked, curius.
"You don't have to know everything about me, now do you?" she teased. "I'll be right back." she promised as she got out of bed.
"We're not going anywhere." he smiled and Claire left the room. Originally she was just gonna go to the bathroom, but she heard a commotion in the kitched, so she decided to check it out. When she got downstairs, she saw Tess sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.
"You're an awfully morning person today." she joked and startled Tess a little bit.
"Oh hey." she smiled. "I thought everybody was still asleep."
"So did I."
"I just couldn't sleep." Tess admitted. "I guess all the emotions from yesterday still haven't left me.' she sighed.
"I know you've had a lot on your mind recently, but if you're ready for some more emotions, I've got a little something to show you." she grinned.
"Yeah, what?" she asked and Claire stretched out her hand to show Tess the ring. "Oh My God!" Tess jumped. "Is this what I think it is?"
"It very much is." Claire said happily.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I think I need to sit down." Tess was totally freaking out.
"You ARE sitting down." Claire reminder her.
"Right." sha laughed. "So I guess I need to stand up." she did just that and went over to Claire to hug her. "When did this happen?"
"Yesterday after the party." Claire was beaming.
"Oh I'm so happy for you." Tess hugged her sister again. "This is so wonderful. I mean I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but I guess it happened sooner." Tess laughed. "Congratulations sis."
"Thanks." Claire replied and Tess finally let go of her. "OK, I gotta go. I promised Alex I won't be long."
"Yes, yes, go to your future husband." Tess winked and with that Claire was gone. She even forgot to go to the bathroom because of all the excitement. When she entered the bedroom, Alex was teaching BOM how to ride a horse using his leg as a saddle.
"Oh my God, you two are just two cute together." Claire laughed and jumped into bed with her little angel and her big angel.
"I know, we can't help it." Alex grinned. Claire rested her head on Alex's shoulder and continued watching him playing with BOM.
"You think all our mornings will be like this?" she asked hopeful.
"Like this or even better." he replied sure of himself. "Right BOM?" he turned to Charlotte who had a huge smile on her face. "See? She agrees with me."
"I can see that." she kissed BOM on the forehead and suddenly they heard a rambling noise on the stairs. Two seconds didn't even pass when Meg and Jodi barged into the bedroom.
"I wanna see the ring! Let me see the ring!" Jodi exclaimed happily as she ran towards the bed.
"And good morning to you too." Claire said with a happy tone in her voice as she showed Jodi the ring.
"Oh it's beautiful." Jodi almost cried.
"Excuse me?" Alex tried to pretend to be speaking in a serious tone. "Can a guy get ANY privacy in this house?"
"You'll have plenty of privacy later, but now I wanna look at the ring." Jodi replied with a huge smile on her face and Alex just sighed.
"Women." he whispered to Charlotte.
"OK, enough of the watching." Claire insisted and made Jodi let go of her hand. "My hand hurts." they both laughed. "Oh and by the way, how did you know?" she didn't really gave to wait for an answer as she saw Tess at the door. "I shoula have known." she sighed.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." Tess screamed. "I was so ecxited."
"Well that's certainly some news." Meg said and sat on the bed next to Jodi to give Claire a hug. "I'm so happy for you, Claire. You deserve all the happiness."
"Thanks Meg."
"So how did he propose?" Jodi started inquiring, but was cut short by Alex.
"HE is still in the room." Alex noted. "So can you please do the girl talk later?" he asked and everyone started laughing.
"Alright, we'll go." Tess agreed. "But we wanna hear everything later."
"Don't worry, I'll tell you everything." she promised and added. "Well not EVERYTHING." she looked meaningfully at Alex.
"Gee, I think I'm blushing." he joked as he waved Tess, Jodi and Meg goodbye. When they left the room and closed the door, Claire looked at Alex and smiled.
"Now that was quite a morning, huh?" she said with a laugh.
"I'd say." he agreed and put his arm around her. Claire once again laughed and started thinking about how happy she had been ever since she got together with Alex. He made her laugh, he made her cry. He was everything she ever wanted in a man and she was amazed at why it took her so long to find that out. But it didn't really matter, what mattered was that they were together and that they were getting married. Charlotte would finally have the kind of father she deserves - one that loves her and one who will protect her no matter what. Claire knew that life wasn't always gonna be a fairytale, that real life can get tough sometimes, but she was prepared to face the world with Alex by her side.
THE END
