(Maya P.O.V)
The cold snap ended up lasting through the majority of December and January, going well into February and Valentine's Day dawned quickly. Zack and Cody had been having lots of secret talks on the phone at night lately to plan some big surprise for Bailey and I but I have absolutely no idea what they were planning.
"Maya, what time are you heading in to work today?" Zack asked, coming into the nursery where I was getting Reed dressed.
"I'm supposed to be getting there at twelve."
"Okay, do you want me to take Reed to day-care on my way over to Cody's?"
"Er, sure." I was hesitant to say yes, not sure what Zack was doing. He rarely offered to take Reed to day-care and it was usually only when he wanted to suck up to me for some reason.
"What? Can't I want to have some father-son bonding time?" He asked, picking up on my hesitation.
"Zack, he's not even a year old yet. I don't really think father-son bonding is even understandable to him." I said with a laugh, handing Reed over anyway.
"I don't care. I'm just trying to make sure he gets his Boston heritage in deep before you get your New York claws in him. It would be a disgrace to the Martin name to have him as a Yankees fan." I sighed. This was an argument we'd had before. Whether to encourage them to become a Yankees fan like me or to become Red Sox fans like Zack.
"Babe, he's going to be a Yankees fan, there's no doubt."
"Not if I get to him first." He said as he left the room with Reed. I shook my head and quickly packed up the room before following him downstairs I was instantly met with hot pink balloons lining the stairs and pink streamers wrapped around the banisters. Zack was standing at the base of the stairs with Reed, holding a shiny silver envelope.
"Um, what's with all the pink?" I asked, slowly coming downstairs.
"Nothing. I just thought it sent a better message of love than a ton of red. Red always reminds me of anger…and Cody's hair." I let the comment about Cody's hair slide, reminding myself to ask him about it later. "But this is from the both of us to say happy Valentine's Day." He said, handing me the envelope.
"Aww. Thanks guys. I love getting presents from my boys." I said as I leaned in to kiss Zack. Opening the envelope, I found a reservation card for Lumiere, a French restaurant in Newton that I had been wanting to try out for ages. "Oh my god, are you serious?" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him passionately.
"I'm very serious. Anything for you, Maya. Tonight, we're dropping Reed off with Carey and then joining Cody and Bailey at Lumiere."
"You have no idea how much I love you right now." I said.
"I think I have an idea." He said with a laugh. We would have gone on but the clock on the wall chimed eleven thirty and I had to get to work.
"When you get home, get dressed up, because tonight, it's all about you." He told me before he disappeared out the front door.
The few hours I spent at work passed quickly and I soon found myself on my way home, thinking about what I was going to wear tonight. Thinking back to the pink decorations from this morning gave me an idea and when I got home, I set to work.
"Maya! I'm home!" Zack's voice echoed up to me as I put the finishing touches of make-up on.
"I'm in the bathroom!" I called back and in a few moments, he appeared in the doorway, letting out a whistle when he saw me.
"Looking good, babe." He said and I spun around so he could admire the simple but cute ensemble I'd put together. A plain black skirt with a hot pink long-sleeved t-shirt made the base with a pale pink cardigan over the top and black tights to keep me warm. Hot pink ballet flats on my feet with pink tear drop shaped earrings and a pretty pink necklace topped it off. My hair was loosely curled and hung in messy waves around my face, pulled back a little by a black headband.
"So you like it? I decided to go with your pink theme."
"I definitely like it. Let me just have a quick shower and we can head out, okay?" I nodded and went down to play with Reed while I waited. It didn't take long for Zack to reappear and we were on our way to the Boston Tipton to drop off Reed with Carey.
"Hey guys. Come on in." Carey greeted, opening the door when we knocked. I went in and Reed was immediately taken from me and smothered in kisses from his grandmother.
"Thanks for doing this mom." Zack said, putting Reed's things on the floor.
"No worries. Any excuse to see my grandson." Carey replied, still looking down at Reed. Zack shook his head and took hold of my hand.
"Well we have to be going but remember you can call us any time if you need."
"Zack, I raised you and your brother, I think Reed and I will be fine. I just wish your brother was letting me look after Kimberlee too." Rolling his eyes, Zack lead me out to the car and we began the drive to Lumiere.
"So who's looking after Kimberlee tonight?" I asked.
"I think one of Bailey's sisters is in town for the week or something and is staying with them."
"You certainly pay a lot of attention to your brother, don't you?" I said with a laugh.
"I was paying more attention to making this the perfect Valentine's Day for you than to what my brother was saying about his wife's sister."
"And I love you for it." I told him, putting my hand over his where it rested on the steering wheel.
"I love you too, babe." The drive didn't take too long and we were soon climbing out and walking the short distance from the car park to the restaurant.
"Hi, we have a reservation for four under Martin." Zack said to the person at the front.
"Right this way, the rest of your party hasn't arrived yet." He led us to a secluded table at the back of the restaurant. Zack sat down beside me and we began to look at our menus, ordering a bottle of wine for while we waited. About ten minutes later, Cody and Bailey arrived so we stood up to hug them. I loved Bailey's outfit, she definitely went with the Valentine's Day theme. A white woolen sweater with little black love hearts paired with a red skirt and red ankle boots. She had a pair of white stockings to keep warm and both her earrings and necklace consisted of little red hearts while her hair was curled and pulled into a wavy ponytail.
"Happy Valentine's Day Maya." Cody said as he hugged me and I heard Zack say the same thing to Bailey.
"Thanks Cody." We sat down and ordered our food, waiting till it had been served before we really got into talking.
"So, who's looking after Kimberlee?" I asked, hoping to get more out of Cody and Bailey than the vague comment from Zack in the car.
"My sister Bobbie is in town for the week on some business trip. She's staying in our spare room and she offered to look after Kimmie for us." Bailey explained. I stuck my tongue out at Zack who shrugged it off.
"We were going to get mom to look after her but when Bobbie offered, we thought it would be easier." Cody said.
"I wish my sister was still around to look after Reed." I said without thinking.
"Wait, what? I thought you said you didn't have any siblings." Zack turned to me and I realized what I'd said.
"Oh. Er, I… it's not really, you know, something I really want to, um, talk about at the table." I said, stammering out my words.
"Uh-uh. No way. You can't drop a bomb like that and then not say anything." Zack persisted. I tried to say something but as usual, I ended up just opening and closing my mouth like a fish, just like I always did when I tried to talk about my sister.
"Zack, leave her alone. She doesn't want to talk about it. Don't ruin Valentine's Day." Cody warned, cutting off his brother as he tried to urge me to talk. Bailey grabbed her purse and stood up.
"I'm going to run to the ladies, do you want to come, Maya?" She asked with a slight jerk of her head so that I knew she just wanted to get me away from the table for a bit. I nodded and grabbed my purse, shaking off Zack's hand and headed to the bathroom behind Bailey.
"Are you okay, Maya?" Bailey asked once we were inside.
"Yeah. I just need a breather." I rested my head against the cool tiled wall and sighed.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I do but I can't. Every time I try, I just end up getting tongue tied." We fell silent and simply stood there for a while until we heard a knock on the door.
"Bails? Are you guys okay?" Cody's voice came through the door. Bailey raised an eyebrow at me and I nodded, taking a deep breath I followed her out and we went back to the table.
"I'm sorry Maya. If you don't want to talk about it, I shouldn't pressure you." Zack apologized.
"It's okay Zack." I smiled at him and it seemed that all was forgiven. Meaningless chatter overtook the table until dessert was served.
"So, we have some news for you guys." Cody said, holding Bailey's hand. I looked up expectantly.
"We're having another baby." Bailey told us and I squealed in delight.
"Really?"
"Yeah. We found out about a week ago." Cody said with a smile at his wife.
"There's not going to be much of an age difference between Kimberlee and this new baby is there?" Zack pointed out.
"Well she's almost six months old so there'll be about eighteen months between the two." Bailey told him.
"Fair enough. Hoping for a boy this time, Codester?"
"I'll be happy if I end up with another girl, as long as she's my child I don't care."
"He's right, Zack. Would you care if we had a girl next?" I said. He looked at me in surprise.
"Who said we're having more children. I'm still getting over the fact that we've got Reed." I pretended to pout
"I thought you said you wanted more children."
"I do but…" He struggled to find the words he wanted but I just laughed.
"I'm teasing you, babe. We're not expecting any more children any time soon." Bailey grinned at me.
"Fun isn't it?" She said.
"Definitely." The guys looked between us, not understanding what we were talking about but shrugged it off. All too soon, it was time to start heading back and pick up Reed. We walked out to the car park together where I hugged Bailey and Cody goodbye before sitting in the car as Zack said goodbye. He made short work of it and we were soon on our way back to Boston.
"Zack, I want to apologize for what happened at the restaurant." I said hesitantly after a while.
"You don't have to. I talked to Cody while you were in the bathroom and he told me it's better to let it go and you can talk about it with me when you feel up to it." He told me.
"I want to tell you, I really do. But I physically can't. Every time I try I either end up being tongue tied or I actually get sick."
"Maya, I love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't have done this for you tonight. And part of loving you means that I trust you too. If you end up telling me, I'll be all ears but if it never happens, that's okay too."
"Thanks. You have no idea how much that means to me." The rest of the ride to the Boston Tipton was silent as I tried to figure out a way to tell Zack about my sister.
A/N: I know Maya is supposed to be an only child but I thought it would be fun to toy with the idea of her having a sister that isn't around anymore. As the story progresses, we will learn more about Maya's sister and what happened to her through a series of flashbacks as Maya struggles with trying to tell Zack the truth.
On the other hand, Cody and Bailey will have pretty smooth sailing for a few chapters but things will happen for them too. If you have any ideas on things that could happen to them, feel free to let me know.
Also, I want to have a vote on Cody and Bailey's children. I know they're going to end up with three children (I already have names decided) but do you guys want them to have a set of twins or have the children separately?