Another story complete! Thank you for reading!!
A few weeks later
That house on Coronado Island was still Elizabeth's favorite. She checked it daily on the realtor website to see if the price had come down. So far, no.
They'd gone out four times to look at houses and nothing felt right. Not like that one.
She texted Lucas around lunch, anxious to chat.
"Hi!" He responded almost immediately. Then he called her. "Hey, sweetheart."
"Hi. I'm not bothering you, am I?"
"Of course not. You never bother me."
"I think we should put an offer in on that house, babe."
"The one on Coronado?"
"Yes. I love it. I don't think anything else is going to feel right. Let's just come in a little under the asking price and see what they say."
"Alright. Why don't you call the realtor now? I am going into a meeting."
"Lucas…"
"Yes?"
"I love you. I miss you today."
"I love you more. See you soon, alright?"
"Okay."
…..
"How's the house hunt going?" Campbell asked Elizabeth later that afternoon,
"We decided to put in an offer on a house on Coronado Island so fingers crossed."
"That is a beautiful area."
"It is. The house is gorgeous."
Jillian started moving around in the carrier/sling Elizabeth had strapped to her chest. "Hey, Jilly. You hungry?"
"Papa!" Jamie yelled, running toward Campbell.
"Jamie, shhhh," she reminded him. He was four and still struggling with the inside voices thing.
"Papa, read book to me?"
"Sure, bud. Lets go pick one out."
Elizabeth walked into the living room and nursed Jilly, placing a blanket over herself for modesty. She hummed a tune as they sat quietly. She truly enjoyed the peaceful time whenever she was feeding her.
When Lucas walked in from work, her toes tingled with that ache they had talked about. Before even taking off his shoes, he walked over and gave her a breath stealing kiss. "Mm. Hi, babe."
"Hi. Any word from the realtor yet?"
"No but we still have time."
Almost as if their asking about it had conjured up the phone call, Elizabeth's phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Elizabeth? This is Isla. I have some news."
"Great. I'm going to put you on speaker so Lucas can hear too."
"Okay."
"Unfortunately the seller rejected your offer and decided to go with someone else. I'm sorry."
"Oh," Elizabeth said, trying not to cry. She had felt at home there and she had daydreamed about living there extensively over the last few weeks.
"Thank you, Isla."
"You're welcome. I will keep searching for houses for you. I'm not giving up."
"We appreciate that."
Lucas took a drowsy Jillian from Elizabeth and burped her and then put an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Beth. I know how bad you wanted this house."
"I did. I let myself get attached and I shouldn't have done that."
"I don't agree. There's nothing wrong with dreaming about things, it keeps the hope alive."
She wiped her eyes and sighed. "I was really hoping," she said with a chuckle.
"I know."
"You are my dream, Lucas," she told him, moving next to him. "You are everything I always wanted in a husband and you have given me a wonderful family."
"I feel the same about you, Beth. You fell in love with me and my daughter and that is beyond perfect."
She reached up and touched his beard and brought his lips down to hers. "We will find a house," she told him. "I know we will."
"Yes, we will."
…..
For the next few weeks, there were no houses found. One evening after dinner, they were all sitting around the family room watching Aria and Jamie play on the floor with Campbell when Helen nodded at her husband.
"We have news," Campbell told them.
"What's that?" Beth asked, trying to get Jilly to smile by playing peek-a-boo.
"We're moving," Helen said, watching their faces.
"What? Where are we supposed to go, Mom?" Lucas asked.
"Here. Campbell and I need to downsize. We are going to be traveling and we don't need this big of a house. So, we want to gift you this house."
"That's too big a gift, Mom," he said, but Elizabeth grabbed his hand. "It is, Beth."
"Its big but we need a house and they need to downsize. Its perfect. Maybe they can rent it to us or we can buy it from them over time?"
"You don't need to buy it from us, but maybe we can hash out the details that will be good for everyone. We bought a condo about twenty miles from here so we will be moving in about two weeks."
"That's fast," Lucas said, still shocked at the turn of events.
"We paid cash so it sped things along."
Lucas looked at Elizabeth. "Let's go talk, okay?"
She nodded and handed Jillian to Aria. "Be right back."
Lucas sat down on their bed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Babe? Why are you struggling with this?"
"Am I crazy to be annoyed that I won't own the house that we will live in for the foreseeable future?"
"Not crazy, no. I can see why you might feel that way."
"Do you want this house?"
"Its a very nice house, Lucas. The only thing I would do is add an office for you and decorate it differently, which we can do because we won't be spending a huge amount of money on a new house."
"That is a perk."
"But I do think we should rent it from them or pay them something for it."
"I agree. This house is worth a lot of money. If we pay them even half, we can at least have it in our names."
When all was said and done, they decided that instead of paying for half the house outright, they would pay them a small amount to keep it legal, transfer the deeds to Lucas and Elizabeth and the amount of money Luke and Elizabeth wanted to pay them, would just go into college accounts for the kids. It made sense, Luke would own the home and the kids were more than set for college.
In Mid March, Elizabeth and Lucas started the process of finding someone who could add an office for him and do some other improvements. There was a small area on the 2nd floor where Campbell had a treadmill set up that would be good for that.
One morning, Aria was off to school, Lucas was at work, leaving Elizabeth with her two littles. Everything was fine until Jamie snuck off while Elizabeth was changing Jillian and hurt himself. She heard a thud and then a scream. "Jamie? Are you okay?"
He was crying and not silent, so that was a small comfort.
She stood up, put a sleepy Jillian in her crib and headed to find Jamie. "Jamie? Where are you, bub?"
She found him in the kitchen on top of the island, screaming his handsome little head off.
"Bub? What are you doing up there?"
"Maaaaaamaaaaa!" he yelled, holding out his hands. "Hurt, Mama."
She picked him up and felt his head. There was a bump on his forehead. "Did you bump your head?"
"Yeah, Mama. Hurt."
"I bet it did. You know you shouldn't climb on the counter. That was naughty."
"I know. I want juice."
She handed him his sippy that he hadn't finished at breakfast. "Ask Mommy when you need something. No climbing."
"Kay, Mama."
"Promise?"
He nodded, took a sip and leaned his head on her shoulder.
"I love you, Jameson."
She did love him. So much, and maybe, at the age of almost three and a half, he tried her patience but she loved him just the same.
"Let's go take a nap, bub."
"Kay, Mama. Big bed?"
"Yep, you me and Jilly."
"Yay."
"So how was your day?" Lucas asked late that night as they lay on a blanket in the sand behind their house, watching the stars and listening to the ocean.
She sighed and rolled over, hugging his side with her head on his chest and their legs intertwined. "Your son climbed up on the island to get his juice and clunked his head."
"He's such a monkey."
"He is. He's so darn cute too."
"He is. Oh! I got a call from Yost Construction. A guy named Mike will be out here to give us a quote for what we want done. I think he said next Tuesday."
"That's great."
"What's on your mind, Beth?"
"I want a baby. I'm getting older," she said, sitting up so she could look him in the eye. "Not right now. But maybe we could try when Jilly is about a year? Just one more, Luke."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. We have the guest room which would be a great nursery for Jilly and the baby."
There wasn't any reason for him to say no. She was a great mom and Aria helped a lot and by the time the baby was born, Jilly would be two and Jamie almost four and a half.
"Okay."
Elizabeth laid back down and snuggled against him. "Okay."
Just hearing an okay settled her heart. They'd have four kids and they had their own beautiful house. Lucas was head of research and made enough money for them to live on without needing her to work.
…..
Lucas' office was finished a month later and then their interior decorator started the process of redoing the kid's bathroom and the downstairs family rooms. Elizabeth worked closely with her so that she knew she'd be getting exactly what would make the house feel like theirs.
"Can we decorate my room, Mom?" Aria asked. "It doesn't feel like me."
"We can do your room ourselves. Maybe a project we can work on together?"
"Sure. That sounds fun!"
"Great. I'm glad, bugs. I think it sounds fun too."
Aria gave her a smile but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Something bothering you, bugs?"
"I don't know."
"You can tell me. Come sit here," she said, patting the couch next to her.
"My science teacher assigned me a partner for our project."
"Oh. Do you know her?"
"Him. Its Tommy Yost." Her cheeks turned pink.
"Is he cute?"
"Yeah. Normally, the boys in my classes are rude and mean. But he's not. He's tall and cute and nice."
"So maybe being his science partner won't be bad. Maybe you'll be friends when its all said and done."
"Maybe."
Aria hadn't felt this way about a boy before. She knew that one day she'd feel all jittery and stuff around boys but she was only turning twelve in another month. Was that too young?
"Mom?"
"Yep?"
"I'm gonna be twelve. Is it weird that I like a boy?"
She put her arm around Aria's shoulder and kissed her temple. "No, honey. It's totally normal."
…..
As the months went on, Aria turned twelve, Jamie turned four and Jillian turned one. The house was perfect in everyone's eyes and things were going well.
Elizabeth sat down on the lid of the toilet one day in December, two months after she and Lucas had started trying for their fourth and final baby. The test was positive!
"Babe!" she yelled, making him run in from the bedroom.
"Yeah?"
"I'm pregnant!"
That was quick! He picked her up and hugged her tight. "That's amazing, babe."
"It is."
Thankfully, the pregnancy was problem free and smooth. She went into labor the next August and delivered another healthy girl by c-section. Poppy Rose Bouchard.
…..
Ten years later
"We're getting married!" Aria said, holding up her left hand for her parents and siblings to see.
"Oh sweetheart!" Elizabeth exclaimed, hugging her. "I'm so happy for you."
"I can't believe it. He took me to dinner and then we walked by the water and talked, like we normally did. I had no idea what he was up to. Then he stopped and got down on one knee and asked me. I was so shocked, Mom."
"I bet you were."
Tom Yost and Aria had been officially dating since they graduated high school. Ever since that first science project they had been paired up for, they had been best friends. At graduation, he asked her to be his girlfriend and since then, they've dated all through college and now, apparently they would be married.
Beth and Lucas couldn't be more proud of their oldest. She had graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, top of her class. Tom was now an architect and working for his father's firm in San Diego. Aria had moved to San Diego about six months before, living in her own apartment while she worked at Scripps Mercy in the city.
"I'm home!" Lucas called, walking in the door after work.
"Daddy!" all four kids yelled, running to him, even Aria.
"Hey, bugs. What are you doing here?"
She held up her hand. "Tom proposed. We are getting married in April."
"Oh wow, baby. Congratulations."
"Thank you but why don't you seem surprised?" she asked, squinting her eyes.
"Tom asked me last week for your hand."
He ruffled Jameson's hair, making the teen scowl. "Dad. Come on."
"Seriously, James. You rarely brush your hair. Not sure that I messed anything up."
He then picked up both of his younger girls, groaning under their weight. Jillian, at eleven and Poppy at ten were definitely too big to be picked up and he, in his mid fifties, was definitely too old to pick them up but he did it anyway. Beth would massage him later.
They squealed and kissed each of his cheeks. "Hi, Daddy."
"Hi. Now everyone go run along and do their homework. I need to talk to Mom."
"Hi, honey," Beth said, kissing him hello.
"Hey. I have news."
"Did you hear back?"
"Yeah. I got it."
"So we are moving to London?"
"What?" the three younger kids asked as they walked back in the room.
"I don't want to move!" Jameson yelled.
"Cool!" the girls said. "London will be awesome."
"No it won't!"
"You're moving?" Aria asked. "When?"
"Well, there's a lot of moving pieces, bugs, but I need to be there to start my job in a month. Mom and I have to talk about logistics.'
"Don't we get a say?" Jameson asked.
"We will have a family meeting after Mom and I make some decisions."
"So in other words, no."
"Jamie, please go do your homework. You too, girls."
"Dinner in thirty," Beth mentioned."
…..
Lucas undressed from work as he and Elizabeth talked in the master. "I will be Head of Research Support at the Institute of Cancer Research. They are really excited to see what my team has come up with and I can't wait to show them. We are so close to getting the medication approved."
"I'm so proud of you, honey."
"Are you really okay with moving?"
"Yes. I knew it was a good possibility that it would happen and I've always wanted to see London."
"And Aria is getting married so you may have to travel back and forth to help her."
"That's fine." He nodded.
"So I have to be there in mid-January. I will find a house for us."
"And I will get this one ready to be put on the market and get everything packed."
He nodded again and pulled her up and into his arms. "I know this will be hard, Beth, but I more than appreciate you being so supportive."
"You're my husband, love and I'm so proud of you and all you've done. I'll go with you wherever life takes us."
"I'm so grateful Faith and Carson set us up sixteen years ago. I was just looking for a friend but instead I found the love of my life."
She moved her arms up and over his shoulders and kissed him slow and deep. "I love you, husband. Thank you for all that you have given me."
—--
And this alternate universe is closed! I hope you all enjoy and will let your imaginations take them where you want them. I appreciate you!*