Our Time Will Come - An After Story

40

Hardin

"Shh darling, you're going to wake Mummy and your big brother up" I coo at my baby girl who is letting out a soft sob. Miller is literally thirty minutes older than Saffron but I just know he's going to tease her about being the youngest twin when they're older.

It's Four in the morning and I had Tessa pump some milk so that she could sleep the whole night through. I promised that I would take care of the babies while she enjoyed her first night being home, in an actual bed. "Let's get you fed, daddy's little milk monster" I whisper to her. "So miss Saffron Scott, Today's the day that you get to meet everyone who is going to love you for the rest of your life" I tell her, while placing her in my arms and walking down to our kitchen. It's true, everyone from Washington is flying out today to meet the twins for the first time. They're going to be staying here for two days and as great as that sounds, we literally just arrived back from the hospital, so it would have been nice to have a little longer with the twins alone.

Our dog Louie is fast asleep, making an adorable little snore in his bed. "That's your future best friend, our doggy, Louie. Isn't he great" I whisper to her.

"Your uncle Landon, and Aunt Nora only got a glance at you but they already love you unconditionally, just like your big brother and sister. Uncle Landon is one of your mothers best friends in the world and he's grown to be mine too. They live in the neighbourhood so you'll be seeing a lot of them" I babble to my princess while heating up her milk. "They have a daughter called Addelyn, she is my oldest niece and the sweetest girl you could ever meet. That makes Addy your big cousin baby girl" I tell her.

"Then there's your grandfather, Ken and Nana Karen. They live in Washington, which is where me and mommy lived before we moved here. You won't see a lot of them, but when you do, they'll make it amazing. Karen is going to dote on you baby girl" I stroke her cheek, while beginning to feed her. "Then there's your aunt Abby, who is my baby sister. I remember when she was as tiny as you are now. She's going to spoil you so much sweetheart. She terrorises me but she loves your big sister and brother and she's going to love you just as much, yes she is" I put on my best baby voice. I'm kind of stoked to have my father, Karen and Abby stay with us for the next two days. Tessa, the kids and I enjoy our little vacations to their place. But it's about time that they came here. I want to show my smug bastard of a father that we are just as fancy as he is, if not more.

"You met Nana Trish, my mother. She's a bit of a whirlwind to say the least, she's flying home today so we won't see her for a little while. She lives all the way in London Which is a long way away. We will visit there when you're a little older and I'll show you where daddy grew up" I whisper, taking in her sedated state from all the milk. When Tessa used to say that Emery was milk drunk, I used to think she was chatting a load of shit, but these twins are the definition of milk drunk. 

"Then of course, there's grandpa Christian and Nana Kim. It's complicated, I know. You guys have more grandparents than anyone I know, but one day you'll be old enough to understand why. Kim hates being called Nana, so when you're old enough, always make sure to call her Nana to get on her nerves" I tease. I don't know why I'm saying all of this to her, she can't bloody talk, hell she probably doesn't even know what I'm saying. Vance and Kim have their own place here in New York, they bought it when they opened up a Vance publishing office here, so they'll be staying there for the next couple of days.

"Grandpa Christian and I have a rocky relationship, but one good thing that came out of him being my father, is my siblings, your uncle Smith and my little sister Raya, your aunt" I add. "When Raya was your age, I used to call her my little Raya sunshine. Nobody knew, not even your mother, but whenever I'd hold her I'd talk to her like I'm talking to you now and say 'hey, my little Raya sunshine'". It's true, but saffron at two weeks old is the only person I'd ever admit to saying something so fucking soppy to.

"Then there's your mommy's mommy and her husband David who also live in Washington. Your grandma Carol and I don't always see to eye, but there's one thing that's certain about her and it's that she's the best grandmother anyone could ask for. God, she gave me a hard time when I first started seeing your mommy, but that was when I was a foolish boy. She's seen me transition to a reformed man and now we can tolerate each other a lot better. She's going to love you and your brother. Oh, and if David ever tells you that he's pinched your nose or some shit, don't fall for his shit baby girl, he still tries that with Auden thinking it's the best thing since sliced bread. What he fails to understand is that Auden is now nine years old and could probably outsmart any adult in a room" I chuckle to myself as I realise that I'm correct.

"So yeah sweetheart, all of those people are going to have the privilege of meeting you and baby Miller today" I beam into her breathtaking blue eyes and I'm interrupted by a very tired lady's voice. "Good morning Daddy" my wife enters the room, she's holding our baby boy. I chose to let the daddy comment slide. "Baby, it's four in the morning. What did I tell you about getting up? get some sleep, I'll take him" I place a kiss into her hair as she approaches me. "He wasn't crying or anything baby, I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so .. here we are" she says while placing herself next to me on the sofa. "Aw look at her little face, She's milk drunk" Tess giggles at our daughter. "I was literally just thinking that" I add.

"Well, I suppose now that we're both up, we can get the house ready for later today when our guests arrive?" She sticks out her bottom lip. "Woman are you crazy, do you know what time it is?" I scoff. "Come on babe, the twins are quiet. We'll get it done now and then we can relax for the rest of the morning until everyone arrives" she pouts even further. I glare at her like she's just killed somebody, then finally give in and nod in agreement. "Thank you!! Go and bring the babies Moses baskets down here, I'll go and get the table cloths, then you get the guest tables from the basement" she orders. Who does she think I am? The incredible bloody hulk? She really expects me to retrieve five guest tables from the bloody basement at four in the morning.

I follow her orders and grab the babies bassinets from the bedroom and place the twins in them. They're content and making an adorable Noise in their sleep as their mom and I give the damn house a makeover.

"I retrieve the tables from our basement one by one, "Jesus Christ" I sigh, out of breath from repeatedly running up and down the steps. "Thank you love" she smiles over at me as I carry the final one into our sitting room. She decorates the tables with elegant, light grey table cloths and we still have some confetti left over from the gender reveal, so she adds pink and blue confetti into the centre of each table. I lay out some champagne glasses and napkins. Why the fuck does everyone in this bloody family of mine love champagne? Posh bastards.

Forty five minutes later, we are finished and I dramatically plonk myself on the sofa, Tessa joins me and we turn on the tv on a low volume, careful not to wake up Emery and Auden. Surprise surprise, Tessa turns on friends. It's her comfort show.. so I can't really complain, she smiles when the theme song plays and as sad as that is, it makes me happy. "See, I told you we could relax until our guests arrive now" she remarks. All the Washington folks have decided to board the same plane, to make things easier, they should be arriving at JFK airport at ten am, which gives us a good few hours of relaxing. "And that's what we're gonna bloody do! Relax" I confront her while placing a kiss onto her forehead.