Just Play Along

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

*Jess’ POV*

Two and a half years later…

“Aston!!” I called down the stairs of our house.

“What?”

“Can you get Emiliana up?!”

“Why?” he asked, emerging in the stairwell.

“She’s not going to get any sleep tonight if she keeps sleeping like this.”

“So?”

“You know very well that this is our one weekend away for months… I don’t want a crying baby all night long!”

“Yes dragon lady,” Aston grinned, coming up the rest of the steps and wandering to the nursery. “She’s going to sleep in the car you know.”

“I’ll sit back there with her and keep her up,” I said, going to double check the diaper bag I’d packed to bring along in the car as well as the weekend bag with all of Emiliana’s clothes.

“Are you going to be ready to go soon?”

“Ten minutes,” I replied, “Just need to grab a few things for me.”

“Ok,” Aston said, “I’ll get Emi ready and we’ll wait for you downstairs.”

“Thanks babe,” I grinned, kissing Aston quickly as he woke up our eight-month-old daughter.

It was crazy to think that we were settled down with a little baby of our own. When I was 25, having just met Aston, I would have laughed at anyone who would have suggested that eventually I’d be a mum to his child. But here I was, a full on parent, married to the love of my life.

Of course Emiliana hadn’t been born without a few meltdowns. In fact, I’d cried the entire first weekend I’d found out I was pregnant, merely because I was overwhelmed by the news. And I’d put Aston through total hell during the pregnancy as my emotions went up and down.

“Ok ready,” I said, grinning when I saw Aston had put Emiliana in some silly trainers, even though she wasn’t having it. She kept trying to kick them off while sitting in her baby seat.

“Let’s go then,” Aston said, “I want to beat traffic.”

I nodded my head and grabbed our bags, following him out of the house and locking up. After loading the car we were on the road, off up to the estate for a quiet weekend away.

“I bet Marnie is glad for the extra time off,” Aston said conversationally. After another bout of random jobs, I’d managed to talk Marnie into working as our nanny while Aston and I busy with work. It was the perfect fit, as she was one of the only people in the world I trusted with my child.

“She’s seeing some new guy,” I grinned.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah she has a hot date tonight…”

“Go Marnie!” Aston laughed.

“We’ll need to meet him to see if he is up to our standards,” I said, “Won’t we Emi?” I shook Emiliana’s foot as she gave me a frown, clearly wanting to go back to sleep.

Given a nice Portuguese name, in an effort to hold on to that last sliver of Portuguese left in my blood, Emiliana had certainly inherited many of my mannerisms. When it came to new things or breaking routine, Emiliana was a no nonsense kind of girl, crying and pulling dramatic faces. Of course, she’d also inherited many of her father’s fun loving qualities, and his good looks too. A perfect combination of the pair of us.