Piper ~ H.S

~Chapter 112~

Piper took my hand in both of hers and looked at the diamond very closely. And as she inspected it, her face completely lit up.

"It's beautiful!" She beamed at me, "Just like you, mummy!"

"Aww, thank you, my darling," I smiled back at her.

"And guess what? We're having a special dinner tonight," Harry chimed in, "your nana and aunty Gem are coming over, and so are your uncle Aidan and aunty Ash."

Piper excitedly gasped once more. "Really?!"

Harry nodded and smiled at her. "We're going to tell them all the good news."

"Yay!" Piper clapped her hands delightedly, "I can't wait to see everyone! What do I wear?"

"Whatever you want, honey," I told her as I stroked her hair.

"I think I'll wear my best and prettiest dress," she concluded, "and we should dress Ari up, too!"

"We will, Piper," I told her with a chuckle, "we're celebrating tonight. Of course we will."

***

Dinner was still cooking when our guests started arriving. But luckily, we had prepared some hors d'oeuvres and some drinks for everyone to have during the wait.

The main purpose of tonight was to announce our engagement. Harry had mentioned that Anne already knew of his plans to ask me to marry him because he didn't want to keep it from her. But apparently he swore her to secrecy, so...hopefully it'll still be a surprise to everyone else.

I made an effort to not make it obvious at first that I had an engagement ring on my finger. But let me tell you, it was hard – because the diamond was massive. He had completely spoiled me with this ring, and I don't even want to ask him how much it was.

"Aunty Ash!" Piper ran up to Ashley with open arms, "I missed you!"

"Hey, bestie!" Ashley squealed a little as she crouched down and scooped Piper into her arms, "I missed you, too! My God, look how much you've grown!"

"I'm six years old now," Piper sounded proud as they pulled away.

"I know you are," Ashley beamed at her, "you're such a big girl now. And you're so beautiful. You look more like your mum every single day."

Piper giggled. "Thank you, Aunty."

"Hey gorgeous," Ashley smiled at me after releasing Piper and hugged me tight, "you're practically glowing with happiness right now. Any special reason?"

"Maybe," I told her with a chuckle as I hugged her back, "I'll tell you soon."

"Hey there, little sis," Aidan took his turn to hug me next after Ashley & I pulled away, "how are you? Did you recover alright from our big party?" He asked me with a chuckle.

I laughed. "Surprisingly, yes I did. What about you, though? You looked so dead the morning after."

"It took me a while," he admitted with another chuckle, "but yeah. I survived."

"Alright. We've said our hellos. Now I'm gonna go steal your other kid," Ashley ran to the living room where Aria was chilling out in her playpen which made me laugh.

As soon as Ashley reached the playpen, she immediately scooped Aria up into her arms and lifted her into the air which made the baby girl brightly smile at her.

"Hello, you glorious chubba-cabana," Ashley bounced her in the air which made her giggle, "look at you! You're just so. Damn. Cute!"

"Has Aria been kidnapped?" Harry asked me with a smile as he came up behind me.