Everything Comes Back To You (book 2)

268. Real Life

"Mama!" Duncan beamed as she entered the living room carrying the littlest member of the Somerhalder household against her chest in a kangaroo pouch carrier. Little Enzo blinked up at her and stuck his tongue out making her chuckle and press a kiss to his fuzzy head.

"Hi sweet boy," she smiled as she ran her fingers through Duncan's growing hair, "looks like you need a haircut."

"Nooo!" The 3 year old whined shaking his head and Nina smiled, "no cut hair."

"Alright, alright," she chuckled, "come on, let's go make lunch for sissy, Arrow and Daddy when they return from the farm." His eyes gleamed in delight and nodded his head. So Nina and Duncan with a once again sleeping infant walked to the kitchen where the three year old climbed onto a chair around the island as Nina grabbed the bread, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo and cheese from the fridge. She was gong to make them some ham sandwiches with fruit slices.

As she was setting the the food in their respective plates, the sliding glass door that led  to the back slide open making Nina look over and smile as her two eldest children and husband walked in, all three covered in dirt.

"Looks like you three had fun out there," she smile, "why don't you go clean up? Lunch will be ready soon."

"Come on you two," Ian said as he led his children upstairs being careful not to wake any of their dogs and cats along the way. The only one who gave them a glance had been Maverick before she went back to snoozing with the others.

Nina whistled getting the pets' attention and they all rushed over making Duncan giggle as they all sat patiently waiting for Nina to fill their bowls with food and water.

"Alright you fluff-balls," she stated as she filled the bowls up—she had taken Enzo out of the kangaroo pouch and placed him in his bouncy table chair.

Soon enough Ian and her little ones entered the kitchen freshly cleaned.

"Hungry mama," Arrow mumbled as he climbed in next to his brother.

"Me too," Blaire added as she too climbed up beside her brother. And Enzo cooed and kicked his little legs when he heard his siblings' voices along with his father's as Ian walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"We fed the chickens, ducks and horses," he said as he sat down and Nina hummed as she placed a plate in front of four of them before gathering her own and joined her little family. She did get Enzo out of the chair to feed him as they ate.

"Nikki called earlier," Nina said and Ian hummed, "she asked if we were available to see her, wanted to see if we could model her jewelry and the kids could model some clothes she created."

"When did she say she wanted to see us?" Ian asked as he took a sip of his water.

"Whenever, we can give her a call later and set up a time," Nina said and Ian nodded, "oh and your mom said she can watch the kids for us for a few days while I'm shooting that movie I told you about."

"When do you start filming?" Ian asked as he stood up from the table with their empty plates while the kids all ran to the living room to watch their favorite cartoon, Bluey.

"Next month. The direction is hoping to get it released by October." She said and he nodded with a smile.

"That's great, babe," he replied making Nina smile.

"I'll be pumping the entire time though," she chuckled and Ian grinned. "I'm so glad Nikki recommended me that breast milk pump she used with her little ones."

He nodded and pulled her close before giving her a tender kiss on the lips, which had Nina smiling against him.

"I'm proud of you, you know that?" He asked and she raised a brow.

"You tell me all the time," she answered, "and I'm proud of you too."

*****

Nikki, Ian, and Nina sat in the living room of Nina and Ian's house two hours later while their children played in the kids' jungle gym outside and chance with the dogs.

"God he's so cute," Nikki gushed as she looked at the six month old sois as sleep next to Nina in his portable bassinet. The couple smiled at her words with Nina thanking her for the compliment, "I mean all three of them are."

"Thank you, Nik," Ian said with a smile as he gazed at his youngest son.

"Anyway, I'm sure Nina told you why I wanted to speak with you?" She asked and Ian nodded, "so what do you think? I know she said yes but it's up to you."

"It's not a problem with me either, as long as their faces aren't in the pictures then I don't see a problem with us being your models." He said and Nikki nodded completely understanding where they were coming from as she also didn't have her children's faces shown in any of her posts either.

"Don't worry, that won't happen," she assured the pair who nodded, "I brought some samples for you to try on and we can get a few photos in?"

"Sure, that sounds fine with me," Nina said, "and you?" She asked looking at Ian who nodded.

"Yeah that's fine," he said and Nikki smiled and pulled out a few outfits for all of them to wear.

"Here these are for you two," she said handing the bigger outfits over to them, "and these are for the little ones." Nina took her outfit while Ian took his along with the kids, "we can take some photos outside once you all change."

"Okay," Nina nodded as she gently picked Enzo up from the bassinet so she could go change him and herself while Ian headed to the sliding glass door to call his kids in.

"Come on you three, auntie Nikki wants to take a few photos of us in these," he said when they walked up to him with frowns thinking they were being called in to say bye to Nikki and her kids.

"Okay, daddy," they said as they followed him inside and upstairs to change.

Not long after that, Nina, Ian and the kids were rejoining Nikki downstairs and in the yard.

"Ready?" She asked and they nodded and allowed her to pose them how she liked before snapping a few photos of the them.

"Perfect," she said with a smile when they were done, "you all are naturals."

"Can we see?" Blaire asked with a hopeful look that her brothers mirrors and Nikki smiled as she sat down on the grass with them surrounding her. "Mama looks so pretty."

Nina smiled as she had Ian watched their kids look over the photos on Nikki's camera.

"I'm going to send these over to you for you to pick which ones you like best and then I can post them on Instagram." Nikki said as she stood back up and the pair nodded, "thanks again for being my models."

"No, thank you, for asking us to be part of it, these clothes are so comfortable and beautiful," Nina said as they walked back inside and to the front door after Nikki had gathered her belongings back up along with her children who were patiently waiting for her at the door.

"Agreed," Ian said as he picked Duncan up and placed him on his hip when the three year old held his arms up for him to be held. Arrow and Blaire stood beside them as they waved them goodbye.

"Come back again with the kids so they can play." Nina said and Nikki nodded as she strapped her youngest into her car seat while her eldest buckled himself in.

"I will," Nikki said as she closed the door and walked around the car to the driver's seat, "see you all soon."

"See you soon."