ECHOES OF LOVE

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: Unexpected Returns

"Mummy, wake up!" I hear my little one say, sitting on my waist. I sit up with her still on my lap. "Hey, baby, what's the matter?" She says, "I'm hungry, Mummy."

"Hold on, baby, let me take this. How about you go wait in your room for me to come change you?" She jumps off me and says, "Ok," and runs off down the hall. Ugh, now I have to answer this jerk face. I press accept and say, "What do you want!" mentally rolling my eyes. "Well, hello to you too. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that your two-year break is up, and you have to come back to America by the end of the week." This is why I should've just ignored his call. I groan, "Yes, Mr. Williams." Without a goodbye, I hang up the phone.

I go and walk over to Elliana's room, and I see her playing with her toys. "Mommy, can we eat now?" I chuckle a little. "Yes, baby, come on." I bend down and pick her up, and we walk down the stairs. I go into the kitchen and ask her, "Do you want pop tarts?" She nods her head yes and leans her head on my shoulder as I pop some in the toaster. We go to sit at the table to eat. Once I'm done, I go to get Elle out of her high chair, and I see that she has all the pop tart jam all over her face. "Come on, baby, let's go get you washed up." I walk up towards the bathroom and start the bath. I don't ever have time to take my own shower because I have to watch Elle, so today I'm just gonna take a bath with her. I take her clothes off and then mine, and we both hop into the bathtub. I have to hold her up a little because I put the water up too high, and right now, she is just playing with her toys while I wash her hair. I'm rinsing it off with water and then start to wash mine. Once we're all done washing up, I put my towel on and her towel on, and we head to my room where my clothes are. Today, I am gonna wear a gray tank top with some black jeans, and for my hair, I just left it down.

After I'm done getting dressed, I go pick up Elle, and we make our way towards her room. Today, what I picked out for her to wear is a pink and white striped sleeve shirt with a jean overall dress and black tennis shoes. I put cute little pigtails in her hair and a cute little necklace.

Once we are both done getting dressed, I start to pack up Elle's stuff. We both didn't have much stuff here because all of our stuff is in our house in California. I just wanted to go out of the country for a year, so I knew we didn't need that much. Once I'm done packing all of our stuff, I send it on a private plane back to California. Elle and I are driving to the airport right now, and we are boarding our flight right now. Elle is sleeping in her stroller, and we get on the plane. A couple of hours later, we arrive in California. We are going to get our baggage. I call my friend Ayla and ask her to bring me my car and make sure Elle's car seat is in it. Elle is starting to wake up, and soon enough, I hear her. "Mommy." I go in front of her, kiss her forehead. "Hey, baby." She smiles up at me and reaches her arms out to me. "No, not right now. You are about to get out." I get a phone call from Ayla. "Hello?" I say into the phone. "Hey, Camilla, I'm here outside." I start to grab my stuff and make my way outside, and soon enough, I see my car. "Okay, I see you. I'm coming. Bye." I hang up the phone and walk over to my car. I go and buckle Elle in her car seat, and then I go to the passenger's side. It's silent for a while, and all we hear is Elle talking to herself in the back. "Ayla, I missed you so much." She turns to me and gives me a half-smile. "Camilla, I missed you too. Fill me in on your trip to Australia." I smile. It doesn't feel like it's been a long time since we've been together, but anyway, I start to fill her in about the things we did in Australia and how it was. Soon, we finally reach my house. Honestly, it feels good to be back here. I kinda missed it, but Australia was awesome too. I get out of the car and go to unbuckle Elle. I get a little of the stuff that we brought with us, and the rest they told me would come in two days. I take our stuff inside and go put Elle in the little play area I have for her. Then I go to the kitchen to go talk to Ayla "Hey any good babysitters near the area? I have to find one for Elle," I ask her. She thinks for a little, then says, "Oh yes, I know one. Well, she doesn't babysit anyone, but she just lost her job. It's my friend's sister. She's like 29 years old, and I heard she's good with kids. Here, let me give you her phone number." She scribbles down her number and says, "Well, anyway, Camilla, it was really nice to see you again. We should catch up some other time once you're all settled in and on track again. Anyway, I'll call you later. Bye, love." I go up and hug her. "Bye, see ya." I blow a kiss to her, and she catches it, and we both just laugh. Once she is out the door, I go to check on Elle. Once I see that she is fine and I'm about to walk away, she says, "Mommy, I want a snack." I go to the kitchen and get her fruit snacks and go open it for her and hand it to her. "Here you go, hun." I go back to the kitchen to call the number Ayla gave me. I dial the number, and they answer on the third ring. "Hello," they say on the phone. "Hello, is this Rebecca I'm speaking to?" I ask the person on the phone. "Yes, it is. May I help you?" She seems kind. I think this might work. "Yes, um, I heard that you were good with kids, and I was wondering if you could babysit my 2-year-old daughter. She barely cries. She's a really good baby. I just need someone to watch her from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. So, I was wondering, could you?" She sounds excited. "Yes! Of course. When could I start?" I chuckle a little. "Um, could you possibly start tomorrow? But I'm gonna come and drop her off around 6:00 am if that's okay with you because I want to see if your house has any dangerous things in your house?" I say into the phone. "Yes, it's all good. So, I'll see you tomorrow then?" I smile at how easy that was. "Yes, see you tomorrow. Bye." I hang up the phone and go get Elle from her playpen. "Hey, babe, wanna sleep with mommy tonight?" I ask her, and she just shrieks. I laugh and say, "I guess that's a yes." I walk up to my room and got us both changed into our PJs then put her on the bed and get in after her, and she comes and cuddles up on my chest. I kiss her forehead. "I love you, Elle." She giggles a little and says, "I wuv you too, mommy," and soon, we are both off to dreamland.