A Place Of Hope And No Pain (Avenged Sevenfold)

Chapter 74

Matt's POV

"Is Mommy cranky?" Harper asked as I helped her put her seat belt on.

"Maybe a little." I told her, kissing her forehead.

She looked at me and giggled. "She's jealous."

"I think she is." I said smiling.

Maybe Chloe was a little jealous that Harper and I were going out, but she couldn't come, we were going to pick out her engagement and it defeated the purpose of it being a surprise if she came, besides she needed to spend some time with boy's and get over her fear of Lucy.

Fear, I wasn't sure that was the right word, she wasn't scared of her, she was scared of the stuff she was doing to the boy's and to my family. I knew she was terrified for Christmas Day, but she needn't be, everything would be fine and if it wasn't well too bad, I was with Chloe and I was staying with Chloe.

"What are we doing first?" Harper asked as I drove. "The ring or food?"

She loved her food, I had to give her that. "I thought ring first, then we could go and have lunch." I told her, glancing at her in the mirror.

"Sounds good." She said, smiling out the window.

I drove downtown and found a park. I knew what jeweller I wanted to go too and I helped Harper out of the car, holding her hand as we walked in.

"Good morning." A lady greeted us. "Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"We are looking for an engagement ring." Harper told her, looking around.

"Oh I see." The lady said smiling at the both of us.

"Do you have anything particular in mind?" She asked us.

"Nope." Harper told her. "We'd like to look at everything."

Well thank god I brought her along, she was in charge and managing to handle everything.

"Well." The lady said. "Why don't you two have a seat over there." And she pointed to a table. "And I'll bring some out for you to look at."

"Excellent." Harper said, turning and walking to the table. I just shrugged following her.

We both sat down, getting comfortable and a short time later the lady came out, clutching some boxes, making herself comfortable across from us.

"So do you have any idea what she might like?" She asked us, getting rings out. "And please call me Lydia." She added.

"Well Lydia." Harper started. "We're not sure, so can we just look?"

"Of course." Lydia told us, indicating to the rings.

I looked at the rings and there were so many to choose from, all different sized diamonds, all different shapes.

"This one is nice." I murmured, picking one up. It was an original shape and the diamond was pretty damn big.

Harper looked at me, raising her eyebrow's. "It's a bit big don't you think?"

I looked at her, then back at the ring. "Well yeah." I mumbled. "But it is nice."

"Mommy wouldn't wear that Matt." Harper said. "It's too flashy." And of course Harper was right, Chloe would think that ring was too much.

"Well what one do you think?" I asked smiling at her.

"This one." She said reaching over and picking up a small, beautiful princess cut diamond.

I smiled . This was exactly why I wanted her with me to help pick the ring. It was perfect and exactly what Chloe would like and exactly what I wanted to give her.

"It's it." I whispered, looking at it. "This is the one."

Harper nodded smiling. "It's very pretty."

"Just like Mommy." I murmured.

"Do we know what size?" Julia asked, interrupting my daydreaming of Chloe and I living happily ever after.

"Um yes." I said reaching into my pocket and pulling out one of Chloe's ring's that I borrowed for the day. "This." I said placing it in front of Julia.

Harper giggled, looking at it. "You're so clever." And I smiled. It was pretty clever on my part.

"Well I'm glad you're all organised." Julia announced, packing up the rings. "We can get this sized and it should be ready in a couple of day's."

"We need it by Christmas." Harper told her, smiling at me.

"And you will have it by then." Julia told her smiling back.

We sorted out the details, and then paying for it, agreeing to pick it up on Friday.

"Well that was easy." Harper said as we left the store and I nodded, it was easy but only because I had her with me.

"Let's go eat." I said grabbing her hand. "I'm starving."

Harper started giggling. "Me too."

I took her to a nice restaurant and we sat down, enjoying our meal and talking. We talked about her moving in again,  Christmas day and how she was excited to be spending it with us and we talked about mine and Chloe's engagement.

"She will say yes Matt." She reassured me, but still I couldn't help but worry, it was Chloe after all.

"Are you ready to go home?" I asked Harper once I'd paid the bill. "Go and see what those three have been up to."

Harper nodded and smiled. "Yep, cause I missed my Mommy."

"Me too." I said softly, taking her hand and leading her to the car.

We drove home and by the time we got there Harper was half asleep. I got out, gathering her in my arm's and then letting us in.

The house was quiet, too quiet considering the boys were here.

I snuck up the hall and placed Harper onto her bed, then I went looking for the other three.

I found them in the living room, a movie had finished and the three of them were sound asleep, all squeezed onto the couch together.

God, it hurt my heart just looking at them. My boys and Chloe all snuggled together.

I turned and went into the kitchen, leaving them to sleep and putting on some coffee.

"Did you have a nice lunch?" Chloe asked softly, walking in and rubbing her head.

I smiled at her. God she was beautiful. "We did." I said softly. "Coffee?" And she nodded, sitting down. "How was your day?"

She smiled, shrugging. "Pretty good." She murmured. "There was an altercation with Lucy."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I snapped, handing her coffee and dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

"Yep, but." She said looking at me. "I sorted it out, so don't worry."

"You did?" I asked her, kissing her softly. If Chloe sorted it out, I figured Lucy probably got a mouthful of abuse. That thought made me smile and I was glad Chloe had finally stood up to her.

"Yes I did." She murmured. "Now, the kids want to put up the Christmas tree tonight."

"We can do that." I whispered, pulling her closer and enjoying a few kisses while I could.

And later that night, as we were all in the living room, Lucy chasing Jaxson around the tree, Ryder and Harper singing out of key and rolling Christmas baubles all over the place, me laying on the floor trying to work out how the fuck to get the tree to stay up and Chloe just yelling at everyone, I couldn't help but smile.

This was my family and I loved them with all of my heart.