Doing it For the Kids

17 - The End

Violet stared at the platinum ring that now housed the beautiful pink diamond, then raised her eyes to meet Hendrick's.

He raised his eyebrow and smiled, "So what do you think? Do you think you could tolerate this on a certain finger?" She bit her bottom lips nervously as she met his gaze. "Or even more so, could you tolerate the man that comes with it?"

She nodded nervously, "what are you saying?"

"I love you Violet, I want to marry you, I want to spend EVERY night and EVERY morning with you. Wherever you live I'll quite happily live. I just need you."

"The twins......I can't...." She could barely see through the tears.

He placed a finger over her mouth, "the twins are wonderful, I love them, you know that. Everything else we can sort out, as long as we're together. Where we live, how we work out the details, it'll all be ok, as long as you say yes V!"

"As if I'd ever say no!"

He huffed, "say yes Violet!"

"I love you!" she breathed, smiling at him in wonder.

He stood and pulled her into his arms, "I know you do.....now say yes, or I'll head down to the bar and drink myself into oblivion."

"And if I do say it?" Now she was teasing him.

"I'll scoop you over my shoulder and carry you into the bedroom and show you one of the upsides of becoming Mrs Kaiser....." he winked at her as he added, "ALL night!"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes..............."

She was still chanting the word as he did as he strode into the bedroom and tossed her ahead of him on to the bed.

*******

EPILOGUE

"Dad! Watch this!" Hendrick knew he'd get no peace, so he glanced up from the wad of papers he'd brought up from Pretoria. Theo, a busy six year old, was stood on the diving board poised to jump in the pool. Hendrick smiled, then clapped as he executed a top class belly flop.

"Did you like it?" he asked as he finally emerged from under the water.

"It was excellent. You keep practicing though, yeah?"

He nodded as he ran back to the diving board.

Hendrick shook his head, he was so like Violet it was unreal, from his dark blonde hair to his blue eyes, he was the image of her. Unlike Genevieve, she sat happily at his feet playing, at three she was as inquisitive as him, and dark in her coloring, though she was in fact the image of his mother.

He leaned back in his chair and smiled, who'd have thought he'd thank Marvin Hancock? Thank him for creating Violet, and the weird chain of events that led to them being here together.

He'd been right on so many points. They'd made things work, managing to spend most of their time in the UK, whilst the children were schooled, but so many weekends and holidays they came back to Mbumba. Here they were starting a long summer in South Africa. They had many visitors planned, as usual, and their children were excited beyond belief.

"When will they be here?" Theo shouted from the water.

"Anytime now! Keep watching!"

Almost the second he spoke, the hum of an approaching airplane broke the calm. Looking up he spotted it, circling before picking out the landing strip a few hundred meters away.

The three of them were strolling out into the yard as Jan's battered jeep emerged in a cloud of dust.

Emma as usual flew out of the vehicle, throwing her arms around his neck, covering his face with affectionate kisses. At fifteen she'd suddenly blossomed into a beautiful, elegant young woman.

"Oh Ems, it is SO good to see you guys!" They'd spent a few weeks with Michael their father in Spain, but had flown in today, for the rest of the summer.

Smiling and nodding, she squatted down beside the younger kids and enveloped them in a similarly generous hug. Then Ethan appeared, still a spotty teenager compared to his sister, but at almost six foot, he was more than a match for Hendrick when it came to tennis, or pretty much any sport he turned his hand to. The four youngsters ran into the garden, desperate to cool off, he knew the trip for the twins would have been both long and not particularly comfortable, he didn't begrudge them the quick dive in the pool.

Looking up he finally saw Violet, she'd only left that morning, but he missed her every moment they were apart, which was far less than they first anticipated, but more than he was happy with. Since she'd got her pilot license a few years earlier, she split her work between teaching in small communities locally, and setting up healthcare care initiatives with large charities. She'd spoken to a thousand people at a conference in London the previous month and never looked so confident, sexy and strong.

"Hey you!" he smiled as she climbed down from the jeep last. She swung her arms around his neck for a long, intimate and promising kiss.

"You were longer than I thought!"

She smiled, "I had some errands to run!"

He took the bags from the car and waved Jan off, then followed her to the house, "any nice errands?"

She shrugged, still smiling. He was useless at being kept in suspense, so as soon as she set foot in the house, out of sight of the children, he grabbed her by the waist and pinned her against the wall.

"You're being very evasive...."

She snickered, "and you are SO rubbish at not knowing EVERYTHING Mr Kaiser!"

Sliding a hand up her back he reached the back of her bra and was about to unclip it, wreak havoc on her body when she whispered.

"I was at the doctor's."

"Is everything ok?" he laid a hand over her stomach, protective of their growing third child.

She nodded, still grinning from ear to ear, "its twins! We're having twins!"

He shook his head in amazement, "it started with twins, and now it ends with twins!"

Kissing her, he carried her upstairs, glad that they still had a lock on their bedroom door.