No Strings Attached || Grayson Dolan

THE ONE WITH THE EPILOUGES

"You know it's not a problem Sierra. We love Jamie with all our hearts" I assure her and she hugs me.

"I know, thanks. I'll get a refill, be right back" she says and struts away with her glass. Gray snakes his arm around my waist and I lean into him, hugging his torso.

"I want one" gray says and he catches me a little bit off guard. I look up at him and he smiles down at me.

"Me too. I want a little mini us running around"
——————
8 years of marriage
POV Lydia
"Jace and Aria! We need to leave right now" I yell through the house and I soon hear four small feet running down the stairs. "Aria sweetie, why aren't you wearing your dress?"

"I'm six. I can wear whatever I want, and I wanna wear this" she protests and I look down at her jeans and T-shirt.

"Normally you can wear whatever you want yes, but not to cousin Phoenix's christening" I say to her and push her gently towards the stairs again. "Now please go put your dress on"

"Grayson! Please tell me that Maia is ready at least?" I ask my husband and as on cue he comes down the stairs with Maia on his hip.

"Yeah she is" he says and gives her to me, kissing me on the cheek. "Calm down, it's gonna be just fine"

"I know. I just want everything to be perfect" I say and give him a quick kiss. "Jace, put on your shoes now please" I say to him as I put Maia down in her carrier.

"I'm seven now daddy, I can tie my own shoes" Jace says with a grin, partially mocking his sister I believe. Grayson backs off and lets him tie his shoes. I shake my head at him with the smallest of smiles before heading out of the door, putting Maia in her car seat.

* * *

"Daddy Ethan! It's been so long" I hug him as I enter the church for the christening and he kisses Maia, who's on my hip, as we let go.

"Yeah I know. I think little Phoenix here appreciates it too" Ethan continues and grabs his son from his wife. "You jet lagged much?"

"You kidding, I feel like an entire keg of coffee wouldn't be enough right now" I smile and he laughs.

"You know, maybe I could fix a coffee keg . Thanks for flying in by the way, means a lot. I know that you're working much these days "

"Hey, Paris will still be there. Maybe you guys won't. We'll always fly in" I smile at him and he smiles back. Maybe I forgot to tell you, we live in Paris since 4 years back. I got my dream job there, and we just couldn't say no. It was really hard to pull Jace and Aria away from their home, Maia still wasn't born, but I'm trying to tell myself that they were really young so it won't affect them in the long run. At least they'll always have a fun experience to look back at.

"I know. And I love you guys for that" he says and smiles gratefully. "I need to run, you go take a seat and we'll start in a bit"

I nod at him with a smile, and I meet Grayson with Jace and Aria. As we look out over the church to find an empty row, I see Kendall turning around and waving us over to him. Yes, that Kendall. Gosh it's been a while since we last saw him. We sit down beside him and I give him a side hug and then let Grayson by and they do that weird boy-hug-thingy.

We sit down beside Kendall, me with Maia in my lap and Grayson beside me and the older children by the aisle. Grayson gives them his phone to play with to keep them calm and quiet.

"So this is the infamous Maia?" Kendall asks and Maia squeals at the sound of her name. She claps her hands lightly, that girl loves attention, and she's almost wiggling out of my lap. Kendall hasn't met Maia yet, even though she's over two years old, let's just say that Kendall isn't our highest priority when we're back in the states.

"Yup. Maia please sit still" I tell her and Kendall chuckles lightly.

"You want me to take her?" Grayson asks me and I shake my head, giving him a thanking smile.

"No it's fine, thanks. Maia let's play a fun little game, the last one to talk gets a piece of cake later" I say to Maia because I notice the christening is starting and she needs to stay quiet. She nods enthusiastically and I smile at Grayson, he's probably just as relived as I am that she'll probably be quiet for quite some time.

* * *

Something about christenings just makes me feel good. It's such a beautiful tradition, maybe it's just because I've had 3 children to christen myself, but I really like it. And Phoenix did so good, he more or less slept through the whole thing in Grayson's, who's the godfather, arms.

The party is now over and the whole gang is gathered, for the first time in forever. Me and Grayson with our kids, Ethan and Esther with their kids, Kendall with his fiancée and Sierra with her daughter.

"Look at us. All together again"

"And look at how far we've come. All the way from high school to here"
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Thank you so much for reading this book! Hope you liked it.

Xoxo
Annie 💋