Once arriving in Hawaii just past midday, the day after when Adalyn was supposed to leave, they got the keys to a rental car from the airport before loading their belonging in and heading to Gabriela's place to pick up Lavender.
Adalyn still wasn't quite sure on how she felt about spending the next two weeks with the three year olds. But as Jack promised her the previous night after leaving her parent's house, he'll take the girls out and give her some space if things ever got too much, which made her feel a little more content about it.
"Gorgeous," Jack reached over and tapped his girlfriend to gain her attention, hearing a small hum as she looked at him. "El.." he mouthed while quickly making eye contact with her, nodding to the girl in the back.
"Yes princess?" Adalyn took her headphone out as she looked over her shoulder to her niece.
"I'm hungry," Eliana frowned while crossing her arms.
"We're almost at Lavender's house, then we'll go get lunch, the four of us, okay?" she watched the girl nod.
"How many of us are there here?" Jack questioned the little one, trying to keep her entertained as Adalyn put her headphones back in, slightly turning up her music.
"One.. two," Eliana counted as she pointed the two sat in the front.
"Yes, and including you?"
"One.. two.. three!"
"And how many more to make four?"
"One!" she replied after counting on her fingers.
"mhm, one more," Jack nodded, a smile on his face as he looked back at her using the rear view mirror.
"Lavender?"
"Yes, little miss Lavender.. once she's with us, we can go and get lunch."
"Okay," her gaze moved to the window, watching where they were driving. "Are we there yet?"
"Yes, actually we are here," he replied as they pulling into the driveway, putting the car in park yet leaving it on and then grabbing Adalyn's hand to gain her attention. "I'll be ten minutes max."
"okay.."
Jack placed a quick kiss on his girlfriend's lip before getting out of the car and shutting the car door behind himself. Walking over and knocking on the front door of his ex's house, patiently waiting for it to be answered.
"Lavender, someone's here for you," Gabriela called out to her daughter as she herself walked over to the door.
"Addie!" she exclaimed as she ran past her, beating her to the front door. Furrowing and folding her arms once she made eye contact with her father, "Dada?"
"Are you not happy to see me?" he chuckled while crouching down to her level, holding his arms out for a hug.
"What happened to your hair?"
"I shaved it off," he ran his hand over his own head. "Do you like it?"
"mh.." Lavender looked at him, unsure on what to say in response. "Where's Addie? Mama said Addie was coming."
"She's in the car," he pointed over his shoulder while keeping his eyes on his daughter. "And you wanna know who else is here?"
"Who?"
"Do you remember Ellie?"
"Yes!"
"Okay, well she's waiting to see you so the sooner you go and grab your stuff, the sooner you can hang out with her and Addie."
"Okayy," both her parents watched her as she ran off back inside in the house.
"Don't forget bunny!" Gabriela reminded her.
"I'm so sorry about yesterday.." Jack stood back up, letting out a deep breath. "A lot's happened and we just completely forgot.."
"That's not good enough, Jack," she argued. "I had plans today that I had to cancel because I still had her and I had to wait around for you to show up. You're clearly not on tour so being half way across the world wasn't the issues."
"I'm sorry, okay?" he repeated. "I don't want to start a whole argument over this. I- it's just.. the last few weeks has honestly been hell for Adalyn and I. Time has just blurred together and I genuinely lost track of the days."
"..I'm only telling you this because I don't want you going online after I leave and start saying about how I didn't pick Lav up yesterday and I have a 'pathetic' reason," he continued. "but Adalyn was pregnant.. and she lost the baby.. and on top of that she's not doing okay mentally so it's been the hardest week.. so can you please just forgive us?"
".. oh okay.. sorry to hear about that.." Gabriela replied.
"Dada, allll ready," Lavender smiled as she hugged her bunny plush with her backpack on.
"Let's get going, hey?"
After the little one said goodbye to her mother, her and her father walked over the car, Jack soon took the backpack off of her and opened the front passenger door so she could see Adalyn properly. Lavender climb up onto her lap as the elders arms wrapped around her, exchanging smiles and greetings.
"You also change your hairs," she mentioned, playing and looking at the girl's red hair.
"yeah, I have.."
"Do you like mine or Addie's better, Lavy?"
"Addie's," she replied to her father before resting her head on Adalyn's chest.
"Not surprised," he chuckled, opening the back door to get her car seat situation while leaving the two for a little longer.
"I've missed you."
"I've missed you too," Adalyn placed a small kiss on the girl's head.
"C'mon, you can give Addie more cuddles later, Ellie's getting hungry," Jack grabbed his daughter off his girlfriend, being careful as he pulled her out of the car before sitting her in her car seat in the back.
A few more minutes had passed until the four were all situated and back on the road, heading to a local restaurant. The sound of the two little one's babbling to each other in the back being heard over the music coming through Adalyn's headphone, made her feel conflicted despite how much she loved the both.
Adalyn soon let out heavy sigh mixed with a small groan as she closed her eyes and turned her music up, completely blocking all the chatter and other noises out while she attempted to focus on her breathing pattern and tried to calm herself down.
Jack could tell she was feeling stressed, causing him to reach one of his hands over and grab ahold of her's. Sending her a smile as they quickly made eye contact while stopped at an intersection before his eyes went back to the road.
Softly stroking the back of her hand for the remainder of the drive until they pulled up at the restaurant, letting go as he parked the car and then turned it off. Watching her then down her headphone's volume while he lent over the centre console, placing a kiss on her lips.
"I love you," he almost whispered. "it'll be okay."
[ ₊✧ 💋 ∘* ☁️ ⋆ 🍒 ༉˚ ]
A/N
idk about this anyway tbh i haven't
been in the mood to write which sucks
cause i just wanna finish my books :/