AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Emery
Charlotte and Quinn Adams are the pieces of my heart that I was missing all along. Truthfully, I never knew that I was incomplete until I held them in my arms for the first time. Touched their button noses, their tiny little lips. Watched their eyelids flutter, and their chests rise and fall with each breath.
Now, I can’t imagine ever living life without them. Even now, my lifebeforethem seems like a distant memory. Nothing compares to the feeling that I feel now.
It’s early, maybe around seven a.m., and I’ve just fed them both and gotten them back to sleep. Thankfully, breastfeeding has been easy so far, which I know isn’t usually the case, and especially not with twins, so I’m thankful. But Graham and I both stayed up most of the night just staring at them, talking, and enjoying the time together.
Graham passed out sometime around three a.m., but the second the girls started to cry, his eyes popped open and he flew out his chair so fast he tripped over his shoe and face planted on the floor.
It was so adorable and hilarious that I cried laughing so hard.
My sweet girls are still sleeping soundly in my arms, while their daddy snores softly beside us. He’s slumped back in the recliner, one hand still resting on my bed. He’s worried he’ll miss something, or not wake when the girls do.
The tv plays in the background. Something about sports that Graham put on to have background noise. Just him and me with our girls.
It’s the first time in a long time I’ve felt this much peace and happiness, all in one.
Content.
I watch the girls sleep, unable to take my eyes off them. It’s all I’ve been able to do since the nurse brought them back to us. I’m scared if I blink, I’ll miss something.
There were a lot of things I learned today. Not just becoming a mother for the first time, or how to get the babies to latch on to nurse.
I realized that I’m falling in love with Graham Adams, and that terrifies me.
It’s not that I didn’t think about it prior to this moment, it’s just seeing him with his girls. How tender and gentle and how much love he has for them. It’s in the way that he cared for me, encouraged me, supported me, pushed me when I felt like giving up.
He’s selfless, caring, and protective. Kind and thoughtful.
He’s everything I want in a man, and that scares me. Giving my heart to anyone after being hurt, after deciding I didn’t want the white-picket life.
Graham took everything I thought I wanted and showed me it was nothing that I thought it would be.
I’ve spent the last nine months falling, little by little. Piece by piece. Inch by inch, he worked his way into my heart, and now… I don’t know what my future looks like without him.
Without us as a family.
“You okay, babe?”
I look up and Graham’s sitting up in the recliner, sleep still heavy in his eyes as he yawns.
“I’m good. I was just trying to hold on to this moment, you know? I’m scared I’ll blink, and it’ll pass us by.”
He nods. “That’s how I feel too, but you also need rest, Em. You did something incredible today, and your body needs rest. Want me to hold them for a bit?”
I nod.
He stands, then walks over and takes the girls from me, taking his spot back on the couch. I watch as he smiles and talks to them in what I like to call his “Hot dad” voice.
I mean honestly, men with their babies are a whole different breed.
And watching him with the girls makes my heart swell so impossibly much, it feels like I can’t… I can’t fall any further for him, but then he does something that causes me to.
“Reed and everyone are going to be here in the next few hours. I talked to him a little while ago. He said Mom is coming with new outfits for the girls, and Holland won’t stop talking about how she’s an aunt. She’s due any minute now.”
Graham nods. “I can’t wait for the guys to meet them. They’re going to have the best uncles in the world.”
I nod, agreeing, knowing that my brother and their friends will be amazing with the girls, just like they are with Evan and Olive.
“I can’t believe they’re finally here, Em,” Graham says, still rocking the girls on his chest.
“Breaking news,”the sportscaster says on the tv screen, causing me to look over.
Graham and I both look up as the camera cuts to a new screen in a newsroom. The male anchor sits next to the morning tv host.
“Guys, we’ve just gotten word that there is breaking news. Our source says you’re hearing it here first, so we’re bringing this to you live from our newsroom. It looks like Graham Adams has been traded from the Chicago Avalanches to the Washington Warriors. Adams' time in Chicago has officially come to an end.”
TO BE CONTINUED….
