Finding Melody

40: Frozen

"Look at those cheeks", Avery squealed, pinching Arden's cheeks as  I watched in amusement at the small budding creature.  He was adorable and so was she. I held Arabella in my hands, rocking her slowly, holding her small hand.

"They're beautiful aren't they?" Natalie asked, heavily breathing as Nolan laid next to her, his head pressed against hers, it had been a long night. We had all been up for hours, and the smiles between them grew as Avery and Alison came back. I was ready to sleep, ready to fall asleep in my small warm cot, or even in the comfort of my bed.

The babies were achy and they couldn't stand to be apart from each other, I knew they would be like the younger siblings I had never had, I would get to experience what it's like to grow up with them. Natalie and I didn't have that, and I was glad they had each other and for as long as I live, I would make sure they were never separated. Ever.

"They are", Avery squealed, that's all she had been doing this whole visit, other than hugging all of us, babies did that. Filled people with joy they never knew they needed.

"I still can't believe you're married and now you're a dad, I can't believe Nat even puts up with you". Avery spoke to Nolan, she had told me after all of our recent events that she felt like she hadn't even processed just how fast time was going.

"I am married to the most beautiful women on this planet, who had the most beautiful babies", he kissed her head, lightly and I felt a rush against my forehead too, remembering Dallas's light kisses on my forehead that had made me fluster just like Natalie did.

"Don't these babies make you want to have your own?", Avery asked, softly cradling Arabella. She was swooning over the babies, especially Arabella, all she talked about was spoiling her.

"Don't get any ideas". Nolan said, loudly even before I could answer the question myself. He scolded Avery for even filling those thoughts in my mind. But he had nothing to worry about, I hadn't thought about having kids in a while, well until I talked about it with Dallas. And I thought about our precious kids, but then the naivety hit me. We were in high school, kids were far from us, we should probably work on finding out what we were to each other before kids came into the picture.

Alison came back, as I handed Arabella off to her and took a seat in my small makeshift bed. I was worried when Avery came that she would let yesterday's secret slip out, that she would tell Natalie and Nolan about Dallas, the not so innocent guy, who had already on record had a 'sleep-over' together. Who knew what they would do once they found out it happened more than once a month?

But she didn't, she didn't even look at me differently, she was so taken back by her beautiful niece and nephew that it was almost as if the idea of Dallas and I had flown straight of her mind. And I was oh so grateful for that.

"Why don't you head home, I can have someone come pick you up?" Nolan asked, looking over at me. He could see how ruffled I had been when I had landed, that morning on the plane was the last time I had had peaceful sleep, perched on the shoulder of someone who made me feel, feel like myself.

Everyone seemed to nod, Avery even offered to drop me back, but I knew it would come up if she had offered. The house was thirty minutes from the hospital, and I couldn't come up with that many things to keep her from wandering to the topic and never letting go.

I wasn't sure if I left she would tell anyone, she had a rocky experience with her own young lover. She would sneak him in late at night, and she would let him stay with her, just like I had done with Dallas. Except Dallas wasn't demented, he wasn't manipulative as Avery's guy had been. He also wasn't insane enough to shoot Nolan.

I didn't even think she compared the two, because if she would I would already be grounded. It was too alike to close for her to not see the similarities. But she didn't, luckily it was just me the demented overthinker.