Chapter 32: The Announcement
Nico
After we cleaned up and dressed again, it was time to go pick Grace up from her grandparents' house. Marco, our driver, came back to pick us up for the relatively short trip. Allie and I sat in the back of the SUV and snuggled on the drive over, both of us taking the opportunity to scroll through our phones to read the numerous text messages we'd received. Most of them were questions regarding the video I posted, specifically the marriage and babies comments I'd made.
"Since our families and friends are dying of curiosity, why don't we see if everyone is available to come over Saturday. We can grill some burgers or something simple, and then tell them all together," Allie suggested.
"Do you think they will be able to wait two whole days?" I asked, knowing how pushy our loved ones could be.
"We can just tell them we are still talking things out and focusing on the move for now. That should stall them. I'll need to hide my ring though. If my parents see it, they will definitely notice. Well, Mom will anyway. Dad will probably be clueless."
"Uh, no, he knows it's coming. I asked him for his blessing the other day."
Her mouth gaped open, and her eyes widened in surprise. "You did?"
I smiled at her. "Of course, I wanted to do things right. That's part of the reason I was so fucking stunned when he pulled that angry-dad routine in the driveway. He'd just given me his blessing, then acted like he wanted to rip my lips off for daring to kiss you."
She giggled. "I still wish we'd thought to get that on video."
"Shit, I'm glad you didn't. I'll never live it down the way it is. If it was on video, you guys would play it every chance you got."
She laughed and nodded. "Yep, we definitely would. OK, so Saturday at 6:00? I'll text my people, you text yours."
We spent the next two days packing up more shit at Allie's house, then schlepping it over to our place. Gracie wanted to help us, mainly because she was convinced we would forget something precious of hers. By the time we got her down to sleep each evening, I'd been dying to get my hands on Allie. I had no idea how fucking amazing it would be to go to sleep with her in my arms every night and wake up to her snuggled up to me the next morning. She'd been worried that Gracie would have trouble with the move and the changes in our relationship, but the kiddo had taken it all in stride.
She'd woken us this morning by poking my shoulder and giggling. I'd come awake with a start, dislodging Allie from where her head laid on my chest.
"Shi...shoot princess," I stuttered out. I really ought to try to clean up my language now that she was around full-time.
"I'm hungwy, Uncle Nico. Is it time for bweakfast?"
"Uh, I'm not sure. Hang on," I said, reaching for my phone on the bedside table. I focused my bleary eyes enough to see that it said 6:14. Fucking hell. It was 6:14 on a Saturday morning. "It's a little early. Are you sure you aren't tired still?"
She shook her head, her soft blond curls flying everywhere. "Nope."
Allie stirred enough to say "Grace, it's too early. Go back to your room and we'll get up in a little while, OK?"
Gracie pouted, and her lower lip trembled a tiny bit. "Hey, princess, what's wrong?" I shifted to pull her in for a hug, and she scrambled onto the bed. I barely avoided a bony knee to the crotch. That would have been one hell of a wakeup call. I was suddenly extremely glad that Allie had reminded me to put on a pair of boxers after we'd made love last night.
"Can I stay in here with you guys? It's lonely in my room."
My heart melted. "Of course you can, princess. Here, let me scoot over a little and you can lay down between your Mommy and me."
"Just remember that morning snuggles are fine, but at night you sleep in your own room, Gracie-girl," Allie said with a kiss to her temple. At my questioning look, she explained, "We struggled with that a few months back. Morning snuggles turned into middle-of-the-night snuggles and then bedtime snuggles. I had to put my foot down before I ended up with a permanent bedmate."
"Got it," I responded. "Now you have a different permanent bedmate."
She smiled, and we all settled in quietly. Within a few minutes, Gracie's soft breathing and lack of chattering indicated she actually was still tired. It didn't take long for me to fall back to sleep either. When I awoke a couple of hours later, Allie was gone, and Gracie was starfished in the middle of our bed. I'd been relegated to the side of the bed, so close to the edge that my ass was half-hanging off. I carefully slid out of bed and padded into the walk-in closet to grab a pair of sleep pants.
I left Gracie sleeping and went off in search of my woman. I found her sitting at the kitchen nook reading her Kindle, a mug of tea in front of her. This morning's mug said,"Great sex is like a Brazilian wax...your hair gets pulled and your coochie hurts afterward."
I barked out a laugh, startling Allie. "I think we should test out that theory," I said, pointing to her mug. She looked at it and flashed me a naughty grin.
"Sounds like a plan," she agreed, lifting her face for a quick kiss as I leaned toward her. "Where's the kiddo?"
"Sprawled out in the middle of our bed sound asleep, as of three minutes ago at least. I'd almost fallen out of bed by the time I woke up."
She laughed. "Yep, that's actually why I got up. She smacked me in the back of the head and then dug her pointy little toes under my thigh, so I finally gave up before I sustained serious injury."
