Page 39 of Wait for the Dream

“That’s a lot to put on you, Aiden. You will still need to study and sleep.”

He rolls us so that he is hovering over me and he can look in my eyes. “Sweetheart, how many times do I have to tell you that she is mine? I don’t care that she doesn’t have my blood running through her veins, she is my daughter. I need you to get it through that pretty little head of yours that I want this. I want you to be my wife, I want to adopt Rowan, I want more babies with you. I. Want. It. All.” He punctuates the last four words with kisses.

“Okay.” Is all I say, because what else can I say? Aiden has said those words or similar so many times over the last couple of months, but I struggle to accept them. Aiden Baker is the best man I know, and he’s never lied to me, so why would he start now?

There’s a knock on the door the following Saturday. I’m in the kitchen finishing up some snacks for game night, and Aiden is in the bathroom, so I walk to the door. Since everyone walked in on that kiss a few weeks ago they’ve been knocking. Magnolia said she didn’t want to walk into something no sister should ever see her brother doing. When I open it I see the twins, Bash and Luca standing there. Luca throws himself at me with an excited “Bee Bee!” and I catch him easily before letting everyone into the house.

“Woah there little man, You’ve gotta be careful with Bee.” Sebastian says with a chuckle. “This boy isn’t going to know what to do when you come back in the fall with another baby.”

“He will always be my favorite boy, won’t you little man?” I shake my head.

“Blue, you better stop telling people that Luca is your favorite boy or I might start to get jealous.” Aiden says as he walks into the living room.

Sebastian looks at me with a smirk on his face and mouths, “Start?”

“Bear, you’ve known since before you were my boyfriend that you came second to Luca. He will always be my favorite boy,” I laugh. Aiden comes up behind me and growls in my ear playfully. There is another knock at the door and Sebastian opens it for Chloe and Dallas.

“I can’t believe this is our last game night of the year. Next year we will have two littles here, and Charly will be joining us too.” Maddox says as we all move into the kitchen area. I set Luca in the high chair we have set up in there and give him a few crackers and a couple pieces of cheese for him to munch on while we are talking before we bust the games out.

“God, Charly is gonna be trouble.” Aiden says before popping a piece of cheese in his mouth.

“Going to be? She already is.” I shake my head. “Anyone want anything to drink? We have the usual, water, juice, hot tea, coffee. I think there’s some beer in there, too,” I say before walking over to the kettle to start the water. I know Chloe will want tea. Once the water is going I grab a sippy cup out of the cabinet and fill it halfway with apple juice and add some water and ice to it for Luca.

“Juice, Bee Bee!” Luca claps his hands when he sees me filling the cup.

“What do you say?” Sebastian says after I’ve handed Luca the cup.

“Fanks Bee Bee.” Luca’s little lisp melts my heart. I know I’m about to have my own little one, but this boy will always have a special place in my heart. When Sebastian found out a one night stand had his baby, he was junior and scared shitless. We had just become friends, but Aiden and I both told him that we would be there no matter what, and Luca is as much my nephew as any of the Baker sibling’s kids would be.

“You’re welcome little man.” I boop him on the nose. We fall into comfortable conversation for a little while before we head into the living room to play games. The guys and Chloe start a game of Catan, while Maggy and I decide on Candy Land with Luca. He wins every game because he cheats, and we pretend not to notice.

“What are you going to do for child care next year?” Maggy asks me while we are resetting the board for our second game.

“We are thinking about asking Charly since she is free Monday and Wednesday when we need help,” I respond and draw my first card for the game.

“I would be happy to help whenever I can. You know that. I will need all the Little Bear snuggles.” Maggy smiles.

“Who Little Bear?” Luca looks up at me with the most adorable confused face I’ve ever seen.

“Little Bear is the baby in my belly.” I tell him and point at my belly.

“Baby in dere?” He says, also pointing to my belly.

“Yes sir. You’re going to have a new friend soon.” Maggy tells him.

“I wike fwiends” He tells us before turning back to the game. I guess he is done with this conversation.

We continue to play games long after Luca falls asleep in my lap. It’s such a great way to end the craziest school year of my life. This year has been incredibly exciting, while also being completely overwhelming. I’m grateful for every second, but at the same time, I’m very ready for it to come to a close.

Aiden

I’m sitting in the living room with my dad and Maddox, sipping coffee and chatting about when we want to go up to our apartment near campus to set up the nursery for Rowan and switch all our apartments around, again. We’ve been home a couple of days and Bailey has been sleeping a lot. The last seven months have been exhausting for her, so I’m not surprised at all.

“I think we should go a week or two before classes start. The girls can hang here with Bailey for a couple days and we can all stay at the apartments for a night or two to make sure it’s all done. I’ll miss my girls like crazy in the time we are gone, but we still have so much shopping to do between now and then for furniture and such and the closer we get to the due date the more scared I get that I’ll be gone and she’ll go into labor. I’m not missing the birth of my first kid because I’m a few hours away.”

“Maybe we should go the second week of August. Classes start the first week of September, so the paint and such will have time to air out in that couple of weeks in between, but there will be no fear of missing her being born.” Maddox says, “And I don’t want to miss the birth of my first niece either. I don’t care what Sebastian says, I’m going to be her favorite uncle.”

“I don’t know, maybe Dallas will be the favorite.” Pop, always the shit stirrer, says trying to hide his smile behind his coffee mug.