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I flash her a lopsided grin and pull her up onto my leg. “Lexi, I’ll have you the whole time. And I promise that I’ll never let you go.” Ever. My words remind me of what those shit nuggets said. “I want to tell you something. Are you sure you’re listening?” She nods. “Addison and I love you. You mean so much to us. If you are ever afraid because of what someone says to you, for whatever reason, I want you to talk to us.” Tears pool in her eyes. “Those…” I swallow the words that want to come out before I continue, “…kids were wrong.”
“You can call them assholes. They are,” she sniffles. I hear Addison gasp. I look over at her and she has her hand over her mouth, stifling her laughter. I chuckle and look back at Lexi.
“Yes, they are. They are bullies. Kids are bullies because they are jealous of what you have or who you are. They make themselves feel better by making others feel bad. Don’t let their words make you question our love for you.” She nods again and the movement causes tears to fall down her face. Her arms wrap around me, and she digs her face into my chest. I embrace her tiny frame, resting my head on hers. The heat from her little body wraps around me, and I can feel the grasp she has on my heart. She has embedded herself inside, staking claim to a piece of it.
I will give you the world, Lexi, and all I ask is that you hug me like this forever.
“I love you, Aiden,” she murmurs into my chest.
“Tater Tot, I love you, too.”
She releases her hands and looks up. Her eyes are wide as she sniffs back her tears, trying to dry them up. “I’m ready to go skydive now. But not out of a plane,” she adds, squinting her eyes and puckering her lips.
I tickle her and the sound of her giggles makes everything better. “Not this time. But someday I’ll get you up on that plane.” I lift her off my leg, putting her back on the floor. “Go get some tennis shoes on so we can go.” She runs to her bedroom with her arms out like she’s an airplane. I take a deep inhale and let it out slowly before finding the eyes of everyone in the room pinned on me.
Sydney is looking up, blinking back tears, and Addison’s wiping hers away. Harper and Bryn softly smile. I clear my throat, standing up. Everyone, stop fucking staring at me. I spin around and shove another piece of cake in my mouth, chomping down on the sugary substance to avoid all the hormonal stares. Hands wrap around my waist. Addison leans against my back, resting her chin on my shoulder.
“You’re going to be an amazing father. It almost makes me want to give you ten kids.”
I turn around in her arms. “Almost, huh? So…are we talking about nine, then?” I lift a brow and smirk. Her beautiful blue eyes sparkle from residual tears. The corners of her mouth turn upwards, and she shakes her head.
“You’re relentless.”
I shrug. “Just motivated. The more kids we have, the more sex we’ll be having,” I whisper.
She snorts out a laugh. “Well, you’d better enjoy those years because if we have ten kids, I’m pretty sure I won’t be wanting sex anymore after that. I’ll be begging for a chastity belt.”
A few people from the peanut gallery laugh with her. “I can be pretty convincing,” I say, wagging my eyebrows. She rolls her eyes.
“Let’s focus on making sure we get that one.” She tilts her head in the direction of Lexi’s room.
“Oh, sweetheart, I am laser focused when it comes to Lexi. Stop worrying about it. They have no reason to deny us,” I say, mainly to reassure myself. That small percentage that they could come back and deem us unworthy parents eats at me, too, but I choose to focus on the positive. She bites the inside of her cheek.
“I know. Just don’t be too crazy with her with this indoor skydiving thing. We don’t need her to get hurt on top of what happened yesterday.” I can see the guilt written all over her face. She blames herself, no matter how hard I try to convince her that it wasn’t her fault. I thought today would be fun and not as emotion-filled as it’s been.
“I promise, I won’t let her get hurt. Like I told her, I’ll have hold of her the entire time.”
She nods, exhaling quickly. “Where is this place, anyway?”
I tell her where we’re going and pack everyone up. When we file out of Addison’s apartment building, I’m holding Lexi’s hand. Lexi squeals as she runs in place. My eyes have to adjust to the hot pink Hummer limo parked right in front of us. I jerk my head in Max’s direction.
“You didn’t?”
“I did,” he boasts. Lexi screams and runs to Max. He flings her in the air. “Only the best for my Lulu.”
“Max, I love it!”
Addison walks up to my side. “Wow, that’s pink,” she says, staring at the big blob of pink. It’s so obtrusive in the street, I can’t stop looking at it either. We don’t notice that everyone has climbed into the limo until Max yells at us.
“Sweetheart, your chariot awaits,” I chuckle.
“Hmm. Please, don’t ever think I want you to get me a pink limo, okay?” Never crossed my mind. “It makes me think of Pepto-Bismol,” she quips. It makes me a little nauseous.
“Addison, look!” Lexi says excitedly as we climb in. “There are pink lights, too.”
“I see,” she says, trying to sound excited. I glance at Max, and he flashes a cocky smile, proud of himself. “Max, where in the world did you find a pink limo?”
He lifts one shoulder. “I have my ways.” Hell, he probably had this limo painted just for Lexi. I’m a little jealous I didn’t think of it first. I told Max to find us a limo so we could all go together. I never thought he’d find a huge, pink one.
