Happily Ever Addendum (24 page)

 "You won’t know until you talk to
him."

She bit her lip nervously.

"Everything will be perfectly fine.
I bet that when you tell Oscar that he will be over the moon."

"You think?" She took a deep
breath and seemed to be calming down.

"Damn straight. Who wouldn’t want
you to have their babies?" I winked and she giggled.

"I love you, Lilli. Thank
you!" She hugged me as a knock sounded on the door.

"Um…I don’t mean to intrude, but,
uh, we have a lot of people out here." I heard Aidan’s velvety but muffled
by the door voice.

I swung the door open, forgetting what I
had in my hand. Smiling at him, I spoke.

"I’m sorry." Then I wrapped my
arms around him and kissed his cheek.

"What’s this?" He furrowed his
brow and took the stick from my hands.

"Wait…it’s…" I tried to
explain, but his expression went from confusion, to shock, before finally
settling on a huge smile.

"Are you?" He sounded a little
more eager than I expected he would.

"Uh…no, it’s not mine."

"Oh." Now he looked
disappointed. He looked back up quickly at Phoebe. I looked over my shoulder
and Phoebe gave a small wave. "Holy shit! Does Oscar..?"

"No." Phoebe almost shouted
and grabbed the stick, shoving it back into her purse.

Aidan furrowed his brow at her.

"You know that he’ll be thrilled,
right?" He smiled at her and I watched Phoebe’s face light up with a
larger than life smile.

"Really?" She was almost
bouncing now. Aidan nodded confidently. "Oh, thank you, Aidan!" She
hugged him and pushed past us to get out of the bathroom. I was almost positive
she was heading toward Oz.

I smiled at Aidan. "Thank
you."

"For what?"

"For making her happy. She was
really worried about Oscar."

Aidan snorted.

"Oscar is head over heels in love
with that little energizer bunny." He laughed.

"Well, they haven’t really talked
long term or babies, so she was nervous. You made her feel better." I
shrugged and hugged him.

He snorted again. "I guess she hasn’t
realized that Oz has been hinting at marriage and living together? "

"What?" I said, shocked. He
nodded. "Well, tell him to step up his game!" I laughed and Aidan
chuckled.

We headed back to the party.

"You know…I’m kind of disappointed
that it wasn’t your test." Aidan confessed.

"Bite your tongue!" I
playfully scolded him.

"I’d rather bite—" I kissed
him before he could finish speaking.

The weekend following the party Phoebe
confessed to Oscar that she was pregnant. She had still been nervous but when
Oscar called Aidan to tell him the news, I assumed that he was good with it.
And, when Phoebe told me that he had practically called everyone he knew to
tell them, I knew that he was absolutely thrilled.

Oscar confessed that he had been trying
to hint for her to move in with him. Now that she was pregnant, he demanded
that she move into his place immediately. That following weekend a moving van
arrived to move Phoebe into his house. The last I had heard from Phoebe, Oscar
was picking out colors and themes for the baby's room.

A month later, I was on a three way
phone call with Phoebe and Celia discussing Celia’s wedding plans when I walked
into the house.

"Phoebe, I love you, but Celia gets
to decide."

"See! My wedding, Phoebe!"
Celia practically cheered.

"Fine! But I still say that roses
would be perfect." Phoebe pouted.

I laughed and walked down the hall. As I
passed Aidan’s study, I realized that the door was open. I leaned in and saw
Aidan sitting at his desk.

"You both need to calm down."
I laughed. Aidan’s head shot up, his face a mixture of sadness and anger.

I furrowed my brow at him. "Guys, I
will call you back." I hung up. "What’s wrong?"

"Care to explain these?!" He
tossed glossy photos across his desk at me, causing them to slip onto the
floor.

I walked over, picked them up, and
looked at it. It was a picture of Darian and me on a sidewalk, his arms around
my waist and him leaning in to me. It looked inappropriate, but I knew when
this was from. I recognized the restaurant in the background.

"Aidan this…" he cut me off.

"Look at the others." He
growled.

I narrowed my eyes at him and grabbed
the other photos. I looked at them, my arms wrapped around his neck, and the
last with me looking back winking at him.

"This is…"

"Just tell me when you met with him,
Lilli!" Aidan smacked his hand on the desk. "Was it while we
were….you know…during that time." His eyes were fixated on me with anger.

I threw the pictures in his face,
causing him to flinch back in his chair.

"How dare you!" I crossed my
arms over my chest. "You fuck another woman and possibly have some bastard
child out there somewhere, yet you are going to look at these photos of an
innocent encounter made to look bad and make accusations of me? Fuck you,
Aidan!"

"Just tell me when!"

"When I was at lunch with Viola
before the twin’s birthday." Aidan blinked at me rapidly with confusion.
"You can call her right now if you would like to confirm it."

I leaned over his desk seductively.

"Viola and I like to have
threesomes with other men when you and Liam think we are doing foundation work.
Asshole!" I shouted the last word and walked out of the study.

I got to our bedroom, yanked off my damn
heels and threw them harshly into the closet. Basically ripping at my clothes
to get the shit off of me, I tossed everything onto the closet floor and slipped
into some yoga pants and a t-shirt. I now had some pent up anger that I needed
to work off. I headed to the gym after I kissed the napping twins.

I had been running for about thirty
minutes when I felt Aidan behind me. I stopped running and panted.

"What?" I groaned.

"I-I’m sorry." He mumbled out.

"So, you called Viola to ‘check up
on my story’ I see." I spat at him and stepped down from the treadmill.

"No, I didn’t…"

"So, what are you having me
followed or something?" I turned on him fiercely. "Do you have a
private investigator watching me?!"

He shook his head. "No, no, no. I
don’t. I am not doing that."

"Then, why the photos?" I felt
the confusion contort my face.

"I found them in my office today,
at AIS. They were in a large white envelope on my desk." His head was
down.

"Oh." I was still standing in
a defensive position. "You really don’t trust me?" I asked in almost
a hushed tone.

His head shot up. "No, I do. I
just…" he sighed heavily "I know what Darian was to you and it just—"

"And what exactly was he,
Aidan?" I raised an eyebrow.

I watched him swallow hard. "A, um,
hook up." He looked at me from under his lashes.

I laughed loudly.

"Jesus, Aidan!" I threw my
hands in the air. "Darian was a friend. Yes, we slept together, but it
wasn’t like a serious relationship. It was two friends with the benefit of
getting close once in a while." I stepped toward him. "Do you believe
for one second that my past relationship with Darian compares at all to what we
have?"

He shook his head. "I’m sorry. I
just hate the thought of you with him. Fuck, the thought of you with anyone
else is enough to drive me over the edge. I couldn’t imagine if you…"

I grabbed his face. "I
wouldn’t!" Holding his face with both of my hands, I continued. "I
don’t want that. I want this, us."

He crashed his lips to mine.

Fall arrived and the weather was still
latching on to some of its warmth. I had hoped that the weather would stay
decent for Halloween and, luckily, it did. The twins were dressed up as Raggedy
Ann and Andy, looking ridiculously adorable.

Aidan made sure that he was home so that
we could take them to visit family before heading to an orchard out toward the
Hamptons. Everyone was going. Jason and Maggie were dressed as vampires. Abby dressed
as Dorothy and Ryan was Toto, it was adorable. Jimmy was dressed as a pumpkin,
completely stuffed to look like a fat pumpkin.

James and Aidan were lining a wagon with
blankets for the kids while Elora and I grabbed extra jackets and one diaper
bag of necessities. They would start off walking around with us, but would
eventually get tired.

The orchard was decorated for Halloween.
They had a corn maze that we all walked through, a small play area filled with
hay for kids to climb through, some old cement tunnels and a swing set. There were
large wooden cutouts like you would see at a fair, where you stick your face
through the hole for pictures. One was a farmer and his wife, which we all took
turns standing behind. Then there was a cat and a pumpkin, a ghost and a witch.

Little stands paraded the area, offering
popcorn, fire roasted apples with caramel to dip them in, apple cider, hot
dogs, fresh French fries, homemade pies and cookies. It was definitely a day
for fattening food and treats.

As I watched the little ones play in the
straw pile, Aidan arrived with French fries and apple cider. He straddled the
bench and I scooted close to him, my right leg over his so that his chest was
against my right side. We sat laughing at the kids and eating fries.

Elora and James returned from the trail
ride they went on and we all headed over to the hayride, grabbing Jason, Maggie
and Abby along the way.

After the hayride, we all sat down for
face painting. I made Aidan get a pumpkin face and James got a puppy dog. After
they were all made up, Elora and I refused to do it, laughing at the two of
them. Of course Aidan gave me the pout face and I sat down. When the face
painter was finished I was surprised at how quick it was, sure that he only
touched my cheek. Looking into the mirror that was next to me, I saw ‘property
of Aidan Iverson’ in large, red letters on my cheek.

"You loser." I laughed out at
him and playfully smacked his chest. I grabbed a napkin.

"Ah, ah, ahhhh…it stays until we
get back." He smiled, proud of himself.

I grabbed the paintbrush from the table
next to me and put a large black L on his forehead. Laughing, I took off and he
chased me until he caught up to me, tackling me into the mound of hay. Kids and
parent’s looked at us with amused looks on their faces.

"I love you." He said as he
leaned in and kissed me.

"I love you more." I said
after he pulled away.

"Not possible." He stated as
he stood up, offering me a hand.

Once everyone was exhausted and the kids
were all falling asleep in the wagon, we headed back to Viola’s family house in
the Hamptons. We spent the weekend there, just having a fun family get away.

Thanksgiving was upon us and we had
invited everyone to our house. It was Thanksgiving Eve when I heard footsteps
approaching the living room.

"Hey, should we have...?" I
looked up, thinking I would be looking at Aidan. It wasn’t.

"Lilli." Henry said in a low
tone.

Immediately I stood up. "What are
you doing here?" I hissed. "You need to leave immediately."

"Please, I…I wanted to apologize,
for everything." I could see tears on the edge of his eyes as he sniffed.

"Henry, what you did was so
manipulating and…"

"Unfair, stupid, heartless…"
he continued. I nodded. "I am so sorry, more so than I have ever been in
my life."

"Are you truly sorry for what you
did, or are you just sorry you got caught and lost your job?"

Henry looked at me with a sincerely hurt
expression.

"It’s true that I lost my job, but
that’s not what this is about. I’ve lost my family, my wife, my son,
daughter-in-law and grandson. I’ve lost my brother, Viola, Aidan and you. You
were all my family and I never truly realized how much it all meant till it was
gone."

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

"I am forever sorry for what I did
to you and Aidan. I admit that I did it with, what I had thought, were good
intentions, but that doesn’t excuse how wrong I was."

"I don’t understand how you could
do something like this to Aidan. I mean, I get that I’m not your family, but
Aidan?" I shook my head lightly.

"I suppose that my jealousy of my
older brother, Aidan’s father, had carried over to him and it blinded my
ability to make better choices."

I furrowed my brow. "I forgive you,
but I cannot speak for everyone else."

"I know, but you are who I
should’ve apologized to first. Though, I will admit, I apologized to Anne
first. Not that she will speak with me."