The gate to the driveway opened just as AJ was making his way to the back entryway from where he’d dumped Chloe’s diaper in the trashcan. He smiled when his eyes met his beautiful wife’s eyes. Stopping to wait, he continued smiling as she drove up and into one of the carports.
“Now you get here,” he said with a smirk as soon as she was out of the car.
“What do you mean?” she asked, coming around the car, and AJ met her halfway. “I told you I’d be gone a few hours.”
“I changed a loaded diaper again.”
Addison laughed as he leaned in to kiss her. “Oh, man,” she said with a playful frown. “I missed it again.”
“Don’t worry. Your daughter got it all on video.”
Addison laughed even more now. “Oh now she’s my daughter? I see a pattern here. Just like when Chloe loads her diaper and I’m home to take care of it, it’s my daughter that needs to be changed.”
“Exactly. And when Clair kicks ass in her Mathletes competitions or recites one of her flawless speeches, I tell everyone that’ll listen about how brilliant my daughter is.” He pecked her again as he slipped his hand in hers. “You catch on quick.”
They walked in the house together. As soon as they were in the bedroom with the kids, Clair was queuing up her phone. “You have to see this, Mom. It’s hilarious.”
Clair and Addison watched it more than once, laughing hysterically the whole time. Curiously, Harrison didn’t seem to want to watch it even on the phone. He actually stepped out of the room again, and Clair turned to AJ, shaking her head. “The sound of you gagging alone makes him gag.”
AJ sat on the bed, holding his precious Chloe. He kissed her nose and smiled when she smiled at him. Hearing his other two girls still giggling about the video made him smile even bigger. “Does it get any better than this?” he whispered to Chloe.
The giggle fest was interrupted momentarily when Addison got a call. She stepped out of the room because Clair was still blasting the video and laughing.
“Alright, alright,” he said as she finished watching it for the third time. “She saw it. You can delete it now.”
“Are you kidding? This is going on my Instagram. I’ll probably have thousands of likes within hours.”
“You better not!” He laughed nervously, hoping she was kidding, but the wicked smirk she wore as she walked backwards toward the door said otherwise. “Clair?” he said, but she kept walking. “Clair Bear, you better not. I mean it.”
“I’m gonna go check on Harrison. Knowing him, he’s probably in the bathroom, puking.” She shook her head. “Such a weak stomach on that one.”
Before he could further inquire about her plans for that video, she was out the door. AJ glanced down at his cooing baby girl. “You’d never do something like your evil genius sister might, would you?”
She kicked her little legs and made even louder noises. AJ had to wonder if Chloe would be like her sister. His sisters had already established that she was a very vocal baby. Even if it was nothing more than cooing and baby babble, they said she did so a lot more than they remembered their babies doing. Emi’s boy, who was just a month older, wasn’t nearly as vocal. All AJ remembered about Liv’s new baby when he was this age was how he was always either sleeping or eating. It was no wonder her boys were both huge.
Chloe had gotten so loud he almost missed the exchange outside the bedroom door, but he caught one part and he froze. “Mom?” Clair sounded nervous. “Why are you crying?”
Instantly, AJ was on his feet. His heart was already racing. Despite the legalities of Bigsby being airtight and the guy seeming to have completely disappeared from their life—as appreciated—the niggling feeling that he might be back someday remained. His ego would be too big for him to just walk away so empty-handed.
The memory of nearly colliding into Addison way back that very first time he’d seen her this close, in what felt like a lifetime ago, came crashing at him when he almost did again just outside their bedroom. Her eyes were just as startled as that first time. But now they were red and full of tears.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, searching her eyes.
“That was the lawyers,” she said as her brows pinched and her lips trembled. “The adoption is final. You’re legally Clair’s dad now.”
AJ stared at her, stunned, but at the same time overcome with relief and something else. He glanced down at Clair, who brought her hand to her mouth, and her eyes were suddenly overflowing now too.
He handed Chloe to Addison then squatted down in front of Clair. “Does that make you happy, baby girl?”
For a little girl, she so rarely cried, so it choked him up to see her this way as she nodded, unable to speak. He hugged her tightly, and she gripped her little arms around him.
“I love you, Clair,” he whispered in her ear.
“I love you too . . . Daddy.”
He groaned in an attempt to hide the emotion that made him feel, and he stood up, lifting her with him as she clung to him. They shared a family hug for a few silent moments until he finally pulled away and his eyes bounced from Clair’s to Chloe’s to Addison’s.
“I’m the luckiest man alive,” he said, when he was finally able to speak, and then turned to Clair. “And you spoiled me with just the one time. I don’t ever want you to call me anything else but that again.”
“Okay, Daddy,” she said, hugging him again and burying her little face in his neck.
He’d never get tired of hearing his little girl call him that. His eyes met with Addison’s as he felt a tear escape the corner of his eye. She reached over and wiped it away, and he mouthed the words, “I love you so much.”
Even though he knew she would, his heart unbelievably swelled even more when she mouthed the same words right back.
The video of Clair’s dad, “Rage,” changing a loaded diaper? It got well over a thousand likes the first few hours and was shared over a million times within the first week alone.
The End
Coming in 2016
His to Guard
Isaiah Romero’s story
Uninvited
Nathan Romero’s story
Also by Elizabeth Reyes
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