Her Last Plea✨

Chapter 62

Valentines in hand, Ara stood in between Alexis and Mike as they walked up the front sidewalk to Faith and William's house, where the front door opened as soon as they reached the porch. Marvin squirmed in Mike's arms, lunging towards Faith as she took him, showering his cheeks with kisses while William shuffled everyone else inside. Garrett and Hailey were already inside with Karl and Layla, who had been anxiously waiting for everyone to get there so they could start making cookies like they did every year on Valentine's Day.

"Everyone's here!" Layla exclaimed as coats and scarves were shed. "Mommy! Nana Fay! Can we make the cookies now?"

Hailey scooped up her redheaded mini-me and nodded. "Let everyone get settled and we'll get started."

William hung up everyone's coats, watching as Alexis greeted Hailey and Garrett with a hug and a kiss. Mike didn't seem like himself, giving silent nods to those who acknowledged him. As the children scurried off towards the kitchen with Alexis and Hailey, Garrett and Mike hung back, following as William motioned for the two of them to follow him to the garage.

"Unless of course you're really in the mood to bake cookies," William added.

"Absolutely not," Garrett replied with a laugh as they walked down the hall to the garage entrance. "I only eat them. Come on Mike."

As the men retreated to the garage until the cookies were ready for sampling, Alexis and Hailey watched as Faith gave each of the kids a rolling pin and a small blob of sugar dough to roll out on the table. Marvin sat on his knees, watching Karl, Ara and Layla roll their dough out, as if he was contemplating to attempt the same for a moment, until he decided to plunge his chubby hands into the dough instead with a squeal.

"Can I help you with that?" Alexis asked.

"No," Marvin chirped.

"Please?" Alexis asked.

"Um…no."

The women laughed as they went about helping the other kids, using various heart shaped and alphabet shaped cookie cutters to carve into the dough once it was rolled out nice and smooth. The cutting out of the shapes was the easiest part, and also the most painful as the children were impatient as the cookies baked and cooled. Luckily, Faith had plenty of art supplies for the children to make whatever they wished to make in the meantime. Once the children busied themselves with crayons, scissors, and glue, Faith, Alexis, and Hailey sat around the kitchen island and watched.

"How's Ara been doing?" Faith quietly asked.

Alexis shrugged. "Depends on the day I guess. She had a bad day at school yesterday." She didn't to divulge a lot of information with Ara in the room as to how she came home with a note from her teacher about how she had verbally lashed out at another child. Apparently, one of the children in her class told her she couldn't make a Valentine for her Mommy because you can't send mail to Heaven. As Ara was telling the story in between sobs, Alexis was waiting for her to follow up the story with the little brat telling her that Santa Claus was pretend.

"And Mike?" Faith asked with sincere curiosity. "He seemed a little bit unlike himself when he arrived."

Alexis shrugged again. "I don't know. I told him about the whole Stella Black's wedding deal, and I thought that Mike of all people would be excited for me since it's such a huge personal benefit for me. Instead, he was…ridiculous…and completely unsupportive.... and I'm so mad at him because that's not what I expected!"

Faith reached a hand over to her daughter's back and gave it a reassuring pat. "Sweetheart, I'm sure he was excited for you -"

"No, he wasn't," she said, cutting her mother off as she sighed. "He said, 'you're leaving me,' and it didn't matter how many times I said I wasn't leaving him, that's all he took away from it."

Hailey reached across the island and gave Alexis's hand a squeeze. "Lex, he cares about you - even if he has a peculiar sort of way of showing it. I'm sure he's excited about this opportunity for you. Gary was telling me how much promotion Royalty would get for this, and that he's so proud of you for being so much in demand in the industry. And I'm also really proud, of course, being your best friend and all."

Alexis giggled as she squeezed Hailey's hand in return. "I just wanted him to be happy for me."

Faith nodded, understanding her daughter's feelings completely. "How are things with Mike other than this?"

"They're alright," Alexis, said quietly, watching as Karl helped Ara cut out hearts and stars while Layla and Marvin colored. "I'm sure he'd like things to move more quickly, but the girls are so up and down and we're all trying to get used to everything and I'm afraid that by doing more, it will ruin everything."

"So does this mean that you're…together?" Hailey inquired as her voice dimmed to mouthing words.

"We sleep in the same bed every night," Alexis whispered. "I mean, I guess you could say we're......together. But it's by no means public information. Although, it's not like we ever sat down and said, 'yes, we're together.' It just sort of happened."

Hailey nodded, finishing her cup of tea so that she could pour another. "Well…maybe you should have that conversation."