Cold as Stone

59

**6 months later**

I glanced at Xavier who was watching me as I put the trays in the oven. He came over to me, wrapping his hands around my waist. I leaned back in his touch, closing my eyes.

"I love you." He whispers, kissing my temple. A smile went onto my lips.

"I don't think I'll ever get tired of you saying that." He chuckles softly.

"Good because I don't think I'll ever stop saying it."

"You better not. I'll gut you alive." I say, opening my eyes and staring at him. He pecked my lips. "You are with me for life."

"I'm with you for life, Addison Moretti." He scrunched his nose up in distaste. I raised an eyebrow. "I don't like your last name."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not Garcia."

"Well when are you going to change it?"

"Soon."

"Soon?" I ask, confused.

"Don't worry about it." He whispers, against my lips. I rolled my eyes, kissing him back. I pulled back, smiling at him. "Let's slow dance." He whispers, turning me around so I was facing him.

After a few minutes of dancing, the timer for the oven went off. He groaned, pulling away from me. I walked over, grabbing the oven mitts. I opened the oven, grabbing the cookie trays. I put them on the oven, waiting for the cookies to settle down. Xavier came over, hugging from behind. His face buried into my neck.

He's been clingy lately. I wasn't complaining. That just means I get extra hugs and cuddles.

"Mom?" Emily whispered, making me look over at her.

"What's wrong, hon?" I ask, seeing her come over to me.

"I had a nightmare." She mumbles, making me frown. Xavier picked her up and spun her around.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask, brushing the hair out of her eyes.

"You and Xavier got taken away from the big monster." Xavier's gaze softened.

"Oh honey. I promise you that me nor Xavier will get taken away from any monsters. And if we do, who's going to save us?"

"Uncle Adrian and Darius." A small smile went onto her lips, once she started thinking about them.

"That's right. They'll save us from the big bad monster." Xavier says, softly. "Wanna decorate some cookies?"

"Really?" She asks, her face lighting up. I smacked his arm lightly, making him gasp.

"Mommy just hit me." Emily looked at me, a glare on her face.

"No hitting mommy. You have to go into time out." My mouth opened, looking between them two.

"I think that's fair, right?" Xavier says, grinning at me.

"Teaming up against me?" They both nod. "Well I guess I have to decorate and eat these cookies all by myself then." They both gasp, loudly may I add.

"You wouldn't dare." Xavier says, playfully.

"Oh I dare."

Emily sighs, "Okay. No timeout for mom only because she'll take the cookies away from us."

"Reasonable enough."

We got seated at the table, icing in front of all of us with plates of cookies. I sighed, looking at the stacks of cookies we had to decorate. Emily was very excited.