Marley was adopted by Maya and Carina when she was 10 now she's 13 and is loved and supported by her mums, her younger brother and her older sister through everything she does
Carina's pov: I was making some french toast in the kitchen when I heard 2 sets of footsteps enter the kitchen "good morning bambinas" I say, turning to see Luca and Avery enter the kitchen. "Hi mama" Luca replies excitedly going to sit at the table with Avery. I gave them their breakfast and went to see Marley.
"Mars" I say gently rubbing her back. "It's time to get up Bella" she reluctantly sits up and I check her temperature. "Looks like your fevers going away bambina, how are you feeling?" I ask her. "Okay I guess" she replies quietly. "How do you fancy going to the beach today?" I ask her which brings a smile to her face while she nods.
Maya's pov: "We're home!" Iris shouts entering the house with Maya behind her. "Hi bambina" Carina calls coming over and hugging us both. "Maya!" Avery says as she comes running over to me and hugging my legs which leads to me picking her up. "Irie why don't you go shower" I say before she runs off. "How was your run?" Carina asks me. "It was good we ran round the park for a while." I reply before kissing my wife.
"Have you told them the surprise yet?" I ask Carina as we sit on the sofa together. "I've told Marley and she seemed happy about it." She replies. "Kids get your swimming costumes on!" I yell, "I will pack towels while you make sandwiches." I say before we both go and get ready.
"Where are we going mums?" Iris asks from the backseat of the car. "Your so impatient Irie we told you it's a surprise!" I laugh from the passenger seat while Car was driving.
"The beach!" Luca screams as we park the car, "Look mummy we are at the beach!" He shouts excitedly at me. I laugh at all their adorable excited faces and get out the car grabbing the picnic blanket and picnic from the boot while car grabbed the towels.
"This looks like a good spot" I say starting to lay down the picnic blanket. The beach was fairly quiet as it was almost like a hidden cove so not many people knew about it. "Can we go play in the water?" Luca asked jumping up and down in excitement. "No bambina we need to have lunch first." Carina says as all the kids sit down on the picnic blanket and car starts handing them their sandwiches.
"Okay now can we play in the water?" Luca asks me, "please mummy pleaseeeeee" "not until I put sunscreen on you" I say grabbing the sun cream from the bag.
"Race you to the water!" Iris screams as she runs to the ocean, Marley close behind her and Luca and Avery holding hands and running together.
"Did you get the email from Avery's social worker?" I asked Carina once the kids were happily playing in the water. "Yeah I did" she sighs. "It sucks that she has to go back to her dad," I begin, "I mean do you see the way she and Luca play together? They are best friends." "Yeah I know Bella," last night Carina and I had both got an email saying that we were only an emergency placement for Avery while her dad was in hospital after being in a car crash. He's expected to survive but as no one knows what happened to Avery's mum, she had no one to stay with while her dad was in the hospital. "Maybe we could get her dad to enroll her in Lucas school?" Carina asks after a moment of silence. "That could work or we can try and keep in touch and they can have play dates?" I suggest.
We sit for a minute and focus on the 4 beautiful children in front of us. This is our family and nothing is ever going to change that.
"Hang on" I say, looking around, "where's Iris and Mars?" I ask. Noticing all 4 children had left the water and only Luca and Avery were visible building sandcastles a few feet away from us.
"Luca!" I call out so he turns his head towards me, "where's your sisters?" I ask him and he points up the beach towards the car park where there's a small patch of grass and a few trees.
"Let's get packed up and ready to go." I say so that we can head home as it's getting late and we can find our daughters. As we neared the car park we were met with an image that made my heart melt.
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Iris and Marley had found themselves a hammock and were happily talking and giggling together. I quickly took a picture of my 2 beautiful daughters and called for them to come back to the car.
As we pulled up to the house I smiled at Carina and we both turned our heads to look at the 4 sleeping children in the back of the car. Today had been perfect. "We definitely need to go to the beach more often." I smile gently before leaning over and kissing Carina softly on the cheek.
