Love me or love me not

A happy ending || 57

           • Nine years later •

I slowly crawl into bed next to Ashton, groaning as my head hits the softness of my pillow.

A lot had happened since my mom found out Ashton and I had been dating: Ashton did in-fact get me Giggles back, and Binxie had three cute little kittens. Ashton proposed to me at twenty-two. We bought our own house when we got married at the age of twenty-three. I was pregnant with my first son, Nathaniel, at twenty-three, I guess you could say we were a little excited. We decided to name him after Ashton's father for all the times we was with us as he ended up dying a week after our marriage. Nate turns three next week. A year after him, we had a beautiful baby girl who we named Amira; she just turned two.

Mom and Joe had married, as well as William and Olivia a year ago, leaving the only single person in our group to be Kai. We'd tease him about it and although I felt bad, he said he liked being single.

"Tired?" Ashton asks and I look up at him with half closed eyes.

"Amira is the worst to put to sleep." I mumble. The girl couldn't decide what position she wanted to sleep in, whether she wanted her milk bottle or her pacifier, or if she preferred the lights on or off.

"Reminds me of you." Ashton says and I glare at him.

"I could fall asleep in seconds, anywhere and anytime." I remind him and he shrugs.

"Yeah? But it was difficult putting you back to sleep after you had woken up in the middle of the night." He counters back and I can't help but agree. The amount of times I'd make him go out for ice-cream when I woke up in the middle of night was unbelievable. Then there'd be some talking, some story-telling, some gossiping, maybe some mini arguments and always a little bit of fun.

I peek up at him when he goes silent. "Are you tired?" I ask.

He stares at his phone as he answers. "Seeing that I was only at work while you stayed home cooking, cleaning, and looking after two kids, no, I'm not tired." I nod at his answer, smiling to myself when I catch sight of the tattoo on his bare arms.

Ashton preferred to sleep without a shirt unless one of the kids joined us, and from my position, I had clear view of the tattoos he got. The first one was of my name he had gotten when he went out with William and Kai and had gotten drunk. The second was off Nate's name, and the third was of Amira's name. He had also gotten a rose, a snake, and a butterfly for me, Nate and Amira.

"How was work?" I ask, moving to lay on my side with my back facing him. I close my eyes, relaxing my muscles from the tiring day I've had.

"Fine, nothing big as usual." He mumbles.

It's silent again for a while before I decide to break it. "What're you doing on your phone?" I didn't mean it to come out as over possessive or anything but he had been on his phone the moment he stepped foot in our bedroom.

He sighs and I hear his phone switch off before he moves to lay down, an arm going over my waist and pulling me closer to him. "Nothing important." He huffs. "Just some lady asking about Kai." He then answers.

"Kai? Why?" I reach over to turn off my lamp as the only source of light now comes from the street lamps outside our house.

His hand travels under my shirt, warming my cold stomach. "I was talking to a work friend and she showed up. I was showing him a picture of all of us and she saw Kai and asked questions about him. I gave her my number and now she won't stop asking me about him and his favourite colour and his favourite food." He groans out.

"Just give her his number." I say, shuffling a little as his hand moves higher.

"Can't, she's shy. Says he's never heard of her and giving him her number will make things awkward." He answers.