And I'm back !!! Sorry you guys have had to wait so long. Hope you're all doing great, I'm hopefully back to my usual schedule for this book, but no promises. Anyways enjoy, and let me know what you think 😊
Keira's POV:
As we arrived in Manchester, Charlie was slowly falling asleep on top of me, while Ellie was slowly starting to wake up in Lucy's arms. "Hi Ellie", I whispered. Ellie smiled softly and untucked her hand from her blanket, and reached out to grasp my hoodie. I reached over carefully and tucked strands of her hair behind her ears. Lucy shifted her head to face us, and smiled over at us. "Charlie, you gotta stay awake, we're nearly at the training grounds", I whispered to Charlie who groaned and shuffled around in my lap. I helped her sit up straight on my lap, as she turned to Ellie who gently waved her teddy and blanket at her big sister from her comfy place, head resting on Lucy's shoulder, one hand holding my hoodie, the other holding her Narla teddy, with a corner of her blanket in her grip. As the bus came to a halt, Jill being Jill came running down the aisle of the bus, and jumped down the steps off the bus. We all laughed at her silliness. Excluding Jill we all slowly got off the bus, gathering our stuff before grabbing our bags, and started saying our goodbyes. I turned to Alex as I let Charlie roam over to Ellen and Jill. "Alex, just wanna say a big thanks for this summer with the girls and on the pitch with the team", I told Alex who waved it away and replied "not at all Kei, happy to help with the girls and it's my job to play good on the pitch". I nodded and then it came to me to ask Alex "will you be around sometime next week, we might need ya", Alex nodded and quietly replied "yeah course, let me know whenever". I pulled her into a hug and we separated to say more goodbyes. When we had all said our goodbyes I found Charlie slumped against the car, clearly tired. I unlocked the car and Charlie hastily jumped into her seat. Elleã came with a bit of a fight, Lucy carrying her away from Alex. "Come on Ellie, you'll see Alex another day", Lucy tried to reason with Ellie who was beginning to tear up, until Alex said "Ellie another day me and you will go playground, how about that ?", Ellie nodded with a sniffle and let Lucy put her into her car seat and close the door without any further tears. We both waved Alex goodbye and got into the car, Lucy driving and me in the passenger seat. I looked into the backseat to see Charlie already asleep, and Elleã talking to her teddy. Lucy placed a hand on my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze, before reversing out of the car park and started the 15-minute drive home.
Once we pulled into the driveway, and Lucy had turned off the car, we both sat there for a minute, before Ellie started kicking Lucy's seat "Mama out ?", Elleã called out, looking over at me. Lucy chuckled and got out of the car, opening Elleã's door and unbuckling her, before lifting her out. I got out of my seat too and gently opened Charlie's door. "You take this little monkey, I'll get Charlie", Lucy told me, as she came over to me with Elleã wriggling in her arms. I took Elleã onto my hip and grabbed the keys from Lucy who proceeded to carefully unbuckle and lift Charlie out of the car. I unlocked the front door and left it open for Lucy. Once inside I let Elleã down and she immediately ran into the sitting room, clambering onto the couch, blanket and teddy in tow. "I'll grab the bags, if you move Ellie from the sitting room, so I can put Charlie in there", Lucy proposed. I nodded and headed into the sitting room "Ellie come here", I quietly called her over. Elleã giggled and rushed over to me. I picked her up and walked us into the kitchen. As I held Elleã on my hip, talking to her while I made some lunch, I heard Lucy coming in with all our bags and suitcases, and last of all the stroller. As I plated up some lunch, and set it on the counter, Lucy came into view. "Are you hungry Ellie ?, let's get you into your chair", Lucy said taking Ellie from my arms, and lifting her into her high chair. I carried all 3 plates over to the table, leaving Charlie's until she woke up. As we ate our lunch, as quietly as we could with having an energetic 2 year old beside us, I asked Lucy "should we wake her up, she won't sleep through the night if we leave her to sleep", Lucy nodded and replied "I'll wake her when I'm finished, I think we also need to tell her about next week". I sighed and nodded, Lucy was right Charlie deserved to know what was happening, although it was going to be tough telling her and having to go to court, she did deserve to know and not be left in the dark about any of it.
"Mum said she can come tonight or tomorrow morning", Lucy told me, as she handed Elleã a spoon. "What do ya think ?, if we want to talk to Charlie, maybe your Mum can keep an eye on this little monkey, and on that note that was a bad idea", I replied to Lucy, directing the last bit towards the spoon Elleã had started banging against her chair, causing a racket. Lucy snatched the spoon back off Elleã, gaining whines, "mumma, want", Elleã whined pointing at the spoon, leaning in her chair trying to reach the spoon now placed on the table. I raised my eyebrows over at Lucy, sending a 'now look what's happened' look in her direction. Lucy tried to hide her smile, and replied quietly "well I didn't think she was going to start whacking anything with it". "Mumma, want", Elleã continued to whine, trying her absolute hardest to reach the spoon, except I picked it up and put it in the dishwasher, alongside the dishes we used for lunch. Elleã whined more, kicking her feet in her high chair. "I'll tell Mum to come down tonight", Lucy said, standing up from her chair, pushing it in and then lifting Elleã up from her high chair. "Stop kicking Elleã", Lucy sternly told Elleã, as Elleã tried to kick Lucy to get down. Elleã huffed but stopped kicking. "You weren't wrong terrible twos have definitely started and it's only day 3", Lucy softly said as I cleaned up the kitchen and walked around the island to her. Elleã was in her arms, mumbling to herself, none of it making any sense to me, nor Lucy by the looks of it. "Let's leave Charlie to sleep a little longer, take monkey upstairs and unpack, Charlie might not sleep well tonight after we tell her what's going on", I proposed to Lucy. Lucy agreed and led the way out into the hallway, grabbing a suitcase with Elleã still in her arms, as I grabbed the other 2 suitcases and followed Lucy up the stairs.
