Twin's age: 8 months
Louis
I lay across the couch, watching as Marley tries to pull herself onto the couch to join her brother and I. Like Grace and I, she's stubborn and refuses any help you offer.
She's clearly determined to get up here on her own. If it were Grace in my place, she would've helped Marley no matter what because she wouldn't want her to get hurt. I know that there's nothing she can hurt herself on, so I'm letting her try it on her own before helping.
I hear the front door open and look up to see Grace with several bags in her hands. "Thanks for the help." She mumbles, dropping the bags.
"Would you like me to have left our two eight month old children in the house alone?"
"No." She says quietly, looking at the floor.
"That's what I thought." I sit up, putting Jacob on the floor with his sister. "Did you buy the whole store?" I ask, looking down at the bags that Grace brought in.
"No, there was just a bunch of stuff on sale." She walks back outside to get the last few bags she had and I sigh, shaking my head.
"Where do you think we're gonna put all this stuff?" I close the door once she's inside and take a few bags.
"What's in them can be put away. It won't be all over the place. Besides, our house isn't that small that we don't have room to put stuff."
"No, it's not. But it's also not so big that we can buy things just because they're on sale."
"Louis, listen. It's the middle of November. Christmas is next month and it's going to be the twins' first one. I'd like to make it a nice one." I sigh, nodding my head slowly.
"Alright, just don't buy the whole store."
"If I had that much money, I'd love to own a store." Grace walks upstairs, her hands filled with bags.
I sit down on the floor next to the twins, watching as they play with their toys and babble in some unknown language. Marley looks up as she notices I'm at her level and makes her way into my lap.
"You're mother is obsessed with shopping." I say, kissing the top of her head. "I'm sure you will be one day too."
Grace comes back downstairs and looks at me as she walks into the kitchen to put the last of what she bought away. "Did you say something?"
"Just talking to Marley."
"You know she probably doesn't understand what you're saying?"
"Just because she doesn't fully understand what I'm talking about doesn't mean that I can't talk to her. She's a good listener."
"And I'm not?" Grace comes back into the living room, lifting Jacob up into her arms.
"You are too, but what am I supposed to do when you're not around? I know that they can't respond yet, but they're easy to talk to."
"That's because they're nine months old and can't judge you yet." She smiles, sitting down on the couch with Jacob.
We're both quiet for a few minutes, playing with the children in our arms and watching tv. Grace's phone rings and I watch how her expression changes from happy to worried as she listens to the phone call.
"What's wrong? Who is it?" I ask, and she puts a finger up for me to wait.
She ends the call quickly, telling whoever it was to leave her alone and never call again. She gets up and rushes upstairs, bringing Jacob with her. Confused, I turn the tv off and go upstairs to put Marley in bed before finding Grace.
She's sitting on the bed, staring at the wall. Her phone is across the room on the floor. I sit next to her on the bed but don't say anything, unsure of whether or not I should say anything. So I just wait. I wait until she's ready to say whatever has caused her mood to change.
It takes quite a while for her to finally say something. Even something this simple. "I forgot to do something after we got married."
"What?"
"Change my number." Grace looks down at the floor. "Though I'm sure that wouldn't help. He'll always find a way to find me. No matter how well I hide."
Though she doesn't say, I assume who she's talking about. "I'm not sure why, but sometimes I think about how different my life would be if you wouldn't have been there that day. Not only would we not have this," she gestures to the house, our family, each other. "But I would be stuck with the most abusive person I've ever met."
"Grace." I try to stop her, but she shakes her head.
"I wouldn't have Marley or Jacob, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now, I probably wouldn't have a social life, and most importantly, I wouldn't have you. I can't thank you enough for being in those seats that day because if it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have done what I did. Being with you taught me to be honest and let your feelings out. You would never let anyone treat someone else treat you the way that I was treated."
"If it meant keeping you safe, I would let anyone do anything to me."
"I know, and thank you for that. But most importantly for what I said. You saved me in the best way possible."
"And I'll keep saving you."
"But how long are you going to be able to keep saving me?"
"Until my heart stops beating." I lean my head against hers. "Maybe even then."
//
v sorry for the long wait. school sucks
