Forever Yours (Book 4 of 4) (Justin Bieber Love Story) ✔️

Epilogue: Braxton

I crossed my arms and looked out at the sunset. We had been in Africa for almost two weeks and I still couldn't get over the sunsets. They were filled with a million shades of orange and red and pink and purple... just the sight took my breath away.

But the sound of tiny padding feet paired with the quiet larger steps made me happier than any sunset ever could. I turned around and crouched to catch the tiny dark skinned little girl who was waddling her way towards me. Her hair was in messy braids, a thing that we were still practicing but getting the hang of, and her eyes were green, something that was rare in African children.

Behind her ensuring that she wouldn't fall was a large broad guy with messy hair and a shirt that hadn't been washed in probably a week. He, like the girl, had dark skin that resembled the darkest of chocolate but he had dark eyes and a couple of freckles. Xander. My husband.

We had been working to adopt a baby for years, since our first anniversary, but hadn't had much success in Canada. 3 girls had backed out either in the last month of pregnancy or after the baby's birth. It had gotten too hard for us to move on once the last one changed her mind, so we gave international adoption a shot and it worked the first try. After almost a year of talking with an adoption agency we had finally gotten a baby. We had come two weeks ago and after 2 days we had adopted her, our girl, Nivea. We had decided to stay in Africa for an extra week and a half so that she could get used to us before we forced her to change her environment too. It was probably just us being stupid and paranoid, but we wanted to do parenting right. We would only get one chance with it.

Xander was grinning when I scooped her up and kissed her cheek.

"Do you think my family will love her?" I glanced over my shoulder and flashed my husband a concerned look, "She's different."

"She's black," He laughed, "She's not an alien." Then the biggest, happiest grin appeared on his face, "Im black and they tolerate me."

"They love you." I took a step closer and gently pressed a kiss to his cheek, "And you're right, they'll love her too. I'm just a concerned dad."

He mischievously smiled and stepped towards me, "Now you're not just my daddy."

He turned his face and kissed my lips. Nivea laughed her baby giggle and her whole face scrunched up.

We had been very cautious to show affection while in a foreign place because we weren't sure how a small African village would handle two Canadian dudes kissing and holding hands. We had kept all affection to our private hotel room where Nivea would see. She smiled every time she saw us kiss or hug so we had been kissing plenty in her sight. We had both agreed that we wanted her to grow up seeing all forms of love.

Xander bit his lip and turned away from me, "Amelia keeps texting you. She's asking if you can meet her at your dad's for dinner next week?" I bent over to put Nivea on the floor and he shook his head, "Why the fu-" He caught the words before it completely left his mouth and bit his lip, chuckling, "Why the heck does she need you to come to your dads house?"

I walked across the room and picked up my phone. I hadn't even heard about thanksgiving until this moment so when I unlocked my phone and saw an essay I rolled my eyes, "Typical Amelia being a drama queen. Dad invited her for dinner so they can catch up."

"Tell her we're going." He shrugged even though we hadn't received an invite. He was probably waiting until we got home to ask us to come.

"I'm going to call my dad first and make sure this isn't some trick."

"What would they be tricking us for? To meet our baby?" He smiled and sat on the bed, "Everybody should meet our baby."

I laughed at him and found my dads number in my phone. We had paid an insane amount to ensure we could make the long distance calls for this reason exactly. I hit send and the phone began to ring.

"Hey." My dad answered on the first ring, "Has she adjusted to you guys yet?"

I smiled at Xander. The day we got Nivea I had called him in tears because she would stop crying.  He had told me to cuddle her and give her time to adjust. I had held her all night and we had gotten no sleep. We waited all night hoping it would stop, that she would relax enough to fall asleep. I didn't know a baby could cry that much but she sobbed all night. Xander eventually locked himself in the bathroom because of a panic attack and I climbed into the crib with her to try and get her to sleep. She never stopped crying but I had somehow fallen asleep and when I woke up the next day she was sleeping too, curled up and holding tightly to my shirt and sucking her thumb. I knew she must have stopped after seeing me asleep and gave up on the tears.

After that night, every time she saw us she smiled, so we must be doing something right.

"She's a really awesome kid, dad." Nivea padded her way across the room and slapped her palms against a toy we had then fell backwards onto her bum. She looked over at us for a reaction then laughed, "She's so cute."

"I can't wait to meet her." He sounded really tired.

I sighed, "How are you?"

"Tired. You know this time of year is always hard for me."

I nodded and bit the inside of my lip, not totally sure what to say. My dad was a different person than he was when I was younger. He was a lot more closed off and he didn't talk as much. He used to be happy and now it was rare to see him smile.

"What's going on with Amelia? Just a random dinner?"

He sighed, "Um, yeah." He sounded like he had forgotten about inviting me, "Sorry, son. I'm so distracted. You'll come, right?"

"Of course." I looked over at Xander and gave him a small frown. My dad was my role model and it actually broke my heart to hear him so... done with life, "We leave here in a few days. We will come over on the weekend and you can finally meet Nivea."

"Okay. That sounds nice." Then he sighed, "I love you."

"Love you too dad. Talk to you later."

Then the line went dead. I felt the tears in my eyes before I put my phone down and shoved my palms into my face, "Ugh!" I groaned and threw my head back, falling down onto the bed. I let a few of the tears fall down before blinking them back and taking my hands away.

"How is he?" Xander was standing over me with Nivea in his arms. She was staring very intensely down at me.

"The same." I perched myself up on my elbows, "He's never happy anymore. It makes it so hard to talk to him."

He sat down and put Nivea on my chest. She reached forwards and grabbed onto my jaw. I had developed a small beard since we had gotten here and I hadn't been bothered to shave. She used it to hold onto me.

"I love my dad but he's just so..." I trailed off, not sure how to explain how I felt. I was frustrated. I was tired. I was sad for him. I was so happy in my own world and after talking with him I just felt confused.

"Straight men, am I right?"

I laughed and wrapped my arms around the baby, puling her down and smothering her in kisses. Her giggles filled the room and distracted me a little bit from the anxiety that was filling my stomach.

Xander always knew how to cheer me up.

I wish my dad had somebody like that.