The Night Before

Chapter 51

2 August 1969

ADALINE'S POV

Today Paul and I were celebrating our second anniversary. We had a nice quiet day at home planned. The kids were getting picked up to go with family, I was making our favourite dinner and we were just going to relax and forget all of our problems.

Since Matt's birthday life had just continued to get more and more crazy. Things with the lads hadn't been getting any better. It was constant arguing and the occasional someone walking out. They had a photoshoot planned for next week and who knows how that would go.
I had published my second book a little over two weeks ago. According to my publisher it was one of the top selling novels at the moment. I had already received a call from a company in New York asking if I'd come over there for a book tour. With everything becoming a whirlwind for the McCartney family, a nice quiet day to celebrate our marriage and our family was exactly what we needed.

There was a knock on the door, pulling Paul and I from our thoughts as we turned to each other.

"I'll get the door, you get the kids?"

"Perfect." I smiled and went into the bedroom. "Matt, Mady. Are we all ready to go with Papa and Gran?"

"Mummy, we can't find Leo!"

I haven't told you about Leo yet. Leopold (Leo) was a brown stuffed poodle that Alex had gotten Matt for his birthday. He said that Leo was Remmy's little brother. Mady just about flipped when she saw it and loved the idea of Remmy having a little brother just like she did. And Matt just absolutely loved him.

"We'll find him! Why don't you two look in here more and Mummy will look around the house?"

The two of them nodded vigorously and began to search. I checked the bathroom, the living room and the family room—no sign of Leo. I then went into the master bedroom to find Martha still asleep on the bed and little Leo laying beside her. I quickly picked up the stuffed animal without waking Martha and went back into the nursery.

"Kiddos! I found him!"

Both of them quickly turned around, Matt's eyes lit up as soon as he saw the stuffed dog.

"Doggie!"

"Here you go, baby boy." I handed Leo to him. "Leo was with Martha on Daddy and I's bed. We must have left him there after bath time this morning."

Madelynn then ran over and grabbed her toy bag. "I ready to go!"

"Okay! I have your clothes packed in this bag, you both have your little bags for your toys?"

Matt was too amused by Leo to be listening, so I picked up his bag and turned to them. "Papa's downstairs and waiting for us."

"Papa!!" They yelled excitedly. Helping the two of them downstairs, as soon as we made it to the bottom they both went running over to Jim.

"There's my little ones!" He pulled them close to him, smothering them in kisses. "Are you ready for a fun weekend?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"

"Now why don't I go take your bags into the car while you say goodbye to Mummy and Daddy?"

Jim smiled and took the bags out to the car as we kneeled down by the kids.

"You be good for Papa and Gran this weekend. Daddy and I will pick you up in a few days, okay?"

"We want you both to have so much fun this weekend!" Paul smiled. "Mummy and I will call you."