Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (47 page)

Happily Ever Addendum

(Modern Arrangements Series – book 3)

by Sadie Grubor

ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright
2013 Sadie Grubor
Cover Art by VST

This
book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any existing means
without written permission from the publisher. Contact Author at
[email protected]
.

This
book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
actual events is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the
author's imagination and used fictitiously.

Dedication
& Special Thanks:

To my husband, you know how you are the best supplier ever. Thank you
for fueling my reading and writing addiction.

To my Son, my Second Minion, Happy Birthday baby!

And BIG shout out to my Facebookies!  All the posts, support, and
encouragement you guys provide is more than awesome.

To all of my readers, long timers and newbies, without your
support I would be lost. You are all so amazing.  Thank You for taking a chance
on a little author like me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This book is dedicated to all the children out there who grow up
without parents, role models, or any support from a loving family. Please know
that somewhere someone loves you and wishes you the best.  I'm one of those
people.

Blurb

This is the third installment of the
Modern Arrangements Trilogy.

LILLIAN SNOWE has been seduced, wedded,
and bedded by the reformed playboy turned husband.

AIDAN IVERSION III finally has his wife
and unborn children home, where he can participate in their lives and protect
them. But when hurdle after hurdle is thrown in the way of their happily ever
after, will they be able to survive betrayals, lies, and the realization that
they may really be meant for each other after all.

Join Lillie and Aidan as they fight to
prove to their unknown enemy, and to themselves, that they are more than the
contract they signed.

Chapter One
Happily Ever After Addendum
Aidan

Arriving back to New York, Celia, Dixon,
Oscar, Maggie, Viola and Liam waited to welcome us home. Phoebe broke away from
Lilli and me, jumping into Oscar’s arms. Maggie descended upon Lilli before she
got her feet to the tarmac.

Maggie wrapped her arms around Lilli and
smiled wide.

"I missed you too, Maggie."
Lilli giggled.

"I’m so excited you're back!" She
exclaimed.

"Quit hogging her, squirt!"
Dixon pulled Maggie away and lifted Lilli into a tight hug.

"Be careful!" Celia exclaimed,
smacking Dixon’s arm.

"Damn, woman, I am!" Dixon scoffed
at her playfully. "Like I'd hurt my future football star!" Dixon
boasted, a wide smile spreading across his face.

"Football player?" Lilli
raised one eyebrow "
Your
football player?"

"Uncle Dixon will be teaching the
little one all of the necessary football skills." He beamed, proudly.

"No way!" Phoebe shrieked.
"That’s a future fashionista in there, total supermodel material."
Phoebe grinned.

"Aidan, dear." Viola moved in
quickly, kissing my cheek before turning to Lilli. "Congratulations, Lilli."
She whispered. Lilli gave a weak smile.

Her reaction to the pregnancy talk
confirmed just how unsure she felt. Lilli didn’t seem excited or even happy,
for that matter, when all things baby related were brought up in conversation. My
heart broke for her.

"Okay, come on. It was a long
flight. I’m sure Lilli is exhausted." Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pulled
her toward the idling car.

When she leaned on me, I could only hope
it meant that she knew I was there to support her, through anything and
everything.

"Thank you." She said softly.

With a nod and a smile, I help her into
the car before climbing in behind her. Though I'd rescued her from the
welcoming committee for now, they were following us to our house.

We stepped into the house, the smell of
Mexican spices filling the entry hall.

Viola entered the house right behind us.
"I called Rachel and asked her to have dinner prepared."

Mrs. White, the housekeeper, appeared.

"Welcome home, my boy." She
kissed my cheek. "I see you brought my girl back." She hugged Lilli
and rubbed her stomach. "Look at you already." She smiled brightly. Though
Lilli smiled back, it still wasn't genuine. "Dinner is ready." Mrs.
White motioned for Lilli follow.

Just a few steps into the dining room
and Lilli froze.

"How did you know?" Lilli
provided us with her first real smile since arriving home.  Her eyes moved over
the large spread on the table. A large tray of rolled and fried tortillas, salsa,
sour cream, tortilla chips, yellow rice and a large pitcher of lemonade.

"Oh, a little birdie gave us a
heads up." Mrs. White looked past us and winked at Phoebe.

Lilli turned, her face flushed with
embarrassment. "You told people about my cravings?"

"Of course." Phoebe shrugged, "you
love them and it seems to be what you always want. Besides chow mien
noodles." She giggled.

"What are they?" Liam examined
the fried tortilla rolls.

"Those.” She pointed at the object
in question. “Are called Taquitos.” Lilli giggled. “I became a fan of them a
few years ago. For whatever reason, they’re all I seem to want to eat.”

"Holy shit." Dixon exclaimed,
picking one up between his finger and thumb. "I remember the fridge being
stocked with these things."

"Okay, enough talking about them."
Lilli sat down. "I’m starving." She grabbed a plate and started to
load up. I watched her dump salsa and sour cream on top of them before she
picked one up and shoved it in her mouth. She closed her eyes and moaned. 

She paused, mid chew, and looked around
at everyone. "Okay, can everyone not watch me eat?"

"Sorry." Viola was the first
to smile an apology, sitting down at the table. "You really looked like
you were enjoying that."

Sitting next to Lilli, I realized I
didn’t have one clue about her cravings. A part of me rationalized that it was
because we'd been separated for so long, but the other part of me felt guilty
for not knowing.

"So, Aidan…" Snapping out of
my internal rambling, I looked up meeting Liam’s eyes. "Boy or girl?"

"I, uh, well…um…" I could feel
everyone’s eyes on me, "honestly? I really don’t mind either way." I
shrugged. Lilli stiffened next to me.

"I think a boy would be nice."
Viola smiled, "another Aidan Iverson." Her smiled grew wider.

"Well, either way, you’ll get two
of them, so…" Lilli stopped once she saw the look on Viola’s face.
"What?"

"Two?" Liam questioned.

Lilli turned her wide eyes on me.
"You didn’t tell them?"

"I really couldn’t get much out
other than you being pregnant." Shaking my head, I took her hand.

"You’re having twins?" Maggie
spluttered.

"Oh my goodness!" Viola place
her hands over her mouth, tears forming in her eyes.

"I guess more congratulations are
in order." Liam chuckled, looking between Lilli and me.

"Are you going to find out the sex
before you have the babies?" Celia asked Lilli between mouthfuls.

Lilli shrugged and looked to me.

"It’s up to you." I said.
"Whatever you wish." Squeezing her hand a bit tighter, I smiled.

"I’m not sure." Lilli answered
quietly. Again she was unsure and struggling to be as excited as everyone else.

After dinner, our company stayed long
enough to talk about baby nursery ideas, maternity clothes, Donald’s health, Lilli's
next doctor appointment and baby names. Lilli looked uncomfortable throughout
most of the conversation. Once we said goodbye to the last guest, I caught
Lilli on her escape up the stairs.

"Are you okay?" I held her
forearm, rubbing my thumb lightly over her skin.

"I just need a warm bath." She
answered. Forcing a smile, she continued up the stairs.

With a sigh, I went to my study, trying
to give her some space. My mind stayed restless and I couldn’t focus on any
emails or contracts. Putting my head in my hands, I leaned my elbows onto the
dark mahogany desk.

"Fuck!" I growled out to the
empty room. Sitting back roughly into my chair and slouching down, I stared at
the ceiling. I sat there for a while, contemplating everything that had
happened and thinking about Lilli’s withdrawn behavior.

Her hesitation was understandable. She
knew I hadn’t been the one to drug her. But, the fact still remained that someone
had. All because of my damn grandfather. I want us back to where we were before
the ball. I just can't seem to figure out how to get there.

The woman on the second floor of our
home had been insulted by my jealousy, scared for her father’s health, hit by a
fucking truck and, then, found out she'd been drugged and was pregnant with
twins. Oh, yes, I understood she is still coping. But I'm a selfish man,
wanting her to be my Lilli again. The Lilli who gave me a copy of ‘Dating for
Dummies’, who called me a ‘Loser’, who moans my name from underneath me. I want
it all back.

My restlessness wasn’t improving, so I decided
the workout room may help. Without changing my clothes, I ran on the treadmill.
Five minutes into the run, images of Lilli spread across my treadmill, naked, flooded
my mind. I ran harder.

After an hour of running myself into
exhaustion, I was ready for bed.

I entered the dark bedroom and quietly
walked to the bathroom to shower. Once dried off, I walked naked to my closet
and slipped on a pair of pajama bottoms before climbing into bed.

Thinking I would be slipping in next to
Lilli, I smiled and climbed under the covers. My smile disappeared the moment I
felt the cold, empty side of the bed where Lilli slept. Getting out of the bed,
I called out for her.

"Lilli?"

No response. The room was definitely
empty. I didn’t need to look at the clock to know it was extremely late.

Worry settled like a three ton weight,
tightening my chest. Walking a little faster than necessary from the room to
room, I burst through the library door.

The sight of her lying on the leather
couch, pregnancy book tucked to her side and a laptop sitting on the floor,
sent a flood of relief over me. The weight of worry lifted.

Padding quietly to the couch, I knelt
down, watching her chest rise and fall. Her forehead was wrinkled with what I
could only guess was stress. Trying to rub the lines away with my hand, Lilli’s
face turned into my hand. I smiled, thinking about how my touch brought her
some sort of comfort.

Slipping my arms under her warm body, I
lifted and carried her to the bedroom. Once I placed her in the bed softly, I
slid in next to her.

Curling up beside to her, I took a large
breath, exhaled, and fell into a restful sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

I was trying so hard to seem invested in
all of the baby conversation, but my heart wasn’t into it. How could I tell
them I wasn’t feeling any connection to pregnancy? That I wasn’t happy at all?
I couldn’t, not when everyone else looked so excited.

Instead, I forced smiles and made
conversation until I was able to retreat for the evening. Aidan seemed to pick
up on my mood, but I didn’t know how to talk to him about how I felt either.
There is no way he could understand all of these emotions. Hell, I don't
understand them.

After the bath, which I soaked in until I
was a prune, I headed to the library with one of my pregnancy books. Most of
them discussed postpartum depression, but didn’t focus on women with partum
depression or feelings of disconnection.

Putting down the book, I turned to my
laptop for answers. Finally, a website that discussed women not feeling
connected to their pregnancy. There was even a blog where women held
discussions. I joined and read a few of the posts. Relief coursed through me,
relaxing every tense muscle. I wasn’t the only person who felt this way.
Reading further, I found that most of the women had a traumatic experience
around the discovery of their pregnancy or had a prior traumatic experience
with pregnancy in general. I was pretty sure that my experience was unique, but
just knowing there were others battling these same feelings of disconnect made
me feel like I wasn’t alone any longer.

The site went on to state that about
half of the women start to relate more once they feel the baby move, some when
they found out the sex and saw the ultrasound, while others didn’t connect
until after birth. I really hoped it didn’t take that long. I did not want to
feel this miserable throughout the entire pregnancy. Closing the laptop, I
reopened the pregnancy book and flipped to the chapter on fetal movement.

The book said that first time pregnant
women typically felt movement around four months, though all were different.
The fact that I was having what the book called a multiple birth, I could
possibly feel the babies move earlier. And, sometimes, first time pregnant
women felt movement without realizing what it was.

Placing the book in my lap and my head
back against the arm of the couch, I tried to think about any movements or
mistaken feelings.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Waking up in the bedroom was a little
disorienting since the last thing I remembered was being in the library.
Looking over my left shoulder, I found Aidan sleeping. My stomach began to
gurgle. Thinking I was going to be sick, I prepared to hurry to the bathroom,
but then quickly realized I was starving.

Quietly, I slipped from the bed and
walked downstairs. Rachel was in the kitchen at the small desk, writing in the
black daily menu book.

"Mrs. Iver…Lilli, good
morning." She smiled brightly.

"Good morning, Rachel." I
returned her smile.

Opening the refrigerator, I pulled out
the milk. "Please tell me we have cereal or something in a cabinet
somewhere." I whined, eager to eat.

"Ummm…yes, I believe we do in the
pantry." She stood up and walked into the large pantry. I was right behind
her when she turned with a box of Apple Jacks. "These are what my son
eats." She smiled meekly.

"They are perfect!" I grinned,
taking the box from her hand.

"I can make you something to eat—"

"Cereal is fine. Plus, I need to
eat or I will get sick." Rachel smiled knowingly.

"I completely understand. Would you
like some orange juice and toast?"

"Oh, Rachel, I love you!" I
smiled widely.

I was shoveling the cereal into my mouth
when Alex came bouncing into the kitchen.

"Morning, Mom!" He hugged
Rachel. She kissed the top of his head. My chest warmed watching their sweet
mother and son moment.