Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (55 page)

"Well, they are arguing that I will
not be able to—"

"Give me twenty minutes to speak
with Greg. You will be getting a call from them soon"

"Get them, Aidan." She
laughed.

With a short goodbye, we hung up.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

Once Aidan was gone for the day, I
decided to go to the pool. Feeling like a whale, I might as well get in the
water.

In the water I felt weightless and loved
it.  Swimming also happened to be one of the most comfortable ways to exercise
now. Knowing I had to meet with Viola today, I didn't stay in too long. Getting
dressed was a bit more complicated. Maternity clothes were becoming the bane of
my existence. I longed for the day I could slip into a pair of worn jeans and a
t-shirt again.  Instead, I slipped on a dress and some flats before going
downstairs.

When Viola arrived, Jay helped me into
the car. He had become just about as protective as Aiden these past few weeks.
Once he saw that I was tucked away into the back of Viola's car, Jay closed the
door gently.

"Dear, we are going to have to
start working from your house soon." She spoke as soon as the door was
closed and smiled widely, rubbing my oversized stomach.

"Ugh, I really am about done with
all of this pregnancy stuff." I huffed.

Viola laughed. "Well, can you at
least hold off until we have your shower?"

I rolled my eyes and groaned.

"Now, now, I know you aren’t
excited about all of the gifts but I promise we will try to make it as fun as
possible."

"If you let me have Maggie and
Phoebe as my official gift openers then I will plaster on my fake smile and be
gracious." I winked.

"Done!" She giggled. "So,
I have some news I wanted to talk with you about." Viola seemed nervous,
which was very unlike her.

"Sure. What’s going on?"

She looked up and smiled.

"Liam and I discussed adopting last
night."

"Really?" My voice rose with
surprise and excitement. "Is it a child from one of our homes? Have you
already decided on—?" Her small smile provided the ‘yes’ to my questions.
"Who?"

"Well, I want to take Abby into our
home."

My shock must have been easily read on
my face since Viola felt the need to explain.

"Lilli, we want to take Abby in and
help her with her baby. We would become the legal guardians until she's of
age."

"Viola…" Tears began forming.
Damn
hormones
. "That's so wonderful." Pulling her into my arms, I
embraced her tightly.

"Well, we are only just discussing
it and have yet to go through any other processes. Besides, I haven’t talked to
Maggie or Abby yet. I want both of them to have their say in this." She
took a deep breath and exhaled.

"We both know Maggie will be
thrilled and supportive." I paused. "Abby, may need some time to
think about it, but I’m sure she will realize the opportunity in front of
her."

"You think?" Viola looked more
nervous.

"Of course." I said firmly,
shocking myself with how certain I sounded.

A week had passed before Viola and Liam had
spoken with Maggie about Abby. As I predicted, Maggie was thrilled. She
couldn’t wait to have a ‘sister’ and to be an ‘aunt’. Hell, Maggie was already
planning the nursery between her and Abby’s room.

Aidan was surprised by the news of Viola
and Liam adopting a pregnant teenager but was supportive of their decision. Just
as I knew he would be. Henry and Anne were, well, they were themselves, large
plastered smiles with small remarks about a pregnant teenager. James and Elora,
however, were excited for them.

Elora and Jimmy had come over to visit
one afternoon when I wasn’t feeling up to leaving the house. Aidan had been
doing work on the would-be nursery. We had decided to wait until after the
babies were born before really putting one together. They would be in our room
for the first few weeks after coming home, anyway. I didn’t want to spend my
energy working on a nursery. However, Aidan wanted the room ‘baby proofed’ and
secured before we did anything. The hammering and saws were really wearing on
my nerves.

Elora and I headed to the furthest
sitting room since it was the quietest room.

"How is he doing?" I asked
Elora, who was relaxing in a chair. She looked tired.

"He is great. Except that he
doesn’t sleep at night and it’s killing me." She sighed.

I looked at her with pity.

"Hire a nanny to help you. Seriously."
She instructed with a laugh. "You will have two and it is exhausting with
just one, I can’t imagine."

"We already talked about getting a
person to help but I want to be the one who raises them. I want to be a mom,
you know?" I ran my fingers over Jimmy’s little, soft cheek.

"Oh, I know. That’s what I said. We
are currently interviewing help." She laughed. "James drives me
crazy."

"The baby?" I asked. She
usually called him Jimmy.

"No. James, the bigger baby."
I laughed. "He frets over every little sound that Jimmy makes." She
sighed heavily. "He tries to help with him but then gets all paranoid and
wakes me up because he thinks he’s sick." She shook her head. "It’s
crazy."

"Well, at least he’s taking an
‘active’ role." I tried to fight off the laughter that was bubbling up.

"Yeah. Active is a great choice of
words. If he could breastfeed, he would do it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s
tried when I’m not around." She laughed out heartily and my laughter
finally burst through. Apparently, my laughter startled Jimmy. He started
crying.

"Ohhhh….I’m sorry." I cooed to
him and rocked him.

"You’re definitely a natural at
this." Elora observed.

I shrugged.

"I don’t know about that. I’ve
never really been around babies, so I don’t know where it would come
from."

Elora and Jimmy had been at the house
for a couple of hours when James arrived.

"There’s my little man!” James
walked over and picked Jimmy up from his state of sleeping in his carrier.

"James, he was asleep!" Elora
scolded.

"Oh, he’s fine."

She shook her head and growled. He
looked at her quickly.

"I’m doing it again, huh?" He
asked and she nodded. "Sorry."

James cooed over Jimmy for about fifteen
minutes before he finally went over to Elora and kissed her.

"Are you about ready? My parents
want us to come over for dinner tonight."

Elora rolled her eyes. "Let me get
packed up."

I fought a giggle.

"If you don’t hear from me
tomorrow, send out a search party ‘cause I may be held captive at his parents.
They always try to get us to stay over with the baby." She rolled her eyes
again. "Like we don’t have a hard enough time getting him to sleep at
home."

After saying goodbye to Elora and James,
I headed toward the kitchen. I was almost to the doorway when I felt a sharp
pain in my lower back.

"Shhit!" I screeched out.

"Lilli?" Rachel came from the
stove and found me leaning against the wall. "Oh my god, are you
okay?"

I panted.

"I don’t know." I was about to
go on but the pain hit again. "OH, fuck!" I grabbed my stomach and
slid to the floor.

"Jay!" Rachel ran from the
doorway and returned with a phone.

Jay appeared and ran to my side, knees
to the floor.

"Mrs. Iverson, are you okay?"

I shook my head.

"It hurts. Pains in my back and
upper thighs." I croaked out and panted.

"The car is on the way up and the
hospital is waiting." Rachel stated as she ran around yelling for Alex.

"I’ll call Mr. Iverson." Jay
stood quickly and grabbed the phone. I couldn’t hear the conversation. I was
too lost in the pains.

Rachel appeared with Alex.

"Lilli?" His little face was
horror struck.

"It’s fine…little man… I got
this." I forced a smile for his sake, panting through the pain. All I
really wanted to do was shove my head through a wall.

Jay returned and scooped me into his
arms. We all climbed into the car as the driver rushed us to the hospital.

Rachel was right when she said that they
would be ready. There was a wheelchair, a gurney and three nurses standing by
the door. They helped me into the chair and wheeled me to the maternity floor.

I had only been in bed for about five
minutes when I heard running feet. The door made a thud sound as Aidan slammed
into the door and moved to me quickly.

"Are you okay? What happened? Did
you fall?" I put my hand up to stop his questions.

"I’m having pains." I said
simply. The doctor appeared then with Dixon at his side.

I looked at Dixon through my panting.

"I called him." Aidan stated.
"Just in case he could get here before me."

I smiled at Aidan and then panted
through a pain.

The doctor performed his examination and
then did some tests. I was moved into another room to do an amniocentesis
before being returned back to my room.

I had spent the night at the hospital. The
next morning I was greeted with a disheveled Aidan, who hadn’t left my side,
Viola, Liam, Maggie, Phoebe, Celia, Oscar, Dixon and James and Elora. The room
was packed full.

"Is everything okay?" Celia
asked as she slid into bed next to me and wrapped her arms around me, her hand
on my stomach.

I nodded.

"I started having strong
contractions but they gave me some medicine to stop them."

"So, it’s still too early for them
to deliver?" Dixon moved forward and grabbed my chart.

I nodded again.

"Yeah, the amnio revealed that
their lungs aren’t fully developed yet."

He nodded in agreement. "Well,
looks like you will have to stay off of your feet for a while."

I groaned. "I know."

"Aidan?" Liam addressed him.

"Yeah?" He forced a smile.

"Are you okay?"

I took a moment to examine him.

"You haven’t eaten. Go eat." I
said and rubbed his arm.

"I’ll stay here." He said as
he climbed into the bed on the other side of me.

"Aidan…" I warned, "Go
eat."

He shook his head. "I’m fine. I’ll
eat later."

"I’ll go grab him something."
Celia stated, climbing out of the bed. Dixon followed behind her.

Phoebe took Celia’s space on the bed.

"Don’t ever do that to me again!"
Phoebe scolded.

"I didn’t—"

"Not you!" Phoebe stopped me.
"You two." She poked my stomach. "You stay in there and grow."
She paused and leaned against my stomach, "you have to wait until I have
your wardrobe perfect. It’s not ready yet."

We all laughed and I shook my head.

I had to spend one more night at the
hospital before they released me.

Staying in bed, or on a couch, had
become my standard day. Viola came over a few times a week to discuss the
foundation since I was no longer allowed to travel.

Days passed and, before I even thought
twice about it, the baby shower was upon me. Phoebe arrived on Friday afternoon
to go over my wardrobe. She wanted the best outfit from a sitting position. I
had stayed in bed for the past three days, only getting up to work out a leg
cramp or to use the bathroom or shower. I was actually looking forward to being
out of bed and having company.

The Saturday before the shower came and
I could hear the active workers downstairs putting the party together for
tomorrow. Phoebe and Viola had decided that swans would be more fitting for the
shower than ducks. It took everything in me not to burst out laughing. I didn’t
want to hurt their feelings, but come on…swans are kind of corny.

I was still lying in bed reading when Aidan
slid in next to me. I kept my eyes on my book as I threaded my fingers into his
wild hair.

"I love you." I heard him say.
I kept reading, assuming that he was talking to my stomach again. Then I saw
the tip of his finger as he pulled my book down. "I love you." He
said directly to my eyes.

I smiled.

"I love you, too." He leaned
up and kissed me. All of a sudden he seemed really excited. A huge grin split
his face as his body resembled that of a kid in a candy store.

"Come with me." He stood and
put his hands out. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on!" he urged
with excitement.

"Where are we going?" I asked
as I took his hand and got out of bed. "You never let me get up."

He laughed.