A Mother for His Twins

‘Keep the memories,’ he continued. ‘No one wants to take them away from you but they’re snapshots, Jen. Snapshots of another part of your life, another time, another place. We grow, we progress, we change. It’s been happening since the moment of creation. You’ve grown, you’ve progressed and you’ve changed. Embrace it.’

Jennifer looked up at him with all of the love in her heart. ‘I intend to. Thank you for bringing me here, Jasper. Thank you for sharing your family with me, for being there for me and helping me through.’ She held his gaze but swallowed, knowing she needed to continue, knowing she needed to tell him how she felt, even though she was apprehensive.

‘Thank you for loving me.’ Her voice was so choked with emotion that it dropped to a whisper. She swallowed, her heart pounding wildly against her ribs as she licked her lips. ‘And because you love me, because of everything you and the girls have done…Jasper…I’ve fallen in love with you, too.’

‘You have?’ He’d known, he was sure he’d felt it, but there was always that tiny little part of him that doubted and now, that tiny little part had been swept away with her declaration.

‘Yes.’ She laughed through her emotion, relief mixed with passion flooding her as he gathered her close and pressed his mouth to hers. When he pulled away, he looked at her, unable to believe how incredibly happy he was. He looked over to where his girls were supposed to be playing in the sandpit but instead they were running towards them. He let go of Jennifer momentarily to scoop his daughters up, Lilly sitting on Jennifer’s knee and Lola on his own. He held his girls—all three of them—in his arms but his eyes were intent on Jennifer’s.

‘You’ll marry me?’

Jennifer looked from Lola to Lilly and then back to their daddy. ‘Yes.’

‘You going to marry our daddy?’ Lola asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

‘You going to be our new mummy?’ Lilly asked, equally as surprised.

‘Yes. Yes.’ Jennifer laughed and kissed both girls before kissing their father again.

‘And you’ll have a big wedding?’ Lilly asked.

‘Yes.’ Jasper answered.

‘And in the church and have the party and everything?’ Lola was starting to wriggle with delight.

‘Yes. Everything.’

The girls looked at each other with glee. ‘Finally,’ they said in unison.

‘Finally, what?’ Jasper asked, a little astonished at his daughters’ perceptiveness.

‘Finally we get to walk down the aisle!’ Both girls clapped their hands before running off to the slippery-slide, more than happy to leave their father to kiss their new mother once again.