Beautiful Mistakes

"Imagine Juliet's surprise when Prince Marcus's brother showed up to take her back to his castle and it turned out to be the grumpy knight! He wasn't a knight after all, but a prince from a neighboring kingdom. "

Glancing at his watch, Aaron raised an eyebrow and said, "Okay, I'm going to finish it up. The grumpy prince took the beautiful Juliet to his castle and he wasn't very nice to her at first, because he thought she was foolish to have ever liked his brother, the pompous Prince Marcus. Also, as Juliet did nice things for the prince and even made him Rice Crispy Treats every night after dinner, the grumpy prince realized he was beginning to fall in love with Juliet, and strangely that made him even grumpier."

Julie cut in, saying, "After many weeks, there was a grand ball thrown at the palace, and the grumpy prince was attending. Of course, being a kitchen maid, Juliet wouldn't have gone to the ball, but the grumpy prince wasn't being so grumpy, and he invited her to the ball and even had a gorgeous gown made for her. There was a visiting princess from another land there to try to win the grumpy prince's affection, Princess Shanna, and Juliet didn't know why, but she didn't like her very much. Juliet was so excited to finally go to a ball, so she wore her pretty dress and she went to the ball, but she realized something as she stood in the ballroom and watched her grumpy prince dance with Princess Shanna…"

Aaron cut in then. "She was madly in love with him," he stated, winking at Julie.

"And he was so modest that Juliet couldn't resist," Julie said sarcastically.

"The Prince, to his credit, also finally realized that he was in love with Juliet, so he asked her to dance with him, and as he danced with her in his arms, he knew that was where he wanted her to be forever. So when the ball was over, the grumpy prince asked Juliet if she would marry him and become his princess."

"Princess Shanna was really mad," Julie whispered conspiratorially to Alyssa.

"And Prince Marcus wasn't very happy either," Aaron stated. "But Juliet and her grumpy prince were very happy and they loved each other very much, so they got married right there at the castle and before long, they had a beautiful little girl who would grow up to be their beloved princess. And together Juliet, her grumpy prince and their beautiful little princess lived happily ever after."

"Wait," Julie said, holding up her hand. "That wasn't the end."

Frowning, Aaron said, "Yes, it was."

"Well, if you would have let me finish the story instead of being so impatient, maybe you would know that that is not how the story was supposed to end tonight," Julie reasoned.

Sighing, he said, "She needs to go to bed, Julie. It's the end. Give her the extended version tomorrow."

Julie shot her husband a dirty look, but she didn't say anything else, she merely stood up, lingering by the side of the bed with her arms crossed as she waited for Aaron to tuck Alyssa in, then they walked out into the hallway together.

Aaron sighed as he walked down the hall, tugging his tie loose as he said, "It's been such a long day."

"I can't believe you ended my story," Julie told him. "And you did it wrong."

Rolling his eyes, Aaron said, "Julie, I'm one of the main characters too, I know how the story ended."

"Damn impatient, grumpy princes," she muttered.

"But I'm not wrong," he said smugly.

"Yes, actually, you are. The ending was going to be different, and it was going to be cute and you ruined it. Nice going, grumpy prince Aaron."

Rolling his eyes, he said, "What did I leave out that was so important?"

Unable to contain her smile she said, "You should probably sit down."

"So you can tell me a story?" he asked, smiling and shaking his head. "No thanks, I would prefer we finish this argument about a stupid bedtime fairy tale that way you and I can get into bed," he said, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close, placing a kiss on her neck, then another one a little lower, then another…

"You're distracting me," she stated.

"Damn," he said dryly, placing a kiss at the base of her throat.

"Aaron, wait," she said, pulling away. "I didn't get to tell you who you left out of the story."

Sighing, he closed his eyes and probably counted to three, then he opened them and said, "Who did I forget?"

"Their second baby."

Frowning, he said, "What? They don't have a second…baby…"

By the end of the sentence, he sounded very uncertain, so Julie smiled softly and took his hand, placing it on her stomach and she whispered, "They will in about seven months."

Aaron's jaw just fell open, and all he could do was stare at her. "But… you can't be… I can't…"