Chapter Text
Blake and Adam were situated on the curb, waiting for their uber to arrive. It must only be around a little after midnight, when Adam had decided to call it a night. Blake hated to admit it, but he was rather glad when his friend had spoken out those words. It’s not that he hadn’t enjoyed his night out, catching up, drinking a bit more than they should, but then there’s Gwen. It’s a new thing for Blake, it had never been like this. Never had he been with someone that he loved to spend time with as much as he does with Gwen. Sure Adam will always be one of his closest buddies, but Gwen? He realised that she is not only his love, but also his best friend.
And he caught himself on whenever he shared a laugh that he looked around the room, to see if she found it funny as well, even if she’s not there.
Nevertheless, Blake tried to get over it and at the end of the night he did have a good time and maybe also a bit too much alcohol. The cowboy glanced over at Adam, who was shaking a little.
“You’re a wuss”, He shook his head while rolling his eyes.
“Wait, why?”, Adam asked confused, to which Blake had already reached his jacket out his way. The rocker was only wearing a light, summer shirt, forgetting about the cold spring breeze late at night. Luckily Blake was rarely ever cold and today wasn’t any different.
Adam smiled while taking the jacket and putting his arms into the holes.
“So are you gonna find out the gender?”, Blake placed his hands behind him on the sidewalk to lean on them as he waited for an answer.
“Yeah”, Adam stared up at the night sky with a simple but content smile. The cowboy followed his example and saw a few stars sparkle. Blake frowned at the view which made him realise how he was still in LA these days. Lately he seems to forget about that.
The thing is, he used to hate LA, the traffic, the unkindness and the arrogance, and well also the little amount of stars. And right now when they were staring up at the stars, Blake got lost in his thoughts, as he realised how happy he had been in this city lately. How he had grown to love it here… For 4 years he had disliked this place, hating every second when he wasn’t on the voice set or in the woods, but right now… Gwen made him so happy, he could barely believe it. He was genuinely surprised to not feel terrible right now when he saw how little stars there were visible above him.
“Wouldn’t you wanna know?”, It’s a hypothetical question, Blake realised that, but his first reaction was to frown.
“I don’t know”, Even though he had been the one asking Adam the question earlier, he genuinely had not any idea how to fill in that answer on his own life. Like would he? Wanna know the gender? Would Gwen? Did she know her boys were gonna boys? Somehow Blake ended up being completely caught off guard and overwhelmed. Instantly he put a mental note to seriously have that conversation with Gwen. And before Adam could catch up on his confusion, a car pulled up beside them.
Adam was the first to jump up and reach his hand out for Blake to take. Both of them crawled in the car and briefly greeted the driver before continuing some small talk. The first stop was Blake’s house. They shared a short hug goodbye, Blake paid the driver and soon he was standing back on his feet in front of the gate. Within a few steps the cowboy was entering the code of the gate, and just when one single beeping noise reached his ears, to indicate the gate was about to open, Blake heard a car door slam closed again.
He gazed over his shoulder to find Adam running up to him.
“Your jacket”, He explained as in the meantime he was clumsily wobbling the thing off of his shoulders. Only when he was standing right in front of Blake, he had finally been able to get the coat off. Nonchalantly Adam swung it into the cowboy’s hands, causing a piece of paper to fall out of it.
“Woops, shit, my bad”,
At first Blake chuckled while Adam crouched down and was gonna pick the paper up. But it’s right then that the alcohol completely faded out of Blake’s brain and that he realised what was happening. The cowboy’s eyes popped out and all together he stopped breathing.
“Don’t”, it was the first thing that came to his mind. Adam stopped moving his hand and glanced over at his friend. He gave Blake a weird look while letting out a confused chuckle.
“Why?”, he asked suspiciously while raising a single eyebrow. When he saw Blake’s speechlessness, he carefully moved his fingers further over the paper. One of his fingers slipped under it.
Blake leaded his hand towards his forehead and rubbed it nervously. Their eyes were locked while Adam stood back up and was holding the sheet in between his fingers.
“What is on here that I’m not allowed to see?”, Adam asked now suddenly more serious, considering Blake got super tensed all at once and the tension seriously could cut you like a knife. Nervously Blake bounced on his feet while moving his hand up to his neck.
Eventually Blake ended up letting out a sight and making a hand gesture. Go ahead.
The rocker frowned while holding his friend’s gaze for a few more seconds to then hesitantly twist the paper. His forehead was completely wrinkled, as he didn’t seem to understand. His brown, shining eyes –side effect from the alcohol- suddenly seemed to be aware of what was going on as there was a hint of realisation to be seen. Right after that his mouth dropped open, o-shaped, while his eyebrows flew up and his eyes widened.
He didn’t even have a chance to properly react, as suddenly a voice broke through.
“Blakey?”
Both men snapped their heads to where the voice was coming from. At first no one was there to be seen, but coming from the backyard, the gorgeous blonde appeared.
“Oh Adam, hi”, Adam noticed how she had stumbled over her words as in the meantime she closed her night gown a bit more.
His eyes kept going in between the paper and then to meet Gwen’s figure, to eventually land on her stomach. He was met with a rather obvious bump. Directly he wondered how he couldn’ve noticed this on the voice earlier, but almost right away he realised she had been wearing quite much clothing that had been able to cover it up. Somehow in the middle he found Blake’s crystal blue’s to see him biting lip, not quite sure what to do.
“Everything alright?”, Gwen took the last few steps towards them with her bare feet.
“Hey babe”, Blake threw an arm around her and greeted her with a soft peck.
“What’s going on?”, She asked the second their lips separated. And when she looked over at Adam again she saw him holding a scan. At first she thought it was a new scan of Behati’s, and she almost asked to see it, but luckily right before she did, she frowned and then her eyebrows flew up.
“Ooohh”, she whispered underneath her breath when she saw her own two little people on it. Automatically her hand went to her stomach, as her other one went around Blake’s torso.
“I am confused”, Adam mumbled while even letting out a chuckle. “Why is this in your pocket?”, he asked, even though the answer had been obvious.
Blake opened his mouth, to speak but nothing followed, so he eventually closed it again. He wettened his lips, to gain some time but he wasn’t quite sure what the right thing to say was.
“That’s my scan”, Gwen eventually spoke while finding Adam’s glance. “These two are – well, they are ours”,
Adam seemed like a lost boy, going from Blake’s eyes to Gwen’s a million of times.
“We were gonna tell you after the 20 weeks scan”, Blake had just started to say and Adam’s mouth flew even wider open. The cowboy realised he had never seen his friend this speechless before. His brown eyes found the scan again and gazed at it.
“Identical?”, was the first thing he asked, to which Blake had to hold his laugh, but both Gwen and Blake nodded. His hand flew towards his lips before finding their eyes again.
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way, it’s just—“
“It’s fine”, Adam interrupted as a smile crept on his lips. “You’re pregnant?”,
That caused Blake to chuckle as Gwen leaned in to her man and nod her head.
“Oh my God!”, And just like that Adam flew around their necks.
Carefully he walked towards the couch and placed the mug in her small hands. He held onto it a little longer, just to make sure she got it. It made her giggle softly to see his gentleness.
He showed her his dimples and placed a kiss on her cheek, before falling down on the couch beside her.
Gwen smelled at the tea and a soft smile grew on her lip. After that she threw her eyes over at the cowboy, who had one of his arms thrown over the back of the couch. He was biting his lip, not really nervously, but more as if he was thinking really hard about something. In that moment, he had no idea she was looking at him, and Gwen couldn’t believe how he’s so perfect all the damn time. She softly balanced the cup of the tea in one of her hand, and brought the other one up to stroke over his arm, to catch his attention.
When his eyes found hers, his deep wondering thoughts seemed to disappear as his frown was gone
“What’s up?”,
“Nothin’, just thinking”,
“Anything you’d like to share?”,
“Well, I had been thinking”, Gwen hummed while bringing her eyes down for only a couple of seconds to blow in her tea.
Blake watched her for a couple of seconds and he couldn’t help but smile. It was passed 1AM by now and even though he had told her to not wait up for him, of course she did. She’s really one in a million, and obviously not only because she stayed up, or because the fact that she was just blowing in her tea in her night gown and no make-up whatsoever, but yet it looked as if she could be doing a photoshoot… it wasn’t only because she makes life so easy and effortless… it’s because she’s loveable, and she has no idea. Blake smiled when eventually she looked up to catch him staring. She gave him a smirk, but along with a questioning look, reminding Blake to go on.
“Right um—“, he chuckled, before getting serious again. ‘Did you find out the gender of your boys before they were born?”,
Gwen was just about to take a sip of her tea, but she decided to bring the mug back down. She smiled and nodded.
“Gavin really wanted that, yeah”, she was about to lean over to place the mug on the coffee table, but Blake shot up and took it from her, not wanting her to move. She shook her head amused, but yet she didn’t say anything about it. She would never make fun of him being so caring.
“Oh”, Blake said when he turned back towards her. “What about you?”
Gwen bit her lip to think. “I don’t know, really”, she reached her hand out to stroke her nails over his scruff. “You’d wanna know?”
Blake placed his hand on top of hers and placed a kiss on her palm. “I’m asking you first, sweetie”, he intertwined his fingers with her.
“Well then um—“ Gwen smiled at him. “Then I guess I’d rather not know”
The cowboy nodded while pulling up to sit closer to her. “Then that’s what we’ll do”,
“No wait, babe, if you want—“ Blake placed his finger over her lips to silence her.
“I agree with you”, he grinned before brushing his lips against hers slowly. But just right then, he could feel Gwen freeze under his touch. Softly he pulled away to look at her in worry when he saw a hint of discomfort in her eyes.
“You ok?”,
Gwen frowned while letting out a soft grunt. Blake instantly brought his arm around Gwen, but then luckily a smile formed on her lips, which confused Blake even more. But before he even realised Gwen reached out for his hand and placed it on top of her belly. The first few seconds he didn’t truly feel anything until then suddenly, he felt a feet kick.
“Whoa!”, Blake cried out surprised as he brought his eyes up. A huge grin took over his face as he kept on feeling some movements.
“This is crazy”, he mumbled in awe, with his lips slightly parted. Gwen nodded while she beamed at her cowboy’s eyes filled with pure happiness. They chuckled as they kept on kicking for quite some seconds, until the calmness returned again.
“Come over here”, she whispered while tilting Blake’s chin up to meet her.
Quickly he placed a kiss on her stomach first and moved his thumb over her skin. The second his eyes were at the same height as hers, Gwen pulled her arms around his neck and brought his lips up to hers. She giggled, while pulling him down with her on the couch. His tongue slipped into her mouth and soon a dance started as Gwen blindly started to unbutton his shirt.
The live shows used to be the time of their lives, but nothing was less true this time around. Gwen’s belly was no longer hideable and of course the press jumped on it with every chance they had. All the interviews that were intended to be about the contestants and the process they had made, one way or another always ended up with Adam needing to jump in defence for Gwen and cut the interviewer off. A few steps away from those two was the other duo, Pharrell and Blake, with who happened practically the same. Pharrell needed to save the conversation multiple times. Mostly by if the interviewer asked about the pregnancy Pharrell started rubbing over his own stomach and saying something like: “I’m not sure whether it’s gonna be a boy or a girl yet”
In the beginning the interviewers laughed along with Pharrell and Adam’s distractions, but as further into the live shows, the questions started to get more personal and more specific. So at the end, Blake insisted that at least Gwen should no longer walk the red carpets, cause he knew she would never admit it, but it caused her too much stress. Mark luckily agreed, and brought out the statement that from that point in the season, the coaches would no longer do the red carpets, only contestants would be there.
But that wasn’t the only thing about the live shows. The getting into new outfits wasn’t as fun as it usually is. Not because Gwen is one of those women that hates the fact that her belly get’s bigger. She isn’t like that to see a pregnancy as getting ‘fat’. No, in contrary even, she loves to show off her round belly, but the change of outfits just asked so much energy. And it might have something to do with her age, or maybe with the fact that this time it were two of them, but being pregnant was very exhausting this time.
And talking about the energy? The lives show dragged so much out of her, you won’t believe it. Everything looks kind of calm if you watch the episodes. They mostly sit down in the chairs for two hours, but prepping the artists and trying to get the best version of themselves was tiring. Especially for Gwen who always wanted to do the best she could considering she felt as if she had the lives and careers of people in her hands.
But the worst part of all of it probably was having to see people go home. No matter what team they were on, Blake knew that at the end of every episode he’d have to hold her while she sobbed.
This obviously is only focussing on the bad side of it. Mark had suggested to replace her with another coach, but Gwen had no ear for that. And all by all, she enjoyed the show. After some performances she had cried just because she had felt the energy in the room. Of course then she made the audience laugh by blaming it on her pregnancy hormones. Obviously we can’t forget about seeing Adam and Blake interact with one another, that would never get old.
But as eventually Blake won the season with a country guy named Craigh, who at one point had been in team Gwen as well, Gwen dared to admit that she was happy it was over. But the second those words had left her lips, she immediately added that she wanted to come back some day, in another season, and hopefully not this highly pregnant, she joked.
At home things were amazing. Blake was the chef every day and it still amazes Gwen how good he is at practically everything. Apollo was always hanging around Blake in his cowboy PJ’s which he had been outgrowing, but he refuses to let them throw it away. Most of time, her little one was on Blake’s arm, helping him cook, watching television, picking songs for his contestants back in the live shows or even just doing nothing at all.
Kingston and Blake had their weekly date night, always on Thursdays, on which Blake taught him how to play guitar. They sat upstairs, always pretending that Gwen wasn’t allowed to hear which song they are rehearsing, so they could surprise her with a performance once he learned a new song. But anyhow, Gwen could hear their laughter up until downstairs.
With Zuma, it’s more in the details. They didn’t have a weekly reunion, but he was always open to ask Blake for advice or if he needed help with homework. Back in Oklahoma, he did lean out his harry potter books to the cowboy and they ended up holding a harry potter movie marathon, just the two of them, as soon as Blake had finished all seven books.
It’s also quite normal that the kids were the first ones to be included in the pregnancy secret. They had been super excited and couldn’t wait to get their two other siblings. Zuma and Kingston even betted on which genders they’d have. Kingston was convinced it’d be two boys while Zuma was sure there’d be at least one girl this time.
The next ones they decide to tell right after the first scan, was their parents. They hadn’t been able to make it to two Sunday lunches at Gwen’s parents house and when they saw each other again after three weeks, Patti immediately noticed something different. They waited until the boys were playing outside to include them.
It basically went like this:
Blake was helping with drying the dices along with Patti. When Gwen had walked in the kitchen with her dad by her side, something funny must’ve been said as the laughter erupted the room. It took a while for Gwen to realise what the joke was about, but as soon as she did she rolled her eyes.
“Mom!”, Gwen called her out, to which Patti looked her way. “Are you seriously telling embarrassing stories from when I was a kid?”
An innocence smile grew on her mom’s face.
“Baby, those aren’t embarrassing”, Blake told her while putting a plate down and taking the next one. “You’re cute, 24/7”
Gwen returned his smile while walking around the kitchen island towards Blake. The cowboy flashed her his dimples before quickly brushing his lips on hers.
“You see Blake, honey?”, Patti spoke while staring into her husband’s eyes.
He nodded. “The one kissing my little girl? Yeah I see him”
That made Blake throw his head back to let out a chuckle. He kept his arm hooked around Gwen though, he even pulled her closer.
“Well yes”, Patti answered while giving the beaming couple a short glance but soon found Dennis his eyes again. “But that’s not what I meant. What I meant was that he’s actually helping me with the dishes, makes a woman wonder why not everyone gets theirselves a cowboy”, she teased him, to which Dennis squinted his eyes. Gwen giggled seeing her parents interact as she threw her arms around Blake’s middle.
Dennis grunted while shaking his head amused, before starting to make his way over towards Patti. He stopped right in front of her and took the plate and towel out of her hands.
“Let me take this from you, please”, He gave her a sweet kiss, before she let go of the plate and smiled at him brightly.
“Um—“, Gwen muttered out then, to which her parents gazed up at her. “How about everyone puts their plates down for a second?”
A small smile came to Gwen’s lips when she saw her dad frown. Yet he did as she suggested and placed it down on the kitchen island.
“I gotta tell you something”
And sure Gwen and her parents had been here before, three times to be exactly. But this was different, even Apollo had been a high risk baby and to be quite honest, he wasn’t really planned, but right now, things were even a bigger surprise. Blake was the complete new one in this situation as he had placed the plate down as well, to be able to get both arms around Gwen’s waist. This way she could feel his support.
“What’s going on, sweetie?”, Dennis asked her with a confused look. She took a deep breath in and soon let another one out.
“Maybe you should sit down”, Gwen decided to say nervously, because seriously, maybe they should. Also she had no idea how to do this, you’d think this gets easier by the years, but not really.
Within all her worrying Gwen barely noticed how her mom had glanced her eyes to her stomach and back up, already feeling like what was coming next.
“Gwen… are you”, she didn’t even dare to finish the question, but the way Gwen had snapped her eyes up at her mom, gave her a straight answer.
Also Dennis his eyes went from his wife to his daughter and back at his wife to end eventually at Gwen. He saw Blake’s arms move tighter around Gwen and it took a few more second to realised his hands were laying on her stomach. His face stayed rather neutral though, as he simply moved his eyes up at his daughter, who had a grin on her face that screamed: surprise?
“You’re not kidding, right?”, Dennis dared to ask, to which Gwen let out a soft chuckle. She shook her head.
“13 weeks today”, she said to which she saw her dad swallow. She reached out for her purse and took out the first scan and handed it over to them.
They both looked at it, and instantly Gwen’s mom snapped her head back up and her mouth dropped and the tears sprang in her eyes. For Dennis it took a bit longer.
“Is there something wrong with my sight or am I really seeing double?”,
That made Blake and Gwen let out a few chuckles.
Eventually it all ended in happy hugs. The same thing had happened with Dot. Well not really the same as she literally experienced a rollercoaster.
Confusion. Mouth’s dropped. Shock. Disbelief. Happiness. Tears. More tears. Hugs. Disbelief again. Back to mouth’s dropping open, to then end up in worry.
I think both Gwen and Blake would agree that they’d never had seen so many facial expressions in only a couple seconds time span. It’s quite amazing.
They only informed their friends after the second ultrasound, when the chances that anything might still go wrong were way smaller. RaeLynn’s reaction was priceless and actually if you think about it, really similar to Blake’s moms. Luke had almost chocked in his water, when they told him backstage on one of his concerts. The poor man really had to take a few minutes to recover. It was quite funny to see everyone’s reaction. It’s also just a shocker, you know? Being 46 years old, being together for basically the same amount of time that they were pregnant.. some would even call it a miracle.
The second ultrasound at twenty weeks went kind of the same as the first. Both of them were super nervous, which ended up being absolutely unnecessary. Both babies were doing absolutely great, which again ended with Gwen crying non-stop. The difference now though is that as Blake was holding her, a few secret tears left his eyes as well. He was so relieved. They were going to be ok… He was looking down at the blonde woman with a huge belly by now who was resting on his chest. It’s hard to believe he had only met her for the first time around nine months ago. He was alive back then, sure, like he was breathing just fine, but maybe that was the probably, because ever since Gwen came in the picture, his heart had started beating faster. His smiles had become effortless and even if today he felt insecure about how fast this all is going or about how it seemed too good to be true, only one glimpse of her coffee brown eyes was enough to make his dimples pop. He ran his fingers through her hairs. And at one point, she tilted her head up and she smiled at him. Her hands framed his face and she wiped away the remains of his tears. Man, he loves her.
“Twins?”, The green eyed girl was glowing. “I always wanted twins”,
Gwen stretched her arm out to take the girl her hand. Softly Gwen stroked her thumb over the back of her very pale skin.
“You do?”,
“I did”, She sleepily corrected the singer before blinking her eyes back open. Lightly she moved her gaze over to the handsome cowboy sitting right beside Gwen. A content smile grew on her lips when hesitantly she met Gwen’s again. There was a short, meaningful silence.
“You’ll enjoy them for me as well?”, Her voice was weak, as if every word was effortful and painful. The blonde had to throw her head up, closing her eyes to prevent the tears from falling.
“What do you mean?”, Blake asked while finding her eyes, afraid to face the truth.
“Your twins”, she spoke contently while blinking a few times, fighting against the sleep. “Spoil them with love in my place as well”,
The cowboy’s forehead wrinkled as he swallowed. He could feel tears start forming in his blue eyes as well.
“Lily, you might—“, she hushed him while shaking her head faintly.
“No I won’t”, her voice was only a whisper as she gave him a fulfilled smile. “every day that passes, is a day less to suffer”
A tear ran over Gwen’s cheek and she let it roll. She couldn’t make her hands leave her little one. At Gwen’s side, Blake brought his hand up to quickly wipe at his eyes.
“Don’t be sad”, Lily took a deep breath in. “I’m in peace with it”,
“You shouldn’t have to”, Gwen mumbled underneath her breath while she looked down. This is all so unfair. The kid squeezed her hand to which Gwen moved her head back up and met her eyes. A small smile appeared.
“Thank you for everything”,
Gwen tried her hardest not to cry as she simply nodded.
“How ‘bout ya just sing me my song now?”, she tiredly asked while allowing her eyes to fly over at Blake, who was already nodding.
“I didn’t bring my guitar, but I can still sing”,
Lily nodded happily. With his arms, he pushed himself up from the seat and walked over to sitting at the edge of her bed. Blake’s hand came to rest on her back and she contently shut her eyes. Her hand still in Gwen’s.
“Hey Lily, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better…. And anytime you feel the pain, hey Lily, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders...”
It was the last time they had the pleasure of talking with the green-eyed, optimistic but realistic nine year old. Not even a week after that visit, Lily passed away. From what Gwen and Blake had heard, it was with all her family surrounding her. She had never been able to see her brown hairs grow again, she hadn’t been able to go out and life, she had never been able to get out of the hospital. Nine year old. It’s such a shame. Gwen cried her eyes out and I’m not gonna deny the fact that Blake had shed many tears as well, while he held his girlfriend in his arms.
The funeral was a couple days later. Blake and Gwen got an invitation, and as the good man Blake is, he asked the mother if he could speak some kind words. He hadn’t known her long or good, but he knew how much Lily had supported Gwen when he was in a coma, and how her prayers helped him come back to Gwen. So as the day arrived, everyone was dressed in black, there was that little coffin in the front. Two frame on top of it, of a beautiful shining girl. It were two pictures. One with brown, curling long hairs as she was sitting somewhere in the nature, it instantly made the blonde singer smile. But the second one was with her bandana, in her hospital bed, just like Gwen had known her. She was smiling as well and she did seem genuinely happy, but yet Gwen saw how she had lost faith in winning the battle there already as well. Gwen closed her eyes as she vaguely heard a priest speak about the young girl. Blake had his arms wrapped around her stomach and out of comfort, her hands landed on his. At one point Blake had walked at the stage as well. A guitar had been given to him and Gwen smiled at her beautiful cowboy.
He looked handsome, even though his eyes were quite somber today, he still looked so very gorgeous. At that point she could feel the babies start kicking, to which Gwen closed her eyes and shortly smiled. She moved her hands over her stomach. “Yeah, that’s daddy”, she whispered before turning her attention right back on her cowboy who had started to sing Lily’s favorite song. Home.
“May be surrounded by a million people I would still feel all alone, I wanna go home… Oh, I miss you, you know”
Home… what is a definition of a home?
- A place where one lives
An environment affording security and happiness
The house where your wi-fi connects automatically -
No, no a place where you feel you belong. A place where you are wanted, a place I’m with you and you’re with me. Home is a house filled with laughter, a safe haven, filled with love from a family. Home is having your partner in crime, your best friend, one that knows all your secrets by your side. And if you’re able to look out of that person’s eyes for a second and look down? If you’re lucky, their might just as well be little ones running around, coming from pure beauty that love creates. Home is where your heart is, it’s a cliché. But dammit it’s true.
Blake’s arm was tightly wrapped around Gwen’s waist. His eyes wandered over the bright blue sky. Not one single cloud visible. There was a warm summer breeze riffling through the leaves, but outside from that it was pure silence. Now and then you could hear a bird chipping and some even seeming to sing a quiet song. His blonde lady tilted her head and gazed up at his crystal eyes. Instantly the world seemed to disappear when his eyes locked with hers. His dimples came alive and the sparkle in his eyes never left.
Gwen’s smile still sweeps him of his feet and makes his heart race. They got lost in each other for a couple seconds and enjoyed the silence when suddenly a shriek reached their ears.
Blake’s eyes travel down to find the course of the noise and his eyes locked with a blue color. A tiny hand reached up blindly, wobbling it in the air, causing both parents to let out a soft chuckle.
“Hi baby girl”, Blake whispered while pulling his arm away from around Gwen to gently stroke his finger over that soft cheek. Instantly the little one reacted by smacking her lips a couple of times before closing her blue eyes again. His arm wrapped back around Gwen while travelling his eyes up to the tiny human being laying in her arms. Both of the little ones were wearing matching jumpsuits. It was a yellow color filled with tiny images of cowboy boots and black pumps, soon available via LAMB. The second one was sucking on her thumb contently, as her eyes were tightly shut. Clearly into a deep slumber.
He glanced over at the beautiful white lilies and smiled when he pictured the green eyed girl again. Before he turned back over to Gwen he read the name on the thumb stone one last time.
Lily Fields. 2005-2015
The cowboy leaned in to brush his lips against Gwen’s cheeks, while stroking his hand over the small of her back. His hand travelled back around her and covered Gwen’s hand that was holding a tight grip on her baby. He stroked his fingers over the back of Gwen’s hand before placing his hand over hers, feeling the diamond against the palm of his hand. A smile appeared on his face, as she looked at him again and saw the future in his eyes.
Gwen was pouring orange juice in Zuma’s glass, when she heard laughter coming from upstairs.
Kingston chuckled when he saw his mom roll her eyes amused.
Soon the noise was followed by hearing footsteps running off the stairs.
“Be careful sweet girl!”, The country accent was now only partly amused, as the other half of it was filled with worry. Luckily the footsteps arrived safely downstairs and only a second later a body came running into the kitchen.
She was running so fast, that when she arrived at her mom’s side, she had to take a hold of Gwen’s middle, to keep herself from falling down.
“Easy girl”, Gwen giggled before leaning down and placing a kiss on her brown, curling hairs. When Gwen stood back up, the tiny arms wrapped around her middle again, and it tightened even more when footsteps were heard on the stairs again.
“Lily! Where are you?”
Blake’s voice broke through playfully and soon the cowboy appeared in the doorframe with another brown haired girl hanging around his neck. Lily let out a loud shriek, as she quickly ran away from her mom and hid behind the kitchen island. A country chuckle followed while he tilted his head all kinds of directions to find the girl.
Blake crouched down then, to let the other one off of his back and faced her. He brought his fingers to his lips to tell her to be quiet. The girl nodded while showing off not only her dimples, but also the fact that she had just lost one of her front teeth. She looked absolutely adorable.
Blake returned her sweet smile while bringing his hand up to cup her cheek and stroke his thumb over her soft skin, as he realised his daughters were growing up so fast.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are”, Blake gave her a sweet wink, before standing back up and he chuckled.
Lily’s breathing was still rather heavy from running around and racing off the stairs, that it wasn’t that hard for Blake to figure out where she was. With muffled steps, he walked over to the kitchen island and all at once he jumped from behind it. He was face to face with those blue eyes again and a high, brown, wavy ponytail on her head.
She was completely caught off guard, as she let out a scream. There was no chance in getting away any longer, as Blake’s arms wrapped themselves around her and within ease threw her over his shoulder. She let out high pinched cries and threw her legs up and down. Blake tickled her side and the laughter only increased.
Gwen beamed at the both of them as she had just tilted her other daughter on top of her lap, to give her a good morning kiss.
At some point as Blake was tickling one of his little girls, Gwen’s figure caught his eyes, to which his hands stopped moving and instead tilted her off of his shoulder and made her feet hit the ground again. He crouched down for a single second again and placed a kiss on his daughter’s cheek.
“Now don’t you dare ever say uncle Adam is a better singer, you hear me?”
That made Gwen let out a laugh as she glanced over her shoulder, to find Lily nodding. Blake flashed her his dimples and only a second later, Lily did the same.
“Now eat something so you can hop in the shower right after Apollo”,
Blake stood back up and walked straight up to Gwen. He threw his arms around her neck and leaned down to brush his lips against her cheek. Gwen closed her eyes contently by feeling his touch and moved her head to lean against his chest.
“Good morning honey”,
“Good morning”, She stroked her hand over his arms a couple of times, before he pulled away and moved over towards Zuma to place a kiss on top of his blond hairs, before he sat down at the table as well.
“Hey King, are you gonna be home tonight?”
Instantly he nodded at Blake.
“Of course, it’s Thursday”, he smiled brightly before taking another bite of his bread. “I have a good idea of which song I want you to learn me next”
“Which one you thinking about?”, Blake curiously asked while reaching out for the cereal. The cowboy suddenly noticed how the 16year old hesitated to answer. So his blue eyes moved up to find King’s at the other side of the table. Everyone’s eyes were right on Kingston by then, waiting for an answer.
“um”, he glanced over at his mom a bit nervously, to which Blake frowned. Just when the cowboy was about to try to change the subject, King rambled it out.
“Sure Be Cool If You Did”, and a smirk grew on Blake’s lips.
“Ohhh isn’t that a love song?”, Zuma teased Kingston, which made Gwen’s eyes pop up as it caught her attention. Her eyes moved from Zuma to King, who was slightly blushing.
“Does anyone wants some cereal?”, Blake casually asked, trying to help King out, but it was too late for that.
“Kingston is in love!”,
Instantly King threw his sister a mad glance.
“Grace!”, He whispered underneath his breathe, slightly pissed, while kicking her under the table.
“What?”, She asked innocently while placing with her hair. “Wasn’t I allowed to tell?”
“Wait who is in love?”, Apollo interrupted as he just walked in while drying his long curly hairs with a towel.
“I think it’s time for me to get in the shower!”, Grace tried to get out of Kingston’s angry gaze, but as she jumped off her chair and was gonna run out of the kitchen, Blake took her by the arm.
“It’s Lily’s turn, sweetheart”,
He moved her towards him and pulled an arm around her instead, keeping her close. But Lily kept seated as she was interested in the sudden weird energy around the table.
“Who is the girl?”, Blake tried casual then, but yet still he saw King bite his lip nervously.
“Just someone at school”,
Gwen’s mouth dropped before closing it again and nodding then.
“Oh ok”, she said then trying to use her nonchalant voice but failing, to which King let out a sigh. “What’s her name?”
“Jesus, why do you guys make such a big deal out of it? Apollo has a girlfriend and no one acted so surprised about that!”
Yeah well Apollo is 10, Gwen thought, but didn’t say it out loud.
“Well, we also know Apollo’s girlfriend, don’t we?”
“Yeah duh, we’ve known Dusty since she was a baby”, Kingston answered, while glancing over at Apollo, who smiled proudly when Dusty’s name popped up.
“Yeah but you are sixteen”, Gwen said, not really knowing what else to say, so she turned her head up at Blake, giving him a look.
“Why don’t you say something?”
Blake hesitated. “Well, um, I was sixteen as well with my first girlfriend”,
“Not that!”, Gwen said while giving him a glance in disbelief. When she looked back over at Kingston, she saw him laughing with Blake’s comment.
“How old were you when you had your first boyf—“,
“That’s irrelevant!”, Gwen cut Kingston off, to which the entire table started laughing. Suddenly Gwen turned her eyes to Blake while squinting her eyes at him.
“Look sweetie, I just think it’s normal to—“,
“Oh ok, I see”, Gwen interrupted him again, as her eyes turned mischievously. “I’m already really excited for one of girls to have a boyfriend, like right girls? Daddy will be very excited”,
Blake’s face instantly fell when suddenly he didn’t think it was funny any longer. He stared at her with ‘that’s not funny at all’ kinda eyes, to which his wife’s grin only grew wider.
“Right, Blakey?”, Gwen asked with a smirk, which made the three boys start laughing really hard.
“Sure, yeah, I’d be—“, his voice faded as he was glancing over at Grace still standing by his side and then to Lily sitting a little further away. And he decided he couldn’t get the words over his lips. Like no? He wouldn’t be excited at all!
“They are six, Gwen, it’ s different like it will take a few more years. You guys aren’t dating yet, right?”
Both girls shook their heads simultaneously , which made Blake let out a relieved sight.
“Not yet!”, Grace said then to which Blake instantly snapped his head at her. “I do like Jake though”,
That made Gwen throw her head back to let out a loud laugh.
“Jake? As in RaeLynn’s son?”,
She nodded her head enthusiastically. “I’m pretty sure he likes me too!”, And right after that she ran out of Blake’s arm and ran up to her chair again while giggling. The cowboy hid his face in his hands as he could hear Gwen’s beaming laughter and a few seconds later, feel her tiny hand on his leg. Blake looked up at Gwen then, to still find amusement in her gorgeous, brown eyes.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be friends with RaeLynn any longer, I mean, we aren’t that close right?”
Kingston laughed while shaking his head, while Blake kept dead serious for a couple more seconds. Also Gwen giggled with a smirk while in the meantime Blake’s hand landed in hers.
By the feeling of her warm skin, he seemed to get his smile back while making circles over her skin, which also seemed to make Gwen feel more relaxed over the situation.
He kept his eyes locked with his gorgeous wife for a few more seconds, while he flashed her his dimples. She smiled right back and it amazed him how she still shyly glances away from him sometimes. How after quite some years already, they are still in this phase of feeling butterflies and getting a pink blush whenever one checks the other out.
Eventually he brought their intertwined hands up and placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand. That caught her attention, as their eyes locked again. He gave her a small wink, to which she grinned at him, while winking back.
The second their eyes found the breakfast table again, he was faced by his beautiful family… Wow. A family once upon a time he had given up hope on having. Three beautiful, well behaved boys and two lovely, and playful girls... and wow, Blake wouldn't mind if time would froze from now on, because they were growing up so fast...
Soon the seriousness returned though, as Blake’s thumb stroked over Gwen’s hand. Blake’s eyes fell on King and he gave the boy a sweet smile, which he nervously returned.
“It’s ok to not want to tell us yet, I get that… But know this, if she makes you smile, if she makes you laugh and if she just generally makes you happy as much as your mom makes me, then realise you’re the luckiest guy in the world”