Let Me Love You Again
Chapter 139

Nate

1 year later

Axel 3 years old

Alison 1 and a half

“Please baby, put this on,” I said holding Ali’s pink stockings and looking at her in despair.

Alison looked at me frowningly, “Ali say no, daddy!” she said, arms crossed across her chest.

“God we’re late, your mother will kill me,” I said looking at the clock in Ali’s bedroom.

Maya was already waiting downstairs, she was busy on the phone because today was the ceremony for the end of the medical course. Maya had been exceptional, had managed to finish the course in less than three years and with pregnancy, thanks also to her knowledge of studies after nursing school, but anyway it was an excellent result because now she would become a full-fledged doctor and could work as she really wanted.

“Your fault daddy” I heard Axel muttering.

I turned to look at him, he was sitting on Ali’s bed, watching me with a satisfied grin while I tried to dress Ali who didn’t want to know anything about it. How did Maya dress her every day for kindergarten? Did she use magic?

“What’s my fault this time?” I asked in astonishment.

I was here, almost thirty years old, arguing with children, while a little girl, my wonderful princess, put her feet on my head at every possible opportunity, I could not stand up, not with her, never.

“You’re too loud,” Axel said, shaking his weary head.

He was tired of me, he seemed almost bored. My son. God, didn’t I instil any fear in these children? Yet, when they saw Maya they went to attention, with me it was impossible. How did she do it?

“God, Nate, what’s taking so long,” I heard Maya say, and then she appeared at the door.

Maya became more and more beautiful, more and more woman, and she was my woman, I was very possessive towards her, but how could I not be? Every man would want to be in my place.

The red dress she was wearing perfectly wrapped her body her long and candid legs ended with a pair of decolleté, those fabulous legs in which only I had the pleasure of sticking myself between.

“You haven’t dressed them yet?” Maya said, crossing her arms across her chest and looking at me frowning, the exact same look Ali had.

God, they had me by the balls, like Jess and Lucas used to say.

“It’s not my fault” I defended myself.

“Daddy too loud,” Axel said.

“Why don’t you listen to your father?” Maya turned to Axel and he shrugged, then stood up.

“Daddy funny,” he said.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked.

Axel laughed and went to his room without adding a word. Maya sighed and approached me, taking off Ali’s stockings.

“Put her on her feet,” Maya ordered, and I did as she said, putting Ali on the changing table, “Foot,” she ordered, and the little girl obeyed, I looked at her frowning, while Maya put on Ali’s stockings with impressive ease, “This is because you make her do what she wants.” She scolded me while she was fixing her stockings.

Ali held herself on her mother’s shoulders as she let herself be dressed in peace.

She looked me in the eye as if to show me how it was really done to dress her. My daughter surely weighed that I was incompetent. I sighed and watched as Maya silently dressed Ali. After putting on her stockings, she put on the pink and white dress that we bought her that week, Ali as soon as she saw it in the windows, had gone crazy and screamed like crazy to have it, sometimes reminded me of my sister, And it was definitely her fault that she was obsessed with clothes and had an avalanche of them in her room, she didn’t even have room in her closet anymore, so much so that we had to put some of them in our walk-in closet. Maya and I were pondering about creating a walk-in closet in the room next to Ali’s, which was empty, we could shrink it down and turn it into a walk-in closet divided between her and Axel, but we weren’t so sure anymore.

We were waiting, we waited for these days because Maya was late and Maya had never been late, her period was punctual like a Swiss watch. We were both terrified because Maya could finally open her own doctor’s office, while I was about to take over the office with Jess.

Dad would retire next month, which meant that Jess and I would be the official heads of the office, which meant more work, more responsibility, and less time at home and for the kids. Not that I wasn’t dying to have another baby. I loved my kids so much, I loved watching them grow up, and I loved living with them more, and in such a precarious time, a child would be the culmination of stress, but the very idea made me electrify.

We hadn’t tried to take a pregnancy test yet, Maya wanted to wait until after the ceremony and the party, not to get stressed, even if the wait was stressing me out. Sometimes I would fall asleep looking at Maya and look at her belly, thinking that there might be another me and Maya in there, another union of us, a little us.

I sighed and looked again at Maya, admiring her in all her beauty. Last week she had her hair cut up to her shoulders, and placed them in soft waves that descended behind her back, her face was lightly made up and her lips were shiny for lipstick. The grey eyes had dark shades around that highlighted the irises.

“Why do you look at me like a boiled fish?” she said, keeping her eyes on Ali.

He made her sit on the cabinet while he started to fix her hair.

“You look beautiful,” I said, admiring her.

“Don’t play the philanderer with me just to make up for the fact that you can’t dress kids,” Maya said.

“I can, they take advantage of me,” I said seriously.

“Please,” Maya snorted.

She put Ali on the cabinet and then walked away, then came back with a brush and an elastic band “Hurry up” she ordered me.

“You are terribly sexy when you give me orders, can you do it tonight in bed?” I said winking as I took the brush and the rubber band out of her hands.

“Think about doing your duty instead of flirting, you have another child to dress,” she said, pointing to Axel entering the bedroom with the clothes he wanted to put on, “Are you sure about the choice?” Maya asked him and handed him a hand in his blond hair.

Axel sighed and carefully laid the clothes on the bed, separating them and arranging the folds that had formed during transport “Mom” said him shaking his head.

“Okay okay, you want me to help you?”

“No, daddy,” he replied.

I nodded proudly and began to comb the black hair of Ali, fortunately, they were not very long but they arrived on her shoulders, but Alison could spend hours in the mirror to fix them and for that reason, he stared intensely, Careful to my every move and waiting for me to make one mistake to scold me like Maya always does.

With care and delicacy, I combed then took a handful of hair on the head and tied them in a tail, leaving the others soft on the shoulders. When I was done, I put a headband on her and took a mirror for her to look at. Alison looked at herself carefully, then she looked at me frowning.

“No daddy,” she said, shaking his head.

She stretched her hand over her head and took off the headband with the bow that I had put on her “No tis” she said “Other” continued.

I sighed and pushed myself towards the drawer with the headbands, because yes, she had one full.

I started to lift them one by one, making them choose the one they preferred, at every no of them I could hear Axel’s rice paddy behind me.

“YES!” she yelled suddenly when I lifted one full of glitter.

“Are you sure?” I asked with a frown.

“YES!” she said clapping her hands.

I sighed and closed the drawer as I went towards her and put the circle with the glitter, then I took the mirror and I made her mirror, she looked at herself from every perspective and then she nodded proudly.

“You’re beautiful,” I said, putting the mirror down.

Ali grabbed my face with her little hands and printed a k**s on my lips, I took her in my arms and put her on the ground as I went to Axel who had remained impassive sitting on the bed.

“Your turn,” I said, crouching in front of him.

I took his clothes, Axel was always very meticulous in choosing his clothes, that day he had opted for white pants and a denim shirt that we had bought a few weeks ago in our day between men. We used to have it at least once a month. A day when Axel and I were alone, away from any female being. We’d go to the arcade and have fun or just go to the park.

Maya knew and left us alone, she didn’t bother us in the slightest, she didn’t call me and she waited for us to come back while she took care of Ali who then sought all sorts of attention.

I sighed as Axel stood. He leaned his hands on my shoulders as he lifted one foot first, then the other, getting his pants on. I tied them well while he took his shirt and, with deadly precision, he began to unbutton it, and I put it on, buttoning it up to the collar and then tucking it into his pants.

Meanwhile, Ali, behind me, began to hum and dance, while doing the same poses he saw in the Disney movies that forced everyone to watch, especially Axel.

My baby rolled his eyes and sighed as Ali continued to sing out loud, “I know, son, I know,” I said, shaking my head.

I handed him a hand in his hair, immediately ruffling him, and he pulled back, frowning, and then closed his eyes when he looked at his reflection in the large mirror next to the door.

“Daddy don’t!” he said, panicked as he began to rub his hands compulsively in his hair, and he didn’t like being messy in any way.

“Axel crazy, Axel crazy” started humming Ali behind my back.

Axel glared at her, and I laughed, grabbing her attention, and deserved a look worthy of Maya.

“All right,” he said, gritting his teeth.

I laughed and I picked him up, and then I carried him to the bathroom, and Ali was on my heels and he kept hopping and dancing from side to side. I went into the bathroom and approached him at the sink, passed the brush to Axel and he began to arrange his hair diligently, giving it an orderly shape. After combing his hair, he pointed at his toothbrush, I turned the hourglass and passed it to him, while he started brushing his teeth from top to bottom, taking care not to leave a single spot empty.

I felt me pull down my pants and look down to find my wonderful daughter looking at me with her beautiful and huge eyes, leaning with her head on my knee and her hands clinging to my pants.

“Ali tooth,” she said lovingly, watching her brother brush his teeth.

Axel looked down at her and raised an eyebrow, then returned to resume his work.

“As soon as your brother’s done,” I said, putting my hand over her head.

She nodded and looked at me with her blue eyes full of love and I almost melted in front of her, the power that this little woman had no other.

Axel continued to brush his teeth until even the last speck inside the hourglass fell, then spat into the sink and rinsed. All were clean and tidy and had not soiled even a single tile in the bathroom.

I put it down and took Ali in my arms, and then I put her on her feet on the sink, she laughed and grabbed at my hair, happy and happy, while I squeezed some toothpaste on her toothbrush and shoved it in her mouth, carefully washing those few teeth she had.

Ali laughed while I rubbed her teeth, spitting out all the toothpaste everywhere, took a towel and put it in front of her, to protect the dress, while I kept brushing her teeth and she kept spitting the toothpaste everywhere while laughing cheerfully.

“No Ali!” Axel complained, seeing the mess his sister was making.

Ali laughed louder and I stopped brushing her teeth “Spit” I said bending her towards the sink, she did as I told her, and then I approached her to the faucet for a few rinses. When she finished, I washed her face and then I took the towel off her. I walked away from the sink just to find Axel cleaning up and cleaning up the mess his sister made like he always did.

“NATE!” heard Maya’s furious voice.

“You’ll clean up later before your mother takes my balls off,” I said, taking his hand and dragging him to the ground floor where Maya, more pissed off than ever, was waiting for me in front of the door.

Her arms were crossed on her chest and her foot was tapping on the ground, “Do you realize what time it is?” she said.

Axel made the last steps by jumping and running into the arms of his mother, who immediately pulled him up.

“Mommy, don’t take Daddy’s balls off,” he said with his blue eyes.

I stuck with my foot in midair, Ali humming in my ear and my heart pounding wildly in my chest, terrified at the mere sight of Maya’s gaze when those words left my little baby’s mouth.

Maya’s head snapped in my direction, her eyes full of fury, “I swear, I’ll make you pay for it,” she said, “Hurry up in the car, Jess got here before us!” she said, opening the door wide.

“Your mother terrifies me,” I confided to Ali.

She looked at me with her hands resting on my shoulders, then she gave me a bewitching smile and my heart started beating again, full of love for my children.

I gave her a k**s on the cheek, making her giggle, before going down the last steps and taking the car keys. The ceremony was waiting for us.