Take Two: A second chance romance

Chapter 5: Alexis

As I get closer to the bridge that leads into Firefly Valley, my anxiety kicks in, and I can’t help but feel everything I did 4 years ago. I have often wondered to myself if I acted too hastily. Should I have let Jayden explain to me? Should I still have told him that he was going to be a daddy? Looking at my son’s face and seeing him looking back at me has hurt some days. There have been so many times when I was alone at night looking at photos of us together and all I wanted to do was give in and call him. Then I would remember the photos Angie sent me and her kissing him and I would put my walls back up and push that thought away. I know eventually the boys will start asking about their dad and at this point I have no clue what I am going to say to them.

After crossing the bridge into town, I started driving along the main street. Looking at everything around me, I can’t help but realize how much I’ve missed being here. Torquey Ridge never really felt like home to me. I smile as I hear the boys talking to each other in the back seat. There are a few things I can’t understand. What I do makes me laugh. So far there has been talk of Jax, Aaron and Jessa getting hugs. Aaron and Jax are horsey, just like Bandit and Stripes are on Bluey, Jessa making bikkies for them and a heap of babbling. After getting through the main part of town, I headed towards my childhood home. After roughly 10 minutes, I pulled up into the driveway of the house.

Kai and Killian start getting excited, yelling at their Aunt and Uncles. Cutting the engine off as I pulled into the driveway, I sat there for a few seconds, taking a few deep breathes before getting out of the car. I headed to the back and grabbed Kai out of his car seat first, then I grabbed Killian out. As I put Killian on the ground, both the boys ran off towards the front porch. Just as they’re about to knock on the door, Aaron opens it and picks up both boys. The boys are laughing and yelling their uncle’s name.

Aaron heads into the house with the boys and I follow in after him. I will go get the bags out of the car later, I think to myself. I walked into the house, and I was instantly engulfed in a hug. The height and the cologne I can smell, tells me that it is Jax. Looking up into my big brother's eyes, I can see that he is happy that I am here.

“Hey Jax. How are you?” I said with a small smile.

“Lex, it’s good to see you. How are you feeling? I know this wasn’t easy for you. Jessa told us that she was scared of coming back. But she was happy that you did. I’m good, you know that. Thank you for coming, Lex,” Jax says.

He lets me out of his hug and as I am about to walk towards the living room where Aaron is with the boys, a little hurricane goes past me and jumps at his uncle Jax.

“JAX” yells Killian

“Hey, my little man” Jax says as he catches him.

Killian hugs Jax and then snuggles his face into his neck. Looking at this makes me tear up as I can’t help but wonder if he would do the same thing with Jayden. A tear slipped down my face watching my brother and my son. Why did all of this have to happen? Jax looks up at me and sees the tears in my eyes and gives me a small sad smile. I decided that I would go get the bags out of the car while the boys are with their uncles. I let Jax know what I am doing as he heads to the living room, where Aaron and Kai are, as I head back out to the car.

Getting to the car, I opened the boot and grabbed the boys' PAW Patrol suitcases and my suitcase out and put them on the ground. I then turned back and closed the boot. I picked up the bags and started heading towards the front door. As I was about to reach the steps, I was stopped dead in my tracks by someone calling my name. I froze and slowly turned around and came face to face with Micah, Jayden's older brother.

“Alexis? Is that really you?” Micah said.

“Hi Micah. Long time, no see. How are you?” I replied, while my anxiety started skyrocketing.

“When did you get back? Are you here for long?” Micah fired more questions at me.

Before I can say anything, Jax walks out with Killian in his arms. He sees Micah there, and he is looking at the suitcases in my hand. As if sensing that there is someone else there now, Micah looks up and sees Jax there holding my son. He looks at Killian and then looks at me. I see the moment he puts it all together.

“Alexis, I’m going to take a good guess at this and say that I am an Uncle to that little boy Jax is holding. He looks just like me and Jay at the same age.” he says, sadness tingeing his voice.

“Come inside, Micah, I will talk to you in there,” I said.

Micah nodded his head, and we all headed inside to the living room. Once we are all settled, Jax puts Killian down on the floor, and he runs over to the corner of the room where a box of our old toys are that Jax must have gotten out of the attic. I see Killian start pulling out toy cars, putting them next to him as he pulls them out. As I am watching Killian, Aaron walks in with Kai beside him with a Sippy cup in his hand. Aaron walks over and hands a Sippy cup to Killian, then turns around to face us, noticing that we now have a guest. Aaron looked at me, then at Jax and then me again, then Micah. Jax has guilt on his face, as he has been keeping this secret from Micah for 4 years. Aaron says he will go grab all our drinks, then be back. We all go and sit on the couch and wait for Aaron to come back.

Once Aaron is back and everyone has a drink, I sit there for a few minutes, taking a sip of my drink, I take a deep breath and look back at Micah. Then look at the boys who were playing happily in the corner.

“To answer your question from outside, yes you are an Uncle. The twins are 3 years old. Their names are Kai and Killian. The day I left, I was going to tell Jay, as I had just been to the doctors and had the blood test done. When I found out, I wanted to tell Jayden straightaway. I know we weren’t trying for a baby. The pregnancy was such an unexpected surprise. When I got to him, I found him kissing Angie. Not to mention being sent photos of them together”, I said, tears slowly rolling down my face.

Micah’s face had a mixture of emotions. Anger, hurt, sadness, love. My guilt comes back tenfold. I know it was selfish of me to keep the boys away from Jayden and his family. I was just so hurt, I let my emotions take over and didn’t stop and take a step back and think about everything. If I felt like this with Micah, I can only imagine how I would feel once Jayden finds out.

“f**k Lexi, look I’m not going to rip you apart for keeping it a secret. I’m disappointed you didn’t tell any of us, even if you didn’t want Jayden to know, the rest of us would have liked to know. Can I ask if they have middle names and what their last name is?” Micah asks.

“I’m sorry Micah. So many times, I thought of reaching out to Jayden and I did a few times, but it didn’t go well, but that is a story for another time. Then I remembered the photos and that stopped me a lot of times from reaching out. Their full names are Kai Jayden Blackwell and Killian Jax Blackwell. Kai is the oldest, born at 3:33pm and Killian was born at 3:38pm. They were born on 31st October. They are mirror twins. Kai uses his left hand for everything and has a dimple on the left, where Killian uses his right and has a dimple on his right. When they sleep, they sleep on whichever side they favor,” I replied.

Micah looked at me shocked. I could read his face like a book. The fact that I gave the boys their last names and also gave Kai his daddy’s name as a middle name surprised him. With the Blackwell family, it is tradition to pass the father's first name down to the firstborn son as a middle name.

“Boys, can you come here” I called out to Kai and Killian.

They get up off the floor and come running over to me. Kai jumps on my lap while Killian goes to Jax. I gave him a hug and kissed Kai before looking at both boys.

“Boys, I want you to meet someone.” I said, pointing to Micah.

“This is Micah, he’s your Uncle.” I said.

The boys looked at him for a few minutes. Kai slowly approached Micah, looking at him intently.

“You look the same as me”, Kai says.

Micah was surprised by that. So am I. Kai then hugs Micah. Seeing Kai hugging him, Killian comes and hugs him too. Once they have hugged him for a while, they pull him over to the toys and start talking his ear off about everything and anything they can. When Micah left later that night, he thanked me for allowing me to spend time with the boys. He also made me promise that while I was in town that I would let Jayden know about them and that I would actually sit down and talk to him about what happened four years ago.