It must be love

Chapter 5

Ava

I felt someone shaking me and I cracked one eye open to see Nigel staring at me. The drive here had been silent, I gathered that Nigel wasn’t much of a talker so I felt awkward and the exhaustion had obviously gotten to me so I must have fallen asleep.

"We're here" he said and I stretched out,“I hope you don't mind but I brought you to my house since Jen and Nick's phones are off. He looked tense as he stood there and I cleared my throat then said that I didn't mind then climbed out of the car and saw Kayla staring at me questioningly.

"Hi" I waved and she ran to hide behind her dad’s leg.

"Kayla this is Aunty Jen's cousin, Ava" Nigel gently pulled her from behind his leg and she stared at me then came around and offered me her tiny hand which I shook.

"You gonna play dollies with me." she dragged me to the front door and her dad unlocked the door for us to walk in and I gasped. The house was spectacular and as I walked in further, I saw the beautiful plain black couches in the living room and the vase of flowers on the table, there were photos and framed artwork hanging from the walls and from the looks of it the artwork was Kayla's.

“You have a beautiful home." I said to Nigel, it looked like it had a woman's touch, must have been his wife who had decorated. There were throw pillows on the couches, matching curtains, there was clearly a great attention to detail when the house was decorated, the walls were a plain white but on one side of the wall was a myriad of pink and yellow hand and footprints, I pointed to it questioningly but Nigel wasn’t the one to answer, “That's me and daddy's hands and foot." Kayla grinned.

"Feet." Nigel corrected.

"Feeeeet." Kayla drew out with a giggle and he rolled his eyes mumbling something that made her laugh, the exchange was too cute.

"So umm... Can I get you anything to drink?" Nigel offered and I shook my head smiling kindly.

"Well okay, I'll go get started on dinner." He said walking towards the kitchen and told me to make myself at home.

"I can help" I spoke up and he was about to answer but was cut off by Kayla.

"No, you gonna play dollies." She said and Nigel just shrugged, I then followed her up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Cool room" I muttered in awe as I looked around and she beamed at me.

"Here you take this dolly and I take this one." She said handing me a Barbie doll dressed in a blue floor length gown and then she took out a Wonder Woman action figure and we then had a tea party. I'd never hung out with a toddler before but I was actually having so much fun.

"I ordered pizza instead." Nigel said and I looked up from my small tea cup and saw him standing at the threshold and noticed that he had changed out of his suit, now wearing basketball shorts and a grey V-neck which emphasized his muscles, gosh the man was hot! I wanted to-

"Aba!" Kayla's voice brought me out of my nearly perverted thoughts about her dad and I blushed then looked at her.

"Let's go" she said pulling me on my arm, I got up and followed her back down the stairs.

The pizza came and we sat at the table, wasting no time digging in, I was starved. I wondered briefly where Nigel's wife was and why she wasn't joining us but decided against asking him, I didn't want to seem nosy. I don't think I would want her to be here anyway, she'd probably end up seeing me ogling at her husband and that would just be really awkward.

Kayla hopped onto her dad's lap and started eating his pizza when hers was finished. Watching the two of them laugh and be cute together was a very heart-warming sight. I couldn't wait for that to be me one day and watching my husband interact with our kids.

My phone pinged breaking me out of my thoughts and I pulled it out of my pocket.

‘We're on our way'’ -Jen

‘See you!’ I texted back then put my phone back down in the table.

"Tell me more about yourself Ava" Nigel's smooth voice said suddenly and I looked up at him then shrugged.

"There's nothing really to tell. I'm quite boring actually, if I'm not working or with friends, then I'm curled up on my bed watching something on Netflix or reading a book."

He looked surprised by my declaration and we ended up talking for a while with him making jokes here but the conversation was mostly dominated by Kayla. I learned a few things about Nigel and Kayla liked I thought before, she had him wrapped around her tiny finger.

The doorbell rang and Nigel got up to get the door then seconds later Jen appeared followed by Nick.

"Ava!" She squealed excitedly and I stood up then hugged her.

"I missed you" I said sincerely.

"Yeah me too. Don't ever disappear like that." she said half laughing and choking on a sob. We broke apart smiling and Kayla came up to Jen then she picked her up.

"Hey Miss Kayla" Jen cooed and Kayla giggled then told her about our tea party.

"Ava…" Nick came over to give me a hug, "It's been a while."

I smiled when we broke apart, "Hey Nick."

"That's so sparkly." I heard Kayla say then turned to see a big diamond ring on Jen's finger and I gasped "Oh my gosh, is that-?"

"Yes! He finally proposed!" Jen said grinning and Kayla started clapping, sensing the excitement in the room.

"Well congratulations!" I said and pulled her in for a hug with a squirming Kayla.

"It's about damn time bro." Nigel smirked and Nick rolled his eyes smiling.

"So how did he ask you?" I asked after breaking up the hug then looked down at her ring finger and gazed at the princess cut diamond ring sitting on there.

It was beautiful. I was absolutely happy for Jen, she was my best friend and cousin but I couldn't help the pang of jealousy I felt, well not really jealousy more like envy.

"We were in the car driving over here and he handed me a small black box then said 'Marry me Jen or I swear to God I'll end up going clinically insane."

"Real smooth Nick. Great proposal speech." Nigel teased and Nick glared at him.

"Oh fu- uh... fudge you. I doubt you could do any better."

My brows furrowed wasn't he already married? My question was quickly answered as Nigel scoffed and said, "If I were to ever propose to a girl my proposal speech would be one to write about in the history books."

We all laughed and Jen looked at Nick lovingly, "Your proposal was unique baby don't worry."

Nigel chuckled at that, "Yeah unique..."

"Okay Casanova what would you say to a girl since you're now the judge of proposal speeches." Nick said arching an eyebrow.

Nigel cleared his throat and smirked at his brother "I'd stare into her eyes, tell her how much I loved her and value our time spent together, something along the lines of; I don't ever want to spend a day without you. You make my life a whole lot better, I thought that I knew what being happy was like before I met you but I realised that I was only fooling myself. It turns out being content and being happy are two different things. When you came into my life I started seeing the world in colour instead of black, white and grey. So with this ring I'm not only asking you to marry me but I'm asking you to accept that I come as a package deal, I'm asking you to be a great stepmother to my Kayla blah blah blah, then I'd get down on one knee and finally pop the question. See? Absolutely golden!"

Jen clapped and I joined in, that was absolutely beautiful. This man was so damn… I don't even know what to think of him, he was too much and the words he said made my heart skip a beat and words catch in my throat.

"Wow, just wow" Jen breathed out.

Nigel smirked then did a little bow with Nick glaring at him, "Asshole!"

Kayla gasped and pointed to jar on the table and Nick sighed then went and stuffed a dollar into it, "I'm leaving now." he announced still looking at his brother in disgust then walked out and we laughed although mine came out sounding breathless.

"He's pouting" Jen laughed, “We better get going now, thank you so much Nigel."

We all walked out and Nigel took my luggage from his car and put it in Nick's trunk who was sitting in the car brooding.

"It was nice meeting you Nigel." I said as he opened the car door for me and smiled.

"Bye Aba" Kayla waved at me and I laughed at how adorably she said my name, using a 'B' instead of a 'V'

"Bye Kayla." I smiled and got into the car then heard Nigel whispering "Till we meet again Ava." and I looked up to see him smiling then he winked and shut my door.