Whilst the boyfriends away

Epilogue

Eighteen months later.

I wouldn't say the rest of my pregnancy was plain sailing because the back pain and swollen feet only added to the eight hours of agonising pain through labour, but at eighteen minutes past three on the second of March I gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl. Lily Rose Merrygold.

From the moment we were handed the keys to this house we took the first steps to building our new future together, it took us a year but we both found jobs we enjoy and the house we moved into is now our beautiful family home. Being in Essex I see my family a lot more than I did and after spending so long at Aston's parents house and growing a bond so tight, we now make time to visit them in London and invite them over to see their granddaughter more often than not. It's hectic at times and very tiring, but I've never been happier with my life.

It's February now and another chilly day in Essex. Aston has worked his socks off all week so he's more than happy to be home at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Sat in our lounge entertaining Lily with her Mickey mouse toy on my lap I heard the front door shut behind him.

"Hey, we're in here," I called.

"I thought you would be," he replied. "How's my two beautiful girls?"

"Great thank you," I smiled tilting my head back for a kiss. "How was work?"

"It was good, the boys are on track with their orders and we've plenty more coming through," he nodded.

"That is good."

"Have you eaten any lunch?" he asked.

"I had a little yeah, but I was trying to do the housework whilst Lily was asleep so I lost track of time. I thought we could have an early dinner?"

"Yeah, that sounds good to me."

I've been trying to lose the last of my baby weight for a while now, I'm slowly getting back to my original size ten but as I look in the mirror I'm still not feeling comfortable with my body, but then what woman does? Aston however is eating twice as much as I did through my pregnancy.

"How has she been today?" Aston asked.

"A little angel, like always. Can you take over with Mickey for a bit though whilst I check on dinner?"

"Sure," he grinned happy to hold his daughter.

I wandered through into the kitchen to finish what I started a little while ago, I'm cooking chicken in a red wine sauce with diced potatoes and vegetables. Ever since we've moved in together I've tried to stick to a routine in cooking so we don't cheat and have a takeaway and so far it's worked. Letting the chicken simmer I set the table for two and poured us both half a glass of wine. We've both cut down on drinking now we have a daughter to take care of but like everyone else we still treat ourselves.

"Aston, dinner's ready," I called a short while later.

He came through with Lily and sat her down close by to play with her toys whilst we ate our food. It's a too early to feed her so I'll wait until we have finished.

"This is great babe," Aston said as we tucked into our food.

"Thank you, it's just nice to finally sit down together isn't he?"

"It is, I've really missed you today."

"I've missed you too, but at least we have the weekend together now," I smiled.

"Yeah, we'll have to make the most of it. I'll take you both out tomorrow if you want?"

"That will be nice," I replied.