Complicated | Calum Hood (Sequel to Unexpected)

44.

30 weeks

Cal

"Help me." Ashton says immediately after I open the door.

"This better be good." I say rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stepping back so that he can step through the entry.

"I'm proposing to KayKay."

"Hold on, give me a minute to wake up. This seems like a conversation I should be awake for. What time even is it?"

"It's after seven." He says flatly, taking a seat at the kitchen island and waiting for me to fix my cup of coffee.

The Keurig whirls to life and spits out my favorite dark roast, I take a few gulps of the hot, black liquid before joining Ashton at the island.

"Jes and Pais still asleep?"

"Yeah. It's seven AM Ash. We like to sleep in, in the Hood household."

"I'm sorry, but I've just been freaking out. I'm so nervous. What if she doesn't like the ring? What if she doesn't like how I do it? What if she says no? She won't say no, right?"

"She's not going to say no, Ash. Have you even bought the ring?"

He doesn't reply, instead just reaching into the pockets of his gym shorts and producing a red velvet box. He pops it open and turns it to face me. A vintage gold band with a solitaire diamond is revealed and his eyes search mine for a reaction.

"Cal, you're my best friend. I'm freaking the fuck out. Help me."

"Mate, she's in love with you. She's in this. You guys have been through so much together, of course she'll say yes, she'd be crazy not to. That ring is perfect."

"Thanks." He blushes. "I designed it myself."

"Have you decided on how you're going to do it?"

"No, I'm terrible at this. I want it to be special and I'm blanking. The only thing I've picked is the date. The first time we ever met was on November 1st, so I'm gonna ask her then."

"Cute. Well, we all were going to do our own thing  for Halloween this year so we can take P trick-or-treating and the Clifford's could stay in with Phe, maybe we could do like a bonfire the next night. Get all of us together and you could ask her then?"

"I think she'd love that. She considers you guys all family since she isn't close with her real family. I think she'd love that you all were apart of it."

"We can iron out the kinks over the next week but try to just breathe man. Everything's gonna be fine, I'm so excited for you."

"Thanks. I just needed to talk to someone, I'm sorry to wake you up. I'll let you get back to your girls now."

"Thanks mate. Love you!" I call out to him as he lets himself out locking the door behind him.

I spin swiftly and head back upstairs. I hear Paisley talking to herself in her room so I crack the door and peak in. She's got two of her stuffed animals in her hands and she's pretending to have them interact.

"Come on bubba lets go play." She has one toy say to the other.

"Okay sissy." The other replies.

"What are you doing, bubs?" I ask, walking into the room and pulling her up in my arms from her bed.

"Playing with my bubba."

"You're pretty excited for bubba to be here aren't you?"

"Yeah, daddy."

"Oh, I know he's going to love you. I bet he's excited too. He's gonna be real small for a while and he's gonna have to learn to be big like you, but once he grows some, you guys will be able to play together all the time."

"When bubba is gonna come?" She asks, batting her eyes at me with curiosity.

"He's gonna be here near Christmas bubs. He's like an extra present from Santa."

She seems to accept that answer and I pull her closer to me.

"Wanna go cuddle with Mumma and Ryker?" She nods and I carry her into the bed room. I place her down on the bed and she crawls over to Jes.

"Hi bubs."Jes says in her morning voice, opening one eye slowly.

"Hi momma."

"Come here." She opens her arms and Paisley wriggles herself as close to her mum as possible. At seven and a half months Jes's stomach makes cuddle sessions a little harder but I love morning spent as a family.

I lay on P's other side and she scoffs up next to my chest. I lay an arm over her and place my hand to Jes' belly smiling when I feel Ryker kick where my hand lays.

"Pais give me your hand." She scrunches her face in the overly exaggerated way of a two year old but does what I ask.

I move her hand to where mine had just rested and wait for her to feel her brother's kick.

"Bubba?"

"Yep, that's Ryker saying hi!" Jes smiles.

Paisley grins and kisses Jes' belly. "Love you Ryker." She says sweetly before moving back to my arms.

"What did Ashton want this morning? I heard his voice."

"He was just freaking out a little bit."

"Oh yeah? About what?"

"He bought a ring."

"Shut the front door!" Jes squeals, censoring herself for the toddler and sitting up, immediately much more awake than a few moments previous. When's he gonna ask? How's he gonna ask? Is he freaking? Wait, you just said he was."

"He said the anniversary of when they met is November 1, so that's next Monday. I told him we had plans to take Pais truck or treating and the Clifford's we're doing their own thing so we could do like a bonfire here on Monday and just play it off like a regular get together and he can take it from there."

"Aw, I'm so happy for him, and for KayKay of course. They've just been through so much. Did he say anything about the baby thing?"

"Just that they're doing their best not to stress about it. Doing what the specialist said and hoping everything will fall into place."

"I hope everything works out for them. They deserve for things to go right for once."

"I agree." I say softly.

An: IDK why but this chapter took me forever and it's so short. I'm hoping to double update today to make up for it but be patient with me. I want to finish this series strong.

Who's excited about this proposal?

What should they be for Halloween? Remember they were Star Wars last time!

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