My Life Would Suck Without You

Meet the Grandparents

There's one more part to this story. I hope you enjoyed it!!

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An hour later, Reeshard was putting the finishing touches on her hair while Madeline, that was the make-up artist's name, was working on her eyes. In the background an upbeat song by Cat Valentine played out a peppy beat on Reeshard's iPod.

Wish in a well, shooting star in the sky
We can do anything if we try
Can't resurrect Gandhi, resurrect king
But if we put our heads together
We can do anything like

You don't have to be a billionaire
You don't have to have much to show how much you care
Like give a wink, give a kiss
Like give a little happiness
Like like like

"You have to admire a singer with such confidence to rock red velvet hair", Reeshard commented as he delicately played with Ariana's hair.

"Mmm, you're right. She's very adorable though."

"Her hairdresser must be fantastic", Reeshard continued. "She must be seeing him on the side. We're not all gay, you know? Aaah, speaking of which... did you hear about Gerard?"

Ariana's eyes grew wide in anticipation of some juicy gossip.

"He got married ... to a ... woman! Can you believe it?"

"But I thought Gerard was gay."

"He is ... oh most definitely. But! His new wife has something his old lover did not."

"What?"

"Money, of course. She is financing his own shop for him. It's almost enough to make one go over ..." He leaned in closer and his voice dropped to a whisper. " ... to the dark side."

"You mean?"

"Yes ... women", he pronounced the word with a distinct sneer.

"But Ree-shard... you work with women all day."

"I work with their hair, Ariana. I do not share my bed with them." Then, he shivered as if the temperature of the room had dropped ten degrees.

"You said it, sister", Madeline added as she expertly twirled the foundation brush before applying it to Ariana's nose.

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After Reeshard and Madeline left Ariana had a scant fifteen minutes of alone time with the baby before an army of grandparents stormed the room. At least that's what it felt like.

"Ariana, you look absolutely perfect", her mother crooned as she swept into the room, followed closely by the other two grandparents and uncle with Jai pulling up the rear. He looked dead on his feet and Ariana realized with regret that he'd probably gotten less sleep than she. "Reeshard did a wonderful job."

Ariana's hair was down around her shoulders and professionally straightened to perfectly frame her face. Her eyes were striking with copper shadow and brown eyeliner which emphasized her brown eyes and made them even more lovely than normal. A light pink gloss graced her lips and no one would have ever guessed that she was a brand new mother. She wore a pink satin gown and matching robe which not surprisingly coordinated with the baby's dressing gown.

Gina went directly to the clear, plastic bassinet sitting next to the bed.

"Oh, Jai... she's absolutely beautiful."

Jai's eyes lit up with pride as he joined his mother.

"Thanks, Mom, but I can only take half the credit."

Gina lifted her head to look at Ariana and was surprised by the look of complete adoration she saw ... directed at her son. She glanced back to Jai who was staring at Ariana and saw her intense love echoed in his eyes. Gina couldn't say she disliked Ariana. In fact she'd never really thought much about her. Therefore, when Jai told them about Ariana's pregnancy, she just thought it was an unfortunate mistake, a mistake which would prove to be most detrimental to the baby who was the only innocent in this situation. Now however, she was going to have to rethink things. Jai and Ariana obviously cared about each other and even if the two of them didn't stay together, Ariana would continue to be a part of their lives from now on.

"You okay, Mom?", Jai asked when he finally pulled his eyes away from Ariana. "You look a little queasy."

Gina shrugged it off. "I'm fine, dear. Now do you have a name for this little angel? You were being very mysterious about it earlier."

Ariana perked right up and brushed off Joan who was fussing with her hair even more than Reeshard had. "We do; we do have a name. Jai?"

Jai smiled at his mother. "Yes, her name is Hannah Grace."

Beau, who until this moment had been staring in awe at the tiny baby, guffawed loudly. Joan's eyes narrowed at him.

"Hannah...", Joan commented, "means Grace and Grace means elegant. Those are lovely choices, Ariana."

"You knew the meaning of those names?", Beau asked incredulously.

"Of course, it's a hobby of mine. I spent a lot of time picking out just the right name for Ariana. Her name means silver.. I knew she would shine just like her name."

"I picked Frankie's name", Edward added. "It was Joan's fathers."

"But don't you think a more ...", Beau was having problems finding the right way to phrase the question, "traditional name would serve her better."

"More traditional?", Joan asked. "What names would you have preferred? Lisa, Katie, Nicole, Claire, Amanda, Katie?"

"You already said that one, Mom."

"Yes, I know, but it's so common place that it needed to be said twice."

Gina straightened up. "Well, I, for one, think that Hannah is a beautiful name for a beautiful baby."

"Thank you, Mrs. Brooks."

"Thank you, Ariana. And please, call me Gina."

Ariana smiled back at her and then, looked around the room and realized for the first time that someone was missing.

"Where's Frankie?"

"He had to stay and help Donny. There was a little problem with the dogs", Jai told her.

"Problem?", Ariana asked nervously. "Is something wrong with Fawkes?" Always one to jump to conclusions, she added hastily, "What did Donny do?"

"It's hard to explain", Edward started.

"...And even harder to believe", Beau added with a chuckle.

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"But how did he... and she... well, you know", Ariana asked Jai after a lengthy explanation of how Betty had given birth to a litter of six very healthy puppies.

"We've been trying to figure that one out."

"Ya gotta hand it to the little guy, though", Beau commented. "Makes you kinda proud to be male."

"Absolutely", Edward joined in.

"Men!", huffed Joan.

"Well, you know what they say", Gina added, "Men are dogs."

"What do they look like?" Ariana asked, interrupting what was soon to be a very heated debate about which gender was the better one.

Gina volunteered her opinion. "Oh Ariana, they're so ugly, they're cute."

Joan concurred. "We will definitely not be naming any of these puppies Hannah."

TBC