Twin Babies with the Billionaire for Christmas

27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Tristan

I wake up earlier than usual and slip out of bed. I glance back to make sure that Rachel is still sleeping and smile a little as I hear her gentle snores.

I turn on the lights on the Christmas tree and the fireplace, enjoying the beauty of the scene as I take my first few sips of coffee. My heart feels warm, and I feel…content in a way that I haven’t in years and years.

I walk down the hallway toward my office and glance at the time on my phone. I figure it’s safe to call Jay because he has kids and I am sure they have been awake for hours now.

I know kids always wake up extra early on Christmas morning.

“What’s up, buddy?” Jay says as he answers the call. He sounds tired, and I can hear kids screeching in the background.

“Having a good Christmas?” I ask my friend.

“Of course,” he says happily. “The kids love it so much. Hard to have a bad day when they are this excited.”

I think about the tiny human that is growing in Rachel’s womb and grin. It won’t be that long until we get to share the holidays with our own child. I can’t wait to make their holiday celebrations special in all the ways that mine never were.

“Did you have a nice Christmas?” Jay asks me. I hear him debating something with one of his kids about no cake until after breakfast before I reply.

“Rachel and I got engaged,” I say proudly.

“No shit! That’s great!” he exclaims before apologizing to Janet as she chides him about his language in front of the kids.

“Congratulations!” she yells from across the room, and I smile at the phone.

“Tell her thanks,” I say to Jay, who relays my words.

“So, why are you calling me so early on Christmas morning?” Jay asks me.

“I had this crazy idea yesterday,” I tell my friend. “I know it’s really short notice, and it’s the holidays and I shouldn’t be bothering you, but I wanted to surprise Rachel with a really amazing gift. We didn’t go crazy shopping for one another since we didn’t even know if we were going to be together or not, you know? But I want this Christmas to be unforgettable.”

“Okay,” Jay says. “That’s all great. What do you need me for?”

I chuckle. “Sorry. I’m rambling. I have this idea. Let me bounce it off of you and you can tell me if it’s nuts or not before I say something to Rachel today.”

I outline my idea and Jay listens to me quietly, only being interrupted occasionally by his kids wanting something from him.

When I get done talking about the plan I have, I ask, “What do you think?”

“It’s actually a really great idea,” Jay says, and I nearly sag with relief. “I have the contacts to help you out with it if that’s what you want to do.”

“I was hoping that you would be willing to help me with the heavy lifting,” I admit a bit sheepishly. “Just not something that I know that much about.”

“We obviously won’t get a lot of movement on it over the holidays, but once everyone’s back at work, we can hit the ground running,” Jay tells me. “No, I know, sorry. Okay, Janet says she will refuse to feed me breakfast if I don’t get off the phone,” he says ruefully. “It’s a great idea. We’ll talk more soon?”

“Sure thing,” I tell him. “Thanks, Jay. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too,” he says and then hangs up.

I shove my phone into the pocket of my sweats and then make my way into the kitchen. I start making coffee and then remember that Nancy had made coffee cake for us for Christmas morning.

I pull the coffee cake out and pop it into the oven to heat up a little bit. Hopefully, the waft of tantalizing food will pull Rachel out of bed.

I would feel bad waking her up since I know she’s been exhausted lately what with the baby and all.

I am positively buzzing with excitement about my idea. I can’t wait to share it with Rachel.

“Is that cinnamon and sugar something?”

Rachel’s bleary voice reaches me from the hallway, and I laugh a little bit as she wanders in sleepily, tying her robe around her waist. Her hair is up in one of her signature blonde sloppy buns, and I can see that she’s pulled on some kind of cartoon-patterned socks.

“Coffee cake,” I confirm. “Nancy’s special recipe.” I look at my cup of coffee, then lift a brow at her. “Coffee?”

“I can have a tiny bit,” she says. “I don’t want to push it, but gosh it sucks being sleepy all the time.”

“Yeah, I would probably be useless without my two cups each morning. Motherhood is hard,” I say as I pour her a partial mug and then pass it to her.

“You are preaching to the choir,” she says with a laugh, pulling open the fridge door and taking out the almond milk. She pours a liberal amount into her cup, and then yawns hugely.

“You sure you don’t need some more sleep?” I ask her, my brows raised a little.

She snorts. “I need more sleep, but your child is already flippy flopping all over inside of me. There’s no way to sleep through those kind of antics. I presume the baby is going to be one of those dreadful morning people.”

She sounds positively annoyed, and I can’t help but laugh out loud. “Can I feel the baby move yet?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. It’s more of an…internal kind of thing for me still…like a flutter, you know?”

I don’t know, but I nod anyhow. Motherhood is wild.

There’s a ton I don’t know about what we are about to experience. I just didn’t have enough close family growing up to have been around anyone who was pregnant. I realize with a jolt that Rachel is probably in the same boat.

“When is your next doctor’s appointment?” I ask.

Rachel takes a sip of her coffee and closes her eyes, thinking. “I think in like two weeks? I can check my phone. I think we can find out the sex at that one…that is, if you want to.”

I ponder that and then shrug. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

She tilts her head to the side, “I think I want to know so that I can get the perfect clothing and nursery gear. If you choose not to find out, you’ll end up buying all that yellow and green and neutral stuff and it’s just way less fun.” She wrinkles her nose at the thought.

“Fair enough,” I say to her as she scrolls through her emails on her phone searching for the most recent update from her doctor.

“Oh, here it is, I missed this email somehow.” She opens the email and stares at her phone. Her face seems to lose all color momentarily.

“What?” I ask, frantically.

“Oh, it’s nothing, just an annoying email from my agent,” she stammers.

It’s obvious she’s not giving me the whole truth, but I don’t want to cause a scene Christmas morning, and I have a feeling her brother will be waking up any minute.

I push my worry down for a later moment.

“How long does your brother usually sleep?” I inquire, deciding to let the doctor's appointment issue go until later.

She glances around, looking relieved at the change in subject. “Oh, he’s not up yet. Usually, he’s up at the break of dawn.” She looks worried and starts to get up off the stool she is sitting on by the kitchen bar when Danny’s large frame comes walking into the kitchen.

His sandy-blond hair is mussed, and he has his sweatshirt on backward which makes me want to chuckle, but I don’t.

“Breakfast?” he asks, sniffing the air.

“In just a couple of minutes,” I say to him with a reassuring smile.

“Okay,” he says. He turns and sits down at the dining table, waiting quietly for his food.

I find it sweet that he is so accommodating. He understands and needs a schedule, Rachel said. She had told me once that he was always happiest if he knew precisely what to expect from people and places.

I wonder if he slept in so late because he feels safe here. I hope that’s why.

“Okay,” I announce when the oven timer goes off. “Bon Appetit!”

“That’s French,” Danny observes from his place at the table.

“You’re correct,” I say, “and it’s all the French that I know.”

Rachel surprises me by rattling off a few sentences in French in Danny’s direction. He replies in kind, and I gawp at them.

“You guys speak French?” I ask, a bit stunned.

Rachel smiles at me and then glances at Danny. “Growing up, French was one of my favorite subjects in school. I loved to practice it. And Danny was my primary practice buddy. There were times when, just for fun, I wouldn’t let us speak English at home. Danny hated it. But now we both still retain some of the language, so, I’d say that’s a win.”

“That’s amazing,” I say, realizing just how much I still don’t know about my fiancée. I am more than ready to find out all of her secrets, though.

My heart feels full as I realize that we will have a whole lifetime to learn about one another now.

We tuck into breakfast, and I watch Danny and Rachel as they move through the world with their own unique symbiosis. It’s fascinating and I’m learning a lot about Danny from watching him with his sister.

I break the mutual, peaceful silence, by asking, “Danny, would you like to set up that spare bedroom as your own room for when you visit?”

Danny’s head shoots up and he looks at me for a moment like he’s assessing me. I can see him pondering what to say or how to feel about the question. He looks at his sister, who just smiles at him and waits for his reply.

“Yes,” he says in that slightly stilted way that I am learning indicates that he is struggling with a wealth of emotions. I have heard that tone in his voice when he talks about Rachel sometimes.

“How exciting!” Rachel says, reaching over to press Danny’s hand. She glances at me and there are tears in her eyes.

I don’t know the whole story about what happened with her ex, but I think he must have made Rachel feel like Danny needed to be hidden away, excluded. I want exactly the opposite thing.

We finish eating, and I insist that they let me clear away the dishes. Danny looks around at the tree and the fireplace and says, “This is nice.”

It’s a simple compliment, but it warms me to the core. And I couldn’t agree more. It is nice.

“I want to read my book some more,” Danny says, looking at his sister.

“Sure. It’s Christmas. We just get to enjoy being peaceful together,” she says to him.

Danny drifts away down the hall to get his Kindle, or maybe an actual book, I don’t know which. Left alone in the kitchen, Rachel and I look at one another across the space between the kitchen and the dining room.

The distance between us is charged with unspoken words, emotions, and pure, unfiltered happiness.

I almost don’t want to ruin the harmony of the moment by telling her about my surprise, but then again, what better time to reveal something she will probably be excited about?

“I’m sorry we don’t have gifts to exchange,” Rachel says a little sadly.

I shake my head. “I’m not. The only gift we really need is each other. Plus, the baby is a really amazing Christmas present. Anything else would be a comedown.”

She blushes and looks at her hand with my ring on it. “Plus, the engagement,” she says quietly. “That’s also a Christmas present to the both of us.”

“Agreed,” I say, stepping around the kitchen island to sit next to her at the dining room table. “I um, I have another surprise, however.”

Her brows draw down a little and she blinks at me. “Tell me you didn’t buy me a new car or something crazy like that.”

I burst into laughter at that, thinking of the ridiculous and over-the-top holiday ads that depict husbands getting their wives sports cars or a Mercedes with a huge, silly bow on them.

“No, no,” I say between laughs, “I wouldn’t do something like that, I swear…unless you want a new car?”

She shakes her head firmly. “My practical little Camry is good enough for me.”

“Okay, well that’s settled,” I say with a last little chuckle. I pull my phone from my pocket and swipe the screen to unlock it. I thumb into my documents, and then pass the phone to her.

She starts skimming the information in the file I opened, her expression growing more and more serious as she reads. Finally, she sets the phone down on the table and blinks at me.

“I don’t understand,” she admits, leaning back in her chair.

I reach for my phone and pull it over to me. I look at her, frowning slightly in confusion across from me. She’s making me nervous that this won’t actually be a good surprise.

I clear my throat. “I was thinking about your situation with your publisher and your agent being all forbidding and grumpy with you. I know that you are in a place where it will be tough to continue writing as you have been, and that’s all my fault. I feel terrible about that and I’ve been trying to think of a solution.”

I pause, scrolling to the middle of the document and then saying, “I wanted to make things right and I also thought you might enjoy a change of pace. I talked with Jay this morning and we cobbled together a little business plan to make it possible for you to have your own publishing house. You’d be able to decide what kinds of works you wanted to focus on, develop new talent, and bring forth creative items into the world that you feel deserve a chance to be discovered.”

She’s still just blinking at me, looking like she doesn’t understand.

I frown a little and pocket my phone. I lean forward and take her hands in mine. “Nothing has been done yet, so if you hate the idea, we can scrap…”

I don’t get to finish my sentence because she squeals and throws herself into my arms. She rains kisses onto my cheeks as she says, “I love it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

I laugh and hold her close as she shares her excitement with me, the fireplace glowing in the background, and the lights from the Christmas tree casting a soft light over both of us.

"Tristan," she says softly, reaching for my hand. "I actually have a surprise for you too."

“You’re not about to give me a sports car with a big bow on it, are you?” I joke.

She laughs, shaking her head. “No, it’s bigger,” she pauses, her hand drifting to her belly. “The thing is…there are two babies in here. I’m having twins.”

“What?! Twins?” I say as my heart races out of my chest.

“Yep! I just saw the news when I found the next doctor's appointment date. I cannot believe I missed that email. But the doctor left a note saying when she went over my ultrasound again with a resident that they spotted a second baby hiding behind the first.”

My jaw is on the floor as Rachel talks. “I just needed a second to process that news, sorry I didn’t tell you right away,” she adds.

“No, don’t worry,” I say. Happiness is spreading through me like a sunrise. “Twins, wow! That is the best Christmas gift I’ve ever been given in my whole life.”

“Me too,” she says through happy tears. I pull her into my arms as we both soak in this life-changing news.

I can’t remember a time when I have been happier.

“Merry Christmas,” I say to the woman that I love. “ The thing is …I could not love you more.”

“Love you so much,” she says back, kissing me. “Merry Christmas.”