Our little surprise -teen parent story-

Chapter Fourty

Kathy and I walk around the park, Laura in a stroller giggling about something.

"So, Mikes trying to be a grandpa?" She asks, curious on our current situation with my dad.

"Ya, he claims to want to be in her life, he even has come by a few times to play with her but, he's been working all the time now. He's always away on a trip." She nods as we continue down the path.

"Well, how have you and Xavier been? Everything been smooth sailing?" I smile thinking back on the past couple of months.

"It's been a dream, he's such a sweet heart and he's very helpful. He also loves playing with Laura and Indie, it's pretty cute actually." She smiles softly as we start to head back to the car.

"Lets go get lunch Ella, then we can go back to the house." I agree before we decide on burgerville.

Burgerville is one of my all time favorites, sadly they got rid of the mocha perk shake but the food is still fantastic. Xavier and I like to have little lunch dates here with Laura before we go to the park.

When we pull up to the store Kathy starts acting a little weird, all jumpy and skittish.

"Are you ok?" I ask, confused with her sudden change of mood.

"Oh I'm fine! Here can I have Laura?" I nod slowly handing her my baby. As soon as we are through the doors I walk into someone.

"Oh my lord! I'm so sorry!" I look up and see Xavier standing there. He smiles at me handing me a burgerville bag.

"Hey love." I smile at him, raising a brow slightly.

"What are you doing here I thought you were working?" He smiles, laughing slightly. He scratches the back of his neck slightly before handing his mom his car keys.

"I want to take you somewhere El." I raise my brow slightly but put my hand out. He starts to take me out the door but I run back and give Laura a kiss on the forehead.

I meet Xavier at my jeep, he's opening the passenger door for me.

I giggle slightly before getting in, confused as to where this was leading.
"Where are we going?" I ask as he starts the car.

"To Neverland," he smirks at me before looking back at the road," I sent you a playlist, would you mind if we played it?" I open my phone seeing a new playlist, it's titled, Our love, I can't help but to smile.

"It has all our songs in it!" He smiles at me once more, asking me to play it.

We sing and sing till our lungs burn, I can't help but to notice the familiar back roads.

"Are we going to the hike?" I ask as I watch the trees fly by.

"You'll have to wait and see love!" He laughs before turning the music up a little more. He places his hand on my thigh, rubbing his thumb back and forth. I smile at him, enjoying the music as we continue down the back roads.

"I love you." Xavier blurts out, I raise a brow before saying it back. Something's gotten into these people today they are all acting weird. "Ella I have a few letters to give you, uh, here's the first one." He pulls something out of the drivers door.

"How did I not see that before?!?" He shrugs slightly before ushering me to read it.

Dear El,

I love you, and over the past five years I have just fallen more in love with you. Your drive, and ambition just blow my mind, and it's something that I hope our baby girl grows up to have. You accomplish anything you put your mind too and I wouldn't have been able to do this with anyone else.

I realized you were the one freshman year. I lost my freshman season to an injury and I was going crazy, I was emotional and angry. But, you, you were like a super hero! You came and saved the day! You ran to my house late one night and magically made it up to my room. You didn't know this, but minutes earlier I'd been crying, I was crying out of anger and frustration. I was thinking about quitting, but you, you came up there and you laid with me all night and we talked through it all.

You helped me feel whole, you helped me through dark times love.

Reason number one: I love you because of your compassion for others

By the end of his letter I'm in tears, he smiles softly at me.

"We are here!" I look up to see the trail head, and another note in his hand.
I smile snatching the other letter before jumping out of the jeep.

El,

I love you because you are compassionate, I love you because you are silly, I love you for hundreds of reasons.

But my second reason is because you are strong. You are one of the strongest people I know, you work hard for the things you love. You are strong and committed, when you first said we were going to buy a house I thought you were kidding honestly,
But here we are today.

Reason number two: I love you because you are strong.

I look up at him, tears in my eyes. I slowly walk towards him and carefully wrap my arms around his waist for a hug.

"I love you Xavier, I really do." He presses a kiss to my head and I feel him smile into it.

"I love you too, but I'm not done." He takes my hand and starts leading me down a trail. We talk for hours as we hike.

It the first thing we've done together without Laura and it's weird not having her around, I kind of miss her.

As we make our way around the bend of the trail I hear a waterfall. Once we can finally see it, I was shocked at how large it was.

"One last note love." He says as he pulls out a tiny little note card.

Ella, I love you for you, I love you through thick and thin, Ella I love every part of our relationship and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

El, will you look up please.

I raise my head to see Xavier, down on one knee. In his hand a little ring box.

"Ella Rose Whitman, will you be my bride?" I smile wide tears stream down my face.

"Yes." I whisper through my tears.

Xavier picks me up and swings me around, "I've wanted to do that for years love." I lean in and kiss him smiling into our kiss.

When he open the ring box once more I see this beautiful sterling silver band with a opal stone delicately placed in the center.

"I remember you saying that you didn't want a diamond ring, and you wanted simple." He says as he puts it on my
finger.

"Oh Xavier it's perfect!" He pulls my in for another hug, and one more kiss before we start the hike heading back to the car, just this time we are engaged.

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Guys, it's the last chapter.

I'm so happy for all the support I've been given through this writing process. It truly has been a magical experience to be able and deliver something like this. I hope everyone sticks around for the edited version, if not thank you anyway for being a huge motivator. I love all of you, and I really do hope your families and you are safe, happy, and healthy.

Love, MadisonMarie