Falling for You Was Out of My Control

Jessie’s POV
“You guys he is adorable,” Anna smiled down at my phone.
“How old is he?” Ian titled the screen for another look.
“Six weeks old.”
“He looks rather small don’t you think?” Veronique frowned.
“That’s because he is sick,” I sighed.
“Oh I am sorry,” she winced.
“No it’s fine really, I mean it’s kind of half the reason we are adopting him in particular,” I looked to Evgeni who nodded putting on a small smile for everyone to see.
“Well I think it’s amazing what you guys are doing,” Anna handed my phone back.

A part of me said maybe we were rushing it and a part of me said we weren’t, said that we were more than ready and it would be perfect.

I couldn’t help but think maybe we wouldn’t be doing this if he wasn’t sick. But when I saw how proud Evgeni looked; his arm tight around my waist and a broad smile on his face I knew that I needed to stop worrying, even just for now.

“You want drink?” Evgeni squeezed me to get my attention, “a beer?”
“Yeah ok,” I agreed as he kissed my temple before getting up to head inside.

I had missed spending time with our friends in Pittsburgh; sitting around the table, enjoying a BBQ dinner and some drinks. I had missed home and I couldn’t wait until my parents were home in a few days, though Evgeni seemed rather nervous about it every time I mentioned it. I had no clue why, my dad loved him and the first awkward meeting was out of the way. I guess it was just now all the other things going on in our life maybe he thought my dad wouldn’t approve of it all just yet.

“So how are you two going?” Vero slipped into Evgeni’s chair with Annabelle in her lap.
“Yeah we’re good,” I took the little teddy from Annabelle as she placed it in my lap.
“How about the baby thing? Are you sure you ok with it? I know how you were with Annabelle before.”
“Yeah I am fine it’s just taken awhile to get my head around it, but now everything is ok.”
“Andrei is a cute though and I think you guys will be great with him,” she smiled as Annabelle crawled into my lap.
“Kids, you just can’t get enough of them,” I tapped Annabelle’s nose making her giggle, “can we?” I poked her stomach and she continued to laugh before she began screaming in protest.

“What you do to my Annabelle?” Evgeni lent over me and put my beer in front of me.
“She loves it,” I continued to make her scream much to everyone else’s disapproval.
“Really?” Evgeni snatched her and tipped her upside down making her scream even more.
Everyone shot me a glare but I had no control over what Evgeni was doing while he terrorised the little girl.

“Evgeni,” I sighed disapprovingly.
“What?” he tried to look innocent as he tilted the little girl upright again.
“Don’t make her scream anymore.”

Evgeni’s POV
“Aunty Jessie is no fun,” I put Annabelle down but she wasn’t going to let go of my hand anytime soon. She didn’t want to, but I was ok with that because when she was around she had my undivided attention.

Veronique moved out of my spot so I could sit back down to enjoy dinner.

As always though I ended up with a child in my lap which meant I would be having a midnight snack as Annabelle wanted to eat everything off of my plate.

“Do you want me to take her?” Marc spoke up pushing his plate away once he had finished.
“No is ok,” I ran my hand over her head and let her continue to mangle up cubes of cheese that Jessie cut for her.

“You’re such a grub,” Jessie laughed as the little girl put her fingers in her mouth.
“She is cute,” I defended her as Annabelle clapped her hands together and laughed.
“And messy,” Jessie grabbed a paper towel to clean her up.
“That’s half the fun,” Vero pointed out.
“Oh I know, Andrei dribbles his milk everywhere,” she rolled her eyes.

He did too. Andrei preferred to play with his milk rather than actually drinking it. Most of it ended up going down into his onesie and then he fussed that he wasn’t clean. Go figure.

Eventually though Annabelle gave up on the playing and sleep was overriding her tiny body. She was adorable when she slept as she tried to wrap her little arms around me and buried her head into my chest.

“Isn’t she adorable?” Jessie lent over and whispered in my ear
“She is precious. But can’t wait for Andrei,” I admitted pulling my phone out for us both to see the home screen with Andrei’s little smiling face on it.
“Neither can I,” Jessie touched the screen, running her fingers over it as if he was really there.

While hugging Annabelle was nice there would be nothing like having your own child because at the end of the night Vero and Marc took her away but being able to bring Andrei to bed and cuddle with us would be the best part of it all.