The Adventures Continue

The house was spotless. The kitchen counters nearly sparkled, there wasn't a dish in the sink, and the entry way was perfect. There wasn't a speck of dust and I was amazed. I was as quiet as I could possibly be. Gracie hadn't come to greet me, which I thought was odd until I remembered that she was at Aaron's house.

When the still silent air was jolted into action by loud, male, yelling, I jumped. But then, I recognized the the voice and sprang into action. I ran up the steps, taking them two at a time and when I reached the top of them, I let my instincts take over and I pushed the door to mine and Zak's bedroom open. I didn't even think about it when I knelt next to Zak and gently shook his shoulder. His blue eyes opened with slight surprise, but then he looked at me and gave me the softest of smiles. Along his chin, he was slowly growing a beard from his stuble. I smoothed his hair back―which didn't feel as soft as usual―without even thinking. All of this was my natural reaction by now, I supposed.

“You're...here...”

“Yeah,” for a moment, I allowed myself to get lost in his stormy blue eyes.

“Adrina...I...” I almost stopped him, but I actually wanted to hear what he was going to say. “Are you...real?”

“Mm hmm,” I replied, unable to move away, even when he placed a hand on my cheek.

“I would do anything to get one more chance.”

“Zak,” I started, still unable to pull away. “I don't...maybe...” I couldn't say no to him. “For now though, let's get you cleaned up. You look like hell.”

“Thanks,” he sounded sarcastic as I helped him up from the bed. “Where's Lorelei?”

“Aaron's...I don't want to be in this house, let alone bring her here...” I couldn't be more honest than that. “I don't know how you stand it...” he just shrugged.

“When you're not here...not much happens...it's the nightmares more than anything.” He didn't sound much like himself. He seemed so...sad and I couldn't take it. The fact that he had hurt me left my mind when I pulled him into a tight hug with my arms wrapped tightly around his neck and his wrapped around my waist.

“Zak, I love you, and I never want to be away from you...I...I'll be here to wake you from your nightmares from now on,” he lifted me from the ground and squeezed me tightly. I knew that forgiving him would be the hardest thing to resist.

“Adri, I love you more than anything,” he didn't seem like he planned on letting me go. Ever. And part of me was okay with that. “I'm sorry...I'm so―”

“No more apologizing. All of that's the past, I forgive you and I love you.”

“Okay,” he agreed.

***Zak's POV***

“Adri,” She was sitting on the back patio when I got out of the shower and I sat beside her. I had to introduce my idea to her.

“Hm?”

“So since we're in Vegas, and for not much longer, what do you think about a Vegas style wedding? Tonight.”

“Before I answer, what's you're thinking here?”

“I don't want to not be married to you for another second and if we did it this way, we won't have to make a whole thing out of it...We can just take Aaron, Ariel, Billy, and Lorelei and go.”

“It's an interesting idea,” she crossed her legs and looked at me with her beautiful smile. “But first, can we please leave...?”

“Yeah and we can go look for houses,” I took her hands in mine and pulled her to her feet. She surprised me by wrapping her arms around me and resting her head against my chest.

“We would need to move out of here anyway, it's not big enough for two kids...Not with having an office anyway.”

“We'll find a nice big house with a nice yard for Gracie and Muffin.”

“That would be nice. Do you want to go get your stuff and I'll go to the car?”

I knew she wanted to be as far away from this place as possible, so I agreed, kissing her head. “I'll be out there soon.”

“Okay,” she started to pull away and I cupped her jaw when she looked up at me. I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. She looked up at me seriously for a moment before asking a question. “If we do get married here...can Elvis marry us?”

I broke a half smile and nodded. “Yeah, if you want Elvis to marry us, then he will.” She grinned and pulled away to head outside. God, I was so happy she was here.

***Adrina's POV***

“You look gorgeous,” Ariel told me, pulling me into a tight hug.

“I'm in sweatpants,” I told her, shaking my head. I was getting ready for bed. Zak, Lorelei, and I were staying at Aaron's house until we found a new house.

“Still. Adri, you're absolutely glowing.”

“Shut up, right now. I'm tired.”

“Zak, tell her how gorgeous she is,” Ariel looked over my shoulder to the taller man behind me.

“You are the most beautiful woman in the entire world,” he grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles. If I was completely honest, I was just happy to see a smile on his face.

“Yeah, sure,” I shook my head. “You ready for bed?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Mm, maybe I'll actually get a good night's rest...”

“You will,” I smiled at him before looking to Ariel. “Good night, I'll see you in the morning,” I told her.

“Good night, Adri.”

Zak and I made our way to the guest bedroom and once there, he pulled out his laptop and I checked on our sleeping daughter before climbing into the bed next to Zak. “We don't have to look for houses tonight...” I told him. I didn't want him to feel pressured to find one right now.

“I've already found a couple of houses in a couple different places that I want to show you, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I'm saving my personal favorites for last,” he wrapped his arm around my should and operated the computer with his other hand. He pulled up the first image and I wasn't sure what I thought of it. “This one is about a mile from the beach just south of Richmond, Virginia. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and is on one acre of land.”

“I don't know...I mean it's more land that what we had here, but...I don't think it'll work for us. We'll only have one spare bedroom and...eh. Maybe.”

“Okay, well this next one is in Clarksville, Tennessee. It's a one story house with a full basement and four bedrooms―again, two and a half bathrooms.”

“I fell like I would like Tennessee, but what else do you have?”

“Really small town in Alabama―population of less than a thousand, two story house. It was build in 2000 and it's on five acres of land. Six bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a finished basement.”

“That sounds pretty awesome. What does it look like?”

He pulled up the pictures and showed me a couple different rooms in the house and I really liked it.

“And last, but not least, this one is just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. It's on three acres of land and it's five bedrooms, three and a half bath, and it has an in-ground pool.”

“Which one's your favorite?” I asked him.

“The one in Alabama. The pictures...it just fits us, somehow.”

“It really does...” I agreed. He kissed my forehead and his hand rubbed my arm up and down for a moment.

“I'll call the realtor in the morning.”

“Okay, and then we can fly out and see it?”

“Yeah, and we can see if we like the area and everything. Find out how the school is...That sort of thing.”

“When?” I wasn't going to lie, I was super excited. I couldn't wait to go see this house, hopefully there wouldn't be any ghosts there at all. I didn't want to deal with that.

“Once we're officially married,” he smirked.

“Zak...”

“Adrina,” he countered.

“If we do a 'Vegas' wedding, your mother will hate me forever.”

“Blame me.”

“She'll still hate me.”

“That'll be her problem.”

“After the wedding then, I'm getting a tattoo.”

“Of what?”

“I'm not telling you.”

“Adri...” he whined.

“You wouldn't approve.”

“Tell me anyway...”

“Nope.”

“C'mon...please?”

“You'll see when it's done.”

“What if I promise not to stop you or get mad?” he offered.

“And what if you do?”

“I'll do laundry for the rest of the time that we're married. It will be solely my job.”

“Folded and everything?” he nodded. “Fine, on the inside of my right wrist, I want to get 'Caelyn' and on my left shoulder, I want to get:

Zachary Alexander Bagans
04-05-1977 ―

Lorelei Athalia Bagans
10-21-10 ―

“Why do you want to get my name on there?” he asked.

“This sounds like you're not approving,” I pointed out.

“Can I just be curious?”

“Because no matter what happens, I know that I will always love you. I will never ever, not want your name permanently on my shoulder.”

“Well, then you can't be mad when I tell you that I was going to get your name and Lorelei's name.”

“I suppose I can't then,” I smiled and he did too. “I suppose great minds must think alike then, huh?”

“Apparently,” he agreed.

***

The next evening, just as we had talked about, we got married, Vegas style. Elvis married us and only a couple of our closest friends were there to celebrate. And after, we went and got our tattoos. Zak ended up getting his on the underside of his left forearm and mine was on left shoulder, just as I had planned.

After leaving the tattoo place, Aaron and Ariel surprised us with a set of room keys, telling us to enjoy our wedding night and that they would take care of Lorelei for us. At first, I started to protest but, Zak seemed happy about it, so I didn't say anything―except thank you, of course.

“That was really amazing of them to do this,” I said, looking at our beautiful room.

“It really was,” he agreed, smirking at me. I couldn't help but grin back. “Are you happy right now?”

“This has been one of the happiest days of my life.”

“Mine too,” he agreed. “Mrs. Bagans.” I blushed a little, even though I couldn't have been more happy to hear it. I was now, finally, Adrina Bagans.