"Mum?" I sat up at the sound of my daughter's voice and watched as she walked into the room, wiping her hands on her jeans as she did.

"Callie?" I chuckled.

"How do you feel about me, you know—"

"Having sex? Absolutely not. I'd rather not be a grandmother at my age." Callie might have been seventeen now and practically an adult, but she was still my baby as far as I was concerned.

"Firstly, if I was having sex, I definitely wouldn't tell you. Secondly, I meant how do you feel about me dating, but it's great to know you think I've actually got a sex life." I found myself rubbing my stomach, smiling to myself as I felt my little boy kicking, and I then found myself remembering the first time that Callie had kicked.

"Dating. That's a different story entirely. I'd be extremely happy if you told me that you were seeing someone but your father, on the other hand, would refuse to accept that his little girl is almost an adult."

"Dad has Sarah to keep him busy and it's only another month before Logan provides him with another challenge. But, if you and dad could use protection from now on, because I don't want another sibling ten months' down the line."

I knew that Callie loved being the big sister, and I knew that she absolutely adored her baby sister. Just like I knew she would adore her baby brother when he was born. But, she was right, Sarah and Logan were extremely close in age.

Sarah had barely turned seven weeks' old when I found out I was pregnant with Logan. It had been a shock and I had immediately gone into panic mode, wondering how the hell we were going to cope with two children who were only eleven months apart, but Callie had been there to calm me down.

She had assured me that she would be here to babysit and she promised that she wouldn't go anywhere until Sarah and Logan were older. Given that there was a seventeen-year age gap between herself and Sarah, I expected her to envy the arrival of her younger siblings, but she had been excited when she found out I was pregnant with Sarah.

"What your father and I do in the bedroom is no concern of yours, baby girl," I grinned before attempting to move into a more comfortable position. Logan had spent the last month using my insides as a football and he was constantly causing me extreme discomfort which made it practically impossible to get any sleep, and it was beginning to take its toll. "Anyway. Tell me about this boy you're dating."

"How—"

"A mother always knows. So, what's his name and when do I get to meet him?"

><

"If you could give mummy a break, that would be great," I muttered to my stomach as I lay in bed, waiting for my husband to get home.

Callie had spent the night with Sarah, telling me that I needed a break, and reiterating that she meant what she said when she told me that she was going to be there for her siblings.

I had, literally, been sent to be by my seventeen-year-old daughter and she had told me that she would send her father to me the moment her returned from work.

But I had been lying in bed trying, unsuccessfully for the last three hours, to get some sleep.

"I love you, Logan, but mummy would really like some sleep. Mummy is super tired because your youngest sister barely gives her a break either."

I loved all three of my children. Callie was always going to be my little girl, but Sarah was my little princess and Logan, as Callie had aptly named him, was going to be my little fighter. Callie didn't know it, but Logan really was a little fighter, because I had almost lost him when I was three months' pregnant.

I had spent two weeks in hospital on permanent bedrest with the doctor monitoring my condition. When he concluded that Logan was no longer in danger and insisted that I avoid stress, which was practically impossible with an almost five-month-old child, I was sent home.

"How about I tell you a story, Lo? Perhaps then you will fall asleep and give mummy a chance to rest," I sighed and I found myself telling my unborn son about the day I married his father.

"Do you, Markus James Barnes, take Sophie Lorraine Peterson to be your lawful wedded wife? To have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse; for richer or poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish until death do you part?"

"I do." Markus wasted no time in replying. There was no hiding the happiness which was in his eyes, and neither was there any ignoring the excitement of this moment. The moment which we had waited two long years for.

"And, do you, Sophie Lorraine Peterson, take Markus James Barnes to be your lawful wedded husband? To have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse; for richer or poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish until death do you part?"

"No. I don't." I had replied seriously, taking a step away from the man who stood before me in all his glory. His grey suit was simple, yet still sophisticated enough to show who he was.

"What? Wait? Why? Are you being serious?" Markus panicked. He grabbed hold of my shoulders and looked me in the eyes, and I could see the tears which were there at the thought of me rejecting him now, in front of all these people.

"Calm down, Mark. I'm only joking. Of course I do," I grinned as I placed my hand in his much larger one, feeling the happiness and joy emanating from not only myself, but also from the man I was about to call my husband.

"Don't scare me like that. I don't think I could live my life without you now." Markus sighed as the whole church erupted into a chorus of 'aw' and cheering began to overtake the crowd. Naturally, the loudest cheers came from Evva and Callie, both of whom could be heard above everyone else.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Markus had wasted no time in doing as he had been given permission to do.

He removed the veil from my face, taking hold of my waist and pulling me in close to his body. The love in his eyes was obvious and, while we weren't perfect people, we were perfect for each other.

"I love you, Markus Barnes."

"I love you too, Sophie Barnes," Markus smiled and, the moment his lips met mine, that was the moment the entire church burst into more cheers and shouts of joy.

"The only regret I have from that day is allowing daddy to invite his brother. He tried to take your sister from me, drunk and on my own wedding day." I always smiled when I remember the day I became Mrs Barnes, but it was also clouded with the events which had occurred when Matthew turned up drunk.

He had wanted, after four years of nothing, not even acknowledging that his daughter was real, to take Callie away from me. He had told me that he was filing for custody because I was an unfit mother, not that he had ever seen me be a mother to Callie, but he claimed that I shouldn't be allowed to keep my little girl.

The only reason Matthew was there was because Markus had wanted his older brother to be happy for him. He had wanted to make amends and to have some sort of relationship with Matthew, no matter how much of a mess his life was, and I had conceded and allowed him to send the invite.

"Are you always going to hold that over me?"

"Daddy always turns up at awkward times, doesn't he Lo?" I laughed as I moved my hand over my bump and turned my attention to my husband, who was standing in the doorway to our bedroom with a smile on his face. "I think the little monster has finally gone to sleep."

"I was sent to spend time with my wife by my seventeen-year-old daughter. She was watching one of those TV series she's obsessed with and Sarah was asleep on her chest." I beckoned Markus over to the bed, finding that my side was the most comfortable place for me right now and, the moment my husband was in bed beside me, I wrapped myself around him. "She was also on the phone to someone called Parker. Should I be worried?"

"Absolutely not. But, just so you know, Parker is coming over for dinner tomorrow and I expect you to be on your best behaviour."

"But—"

"You're not allowed to interrogate our daughter's boyfriend. Not when you have a heavily pregnant wife with hormones which make her unpredictable." I hated being pregnant, but I also loved it, because it meant that I could use it to my advantage and I could use it to make sure Markus didn't do anything he shouldn't do. "Also, I might have told Callie that Parker can spend the night."

"Damn, woman. Are you trying to send me to an early grave?"

"You want our little girl to be as happy as we are, don't you?"

"As long as it doesn't take them two years of silence and then two years of engagement to be as happy as we are."

I hoped that Callie never went through what Markus and I did either. It took two years for Markus to even speak to me again after I left him at the airport, and that was only because Amena had told him to get over himself because if he didn't then he would lose the best thing to have happened to him.

He didn't even give me the chance when I was the one chasing after him. He sent me a message which told me to let him get on with his life and then he blocked my number, and the only reason I knew how he was really feeling was because Amena gave me regular updates on the stubborn fool.

"Do you regret any of it? You know, what happened before we got to this point. Do you ever wish it had happened differently?" Markus suddenly asked, his hand moving over my bump as he always did when we were in bed together; he had done the same thing when I had been pregnant with Sarah too.

"Other than marrying you and having two of your children, I regret absolutely nothing. I think it needed to happen the way it did for us to realise how much we really did love each other." I put my hand over the top of his and then brought it up to my lips, kissing the back of it before I snuggled into his side as much as Logan would allow me to. "I love our family just the way it is now. I love you, Mark."

"I love you too, Soph. You and the kids are my whole world."

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