{UNEDITED}{MATTHEW}

        “Mummy?” Amanda called as she came running into the kitchen. Her blonde hair falling over her blue eyes, at five years old she was the spitting image of her mother, it was actually rather scary sometimes.

        “Yes sweetheart?” Chloe grinned as she turned to face our daughter who was stood in the doorway. She looked confused about something, so it was obvious that she had a question about something.

        “Uncle Jason is talking about sticking something in a girl. What does that mean?” Amanda asked.

        Chloe stared at her in sheer shock of the question while I was speechless. There’s no answer which you can give to a five year old to explain that her uncle was talking about sex, a topic which had been forbidden in the house when Amanda was around because she picked up on everything. It didn’t matter how small, she still picked up on it.

        Despite her young age, she found it hard to accept the simple answer. She always had to think there was more to the story than she was being told or that the answer was more complicated than we were making it for her. She was determined, I’ll give her that much, she didn’t give up until she was satisfied with what she had been told.

        I wasn’t, however, about to give her an in depth answer about sex and how it worked. She was five and that was something he didn’t need to know about until she was thirty, maybe even older if I had my own way because there wasn’t a chance in hell of any guy getting within a foot of my daughter unless he could prove his intentions towards her were more than just sex.

        “He’s been talking about it with his friend,” Amanda added when neither of us replied to her.

        “Which friend?” Chloe asked suspiciously.

        “I don’t know his name. The one who Uncle Jason brought back last night,” Amanda said, a sweet smile appearing on her face and her eyes glowing with the innocence of her age.

        “I’ll do you a deal,” Chloe smiled at our daughter as she went down to her height, “if you go and play, mummy will buy you anything you want when we go shopping tomorrow.”

        “Anything?” Amanda challenged. I knew Chloe was going to regret telling her that later, but she wouldn’t tell her no and she really would get her anything she wanted. Regardless of how big and expensive it was, she would still buy it for her because she loved her and never missed out on the chance to spoil Amanda – she was definitely a mummy’s girl and it didn’t matter how hard I tried to change that, she was always going to be a mummy’s girl.

        “Yes, baby, anything,” Chloe grinned. Amanda ran out of the kitchen with a huge smile on her face and, when we heard the sound of her banging up the stairs, we knew she would be gone for a while. She had so many things on her room that she rarely got bored and, when she went up there, she usually didn’t come down for a good couple of hours. “If murder was legal, you would be clearing my brother’s body from the living room.”

        “You would never murder him. You love him even when he’s giving his five year old niece unintentional sex lessons,” I chuckled as I walked over to where she was stood and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her backwards so that she was leaning against me.

        I immediately felt the anger leave her system and she relaxed at my touch. I couldn’t help but smile knowing that, five years down the line, I was still having the same effect on her as I did back then. I still have to thank Braydon for making her realise exactly how she felt about me and for pushing her away enough that she landed right in my arms.

        I still remember the time she told me that she loved me for the first time. The only feeling which compared to that was seeing my daughter for the first time when she born, it was such a perfect moment that nothing ruined it, not even her parents daring to turn up and ask to see their granddaughter.

        “Still, I am going to have to have words with him. If he wishes to remain living here then he needs to follow our rules, they have been put there for a reason,” Chloe replied, turning around so that she was facing me and her arms immediately wrapped around my waist. I would never get over the look in her eyes whenever she looked at me, the look of pure love and adoration for me.

        “It’s one rule babe. We’ve broken way more than that,” I whispered in her ear.

        “Our house. We’re allowed to break them,” she shrugged with a smirk on her face. Her care-free attitude and happiness were the two things I loved to see, it made me realise just what I had done for her during our time together and just how much she had changed.

        She didn’t change her mind and, when she said something, it stuck and she didn’t go back on it. From telling Braydon that she never wanted to see him again after he accused her of being a slut who didn’t know the meaning of love to telling her parents that they were never going to have anything to do with their granddaughter, she didn’t want them to treat Amanda the same way they had spent their lives treating her.

        I would say, if anything, her parents gave her the strength to be the mother she is now. She tells Amanda every single day that she loves her and she constantly shows her how much she cares for her, she doesn’t shout at her when she does something wrong and she refuses to punish her when she’s been naughty.

        Sometimes I think she’s being a pushover but, when I remember what she suffered as a child, it explains it all and I wouldn’t dare stop her from doing what she does. Amanda knows we both love her and that she is our little girl, I wouldn’t do anything to challenge or jeopardise the relationship we have with her.

        “Feel like breaking one of them tonight?” I grinned hopefully.

        “I would, but I promised Jodie that we would babysit for her. She wants some ‘alone time’ with James,” Chloe said and I didn’t need to know anything else, any more information and it would be far too much for my liking.

        “That’s a shame. I have a question to ask and I was hoping we would be able to celebrate,” I smirked.

        “What would that question be?”

        “Well,” I paused for a moment as I pulled a box out of my pocket and moved away from Chloe. I looked at her with a smile on my face as she looked at me in confusion, attempting to work out what the hell was going on, “Chloe Alison Susan Eileen Parker, will you do me the honour of being my wife?”

        “I already am your wife though,” Chloe pointed out and, though she was correct, I wanted to do it properly this time.

        I wanted to be able to pick where we got married and when we got married there. I wanted to be able to pick our guest list without being told the people we wanted to be there couldn’t come. I wanted to be able to see Chloe in a dress which she had picked and was comfortable in, rather than in a dress she had been forced to wear. I wanted to give Chloe her day as a princess and I wanted to make sure she had her happy ending at the same time.

        “I want to do it properly this time. I want this to be our wedding and our wedding only,” I smiled at her. “I want you to have the princess wedding you always dreamed of having. I want you to feel like the most important person in the world.”

        “I don’t need that, I am your wif--“ but she paused mid-sentence, standing back to look at me in complete shock for a moment. I thought I had said something wrong until she spoke again, “wait. You remembered that?”

        “Of course I remembered. I remember everything we spoke about and, I know I don’t need to do that, but I want to give you the wedding you really wanted,” I shrugged. “I want to marry you, knowing it’s something we both want and that we will both get our happily ever after at the end of it. I want to show the world that my feelings for you haven’t changed in the last five years and I want to marry you with our daughter being there this time.”

        “You would do all of that for me?”

        “Love does crazy things to people,” I chuckled to myself as I looked into her eyes to see all the emotions she was currently going through at the thought of what I had just proposed. “So, will you marry me? Again?”

        “Of course I will you idiot,” Chloe threw her arms around me again in a tight embrace as her tears fell onto my shoulders. Usually, I would tell her not to cry and I would do anything to stop the tears, but this was allowed this time around. I wasn’t going to stop her from crying, not when they were tears of happiness and she had just agreed to be my wife again.

        “I love you Matthew Albert Jenkinson,” Chloe chuckled as she said my middle name. She had never been able to say it with a straight face, even on the day we got married, she couldn’t prevent herself from laughing.

        “I love you too Chloe Parker,” I grinned back, lowering my lips towards her own, though we didn’t get very far as the sound of Jason rummaging through the fridge ruined the moment and reminded us that there were very few opportunities for privacy in our own home anymore.

        “So, what did I miss?”

                                                                        THE END

        EXTERNAL LINK: Our Happy Ending? The sequel to this story which revolves around Jason this time around.

        Love El xox