Iris Rhodes

I am shitting myself.

I'm terrified to meet his kids; I'm certainly not ready. I know I could have stayed back and settled into my room, but this is inevitable, I'd rather meet them now and give a good impression than hide away.

I follow Nathan back downstairs, and as soon as we turn the corner, he's engulfed in a hug by one of his kids, "Hey, Addie, you missed me?"

"Of course not," she mumbles and I laugh at her response, which causes her to look up at me and separate from her father, "Are you Iris?"

"Yeah, I am, it's nice to meet you," I say, smiling as I take in her personality. She's wearing dungarees, and a long-sleeved yellow top, and her hair is in braids.

"You're very pretty, I like your hair!" she giggles, and then turns to her dad, "Daddy, I want hair like Iris'."

He laughs, "When you're a bit older, we'll talk about changing your hair colour, kiddo."

She runs off towards the sitting room where the television is showing children's programmes, and we follow her over. Immediately when Nova sees him, she drops her toy and stumbles over, arms out, wanting her dad, which causes my heart to ache. She's still only a baby, cuddled into her dad; he's all she's ever known.

"Elise, Laura; this is Iris," Nathan introduces me to his eldest daughter and sister.

"It's lovely to meet you, Iris; my brother has told me a lot about you," Laura smiles, but my gut swarms with uneasiness. She's his sister, I am irrationally jealous of someone I made up in my head. I am also slightly concerned as to what he has told her; he doesn't even know me that much, the most he knows is what I look and sound like naked in bed.

"Iris, will you bake with me? My dad is mean and never lets me," Elise says, and I look over at Nathan.

"I can bake-"

"No, I need to start on dinner soon-"

"See!" Elise exclaims, pointing at him, before sticking out her bottom lip, "Please?"

"An hour tops," he points back at her, and she squeals, "An hour, Elise, you can bake one thing."

"Okay, okay, we'll bake brownies then."

He really does have these kids wrapped around his little finger.

"Novie, can you wave?" Nathan whispers down to the little girl lying on his shoulder. She gently lifts, peeks at me and gently waves before quickly cuddling further into her dad.

Laura heads out, needing to get back home, but tells me she'll stay longer next time. As soon as the door shuts, Elise's little hand takes mine and leads me into the kitchen, ready to bake.

"Remember Elise, no touching anything sharp-"

"Hot and heavy; I know, Dad," she nods; she's so smart for her age.

"Okay, well done. And are you sure, Iris?"

"Brownies sound amazing," I say, in support of Elise. Honestly, the thought of eating a brownie right now makes me a little nauseous, but that's between me and Bump.

It starts with just me and Elise in the kitchen, mixing all the ingredients, but then Addie joins so she can help lick the spoon and soon enough Nova stumbles in with Nathan following her.

"She got bored without you girls, is it ready to go in yet?"

"You impatient already?" I joke, looking over at him and he playfully rolls his eyes, "But yes; the oven is preheating, I just need some little hands to help pour and it'll be ready to bake."

"Me help!" Nova makes grabby hands.

He places Nova on the island where we're stationed and she immediately dips her finger in before anyone can stop her and tastes it. I look at her, "Is it good?"

She nods, mumbling a yes before reaching again, but this time Nathan catches her hand, "If we eat it all now, there will be none left to bake, silly, watch Iris and your sisters."

Nova does exactly that, watching intently as both girls help me pour the mixture into the tray. I drizzle some white chocolate and with a little stick, I swirl it around, creating a marble pattern. Elise claps her hands with the look, and I mentally pat myself on the back as I take the tray over to the oven.

"Okay, Elise, can you set the timer to twenty minutes for me, please? And Addie, can you help bring the bowls to the sink?" I ask of them both, giving them some independence.

As the girls do exactly that, Nathan comes up behind me, "I'll wash up, you've done a lot, go sit down."

"It's okay, I'm okay," I realise my breath is heavier than I realised. I am tired and truth be told, my back is killing me; I don't want to wash up and he's offering to do so.

"Go sit down," he insists once more, before turning to Nova, "Are you going to go with Iris, and show her your toys?"

Nova nods, holding her hand out for me to take; she's such a little sweetheart. I go at her pace, rounding the island and going over to the sofas. She climbs on the biggest one, grabbing a dolly that was laid on it.

"Wow, what's her name?"

"Lola," she mumbles, twisting her finger in the brunette hair.

"Oh, really? That's such a pretty name."

"Pretty," she whispers, before looking at me, "Got hair like me and daddy."

"Yeah, she does, and your sisters," I add and she nods, agreeing, lost in her little imagination.

Once they've washed up in the kitchen, Elise and Addie join me in the living room to watch some television while Nathan prepares dinner. My stomach grumbles and turns as the different fragrancies of a spaghetti bolognese drift through the air and I even have to hold my hand over my mouth at one point. The craziest thing during pregnancy is feeling sick but also feeling so hungry and craving the thing that's making me nauseous; it's a horrible mixture.

He takes out the brownies to cool and a couple minutes later, calls us to the island for dinner. I pick up Nova and follow the kids. There's a dish in front of every seat on the island, and a bowl cooling near Nova's high chair, which I put her down in, before taking a seat myself.

"Enjoy, girls," Nathan lastly sits down, in the seat between me and to his left Nova.

Yet to take a bite, I can't help but feel emotional; I had the type of family that rarely sat down for meals, only when it was convenient to please a third party. This is a proper home, a real family; a fact I know from one hour of living here.

For the first time since finding out about the pregnancy, I have a feeling of security; I know one way or another, bump is going to have a better childhood than I ever did.

As if Bump knew I was speaking about them, my stomach turns, telling me to eat or I'll be ill again, so I forget all of my previous thoughts, digging into the meal Nathan made.

"Daddy?" Addie leans on the counter, looking our way a few minutes later.

"Yes?" he chuckles apprehensively, "Remember no snail talk while we're eating, though."

"Darn it," she huffs before grabbing her fork and shoving some food in her mouth.

I laugh to myself, remembering him mentioning at coffee that she loves snails and the outdoors, but the fact it's a banned topic at dinner is what makes it funnier.

Once dinner is over, I help with the dishes despite Nathan complaining that I don't need to, and then it's time for brownies. Elise slices the brownies rather evenly and then plates them up for us all, but as soon as the strong smell of chocolate hits me, my stomach once again turns, but this time it's not hunger. I turn away from the island, holding my sleeve to my nose, trying to calm the nausea, so no sickness happens because I've only just eaten.

Nathan comes up behind me, gently putting his hand on my lower back and whispers, "Toilet is around the corner, I'll lie to Elise, and tell her you're full."

Before I can reply, I gag and decide it's better to leave than stay and rush to the closest bathroom. With a big house, the positive is that there is a bathroom at every corner. Within a matter of seconds of locking the door, I'm crouched in front of the toilet, emptying my entire stomach, silent tears running down my cheeks by the time I'm leaning against the wall.

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath; I was only able to eat breakfast successfully today, I don't know how people survive pregnancy eating barely anything because one week in and I've not been able to have a full day of meals yet.

A few minutes later, I flush the toilet, wash my hands and refresh my face before bracing the kitchen once again, but thankfully it's just Nathan cleaning and Nova, and no brownies in sight.

Nathan's face softens at the sight of mine, "The girls are choosing a movie, thought I'd get them out of your hair for an hour or two.

I frown, "You didn't have to do that, it's their home, Nathan."

"It's yours too now, and they're more than happy to be spending a night watching movies instead of homework, believe me," he says, and then passes me a bottle of water, "Take sips of that; has your sickness been this bad all week?"

"Yeah, barely been able to keep anything down, not even water really," I admit, leaning against the kitchen island where Nova is playing with her ducks, I pick one of the little ones up, "What sound do these make?"

"Quack!" she screams, and I laugh.

"Mhm, and what sound does daddy make?"

She laughs at that question and Nathan turns around to playfully glare at me.

"We'll get better at that one, yeah?" I receive a nod from the little girl before she goes back to playing.

I walk over to Nathan, leaning back on the counter near the sink, feeling more comfortable and less anxious than I was when I first arrived here.

"Not you already getting on my girls' side," he smiles, finishing the last dish off.

"What can I say, kids love me," I shrug, even though today was the first time around children, especially a two-year-old like Nova.

"These three certainly do," he nods, agreeing with my casual statement I was sure came off more sarcastic than anything. He cautiously looks down at my belly and goes to put his hand out, but retracts, "I can't believe there's going to be fourth here soon."

"Thirty-three weeks," I nod, putting my hand on my rather flat stomach, "I hope it's a girl just to give you another."

"I'll manifest for the boy then," he whispers, and I smile to myself, "If you need anything from the kitchen through the night, please help yourself."

"Thank you, but the thought of food makes me slightly suicidal right now," I joke, lifting from leaning on the counter, "Is it okay if I lay down and join you for the movie later?"

"Of course, you can do whatever you please, Iris," he takes Nova out of her high chair, resting her on his hip, making her giggle with a tickle. Unlike earlier when my heart ached at the sight of him being a father, my body reacts in a completely different and perverted way; I feel aroused.

I pin it down to pregnancy hormones because surely that's not right, and shake off the feeling as best as I can. I head upstairs behind Nathan but go straight to my new room to begin officially moving in because as of yet, not a single thing is unpacked of mine.

✯✯✯

An uncomfortable ache in my neck is the first thing I feel when I wake up, but the sound of someone knocking on the door, sobers me back to reality, "Come in?"

The door opens, letting in some light to the dark room, and I sit up, squinting my eyes, "I brought you something."

Nathan walks in, turning on the light and in his hand, he has a plate with a sandwich, a bottle of water and a protein cereal bar.

"You didn't have to, Nathan," I whisper, and he takes a seat at the bottom of my bed.

"You need some food, both of you do, and I knew you wouldn't help yourself."

He's right; I smile, taking the sandwich from the plate he's still holding. I immediately bite into it and I let out a moan embarrassingly loud.

"Baby likes this very much," I mumble, taking another bite, and he laughs, "Thank you, really this is so good."

"You're welcome. Did you just end up crashing?"

I look at the untouched boxes and wince. What was my initial plan of unpacking was long forgotten as soon as I closed the door behind me.

"Yeah, I was just so exhausted, this baby is really taking it out of me," I say, putting my hand to my belly like earlier, "I don't think I'm going to get it all done tonight after all."

"Leave it all for tomorrow, if you need anything to sleep in, you can borrow a shirt of mine, you've had a long day," he offers.

"You don't have to, I'll slowly go through it," I take another bite of my sandwich, almost finished with my first half.

He puts down the plate next to me, and before I can stop him, he's pulling his white t-shirt above his head and I choke on my poor sandwich. I tell myself it's because of how suddenly he did it and not the fact I forgot how attractive he physically was.

"You good?" he finds humour in it, of course.

I slap his leg lightly, finishing my mouthful, "Warn a girl, why don't you?"

"Now you have something to sleep in, you have some snacks, do you need anything else?"

"How old are you?" I blurt out.

"Huh?"

"My mind just kind of wandered mid-sentence and I realised I don't know how old you are, what day your birthday is, or anything really," I pick up the other half of my sandwich.

"Yeah, we really skipped over the small stuff, huh?" he says this to himself, but I nod anyway, "Well, I'm twenty-nine, my birthday is June second; I'm a Gemini. I remember that you're twenty-four, when's your birthday, though?"

"April eighth, I'm an Aries; my last name is also Rhodes by the way," he still didn't know.

"I really am sorry, I'll make this up to you, Iris," he apologises, but he doesn't have to; we both got into this mess, "We'll get to know each other, but for tonight please rest and we can work on this starting tomorrow."

"Thank you," it means a lot to me because he's still a stranger to me, "And thank you for the sandwich... and the shirt."

"You're welcome," he stands from my bed, "I'll leave you to it, sleep well, and if you need me, you know where I am."

He shuts the door behind him and once I've finished with my sandwich, I chug some water and get ready for bed unlike before. I pee, brush my teeth and strip, taking my bra off for the first time in what feels like forever. I slip Nathan's shirt on over my head, the clothing drowning me as well as the scent of him.

With the lights off, I snuggle under the duvet, just me, Bump and the scent of Nathan lingering on his shirt, and sleep finds me easily for the first time all week.

~~~~

A.N

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and meeting the girls!

I've just finished chapter 9, so I'm 3 chapters ahead and I hope to stay like that, so I don't hit a block <3