Axel's POV
"We're going to half to buckle these bears into seats so that I don't smother on the way home." I said lugging a giant blue teddy bear out to the car. "Please tell me that we're almost done though. I mean what else can you possibly need now?"
"We need to stop somewhere and get at least one play pen, car seats for both mine and Deacon's car. As well as diapers, wipes, a bottle warmer, and a wipe warmer." Mia answered seriously. "And maybe some more bottles, clothes and binkies."
"How many clothes do babies need seriously?" I asked incredulously.
"Oh and baby towels and baby wash." Cassie added. "I read somewhere that you use the regular one during the day and you use lavender at night because it helps the baby sleep. Maybe we should look for little music players that hook to the side of the crib too."
"The thing that hangs over the bed already plays music." Deacon laughed. "And I think that ones I got also are lighted to that they make the babies look at them."
"He's on top of things isn't he?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah, he is Mia agreed, leaning into Deacon's side.
Deacon's POV
"You getting tired?"
"A little, but I'm more hungry than anything." Mia laughed.
"You ate before we left." Axel said in shock.
"Are you pregnant?" Mia asked staring at him. "Have you ever heard that you don't become a pregnant woman and her food?"
"Yeah, I think that everyone has to be honest."
"Okay, so think what it would be like when you come become a woman and her food when she's carrying twins." She retorted.
"And my answer to that is where's the nearest restaurant?"
Laughing I looked around the plaza that we were shopping in and saw a very slim selection of restaurants that Mia would be able to eat at. "We are a little short on options here. Do you want to go somewhere else?"
I watched Mia look around the plaza to see what her options were. "Actually...Outback sounds really good right now."
My eyes widened in shock as I looked down at her. "Are you feeling okay? You know that they basically sell steaks right?"
"Yeah." She laughed. "But they have blooming onions and they are amazing, plus they're grilled veggies are to die for."
"Okay." I sighed while laughing at her response.
We packed the bags and the bears into the suv before we headed to the restaurant.
"How many today?" The hostess asked as we entered the door.
"Table for four please." Cassie answered cheerfully.
After we were seated a young girl approached our table asking for our drink order. I could feel Mia slightly tense at my side as she looked up sadly at the girl. "Tazzy?" She asked quietly.
The girl looked over at Mia with a confused look. "Do I know you?"
"Yeah, it's been a couple years since we saw each other." Mia answered.
Cocking her head to the side the girl looked at Mia trying to figure out who she was. "I don't think we know each other. I'd remember you."
"It's me, Mia. We were in a group home together, I guess you could say we were roomies."
The waitresses eyes lit up as soon as the words left Mia's mouth. "MIA!!! OH MY GOD!!!"
"Deacon can you let me out please?" She asked.
Sliding out of the booth, I watched as Mia scooted out behind me smiling.
"OH MY GOD your pregnant!?"
"Yeah, five months along. I'm having twins."
"You look good. You look happy."
"I'm am. Tazzy, this is Deacon. Deacon, this is Tazzy, she was my best friend, after I left the group home we kind of lost touch."
Mia's POV
I watched Tazzy look over at Deacon with wide eyes, before leaning into my ear. "Mia, honey do you know who that is?"
"Yeah." I giggled.
"Mia, that Deacon Lombardi. Do you know what they say about him? Mia, he's dangerous. What are you doing with him?"
I looked up at Tazzy slightly hurt at what she had just whispered to me. "I know exactly who he is Tazzy and you shouldn't believe everything you hear about someone. He's not dangerous Tazzy, I mean, what he does may be dangerous, but he's not at least not to me."
"How can you say that Mia? How can you be so calm about being in public with him?"
"Because he's my husband Tazzy, he's the babies' father and he's never been anything but kind, gentle and loving to me." I said, my voice cracking. "How can you think that what you hear about someone is true when you've never met them? And what does that mean that you think of me if that's how you think of him?"
"Mia, that's not what I meant at all."
"It doesn't matter if that's what you meant Tazzy, it's what you said. If you think that he's so horrible of a person then you must think that I am too because I married him. Because I love him."
"I think that maybe I should just get your drinks." Tazzy replied coldly before walking away.
Scooting back into my seat, I rested my head on Deacon's shoulder. "Why do people have to be like that?"
Deacon's POV
"Be like what?"
"She asked me what I was doing with you, because you were dangerous. She asked me if I knew what they said about you." She sniffled lightly. "I told her that I knew what they said about you and that she shouldn't let others decide what she thinks of people without knowing them herself. I told her how kind and loving you treated me and that we loved each other. I told her that you were my husband and the babies' father and not even that seemed to make her want to see anything else besides what she's heard.
I'm pretty sure I made her mad, because I asked her if she thinks that you're that horrible what does she think of me since I love you? I always was good at making her mad at me, but she never walked away from me like that before."
"It's okay baby. People who don't know us, typically don't want to know us because of what they've heard about us. I'm used to it, but that doesn't mean that I want you to have to be used to it." I said wrapping an arm around her shoulder holding her tightly against me.
When the girl brought our drinks to our table, she didn't even spare Mia another glance. She placed our drinks down in front of us and asked to take our orders. After I ordered my food we all looked at Mia who had still not uttered a word after the conversation with the waitress a few minutes ago.
"Mia, baby, it's your turn to order." I said lightly as she looked up at me, her eyes red from the tears that I now felt had soaked the sleeve of my shirt. "Do you want me to order for you?"
Silently she nodded her head without speaking a word. "Mia would like a Blooming Onion as her appetizer."
"For her entrée?" The girl snapped.
"She'll take the lemon pepper baked salmon, make sure that the salmon is cook thoroughly please she is pregnant. For her sides she'd like the roasted veggies no butter, but with the garlic and herb seasoning, as well as the garlic and herb roasted potatoes. Add a salad to her appetizer as well, with oil and vinegar dressing no croutons on that and no bacon bits either. And for her desert she'd like the fresh seasonal fruit salad with the vegan cheesecake."
Everyone besides Mia looked at me is shock as I rattled off the order without looking at Mia or the menu.
"Wow, that was something." Cassie commented as she sat still staring at me. "I don't think Alex could do that and we've been together forever."
Laughing I looked down to Mia was snuggled up into me. Shrugging off the leather jacket I had on I wrapped it around her shoulders before wrapping my arm around her again. "Once I got used to her not eating anything besides chicken and fish it was pretty easy."
"It just seems like a lot to remember." Axel laughed.
"Not really as much as you would think." I countered. "She eats chicken and eggs, fish is fish, granted she can't eat sushi right now, but that's neither here nor there, and hell pretty much any vegetable that you can think of she loves."
"What was with the vegan cheesecake though?" Cassie asked.
"She doesn't drink milk. So anything that would have milk in it she eats vegan. Which is basically just soy or oat as a replacement."
"Okay...so where are we going head to after we eat?" Axel asked with a grin.
"Depends on this one here really. Apparently she was more exhausted than she thought she was. If she wants to keep going after this we'll go to where ever she wants to go to get the rest of the stuff that she wants to get while we're out today." I answered looking across the table to both them. "I'm hoping that maybe I can talk her into letting me stop by Micheal's too and see what he has in the way of another SUV for her. I know that she loves her car and all, but I think that it would be much easier on her if she has something with four doors when she had the babies with her."
"Who are you and what have you done with Deacon?" Cassie asked.
"Here's her blooming onion and her salad, no croutons with oil and vinegar dressing." The waitress said interrupting the conversation.
"I'd like you to step outside with me to have a conversation. I think that we should clear the air between the two of us don't you agree?"
The girl just stared at me in shock as she barely nodded in agreement.
"Mia, you're food has started to arrive." I said lightly waking her up. "I'm going to run to the restroom before the rest of the food comes."
I noticed that the waitress had already walked towards the back of the restaurant before I had even finished getting Mia awake.
"Thanks for waking me up, I don't think that I realized how tired I was until I sat down."
"It's okay, you just enjoy your food. I'll be right back."
As I stood up to head towards where the waitress had disappeared to, which luckily was towards the bathrooms. When I got to where she stood, I could see the nerves written all over her face. "I want to know exactly what you said to Mia that made her so upset. She's pregnant and she doesn't need that kind of emotional stress on her. She was so excited and then when you left she was crying. So what exactly happened?"
"I asked her if she knew who you were and what they say about you? I asked her what she was doing with her and I told her that you were dangerous." The girl snapped. "Because you are dangerous, you think that there is anyone who doesn't believe that you're dangerous? Just because she doesn't see that doesn't mean that you aren't.
She's been through enough in her life as it is, don't you know that? Mia deserves a normal happy life, not having to live looking over her shoulder every time she walks out the door. Can you give her that, because I don't think that you can. Yeah she may love you, but if you loved her the way that she thinks that you do, you should have just stayed away from her and let her find someone who would have been better for her than you."
"You're a brave soul girl. There aren't too many people that would speak to me that way and think that nothing would happen to them.
She knew who I was before I met her did you know that? Did you know that she came to work in my club as a waitress because of who I was? How about the fact that she speaks Italian fluently?"
"She left the group home that we lived together at like three years ago, so I didn't know that she had worked for you. I did know that she could speak Italian though."
"Three years? So she was 16 when she left?"
"Yeah. I just figured that someone took her in as a foster kid, after that no one ever comes back looking for their old friends so I moved on with my life just like she did apparently." The girl said bitterly.
"Well, let me correct you there. I don't know exactly where she went when she left there, but I can promise you that it wasn't to a foster home. When I met her, she was living in a shitting motel where she was being ripped off on her rent. There was nothing that anyone could have done to keep me away from her.
You think that I don't know what people say about me on a daily basis? Or that I don't think that my life is dangerous? It what people like you don't know about what me and my family do that makes people like you more dangerous than me.
I love Mia more than I have ever loved anyone in my life, including myself. I would protect her with my life if that's what it took to keep her safe and how dare you try to make her feel less about herself for loving me. When we leave this restaurant today, you're going to disappear and I never want to so much as hear that she saw you again. You got it?"
"Yes, sir." She said lightly. "I didn't mean to upset her you know. I was just worried about her, because she's such a forgiving and trusting person. I wanted to make sure that she was aware of what she was doing."
Sitting back down at the table I chuckled seeing that Mia had already finished her appetizers. "Still hungry huh?"
"Very." Mia laughed.