William's POV:

As soon as Anna's parent turn to look at Jarrod and Camilla I lean in slightly and whisper in Anna's ear "Thank you my love for so delicately wiping my tears despite my obvious embarrassment. You are the most loving and caring wife...and now mother...that I've ever had the fortune of being with. I hope Annabelle grows up to be just as sensitive and caring as you."

As soon as I finish, I see Anna's tears start their journey down her beautiful cheeks as she takes a deep shaky breath. The first tear slides out of the middle of her left eye rolling beautifully down her cheek. She closes her eyes, causing a  tear escape out the middle of her right eye and another one out of the outer corner of her left. I lean and start kissing a few tears and streaks, wiping others as she blushes slightly.

I turn to look at my in-laws and notice they have a smile on their face as they stare at us surprised. I can't blame them, as I have made a drastic change.

As I'm watching William taking care of Anna's tears, Camilla tells me: "Hon. Although adorable, Anabelle is a heavy little girl. Care to give her back to Anna for me?" She gives Annabelle a loving kiss on her head as I delicately take the baby from her arms and bring it to Anna.

As I reach Anna, I politely tell her: ""Anna and I love our niece very much, but feel its time she met some of her other relatives. We'd hate to hog her." I can't help but lean in and tenderly wipe a warm tear from her still lightly blushed cheek. I look at her and William at the same time (I see Will from the corner of my eye).

Last edited by Amans lacrimae (April 1, 2023 3:38 am)

As soon as Jarrod walks back across the room he gives me a loving smile, cupping my cheeks. As he brushes his fingers across my now drying cheeks I feel an unfamiliar wetness on his thumbs and shudder a bit at its coldness.

"Anna's tears." Jarrod begins trying to explain. "Couldn't help myself seeing William so lovingly wiping them." He continues, but quickly adds "But you're will always be my favorite to wipe no matter the circumstances."

After a min of silence between us he asks "Care to go mingle with the others?" As he takes my left hand in his right and helps me stand up (as the longer I'm pregnant the harder it seems to be able to do).

Caitlin's POV

I'd returned to Oxford following my brief trip to New York. Milly and Millie were excited to see me back and asked about my break. They were happy for me that I managed to see Robyn

'Not long to go now before I go back to support her and her friend Marie as they visit every New York ferry stop' I told my best friends 'They are doing it for a Guinness WR'

'Sounds like fun' Milly said. 'I hope they do it'. Millie had some not so pleasant news. Apparently the film club had found out about our private weekly film sessions and had cancelled our membership because we were watching too many 'problematic' movies

'Well stuff them' I exclaimed tears running down my cheeks. 'I love our weekly film session. Robyn also wants to do a movie marathon of some of my collection in the summer'

'That sounds lovely' Millie replied, a tear streaming down her face. She wiped it quickly and we began our first class of the day

Emily's POV

My relationship with my girlfriend which had not been in a good place for a month or so had got better since I had let Poppy back into my life

She was much happier too. On alternate weeks she and I would walk round the city exploring various places and then the following week she would take a train with Jen

I heard about Audrey's break up with Laura and was a but shocked to be honest. They had seemed so in love at Enid and Tristan's wedding. It sucked that they were forced to break up by Laura's parents

I talked to Tristan about it, and he was sympathetic but replied there wasn't much he could do. I tried to shed a tear or two as I knew he loved it when I cried unfortunately even though my eyes filled with tears none of them wanted to run down my cheeks, so he had to be content with dabbing my eyes instead. And then we went back to work