1.13 Birthdays

Zoe can hardly believe that so much time has passed since the day Bruno came into her life. Her beautiful quiet boy was growing up today.

The celebration was a quiet one, only the five of them enjoying cake and family time.

Now Bruno was a child and soon he would be the only one in the house as the twins birthday was approaching.

One Saturday morning while playing with the console, Bellandra spoke with her siblings about their father.

"I was thinking, if you want to invite Devin for your birthday, I'm ok with that."

"Really, sis?" Ramira exploded with emotion. "You're the best!"

Franco rolled his eyes at his twin but smiled at her older sister. "Are you really ok with dad coming here?"

Bell chuckled at her insightful brother while the word "dad" squirmed inside her.

"Yes."

Meanwhile, sitting behind, Bruno didn't know how to feel about this whole situation. Devin was his siblings' father and he didn't know where he would fit in the new dynamic.

Devin arrived early on the twins' birthday and spent a few minutes looking at the front of the house until Zoe got tired of seeing him through the window and opened the door.

"I think I'm more nervous than the day of my first casting."

Zoe giggled. "I know now where Ramira got her melodramatic personality."

The joke had the desired effect when Devin laughed too.

It was while their were talking that Bellandra arrived home, with the same nerves and anticipation that her father was feeling.

Devin got up suddenly when he saw her and almost threw the game console to the floor when his legs hit the coffee table.

Zoe got up with the excuse of finishing the birthday cake to give them space.

"You really look like me." She heard Devin say softly.

Seeing the look he was giving her, Bellandra felt some of her nerves leave her, it was a look that she recognized for having seen it on her mother's face.

She couldn't help herself and smiled at him in the same way. Devin felt his lungs fill with more air than he could breathe.

When they sat on the couch to talk the air turned awkward again, letting the minutes go by as they looked straight ahead to the turned off tv.

Until Bellandra started laughing uncontrollably and Devin couldn't help doing it too. That seemed to break the ice.

"I'm the adult here but it doesn't seem to be the case right now."

From there, the conversation became more fluid and by the time the twins came home, something had changed between them. Devin knew that there was still much he had to do to gain Bellandra's trust, something he seemed to freely receive from the twins, but it was a task he would gladly carry out because the prize was too important to him.

"Dad!" Was Ramira shouted greeting while the girl threw herself into her father's arms.

"Happy birthday, honey."

"And happy birthday to you too, champ."

"Champ, dad? That's so old." Franco said but let his father hug him.

While her siblings were enjoying their father's attention, Bellandra went to meet Mario at the door. He was again babysitting his sister.

"So my father is here."

"The famous actor that you never call by his name?" He said raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know that I never told you who is he, but he's really famous so..."

"You don't want me fangirling about him." He finished the sentence she had started.

"Pretty much."

"So how famous are we talking about?" Mario asked entering the house.

"Devin Ashton level." She said chuckling.

"That much?! Wow. I can't think of who can be as famous as he though."

"Sometimes, you could be a little devil."

"Sorry." Bellandra said still laughting and hugging him.

"Who is exactly this boy?"

"He's Bell's 'friend'. Come here we're going to cut the cake."

In a blink of an eye the twins were no longer children.

Devin is understandably overwhelmed, he is now the father of three teens.

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So... I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus, after a long time I have reconnected with the russells so I think the updates are going to be more closer to each other now that I'm pretty much only playing them. I'm aiming at two per month, I hope I can do that!