One year later

Maya's POV

After a challenging Thursday morning with the twins, I park my car in front of the restaurant. I definitely need a strong cup of coffee to get me through the day.

The twins didn't sleep well last night and when they can't sleep then mommies also can't sleep.

Jonah was up at around twelve because his blanket got stuck in the crib. Then one hour later Riley was thirsty. Around four o'clock they both were just crying and we struggled to get them back to sleep.

It was one of the worst nights in a while.

I grab my bag and quickly walk to the side of my car. I ordered new chef's jackets and I'm actually really excited to wear it today. I'm not staying for the dinner rush but maybe I can get some cooking done during lunch. I'm too excited about wearing my new jacket and it doesn't count if I wear it without cooking.

I grab the box and wait for the door to close before I lock the car. Just as I step in front of the restaurant, the door opens up and one of my waiters is there to take the box from me.

"Thank you Logan. Just put it in the kitchen for me." I smile and follow behind him. "Oh and get me some coffee please?"

"Yes ma'am" he nods and disappear through the kitchen doors as I turn in another direction, going to my office.

I put my bag down and take a seat at my desk. I have a few orders to place before the weekend starts and I also asked everyone to help with some stocktake this week.

Every once in a while I do a big order of glasses, plates and cutlery. Some days go by where six plates would shatter into pieces on the floor and every time my jaw clenches a little tighter.

"Well, good morning Chef Woods"

"Good morning Captain Sullivan" I joke and he laughs as he takes a seat in front of my desk. 

"How is the family?" He asks me with a smile.

"Doing good, we had a rough night but hopefully tonight will be better" I smile and look down at the file in front of me.

"Are you all set for today?" He asks which makes me look up with a frown.

"You say that as if I should've prepared for something?" I ask in slight concern.

"You have a new chef today. She's ready for you in the kitchen" he slightly chuckles.

"Ah fuck" I sigh in realisation.

I totally forgot about the new chef coming in today. I have to observe her cooking and then decide where she will most likely survive in my kitchen.

"She's very nervous" he laughs. "But also very excited to meet you."

"I totally forgot about that" I groan with my head in my hands. "Uhmmm" I sit back and think. "I have to do these orders now, can you just place her in the kitchen please? I'll be right out"

"Okay" he chuckles and stands up.

"What's her name again?" I quickly ask.

"Lani Brown" he smiles but also shakes his head at my question.

I should've known that but a lot has happened this past week. It just slipped my mind.

"Thank you and Oh" I call on him and he stops by the door. "The new jackets are here, you can hand them out too, please?"

"Okay" he smiles and walks out the door.

"Please ask them to hurry with my coffee!" I yell after him and I hear a "okay" from down the hallway.

I take a deep breath and get the file ready to place the orders I need to. I can't believe I forgot about this new chef.

I had to hire a new chef because I made Sully my head chef. He deserves the promotion and honestly it's taken a lot of stress off me. I am still here every day but I don't work till twelve o'clock on some nights anymore. I'm only here for the lunch rush and to prepare for the dinner rush.

I miss those late nights sometimes. I love to cook and even though I cook every night at home, it's not the same as cooking in a fast paced environment. Or working together with a bunch of people and you see the end product on the plate.

It's just different.

I hear a soft knock on my door and look up to see Logan with my coffee.

"Thank you" I sigh in relief as he hands it over to me and I immediately take a sip.

After I placed my orders I quickly put on my own jacket before heading out into the kitchen.

"Oh look at you!" I cheer in excitement when I see all my staff in their new jackets.

I get a few poses and also a few thank you's from everyone as I walk around the kitchen towards Sully.

I see an unfamiliar face standing in front of the counter but I actually remember her from the interview we had a few weeks ago.

Now I don't feel so bad.

"Hi Lani, welcome to my kitchen" I smile and reach out to shake her hand.

"Thank you Chef Woods, it's a real honour and privilege to be here." She says in a rather nervous tone.

"Okay first of all" I say and pull her a bit to the side. "You need to breathe" I smile and she nods her head, taking a deep breath.

"You don't have to be nervous, everyone in here has a passion for food and I know you do too. Nobody is going to judge you or anything. Just be yourself and remember to enjoy everything you make, okay?"

"Okay" she sighs in relief.

"Okay, then another thing. I know you are here for me to observe you but I'll be honest with you, I am not prepared for that today." I slightly chuckle and I see a small smile on her lips as well.

"So I'm going to pair you up with someone who will show you how things go around here and I'll just check on you every once in a while. Is that okay with you?"

"Yes Chef, that's perfectly fine with me." She nods.

"Okay, Chef Sully will also observe how things are going but don't be shy to ask anything okay?"

"Yes Chef, thank you Chef" she smiles and I walk her over to one of my cooks.

"Aron" I call on him and he turns around. "This is Lani, she'll be working with you today. Just explain to her how things go around here. I'll check in a bit later"

"Yes Chef" he nods and immediately starts explaining a few things to her.

I look up at the clock and see it's almost half past one. "Okay everyone!" I call out into the kitchen and they all look at me. "Let's all focus on our own duties, I don't have time for any shit today."

"Yes Chef Woods" they all say in union.

"Okay let's get ready for lunch!" I call out and they all continue with their preparations.
......

I reach out and grab my wine glass just as Riley's hand went for it. "No, no" I laugh. "This is not for you sweetheart."

She puts her hand out to me as I take a sip of my wine and let's out a frustrating cry.

"No bubba" I laugh. "Here" I take her spoon and give her another bite of food. "Hmmm, that's much better than wine." I smile.

She chews her food but the lip is still in a pout which melts my heart. "When you are older, we can drink bottles of wine together" I smirk and give her another bite to distract her.

"Please don't encourage alcoholism on our two year old daughter." Stephanie laughs as she comes into the kitchen with Jonah on her hip.

"I said together, so she'll be in safe hands." I wink at her but she just laughs.

"Ok, I'm all cleaned up mommy, let's try this again." She chuckles and puts him back in his chair.

Just as they started eating, Jonah decided it's time to fill his diaper and when he has a dirty diaper, he is not the happiest little boy in the world. He absolutely hates it and he will keep crying till we change him.

Riley on the other hand will let it go for a while, we wouldn't know she has a dirty diaper unless we check. It's different during the night though, when she sleeps she wants a clean diaper.

"What time will you be home tomorrow?" I ask Stephanie as I watch Riley eat her last bite of food.

"Around two o'clock. I have a quick meeting at eleven but I want to call my dad about one of my cases, it's a real pain in my ass." She sighs.

"I'm sorry babe, are you okay?" I ask in a concern.

"Yeah, it's just about some stupid paperwork." She shrugs. "It's fine"

"Okay, I'm just going to the restaurant tomorrow morning so I'll go get the twins around noon."

"Are you sure babe? We can go get them when I get home. I don't want you to struggle by yourself." She slightly frowns.

"It's really fine honey. I'll go get them before their nap, I can handle nap time on my own." I smile.

"Okay" she smiles back and turns to see if Jonah is eating his dinner.

I quickly wipe Riley's hands and face before I stand up and clear her little table.

"Mom-my no!"

I turn around when a hear a soft giggle from Jonah and see Stephanie putting some food on his nose. He is a bit difficult when it comes to eating but when you distract him, he eats anything.

And decorating his face with mash and carrots is always fun for Stephanie. At least their both having a great time.

"Babe, do you want to eat before they take a bath or after?"

"We can eat after, its fine. I actually think we need to get them in bed, it's cold tonight."

"No cuddles on the couch?" I pout.

I absolutely love cuddles on the couch before taking them up the bed. They always smell so good and just holding them in my arms takes all the stress away. In those few minutes, we just embrace the love and forget about all the stressful things going on around us.

It's the time of day I look forward to the most and it's raining tonight which makes me want to cuddle them even more.

"You know they'll fall asleep and when we take them up, they'll be wide awake." She chuckles but I know she is right.

We already had a difficult night and I really need to get some sleep tonight.

"Fine" I playfully roll my eyes with a small smile.

.....

After bath time and a few minutes of playtime in their room, they both got tired and we put them down for the night.

We were actually surprised at how fast they went to sleep but we are definitely not complaining.

I made some dinner for us and Steph told me about her day. She has a few troubling cases on her hands but I know she has the best team to help her with it.

She tries to hide her emotions about it but I can see it's stressing her out. She can't really say much about her cases because it's confidential but hopefully the people she works with can help her figure everything out.

As I walk up the stairs and down the hallway I look through all the notifications on my phone.

Before I go into our bedroom I take a quick look at the twins but they are both peacefully sleeping.

"Babe!" I say walking into the bathroom. "Did you see the email from the architect?"

"No?" She answers from the shower.

"They are coming on Monday, would you be able to stay here with me?"

"Yes of course" she answers and wipes away the steam off the shower door. "I'll just work from home."

"Okay thank you, I don't want to be here alone when they ask me building questions" I frown.

"I know. You'll just say yes to anything they suggest" she laughs.

"Exactly" I agree because that is definitely the truth.

They might say having a glass wall would look beautiful and I would just say yes. I don't know anything about building houses or building materials.

We decided to put up a wall in front of the house. It's a little more private especially with the kids and it's much safer if we have a gate. They can't just run out into the street.

"Oh and how many interviews do we have on Saturday?"

"I think it's four" she mumbles with her head under the water.

"Okay we have to pick one after Saturday, I can't go through another round of interviews" I sigh with a slight chuckle.

"You say it like it's my fault" she laughs. "I'm not the one who is picky"

"Okay, okay" I roll my eyes. "We can definitely pick one of these four."

"Yeah, we'll see" she laughs and turns the water off.

I walk closer and quickly grab her towel before she can take it. "Baby, no" she says with a slight pout.

I take a step back and let my eyes roam up and down her naked body. She starts laughing a little nervously and I know she'll start trembling from the cold any second now but I want to see her whole body. At this moment I'm only seeing one side of it because the other side is still in the shower.

"One towel for one kiss" I smile, holding the towel up.

"If you give me the towel I will give you a hundred kisses." She laughs.

"Just a hundred?" I gasp but succeed in my mission to get her out of the shower.

She grabs the towel, presses her wet naked body against me and gives me a passionate kiss.

My hands go to her ass but she squirms away from me. "No baby, your hands are fucking cold." She whines and wraps herself in the towel.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" I laugh and wrap my arms around her again, making sure not to touch her skin.

"Go.take.a.shower" she whispers between kisses.

"Okay" I whisper back and enjoy one last kiss from her before she walks towards the closet.

After a quick shower I dry myself off and head into the closet for my clothes. I walk out and find Stephanie in bed watching something on tv. I take a seat on the edge and put some lotion on my legs before I get in under the covers.

"Are the kids still okay?" I ask and cuddle myself closer to her body.

"Sound asleep mommy" she smiles and her hand reaches out over my lap to hold me closer.

"Sound asleep sounds like a good idea. I'm actually really tired" I sigh and let my head fall onto her shoulder.

"Let's go to sleep" she whispers and kisses my head. "We both had a long day."

"Wait, I didn't even tell you" I gasp and sit up to look at her again. "My new chef came for her observation today and I totally forgot about it" I sigh and cover my eyes. "I wasn't prepared and shame" I smile with a small pout. "She was so nervous"

"How did it go?" She chuckles.

"She did really well, I didn't see much but I promised her we can schedule another time where all my focus would be on her. For now she'll just float around the kitchen untill she knows how everything works."

"Okay, maybe it's better this way. Then she'll be more comfortable."

"Yes, I'm going to tell her that was my plan all along" I smile and she just laughs at me.

I blush a bit and fall back into her body where she holds me tight against her.

"Come, let's try to get some sleep tonight." She whispers and we move a bit down onto our pillows.

"I doubt it" I sigh and wait for her to turn out the bedside lamp.

She checks the baby monitor one last time before she turns her body to me. I cuddle my way into her chest and wrap my one leg over her body.

I feel a few kisses on my head which makes me look up at her. She leans down and captures my lips in a loving kiss.

"I love you" I whisper against her lips and she gives me a deeper kiss.

"I love you too"

I lay my head back down with a deep sigh and hold her a little tighter.

"I miss her"

"I miss her too sweetheart"

......

I walk down the hallway of Alex's floor and greet a few familiar faces. I know the route all to well and I actually like coming to see Alex at work. The staff is always friendly and sometimes I get a pudding cup before I go.

I didn't tell Alex I'm coming and we usually call first because she might be in surgery then it's a waste to come here. But today I'm trying my luck. I was driving by the hospital anyway and I missed her. So I got us both a nice cup of coffee and I'm excited to share it with her.

She's been working so hard lately and it's not her fault she has missed dinner every night this week. Some days she came home just when we were done and I could tell she rushed home to be on time.

She would then offer to take the kids for a bath or play with them before bed. She doesn't need to feel bad at all but we could see she still does.

And I completely understand that. Whenever I miss dinner with my family I feel so bad and I try making up for it in all the ways I possibly can.

I turn into the hallway and smile when I see Alex's door in my view. I really hope she's not busy with a patient right now. I just want a few minutes with her.

I open the door and to my surprise and confusion the waiting room is empty. Not even Anna is behind her desk. Did she take the day off? Maybe she's on lunch.

I get my phone out to maybe just give Alex a call, maybe she's around here somewhere.

Just before I call her, I hear something fall and it's definitely coming from her office.

I step a little closer and try listening for another sound. A few seconds later I hear a high pitched grunt and without another thought I open the door.

The coffee falls on the floor along with my heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

Sitting on her desk is a blonde woman with her legs wide open. Just past her thigh, my loving wife looks up and we make eye contact. Not only have I seen enough but she made it all clear when she decided to wipe her mouth. I would've given her the benefit of the doubt if she told me this woman was a patient.

I don't know a lot about medical conditions but I'm hundred percent sure a doctor doesn't need to suck on your clit to make a diagnosis.

"Maya"

I'm shaken out of my complete shock and see Alex standing up.

"Baby, I'm so s-" she starts but stops talking as I walk backwards, out the door.

"Maya wait!" She calls on me but my body keeps moving as far away from her as I can get.

My brain can't even process what I just saw and it feels like I might throw up at any second.

How could she do this to us? To our family?

......