We get to the bakery, and the boys scramble inside with me right behind them.

Knox and Kohl love coming here because they don't get to that often after the cake fight. Mrs. Trevor would probably try to convince some health inspector that I'm violating health codes or something if they did.

I seriously wouldn't put it past her to try.

Not that a health inspector would find anything wrong with my bakery; I keep it cleaner than my house. Trust me, I keep my house super clean. I can't control everything in life, so the things I can, like how my house looks, I tend to go over the top.

Plus that's the last stress I would need while running a bakery and raising twin boys; I mean, raising the twins alone is a full-time job.

Was there a time I wished for girls instead?

Yes, but it was only twice, and it was whenever the boys would go roll around in the mud like they were pigs. It doesn't make me a bad Mother, though, because I love my boys; I just wish they would stay out of the mud. I don't think that's too much to ask for. Washing their clothes after that is a pain in the butt; by the way, I didn't even bother with their shoes; I just bought them new ones.

Luckily I think the pigs' phase is finally over. Been a while since they've gone rolling around in the mud.

Thank goodness for that.

I would take them tracking mud through the house any day over them head to toe covered in mud.

The cleanup afterward was always exhausting. One would roll around the freshly cleaned floors, while I tried to wrestle one into the bath, only to find the other missing when I went back for them. There was only one time when I questioned my life choices, and it was when I eventually found the lost twin jumping on my bed, mud decorating the white comforters.

What I learned from disasters like those was thank goodness for hardwood floors and never own anything white.

The thundering bang of a chair falling to the floor snaps my gaze to the right, looking for the boys. I spot them at a corner table closest to the kitchen and sigh in relief that none of them appear to be hurt.

"Are you boys hungry? I could make you some grilled cheese sandwiches." I pick up the chair when I walk over to them.

"Mom, can we get pizza instead? Please?" Kohl clasps his hands together like he's praying and continues to say please.

A sound catches my attention behind me, and one glance over my shoulders has me tensing.

Cage is still here, and he's coming this way.

His face is clean, except for the five o'clock shadow that paints his jawline; he shows no signs of having a cupcake smashed in his face.

I quickly spin back around before Knox and Kohl catch sight of Cage.

I know I need to talk to him and tell him that he's a father.

Just not here.

I still can't believe I smashed a cupcake in his face; clearly I'm not a normal person. I mean, he did startle me, but still a cupcake to the face?

Way to go, Rory.

"Ask Sam if that's okay with him since he's your guest."

"Is that okay with you, Sam?" Kohl stops pleading so he can ask Sam.

Sam was about to speak but was interrupted.

"Rory? Can we talk?"

I'm silent for a moment and about to speak before I'm the one who is interrupted this time.

"Mom! Mom! It's Cage Trevor!" Knox and Kohl say their voices dripping with awe and excitement.

I'm startled when they realize who he is; even Sam seems to know him by the way he keeps gaping at him.

Once again I turned around, my gray eyes locked onto his. Only he's not looking at me; he's looking at the twins, surprise flashing in his blue-green orbs.

Oh no.

Cage opens his mouth to speak, but I talk before even a sound gets past his lips.

"Boys, go ask Quinn to order your pizza. I'll be right back." I latch onto his wrist, dragging him away to the privacy of my office.

This isn't the type of conversation you have out in the open, with your sons right there, or some town gossipers.

I have no doubt that by noon tomorrow everyone in town will know that Cage found out he's a father. I should probably get the twins prepared for the stares and the whispered words that people will pretend to hide behind their hands.

My hand falls away from him when my office door is shut behind us.

"You... um. You might want to sit down for this." I nervously gesture to the two-person couch that sits in front of my desk.

My eyes bounce around the room trying to focus on anything but him and what I'm sure are the mixed emotions flooding his eyes. When he doesn't make a move to sit, I force my gaze to him, to find him sort of dazed.

Seeing him in person is bringing back all those old memories from our night together.

It's crazy how one night was all it took for me to fall in love with him, this coming from the girl who never thought it was possible to fall for someone she went to high school with.

But I suppose it doesn't really matter now, because the Cage I fell in love with was eighteen years old. The Cage that stands before me now is not the same one from eight years ago. No longer is he the same silly teenage boy who I shoved into a pool or the one who spun me around in front of a taco truck.

He may still look the same, only a little bit older, but that doesn't mean he is the same.

People can change a lot in eight years; I did.

Cage's shoulders are broader; the once decent-sized office feels tiny now with him in it. His sandy blonde hair is shorter now; no longer does it brush against his shoulders, but it is neatly trimmed and slightly longer on top. He still has the same full, downward-turned lips, but his once perfectly straight nose is slightly crooked from being broken at one point in time. The only thing that has remained exactly the same is his eyes, a captivating swirling mix of blue and green that are still as expressive.

Truthfully, Cage is a vault until you get to know him, really know him, and then he's as easy to read as words along pages of a book.

Just add that to the never-ending list of how alike the twins are to their father.

"Cage? Will you please sit down?" I plead with him, hoping to find some sense of relief from my anxiety.

If he would sit down and not loom above me with his towering frame in the smallish space. I think the crushing weight of the secret that I have kept from him for over seven years now would lessen. I'm not even thinking of finding a way to escape this conversation, because it is long overdue; it's one that should have never taken this long to happen.

Guilt of never telling Cage years ago will be something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

It's only right.

I deprived my kids of knowing their father and Cage of his chance to watch them grow up into the young boys they are today.

Cage must sense my desperation for him to sit, because he does, elbows resting on his thighs and hands tightly clasped together underneath his chin. The second he's seated, the anxiety that has been hovering over me like a dark thunderstorm cloud fades.

I spin around to fully face him and take one deep breath to calm my nerves before I spill the truth.

"I-I was devastated when I woke up the next morning after we slept together to find you gone. It made me feel so... so small and used, like I was just some girl you had fun with for a night. I was so embarrassed and wanted to forget it ever happened, and I did for a brief moment." I twist my fingers together, trying to fight the nervous energy that's flooding my veins; deep down I know there isn't any reason to be so nervous around Cage.

Still easier said than done getting rid of them.

"I found out I was pregnant a few months after our night together. Truth be told, the first person I thought of telling besides my parents was you, and then I was plagued with never-ending thoughts. My head was filled with variant versions of how I shouldn't tell you that I would only be ruining your life too. I was so overwhelmed about what I was even going to do and ended up spending the first week debating getting an abortion or giving the baby up for adoption. The more I thought about it, the more the idea of getting an abortion made me sick to my stomach, and then began the debate of adoption or keeping the baby."

I go quiet for a moment and muster up enough courage to look him in the eye; I flinch, jerking my head back at the unreadable, stony gaze in his blue-green eyes.

I have never seen his eyes so hard-looking before, not even when he roamed the halls in high school with his golden boy mask. Back then it was weirdly like a wall blocked his true emotions while he showed only the ones you wanted to see. But when it was just the two of us in a world of our own, that wall came down, and he showed me his true self.

The boy he kept hidden behind that wall for so long is the one I fell in love with.

I turn away from him, knowing he's not going to say a single word until I tell him everything. And it will make it easier to do while not staring into his blue-green orbs that still melt my heart.

They're the eyes our sons inherited, and it's one of my favorite things about them.

"It didn't take me long to decide that I was going to keep the baby; I just had this feeling in my gut, telling me that if I gave the baby up, I would regret it for the rest of my life. When I found out I was actually pregnant with twins, my mind was set, and nothing was going to change it. There wasn't a day that went by during the months of my pregnancy that I hadn't thought about contacting you, but I didn't."

"Why didn't you?" Cage asks, voice husky with barely restrained emotions.

Glancing over at him, gray meets blue-green, and a sad smile tips the corners of my lips up.

"I just... couldn't."

"That's not a good enough answer, Aurora."

I ignore the piercing pain in my heart from him using my full name.

"You're right, it's not, but it is one that sums up everything fairly well." I go and sit down next to him on the couch, mirroring his position. "I dropped out of college and came back home, and along with gossip about me, I heard stuff about you."

"What did you hear?" Cage drops his hands from underneath his chin and twists his body so he's half facing me.

"About how much you're thriving at college and that the team is going to be undefeated now that you're the star pitcher." I lightly nudged him with my shoulder, shooting him a small grin. "They were right, by the way; even the twins thought so. I watched your games when I was pregnant, and it amazed me how much they both kicked like crazy whenever your team scored. Should have known instantly then they were going to be crazy about baseball too."

A soft smile curls up his mouth. "Yeah, it runs in the family." At the mention of family, his smile falls instantly, and the walls start to go back up.

"I should have told you, Cage, but I couldn't. Watching those games made me really realize what all you would have to give up."

Cage bolts off the couch like it's on fire and begins to angrily stride back and forth across the room. His hand travels up to his blond locks and harshly tugs on the strands, something he only ever did when he was truly frustrated. Suddenly he halts in the middle of the room and swivels to face me, eyebrows furrowed and eyes filled with fire.

"What about you, Aurora? Huh? What about what you had to give up when you decided to keep the baby?" His face softens, and sadness fills his eyes. "Why did you have to be the only one to give up your future for a different one?"

"I loved you, Cage, that's why. I knew I could do this by myself, and just the thought of you one day hating me because you had to give up something you loved would have wrecked me. I knew better than anyone that baseball was your ticket out of this town and away from your toxic family." I place a hand on my forehead, a fatigued feeling runs through my body, and I begin to feel years older.

I drop my hand back to my lap and pick at a nonexistent piece of lint.

"I think you're forgetting that I loved you first, and I would have never hesitated for even a second to be there for you. I couldn't have ever hated you, Aurora; it completely goes against my entire being."

He sits back down next to me, and sinks into the back of the couch, shoulders crouched down.

"I'm sorry, Cage, truly I am."

"I know," Cage reaches over, grabbing onto my hand, and gives it a quick squeeze.

I brush aside the disappointment I feel when he lets go of my hand, having no energy to try and figure out why that is.

"What are their names?"

"Knox Ford Williams and Kohl James Williams. Born on April first at two thirty-five in the morning. Knox is three minutes older than Kohl. My due date was supposed to be around March twentieth, but they decided to make me lug their heavy butts around for longer." A smile that's reserved just for the twins paints my lips when I think back to the day they were born.

It was an exhausting day, but one I would repeat if I ever had the chance to go back in time and change my choice. The second I heard their cries filling the hospital room as they took their first breath in the world, I had no regrets.

They both were worth the endless sleepless nights and my random cry fests out of nowhere and all the anxiety of if I'm doing everything right.

Cage whispers the twins' names quietly to himself and grins. "Can I meet them?"

"Of course. I just need to talk to them first. I don't want to just spring it on them randomly, and I think sitting them down to talk would be the best option." I hold my hand out silently asking for his phone.

He hands it over without any hesitation; after unlocking it, I quickly type in my number and call myself. The Little Einsteins theme song muffledly plays from my side, and I silence it.

"Nice ringtone." Cage smirks at me, amusement glowing in his eyes.

"You got a problem with the Little Einsteins?" I ask, keeping my face blank and no signs that I'm messing with him visible.

The smirk falls right off his face at my serious expression.

"No," Cage coughs.

My shoulders start to shake with my barely restrained laughter, and soon it's bubbling to the surface. My laughter fills the quiet space, and Cage looks at me like I might be going crazy.

"I'm just kidding," I shove his shoulder, sobering up slightly. "Knox and Kohl picked it out at some point forever ago, and I just could never bring myself to change it. Though there really isn't anything wrong with that show."

Cage chuckles, shaking his head, and his lips part like he's about to say something, only the office door opens.

"Rory? Sorry to interrupt, but Noah is here to take a quick look at the countertops." Quinn stands on the threshold, with a million questions flashing in her mossy gaze. Her eyes flicker once between us before settling back on me, head tilted slightly to the right, wordlessly asking if I'm okay.

"Okay, thanks for letting me know." I subtly nod my head, then turn to Cage. "Sorry, I have to go, but we'll set something up soon."

Cage gets up and follows us out.

Quinn gestures in the direction Noah is in, then unsurprisingly makes herself sparse.

"I'll call you later." I tell Cage, then walk over to Knox and Kohl, where Noah is explaining what all the tools in his tool chest are.

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