"Isn't he just the most adorable thing you have ever seen, Mitch?"

His smile instantly grows boyishly affectionate. "He certainly is."

"Just look at his tiny ears and his tiny little nose?" Reaching out, I can't resist stroking those tiny little ears and the nose that I have already completely fallen in love with.

"I think he really does look like an Oscar, doesn't he?" Mitch whispers, cuddling me even tighter with the arm that's lovingly draped around my shoulder.

"He does." So besottedly slips from between my thoroughly elated lips.

The sleeping little bundle of perfect joy that I'm endearingly now staring down at, is ours. We waited for the right time to have him, but he is finally ours. Our beautiful boy has at last come home. He is home, and ready to be completely adored.

That's right, myself and Mitch are now proud parents to our very own fur baby; a gorgeous black and fluffy Teacup Pomeranian.

He is quite simply, making both of our hearts pop with puppy joy.

Hang on.

Woah there.

Woah there right this minute.

You didn't just think what I think you just did, did you?

Okay, let's back up just a minute. Let's rationally rewind now, people.

You honestly didn't think that myself and Mitch were bringing home a baby baby, did you?

Oh my, I'm not yet ready for morning sickness, an expanding waistline and cravings for strange things like piccalilli and peanut butter sandwiches...nope, not quite ready for any of that.

Okay, okay!

You got me!

I did just say 'not quite ready'.

Alright, I may as well admit it, Mitch and I have both talked about wanting children in the near future. We have discussed our wanting to become parents.

Not yet.

But definitely sometime in the not too distant future.

For now, we are more than happy to share our parental role for only our cherished little pooch, Oscar. In some ways, he is going to be a practice run for eventually becoming parents. I mean, he poops and pee's, he needs food and cuddles, and will probably give us a lot of sleepless nights. Yup, in no time at all, I should be almost ready to become a fully fledged member of 'The Breast Pump and Fleece Blanket Appreciation Party'.

Motherhood and fatherhood, excitedly now awaits both myself and Mitch. It has become something that we are both now looking forward to. Becoming a mother was never something I saw myself ever wanting, but then again, I never saw myself moving to LA either.

That's right, eleven months ago, I did choose to go with Mitch.

Bottom line, I followed my heart.

It took me to LA, to be with the man who I loved more than anything in the world.

Since making that decision, our lives have been fabulously busy.

Fabulously exciting.

Mitch is in more demand than ever in his acting career, while business is most technologically booming in mine. Together, we have promised one another to find an happy and healthy balance between work and home life. Being at the helm of my own highly successful and growing company, means that I get the luxury to choose when and where I choose to run that company from. That's the beauty of owning a franchise—it will successfully run itself if you have like-minded individuals in charge of it.

While I have been setting down business roots in Los Angeles, Mitch has been doing his A list thing. He's not long finished one film, and is about to sign on the dotted line for another. His own success, now affords him the right to pick and choose his roles wisely. He now limits the time that he is away from home and me, which is something that only makes me love him even more. When Mitch told me that he wants to be wherever I am, he has done his utmost to do just that for me. I suppose, it was him telling me that, that made it so much easier for me to say yes to going with him to LA. It was easier, because I knew that if I had said no, Mitch would have stayed with me in England.

I knew that then.

I know that now.

In the end, I thought 'what the hell'. I knew that if LA life had turned out to not be for me, that Mitch would have come back to England if that is what I said I wanted to do.

That's how strong our love was.

How open and honest it was.

So, as the new year had arrived, myself and Mitch then left. The map of our love, it took us both back to Hidden Hills.

There, I have been happy.

There, I still am happy.

To be honest, I'm now living a jet set lifestyle.

If I ever find myself missing home, I simply jump on a plane to take me there. When I need to see my parents or Hetty and that gorgeous little family of hers, I jump on a plane again.

They too, have all at some point come out to Hidden Hills—any excuse for some sunshine and A list living, right?

Yes, I most certainly am living a charmed and flexible life.

You could say, I'm actually living the dream.

Just as he promised, Mitch is giving to me everything that I need or want. Anything that my heart desires, he finds a way to make me happy. Even when I began to miss Jaws, he had him flown over to me. That Black Moor Guppy was treated like fish royalty, let me tell you. Even now, if ever we go away, Jaws has his very own super fish nanny—ridiculously extravagant, I know.

But Jaws isn't just a fish, he is something that I love dearly.

Something that I cherish. Mitch knew that, so did my mum; so together they made sure that me and my goldfish were reunited again.

"I don't think Oscar's big brother is all that impressed with his arrival." My eyes happily roam across to my very spoilt fish, who is swimming around in his lavish tank without a fishy care in the world.

Mitch's gaze wanders to where Jaws is, watching him with a crooked smirk to his lips. "It's probably just a bit of sibling jealousy, I'll make sure I put in some extra flakes of food for him later." His eyes slowly wander back to mine, shining blue and bright with humour.

God, I love this man.

His wit.

His kindness.

His sense of fun.

His kissable lips.

Gosh, I really am loving them right now.

Bringing my finger up to my mouth, I lightly tap it. "My lips, they're missing yours." Tapping again, my mouth impatiently then puckers up a little.

Leaning in, Mitch is smiling while his eyes look like they're now alight with a sensuous flame as his lips softly begin to cover mine. His kiss is thrillingly slow, slow and thoughtful. With the puppy that we are both going to love so much still being held in my arms, his mouth is devouring the softness of mine with the tenderness of his own. Closing my eyes, I start losing myself to the sweet tenderness of his lips. Losing myself to the love that is being exchanged between us.

I'm lost like that, until Mitch eventually stops to whisper something into my delicately parted just-kissed mouth. "I have a present for both you and Oscar." His lips are now sweeping themselves across mine, so teasingly light and playful.

"What is it?" I whisper back, with a grin branching widely across my serene-like face.

From out of the back pocket of his jeans, Mitch pulls a tiny dog collar. "Do you think he'll like it?" He's now holding it out for me, wanting me to take it from between his fingers.

As I do, I'm studying the very fancy collar. It's not a normal dog collar, by any means. No, this one is daintily made of white leather and handcrafted with custom-cut quartz gemstones cutely adorning it. But then, my eyes are soon drawn away from the twinkling clear quartz cabochons, because they have quickly noticed that something else is dangling from its designer silver tag. "What's this?" My fingers reach for what has quickly caught my attention. "Why is there a ring on Oscar's collar?" I quietly ask Mitch, momentarily lost in my own intrigue.

That's when he dazzles me with the consuming and gorgeous smile of his. "The collar is for Oscar, the ring is for you." Then, just like a fabulous romantic film, Mitch dramatically drops down on one knee. "Rebecca Adams, there will never be enough words or time for me to tell you how happy I am that you chose to be here with me. There will never be enough words or time for me to express how grateful I am that you took a chance on us. You have made me a happy and lucky man, but what would make me even happier and even luckier, is if you would agree to marry me." Removing the ring from the tiny collar, Mitch then proudly holds the ring up with his masculine fingers, staring up at me with his eyes shining with the blueness of his love within them. "Will you please marry me, Rebecca?"

I'm staring at him.

Breathless. Surprised. Giddy. Disoriented. Speechless.

The words won't come, but my tears are. They're filling my eyes. So heavy and so happily now filling my eyes. The man that I love beyond measure, is still on bended knee, still smiling so handsomely, and still waiting for his answer.

I need to find the words.

I need to breathe.

I need to not faint.

From the depths of my throat, I somehow find my overwhelmed voice. I somehow find my overjoyed answer. "Yes! I'd love nothing more than to marry you, Mitch Heston!" I'm crying, pure and undiluted tears of total joy.

Leaning carefully over Oscar, who is still so sweetly sound asleep in my lap, Mitch affectionately grabs my face with both of his hands as his smile deepens into laughter. "You had me worried for a second there, a quiet you kind of always unnerves me." The richness of his laughter bounces in the small space between us, until his laughter fades back to a beautiful proud smile. "So you really want to marry me?" His lips are twitching, twitching with tempting tease.

Moving closer, I brush the softness of my mouth against his playful one. "I really do." My reply is quietly wistful, delicately sensual as my lips desirously sweep themselves across his.

I love his mouth. I love his eyes. I love his face, his body, his feelings, his mind and his soul. Mitch is the one who completes me. That is why I am here. That is why I have said yes.

While we playfully and softly kiss, Mitch is slipping the engagement ring onto the finger that will officially make me his. Once fully on, his kiss deepens, demandingly claiming my mouth and tongue with the passion of his own. Within the kissing and caressing of one another, Mitch and I seem to have found our pot of happiness at the end of a romantic rainbow. Our life-changing decision to attend our school reunion, is what has so wonderfully brought us to this joyful moment.

That reunion, not only brought us together.

It was also the beginning of seeing one another differently.

To me, Mitch was someone that I remember as being annoying and excruciatingly arrogant. To him, I was an awkwardly shy and bespectacled nerd.

Isn't it funny how our opinions of others can change so dramatically, once we are mature enough to take the time and the understanding to know such people?

Adulthood gave that time and understanding to the two of us. Which is the fundamental reason why there is now an us.

As teenagers, Mitch and I never stood a chance. I was a closed-off geek, while he was angry and hurting because of the death of his mother and the resentment from his father.

But another chance eventually came our way.

Another chance to understand one another.

So we took that chance.

We took it with eager hands.

I'm so very glad that we did, I truly am.

Now, here we are—in love and in LA, happily engaged, with a fur baby to call our very own.

You know, it was never the famous, so perfectly put together man who made it all too easy to fall in love with him. It was actually the ghost of the boy who sometimes would haunt the man that Mitch had so bravely become, who made it so much more easier to fall madly in love with. That tragic past of his, it has shaped him. In many ways, it has also now shaped me. I know that Mitch shall one day be the father to our children, that his own father chose not to be. Just like I will one day be the mother that Mitch's so sadly never got to be.

To honour her, I am going to love that boy of hers.

To honour the man that he has so incredibly become, I am going to love him until my very last living and content breath.

The End

💋 Authors Note 💋

Well, that's another Mallion wrap!

I'd just like to dedicate Rebecca & Mitch's story to my special lady .... what began as a bit of a jokey challenge, ended up being this wonderful tale of finding unexpected love with an unexpected person..... so thank yoooooou lovely lady 💕

And to all you lovely readers who have equally supported this tale - every like and comment - has been so greatly appreciated by myself, Mitch & Rebecca 💋