As soon as Juliet, Kiara and I reached the beach, Em came at me with a gorgeous swimsuit and she lead me into the Villa.

"Ready to get settled?" She asked me.

"Get settled?" I asked her.

"Yeah." She nodded, leading me up a set of stairs.

We reached a long hallway full of bedrooms and she took me into one of them.

"This is your man's room. I have some clothes in the closet for you, you can change into this swimsuit and come join us." She said to me.

"Do I have to?" I asked.

"Don't you want to swim and have fun?" Em asked me.

"I do..." I nodded hesitantly.

"Then why don't you want to change into that swimsuit?" Em asked me.

"I just... I don't know." I shrugged, not wanting to mention what was actually going through my head.

"Ava, tell me." Em said, sitting down beside me on Gabe's bed.

"You're all so, gorgeous." I said.

"And you aren't?" She asked me.

"I'm pretty." I said.

"But not gorgeous?" She asked me.

"It doesn't feel like it." I admitted.

"And why not?" She asked me.

"I don't know." I lied with a shrug.

"Ava." She said with an unimpressed look.

I shrugged, not wanting to share this insecurity.

"Hey, guys, come on." I heard Gabe's Mom, Lucie, say.

I looked up to find her in the doorway.

"You wanna talk to Luce?" Em asked me.

I nodded and Aunt Em nodded, getting up and leaving us there alone.

"What's going on, Sweetie?" Gabe's Mom, Lucie, asked me.

I shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

"Come on, Juliet and Kiara are already in their swimsuits and in the water, don't you want to join us?" She asked me.

"I do." I nodded.

"Then hurry up, Honey." She said to me.

"I don't want to wear a swimsuit." I sighed.

"Why not?" She asked me. "Don't you want to show off those gorgeous long legs of yours and your gorgeous figure?"

"Gorgeous figure?" I asked, looking down at my body.

"Sweetheart, you've got one of the most beautiful figures... what's going on?" She asked me, shifting closer to me and wrapping an arm around me.

"You guys all have amazing figures, I'm kind of.... flat..." I said.

"Sweetie, no, you aren't. You may not have the biggest chest or butt, but you're just a slimmer person in general." She said to me.

I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

"Ava, come on, get into that swimsuit and let's enjoy your birthday, you have an amazing figure, just you watch how all the other girls are going to react." She said to me.

I decided to suck it up and not let my insecurities get to me. I put the beautiful swimsuit on and I let Lucie lead me down to the beach. All the girls immediately ran over to me, and Kiara was the most enthusiastic.

"Ava! You look amazing! I wish I had legs like those!" She said.

"What're you saying! You look amazing, too!" I said to her.

"Has Gabriel seen you like this before?" Ari asked me.

"No." I said, my cheeks turning red.

"He'd drop dead at the sight of you, that figure is to die for Ava!" Ari said to me.

"Please... look at you." I said.

Ari was tall, a little taller than me, with long legs like mine and a curvier body. If anything, she had the body I wanted.

"Why look at me? I've got a completely different body type. You're gorgeous, Ava." Ari said, taking my hand. "Now I'm throwing this gorgeous twenty seven year old woman in the ocean for a little birthday fun!" Ari screeched, dragging me into the water.

We all played around in the sand, we swam, played some soccer, ate some of Sophie's delicious food and then it started to rain. We all danced around in the rain, turning on some good songs and just forgetting everything. After all the rain and dancing, we went inside to get changed.

The girls then took me to a large decorated theatre, full of gifts all over the little table. I gasped at the sight of it and I looked at their excited faces.

"These are gifts from everyone, even the guys. But Gabe wanted to give you his gift personally." Ari said happily.

I smiled, remembering my gifts this morning and taking a seat beside Juliet who pulled me down beside her.

"You really didn't have to do all this, guys." I said, looking around.

Mia and Mila pushed their way between my back and the couch and started messing with my freshly washed and combed hair. They were making me pretty, apparently.

"Oh, nonsense. Come on, open them!" Kiara smiled at me.

I smiled and picked one up, it was from Rosalie and Em. It was a gorgeous dress that Rosalie designed for me and Em made it. Rosalie also bought me a bracelet to go with it, and Em made me a whole other outfit. Sophie gifted me a chocolate fountain telling me it was the easiest thing to use and that way I could make chocolate strawberries if I ever wanted something sweet.

Hazel and Ric got me a cute instant camera and an album to put pictures in, it was really pretty sweet. Aunt Isabella got me a locket that was engraved with an image of each of my parents on each side of the locket. She was such a good artist, no matter what she was working with, she could make a masterpiece. Rico bought me a personalized stethoscope, it was white and rose gold, kind of like my new car.

Theo and Evan bought me a new watch, which I really needed, because my old one kept glitching. This one would keep me on track much better than the other one. Vidal and Kiara both gave me some forms for free interior design for the new place, which I was very grateful for because I didn't have the time or sanity to think about it and I trusted Kiara's skills.

Romeo bought me a large blanket which was fitting because he'd been teasing me about my low tolerance for the cold ever since the snowstorm when we were stuck in the mansion. Juliet bought me a Jasmine scented candle and a heating pad. She had witnessed me on my period when I was having cramps and she empathized with me. My mother never had bad cramps, so I didn't really know to deal with cramps very well, but Juliet helped me and this heating pad would definitely come in handy.

Micah got me a pair of very expensive, adorable earrings. They were gorgeous. These people really knew how to give good gifts. Gabriel's mother gave me the most adorable teddy bear that she made me herself, and his dad got me some pyjamas because I stayed over at Gabe's parents' place one day and I ended up just stealing his dad's shirt because of how soft it was. So, he got me my own, it said 'Dr. Sleepy' on it, and he got me a good water bottle because he thought I didn't drink enough water, which he wasn't necessarily wrong about.

Finally, Ari bought me a new laptop, a little cute stuffy that was super soft, a new planner and a new notebook with several coloured pens. All the gifts were very well thought out and it was heartwarming to see how much these people knew me.

After I opened the gifts, we watched movies in the theatre, we even went to Rico's soccer field after it stopped raining and played some soccer, then Sophie brought out a cake and took us to the living room of the Villa. They all sang me happy birthday, and Gabe's Mom was filming happily.

I turned red for sure while they sang to me. They had me make a wish, and I wished that Gabe and I would always be this happy and soon be happily married. I knew it was just a silly thing to wish on your birthday candles, but I decided to just do it for the fun of it. Hopefully the wish would actually come true, whether it was because of the candles or not.

The cake was absolutely delicious. We all ate and had second slices, and then we were laying on the couch, stuffed to the brim with delicious food and cake.

"Thanks for the best birthday ever, guys." I chuckled.

"I can't wait for the next marriage in this family so we can do a bachelorette party." Hazel laughed.

"It better be me." Kiara sighed.

"Is someone waiting to be proposed to?" Sophie teased.

"Of course I am, Vivi and I have basically been married from the moment we met." Kiara said, turning red. "If it takes him as long as it took him to tell me he loved me, I'm in for a very log and stressful life with that man."

Em laughed and laid back on the couch, helping Rosalie handle her still slightly damp hair. Emelia was definitely a mother to Rosalie, the mother that Rosalie never had. I was very happy for Rosalie after hearing about her past. She had a rough life, much like a lot of the girls in this family, but she had found her place in this world. That's what was so great about this family, it didn't matter where you were from, what you do, what you'd been through. As long as you were willing to trust, love and be loved, then you could be a part of this family.

These girls were amazing. Sometimes I was frustrated with them, sometimes they did stupid and enraging things, but they were still the best people I knew. We all had bad days, I did too. And I'm sure I drove them insane just as much as they did me, but we were all sisters, no matter what.

"I love you, girls, all of you." Juliet said, flopping on the couch beside me with her head against my shoulder.

"I love you too, all of you... and I love that no matter what happens, we'll always be around to come to this island and have a blast, and to almost die of cake poisoning on our birthdays, weddings, success parties. All of it." Ari chuckled, making us all laugh.

"How's Theo? We're still missing his girl." I sighed.

"I'm going to reach out to her soon if he doesn't do it himself." Kiara said in determination.

"Let's just do that... let's give him a month, and if he doesn't do it himself, we can't just watch him torture himself." Ari said.

"Sounds like a plan." Hazel nodded. "But you guys really need to make sure to give the poor boy a chance to like... breathe. Theo's been through a lot."

"Don't let him get hurt." Sophie said.

"Of course not. we're his sisters." I smiled.

"Exactly." Kiara nodded.

"Cupcake, I'm sleepy." Nora said, jumping into Kiara's lap and curling up.

"Ellie sleepy?" Mila asked, running over to Kiara to see what Nora was up to.

Little Eleanor had definitely brought some excitement into Mia and Mila's lives. Before Nora was part of the family, the girls were the only little ones around. These three cute girls had me seriously thinking about children. I didn't know if I'd ever change my mind about actually having my own kids, but they made it so appealing. Especially when Mia sat in my lap and started having me feed her some cake. After that, she fell asleep curled up in my arms.

My heart was melting at the incredible cuteness of the little girls, but also how sweet this entire family was. I truly felt like I belonged and I couldn't be happier about the way all this had worked out for me.