Ryan's POV
After the wedding Seth and Summer left to sail the Mediterranean on their honeymoon and everything else went back to normal. Taylor flew back to France and I went back to my life and Sandy and Kirsten made sure I had dinner with them and Sophie every other night, apparently I still didn't have to do anything alone.
I had qualified as an architect and taken a job with Smith & West right here in Berkeley, nowhere near the size or status of the Newport Group but I was close to my family and that was all that mattered to me. I had come to realise that I really was a Cohen in everything but name and that Sandy and Kirsten really where my parents. I still couldn't call them Mom and Dad but it never mattered because they knew how much I loved them and that they meant everything to me.
Over the years I have worked hard and played very little so that I could graduate from Berkeley, even finishing in the top 5% of my class. The day the results came through I thought they sent out someone else's results – I was so shocked. Sandy put his arm around me and told me how proud he was of me while Kirsten burst into tears as she tried to get the words to come out, I didn't need her to say anything at all as her expression said it all… she loved me and I had made her happy. All the hard work had paid off.
With results like that I really could have had my pick of companies to work for but my history made it a no brainer. When the 1st 16 years or your life are spent thinking that you will amount to nothing, having no one be proud of you ever and spending every day literally just trying to survive to then be given a fresh start with a new family who would lay their life down for you I knew there was no way I could just leave the minute my education was over. I wanted them to see the outcome of everything that they had done for me but most of all I wanted to make Sandy and Kirsten proud of me, I wanted to make my parents proud of me.
According to Kirsten now that I was no longer a student it was time to let loose, get out and have some fun and try turning the tables and playing a bit more than I work. I promised I would but for some reason kept putting it off – Seth and Summer had moved to New York and the guys at work where all a lot older than me with a wife and kids and rarely went out unless it was for a round of golf. When I was at Berkeley I spent most of my time with Luke Ward, he was studying Forensic Science and we actually found that we really did have a lot in common. We both still had a way with the ladies and got into the odd scrape when we went out but nothing like back in Newport. When Luke graduated he took a probation job with LVPD in their CSI team 12 months ago and it's been kinda strange not having him around so when he called to say that he was transferring to a permanent job back here the 1st thing I did was take Kirsten's advice and plan a guy's night out. Couple of beers, play some pool and scope out the girls sounded like a good night.
For the 1st time in a long time I was looking forward to having guy time.