Chapter 4
Ryan had been at seth and summer's house for the past 2 days, reading his letters from taylor, learning about his son, taylor had written about everything, her scans, morning sickness, cravings, and then once she'd had jamie, she sent him photos, jamie's wrist tag from the hospital, baby atwood, she had done a step by step guide of jamie growing up, when he first sat up on his own, his first crawl, his first steps, there was everything in those letters that ryan needed to know about his son, and now he was ready,
" morning atwood, you want some coffee?" summer was just entering the kitchen with parker following behind her legs.
Ryan nodded as summer began making them both coffee, ryan just watched, he watched how parker followed summers footsteps like a shadow, how he didn't want to be out of his mothers reach, until " daddy" parker ran to into seth's arms as he entered the kitchen.
" hey ry, so I figured if you wasn't up to anything today that maybe we could go down the imax and catch this great shark movie" seth knew ryan hated these kinds of movies but he had to get his brother out of the house,
" yay! I go to" shouted parker jumping up and down on seths lap.
Summer walked over to seth and slapped the back of his head, " do you see what you're doing to our son," summer had a smile on her face, because deep down she didn't want her family any other way.
" you love it really, you know he loves these things just as much as I do" seth ruffled parkers hair as he stood up and kissed summer.
" me, me, me kiss mummy too" parker was reaching his arms up to summer, seth reached down and picked up his little man and they were all having a family moment. That's when the recognition kicked in for ryan," this is what I want" he thought to himself, I want to kiss taylor like that, I want my son to run and jump into my arms when I walk in the room, I want all of it.
" actually seth ryan said cutting in on their family moment but I think I'm going to go call taylor", he said the last bit with a smile on his face.
" finally summer said pushing seth out of the way.
After breakfast Ryan walked down to the beach to think about what he could possibly say to taylor, as he was walking he saw a family building sandcastles and running around, they looked so happy, and before he knew it, his cell phone was out and the other end was ringing.
Taylors point of view
It had been 2 days since Julie and franks wedding, and 2 days since scott had hurt her, she had been stuck in the house since that night, she had taken to playing hide and seek with jamie to burn some time, but she could only play and have fun like this when scott was at work.
Taylor was packing some things in to her beach bag, she'd had enough of staying in and she could see how bored jamie was, so she decided that they would spend the day at the beach, she was nearly ready to go when her cell started vibrating,
" hello" she answered timidly, she hadn't recongised the call id, no one expect frank and summer had this number, not even scott knew, she had it for emergency's and kept it hidden in jamie's room, just in case.
" taylor its ryan, I was just wondering if I could maybe see you and jamie today" ryan was just as nervous as he waited for her response.
" ryan, I haven't heard from you in the last 2 days, you claimed I'd lied to you….." before taylor could finish rayn interrupted her,
" I know, but I didn't know, its hard to explain over the phone, but if we could just meet somewhere I'll explain everything" he was nearly panting as he finished, she had to give him a chance, she just had to.
" fine, we were just on our way to the beach anyway, so I guess you could meet us there" in a way taylor was ecstatic that she was going to see ryan today but in a way she just wanted his explaination.
" okay well, I'm already here so I guess I'll just wait for you"
Taylor closed her phone and took jamie outside to her car.
As taylor got jamie out of the car she was already looking around for ryan, she couldn't see him anywhere, he wasn't coming, he's changed his mind was her first thought, she went around to the other side of the car to take her bags out, when she heard a familiar voice
" here let me take that" there he was in all his gloriousness, taking the bags from her.
Taylor just smiled and nodded as she took jamie's hand and the three of them walked down on to the beach.
They picked just the right spot, near to the waters edge so jamie could make sandcastles, they set up the towels and sat down taking in the hot sun.
Jamie was already making a sandcastle when ryan turned to taylor,
" I'm sorry for the other night, but I really didn't know" ryan put his head down, he felt so guilty for the way he'd spoke to her.
" how could you not know, I wrote to you every week for a year" taylor was getting upset.
" I didn't receive them, I had an assistant Libby…ryan paused the anger towards libby was coming out and see intercepted my mail, my emails everything as I was always so busy in the office,"
Taylor looked puzzled " so why didn't she forward them onto you, she had read them cos when they all kept coming back they'd been opened"
" I knew she wanted to be with me, she was always wearing revealing clothes and asking me out but I never thought that she would do this" he really didn't understand neither did taylor.
" but even if she did wanted to be with you, why didn't she tell you about jamie"
" because of you…ryan put his head down now he understood why, talking about it had made him understand everything, because I'm still in love with you, I always have been" he was shocked that he had said it out loud.
A gasp of air escaped taylor's lips, had she heard him right, yep he had definitely said he loved her. All Taylor could do was stare, what could she say, but before she could say anything,
" listen, I'm not expecting you to fall in to my arms and say it back, summer told me about scott, but I do want to be apart of yours and jamie's lives" ryan was looking into taylor's hazel eyes.
Oh my god summer had told him about scott, what did he know, how scared she was of him, how possessive he was, all she could do was nod. All she wanted to do was to melt into ryans arms and say I love you back and for him to rescue her and take her and jamie away from the nightmare they lived in, but if she did that she knew that she be dead. Scott had always said " if I can't have you, no -one will" and he meant it.
Taylor agreed that ryan could spend time with jamie and get to know him properly not just on paper, and as she watched them playing in the sand she knew she'd made the right choice.
As taylor sat watching jamie and ryan play, she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched, she scanned the beach and there she saw scott, but was it? She squinted her eyes in the sun but he was gone, it wasn't him after all, she started scanning the beach again when she was suddenly soaked with a huge bucket on water, ryan and jamie just started laughing,
" jamie alex atwood come here" she said motioning for him to come to her, jamie hung his head preparing for a telling off, but instead taylor pulled him in and whispered in his ear, the next second jamie was chucking another bucket of water but this time at ryan,
Taylor started laughing at them both when ryan looked at her " oh you think that's funny do you" he ran over to taylor and picked her up putting her over his shoulder, jamie was running and laughing behind as ryan ran in to the sea and chucked both himself and taylor in.
Jamie jumped in too and grabbed ryan for support," yay daddy" he yelled laughing as he started to splash his mom and dad some more, ryan froze those two words was the best thing he had ever heard.
They spent the rest of they day playing and having fun, they felt how a proper family should. But could their happiness last?
