Here's the next chapter. I really like this one so I hope you like it too.
10 months later
Ryan's Office - 5:30pm
Ryan was in his office of his architectural company 'Atwood and Co.', on the phone with a client.
"Yes Mr Johnson, we have you're plans ready. I've had my best team of architects working on them for you, and I promise, you'll be impressed," Ryan said into the phone. He paused for a moment to hear the client's reply then replied, "Okay sounds great, I'll see you then. Bye."
Just as he hung up the phone, it rang again. Ryan sighed, and picked up the phone again, "Mr Atwood, I have your wife on line 1," said the secretary.
"Thanks Jenny put her on," he replied.
"Okay Mr Atwood, one moment."
A few seconds later, Taylor's voice came through the telephone, "Hello?"
"Hey honey, what's wrong?" Ryan asked.
"Nothings wrong," she replied, "I just wanted to know when you're coming home."
"Uh, I'll probably be home in around..." he thought for a moment, looking down at his watch, "Half an hour."
"Okay sweetie, I'll see you then," Taylor chimed happily. Ryan could tell she probably had one of those big goofy smiles on her face that he loved.
"I love you," he replied.
"I love-" she started, but got distracted and exclaimed. "Emily don't stick your finger in Flapjacks' cage!"
A moment later Ryan heard the baby crying. "Everything okay?" he asked, worried about what had happened.
"Flapjacks bit Emily and she's crying," Taylor explained. Ryan then heard shuffling noises which he guessed were Taylor picking Emily up. "It's okay baby, you're alright," Taylor soothed the baby. "Ryan, I've got to go, I'll talk to you soon."
"Wait!" Ryan exclaimed in alarm. "Is Emily okay? She doesn't look sick does she? She could have gotten rabies or something. Is she pale? Cold? Maybe you should take her to the hospit-"
"Sweetie she's fine, it wasn't even a hard bite," she interupted. "Hurry home okay? I love you, bye."
Ryan sighed, "Okay, bye," then hung up the phone.
Ryan yawned as he started packing up his briefcase it had been a long day of meetings and phone calls at the office, as well as a few on site checks around the Berkley area, and all he wanted to do was go home to his family.
Ryan was about to open the door of his office and leave when the phone rang again, for the third time in the last 10 minutes. He groaned, then reluctantly went and answered with a annoyed, "Yes?"
"Sorry to bother you," started Jenny, "But you're mother's on the phone."
"Uh, okay," Ryan replied, sitting back down in his office chair. "You can go home now by the way Jenny. Thanks."
"Okay thank you, Mr Atwood" she answered.
As soon as the line was connected, Ryan spoke into the phone, "Hey Kirsten, how are you?"
"Kirsten?" the person on the other line questioned.
"Wait a minute, Mom?" he asked, sitting forward in his chair in alarm. On the other end of the phone line was his biological mother, Dawn.
"Yeah it's me," Dawn replied. "Why did you think I was Kirsten?"
"Because she usually tells my secretary she's my mother so I just assumed it was her..." Ryan started. "Uh, why are you calling me? We havent spoken in almost 10 years."
"I know sweetie," she sighed. "That's exactly why I'm calling, I want to catch up. Can you come visit me in Albuquerque?"
"Uh, I don't think I can go over there," Ryan replied awkwardly. "It's not that I don't want to, I just have responsibilities here."
"Can't you take a few days off work?" Dawn asked, hoping to change her son's mind.
"Oh it's not work, I can take a few days off but if I came to see you I'd have to bring the whole family."
"You want to bring Sandy, Kirsten and Seth too?" she asked, slightly confused.
"No, not the Cohens," Ryan replied with a slight laugh. "My wife, Taylor and our daughter Emily."
"You have a wife and daughter?" She asked, sounding very surprised. "Well you can bring them too, how old is Emily?"
"She's almost 11 months," he told her. "It would probably be easier if you came here, considering there's only 1 of you and 3 of us."
"Actually there's 2 of us," Dawn corrected him.
"Two?" Ryan questioned, slightly concerned.
"Me and my husband Greg," she explained. "He's amazing, I really think you'll like him."
"Great, I can't wait to meet him," Ryan replied, frowning worriedly.
"So when do you want us to come?" asked Dawn.
"Uh, I'm not sure," he told her. "I'm gonna have to talk to Taylor, but I'll call you later on. What's your number?"
Dawn told him the number and Ryan wrote it down then he asked, "How did you get my work number anyway?"
"I was thinking about you a lot lately, I've always thought about you a lot," Dawn explained. "Then I realized I still had Sandy's mobile number, so I called him and asked about you and he gave me your number."
"Oh, okay," Ryan replied, not really knowing what to say next.
There was an awkward silence before Dawn spoke up, "So, I'll talk to you later?"
"Uh, yeah, bye," he replied awkwardly, then hung up the phone and said to himself, "Well, that was unexpected."
Ryan and Taylor's House - 6:15pm
Ryan arrived home from the office a little late after his phone call with his mother.
When he entered the house, he left his briefcase and laptop in the study, then went into the kitchen where Taylor was making dinner and trying to feed Emily, who was in her high chair, her baby food at the same time. The baby seemed to have completely forgotten about her incident with the family pet earlier.
Taylor's face lit up when she saw her husband enter the room, "Ryan, you're home!"
Emily's face also lit up the same way and she yelled out, "Dada!"
"Hey," Ryan smiled, giving Taylor a quick kiss. He then leant down and gave Emily a kiss on the forehead, "What's this I hear about Flapjacks attacking you? I may have to punch him for hurting my baby," Ryan joked.
Emily giggled, and started wiggling around in the high chair, trying to get out. Frustrated, the baby held up her arms and squealed, "Ot!"
Ryan guess that was baby talk for 'out' so he removed the high chair tray, then lifted Emily out of the chair and gave her a hug. He then turned to his wife, "Oh sorry, were you still feeding her?"
"Don't worry, she's eaten most of it," replied Taylor, picking up the almost empty bowl of baby food, then rinsing it and setting it down in the sink. "Flapjacks didn't attack her Ryan, Emily was just...curious I guess, and stuck her finger in his cage. Then Flapjacks, being just a curious decided to see if her finger was edible." She shrugged.
"She could have gotten a disease from that," Ryan glared at his wife. "I don't think its a very good idea to have Flapjacks around at the moment. Maybe we should give him back to Summer and Seth for now, at least until Emily's a little older."
"Sweetie don't be silly. It's a rabbit, not a vicious beast!" Taylor giggled then continued, "And besides, do you really think Summer's gonna want another rabbit? You know with the new baby coming and all." Summer was 7 months pregnant with her and Seth's second child, which they found out was a boy.
"Have you seen what dogs can do to little innocent children?" Ryan continued his paranoid Daddy speech. "Rabbits can easily do the same." -Taylor gave her husband a look- "Okay I'm exhaggerating a little, but I'm just looking out for my little princess here," he replied, giving Emily a kiss on the cheek. "So anyway, what's for dinner?"
"Pasta, spaghetti bolagnaise actually," she replied, turning off the stove. "Uh, can you start serving Ryan? I'll take Emily."
"Aw, but I haven't seen her all day," Ryan whined with a grin, hugging his daughter to his chest gently.
Taylor smiled, "Fine, I'll serve. Just put Emily in her playpen so we can eat."
A few minutes later, Taylor and Ryan were seated at the table eating dinner, while Emily was nearby in her playpen, playing and occassionally looking up to watch her parents.
The room was unusually silent, with both Ryan and Taylor seeming to be in deep thought.
In unison, they both announced, "I need to talk to you."
"Uh, you go first," Taylor smiled, gesturing to Ryan.
"Okay, you won't believe who called me today," he started.
"Who?" Taylor asked.
"My mom, my real mom," Ryan replied.
"The one you haven't spoken to in 10 years?" she questioned worriedly.
"Yep, strange huh?"
"What did she say?"
"She wants us to come see us," Ryan explained. "If it's okay with you."
"Of course it's okay," Taylor smiled. "I'd love to meet her."
"Really? You would?" he asked with a frown.
"Yeah...is that a bad thing?" she asked with a confused look on her face. "Don't you want to see your Mom again?"
"To be honest, I don't know," Ryan sighed. "She hasn't bothered to make contact with me all this time and suddenly she calls and wants to be apart of my life again?"
"No offense, but you haven't exactly bothered to contact her either," Taylor pointed out.
"I know," he replied. "But the reason I'm so concerned is that she said she has a new husband."
"Honey, don't assume the worst," Taylor told her husband, taking his hand. "He could be a really nice guy, don't judge him before you meet him."
"You don't know my mother like I do Taylor," Ryan sighed. "She's always picks the wrong guys."
Taylor glared at him, "Ryan, give the poor woman a chance here. She's trying to do the right thing and make contact with you again, be happy. I would love it if my Dad tried to contact me but I doubt that's going to happen, so consider yourself lucky."
"You're right, I know," he rolled his eyes. "I should give both of them a chance."
"Nice to see you're listening to me for once," Taylor grinned. "So what are you gonna do?"
Ryan thought for a moment. "I guess they can come here for a couple of days," he decided.
"Good decision," Taylor nodded with a smile. "They can come in two weeks time."
"Okay. Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?" Ryan asked, picking up one of Emily's stuffed toys off the floor and setting it on the table.
"What?" she looked up from her pasta.
"You said you had to talk to me about something..." he replied, raising one eyebrow.
"Oh right, yeah I-I-I do have to tell you something," Taylor stuttered nervously. "I'm just not sure how you're going to react."
Ryan frowned and turned around in his seat to face his wife, "Is something wrong Taylor?"
"No, no, nothing's wrong," she replied. "Just...uh...different."
Ryan stared at her blankly, "Okay... so what is it?"
"I...uh," Taylor started. Ryan looked at her worriedly. "I-I...could really go for some more pasta." She stood up and went into the kitchen.
Ryan looked down at Taylors untouched bowl of pasta and followed her into the kitchen, "Taylor?"
"More pasta?" she asked, walking past him with a bowl of spaghetti.
"Honey, what's going on?" Ryan asked, as he followed her back to the table.
"I wanted more pasta," Taylor shrugged, sitting back down at the table.
"No," Ryan replied seriously, "what's really going on?"
Taylor sighed, "You really want to know?"
"Yes, I do. You're my wife and I love you," he nodded, sitting back down at the table "and when you're acting this strange, there's something wrong. So what is it?"
"Okay..." Taylor started once again. "I'm pregnant...again."
"What?" Ryan laughed in shock.
"I'm pregnant," she repeated. "We're having another baby."
Ryan looked completely shocked for a moment, then replied, "Oh my God."
"Is that a good oh my God?" Taylor asked, as she sat on the edge of her seat anxiously.
"Of course it is!" Ryan exclaimed, jumping up from the table. He then pulled Taylor up from her chair and gave her a hug.
"You're really happy about this?" she asked, as she broke away from the hug.
"Of course I am," he replied. "We always said we wanted our kids to be close in age."
"I know, I just wasn't sure how you'd react when it actually happened," Taylor smiled.
"This is great," Ryan assured his wife. "We're gonna have another one of those" -he gestured to Emily who was playing happily- "in 9 months."
"Actually, it's more like 7 and a half months," she told him. "I'm already 6 weeks along."
"You went to the doctor already?" he questioned with a frown then added, "Without me?"
"Well, I was feeling kind of out of it this morning, so I made a doctor's appointment," Taylor explained. "I just thought it was stress or something, but it turns out that I'm pregnant."
"I have a feeling this one's a boy," Ryan said, glancing down at Taylor's stomach
"Why?" she asked, instinctively placing her hand on her stomach.
"Well we already have a girl, so it makes sense this one would be a boy," Ryan shrugged. "And I'm already outnumbered here."
"We'll see I guess," Taylor smiled, giving her husband a quick kiss on the lips. She then went over to the playpen, picked up Emily and brought her back over to Ryan.
"Okay Miss Emily," Ryan started, gently stroking the baby's curly blonde hair. "How would you feel about having a baby brother or sister?"
Emily just smiled in response and started making undistinguishable baby noises.
"I'm sure she's gonna be the best big sister," said Taylor, looking lovingly at her daughter.
"We definitely have to get rid of that rabbit now," Ryan commented, glancing over at Flapjacks, who was asleep in his cage on the other side of the room.
Taylor glared at her husband, "Ryan..."
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