Come In With The Rain
Chapter 8
Austin's POV
I wake up the next morning with a smile on my face that won't go away. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I push the comforter away from my legs and walk to the bath room. The reflection in the mirror greets me with a smile, it's been awhile since I smiled in the morning. I guess girls have that power. Not just any girls, my girls. Well, one of them is mine, the other is, well, complicated. Today is the day that I get to tell Audrey I'm her father. I haven't known about her for a week yet and I already love her. I fell in love with Ally just as fast. Try not to think about that today, Austin. Think about the little girl that you and Ally made. Think about how Ally is going to help you fix your career, what ever is left of it.
It's only 10 am and I'm ready to go to Ally's. She told me that we were going to have lunch, but she didn't say what time lunch would be served. I know! I should head over there then we could take Audrey for ice cream to celebrate!
At 11, I find my self driving to Ally's. I pull up to find that she's not even home. Where else could she be? Sonic Boom maybe.
It's 11:30 when I pull into the mall parking lot. I spot Ally's car and start to walk to the store. I thank god that no one has asked me for a picture. I pull the door open to find Ally playing a tune on the piano.
I walk over to her, she hasn't noticed my presence yet. "Nice tune, do you have any lyrics yet?" She jumps up in surprise.
"Austin! What are you doing here?" She gets off of the bench and walks over to the counter.
"You said that we could have lunch with Audrey. Where is Audrey?" Ally stands behind the counter while I hop onto the counter to sit. Just like all the times before.
"She's at daycare from 9 to 2. When I said lunch, I meant that I would call you when we were ready to have lunch." She opens the cash register to pull out the money.
"Oh, I should've known that. I was just excited." She looks away from the money that she's starting to count, her face softens.
"I'm happy that you're excited, but you can't show up at my job when ever you want to." She turns away from me.
"I used to all the time." My statement causes her hand to stop counting the 10 dollar bills.
"That was when we were kids. Were adults now and adults can't take two-hour breaks to write a song when ever they want to." She goes back to counting the money.
It's silent now, just the occasional costumer asking Ally a question. The store isn't too busy on this Wednesday after noon. I pull out my phone to look at the time, 12:15. I'm getting impatient.
I hop off of the counter and walk over to where Ally's standing at the violin rack. "What time is Audrey done at day care?"
"She get's off at two, why?"
"Can I go get her early?" I know that it's a risky question to ask, Ally is very protective of her daughter. I just can't wait any longer.
She sighs. "I don't know Austin." I give her my puppy dog eyes, they use to not work on her but they must today. "I guess. But you must have her home by two and you can not tell her with out me." She grabs her phone to call the people at the day care. "You can take my car since it already has a booster seat in it." She hands me the keys from her pocket. "Just please me careful. "
I take the keys from her and smirk. "Do you not trust me? I'm not going to take your daughter away or get in a wreck or anything." I hand her the keys to my car and she takes them.
She shakes her head. "I never said that, but you never know what could happen." I smile at her.
"I promise to be careful with our daughter." wrong wording, maybe. "I'll see you at two." I don't wait for her response. I know that Ally and I are going to have a lot of interesting talks in the next few months.
After walking through the parking lot and finding Ally's car, I unlock the car door to get into the driver side. Once I do I turn the key into the ignition to be welcomed with the sound of my first album. My mouth turns up into a smile, Ally listens to my music. Well, Audrey probably asked to listen to, but still. Before driving away, I grab my phone to send a quick text.
To Ally
I see that you listen to my music in your car, nice to know your still a fan.
I put the phone down in my lap and start to drive towards Audrey's day care. My phone dings, I check it at a red light.
From Ally
It was for Audrey.
I laugh before sending one back.
To Ally
Sure it was.
From Ally
Oh shut up.
The light turns green so I put my phone down, shaking my head. God, I am happy to have her back in my life.
I pull up into the parking lot and turn of the car. The path way to the door is lined with pretty flowers. I pull the door to be welcomed by a perky blonde. She must me a fan. "Austin Moon! What are you doing here?" She fixes her shirt while I roll my eyes.
"Ally Dawson called to say that I would be picking up her daughter." Her eyes narrow. "Can I go get her?" The girl looks like she wants to kill someone. Thankfully the manager comes out.
"Yes, Mr. Moon. I will go get Audrey for you." As the manager walks away, she gives the girl a glare. I decide that it would be best if I just walked away from the girl, don't need any more rumors to come out.
I stand by the door when I hear foot steps run up to me. "Austin!" Audrey hugs on to my legs. "I didn't know you were coming to get me!"
I pat her back and lead her out the door. "Your mommy let me come get you early."
"Really? I'm glad that you guys are okay now." She skips up to Ally's car and I help her into the car seat.
After getting into the driver's side and starting the car, I say, "We are okay, in fact, I'm going to take you back home and then were all going to have lunch! Does that sound good to you?" I look at her reflection in the visor, her head nodding happily. "Good, It's only one, so we have an hour till mommy gets off work. Is there something you would like to do first?"
She thinks for a second. "Can we go to the park?"
"Of course." We make our way to the park, my CD still playing through the speakers. "Hey, Audrey, how long have you been listening to this CD?" I know that they must have been for a while because Audrey knows the words.
"For a long time! Mommy always puts it in." My smile appears again.
The smile doesn't leave my face.
Ally's POV
I pull into my drive way at 2:10 to find Austin helping Audrey out of my car. Audrey runs over to me.
"Hi mommy!" I take her in my hands and spin her around.
"Hi baby! Did you have fun with Austin?"
"Very much! We went to the park!" Austin walks over to us as I put Audrey down to walk up to the door.
We walk up the path way and I take out my keys to open up the door. Audrey runs in, Austin gestures for me to go in first, I smile at him. This feels way to domestic.
Once were in, Austin and I silently agree that it's time to tell her. We sit her down on the couch, between us. "Audrey, Austin and I have something to tell you." She looks at both of us, I can see the little wheels in her head turning. "You know how I told you that your Daddy wasn't ready to be a daddy yet?"
She nods, "You said that he loves me but he's not ready to meet me." Audrey looks down at her hands in her lap.
I look over at Austin to see if he wants to say anything first. He gestures for me to tell her. "Well, he might be ready." She looks up at me.
"Really?" Her eyes sparkle, "Where is he?" She looks around he living room.
I point to the blonde sitting next to her. "It's Austin." She looks over, her eyes scanning his body. It's quiet, to quiet. "How do you feel about that?" She looks over at me then back to Austin.
"I feel very happy!" She hugs Austin tightly, he's taken by surprise. "I'm so happy you're ready to be my daddy!"
Austin squeezes her small body. "I'm happy to Audrey."
"I love you already daddy." Audrey whispers into Austin's shoulder. My heart warms and breaks all at the same time.
Austin pulls away from the hug to kiss her nose. "I love you to Audrey." There goes my emotions, a tear slips from my eye. I quickly wipe it away.
After we tell her and eat dinner, we play a game and before we know it, it's bed time. I let Austin tuck her in, he deserves it. As he reads her a bed time story, I go to my room to get the box of DVD's. Ever since Audrey was born I've recorded every important event in her life. Out loud I said it was to remember every moment, but in my mind I knew I did it for when ever Austin came back. I'm glad I did.
I take the box and walk out to the living room. Austin walks in when I'm putting in the first DVD, Audrey's first day home. "What's all of this?" He gestures to the box.
I get up from the floor and tell him to sit on the couch. "It's every DVD I have of Audrey. From her first birthday to her first time in the pool. I figured that you would want to see them." I reach for the remote, trying to ignore his intense stare on me.
He doesn't say anything, just watches the screen in front of us.
Dez recorded the video while Trish and I carried a new-born Audrey into my old apartment that I shared with Trish at the time. The whole video is just Trish yelling at Dez to get her good side and Audrey crying. But it's still important to me. The next video is of Audrey's first bath. It was just the little seat that you put into the sink, but she loved it. As I gently poured the water on her, then, tiny body, you can hear Trish and I laughing because of Audrey's little coo's that she made.
"She really liked the water, huh?" Austin breaks the silence.
I nod. "You should've seen when she was finally big enough to get real baths." I laughed, remembering all the water that got all over me, and the bath room floor.
"Yeah, I should've been." I move my focus back on the screen.
Now the video is of Audrey's first time crawling. Dez was the recorder, while Trish, my mom and I stood at different corners in the house. We were in a competition to see who Audrey would crawl to first. I won of course. You can hear Trish's complaints, my mom's tears, and Dez's voice from behind the camera saying that Austin should be here for this.
I look over at his face to see tears silently coming from his eyes, I ignore them. I don't want to embarrass him.
We go from Audrey's first words, mommy, of course. To her first birthday, and her first time in the pool.
I pause the DVD to say something. "When Audrey turned one, I was worried that she hadn't walked yet." I look away from him. "My parents reassured me that there was nothing wrong and she would when she was ready. Well, when she was a fourteen months I knew that I had to do something to get her to walk." I play with my fingers. "On a Wednesday, to be exact, I turned on the news while Audrey sat on the floor playing with her toys. You happened to be doing an interview on the channel. You were singing a song on the TV, Audrey was hanging on to the coffee table. She must have wanted to see what was on the TV because before I knew it she was walking towards it. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to record it." I allow my self to look at him for a second, he has his head in his lap. "That night I went in my room and cried for the first time in a while. I cried for my self, for Audrey and for you. It felt like destiny that she walked to you, well sort of. Stupid, I know."
I'm still staring at the TV when I hear Austin's silent crying become not so silent. I look over at him to find his face red from crying. "Austin, what's wrong?" Stupid question Ally.
"Everything." He wipes he eyes. "I screwed up so bad." He laughs to him self, "God, I was hooking up with girls and getting drunk when I had a daughter out there who needed me." I'm ready to say something but he talks again. "I'm sorry Ally." He sniffles. "I didn't want to cry but It's hard not to when you've messed up like I have." My brain turns to mush.
I take his hands into mine. "Austin, listen to me. You didn't know about Audrey. If you did then things would've been different."
"Things would be better. There wouldn't be people who say that I get them pregnant and there wouldn't be people who believed them." He tries to move his hand from mine but I won't let him.
"Hey, they don't matter, all that matters is that you have a daughter who loves you. Did you see how fast she welcomed you? She was already planning daddy daughter outings." He looks down at out intertwined hands.
"Do you still love me?" He can't ask me this.
My whole train of thought stops. I loved him more and more every day, if it was even possible to love someone that much. But I loved him that much. I love him that much. But I wasn't ready for him to know that.
"Austin,"
He cuts me of, while pulling his hands away. "It's fine, I get it. I can't expect you to love me after everything I've done." I can't listen to him put himself down any longer.
I do something that's very out of character for Ally Dawson, I lean over and kiss Austin Moon. The kiss is longer than the one we shared yesterday. Austin doesn't overreact and slap me. In fact he doesn't react at all. It's a really simple kiss, no tounge, no hands lingering. Just my lips on his. My eyes closed and his opened wide. I'm the one who pulls away because I'm pretty sure that Austin is frozen.
"Sorry, I just couldn't listen to you put yourself down any longer." He puts his fingers on his lips. The lips that mine were just on.
"It's fine." It's not fine but we pretend that it is.
The rest of the night is silent, just the TV playing the videos of Audrey. It's midnight when I hear Austin's breathing turn to a quite snore. I reach over for a blanket to put over him.
I allow my self to do something stupid when I sit back down on the couch only to lay down on Austin's chest. Oh were totally fine. I'm fine, especially when I fall asleep to Austin's snoring in my ear and his chest as my pillow. Everything will be fine. Or will it?
Hello! Audrey knows! They kissed again! I hope that this chapter was worth the wait, I tried to make it as long as I could.
For any one who read my other story Stay With Me, I'm currently going back and rereading chapters and editing them. As soon as I do that, I will work on the sequel. I have my idea down and I'm excited for it. So keep an eye out on any sneak peeks ;)
AppleBomb096- Thank you :) You have no idea how happy I am that I have my laptop back, I was lost without it. I'm trying not to stress out too much but school's always stressful for me, I'm always stressed lol. Hope you're doing okay :)
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. Nothings better than coming home from school and reading your nice comments. Best confidence booster haha :)
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review :)
I do not own Austin and Ally. Or the line 'I loved him more and more every day, if it was even possible to love someone that much.' I got it from Gossip Girl and edited it a little bit to fit it.