Sandy paced around the house. He wasn't going to tell Ryan anything else. He wasn't even sure if he would come forward with the truth or not if Ryan asked. Would Ryan ask? He still seemed so jumpy around him. Sandy knew he was spending too much time comparing Ryan to Seth and Rosie; he knew he needed to stop.
Ryan was different. Beating himself up over what happened to him in the past wasn't going to do either of them any good. That didn't mean he was going to stop beating himself up completely, but he knew he had other things to focus on. Instead of comparing Ryan to Seth and Rosie, he needed to compare the Ryan who was around today to the Ryan that was around when Sandy had first met him. Ryan was still quiet and nervous and unsure, but he seemed to be adjusting better as well as could be expected, even better.
In just a little over a week, he had come far. Sandy had to think about the future – a future with three happy and well-adjusted children – instead of wasting his time worrying about the past.
A soft noise startled Ryan. He looked toward the house to see nothing. He wrinkled his brow and stared. The sliding door was open. And no one was there. No one tall enough to immediately get his attention, that was.
"Can I come outside?" The voice was louder than Ryan imagined could have come out of such a small mouth. He wasn't really sure of what to say. It was more Rosie's house than it was his, but he was much older than she was. How did that work? "Can I?"
Ryan had a brief vision of the little girl bursting into a ten minutes rant about nothing in particular just like her father or brother would have done. It didn't seem to particularly be her style, but he didn't doubt she would do it just to get her way.
"Uh, sure?" A smile broke out over the young girl's face as she threw the door open and ran outside holding two dolls. She climbed into the chair closest to Ryan and tossed one of the toys at him. Ryan stared at it, not even touching it. He wasn't really sure as to what he should do with it. It had blond curls coming out of its head and was wearing a purple dress, a smile painted on its face.
Ryan had never been around dolls, at least not that he could remember. He wasn't sure why he would ever be around dolls. They weren't boy toys so he and Trey would have never had any. He wasn't sure if the doll was supposed to look like a baby or a small human or what, but it made him uncomfortable.
"Here. Keep an eye on them, okay?" Rosie propped the other doll up on the chair into a sitting position and took off back inside. Ryan had never spent a lot of time around children, even when he was a small child.
Rosie eventually ran back out, her arms overflowing with little plastic pink things. She went through a seemingly endless loop of dropping one toy and bending over to pick it up only to drop two more. As frustrating as it may have been to some, she didn't seem to notice, or mind. She simply kept at her task until she was finally able to unload every single toy on the table between their two chairs.
"Here." She spread everything out so she could see and assess it all at once. She began picking through it all. Soon, plate and cup sat before each other them with a fork and knife to the side. A pile of pink toys still sat off to the side. Rosie apparently didn't care that she had spent so much time transporting things she didn't need. "We're gonna play tea party, okay?"
Rosie continued talking, but in a quieter voice, almost to herself. Ryan could barely make out the words. Instead of listening, he watched. He watched her little mouth move as she seemed to make eye contact with the only real person around. She spoke different parts of the conversations and poured the tea over and over again.
Ryan remembered back to when he had been like that. Sure he hadn't had tea parties with pink toys and dolls, but he remembered multiple imaginary friends he used to talk to. When had he stopped that?
"Hey." Ryan looked up to see Marissa standing on the other side of the backyard.
"Hey."
"Summer said she and Seth were going to a movie. Do you know if they're back yet?" Ryan simply shook his head.
The figure standing before him was gorgeous, gorgeous in a way he wasn't used to. Maybe it was the air of confidence she had or maybe it had something to do with the money she grew up with. She definitely had something Ryan had never seen before.
"Mind if I wait here?" Ryan shook his head again. He looked to Rosie to receive a glare. It startled him. She had been so happy just seconds ago. Had she really been enjoying Ryan's company so much that she was angry that they were interrupted? It seemed crazy. "Hey Rosie. You guys having a tea party?"
Rosie nodded, still staring at Ryan. He felt as if she was trying to tell him something, but he had no idea what. He was never good at reading faces, especially since he had never really spent a lot of time around people. Rosie eventually looked away and nodded.
"Can I join you?" Rosie looked a little skeptical but just a minute later she had drawn Marissa into her little world of gibberish and dolls. Ryan watched both of them talk in some sort of code. He wasn't sure if it came with being a girl or with growing up in a different environment but Seth and Summer could take their time coming home as far as he was concerned.