hold me in your arms

chapter eleven

Ryan's pov

Once we had finished our lunch, which was peanut butter and jam sandwiches and lemonade, I brought Jaymie back to finish our sandcastle. It was wonderful seeing her so carefree and seeing her have so much fun. Once we had finished the sandcastle, she decided that she wasn't quite done with her masterpiece and she wanted to build a moat as well, so that's exactly what we did.

The rest of the day went on the same. After we finished, for real this time, the castle, she decided it was time to play in the water. She taught me her own made-up game called up, jump, and under where you either go over the wave if it's small, jump over it if it's big, or dive under it. After a while, I checked my watch and saw that it was nearly half six, and realised that if she was going to get to bed at a decent time, then we should probably start heading back. She was having loads of fun, I felt so bad knowing that I had to tell her that we had to go home. I walked over to her, wrapping my arms around her waist and kissing her cheek.

"JJ, we gotta go soon, love," I said, then looking at her face to gage her reaction. As I expected, a pout had formed on her face and she was looking at me with wide puppy eyes.

"Do we haf to, mommy?" She whined. I nodded sadly, moving the hair that had fallen over her eye out of her face.

"Yeah bubba, we do. We have to get home so you can get a good night's sleep, otherwise, you'll be too tired to go to work tomorrow." She pouted, she didn't like me talking about work when she was little. I frowned and kissed her on the cheek again. "Sorry, angel, but we got to go. Can you come get your towel for me?" She nodded sadly but didn't start walking.

"What's wrong?" I asked curiously. She made grabby hands, signalling she wanted me to carry her.

"Uppies pwease?" She asked. I felt bad, I knew I couldn't carry her like I normally would, but I couldn't just say no to her. She was too cute to say no to. I thought for a minute before getting an idea. I turned around so that my back was facing her and I bent down.

"Hop on," I said, gesturing for her to climb up, and thankfully, she was big enough that she had no problem getting on. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs tightly around my waist. She giggled as I started to move, I assume because she was bouncing a bit. I love that she's so sweet and innocent, she finds almost everything funny. It warmed my heart and made me want to burst. She was too precious for this world. I felt her nuzzle her face into my neck and place a kiss where my shoulder and neck connected. She made a sound of content and I could tell that she was starting to get tired, she would probably be asleep by the time we got home.

After everyone grabbed all of their stuff and helped me carry it to the car, while I was still holding Jaymie on my back, Bee and Avery went back to their car and Sadie decided to ride with us again. Jay was half asleep, so I placed her in the passenger seat and buckled her in hoping she'd be fine there. We didn't have any of her stuffies or blankets with us, so I placed one of our towels over her so she'd stay warm.

I checked my watch one more time before pulling out and saw it was already 7 o'clock. I turned to Sadie who was already deeply absorbed in her phone.

"Hey, Sade?" I asked. She never looked up from her phone but hummed in response. "It's already seven, do you think we should stop and get some food? It's going to be a long drive,"

"Yeah sure," she said, looking up. "Why don't you call Bee real quick and see if they and Ave want to join us." I nodded in agreement.

"Oh smart, one second." She nodded fixing her attention back on whatever she was doing on her phone. I went to my phone app finding Bee's contact name and pressing the call button. It rang a few times before they finally answered.

"Hey, Ry, what's up?" They asked.

"Hey, we want to stop for dinner, do you want to meet us somewhere?" I heard Avey in the background asking if we were getting food and 'Can we please go! I'm starving!' I laughed at my friend and his constant hunger.

"Avery is begging me and he genuinely scares me when he doesn't get fed, so sure. Where do you want to meet up?"

"There's a MacDonald's about ten kilometers from the beach. Does that work for you guys?" I heard whispering, most likely Bee telling Avery to shut up and asking him if he was okay with it, to which he obviously agreed.

"Yeah sounds great. See you in a mo," they replied, hanging up once we had bid our goodbyes.

...

Once we had reached our destination, I told Sadie she could head inside and I'll meet them all in there once I had gotten Jaymie up. She shrugged with an 'okay' before heading inside, still distracted by her phone.

I unbuckled Jaymie's seatbelt, shaking her a bit and combing my fingers through the hair at the top of her head.

"JJ, you gotta get up. We're getting some food, love." She opened her eyes groggily and sniffled before sneezing the smallest, most adorable sneeze I'd ever heard.

"Don feel good, mommy," she said with a whine and a pout evident on her face. She coughed and snuggled further into the seat. I placed the back of my hand to her forehead, checking for a temperature. She was a little warm which worried me, but I wanted her to get some food, then hopefully she could fall back to sleep and she'd feel fine in the morning.

"Okay, angel, you're a little warm, but you need to get some food in you okay?" She nodded sadly. "But after you can come back to the car and sleep the rest of the way home okay?"

"Otay," she sniffed. "Can ou cawwy me?" She said, voice thick with emotion. It broke my heart.

"No baby, I'm sorry. You gotta be a big girl," I frowned, playing with her hair. She almost immediately burst into tears, crying into my chest. "I'm so sorry baby, but you can get a kiddy meal if you want." She blinked up with me, tears still running down her cheeks, but her eyes shone a little more at the promise of a happy meal.

"Reawwy?" She asked, a bit more hopeful.

"Really, now let's go get some food in you," I said nodding, she sighed and the pout was still prominent on her lips. Kissing her cheek in reassurance, she grasped my hand tightly in hers as we walked in to meet our friends.

A/N: Here's chapter eleven! I really hope this is a good story and it's enjoyable for you all to read! Please leave comments for feedback, suggestions, and things you'd like to see more of, it would mean a lot to hear from you all x Anyways, enjoy this chapter! xx

Question of the day! What is your comfort show? Mine is Friends or New Girl! :p