In a Heartbeat

Chapter 3: Dinner at Sarah and Andy's

It was a few days after Ryan had met some of the friends of his sister, Sarah and her husband, Andy.

Ryan was at his place after taking Robyn for a walk and then after working out with one of his clients, he had a shower at his place and got ready to head to his sister's place for dinner as he was invited by Sarah when they spoke on the phone before he met some of her friends at the beach a few days ago.

Ryan grabbed his keys and locked his place up and got into his SRT Durango and then headed to his sister's place.

He eventually arrived and he parked his car in front of his sister's place.
Ryan got out of his car and locked it up and then he walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

Ryan smiled as he heard the voice of his little niece coming from inside the house.

Ellie: mommy, mommy, Unkie Ryan is here !

Sarah: (laughs) okay sweetheart, I'll get the door.

Ryan chuckled to himself as he found it adorable how excited Ellie gets whenever he comes to visit because aside from her mother and father, Ryan is her favourite family member.

The door finally opened and Ryan greeted his sister with a hug.

Ryan: hey, how are you ?

Sarah: I'm good thank you.

Ryan: that's good.

Sarah: come on in Ryan, a certain someone is excited to see you.

Ryan: (laughs) I know, I heard her from outside here.

Ryan entered Sarah and Andy's house and Sarah closed the door behind him where all of a sudden, his niece, Ellie came running towards him and he picked her up and hugged her.

Ellie: Unkie Ryan !

Ryan: hey munchkin, how've you been ?

Ellie: good.

Ryan: have been behaving ?

Ellie: yeah.

Ryan: well that's good to hear.

Ryan gently put Ellie back down and Sarah suggested that Ellie go and get something to show Ryan that she had done at school.

Sarah: hey sweetheart why don't you go and get that painting that you brought home from school ?

Ellie: okay.

As Ellie started running up the stairs, Sarah told her not to.

Sarah: no running up the stairs, sweetheart or you'll hurt yourself.

Ellie: okay mommy.

Ellie slowed down going up the stairs and Ryan laughed with Sarah.

Ryan: (laughs) she's so cute.

Sarah: (laughs) I know but sometimes, she has a habit of playing around too much and she winds up getting hurt but luckily though, it's not often and when she does, she learns not to do it again.

Ryan: (laughs) remember when I used to be like that, how I used to climb the trees in the backyard and pretend that I was a monkey or something.

Sarah: (laughs) yeah but you didn't learn your lesson so quickly, you ended up breaking an arm by climbing a tree and then once again when you were a teenager and you fell and hit your head and you started bleeding.

Ryan: I've still got that scar too.

Sarah: oh, really ?

Ryan: yeah, look.

Ryan pulled back some hair on the side of his head and showed his sister the scar that he was talking about.

Sarah: oh yeah, so you have.

Then as Ryan was talking with his sister, her husband, Andy came into the room and he greeted Ryan.

Andy: hey there you are !

Ryan: hey Andy.

Ryan and Andy greeted each other with a half hug half handshake.

Andy: how's it going man ?

Ryan: can't complain, what about you ?

Andy: work has been going very well and I'm now in the running for a promotion.

Ryan: good luck, I hope you get it.

Andy: thanks dude.

Then, Ellie came back downstairs with a piece of paper that had a painting on it and she tugged at Ryan's hand to get his attention.

Ellie: Unkie Ryan, Unkie Ryan, look !

Ellie gave Ryan her painting and he looked over at it and he smiled at her as he crouched down and he handed it back to her.

Ryan: this is very good munchkin, you keep at this and you could be a great artist you know.

Ellie: really ? You think so ?

Ryan: oh yeah of course, you can do anything that you set your mind to.

Ellie: mommy and daddy say that to me.

Ryan: well they're right.

Ellie then turned to Sarah.

Sarah: you what ? How about we put this on the fridge ?

Ellie: okay.

Ellie followed Sarah into the kitchen and she grabbed a magnet and Sarah picked Ellie up and held her in her arms while she stuck the painting on the fridge with the magnet.

Then Sarah turned to Andy and Ryan and spoke to them.

Sarah: now how about I get started on dinner eh ?

A little bit later, and dinner was ready and Andy and Ryan helped Sarah dish out the food onto the plates and then put the plates of food on the table and then they all sat down together to eat and while they were eating, Sarah decided to ask Ryan about maybe meeting up with her and Andy's friends again.

Sarah: so Ryan I have a question for you.

Ryan: fire away.

Sarah: you know when you came to the beach with us and you met our friends, what did you think of them ?

Ryan: I like them, they seem like nice people.

Sarah: really ?

Ryan: yeah, if you like them then chances are that I'll like them too, I mean I even get along with some of the people that work at your hair salon.

Sarah: yeah that's true, they all think you're really sweet.

Ryan: well I'm glad that's the case.

Sarah: anyway, what I meant to ask you is I was wondering if you would like to come to an NXT show with me and Andy.

Ryan nodded and agreed to go.

Ryan: yeah, sounds like a good idea, I'd like to go with you guys.

Ellie turned to Ryan.

Ellie: Nana and Grampa are going to be coming here.

Ryan: oh are they going to look after you ?

Ellie: yeah, I can't wait.

Ryan smiled and they began talking more about the show and Ryan was looking forward to it.
The show in question is going to be next week and Ryan found himself being excited about it.

They all ate the rest of their dinner together and Ryan stayed for a little bit longer until he had to go and as he was leaving, he said goodbye to Sarah, Andy and of course, Ellie who hugged him and he hugged her back.

Ryan left after saying his goodbyes and went back home and at the end of the day, he went to sleep after taking his dog, Robyn for another walk.