"What do you mean he's in Nashville?" Karlie questioned over the phone. Taylor had called her right away to tell her about her encounter with Adam.
"Like I talked to him and he talked to Ricky." Taylor explained, sitting down on the couch while Richard was in his room.
"Does he know that Ricky is your son?" She wondered. Taylor had been thinking about the encounter ever since she left the café. She was worried because she didn't know how to deal with it. Because one, she hadn't talked to him in five years and two, you can't just walk up to someone and say 'hey you have a kid. Congrats, you're a dad!'.
"Yeah, I mean he called me 'mommy' in front of him." Taylor sighed. "I'm scared that he'll do the math. What if he finds out?"
"Taylor, it's bound to happen somehow, you can't just keep a kid a secret like that. And don't you think he deserves to know? I know he hurt you but he's Ricky's dad." Karlie was one of the people who insisted that Adam should know about his son, ever since she knew Taylor was pregnant. Even though she wanted to kill Adam, she thought he should know. After him and Taylor broke up, Taylor was miserable and Karlie was there when she found out she was pregnant. After that, the baby was Taylor's number one priority. It was all she thought about, kind of like a way to keep her mind off of Adam. Though when Richard was born, keeping her mind off of him became a harder task because Richard looked so much like his dad.
"Maybe, Karlie but what if he doesn't want him? What if Ricky becomes attached and then he leaves? I'm sure he has bigger things in his life, like his career. I can't destroy that." Her eyes were filling with tears as she spoke. The fear of Richard having a total let down on her mind.
"Look, it's your choice but Ricky deserves to know and so does Adam. He needs a dad, Tay and if he can have his why not let him?" Karlie told her. The doorbell ringing startled Taylor and she jumped up from the couch.
"I have to go. I'll talk to you later." She hung up the phone and opened the door. Her jaw dropped when she saw him. "What are you doing here?"
"I was thinking that maybe we could catch up? I brought pizza." He smiled at her. This brought back way too many memories of when he would show up at her house unexpectedly. It hurt to think about it.
Taylor was about to say something but was interrupted by the loud crash coming from the hallway. Her eyes widened and she ran to Richard's room to find him covered in paint and a vase broken on the floor.
"Oh my god, baby, are you okay? Does anything hurt?" He shook his head and she bent down to help him stand up. "What were you doing? I told you to tell me if you wanted to paint. Look at you, you're covered in paint." She shook her head.
"I'm sorry, mommy." He apologized, smiling sheepishly at her.
"We need to get you cleaned up, bug." She smiled back at him, forgetting about Adam standing in the middle of her living room. She remembered he was there. "Baby, do you think you can undress yourself, mommy will be right back." Richard nodded and she kissed his head before going to the living room.
"Bad time?" Adam asked, laughing softly, scratching the back of his neck.
"Unless you want to give a five year old a bath with me, yeah, bad time." She giggled.
"So you're a mom, huh?" He asked, looking around the room finding toys scattered around.
"Yeah and mom duty is calling me but if you want you can wait here, it won't take long." She smiled at him and he nodded before she took off to give Richard a bath.
He looked around the room, seeing all the pictures on the walls and furniture, mostly of her and Richard, some of her friends and family but there was one that caught his eye. It was a picture of him and her before he ruined everything. It was a Polaroid and you wouldn't find it there unless you were looking all around, since it was behind another picture, just half of it showing. It surprised him that she kept it after what she thought he did to her. She thought he cheated on her. There were pictures of him kissing another girl at one of his gigs, she saw the pictures and they fought and then they broke up. Taylor cut all contact with him, she spent most of her time in New York and Nashville, only going to LA when she needed. She never let him explain and he ended up giving up on her. Then he's in Nashville visiting a friend and he sees her face and a kid who's calling her mommy. The first thing he wanted to do was talk to her.
About fifteen minutes later, she came back with a kid on her hip wearing Spiderman pajamas.
"Mommy, can I have a cookie?" He grinned at her and it was impossible to resist. She nodded and he ran off to the kitchen.
"He's cute." He commented, smiling as she down on the couch in front of him.
"He is." He has your genes, it was impossible for him to not be cute, she though and then mentally slapped herself for thinking about that.
"I didn't mean to come by to interrupt anything but I don't have your number and I wanted to see you without us being at an awards show or something." He explained.
And she said. "It's fine really. How have you been?"
"Good, doing a lot of gigs. Nothing too exciting and you?" In that moment she wanted to tell him. Just tell him that the kid he just called cute was his son who was dying to meet his dad. But the words wouldn't come out.
"Great. I'm going on a world tour in a few months and I've been spending as much time as I can with the kid who is in the kitchen probably taking more than one cookie." She laughed, imagining the scenario since it had happened more than once.
"Mommy, I can hear you." He groaned walking towards her. "It's the man from the café." The little boy giggled as he sat down next to his mom, eating his cookie.
"Nice to see you again, little one. I'm Adam." He extended his hand for Richard to shake.
"My name is Richard but everyone calls me Ricky and I'm five." He shook Adam's hand before pulling away. The name Richard made Adam suspicious because that was his middle name but it could be a coincidence right?
"Five? Wow you're a big boy now, huh?" Richard nodded his head excitedly. Taylor watched their exchange, her stomach fluttering watching her son talk to his dad without them knowing.
"Mommy says that she wants me to stay little but I don't want to because when I grow up I can reach high shelves and maybe I can be taller than mommy." The little boy said, happily making Adam laugh. "You have a funny accent." He giggled.
"Well that's because I'm from Scotland. Do you know where that is?" He shook his head and looked up at his mom.
"It's far away. It's on the other side of the ocean, sweetie." Taylor smiled as he looked at her with wonder.
"Is that where my daddy lives? Because you said he lives far away, mommy." He furrowed his eyes and Taylor cleared her throat.
"Why don't we get you to bed, huh? It's late." She mumbled hurriedly, trying t not get in the topic again for the second time in the day, especially when the person in question was sitting on her couch.
"But mommy, I want to stay here and talk to Adam." He pouted and she shook her head, picking him up.
"Say goodbye to Adam." He waved at him and Adam laughed, waving back. "I'll be right back." She smiled back at him.
When she was back he asked the question she hoped he wouldn't ask and the question that had been at the tip of his tongue ever since he found out she had a kid. "Where's his dad?"
