10 years later [Tayvin AU]

Part 20

5th SEPTEMBER 2016

LOTTIE POV

Today was my first day of kindergarten. I was so excited to start real school, not just the little kids' part of it.

It was also extra exciting because I got to see a bunch of my friends again after the summer. A lot of my friends went away over the summer to their grandparents or on vacation so I didn't see them for aaaaaggggeeess. I had a lot of exciting news to tell them.

Daddy and Taylor were going to get married and I get to be flower girl!! We also moved to a newer and BIGGER apartment.

I get to have both my own bedroom and a playroom, plus there is a dining room and living room. We moved when we got back from our vacation to the beach and I got to choose the colour for my room and help paint. I decided on a purple colour for the walls in my room, with little white flowers that Taylor painted specially for me. My playroom had one wall that was like a whiteboard so I could draw all over it with special pens. It was awesome!

"Daddy! Taylor!! We have to go!!" I called up the hall. I didn't want to be late for my first day.

"We're here little Lottie!" Daddy said, appearing in the front hall.

"I'm not LITTLE! I'm in kindergarten!" I said, pouting.

"Yeah, Adam....she's a big girl now!" Taylor said, ruffling my hair and smiling at daddy who smiled back at us both.

ADAM POV

Today Taylor and I had taken the morning off in order to take Lottie to school. It was a big day all around. My little girl was in kindergarten. She would now be at school all day everyday instead of just some full days and some half days. She could also take pack lunch now, which of course she agreed to because she knew Taylor makes the best packed lunches.

I knew Taylor understood how hard it was for me to see her acting so grown up and going off to school, and was very grateful to feel her light squeezes on my hand as we walked down the road to school.

After Taylor agreed to marry me, we decided to wait a while before getting married, not rush into anything. We'd only been dating less than a year so waiting a bit seemed like a good idea, although it wasn't as it either of us was going to go back on our promise to marry one and other.... Right now we were planning for next fall, so a year away, when the leaves were changing colour.

The next thing that changed was where we lived. I already had it in my mind that we all needed a fresh start and told Taylor my plan. She was hesitant at first, since Lottie had grown up in that apartment and she feared it would be too much change for Lottie, but soon agreed when I started showing her pictures of potential apartments.

At the end of August, Taylor decided to stop acting and pursue a different path. Teaching acting to kids. One of her friends from when she was doing local community theatre in college had recently set up a small performing arts school in the city and asked Taylor to help run it. Taylor told me she felt it was a better idea to have a more stable job now than she had, and I knew that while she loved acting she also loved being around children and teaching then the craft. At first when she told me I thought it was because of me, that I had somehow made her think that she needed to settle down, but after discussing it in detail I realised it was really what she wanted to do. She will still go on auditions but only for parts she couldn't imagine not having.

So now we all had busy weeks. Lottie was in school from 9 till 3.30 every week day, then I will pick her up on Mondays and Tuesdays when Taylor had after school classes, and Taylor will pick her up on the other days and take her to the acting school studio. We had it all worked out, and Lottie was really happy because we decided to sign her up for the 5-7year old beginners acting class which was every Wednesday, taught by Taylor's friend. On Saturdays Taylor had some classes to teach so either Lottie would be hanging out with me on jobs or at home, or she would be hanging out at the acting school. We were incredibly lucky that she was so easy-going and would just sit quietly colouring or trying to read a book, or even just watching what was going on.

"Lottie! Aren't you going to say goodbye?" I called out as Lottie skipped ahead into her lassroom.

"Oops! Sorry! Bye Daddy! Bye Taylor!" Lottie said, turning back and giving us both big hugs before skipping off to find her friends.

"Well that was easy...." Taylor said, wrapping herself around my arm and leaning on my shoulder as we watched Lottie's little brown head bob up and down and move around as she found her friends in the crowd of small children rushing around.

"I can't believe she's so grown up!" I said, keeping in the tears, "She was literally just a little baby yesterday!"

"Aww babe! It's not like she's leaving home or anything! You'll see her in under 7 hours....Let's go do something to keep your mind off it for at least the morning! It'll get easier!" Taylor said as we walked out of the school gates and back home.

"Hopefully with the next one it won't be as hard..." I said, not really thinking what I had just said.

Taylor stopped in her tracks and let go of me. I turned around to look back at her.

"I mean....ummmm...."I tried to dig myself out of the hole I had just dug. We hadn't really spoken about kids.

Like, we were engaged and very much in love, and Lottie acted as if Taylor was her mom(although she hadn't really called her mommy since the slight incident at the beginning of the summer...except when she was really tired).....but kids was not a topic that had been discussed. I had it in the back of my mind the whole time we were looking at apartments (like that we should have at least one spare room....) but had never told her this.

Suddenly she snapped out of her daze.

"Yeah, definitely." She said, grinning at me and taking my arm again, walking down the road.

"Woah, woah, woah....what was that?" I asked, shocked by her sudden change.

"Well....thinking about it....it was an obvious thing to say. We are getting married, we love each other, and both love kids....so why not? In a while though....I've thought about it, for sure, but I think your nonchalance when you said that just surprised me. You know what I mean? " Taylor explained, giving me a quick kiss, "Let's get going, I need coffee!"