Fate~Dansby Swanson

Chapter 28

This offseason has been a big blur. With Dansby getting shot, going to Cabo, picking out wedding stuff and having a baby, everything went by way too fast for my liking. Here we are again, packing up our stuff to head off to Spring Training for another season of baseball. 

This time last year I was pregnant with our little girl and now she's babbling on about random nothings and learning to crawl and eat baby food. Dansby's physical therapy worked wonders for him and now he's back and better than ever and ready to play baseball. 

I went through court with Ryan to get him put in jail for shooting Dansby and putting out that statement saying that he was killed. He is now in jail for 10 years, so I don't have to worry about him getting to us again. 

Chelsea is due soon, so I can't wait to meet her little guy that they're naming after Freddie which I think is adorable. I've told Dansby that he and Leah are going to date when they're older but he wasn't having it. 

"Dansby are you ready to leave?" I asked as I was bringing the suitcases downstairs. "Yeah babe, just have to put everything in the car and then we can leave." He said coming out of the kitchen and grabbing things and bringing them out to the car. 

We were getting married over the all star break even if Dansby makes the team or not. We were having it here in Atlanta so all of our family members could be there and some of his teammates. 

"Alright, the car is all packed and ready to go, Bentley! Riley!" He said coming back into the house and calling both of the dogs getting them into the car. I put Leah in her carrier and got her diaper bag and brought her out to the car and put her in. 

I got in myself as did Dansby and he looked at me and smiled. "Seems like deja vu huh?" He asked as he turned the car on. "Yeah it does, except Leah is here in the world and not in my womb." I said and he laughed. 

"What would we do if we had another kid?" He asked and I laughed. "I think we would do just fine, I mean Leah is a perfect baby and we don't have to worry about her. But no babies, we have a wedding to do first and then we can think about more babies." I said. 

"I know I know. I just can't help but think about a little Dansby running around the house so obviously I want to have more to try and go for a boy. How many kids do you want anyway?" He asked as we were getting onto the highway. 

I sighed and thought about it, my labor with Leah was nice and easy and short so I'd be willing to do it more than her, obviously. "I don't know really, three or four maybe?" I said as I looked over at him. 

"I want whatever you want babe. I'm just the one who puts them there." He said and I smacked his chest. "What? It's the truth." He said through his laugh and I just shook my head and laughed at him. 

I got out my phone and took a selfie and posted it to Instagram. 

"TaylorRenee: My second spring training, but our first as a family! Road tripping it to Orlando!"

Orlando gives me bad memories of everything that happened with Ryan when we were at Disney World, but with Dansby by my side I know I don't have to worry about a thing. 

"Dansby, what would you be doing if you weren't with me?" I asked after awhile of silence and I looked over at him and he looked like he was deep in thought and to be honest, it was kind of scaring me. 

"To be honest, probably whoring my way around Atlanta. You've changed me." He said smiling at me. "In a good way?" I asked. "Of course in a good way. Before you I was the whore of the team and had slept with half of Atlanta. But once I saw you at my party, I knew I had to have you in every way possible. You made me want to be different with one look at you. I knew you were the one when I saw you talking to Jace and Maci. You make me the happy guy that I am today, you and Leah. You make me the baseball player that I am today, a good one because you believe in me no matter what. So if I wasn't with you, I'd be drunk half the time and probably have some sort of STD." 

I wasn't expecting that much emotion to come out of him and it was sweet. I smiled and undid my seatbelt and kissed his cheek. "I love you Dansby, that was very sweet of you to say." I said as I sat back down and re-buckled myself. 

"Well I'm just speaking the truth. You've made me happier and I can't thank you enough for that." He said and that's the last we've talked about of that subject and soon enough we were at our house in Orlando. 

I got out and let the dogs out to roam around the yard and brought Leah into the house while Dansby brought all the suitcases in so we could start unpacking and everything. I set up Leah's "crib" which is her playpen until we get her real crib delivered tomorrow. 

I fed her and put her in it and went into mine and Dansby's room to unpack. I started going through my suitcases and found a letter. I opened the envelope and immediately knew it was Dansby's handwriting. 

Hello love. 

You're upstairs packing for spring training and I'm sitting here with the dogs and Leah and everything seems so perfect. I couldn't imagine my life being anything like this two years ago before we met. I didn't even think about having children or getting married or buying a house. All I thought about was baseball and that's it. Now it's you and Leah and however many children we may have in the future. I love your sweet personality like nothing can hurt you even though you've been through so much with Ryan. I thank you for helping me through every step of my physical therapy and being there for me when I got shot. I still can't believe that I got shot but hey, what are you going to do? I know you wish you could've been shot because you deserved it after leaving him, but I'm glad it wasn't you and it was me. I wouldn't be able to take the pain of seeing you in that hospital bed and being helpless after like I was. I'm so thankful for you and everything that you do for Leah and I. I love you princess. 

Love, Dansby.

My heart swelled with emotion and a few tears rolled down my cheeks. I quickly wiped them away and thought about how truly lucky I am to have Dansby as my fiancé and Leah is very lucky to have him as her dad.