Little Swift

Part 16

ADAM POV

"Alright Maisie. It's go time!" I said, smiling at her as she bounced around smiling widely, "I can heard mommy's car coming up the driveway."

"I am SO excited daddy!" Maisie said, squealing slightly as I chuckled.

We were standing by the front door, ready to welcome Taylor home and get the evening underway. It was not almost 7 PM, so it was getting darker outside and in my opinion the candles made the firepit look like a fairy land of some sort. We had also lined the path using outdoor fairy lights and flowers.

The door opened and Taylor walked through. I was smiling widely, wearing a nice shirt and slacks, with Maisie standing next to me in a daisy covered dress with her hair nicely brushed and in an aliceband. But as soon as I saw Taylor's face my smile dropped. She was pale and looked stressed – not in a way where everyone would notice, but I know her every expression and she was definitely stressed.

Taylor saw us and her eyes widened, a small smile gracing her face as Maisie rushed over and hugged her legs.

"Um, hi little missy." Taylor said, as Maisie giggled sweetly, "I feel, um, quite underdressed right now. What's going on?"

"We thought we would surprise you with a nice meal, didn't we Maisie?" I said, as Maisie nodded, luckily not realising that Taylor's smile was very forced, "Hey Maisie, how about you get the picture you drew for mommy."

Maisie smiled and skipped away to the playroom to get her picture she was drawing for Taylor while we waited for her to get here. This gave me a second to talk to Taylor.

"Are you alright Tay?" I asked her, moving over and putting my hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes.

"Yeah, um, just tired." She said, avoiding my gaze and shrugging off her coat to hand up, "I'll just change and we can have dinner."

"Are you sure? We don't need to have dinner if you would rather just sleep." I offered, making her look up at me.

"If you put the effort into making dinner we are eating dinner Adam. I've been more exhausted before, trust me." She said, with an eye roll as she moved towards the stairs, "I'll be a few minutes."

"Okay, take your time." I said, now very unsure about the whole thing.

I decided in my head to change the plan – dinner first then, if everything was going well, my proposal. Luckily neither our room nor the dining room faced the backyard, so Taylor wouldn't see the candles until I wanted her to.

Maisie came running back into the front hall with her picture.

"Where's mommy?" She asked, looking at me then looking around.

"She just went to get changed. We are going to have dinner first, so can you keep the promise a little longer?" I asked her quietly, crouching down to be eyelevel with her.

"Promise! My lips are shut." She said, pretending to zip her lips, something she had picked up from some of her friends recently, and making me smile, lifting her up.

"Let's serve up the food." I told her, taking a glance upstairs and still worrying about Taylor. I had hoped her afternoon out would have been good, but it seems to have made it worse.

TAYLOR POV

All I wanted to do when I got home was to sleep. I was exhausted. But I also knew I needed to talk to Adam – I had promised Selena I would. What I never expected was to find Adam and Maisie dressed up nicely having cooked dinner for us all. Maisie was oblivious to my worries, but Adam immediately picked up on it, being the nice man he always is and giving me an out from having dinner. But I needed to do this – for me, for him, for Maisie....for all of us.