Fearless

Chapter 25 - They Said Speak Now

July 4th

Taylor

It's the fourth of July today and we wanted to do something fun, so Kar and I booked a place in Cape Cod and flew out with Vi and a few of our friends yesterday. It was kind of a last minute thing but we never get to do anything spontaneous and I'm glad I get to get to spend some time with my girls in the sun.

"Are you ready, sweetpea?" She's wearing a pair of white denim shorts and a blue t-shirt that says 'red, white and cute' on the front and she looks so adorable. "Ya," she nods so I grab her and carry her downstairs on my hip. "Where's Mama?" I bounce her as she spots Karlie sitting on the pool lounger and the brunette gasps, "there's my little princess."

I pass Violet over to Kar as I sit on the lounger beside Liz and the model proceeds to throw her in the air, making Violet giggle but it just makes me nervous.

I scroll through my phone as Karlie occupies Violet and the brunette just makes me smile. "Morning, ladies," Caitlin comes sauntering out of the house a bit later and she sits opposite me beside Karlie. "How did you two sleep last night?" She smirks as she looks between me and Kar and I throw a cushion at her as she squeals.

"Claire and Ashley are still getting ready, but we're gonna go down to the beach after," the redhead coos as Vi crawls over to her and they make sure she doesn't fall off of the lounger. "You wanna go to the beach, Vi?" Caitlin has been great with Violet ever since she was born and Violet loves her auntie birdy as Cait dubbed herself.

"Taylor!" I look up as I hear my name and Abigail is calling me from the back doors and she motions for me to come over. "I'll be back," I laugh as I get up, pecking a kiss to Karlie's lips before going over to my best friend.

Abbie seems a little off as I follow her back inside and when we're in the kitchen she gives me a nervous look as I sit on the counter. "I don't know if you've seen it yet or not but I think you deserve to know," I have no clue what she's talking about so I just laugh, "just tell me, abs." Whatever she's on about really can't be that bad, so I just watch as she sighs and pulls out her phone.

The redhead hands it to me and it shows a Facebook post announcing Emily's engagement. "Oh," I don't really know why my heart sinks the way it does, but a deep sadness takes over that I can't fight off.

I force a smile onto my face and hand Abbie her phone back, "good for her, she deserves to be happy." I didn't even know she was dating anyone new, never mind dating someone seriously enough to get engaged.

"Are you alright, Teff?" She gives me a sympathetic smile and I nod as I tuck my hair back behind my ear, "yea, I'm just gonna go and check on Claire and Ash, I haven't seen them yet this morning."

I give her once last smile and then slip out of the way and head upstairs, going into mine and Karlie's room and closing the door behind me.

I'm not in love with Emily anymore, I've long since moved on from her and I'm so in love with Karlie, I really am. I don't know why I'm so caught up by this, but it hurts to know that she's moved on.

Karlie

"Where's Tay?" I look up to Claire as I strap Violet into her stroller, and the woman shrugs, "I think she's upstairs." I nod and give Vi her blankie before telling them that I'm gonna check on Taylor and I jog up the stairs.

"Baby?" I knock on the door and frown as I hear sniffling from the other side, "hey, Teff, are you alright?" She turns around as I walk in and the blonde nods, "yea, I'm fine, Kar." I shake my head as I sit on the bed behind her, rubbing the blonde's back.

"What's going on, love?" She turns to look at me and I can clearly see that she's been crying. "It's ridiculous, I'm just being silly," I shake my head, dismissing her words, "if it's making you feel like this then it's not silly, baby."

I take her hand in mine and give it a tight squeeze and Taylor nods, wiping her tears. "My ex, Emily, she's getting married," I nod and squeeze her hand a little tighter, "she was your first love, right?" Taylor nods and brush her curls out of her eyes, "then you're allowed to feel this way, Teffy. She means a lot to you and from what you told me it seems like you guys didn't have a very fulfilling ending."

She looks so ashamed of these feelings but she has no reason to be, "I'm not in love with her anymore, Kar, I promise I'm not, I just.." I smile as I shake my head, "I know, baby, I know. But you're always going to have love for her; she was your first, it's normal." I rub her arm gently and pull her into my embrace.

"You've both moved on and closing the door on something you don't have closure on isn't easy," she nods into my shoulder before pulling away.

"Let's just head down to the beach and have a fun day with our girl, yeah?" I give her a comforting smile as I nod and Taylor pulls me into a kiss, "thank you, Kar."

Taylor

Karlie was really sweet about the Emily thing and I know what she's saying is right. I'm only caught up by this because I never really got closure from that relationship but I know I probably never will either.

All I do know is that I'm with my beautiful girlfriend, my perfect little girl and my best friends so I need to stop moping and enjoy our time.

Since we're in public, Kar and I obviously can't be coupley which is hard because we're so used to the way we act, but her being here is made less suspicious by the presence of the rest of our friends.

"Are you gonna help mommy with her castle, Vi?" the brunette coos as she sits cross legged in front of us. Violet is planted in my lap and we're using her little bucket and spade to build a sandcastle. "The perfect castle for the perfect little princess," I smile as I kiss the toddler, but it seems Violet disagrees as she uses her little fists to destroy the castle.

It's busy today cause of the holiday so we've had quite a few second glances, but most of the time people are really great about not approaching me when I have the baby with me.

"Well that didn't last long," Ashley laughs from her spot on the beach towel next to me, "she's a weapon of mass destruction, especially when it comes to sandcastles!" I tickle her and Violet giggles like a madman as she collapses into my arms, succumbing to my attack.

"You wanna go down to the water, Vi?" Karlie gasps as she gets up and as soon as she extends her arms to Violet, the toddler immediately reaches out to her. "Let's go get your little feet wet and escape mommy tickle monster," she kisses her cheek and I can't help smiling, there's just so much love between my two girls.

Karlie promises to be careful and then I watch as she walks down to the waterline with Violet on her hip and Claire and Liz following.

"I gotta admit, I was wary about all of this at first," I look over to Ashley and the blonde is leaning on her elbows as she squints to look up at me. "I didn't want to see you hurt again, especially not with the little one in the mix too," I nod because she makes a fair point, I took a risk letting Karlie in and I know that. "She would never hurt me, Ash, and she definitely wouldn't do anything that could hurt Violet. There's a total love affair between those two, they just adore each other."

I laugh, smiling as I watch Karlie and my friends playing with Violet down by the water. "She would give up the world for you guys, Taylor, she really is head over heels for you," I blush as I laugh at myself, I get told all the time that I don't see just how deep Karlie's love for me is.

"I would give up the world for her too, she means everything to me," in that moment it hits me. I was so upset today because Emily has moved on and I'm still stuck in the past; scared and hiding the person I love.

I won't be able to move on until I close the door on that chapter of my life. I've known it for a while now, but I guess it just took something like this for it to really sink in. Karlie promised to wait until I was ready, but I don't think I ever will be, I think I just need to take a leap of faith and do what's right.

Being scared and hiding who I am is the reason I lost Emily, but I'm not going to let it become the reason why I could lose Karlie too.