Crave

Prologue

Omniscient

It was a sunny Saturday morning as Ryan sat at the bar in her kitchen and drunk hot tea, lost in her own thoughts. She could hear birds chirping outside of her open balcony door as the breeze tickled her bare legs and blew her hair from her shoulders. She could hear the soft patter of feet coming down the stairs and knew her sunshine had finally awaken. "Mommy?" Carter asked in confusion. Normally her mother was sitting on the couch in the morning but today she wasn't.

"In the kitchen babes" Ryan replied standing up from her spot to begin breakfast for the three of them. Ryan's best friend stayed over last night, her and her 'boyfriend' Wesley got into it last night because he had some girl in his car. He claimed it was his cousin, but his mom was an only child and the never heard anything of him having a father. Carter finally made her way into the kitchen and smiled big when she saw her mother placing bacon in the oven. "Good Morning lovebug, did you brush your teeth?" she asked her four year old daughter. Carter smiled even bigger and nodded her head enthusiastically, Ryan smiled and picked her up. "Hmm let me see..." she said pretending to check, she knew Carter brushed her teeth because it was the first thing she did waking up.

"Mommy I want to see daddy today" Carter said in her soft voice " and I want to spend the night too mommy" she added. Carter was a die hard fan of her dad, even though her first word was 'mama'. Ryan pretended to act like she was thinking. "Please mommy I haven't seen daddy in this many days" she said holding up four fingers. Although Carter was only four Ryan had already started to teach her things like counting, colors, and also shapes. She was working on teaching her how to write, so when Carter started Pre-K next year she would already know some of the things they were teaching. Carter's father was also teaching her some of these things, per Ryans request.

"First you have to give me a big fat kiss" Ryan said puffing her cheek out so that Carter could kiss her. She giggled and puffed her cheeks out and gave her mom the biggest kiss on her cheek. Ryan chuckled and sat Carter on the counter. "Why don't you pour orange juice in the cups while mommy finishes the breakfast" Ryan stated handing Carter the carton of orange juice and three glasses. Carter never liked drinking out of a cup she liked to think she was a big girl like her mommy and Ryan didn't mind her drinking from a glass. Carter also liked to help out a lot so doing something as simple as pouring orange juice into glasses made her feel big and it had her smiling like she'd just won a million dollars. Not wanting to interrupt their moment, Ashley sat at the bottom of the steps with a small smile on her face. She was so proud of how far her best friend had came, if she was being honest she didn't think that Ryan would grow from the person she was four years ago. Of course she told Ryan how she felt and she understood, Ryan didn't believe she would grow either, but having Carter really changed her drastically. Ashley stood up and made her way into the kitchen.

"AUNTIE ASH BASH!!" Carter screamed from the countertop "when did you get here?" she asked as Ashley walked over to her and gave her a big hug.

"Last night when you were chasing sheep" she replied sitting her back down "did you miss me baby love?" she asked with a sneaky smile on her face. Carter smiled and nodded her head "Oh yeah? well then you must have missed the... TICKLE MONSTER!" she yelled as she started to tickle Carter's sides. Ryan watched with a smile on her face as two of her favorite people laughed, she lived for moments like this.

"Stank go pack your bag, so I can take you to see your dad" Ryan said fixing the plates. She liked letting Carter feel like she was a big girl. Believe it or not Carter actually knew how to pack her own bag. She was a quick learner, she was potty trained at two years old and never pee'd in the bed, well she did once and even then she didn't like how it felt on her . Ashley put Carter down and she 'ran' upstairs to her room to pack her bag, she loved going to see her father. "So what happened yesterday that had you crying at my door at three o'clock in the morning?" she asked sitting the plates on the table.