On the Outskirts

Twenty Eight

~Ryder~

9 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours and 27 minutes. 

9 weeks of waiting, of silence and her friends texting me to ask if I'd heard anything, what my plan was, what I was going to do to win Sadie back but I had nothing. There was nothing I could do right now. She needed time and I know once she'd had it she'd put herself first for just once and she'd call me or she'd knock on my door at 1am in the pissing down rain. Something that belonged in one of those romance films her and Hal make me watch every single night. 

In the meantime, I sold my place, bought somewhere bigger on the outskirts of town and have been keeping myself stupidly occupied with fixing it up it with every bit of spare time. I'm sleep deprived, exhausted and every single muscle in my body hurts from digging the fucking space for the pool I know she wanted to have for Hallie. But I know when she comes back and I show her and I give her the ring that's burning a hole in my fucking pocket that she'll understand. She'll understand that I'm not going anywhere and she'll stop pushing me away and I'll marry her tomorrow in a potato sack with paper rings if it meant Sadie would get it into her magnificent brain that I love her and I'm not fucking going anywhere. 

But we didn't get the rom-com perfect reintroduction. No. I got a call from Brynn, in hysterical laughter telling me Sadie had been arrested for almost murdering Sarah at the park and Brynn thought I should be the one to get her out. It was the furthest thing from a call I'd been expected, especially when Brynn said Hallie had seen the whole thing. I know something must have happened but the idea of Sadie getting out some of her emotion kind of felt like a good thing. 

So I was here. ID given to the cops, bail paid and because it was a first offence and for whatever reason, Sarah wasn't pressing charges, I was waiting for Sadie to come out of custody. 

When she did, she looked exhausted. She'd lost a noticeable amount of weight, was covered in scratches and what looked like the start of a black eye. A messy ponytail on her head with pieces pulled out. It looked like she'd been through the trenches and I felt about the same. 

"What-" Sadie looked behind her as the cuffs were removed and the officers left. "What are you doing here?" 

"Oh, they do a chauffer service now. You know, get arrested, get a ride home kinda thing." I held Sadie's phone out to her, pulling it back when she reached for it. "You got in a fight." 

"She slapped Hallie. I regret nothing." I dropped my hand back down, giving her the phone. "You didn't have to come get me. Brynn would-" 

"Brynn called me and told me to come get you because you were done being miserable. Then Hallie shouted at me to bring sunflowers." Sadie's shoulders lowered as she exhaled. I pressed a single finger tip under her chin, lifting her head up to look at me rather than avoiding all eye contact. "Are you done pushing me out or do you need some more time?" 

I hope I got this right. I'm praying I got it right because everything is relying on her answer right now and if I get the one I really, really don't want, then it's gonna make this drive home beyond uncomfortable. 

"I'm sorry." 2 tears slide down Sadie's cheek. "I messed up. I was- am- so confused and Hallie wanted to call you her dad and it was too soon for that and-" 

"Hallie wanted to call me her dad?" Sadie looks up at me and my heart flutters in my chest. She got scared Hallie was too attached to me too quickly and I was going to leave them and she'd have to clean up the mess. "You know I love Hallie like she's mine right?" 

"Well, yeah, but-" 

"Do you think I'd hurt my daughter by leaving? That I'd want to let her down like that?" Sadie blinked, more tears sliding down her cheeks, heavy and fast and I just shake my head, put my hand in hers and pull her out the police station, around to the back parking lot. The sun hasn't long since set and it's pretty dark with almost no street lights. We get to the front of the car and I pull her into me, walking backwards to her side of the truck. "Sunflower, you've got you're head so stuck in the past you can't see the future I'm trying to build with you right here, right now." She sniffs as I wipe my thumbs over her cheeks to remove the tears. "You have always been it for me Sadie. You know that. You know you're all I want and I'd be dumb as cow shit to leave you thinking there's something better for me out there when I know for a fact no one is gonna be made for me the way you are. Every freckle, every dimple, every scar, every stretch mark." I cupped her head tight, thumbs beside her ears and my hands in her hair, demanding all of her attention and not accepting anything else. 

"I love you Sadie. I've loved you since I was 15. I love Hallie just as much as I love you and if you deprive me of my girls for a minute longer I might combust because it's killing me. Can you stop being selfish and share her and yourself with me?"  Sadie laughs through the tears and I take that as a yes, kissing her forehead long and hard before letting go of her and opening the car door. "Get in, I wanna show you something before I take you home but it's a bit of a drive." 

Sadie shot me a soft smile and stepped beside me, eyes going wide when she looked into the car. 

"Ry-" 

"Get in the car Sadie." She tipped her head up at me, starlight sparkling in her still wet eyes. "If my daughter tells me to buy her mom sunflowers, I'm gonna do as I'm told. Now get in the car." Sadie follows her instructions, moving one of the dozen sunflower bouquets over so she can get it, dragging it into her lap as I close the door and walk around. 

The drive is quiet. Just the sound of the paper that's wrapped around the flowers in her hands, her fingers tracing every petal with a stupidly happy smile on her face. The first time I gave Sadie sunflowers, I picked one from one of the gardens in the middle of town. The look on her face, the same one she has now, started a town wide problem where people's sunflowers were growing strong and tall in their gardens one day but were gone the next. I didn't have much money back then but that look. The reflection of the yellow in her eyes, the way it glowed on every eyelash, every freckle. It was that first sunflower that made me fall in love with Sadie Taylor and I promised myself that day if I was to marry anyone, it would be her. 

I pulled over, cutting the engine but keeping the headlights on the unlight house in pretty crap shape. 

"Oh god, you've brought me out to the middle of nowhere to join a cult or be a sacrifice." Sadie dipped her head to look up at the house. "Seriously, that place looks so run down it'd be easier to knock it down and start over. Who even lives out here?" 

"We do." Her head snapped around to me as I tossed her keys, my keys and a spare pair I had cut for her dad onto the dash. "I know it's a mess right now and obviously it's nowhere near ready to be moved into. I've had to sort some foundation shit and the inside was a fucking wreck but it was a steal and I have enough money left over after selling my place that it covers the most expensive fixes. Everything else I can dip into savings for. I've looped Noah and Kyle into helping out. I spent all weekend digging Hal a pool-" 

"You bought a house." I chuckled at her. "Wait. You dug- You DUG Hallie a pool? By hand?" 

"Well, I borrowed some shit from your dad but it wasn't that much more useful at anything other than getting the soil out the way so mostly, yeah." 

"Are you insane? Ryder, there are people that-" 

"I know. I wanted to do it." Sadie looked back up at the house, shuffling forward on her seat to get a better look in the dark and I took a second, to remember her exactly like this. Happy and bewildered and surrounded by sunflowers. I've already planted a tonne of them at the front of the property but I'll keep that a little secret until they're grown. 

"It could look really pretty." She looked back at me, eyes landing on the ring I was holding up between my thumb and finger. She flicked her attention between me and the ring too many times to count. 

"Marry me Sadie." Her hand came up to her mouth, shaking as 4 fingers covered her open mouth. "Marry me. Move into this shithole once I fix it up, fill it with your love and laughter and I'm sure a million more arguments that are to come. Let's watch Hallie swim in the pool I made her, and send her off to college in 90 years time from this front porch. Build this life with me Sunflower-" I reached my free hand over to run my thumb over her damp cheeks. "Like we always wanted." 

I waited what felt like forever of her just watching me before she nodded. The hand that was covering her mouth wrapping around my wrist as she melted into me and nodded harder. 

"Is that a yes?" She nods again. "Sadie, baby, I need the wo-" 

"Yes Ryder. Yes, I'll marry you." 

"Oh thank god. Come 'ere." I pulled Sadie across the console into my lap, putting the ring on her finger and kissing her harder than I have ever kissed anything in my entire life.