On the Outskirts

Epilogue

~Sadie~

5 years have brought us here. 

4 years and 3 months of planning, organizing, working on the house, moving in, redecorating because as much as I love Ryder, it was the most boring house I'd ever seen. It was so light and white and airy and white. So, so white. All I could think about was how dirty it'd get and of course he hadn't bought easily cleanable paint, I'd be repainting every month and by the time we retire we'll be living in a shoe box with 50 million layers of paint on the walls. I could see it happening clear as day. 

It felt a little weird, the newest ring on my finger. But knowing Ryder had the same one on his made my heart too happy. It might just skip out of this town, bury itself in the ground at our house on the outskirts of town. 

"When do you want to tell them?" Ryder whispered in my ear at the table separate to everyone else.  I'd broken traditions to go see him this morning. Climbing out of my old bedroom window at my dad's just to ride Storm across a solid 2 miles of fields. I left the horse to eat at the slightly over grown grass at the back of the house, bursting through the back door and noting it'd stuck when I tried the first time and would need sanding down a little. 

"Sunflower? Baby, you aren't suppo-" 

"I'm pregnant." Ryder stared at me. "I didn't think but Hallie mentioned she'd gotten her period and it's weird because I come on like a week before her so I went into Fallon's car because I know she keeps emergency tests in there at the moment and-" 

"You're pregnant?" I nodded quickly and Ryder dropped whatever was in his hand, hitting his hip on the table as he got to me, lifting me up into the air, huge grin on his face. "This is the best day of my entire life." 

He had no idea. 

"We should probably wait a little bit." Ryder set his hand on my thigh, squeezing tight. "We need to tell Hal separate anyway." Ryder's smile just got bigger. Hallie was his entire fucking world and I know us adding a second baby into this was absolutely the perfect time right now. "This is gonna be such a big age gap Ry. She'll be 15 when they're here." My hand landed on my stomach. 

"She's gonna love it. She's been asking for a little sister since- forever." Ryder kissed my shoulder, lifting his head only when Brynn and Hallie took to the stage across from us, glasses in hand. "THAT BETTER NOT BE CHAMPAGNE YOUNG LADY." Hallie rolled her eyes. 

"IT'S ROOT BEER, CALM YOUR TITS DAD." The whole room burst into laughter at her sticking her tongue out at him across the room. "Okay. So as joint Maid's of Honor, me and Brynn decided we wanted to write a song." 

"Yeah but we're both terrible so we ditched that and went for a normal boring speech instead." Brynn winked at me and the 2 girls proceeded to tell the worst combination of embarrassing stories about the 2 of us. They had all basis's covered here. Childhood, parenting Hal, coming home drunk, arguments, drama and when they finished, the room applauded and Brynn stepped down. More like stumbled down, needing Kyle to give her a hand at the side of the stage. She needs capping off before she's falling over and hitting her head on something. 

"Why's Hal still up there?" Ryder turned to me but I just kept watching her. If I looked at him before she started he'd know where this was going and I really don't want to ruin her surprise. "Sade-" 

"Shh. Listen to your daughter give her speech." Hallie swallows and takes a piece of paper off Fallon. We'd spent hours making this perfect. 

"So, this is more of a speech for my parents and Mom, I ended up rewriting this with Pops so you don't know any of it." I dropped my smile and she grinned. Little brat. "The first time I met Ryder Matthews I was 9, sat on the front porch of this very ranch coloring in some- I don't know. I know I got more color on the porch step than the paper that's for sure. Thanks Pops, for uh-scribbling that in at some point today." My dad raised his beer at her, taking a damn proud sip. "My first thoughts were who is this guy, why is his hat so dirty and he's a giant. I remember thinking at the time that he was a bad guy from one of Pop's old cowboy film, about to pull out a pistol at the very second the clock struck the hour and I'd be running for cover somewhere in the house. Well, good news is he didn't shoot at me. Bad news is he isn't a bad guy from one of the films. It'd sure make things more interesting." I turn my head to watch Ryder, his face filled with unconditional love and pride and I look around for the photographer, hoping they catch his face in the coming moments because I want them immortalized. 

"Somewhere between that first meeting and today, Ryder became less of a stranger and more like a life saving, 4 leaf clover finding, pool building dad and I am so glad that it was you that was stood in the drive telling me I'm new around here and not some other douchebag who didn't deserve my mom." Ryder chuckled but tears were filling his eyes. "Dad. 5 years ago you asked mom to marry you and now you both officially have the same name-" I carefully slid a flat black box onto the table and he looked to me. "Me and mom thought it was about time we made you my official dad." I pushed the box towards him slightly. 

"Open it Ry." A single tear slid down his cheek and I chuckled, letting mine fall quickly. "Ry?" He sniffed, opening the box to a framed adoption certificate. I'd got him to sign the papers by saying it was something for the house that we'd been talking about for a while. He'd been talking about talking to her about him adopting her now she was old enough to know what that meant and I'd been the one to talk to Hallie about it 3 months ago and she jumped at the chance to be Ryder's completely. Ryder lifted his head but Hallie had already come down off the stage, made her way across the dance floor. "So? What do you think? Hallie Matthews. Has a nice ring to it right?!"  Ryder rubbed his thumb over the glass and Hallie bent down in between us both, leaning her head on her dad's arm. 

"You guys are so mean ambushing me like this." Ryder quickly wiped his tears and turned to face me in his chair, tipping Hallie's face up to look at him. "Mom found out she was pregnant this morning." 

"WHAT?!" 

"Ryd- shhh." 

"You're-" Hallie's eyes doubled in size. "How?!" 

"Well when Mom and dad love each other very mu-" 

"Oh my god. Ew. That's disgusting." 

"Hey, you asked." 

"I take it back. I don't want his surname." 

"To late kid." Ryder pulled her down onto his lap, pulling the frame out of the box and holding it up. "See, says right here, no takesies backsies."

"If I rip it up-" 

"You wouldn't dare. I'll make you scrub Cookie's stable with a toothbrush." Ryder wrapped his arm around Hallie, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Thank you Petal. This is the best gift anyone's ever given me." 

"Um, excuse me?" The pair looked at me. "Today alone I have given you a wife and two children. TWO." 

"Aww, jealous Sunflower." 

"Hey dad, what are you gonna call the baby if I'm petal?" 

"Ooo. I haven't thought that far ahead." 

"We need to pick out names first." 

"Barnaby." 

"Not a damn chance are you calling my sibling Barnaby. Do you want them to be bullied?" 

"Fine. What about Lord-" 

"Immediately no." I chuckled at Hallie, sat perfectly happily in her dad's lap, propping up her adoption certificate in the middle of the table. 

Time moves by too quickly and Hallie is now the age I was when I first made a promise to Ryder that we'd get married, have kids and move to the outskirts of town where we could have midnight bonfires and count the stars and run around chasing fireflies for the rest of our lives. There was such a large chunk of the past 16 years where that wasn't possible and now it's in the palm of my hands I can't quite believe how extraordinary it all is. A once in a lifetime dream that is right back in my grasp and it's everything I've ever wanted. Not for Hallie, not for Ryder, but for all of us.