New Start In Valley View (Valley View Book #3)

Chapter 25

Betsy and Raymond’s house is jam-packed with little girls running around in their Little Mermaid costumes to celebrate Annabelle’s 5th birthday today. Rumor is she wanted to do a Frozen theme again, but Wes begged her to do anything other than that. I hang my coat up on the coat rack and make my way into the bustling house. I look all around for the birthday girl, but I don’t see her at first.

“Hi, Miss Taryn!” 

She takes me by complete surprise, wrapping her arms around my midsection and hugging me tightly. “Hey cutie pie, what happened to your hair?”

Her normally light brown/blonde hair is fire engine red and she flings it over her shoulder with so much sass when I mentioned it to her. “Mommy did it for me!”

“Well, I think you look just like Ariel! Happy Birthday, Annabelle! I’m so happy you invited me to your party.”

“I’m happy that you’re here, Miss Taryn. Come on, you have to see the rest of the decorations and the cake that Mommy made for me.”

With Annabelle leading the way, I go further into the house and see the rest of the Brown family and some of the parents from Annabelle’s preschool friends. Bobby stands up when he sees me and pulls me into a hug. He takes the gift bag from my hand and peeks inside, “Hey babe, is that the gift we got her?”

“If you mean is this the gift that I drove down to Target to get because you forget to get her something and begged me to put your name on the card….yes that is the gift.”

Tyler cracks up from the other side of the room, “Wow, your girl just threw you under the bus and ran over it a few times.”

“Yeah, well at least I have a girl.” Bobby retorts and then plants a kiss on my cheek. I jokingly push him back for being a jerk, but he pulls me back in with little resistance, holding me close to his body.

After the most romantic first date ever, Bobby and I had the odd conversation about dating. Not that the idea of us dating was odd, but going back and forth trying to figure out what each of us wanted was kind of weird. When we laid it all out it turns out we both wanted the same thing. We’ve been dating for a little over a month now and I’m really happy, it just feels right being with him, like that is how it was supposed to be. We’re still taking it kind of slow though. We’ve kissed and had some really hot make-out sessions, but we still haven’t slept together. 

I haven’t held out on him on purpose or anything, but before when we slept together it was non-committal. When we do it again, I want it to mean something. I was worried that Bobby might get frustrated at us not having sex, but he hasn’t said a thing about it. For the first time in a long time, we’re both on the same page and it feels good.

“Taryn! Come help me get the food ready.” Holly says from the other side of the room.

“I can do that.” I give Bobby a kiss and he makes it last a little longer before I go into the kitchen with Holly.

“What did you guys make?” I ask, looking around the kitchen.

“She wanted macaroni and cheese. She’s the weirdest kid ever.”

“I do love some mac and cheese though!”

Holly laughs, “I do too, but for a birthday? It is a bit weird. Anything for my baby girl though. I am going to cook up some hot dogs too, would you grab them from the fridge?”

“Yep.” I grab the hot dogs from the refrigerator and get a pot of boiling water started. I’m cutting open the packages and putting them into the water when Holly speaks up again.