The Unexpected Has Arrived! (Unexpected, #2)

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

"Daddy! Daddy!" Tahlia squealed in joy as she ran back towards Taylor and me, a small amount of sand clasped tightly in her palm.

Taylor slowly released my hand and squatted down so that he was at Tahlia's eye level. "What did you find?" he asked her, a large grin on his face.

"Another shell," she replied with a proud smile.

Tahlia picked the shell out of her hand with her small and delicate fingers before she placed it in Taylor's outstretched palm. It was small and white, no larger than a twenty cent piece.

"That's pretty, Tahlia," Taylor told her as he examined the plain, boring, common coquina mollusk sea shell.

Tahlia started jumping and clapping her hands excitedly. "I'm going to find another one, Daddy!" she exclaimed before skipping ahead of Taylor and me, her small feet leaving tiny footprints in the sand behind her.

We'd been at one of Geelong's main beaches for the past half hour. The sun was high in the air with not a cloud in sight. The water was a lovely aqua but we weren't swimming today - it was much too cold from the spring still. The whole time, I continued to try and think up away to speak what was burning through my mind like a wildfire.

"You know," Taylor began as he stood upright, placing the shell in his pocket with the others, and taking my hand in his own, "the last time we were here was about two years ago?"

That surprised me. I didn't even recognise the beach - they all looked to similar. "Really?"

"Really," he answered, squeazing my hand and smiling to himself as he looked ahead to Tahlia - she was intently looking through the sandy ground. "It was the first time you ever kissed me."

I remembered the flirtatious manner in which we'd splashed each other with the ocean's water, the way his eyes had burned into mine, the moment I'd finally found the courage to meet his awaiting lips, and I could definitely remember Tahlia kicking against me from the womb violently, so much so that Taylor was able to feel her.

I blushed at the solid memory I held near and dear to my heart.

Taylor chuckled lightly at my reaction. "And Tahlia was still curled up in Mummy's tummy," he kissed my neck as he pulled me into his side, both of us walking still. I didn't find it weird any more when Taylor addressed me as 'Mummy', seeing as he'd been doing so for Tahlia's sake for so long now. I'd even called him 'Daddy' a few times. It was all a bit of harmless fun. "Remember?"

"Of course I remember! How on earth could I forget that?!" I asked, mostly sarcastically.

"Mmm," he mumbled as he kissed my temple. "I was just reminiscing on the good times before the rascal came along," he continued jokingly.

I rolled my eyes at his sentence.

That only made him chuckle.

Tahlia came running up then, squealing for Taylor to look at another one of her findings. This time, it was a slimy seed pod from a branch of washed up seaweed. Taylor put it in his pocket with her other findings as she ran ahead of us yet again.

Another few minutes ticked over and it came to mind that we'd walked almost two kilometres at least. The sun was dying down to the west of the city and the chill in the air was coming back.

"We should really turn back," I told Taylor as he now held only my hand.

He looked at his watch and then to the sky. "Yeah, I guess we should."

He looked ahead to Tahlia who was now digging in the sand. Her clothes were completely covered in sand and I could see it caked into her hair also. That was going to be 'fun' to wash out of her tonight.