Calum's POV
I love having phone calls with Tommy. It's like you're talking to your younger self, plus he's an amazing kid. He told me he likes dragons cause Shay always brought him books about princess and knights, but he's more interested with the dragons. He also told me about his best friend, Lionel. Lionel and him always play tag at school, and he doesn't like being IT cause Lionel is so good at hiding and he can't find him sometimes. I even tell him that I'm in a band and he asked me, what's a band?
Can you believe that? He asked me what's a band? I chuckle at his question cause Shay would not talk to him about music cause she sings Carrie Underwood everywhere and all the time.
"A band is where your friends come together and make music together"
"I don't understand"
I pat my forehead and thinking what did Shay teach him? Books, Carrie Underwood and books? My boy needs to know music, he needs to know that music can heal your pain and bring great happiness. It can also be a release from stress and takes you to a whole new world and just make you feel..good.
"It's alright, buddy. I'll bring you to meet the band one day, okay?", I told him.
In the corner of my eye, I see Luke smirk evil-ly in my direction. I mouthed, what do you want?
He slowly walks up to me and put on a devilish smile, "who are you talking to?"
"no one", I said.
"Uh-huh", Luke said sarcastically and lean down to get a clear hearing of who it is the other line.
"Get the fuck off!", I shouted and then I can hear Tommy gasp.
"You said the forbidden word!", shit.
I can see Luke eyes and mouth widened, "it's baby Calum! I want to talk to him!"
"Oh, shit sorry Tommy, I shouldn't say it", but then he gasped again.
"You said the other forbidden word! Why are you so mad, Calum?"
Suddenly Luke tried to take the phone away from me, "come on, Cal! I'm you best pal!"
"Luke, stop!", I pushed him then Ashton walks in, gosh!
"What's happening in this bachelor pad?", he asks while adjusting a bandana on his head.
"Luke, dont-"
"He's talking to Tommy!", I just can't stop my best friends from being such blabber mouths.
"Uncle Ashton wants to talk to little Tommy!", he shouted and I can hear Tommy worrying at the other line.
Now, Ashton is on top of Luke and he is on top of me, so both of them are on top of me and my patience level is just at the tip.I could scream like any second now but then I hear my son calling me out.
"Calum?"
Suddenly, I don't have the feeling to scream, as if my fire of anger just got put out. But I still want privacy with my son, so I turn my head back to look at Luke and Ashton, "guys, give us a minute will you? Please?"
Ashton smile and nod in understanding, "come on, Luke. The guy wants to bond with his child"
But Luke being Luke, "I want to bond with the child too, he's practically my nephew?"
"Luke..", Ashton got up and look at Luke sharply.
He raised his hand in surrender, "okay okay, I'm out I'm out". Then Ashton put his hand over Luke's shoulder and walk out of my room.
"Hey, buddy. I'm sorry. My friends were being idiots just now. What were you saying?"
"You said the forbidden words, Calum. Mummy is gonna be really mad at you"
I laugh at his remark and also guilty cause he has to listen to my foul mouth. 'Sorry, buddy. I was out of control. Don't tell mummy, please".
"Okay, I won't. With one condition", sneaky child. I guess where did he got that from.
"What is it, Tommy?"
"Hmmmmm, maybe another car?",
I smile so wide, "sure, I can do that. I can even buy you 2 cars if you want"
"3 then"
Is this kid for real? He's negotitating with me? "Isn't 3 too much, bud?"
"Then I'll tell mummy you said the F and S word..."
Is he blackmailing me now? Okay, I'm convinced that this adorable evil genius is my son and Shay's.
"Okay okay, 3 cars".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm stoked to meet Shay and Tommy again at the beach, I really miss Tommy throughout the week and I'm glad to meet Shay again.
I see Shay's Camry at the beach parking, I put on my sunglasses and turn my cap around and walk to the car. I go Tommy's side of the window and pressed my nose against it. He jumped a little and finally laugh so hard. Shay walk out of the car and walk to the passenger door to bring him out.
"Okay, joker. You're gonna make him out of breath", she smiles at me. I can see that she's wearing her favourite cap. I give way for her to take Tommy out of his carseat.
"Er,Shay?"
She carries Tommy and put him down on the ground and hold his hand, "yeah?"
I take out my cap and mess up my hair and I can see Shay rolls her eyes on me, "what is it Calum? What is it that you want to say?"
"Isn't Tommy too old for a car seat?"
As I finish that question, Shay has her arms crossed. She looks right at me, "Tommy, baby. Take your beach toys at under your car seat". As Tommy digs under his carseat at his bottom is stuck out from the car, Shay uncrossed her arms.
"He's not old, he's five"
"He's five and too old for being in a carseat". Okay, she turns her cap backwards. I know what that means.
"He's kinda small for his age, and he looks like a pea when he's on the big seat. Let him a grow a little taller then I'll get rid of the carseat", she said.
"He's not that small!", I extend my hand at Tommy's direction.
"He is! Among his friends, he's the smallest".
"He's the shortest, not the smallest", I said.
"What difference does it make?", she laughs at my remark.
"There's a difference".
"Oh yeah? What?", she crosses her arms again waiting for my answer. Okay, maybe short and small does not have a difference when you're 5 but he doesn't need a carseat anymore. His legs are basically hanging over the carseat.
"I'm just saying that he is able to sit on his own without the car seat", I exclaimed.
Tommy pull out his body with his beach toys in his hand, "got it! Let's build the biggest sandcastle, Calum!"
Shay was about to say something but I ignored her cause I have a sandcastle to build with my son, "okay, buddy. Let's go!". I grab his toys and chase him to the middle of the beach.
As I put the sand into the sandbucket, I was looking around to see what Shay is doing. She is putting a blanket on the sand and she lays down, opening a book in her hand. To think that the lady I saw on the beach reading on the first time we met was actually Shay, ridiculous. Destiny has a funny way to show it's tricks. "Calum, fill more sand in the bucket!"
I snap out of my gaze and obey Tommy's directions. After like half an hour, we made many sandbucket towers, and Tommy was happy with it. I pull out my phone from my bermuda pants and ask him to stand in the middle of the sandbucket towers.
"Say cheese", he put his hands on his hips and smile as wide as he can. "CHEESEEEEE!"
I snap the picture, and it looks beautiful. He looks adorable. I pat his head and asks him a question, "does mummy read everytime you go to the beach?"
He nods his head, "mummy just likes to read".
Oh I know mummy likes to read, if she has the whole day to herself, she could read a library full of books. Suddenly, I have a plan.
"Tommy, you want to play tag with mummy?"
He jumps in excitement, "YES"
"Okay, here is what you gotta do", I kneel down and whisper him on how to get Shay's ass up from that blanket.
Tommy and I run over to Shay and Tommy jumps on her and as she was in a state of shock, I took her book and run further from them.
"Calum! I was reading that!", she shouts as she carries Tommy in her hands.
"I know, that is why I took it from you stupid!", I yelled back.
"Whatt?!", she yelled back.
"We want you to play tag with us, mummy", Tommy said to her ear.
She turns to Tommy, "tag?"
"You forgot how to play tag, Shay? What are you? 61?", I yelled.
She whispered something before putting Tommy on the ground, and Tommy run over to me.
"What's up buddy?", he frowns his mouth and I am freaking out, is this my doing? What did I do?
"Mummy said it's time to go back home now", I put the book on the sand and rub his back. "Why did mummy say that? Unbelievable!" I stand up to talk to Shay then I got pushed and fall down to the ground. I had to spit out some sand that went inside my mouth.
I see Shay standing right in front of me, "You just got pushed by a 61 year old woman". Oh that's slick. Using Tommy to get me off guard. I stand up and Shay starts running, "run, Tommy! Calum's IT"
I see Tommy running beside his mother, and I start chasing them. Shay was running so fast that she left Tommy running behind, "faster Tommy!", she yelled.
"Cominggggg!", he said but I caught him right into my arms. "Gotcha!"
Tommy laughs so hard when he's in my arms, "am I IT now?"
"No, buddy. We are both IT", I put Tommy behind my back and my hands were wrapped around his legs for support. "Let's go get mummy!", I said.
I run with my son on my back, and as he sees his mother by the water, he yelled, "we're coming mummy".
Shay runs around the water and we just chased after her and since I couldn't run any faster with Tommy on my back. I put him down and chase Shay, as I'm getting closer, I can hear her yelling, "no! No! Calum! Go away!". Then as I got her in my arms I swing her around, "gotcha!".
Then I realised that my hands are on her waist and I'm so close to her right now. Too close in fact. I hate to admit but I miss having her in my arms like this. Shay has her hands on my hands, and she was silent. She didn't say anything. Maybe the position we were in took us by surprise, we used to play tag on the beach and have a blast so this might be too overwhelming for us both.
"You got her, Calum!", Tommy runs his little feet towards us.
I immideately let go of her, and she turns to me. "You got me", she smiles awkwardly.
"You run so fast mummy!", Tommy said and I nod in agreement. "Yes you are, I didn't remember you being that fast".
"Not too bad for 61, huh?", she laughs as she has her hands on her hips.
I chuckled, "I'm faster though".
"Yeah, right!", Shay snarled. Did she just challenge me?
"I caught you, remember?"
"Cause I slowed down", I opened my mouth in awe. She's challenging me alright.
"Let's have a race then, can you be the referree buddy?", I point to Tommy and he both of his pudgy thumbs up.
"Fine, but if you lose it's just cause I didn't want to hurt your feelings".
"Oh, shut up! From here to Tommy's sandcastle, deal?", she nods and both of us spread our legs, getting ready to run.
Tommy runs his way back to his sandcastles and shouted, "READY!"
"SET!"
"GO!"
I run as fast as I can, and Shay was right beside me. I manage to go further than her but then she catches up on me. I remember her being fast, but not this fast. As we get to the end, I tripped onto one of Tommy's sandcastle and accidentally hold Shay on the arm and both of us went down together and as we tumble, Shay ended up being on top of me.
As she push her arms to get back up, our eyes met. I look into her eyes and somehow I feel butterflies in my stomach. I feel like I want to kiss her, I know it's wrong but I just do. She looks beautiful than ever, and I have never seen anyone more beautiful than how she looks right now. Before I can do anything, Tommy yells from a distance.
"I don't know who won!", Shay starts to smile listening to his son's voice. Our son's voice.
She got up and walk over to Tommy and I'm still laying there like I'm stuck in a trance. Why are my palms sweating? Am I falling for Shay again? Did I ever stop loving Shay?
"Calum?", I turn my head and see Shay and Tommy standng in the distance.
"You okay? You hurt or something?", Shay asked.
What am I doing? I got up instantly, "I'm fine".
I can't be falling for Shay all over again, she just wants to be friends and I agreed to that. We are going to raise Tommy as friends, nothing more. But why looking at her right now, it feels like she's the only one that matters. Seeing her loosened up today makes me miss the old days where we would run everywhere and chase each other on the beach and just be young and in love. I felt a glimpse of that feeling, a glimpse of that happiness. I just hope that this is just a one time thing, it's just a flashback of feelings and nothing more. I do not want to end up losing my son.
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a/n: Comments? :)