29Chapter Thirteen
Ryan walked into the house later the next week, threw his keys down on the table. He looked around, surprised not to see Sara. He knew she had left the studio at least an hour before he did. Wandering upstairs, he stopped at the top of the stairs.
"Oh God. Right there." He could hear Sara moaning from the end of the hall. Frowning, he set off down the hallway, following the moans he could hear.
Throwing open the door, he raised an eyebrow as he took in the sight of an extremely muscular man pinning Sara to the floor. She had one leg resting on the top of his shoulder, her hands splayed against the floor. Hearing the door hit the wall she opened her eyes and smiled at Ryan.
"Hi baby. This is Roberto," she said, motioning to the man on top of her. "He was just helping me stretch out."
"Right. Mind getting off my wife now?" He crossed his arms across his chest.
Roberto chuckled as he got off the ground, stretching a hand down to help Sara up. She jumped up and Ryan could see now she had extremely short running shorts and a sports bra on.
"I've heard many great things about Sara's husband," Roberto said in a slight Spanish accent, reaching his hand out to Ryan. "I am Roberto Hernandez, Sara's personal trainer."
"More like boot camp drill instructor," Sara muttered.
"Oh." Ryan could have slapped himself.
"I didn't tell you he was coming by?" Sara asked, taking a swig from the water bottle on the treadmill. "I could have sworn I did."
"No, you managed to forget that little detail. Maybe I wouldn't feel like such an ass right now."
"Don't worry baby, Roberto here is more likely to hit on you than me, if that makes you feel any better."
"Sure. Well I'm just going to go… downstairs while you finish."
"We're done for today," Roberto said, bending over to pick up his gym bag. "I will see you at the same time tomorrow, honey." He placed a kiss on Sara's cheek. "I'll show myself out. It was nice to meet you, Ryan."
"You, too," he said slowly. He looked at Sara who was currently releasing her hair from the elastic band. He watched as she shook out her hair, leaving it to fall carelessly past her shoulders.
"Why are you staring at me?" Sara asked, picking up a towel and dabbing at her neck.
"Because you're gorgeous." Sara could feel a blush creeping up her cheeks. "So why was Roberto here?"
"Because the album's almost done," she said simply.
"Yeah, and?"
"And that means that soon we're going to be shooting videos. And I have to get back in shape for the tour."
"Tour?"
"Ryan, have you been paying attention at any of the meetings lately?"
"I've had a lot on my mind lately, you know that. But a tour?"
"Yeah, of course. I haven't ever put out a CD without going on tour as well."
"When?"
Sara sat on the free weight bench. "Well, it's April now. I know Tyler is hoping for the CD to be released in early or mid-June. So that would put the beginning of the tour around the end of June or early July. These are the prime months for concerts, Ryan, you know that. I mean, how many concerts did we used to go to over the summer?"
"I know. I just… wasn't expecting it to come this soon."
Sara could read Ryan like a book. "What is it, Ryan?"
"I've just had this child come into my life, Sara; I was hoping to get to know her."
"You have plenty of time to get to know her," she said, turning away from him.
"And then I'll have to leave for however many months the tour is."
"Welcome to my life." She pushed past him to head out of the door.
"Where are you going?" he demanded.
"I'm going to take a shower."
"Don't just walk away because we've started talking about something you don't want to hear about."
"What do you want me to say, Ryan? That it's my fault that we're putting the CD out in a couple months? That I've planned this tour at an inconvenient time when your illegitimate child has shown up in your life? Well it's not my fault, Ryan, so don't take it out on me."
"I'm not trying to take it out on you."
"You knew life would be difficult when you asked me to marry you. You knew what I do."
"I didn't think a child would pop up out of the blue, Sara."
"What are you going to do when we have children, Ryan?"
"It'll be different then. They'll come with us when we travel."
"A tour is no place for a child."
"So what are you going to do when we have children?" he demanded, throwing her question back at her.
"I was going to take a break and actually raise my child."
"But you won't let me do that with mine?"
Sara stared at Ryan. "Fine," she said, voice flat and void of any emotion. "You want out of the tour, I'll find another guitarist. I'm sure it won't be difficult."
Turning on her heel, she stalked into the bathroom. Standing where he was, he could hear the click of the lock. He raked his fingers through his hair. "What do you want me to do?" he asked, knowing she wasn't there to answer him.
Sara stood under the cool spray of the shower much longer than she needed to. Her body ached, and not just from the earlier workout. With the water streaming down her body, no one would know that she had been crying, that she was still crying. Giving up, she sank down to sit on the cool porcelain of the shower, the water raining down over her body. She pulled her knees into her chest and rested her head on her knees. She could feel the warmth of her tears trailing down her cheeks.
She hated to admit that her marriage wasn't working. How was she supposed to know how hard marriage would be when everyone was constantly scrutinizing every move she made, every move Ryan made? How could she live with the media digging their way into their lives? How could she live with them spreading gossip and vicious rumors across headlines all over the world? How could she want to question her own husband over the lies that she knew the tabloids were selling?
How could Ryan want to choose his newly discovered child over her?
How could she want to force him to choose between her and his child?
Sighing and exhausted, Sara flipped off the shower and began slowly toweling off, not really wanting to face Ryan, but not wanting to sit in the shower any longer. She dressed in sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt, one that she probably stole from Ryan's closet a while ago. She left her damp hair hanging on her shoulders and debated between curling up in bed and heading downstairs to face her husband.
If Sara listened closely, she could hear pots and pans crashing downstairs, a sure sign Ryan was trying to cook dinner. Summoning her courage she slowly made her way downstairs.
"What are you cooking?" Sara asked, her voice quiet and timid.
"Dinner."
"Obviously." Sara sat at the kitchen table, a good distance away from Ryan.
"Since when do you sit at the table?" Ryan asked, annoyed, when he turned from the stove.
"Since you look like you're going to slap me. I figured it was safer for me over here."
"No matter how annoyed I might be, Sara, I'm never going to lay a hand on you. You know that."
Sara smiled quickly, Ryan noticing how it didn't reach her eyes. "If you want to stay here and get to know Danielle, I'm not going to stop you. Family is more important than touring."
"Do you mean that?" Ryan wondered. When Sara didn't answer, Ryan set the wooden spoon on the counter and kneeled in front of Sara, waiting until she met his eyes. "Do you really mean that?"
"I want to. I'm going to miss you for the two or three months I'm on tour, but I'll deal with it if your staying here will make you happy."
"I want to be with you, Sara. I love you."
"And I love you, Ryan, so what are we going to do?"
"I'll try to explain things to Megan… I'll wait to get to know Danielle until after the tour's over so she isn't hurt when I have to leave. I promised you I would do the tour with you – and I don't break my promises Sara, you know that."
"You'd do that?"
"I love you, Sara. I'd do anything for you. Besides, we're still waiting for the results of the paternity test. All three of us decided not to do anything until we got the results. So for right now, let's pretend I don't have an illegitimate child out there." Ryan pressed his lips to Sara's, the kiss quickly gaining heat. Sara tugged at his shirt, Ryan nipped at her neck when a loud, shrill beeping went off, breaking them from their passion.
"Smoke detector's going off. You're burning dinner, idiot," Sara said, laughing.
"I planned it like this," Ryan said as he stood on a chair to turn off the smoke detector as Sara opened the kitchen door and windows. "It was all so you would cook dinner."
"Screw that. You can call for takeout now."
I'm going to be honest: I don't really know where I'm going with this...
I'm trying to write it and not make it boring, but I don't really know what I want to happen with these characters, so don't expect many updates.
Although, I have started working on a prequel to Liberty. I'm not really sure when I'm going to post that. I think I'm going to want to get some more chapters written before I post it... Although you all know what's going to end up happening...
Please review.
Suggestions for what could happen in this story would be much appreciated. I'll definitely consider each one.