a sound she hadn't heard before

forty-five.

"Uncle Austin! Aunt Kristy!" Ayla squeals, running up to her aunt and uncle as soon as they step out of the car in the driveway. With the biggest smile on her face, she gives them huge hugs. She hasn't seen them since the summer, when they came to visit in Rhode Island, and absolutely adores both of them, so she really missed them.

"Hey there cutie," Kristy says, picking up Ayla and twirling her around in the air. Austin started dating Kristy around the time that Taylor fell pregnant with Ayla, and she quickly became a confidant for the superstar. She spent time with her brother and his new girlfriend during her pregnancy because they also tend to live a very secluded life. Taylor was absolutely thrilled to hear that Austin was going to propose and officially bring Kristy into the family. Kristy absolutely adores Ayla, just as much as the little girl adores her.

"Aunt Kristy, guess what?" Ayla says. "Mommy and I are moving to London soon."

"I heard that," Kristy says. "That's so cool. Are you excited?"

"Yeah!"

"Uncle Austin and I already have plans to come visit you, if that sounds good to you."

"Yes!" Ayla squeals. "Mommy says that I'm going to get to make lots of new friends, and Joe got me a scooter for Christmas so that I can ride scooters with the kids in the neighborhood."

"That's really special," Kristy says. "Is Joe Mommy's boyfriend?"

"Yeah. He's really nice and he talks funny. He says that it's called an accent and that everyone in London talks like him."

"Did you know that Mommy used to have an accent?" Austin chimes in with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Taylor can't help but roll her eyes at her younger brother, but Ayla gasps. "Really?"

"She had a different accent than Joe, the kind that people get from living in the south. It was when we lived in Nashville, but since she didn't grow up there, she pretended to have one to fit in with everyone else."

Taylor finds herself blushing. "Austin, let it go. I was sixteen."

"It was hilarious,"

"It's embarrassing. Plus, it's not like you didn't  do anything stupid when you were a teenager. I'm sure that I could share those stories with Ayla."

"I've heard them all, and most of them aren't PG," Kristy laughs.

Taylor scoffs. "I suppose you're right on that one."

"Is it true, Mommy? Did you have an accent?"

Taylor laughs. "I did. I'm sure that I can find videos of it somewhere."

Ayla seems so amazed by this information, which is very cute. Taylor makes a mental note to dig up one of her interviews from the beginning of her career- she knows that they're plentiful on YouTube, and quite frankly, it's only a matter of time before Ayla's friends start finding them, so she might as well see them at home anyway.

Austin, Kristy, Ayla, and Taylor then head inside, where Joe is waiting in the living room. Andrea and Scott are flying in on a later flight, so they'll be here in the evening, but for now, it's just the younger generations of the Swift clan.

"So I presume this is Joe," Austin says, looking to the blonde man who is standing up to greet the guests. "I'm Taylor's brother, Austin. It's lovely to meet you. Thank you for taking such great care of my sister."

Joe smiles. "The honor is mine. She's the greatest woman I've ever met in my life."

Taylor blushes a little. "Joe..."

"It's true," he tells her, planting a kiss on top of her head. "And this is Kristy?"

"Yep," the other woman says, shaking Joe's hand. "It's great to meet you."

"And you," he says, before turning to Taylor. "So this is who has been letting me wear all of his clothes when I'm here..."

Taylor laughs. "Yeah, he's the one."

"What's that?" Austin asks.

"Oh, Joe has just needed some spare clothes a few times, so I let him borrow some of your things that you left here once... he borrowed your snowpants for the snow on Christmas and had the best time playing out in the yard with Ayla."

"We built a snowman and it looked just like Olaf," Ayla chimes in.

"Wow," Austin smiles. "That's really cool, Ayla."

Ayla beams with pride. Austin is so good with Ayla- it's a side of her brother that she never saw until the little girl was born. She never watched him interact with kids, and until he met Kristy, he had never expressed interest in ever having any of his own. The woman who he has fallen so deeply in love with seems to have sparked something in him, because a few months ago, the couple admitted that they were trying for a child of their own, but so far, haven't succeeded.

Or so Taylor thought. Her suspicions first arose when she offered to get a bottle of wine out as she was fixing dinner for everyone, but both her brother and sister-in-law declined. That's out of character for both of them, but especially Austin. More red flags appeared when Kristy was so complimentary of the dinner, but didn't eat all that much because she was feeling a little nauseous, which she said was at the fault of the airplane. That made sense, but Taylor had a mother's intuition that it was something more. Kristy seemed to be positively glowing, and the two of them couldn't quite seem to keep their hands off of each other.

"So," Taylor says, as they're in the living room chatting that evening, waiting for Taylor's parents to finally arrive, "I feel like I've spent too much time talking about myself today. I've told you all about the show, and London, and Joe... what's going on with you two?"

"Oh, nothing much," Austin tells them. "Just, living life as best we can."

"No exciting news you want to share?" Taylor cocks an eyebrow.

Kristy starts to chuckle at this. "Austin, we've gotta..." she says.

"Okay, okay," he laughs. "We were going to wait until Mom and Dad got here to tell everyone together, but since you brought it up..."

"I'm pregnant," Kristy says with the biggest smile on her face.

"I knew it," Taylor exclaims, jumping up to wrap her sister-in-law in a hug, then her brother next. "Congratulations, you two."

"We didn't do a very good job of hiding it?"

"It's not like my younger brother to turn down a glass of wine," Taylor laughs.

"I decided to cut it out for the next few months, since Kris can't have it," Austin says.

"That's so sweet of you," Taylor remarks. "I'm so happy for you both, seriously. Wow..." She turns to her daughter. "Ayla, you're going to be a big cousin."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"When?" she asks. Everyone turns to Kristy for the answer.

"We just got the positive test about a week ago, and my doctor has been closed because of Christmas, so I'm not really sure, but we suspect that we'll be due in late August or early September..."

"That's so exciting," Taylor smiles. "Ayla and I will be back from London by then, so we will make sure to come down to meet the baby as soon as he or she makes an appearance."

As everyone is happily celebrating the great news, they hear a knock on the door.

"That must be Mom and Dad," Taylor says. "Oh, they're going to be so thrilled for you two."

"We'll tell them as soon as they get settled in," Austin assures Taylor. "But go get the door now."

Everyone laughs as Taylor walks over to greet her parents. Nobody in the room can wipe the smiles off of their faces, so it surely won't be long before Andrea and Scott figure out that there's some incredible news to be shared.