Perfect

Taylor was multitasking and making a mess of it. He sat his coffee down, not caring that it was on top of a notebook – better than that his piano – and picked up his pencil to fix the last verse of the song he’d been working on. He wanted to get it absolutely perfect before going into the studio to record it.

He hadn’t really thought, two years ago, that he would ever record anything again. But when they had packed up to move into their new house together, Shiloh had found the notebooks full of songs Taylor had written about Charlotte. After having a good cry about it, the two of them agree that a few of the songs were good enough to record. When Taylor really sat down and pored over them, he realized there was nearly an album worth of songs. A few went through lots of rewrites and he added in a couple more that were not so subtly about Zac, and after a few weeks, he had something he was rather proud of.

Taylor didn’t know if anyone would buy a solo album by one of the two remaining Hanson boys, but it didn’t matter. He was recording and producing it all by himself, for his own satisfaction, not for any sort of commercial success.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t want it to be absolutely perfect, though. He’d been working on the last song, one about his feelings for Shiloh and Stella, for days and still it didn’t feel right. The album wouldn’t be complete without it, though.

Secluded in his makeshift studio, he didn’t even hear the front door open. Had his piano bench not faced the door, he wouldn’t have even realized that Shiloh and Stella were home. As it was, he had approximately two seconds to prepare himself for Stella’s running attack. While Shiloh leaned against the door frame, looking exhausted, Stella wobbled across the room and launched herself at Taylor’s legs. Chuckling, he pried her loose and hoisted her up into his lap.

“Did you have fun shopping with mommy?” He asked.

“Uh huh,” she replied. “We bought presents, but I’m not sposed to tell you what they are.”

Taylor chuckled, and glanced up at Shiloh. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“Yeah, well, it’s Christmas,” Shiloh replied, shrugging.

Even after two years together, it took a lot to get any sort of emotional response out of her, at least where her relationship with him was concerned. Taylor didn’t mind, though. He knew that they had survived the worst the world could possibly throw at them and they had only made it because they had each other. He’d still been a little nervous when he took her aside on Stella’s second birthday and slipped a diamond ring onto her finger, but she had accepted it with an uncharacteristically sweet smile.

Without Charlotte and Zac, their lives weren’t perfect. They couldn’t be. But Taylor couldn’t think of anything else that he would change.