Love story: Locking down the 'one that got away'

For a long time, Shannon Giles was "the one that got away" for Carlie Davies. That all changed when she reconnected with her teenage crush two decades later. These are Carlie's words.

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Shannon and I met through a friend of mine who I consider my sister.

It was at Thursday night basketball in Blackburn (Melbourne), which was a big thing there. 

He was a little bit older than me. He had already left high school. But we really clicked.

He was my year 11 formal partner (in 1995). I remember being very proud that night, because I made my dress.

We just had so much fun together and with our group of friends — we were all really close.

We were never really in a proper relationship, we would just spend time together, we'd go out and party and hook up occasionally.

We always held a candle for each other.

Our lives went in different directions

I met my ex in my mid 20s.

Initially neither of us wanted kids, but I had a change of heart over the years.

I was watching my nephews grow up, and all of I sudden I just had this overwhelming urge I wanted a child.

I was trying to push those feelings down, but it got to the point where I would see women at the shops with newborns and I'd go sit in my car and cry.

I started to resent him. Then one morning we had a talk and decided to part ways.

I was willing to have a child by myself if I needed to, I was 36 so time was ticking and whatnot.

Shannon and I had connected on social media when Facebook became a thing.

You know when you would just go through and add all your old friends?

We'd kept in contact that way and I saw that he had had two children. I would comment things like "Congrats on the little one".

Occasionally he would visit the town where I was living in regional Victoria as his dad also lived there, and we would catch up for a coffee.

Rekindling a romantic connection

When we were both single, we were chatting more and more, and things went from there.

I had told him I wanted a baby, my biological clock is ticking, and we said: "Let's do this".

He had more of an established career, whereas I bounced around, so I packed up my house to move to Melbourne to be with him.

I stopped taking the pill and a couple of months later I was pregnant. I didn't think it would happen so quickly, and I had our daughter, Rowan, at 39.

Shannon was kind of the one that got away. But we weren't emotionally or mentally in a place to be together that young.

We are both really glad we went out and lived life first.

And same with becoming a mum at almost 40. I partied hard in my 20s and 30s, and now I'm so happy to watch the world through her eyes.

She is the best thing ever.

Life as a family

He and I just get stronger every year.

It was a little bit rocky the first couple of years, just navigating life together after being independent adults for so many years.

But we found our groove and our thing, and we roll with it.

We love spending time as a family. On Sundays we go watch our friend's son play local footy with other families.

We like to be homebodies, but we also have a very social eight-year-old to keep busy.

We have enjoyed family weddings over the past few years. He gets quite emotional at weddings, and I loved sharing that with him. We have our Ed Sheeran dances together.

We probably won't get married, though. We don't need that ceremony and the tradition. We make our own traditions.

When we had our daughter, Shannon suggested hyphenating her last name, but I insisted she have his so she has a connection to her half-brothers.

What I love most about Shannon is he just stands for everything he believes in.

He's the sort of man who calls out toxic masculinity when he sees it and is a big believer in human rights.