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

Carlie Davies says reconnecting with Shannon Giles and having their daughter Rowan was the best thing ever. (Supplied)

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.

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?

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.

Carlie, pictured with Shannon, her daughter and stepson, says the family love watching the footy together. (Supplied)

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.

And same with becoming a mum at almost 40. I partied har