Right With Me - Stacey Lewis Page 0,17

all the way here. I can’t think straight around him.

What was I thinking offering to let him come here? Now he’ll know where I live and how to find me. What a dumb idea that was.

I’m so far in my head I don’t notice him come over to stand beside me until he takes my hand in his.

“Breathe, Hailey.” His voice is pitched low and soothing and I suck in a large breath. God, why am I acting like this? I need to chill out. “We don’t have to do this if it’s too hard. I can wait.”

His voice is so gentle, but I can hear the underlying sadness. He wants to explain things to me, and after talking to Riley last night I feel like I owe him the chance to do so. Even if all it does is give me closure so I can move on from thoughts of him. It’s been a year since that day in his waiting room, but the pain is just as fresh now as it was then.

I take a moment to gather my courage and straighten my spine. “No, it’s fine. Let’s get this over with.” His flinch is small, but I still see it out of the corner of my eye and instantly want to apologize. I swallow the words. He deserves that and so much more from me.

We walk up the stairs and into my apartment and I watch as he looks around the still bare space. I know what he’s seeing, an apartment that looks like it’s not even been lived in yet. He’s not totally wrong since my brother helped me move in just last weekend. I haven’t had a chance to do much of anything, and there are still boxes all over the place.

“Are you moving in or out?” he asks, his amusement clear.

I look away from him before I answer. “I’ve only been here a week.”

He tenses at my admission and I wonder why. What does it matter if I moved in last week or last month or last year? He wasn’t with me and we had to get settled eventually. As much as I love my parents, there’s no way I could live with them forever.

Leading him over to the small couch that’s the only piece of actual furniture in my living room right now, I gesture for him to take a seat before taking my own at the opposite end. Unfortunately, the couch is small so we aren’t very far apart.

Mitchell turns to look at me and I watch the emotions cross his face – indecision, determination, regret. The last is the one that gets me. Having the knowledge he regrets what happened last year makes me feel so much better about it.

“What you said last year, about being miserable and what it was teaching my kids, it really fucked me up, Hailey.”

The look he gives me tells me just how deep it cut him when I said that. “I refuse to feel bad for that because I still stand by it. It took me a long time to realize I wasn’t doing Connor any favors by putting up with Seth’s bullshit. We are both so much happier now.”

He hurries to reassure me. “You shouldn’t feel bad about saying it. It was the kick in the ass I needed to make a change. Well,” he stops for a second and looks down at his hands, “that and the way Tabitha acted in the room that day. That was the last straw for me. I knew I had to make a change, and after you left that afternoon I ended it with her for good.”

I have so many questions I want to ask him, but when I open my mouth, he holds up one hand and shakes his head. “Let me get this all out. It wasn’t like I told her I was leaving and bam it was done. She fought every damn step of the way. The thing about Tabitha though, she cares way too much about what other people think. Threatening to air all our dirty laundry slowed her down and it let me get everything in place I needed. Now I don’t have to worry about her taking off with the kids or telling outrageous lies to hurt me.”

“I’m glad, Mitchell.” It’s true, I’m so glad he’s out of that toxic environment, and not only that he is, but so are his kids. They’re the innocent ones in all of this and