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She nods.
“And do you plan on going back?”
She shrugs. “I guess that depends on you.”
My brows lift. “Me?”
“If you’ll let me be a part of our daughter’s life. I don’t want to go back, but if I can’t be with my daughter, there’s no point in staying.”
I push myself up, go to the kitchen and grab a beer. I take a drink. When I lower the bottle, I notice Allison standing in the doorway, arms crossed and watching me. “Ava, it’s bedtime.”
“Care if I help?”
Allison goes upstairs with us and she watches while I tuck Ava in and read her a story. Then we both give her hugs before walking out of the room. I don’t allow her to sit back down on the couch. Instead, I lead her straight to the front door. “I don’t really know what to tell you right now. I need to do a lot of thinking. It’s not a decision that I can make in the blink of an eye. You’re going to have to prove yourself before I make up my mind.”
She steps up so she’s standing directly in front of me. “I understand.” She nods. “But I need to tell you that I mean what I’ve been telling you. I messed up. The best things in my life were you and Ava and I threw both of you away. I’ve been running from that decision ever since, Linc. I miss you both. I still love you both. And if I’m being completely honest, I’m not back just for Ava. I want you back too. I want us to be a family again.”
I’m frozen by her confession. I can’t move or think and I can’t force any words from my lips.
“Come on, Linc. I know you remember how great things were between us. How passionate.” She steps toward me. “I haven’t felt anything like it since. We’re meant to be together.” She lifts up onto her toes and presses her lips to mine.
My heart slams against my chest as every muscle tightens. But my body doesn’t tense with excitement. It revolts. It only takes me a split second to fall back a step, breaking our kiss. “What are you doing?” I wipe off my mouth.
She frowns. “Come on, Linc. I know you still feel the passion between us. We’ve never been able to ignore it. It’s what brought us together all those years ago.”
I shake my head. “I told you, I’m seeing someone else. And things are going good with us. Ava loves Emery. It’s still new with us, but I’m not ready to give up on that. I want to see this through.”
She rolls her eyes, snorting as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Well, I highly doubt you’ll be hearing from her anytime soon.”
Every hair stands on end. “Why? What did you do?”
Her eyes are wide. “I told her exactly what I told you. That I’m here to take my family back. That she’s the other woman and that she needs to step aside and let me put our family back together. She looked like she was going to puke.” She rolls her eyes. “You always did have a thing for the dramatic ones.” She shakes her head.
“Get out.”
Shock paints her face. “What?”
“I said get out. You don’t get to march back into my life years after you left.” I open the door. “Meeting you cost me everything. I’m finally getting a life back that I enjoy and you think you can walk in here and take it away again?” This time, I’m shaking my head. “No, that’s not how this is going to work. This time, I’m the one who gets to decide how this goes. I will consider letting Ava have a relationship with you, but you and me, we’re done for good.” I nod toward the door. “Now, go.”
She scoffs but she walks out with her eyes trained on the ground. I don’t even let her get off the porch before I slam the door behind her. I pull out my phone and call Emery. It rings and rings before going to voicemail. I hang up with a sigh. She’s not going to answer.
* * *
“Can we talk?” I ask when I walk Ava into daycare the next morning.
She doesn’t look happy but she nods and then follows me outside.
“I don’t know what Allison said to you but?—”
“Lincoln, just stop.” She crosses her arms, her head hanging forward looking defeated. “She told me everything.” She looks up at me now. “She told me she wants you and Ava back. That she realizes she made a mistake and that she wants to fix it.” She shakes her head. “I don’t want to stand in the way of a family being whole again.”
I frown as I look at her. What is she saying?
“Ava deserves a mother. She deserves to have her real mother in her life. And yes, Allison messed up and never should have walked away, but people make mistakes. At least she’s back. She learned her lesson. And I don’t want to block her path. If I did and Ava found out about it one day, I wouldn’t be able to look her in the eye. I don’t ever want to have to tell that little girl in there that she could have had her mother and father but I stood in the way. I just…I can’t. I’m sorry.” She turns and walks away, leaving me standing in the parking lot completely and utterly speechless.
Does she mean what she just said or is this an excuse for her to pull away even more like she’s been trying to do for days?
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