“He’s finally asleep,” I say as I enter the living room and flop down on the couch next to Haddie.
“Thank heavens! I thought he would never go to sleep. Remind me to never give a child ice cream at seven o’clock at night.”
“We did tell you, but you decided you knew better than either of us. Lucy should have made you calm him down for bed,” Rylee chastises us from the armchair near the back door.
Pillows and blankets are spread out all over the living room from the fort we made after dinner. Plates of half-eaten pizza are on the entertainment center above the television.
“I don’t want to clean up,” I whine as I continue to look around the room.
“Fine, we can clean up later. Why don’t you tell us what the hell happened between you and Tyler earlier?”
I should have known these two would not let me get away with not discussing what happened. “You already know what happened, Ry. Hell you knew what happened before either of us did. So why don’t you tell me what happened?” I push up from my place on the couch and grab a blanket off the floor and fold it.
“Don’t blame this shit on me. Yes, I knew Tyler was in rehab when he left. I also know that he didn’t want anyone to say anything to you about what he was going through. He wanted you to have a chance at being happy.” Rylee rips the blanket out of my hands before continuing. “He was so worried about coming back here and ruining your life, he stayed away. He took the small tidbits of information you allowed Colton and I to share with him and cherished them.”
Tears stream down my face for the second time today over Tyler and his absence of the last four years. “Why didn’t he call or come home? Why did he leave me?”
“Why didn’t you call him or better yet, why does that man not know he had a son? Haddie asks from beside me as she leans down to grab a few pillows off the floor.
“He left me,” I respond stepping over the piles on the floor and heading out of the back door.
“So what? He left, but he told you he was going. He could have left you with nothing, not even a voicemail, but he took a few moments to think of you.”
Haddie steps out of the door and Rylee follows behind her, but I refuse to acknowledge them. I could have called, but after hoping for him to turn back up I got the message. He didn’t want anything to do with me.
Rylee wraps me in her arms as Haddie comes up behind me and places a gentle hand on my shoulder. “He loved you enough to walk away and not bring you down with him. Yes, he didn’t call or write, but why would he come back when he knew you were doing so much better without him?”
“I wasn’t better,” I whisper before laying my head on Rylee’s shoulder. “I was lost, afraid, and so alone.”
“How would he know how you felt if you never let any of us tell him? All he knew was you had moved on with your life. It seems he tried to make a new life for himself without you but found his way back to you all over again.” Rylee takes a step back, supporting my body at arm’s length.
“I’m scared,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around my center.
“Who isn’t scared of falling in love?” Haddie chimes in from beside me.
“Colton and I wouldn’t even be together now if I let my fear win. I had to fight for our life together from day one, but I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for the world.”
Rylee wraps Haddie and I both into a group hug. “The only person that can fill in the blanks of your story is you.”
As my friends and I look out into the night sky, a sense of peace settles over me. I may not agree with Tyler’s why, but I can agree that we both had the wrong idea.
We are so much stronger together than we ever will be apart. Just look at the awesome little boy we created together.
“I think it’s time for me to make a phone call.” I unravel myself from our group hug and turn to head inside.
“Fuck the phone call. Get your man, girl,” Rylee says before breaking out into a fit of laughter.
“We can hold down the fort here. Go have some fun and don’t rush home.” Haddie smirks at me before I head back inside.
I grab my keys and bag from the hook by the door and rush out of the door.
Chapter Seventeen
Tyler
“Stupid piece of shit,” I mumble into the empty garage as I lower the engine I’ve been working on into our test car, an Acura NSX retro fitted with a roll cage and all the bells and whistles.
“Need any help?” Colton chimes in from behind me.
“Yeah, get your ass on the other side of this thing and help me line it up.” I shake my head. It would have been smarter to wait until someone was here to help me. Dropping this beast into a car is not easy.
“Couldn’t you have chosen a better car to test this out on? Hell, I can have the guy drop it into one of my cars to test, no reason for you to go through all of this trouble.”
“The engine will slide right into place with no trouble, now that I have help,” I grunt as we slowly lower it into place, “Now all I need to do is connect it to the transmission and then continue connecting the dots. I should have this baby on the road in no time.”
“You are going through a lot of trouble for a backup engine?” Colton grabs a rag from the bench, wipes
