“Did you know he was coming home?” Being blindsided by Mitch was one thing, but if Aaron knew about this and hadn’t warned her, she would be devastated.
“No. He never said anything about coming home the last time I talked to him. I figured he’d stay there the rest of the summer. That was the plan.”
Mitch knocked on the door. There was no getting out of this confrontation. Perhaps the sooner Bonnie told him she wanted nothing to do with him, the sooner he would find someone else to torture.
“I will get him out of here,” Aaron promised before opening the door just wide enough that he could step outside. He promptly closed it behind him. Bonnie went to the door and looked out the peephole. Their distorted heads were all she could see. She pressed her ear to the door instead.
“What are you doing home?” she heard Aaron say. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?”
“I didn’t know I had to inform you of my every move,” Mitch said. “What are you doing at Bonnie’s? You told me you didn’t have her phone number, but here you are hanging out at her house in the middle of the day.”
Bonnie had had no idea that Aaron had been talking to Mitch since he left. It made sense since they were friends, but it was still surprising given that Aaron was not happy with what Mitch had done before he left. It would have been nice to know that Mitch was trying to contact her. She would have sent him a clear message that she was not interested in anything he was offering.
“You need to get out of here. You being here could cause Bonnie a lot of harm. Come on, come to my place and let’s talk about what’s been going on since you left.”
Bonnie waited for Mitch to protest, but he didn’t. He followed Aaron off the porch. “Can I leave these for her? I feel bad that Lauren has been taking this out on her. I left and she took all the blame. I just want her to know I’m sorry.”
That was nice of him. She could at least let him apologize to her face. She opened the door.
“Mitch,” she called out.
He glanced at Aaron as if asking for permission before climbing back up the stairs of her porch. He held out the roses.
“I am so sorry for leaving you here to face all the wrath over my foolish decision. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you and Lauren. I mean, I know hurting Lauren was inevitable, but I didn’t mean to do it the way I did. I was emotional that day, and I am really sorry.”
“I appreciate that. It has been incredibly hard.”
“Well, hopefully things will get easier for you now that I’m back. Lauren can focus all of her revenge on me instead of you. I’m really sorry. I know I said that already, but I mean it.”
“She heard you,” Aaron said sternly. “You need to leave. If people see you here, it will only hurt her.”
He wasn’t wrong. Bonnie wanted to retreat back into her house. “Good luck, Mitch.” She didn’t know what else to say. He was going to need it if he was going to survive whatever wrath was headed his way as soon as Lauren found out he was home.
“Thanks, Bonnie.” He left with Aaron, who looked more unhappy than anything else.
“Mitch is back, huh?” Bonnie hadn’t noticed her neighbor Becca had been weeding the landscaping on the side of their house.
Great. It was only a matter of time before the town’s gossip train had this news spread across the whole county.
“Unfortunately,” Bonnie replied, feeling guilty for being mean while holding the gorgeous bouquet of roses he had brought her as a peace offering.
Becca raised her eyebrows as if skeptical that was truly Bonnie’s feeling on the subject. “That should be interesting. I hope things work out for you guys.”
Bonnie almost shouted that she’d been making out with Aaron Cole ten minutes ago. The only person she wanted things to work out with was him. This was going to be her new battle, but she didn’t have the energy for it today. She would have to correct all the misconceptions out there about what kind of relationship she had with Mitch even though she had no relationship with him.
Aaron would figure out what to do about Mitch. At least he seemed genuinely sorry for what he had done and he hadn’t come back professing his love for her. That was a huge relief. Still, she was disappointed that she didn’t get to enjoy the fact that she and Aaron had taken things to the next level before this new issue popped up.
She took off for the Greenbriar house. The inspectors were supposed to come check the plumbing and electrical today so her dad and Sasha could start hanging drywall. Once they got all the walls up, things would start moving along much faster. She also hoped that Greenbriar would be Aaron’s next stop after talking to Mitch. She texted him to let him know she was heading there just in case.
The loud pop of the nail gun greeted her as she walked in. “Hello,” she called out.
“Back here!” Her dad’s voice came from the master bedroom.
They were putting up the walls separating the bedroom from the bathroom. “Passed inspection?”
“I have never seen anyone work so hard to not pass someone in my life,” Sasha said. “This guy was bound and determined to find something wrong so he could delay us, but he did not know who he was up against. Your dad is a master at what he does. There wasn’t one thing he could find that wasn’t up to code.”
“We need to be careful,” her dad said. “Next time they will simply not
