by Stacey Lewis
“I know you weren’t happy. I wasn’t either, but I still loved you. I didn’t want our relationship to just end either. I didn’t want to have to explain to my father that I couldn’t keep our relationship together.”
That makes a little more sense. “Hell, if that was the only reason why, I would’ve talked to him for you.” I’m trying to inject a little humor into our conversation because this is heavy shit. Plus, her dad always hated me. He probably would have been just fine with her leaving me, especially if she took the kids away from me when she did.
She finally cracks a genuine smile. “Yeah, well, I didn’t think about that at the time.” Tabitha exhales a breath, her shoulders sagging further. “Fine. I won’t say anything to the principal about you two. I don’t even know if she’d have a problem with it. I just wanted to hurt you… and her too.”
I don’t expect her to say she’s sorry, and it’s a good thing because she doesn’t. Tabitha leaves me standing in the hallway, looking at her with my mouth dropped open because she sounded genuine. It’s been a long time since she’s been anything but a bitch to me. I don’t know if I can trust it, but as soon as the front door shuts behind her, I hightail it back to Hailey’s room.
She’s not here. Where is she? She couldn’t have just left, could she?
I spin around and go in the opposite direction, heading for the parking lot where she parks every morning. Hailey’s car is gone, so she must’ve left while Tabitha and I were having our stupid heart to heart.
Now I run in the opposite direction, crashing out of the front doors and making a beeline for my truck. I have to get to her, to make her understand that my ex is, in fact, human and isn’t going to ruin her life.
My truck skids into the apartment parking lot and I take up two spaces when I park. I’m in way too much of a hurry to worry about parking etiquette. If someone gets upset, they can kiss my fucking ass. I need to get to Hailey.
I take the stairs to her apartment two at a time, and by the time I reach her landing I’m breathing heavy and a little lightheaded. I guess I need to incorporate more running into my gym routine, but I could give a shit about that right now.
My fist pounds on her door as I scream her name. “Hailey!” The door doesn’t budge. “Please let me in.” Still nothing. I rest my head on her door frame and wish for her to open it.
“She’s not in there.”
I spin around and see Riley standing in her doorway, her eyes darting between me and Hailey’s door. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” she says. “She hasn’t gotten home from school yet, but she should be here soon. I think she had conferences today. A few might have run late. Do you want to come in and wait for her?”
Instead of responding, I head for the stairs. Where could she be? I try her cell phone again as I’m jogging down to the first floor, but there’s no answer.
As much as I don’t want to admit defeat, I don’t think I have a choice. Until she decides to talk to me, I’m screwed. I just hope she doesn’t ignore me forever.
I’m walking up the stairs to my apartment, and when my floor comes into view, I see her standing at my apartment, her back resting on the wall beside my door and her arms crossed over her chest.
“Hailey.” The way I say her name, like it’s both a curse and a prayer, grabs her attention and she looks up. I’ve barely cleared the top step when she comes barreling over to me and throws herself into my arms. Her arms wrap around my neck and her arms around my waist.
“Where have you been?”
Her head lifts from where she shoved it in my neck, and she looks down at me in question. “What do you mean? I left school after my last conference and came here to wait for you. I figured you’d probably be a while since, you know, it was Tabitha.”
“I went back to your room after I talked Tabitha out of going to complain to the principal and you weren’t there. That fucked with my head, Hails. Don’t ever do that to me again. I thought you would never speak to me again.”
This isn’t a conversation we should be having in the hallway for everyone to hear, so I make my way over to my door and struggle to get the keys out of my pocket with the way Hailey is clinging to me. Once I get the door open, I walk over and sit on the couch. The position is reminiscent of the first night she let me touch her in her apartment. That was after some drama too. I hope our lives aren’t destined to be full of drama. I hate that shit.
Hailey picks up the conversation like it never stopped in the hall. “Mitchell.” Her hands come up to cup my cheeks, forcing my eyes to stay on hers. They’re soft and warm, so looking at them is not a hardship. “I wouldn’t stop talking to you just because your ex-wife is a bitch.”
“Yeah?”
She kisses me quickly. “Yes. Besides, we should have known better than to dry hump on my desk in the middle of an elementary school.”
“I don’t remember any humping. Maybe we should recreate it to be sure.”
Her eyes roll and she blows out an exasperated breath. “You know what I mean.”
“I love you.” The words are out before I consciously know I’m going to say them and Hailey freezes above me, eyes wide and her mouth dropped open in shock. I lean forward and kiss said open mouth before dropping back so I’m almost lying on the couch. Her body follows so she’s practically lying on top of me, and trust me, that’s not a problem.
Her eyes are darting back and forth from one of mine to the other like she’s not sure I know what I just said. I do. Believe me, I do. “You love me?” she whispers, like saying it out loud will make me take it back.
“I love you,” I confirm.
Her mouth breaks into a huge smile and she laughs, kissing me at the same time.
“I love you too. So freaking much.”
Now I have to laugh because she sounds like the teenager she definitely is not when she says it. I take over the kiss, wanting to lose myself in her and forget the last hour even happened. Besides, pretty soon I’ll have to go get my kids from my parents and she’ll have to go get Connor from daycare. Might as well take advantage of the alone time while we have it.
With that thought in mind, I throw her onto her back on the couch, covering her with my body. “Let me show you just how much I love you.”
Epilogue
Eight months later
Mitchell
It’s amazing the difference only a few months makes. If someone told me a year ago that my life would change the way it has in such a short amount of time, I would’ve told them they were crazy.
Hailey’s sitting at the breakfast bar in my apartment helping Connor finish cutting his pancakes so he can eat. We have plans this morning, plans that mean all three kids will be going to my sister’s house in a few minutes. I need him to hurry up, not take a year to eat like he does sometimes.
Forty-five minutes later, all three kids are gone and Hailey and I are in my truck, headed to look at the first of three houses we found online. Yes, that’s right. We’re looking at houses… to purchase together. I’m tired of her sleeping on the other side of the complex some nights. I want her in bed with me every night, not just some of them.
She’s picked three houses she wants to look at, but I’m pretty sure the first one is going to be the one she picks. The other two are very modern and upscale looking inside, and that’s just not Hailey. It’s not either of us. From the pictures online, the one has an all-white kitchen beside a mudroom, and with the amount of grease I have on my clothes and body when I get home from the garage, there’s no way I’m not going to ruin the pristine countertops the day after we move in.
We pull up to the first house and I can already tell Hailey’s in love with it. She bounces out of the car and stands at the edge of the walkway, hands clasped beneath her chin and practically emulating the heart-eyes emoji.
I walk around the car and take her hand. “Let’s go look at it.” She looks up at me with a huge grin on her face and nods.
“Yes, let’s.”
The agent is already waiting for us at the door when we reach it, and she leads us inside, waxing poetic about all the features of the house. From the front, it looked like one story, but now that we’re inside I can see a staircase off to one side of the living room that leads to a second level.
Hailey wanders through the main floor, trailing her fingers along the fireplace mantle in the living room before heading into the kitchen to explore there. The room is bright and airy, with a huge fridge and a big island in the middle that houses the stove. You can see straight into the living room from the island, and Hailey tells me, “That will make cooking with Connor around a lot less dangerous.”
She’s already talking like it’s our house. Stepping over to the large farmhouse sink, she stares out the windows at all the lush greenery. I walk up to stand behind her and look out over the big back yard. There’s plenty of room out there for the kids to play, and there’s a deck right outside the sliding glass doors in the dining area that I’m sure will get a lot of use.
I expect her to walk out there and look around, but she continues back through the house, visiting what looks to be the master bedroom with a bath and another bedroom. There are also two more bedrooms upstairs and surprisingly, a fifth on the lowest level. That one I’m sure Ben will claim for his own.
Finally, we make our way out onto the deck and the view is the best thing I’ve seen aside from Hailey. She’s only out there a second before she says, “This is the one, Mitchell. I want this house.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I pull her into me and laugh. “I knew you would. I don’t know why you wanted to go look at those other two. They aren’t us.”
She laughs, pushing me away before turning to look back out at the trees behind what will be our new house. This is my chance, I know it, so when she turns back to face me, her face lit up with happiness, I’m down on one knee, a pale blue box in my hand. Hailey gasps, covering her mouth with both hands.
“Hailey Nicole Lucas. You came into my life like a hurricane, shaking everything I knew upside down and changing my life for the better. I can’t imagine doing this without you, and I never want to find out what that would be like. I love you more than life. Will you marry me?”
The realtor, Meghan, who knew I was going to do this, is holding my phone, videotaping what’s happening so Hailey can play it for her parents and mine later, and probably Evie too. That child will be so mad she wasn’t here to see this, especially since she went with me yesterday to pick it out.
Nodding and crying, Hailey finally manages to say yes, then throws herself into my arms, knocking me back on my ass. She plants kisses all over my face as she says, “Yes,” over and over and over again.
Once she finally calms, I slide the ring down her finger and she holds up her hand between us so she can look at it. “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m glad you like it since you’ll be wearing it forever.” Yeah, I’m being cocky, but it’s the truth. I won’t ever do anything to make her want to take it off. We both made mistakes when we were younger, but this time we definitely got things right.
The With Me in Seattle Universe
To learn more about The With Me in Seattle Universe, click here:
https://www.ladybosspress.com/with-me-in-seattle
About the Author
Stacey is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author of Second Chances, Shadows of the Past (co-authored with H.M. Ward), the Nashville Secrets series, and the Nashville U series.
She’s also the single mom of three amazingly crazy boys and since she’s a transplanted Yankee, considers herself a big city girl living in a small town. Because she can’t live in the cities she loves – Nashville, New York, Chicago – she writes about people who do instead. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find her curled up with a sexy book, or more accurately, scrolling through Tumblr. She also isn’t afraid to admit her favorite addictions: Tumblr GIF’s, social media, Spotify, Dr. Pepper, and of course, dirty books. Hunky heroes with control issues and strong heroines who stand up to them are her weakness. She loves to talk books – not just her own – with anyone, so send her a message!
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Where you can find her:
staceylewis.com
Also by Stacey Lewis
Nashville Secrets
Save Me From Myself
Everything I Shouldn’t
Pretending He’s You
Novella's
Never Wanted More (free with newsletter signup)
Nashville U
Looking for Trouble
Winston Brothers
Baby Proposal
Oops Baby
Lady Boss Press
Boudreaux Universe
Easy Spark
