Take Two: A second chance romance

Chapter 6: Jayden

It’s been 2 weeks since I went to the bar and Jake, Jordan and I spoke about Lexi leaving and trying to work out why. I’ve been looking into it and haven’t found out much. I tried to talk to Jax about what happened, but he said that he saw it on Lexi’s phone and didn’t have any of the photos or the message. I spoke to Angie again, but she just kept saying she knew nothing, though I did notice she didn’t like talking about that day with Lexi. So, I have come to a dead end so far, and I am not sure what my next move will be.

Getting home after finishing up the day with football training, as I was pulling into my driveway, I noticed that I had a visitor. Groaning as I stop the car and get out. Locking the car behind me. I started walking to the front door. As I am unlocking the door, the sound of heels gets closer to me. I got the door open and walked in, through to my kitchen. I put the keys on the bench and turned to look at my visitor.

“What do you want now mother?” I asked.

“Is that any way to greet your mother? I raised you better than that.” She replies.

“Mom, the only time you come to visit me is to tell me to do something I don’t want to do or go somewhere I definitely don’t want to be or, lately, it’s been pestering me about that w***e Angie.” I snapped.

My mother gasps when I call her best friend's daughter a w***e. She doesn’t like the word w***e, and she refuses to see Angie like the rest of us do. She thinks she’s a nice girl with impeccable manners and that she doesn’t f**k anything that walks. What a f*****g joke.

“Don’t use such vulgar words, Jayden. I came here because it’s time for you to get over Alexis and move on with your life. It’s been four years. She’s not coming back. She hasn’t even been back to see her family. What kind of person does that? Angie has loved you since you were both kids. Lana and I agree that the two of you would make a perfect couple.” She says.

Taking a deep breath, frustrated with this same line of bullshit that she talks about every time she sees me, never listening when I say no to her. I have heard this for three and a half years now.

“Mom, I am saying this for the last f*****g time. I will never ever be with Angie. She’s a family friend. I don’t see her as anything else. She bullied my fiancée all through high school. If it weren’t for your friendship with her mother, I would never have associated myself with her. She is the most horrible person I have ever met. I suspect she had something to do with Lexi leaving me. I will tell you now that if that is true, she had better leave town before I get to her. That’s if Lexi’s family don’t get to her first.” I said, getting increasingly frustrated with my mother.

My mother looks shocked at how I just spoke to her. She opens and closes her mouth a few times, trying to find the words to say. She is utterly speechless.

“Mom I am not talking about this with you, if that’s all you came here for, then you can leave.” I snapped, pointing to the front door to make a point.

Still looking at me shocked, she turns around and walks out the door. I am so f*****g over this s**t with my mother. I walked out after a few minutes and saw her drive away. Looking at the time, I decide that I can’t be bothered cooking anything for myself tonight, so I decide I’m going to head to the diner in town. I call Jake on the way and ask if he would like to meet me there. He agrees and says he will be there in 20 minutes. I got into my truck and went towards the diner. As I’m driving towards the diner, I drive past the lake where I proposed to Lexi all those years ago. I remember it like it happened yesterday.

It was Lexi’s 18th birthday and I had taken her to the lake, so we could sit in the gazebo in the middle of the lake to watch the sunset. As the sun started to set, I pulled out the ring she had pointed out a few weeks ago and got down on one knee. When she looked at me on one knee with the ring she had said she loved, she started to cry. Telling her how much I loved her and how much she meant to me. She made me so happy when she said yes. Looking out at the lake and seeing the gazebo makes me sad and the longing I feel for her is so powerful and the loneliness I feel is even stronger than normal, and it is soul-consuming. I feel like it’s going to engulf me.

I keep driving on to the diner, lost in thoughts of Lexi and me. Finally, pulling into the diner car park, I shut the car off and got out. As I am walking to the front of the diner, Jake pulls into the diner car park. I waved to him and waited for him to reach the entrance. A few minutes later, Jake meets me at the entrance and we both head into the diner. We grab a booth at the back of the diner, away from the view of people. I’m not in the mood to put up with fake pleasantries at the moment. I tell him about looking into Lexi and coming up against dead ends all the time. That I went and spoke to Jax and that he didn’t get a copy of the photos or message from Lexi, but he confirmed that he had seen them.

We talk about random things, and I tell him how the teams are going, and we talk about football. I’m a Raiders fan, and Jake has always been a Broncos fan. Jake has always given me hell for not supporting our state team. Once we have our food, we eat and talk. I’m glad I didn’t stay home, my mother really annoyed me tonight. I am so over them telling me to settle down with Angie and how good we would be together.

“Mom was at my place when I got home from work tonight. She was trying to push the w***e onto me again, told me it’s been 4 years, and it’s about time I got over Lexi and moved on. Told her what I really thought of Angie and told her to leave if that’s all she came to tell me. I told her that I suspect that Angie may have had something to do with Lexi leaving and if I find out that she did have anything to do with it, that she had better leave town before I get to her, if Lexi’s family don’t beat me to it.” I said.

“I don’t blame you; I would hate for my Mom to be pushing someone down my throat. Especially that b***h, remember how she was called Angie Anyhole in school because she slept with everything she could and took it in any hole.” Jake says, laughing at the end because of his description of Angie.

As I was about to reply, I froze at the sound of a voice yelling at someone to slow down. A voice I would know anywhere. My head snaps up and there she is heading to a booth that has her family in it. The booth is partially obstructed from view. I can see Jax there and Ryder sitting next to Jessa-Leigh. I can’t see who else is with them, but Jax seems to be talking to someone.

“Kai Jayden Blackwell, how many times have I told you not to run off like that?” Lexi says.

When her words register, my blood turns to ice and my whole body freezes more. It can’t be. Is that what she was going to tell me when she left? I know everyone in my family and the way she just spoke then is how you would speak to a young child. Am I a father and I didn’t know? I sat there waiting to see some kind of proof.

I don’t wait long when a little boy with black hair, around the age of 3-4, runs to Lexi and hugs her.

“Sorry mama, I was just excited to see Uncle Aaron.” The boy, Kai, says.

I turned to look at Jake, to see if he had seen this, and he was looking at the same thing I was. My chest starts hurting when I realize everything that I have missed because of something that may have been a set-up.

“Jake, is this real? Please tell me that Lexi is just standing over there and that I am also seeing a little boy that is my spitting image. Tell me that I am not hallucinating from loneliness or in a coma or something. This is true, isn’t it?” I ramble in disbelief at the sight in front of my fiancée hugging her son.

“Its real mate, it’s totally real. Go over there and talk to her. Take the chance before it’s gone.” Jake says as Lexi sits down in her booth.

I get up, straighten my clothes, and walk over to the booth that has the love of my life and my son. They don’t see me approach. Now that I can see everyone, I see Aaron sitting next to Ryder, then my son Kai sitting next to him, then I’m shocked to see another boy that looks exactly like him next to Kai and Jax. As I got to the booth, Jax was the first to see me. I can see the guilt in his eyes. I don’t blame him; it hurts they didn’t say anything, but I know they just have been doing what Lexi asked, but it hurts still.

“Lexi? Is that you?” I said.

The eyes of everyone in the booth snap at me. Lexi looks at me with so many emotions running through her eyes. The biggest one I see besides guilt is yearning. A tear runs down her cheek as she looks at the two boys, then back at me.