Second Chance at Love

Chapter 23

Getting home after my day with Alex, I don’t know why but I feel anxious. There’s a truck in our driveway. I think I know who’s it is, but I’m not 100 % sure.

“Are you ok, Kaylee?” Alex ask me worriedly.

“Yeah, I think so. I don’t know. I just have this s=weird feeling somethings not right. I don’t know why.” I tell him.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” He asks.

He’s such a gentleman. Why I never noticed it before boggles my mind.

“No, I’ll be ok. I’ll just talk a nit with my mom. I’ll be fine” I tell him, giving him a quick kiss before getting out of his car and walking to the front door.

Waving goodbye to him, I walk in the house. Something smells good.

“Hi, mom! I’m home.” I yell out, walking into a spotless kitchen. Since when does mom do the dishes right after cooking?

“Mom?” I yell out again.

“She fell asleep in the living room.” I hear a man’s voice say. Who the hell is here alone with mom? Is it that guys that showed up looking for her?

Walking slowly toward the living room, I see that my mom asleep laying on that guy's shoulder.

“Hi,” He says to me.

Looking at him seriously, I size him up a little. I know he did something to my mom, and that she told me not to ask about it, but I just can’t help it.

“Hi” I reply to him, not really smiling.

“Your mom was tired and fell asleep after we got back from the hospital and hate supper.” He says in a matter of fact tone of voice.

“What!? My mom was in the hospital!? What happened to her? What did you do to her?” I ask angrily.

Looking at me shockingly, He takes in a slow breath.

“Your mom cut herself with a knife trying to get dinner ready. It was an accident. I would never hurt her. Not on purpose.” He says dejectedly.

Realizing I was being extremely rude to him, I sigh and sit down on a chair.

“Look, I’m sorry I accused you, but I’m worried about my mom. She just talked to me about you. I don’t know you, at all. You showed up in the morning and freaked me out, and now I get home and you’re here telling my mother was in the hospital and no one told me. It’s not an excuse for being rude. But I’m not blind. I know something bad happened between you and my mother and she doesn’t want to talk to me about it. I just don’t want to see her get hurt. She was hurting enough when my dad passed away. She doesn’t need some blast from the past getting into her mind and breaking her apart just for fun!” I say, exhaling deeply when I’m done my rant.

He just looks at me with a smile.

“What? Why are you smiling at me like this for?” I say, a little too rudely again.

“I was just thinking your mom is lucky to have a daughter like you. You worry about her like she’s your best friend.”

“She is my best friend. And I don’t want her to get hurt.” I say, feeling a little tense.

“Ok, I’ll be honest with you, but since your mother didn’t want to tell you everything, I won’t either to respect her. Yes, I did hurt your mother before when we were in high school. It was the single biggest mistake of my life and I’ve been trying to fix it ever since. I looked for your mother not long after our situation happened, but she was already gone without a trace. And I searched for her. Everywhere I could think of. For years, every time I would come down for a visit, I’d ask about her to her parent, or mine since they are really good friends. To see if any of them ad any news of her. I wanted to apologize and make everything right again. It took until the other week before I found her by chance through a mutual friend. Who would have known that she was so much closer than I could have ever imagined? I know that another man coming into your mom’s life must be very threatening to you. You and your mother have been through so much in the past year and you’ve been each other’s rocks for so long. I would never in a million years think to put a damper into your relationship or even in your father’s memories. Your mom had a pretty big meltdown today. She found something that used to belong to your dad, and she felt so guilty meeting me afterward. It broke my heart seeing her like this. But I want her to be able to be comfortable to talk to me about him. She has a past with him, that I would never want her to forget. Your father was there for her when I wasn’t and I’m grateful for it. I am sorry you lost your father this young. He seemed like he was a great, man and a great father. And I will never take that away from either of you.”

Feeling the tears prickling at my eyes, I sniffle a little.

“s**t! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. Your mother’s going to kill me!” He says looking terrified. With, for some reason, I’m finding funny.

“No, it’s ok. I guess I might have judged you too quickly. You do look like your really sorry for whatever happened between you too. And you seem genuinely interested in making it up to her. I guess if my mother decided to give you a second chance, you might be worth giving one.  I’ll try to be nicer, but no promises.” I say, now smiling a little.

“Ok. Thank you. I will do my best not to disappoint.” He promises to me.

“Well, I should go to bed. Are you stating over tonight?” I ask nervously.

“If you are not comfortable with me staying around, I will leave. You just need to tell me.” He says genuinely concerned.

Thinking about it for a minute, I look at my mom sleeping so soundly on his shoulder. I’d hate to wake her up. She does look like she tired.

“No, it’s ok. I’ll go lock the door before I head to bed. Good night”

“Good night Kaylee. I’m glad we had this chat.” He says happily.

“So am I”