Page 72 of I Found You
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Wyatt
The last nine days had been the longest of my life. After spending two nights at Wes’s place, I knew I had to get back to my place and start straightening things up. I opened all the windows to get rid of some of the stale air that permeated my house. Threw out all of the food in my fridge and pantry. I may have gone a little overboard during the cleanse. Even the mayo didn’t make the cut. I tried to go grocery shopping after that, but the idea of throwing out more food was sickening, so I just grabbed some necessities that would see me through a few days. Plus a candle that I found in that weird card and book aisle at the grocery store. Never understood it until I needed it.
As long as this week had been without Maeve or Jane in it, I felt like I was walking in a haze. I knew I was a grouch, especially since Luke told me to watch my tone with him. I didn’t even realize I was snapping at him.
Yesterday though. Fuck.
The conversation still played on repeat in my mind.
“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Jackson asked rightbefore the end of the day.
“Yeah, what’s up?” I reached for the bucket of rags to clean my hands as I waited for him to start. After a beat too long, I looked back at him and saw him fidgeting.
There must have been something in my facial expression that conveyed my impatience. Jackson hurried to start talking, and it was like he needed to get it all out before he could change his mind. “Do you think… would you… I’m going back to school for my diploma like we talked about, and I was looking up those certificate programs for auto technicians. And if I can get into one, would you be open to me apprenticing… with you?” He paused before he started up again. “I know you and Maeve broke up, and it might be weird with me being here and working for you. But I already talked to her about it, and she’s fine with it as long as you’re cool with it. We don’t need to talk about her. I never even have to bring her up in conversation. I won’t make it weird. After this conversation.”
My heart stuttered. What the fuck did he just say? She was telling people that we broke up? The fuck we did.
The idea that she thought this was over between us seemed to clear the fog I had been walking in. I had let this fight go on for too long. I had no idea how to be in a relationship, and my inexperience was making me make a fucking mess of this. I was still so pissed that I didn’t have a chance to say bye to Jane. But that didn’t mean we broke up. I guess nine days without seeing each other or even talking or texting was a bit of a stretch. But I could still come back from this. I had to. There was no other option for me.
“Fuck whatever Maeve told you,” I growled. “Of course you can apprentice here.” I grabbed my keys from the workbenchand headed for the door. “Lock up when you’re done cleaning up. I have to go somewhere.”
I got in my car and just started driving. What was I going to do? I needed to set the record straight, but I wasn’t dumb enough to just show up and tell her that, no, she did not break up with me because I simply fucking refused it. My first thought was to talk to Reid about it, but he was still reeling from his own breakup. One that he didn’t have the option to simply refuse to accept. Luke was out. Wasn’t even sure if he was working or at home, but either way, he wasn’t in the best place to give me relationship advice. Wes was as clueless about this shit as me. He wouldn’t be any help.
While my mind was racing to figure out who I could turn to, my instincts took me right where I needed to be.
Without knocking, I barged into my father’s house like a bull. He was sitting in his recliner, watching an old western on TV. Sheila lay on the couch, sprawled out with her head near my dad and a blanket over her lap. His hand was absently stroking her hair.
“Oh, shit,” I started. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you had company. I should have knocked. Or called first. Hi, Sheila.”
“Hi, Wyatt. Don’t worry about it. I was just getting ready to head out,” Sheila said.
“No, don’t leave on my account. I’ll, uhm, come back another time.”
“I have to be at the diner for the dinner rush anyway. Really.” Sheila patted me on the shoulder as she passed, my father two steps behind her.
“Wyatt, why don’t you grab us some beers. I have a feeling one of us is going to need them,” my dad said. Hint taken.
Giving them a moment to say bye, I rounded into thekitchen and pulled out a can of beer for each of us and sat at the kitchen table. The same table that I sat at with my mom when I was a kid. She used to help us with our homework at this table. Feed us family dinner every night at this table. God, I missed her. She would tell me to get my head out of my ass right about now. No, that wasn’t true. That was more my dad’s MO than my mom’s. She was too kind for that. She would tell me that love would conquer all and to go to Maeve and tell her how I felt. Simple as that.
“Trouble in paradise, I’m guessing.” My father walked into the kitchen, and I passed him his beer while he took his seat at the head of the table.
“More like paradise was set on fire,” I sighed.
“You know, when you all were little, I thought that having three sons and only one daughter meant that I was going to get off easy on the broken-heart conversations. Ha. What a fool I was.”
“Ha.” It was true though. Lydia didn’t have a boyfriend all through high school. She thought it had something to do with Luke and me. Maybe it did, a little. And she moved to New York for college right after she graduated. Any relationships she’d had since then she’d been tight-lipped about. Luke, on the other hand, had more heartbreaks than underwear. I think that was what he liked about Juliet in the beginning. The safety of being with someone who didn’t make him lose his heart to her. Instead, she seemed to be chipping away at it piece by piece.
“So, what happened? She seemed like a keeper to me.”
“Me too. But I happened. I don’t know how to do this, Dad. I’m fucking thirty-three years old, and I have no idea how to be in a relationship. I think I messed up for real.” I told himabout Jane and her so-called family. What I said to Maeve before I walked out her door. “Now, Jackson is telling me that Maeve and I broke up.”
“You want my advice?”
“That’s why I’m here, old man.” He sent me a dirty look, but I tried to muster up enough of a smirk to let him know I was kidding about the old man joke. I desperately did need his advice.
“Get your head out of your ass and go talk to the girl,” he said.
