Page 35 of A Return For Ren

“Yeah, sorry.” He figured he might as well be honest. “I was looking around your living room.”

“I can give you a tour if you want. Not a ton to see on this floor. It’s an older home and cut up funny. I know so many people like the open concept of homes and I do too. I was more interested in the school than the house.”

“Did Zane do the work here?” he asked. It looked like work had been done not that long ago.

“Yes. Not the kitchen. They’d updated it before I bought it, but I did put in a backsplash and painted. I did a lot of painting in the house. Zane redid the hardwood floors on the first floor and the half bath was done. I’ve got a small office and dining room on this floor. Upstairs there are three bedrooms and one full bath. No master suite. Zane did redo that for me before I moved in.”

“It’s a good-sized house for just you,” he said. “And it looks like you could add on if you ever wanted to.”

He wasn’t sure why he was thinking that other than, in his mind, he was looking at that. That if he lived here what he’d do or change.

Surprisingly not a ton in the two rooms that he’d seen. Though his house was newer and somewhat open, he found there was a lot of charm here.

He would admit he loved having his own bathroom and it was something he wouldn’t give up.

Crazy thoughts that had no business being in his mind right now.

“I could,” she said. “But as you said, it’s only me and a lot of space. Did you want to do small talk or get to what I asked you here for? I’m good either way.”

“Your house, your idea. Whatever you want to do.”

“You always were accommodating with me,” she said.

She was one of the few he’d been that way with back then. Maybe it was because she always put so many other people first and he realized that.

“You’ve got things to say. I do too. We didn’t end the way I wanted to. Nothing went the way I wanted to on Thursday.”

“I’m going to ask you what you wanted to happen Thursday before we get to what I want to talk about. Maybe that will answer my main question and we can just enjoy dinner.”

He wasn’t sure what to make of that comment. “I didn’t mean to say what I had. That I wanted to see you show or prove your love to me. That was wrong and shouldn’t have been spoken.”

“If you felt it, then why hold it in?” she asked. The fries were put in the oven when it beeped and the burgers pulled out and put in a pan.

“Honestly,” he said, “I didn’t know I felt that way.”

She held his stare as if she didn’t believe him. He wasn’t sure he could explain it either. “Now that you said it, do you feel that way? Or feel it now?”

“Looking back, I probably did. But I can also tell you I had my mind made up back then. I’m not sure the outcome would have changed.”

Again, that stupid fight with his father clouding everything and causing him to react rather than wait it out.

She nodded and turned to go back to her dinner. He had to be honest with her even if he hurt her again. They’d get nowhere if he wasn’t.

“I don’t think it would have. I’ll take the blame for some of what happened back then. You told me you weren’t coming back and I think I didn’t believe it.”

He knew that. He wouldn’t call her out on it either. “It’s in the past,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you about the future.”

“And what is it you want now? You said the other night didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.”

She was going to put this on him. He deserved it. “It’s probably stupid and crazy on my part to ask if we can put it behind us and try again. We are two different people.”

“We are the same people,” she said. “At the core of it, none of that has changed.”

“Some things I’ll agree with, others not,” he said. Max threw the car on the floor and he picked it up and handed it back to his son, then showed him how the doors opened and the wheels spun.

“Point taken,” she said. “Or I’m looking at what changed. And I know Max is your life now. I could see it the first day you brought him in and didn’t want to let him out of your hands. You’re a good father. Better than most that knew their child was coming. You were dealt a rough hand and you are thriving from what I can see. But I’m not surprised either.”

He’d been complimented on a lot of things in his life. His job and his career. His brains.