Mixed Signals

Chapter 17

Bay

" How are we celebrating tonight?" Dad asks on the drive home on Friday. Four days after my last interaction with Dylan. I haven't spoken to him since. He hasn't tried to call me. And I've been avoiding looking at my phone. For fear that this is the beginning of the end of us. Even if that was our fate, I don't want to face that horrific reality anytime soon. Because that means it's real, we're really over. And I'm sure nothing can undo what happened. What's done is done. And there's nothing I can do to change it. As much as I wish I could hop in a time machine and do it all over again...I know that's not possible.

"Well," I sigh, watching the cars pass us on on M-46 and we head back to my childhood home. "However you want, Daddy. I could use a really good distraction right about now. And, well, you're an excellent distraction for me."

"Still not talking to Dylan?" He asks, as if he knows the whole story. But, I couldn't bring myself to talk about it with him. Not with him coming home so soon. Dylan was the last thing I wanted to think about.

"No. I'm not. I haven't called him or checked my phone." I sigh, propping my arm up on the window, the smell of manure in the air as we drive. Watching as we pass the farms and the countryside, staring out at the cattle in the fields. Deer off in the distance, running towards the woods just outside our property line. "But I'm sure he hasn't called. He's probably scared that I'm as pissed as I am."

"Well," Dad says, turning on our road, pulling up to our paved driveway within moments. He parks the car, turning off the engine before he speaks. "Trust me, honey, I'm sure he'll be back."

That gets me to laugh. "Yeah, don't hold your breath, Daddy. I'm sure we'll never see him again. Fucking prick." I curse under my breath.

"Oh," he sighs as we step out of the car, heading into the doorway of the garage. "I don't think that's true. He loves you, sweetheart. He'll be back. And, when he is, hear him out. Don't just run out on him the second you see something you think isn't right. The guy, at least, deserves that much from you."

I roll my eyes at him, walking behind him into the house, shutting the door behind me. "Oh, not you, too."

Dad laughs, shaking his head as he kicks his shoes off by his desk, and I do the same. Heading up three steps into the kitchen. "What? That's just how I see things, sweetheart. Frankly, that boy has been through hell. It's not his fault from what I hear. And, he didn't pay that other woman any attention. From what I understand, she came onto him. He didn't react right, I'll give you that. But, he didn't do anything worth breaking up with him over. Talk to him. He deserves that much."

God, now he's starting to sound like Mia. What is it with these two?

"Yeah," I laugh, setting my bag on the counter across from the refrigerator. "If only it were that easy, Daddy."

"Hey, I know how you feel. Your mother felt the same way when we first started going out. God, I can't even begin to count the amount of times we broke up and got back together because I was being an asshole. However, I can count the amount of times that she called me that before hanging up on me or slamming the door in my face, insisting that I never see her again."

"Yeah? How many?" I ask, because I had no idea about any of this regarding my parents' relationships.

"Two hundred and thirty seven times. I'm not going to lie, it hurt like hell, knowing she felt so poorly of me. But, I eventually learned to stop fucking up and making it up to her. It wasn't until we lost her that thinking back on those times, no matter how fucked up they were, made me laugh. Even in those hard times, I know she still loved me. Knowing that made me feel even more compelled to work my ass of to make it up to her. Still, for reasons even I don't get, your mother loved me. No matter how many times we broke up and got back together again. After the last time I vowed to never let her go again. That I was going to be a better man. And, if Dylan feels the same way about you, like I know he does, he'll do the same. Just give it time. He'll come back. When he does...hear him out."