Restart

Chapter 28

A/N: ...guess I couldn't leave you guys hanging :)

It was now Wednesday, and Lauren had yet to even hear from Camila.

The younger woman hadn't even brought Avery to preschool on Tuesday, and Lauren had been racking her brain nonstop trying to figure out what she might have done to make Camila want to avoid her to this extent.

She was all too familiar with the feeling of being pushed away like this, and it only hurt more this time around as she had convinced herself things between them would never be this way again.

Lauren had tried texting and calling Camila but she was being ignored completely. It was taking everything in her not to go to her in person, but she didn't want to make a scene. They weren't teenagers anymore. They were adults, and mothers to young girls no less.

In her overthinking, a lot of different possibilities had crossed her mind and one in particular was making her sick. She couldn't help but be worried that something had happened with Austin. That he had hurt her again, or even that she had decided to go back to him.

Lauren wanted nothing more than to just lay in bed and wait for Camila to finally call, but she didn't have that luxury. She had Laney to worry about. The little brunette was currently occupying herself as she played with a few of her barbies on their living room floor as Lauren sat on the couch, trying to temporarily distract her thoughts with a book.

"Mommy, I need someone to play with," Laney said as she appeared at Lauren's side.

"Okay," Lauren nodded, smiling as she set down her book and began to move to the floor.

"I want to play with Avery," Laney frowned. "When is she coming back?"

"I don't know, baby," Lauren sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

Camila's unexpected disappearance wasn't only affecting Lauren. Laney had been constantly asking about her, and especially Avery's, whereabouts.

Laney sighed as well before crawling into Lauren's lap, curling into her chest. Lauren could feel her breathing grow heavy and she wasn't surprised, her daughter had to be exhausted. She had been going to sleep way past her bedtime because it took Lauren forever to get her into bed without Avery there. Once she finally did, Laney would stay in her room for about fifteen minutes before changing her mind, then wandering into Lauren's bedroom and crawling into her bed.

"Do you miss Mila?" Laney asked softly.

"Mhm," Lauren hummed as she stroked her daughter's back, feeling herself getting choked up.

"Me too," Laney nearly whispered as she drifted closer and closer to sleep.

After a few minutes the four year old finally crashed, and Lauren felt her own eyelids growing heavy. She settled back into the couch, allowing herself to fall asleep, hoping when she woke up everything would turn out to just have been a bad dream.

--

"Can we take Duke for a walk?" Laney asked through a mouthful of her last bite of pizza.

Lauren hadn't really felt like cooking dinner and Laney's eyes had lit up immediately when she suggested ordering out.

"Sure," Lauren agreed before tossing Laney's empty plate into the trash can and putting the leftover pizza into the refrigerator. She wiped her daughter's messy face and hands with a napkin before helping her down from her chair and the girl immediately ran for the front door.

"We went with Avery on a walk," Laney noted as she pulled on her shoes, at first putting them on the wrong feet before realizing it and fixing her mistake.