Where We Belong

Chapter 28

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Ashley's POV—

"We're heading to Caleb's first, right?" my mom asks me as she helps Jaxon get all bundled up. While she does that, I work on getting his bag ready, making sure we'll have everything we'll need.

It's Saturday, and we're getting ready to leave for the holiday light up parade that Evan asked if we could go to.

I almost said no when she asked. If only because I wasn't sure how that would work with Jaxon being so young. It's actually not too cold outside tonight, so at least there's that. So now it'll just depend on if Jaxon can make it through it.

He doesn't have the biggest attention span, which makes sense since he's not even 2 yet.

But in past situations, he's liked looking at bright and shiny things. So maybe he'll like the light up parade.

And it's not like we have to stay for the entire thing anyway.

So we'll see how it goes.

"No. Evan and I talked last night and we decided it'll be easier to just meet there. Apparently Amelia and Nate are coming too. So Evan, Amelia and Nate will drive together and we'll drive together. And then go from there," I tell my mom as I shove a few more things into Jaxon's bag.

Just wanting to be as prepared as I can.

"Sounds good...you excited Jax?" my mom asks Jaxon. I glance towards them, seeing Jaxon already working to get his gloves and hat off of his head.

Several moments later, we're heading out the door. Jaxon already rushing towards the car, his little, kind of wobbly running bringing a smile on my face.

"So things are going ok with Evan so far?" my mom asks as we pull away from the house.

"Yeah...I'll admit that so far it's going by better than I thought. She and Jax got along pretty well at dinner a few nights ago. And we decided that we'll do dinner every Friday."

"That sounds good."

"Yeah," I say with a sigh.

"Is something wrong?" my mom then asks me, noticing the change in my demeanor.

"Nothing's necessary wrong...I've just been doing a lot of thinking the past few days."

"What about?"

About everything Landon said to me a few nights ago. About how Eli got into Evan's head and that influenced her to leave.

Ever since Landon told me that, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

I'll admit it. There was a part of me that thought Eli was responsible for Evan leaving when she originally left. I was pissed at him for a while.

But then I got even more pissed at the fact that Evan let him get into her head.

And I really did think that she was handling his shit. She had no problems defending herself. But she also didn't talk to me about how she really felt throughout all of it.

Maybe I could have asked her more about how she was feeling. Instead of focusing on all I was feeling.

Maybe none of us handled it well. I was an emotional wreck, Eli was wreaking havoc, and Evan was left in a difficult position of trying to handle both of us—Eli especially.

So I guess in that aspect I can see her point of view. Eli manipulated her and he was successful in driving her away.

So I guess I can't entirely blame her for leaving to begin with. But does that excuse her for everything else? I don't know if I could go that far.