Coming Home

Chapter 19

There is some cussing in here. I don't know if some of you don't like it, but if you don't, you've been warned

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My eyes opened slowly and I looked around, taking in my surroundings. My breath caught in my throat as I realized that I had no idea where I was. My surroundings were unfamiliar and the bed felt like it had never been slept in. my head whipped from side to side, frantically trying to figure out where I was. After a moment, my eyes caught the football jersey that was hanging in the open closet and, suddenly, everything came rushing back. I was at Cayden’s house.

As I waited for my heart to calm down, I pushed the covers off of me and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. Seeing it was ten in the morning, I pushed the covers off and stretched. I could hear the voices of Cayden and our sons coming from the direction of the living room, so I knew I didn’t have to rush around, taking care of my sons. I walked over to my bag that was sitting on the floor in the corner and pulled out my clothes for the day. I slipped them on and opened the door, walking towards the living room.

As I was walking down the hall, I noticed that I could no longer hear the voices of Cayden and our sons, making me panic slightly. I know it was irrational, Cayden would never let anything happen to our sons, but I couldn’t help it. Past experiences had made it hard for me to not know where my babies were. Being away from them when Daddy was in the coma was torture, but I knew it had to be done. I searched around the rooms, hoping to see one of them. Not finding them in any room, I went to the back door, hoping I’d find them outside.

Stepping into the backyard, I could feel my heart swell with happiness. My sons were laughing their little heads off as they ran around the yard with Cayden half-heartedly running after them. They kept glancing back to see how close Cayden was and they’d let out a shriek when they saw their daddy getting closer.  It was that moment that I realized I couldn’t stay mad at Cayden. His excuse may have been a crappy one, but it was due to adolescent stupidity and I couldn’t hold that against him. He’s not that same person anymore and neither am I. I decided I had to let the past go and move on with my life. I couldn’t afford to have a negative relationship with Cayden and take the chance of our sons suffering because of it.

“Kenzi! Hey,” Cayden said a moment later, looking up and noticing me standing there for the first time.

“Hi,” I responded softly, reaching down to scoop Asher into my arms.

“Listen Kenzi, about last night. I-,” Cayden started to say with an apologetic look on his face, but I cut him off.

“Forget about it. I just want to put the whole thing behind us, Cayden. I’m not going to say that your reason for cheating doesn’t hurt, but I can’t hold it against you. You were eighteen, you were just a kid. You’re not that same person anymore and it would be stupid to hold what you did back then against you. I’m not completely innocent in this matter, either. You may have cheated, but I kept your sons away from you. It doesn’t matter that it’s what I thought was right. I still shouldn’t have done it. We both made stupid mistakes and I think it would be best if we just forget them. Plus, I don’t like grudges, you know that. If I hold in to this, it’ll make it awkward and tense between us and that would affect our sons as well and I can’t have that. Everything is finally going right for them and I can’t mess that up. So as of now, why don’t we just forget about the whole cheating thing and what I did as a result of it? I’m sure it’ll make everything easier,” I proposed, watching his face for any kind of reaction.

“I can agree with that. But if we’re going to truly let this all go then we have to act like it, too. If we’re letting it all go, then it’s going to be just like before everything happened which means that we can’t the awkwardness and all that between us,” Cayden said, nodding his head thoughtfully.