Same Mistakes

Chapter Twenty Eight

The inside of Justin's house had changed as opposed to the outside. He had gotten new furniture and completely remodeled the basement. The biggest change, though, was that he had one of the rooms remodeled for Jayce. It had a Jurassic World theme that Jayce loved and a countless amount of toys.

Being in Justin's house, but not in his room was weird for me. Everything in the guest room was foreign. There wasn't a walk in closet or lounge chair to read in. Nothing was personal in this room, it was very much a generic guest room.

I sighed and turned to the light knock on the door, "Come in."

Justin's head peered around the door, "Hey."

"Hey, did you get Jayce settled in?" He nodded in response and made his way to the bed, taking a seat on the end. He was freshly showered and the smelled filled my nostrils, he must not have changed his body wash since I'd been gone because it was the same intoxicating smell.

I pulled my attention back to his presence. Despite the shower there was still clear exhaustion in his eyes, that like Hailey's was the type that couldn't be cured by sleep. I slowly unpacked my bags and placed my clothes into the drawers.

I didn't start a conversation with Justin because there wasn't much for the two of us to talk about, despite having a kid together, and he was the one that came to my room.

"So, um, do you like the room? Is it good enough?"

I nodded and folded a shirt, "Yeah, I mean this is definitely temporary, but it works for now."

He nodded, looking away from me, "That's good, so uh whenever you get everything settled is it cool if we talk?" Pushing my hair back, I paused my unpacking, "Does now not work?"

"Um," Before he could say anything the theme of interruption continued with Ryan coming into the room, "Jayce just fell asleep playing with those dinosaurs we got for him. Little dude's exhausted from all the healing he's been doing. Such a strong kid."

I smiled at Ryan, meeting his eyes that showed how much he cared about Jayce as he spoke about him.

"Yeah he is. I love him so much it's crazy," I shook my head at my overwhelming feelings of love for my strong little boy, "Justin what were you saying?"

"I'll let you unpack, it's not urgent so you're good." He shook his head and ran his hand through his growing hair. I hadn't paid much attention to Justin's looks lately but his platinum blonde hair was growing into a more golden blonde and the sides were longer than normal.

Everything about him shouted that he was just tired. I felt sorry for him as he left and I gave him a him a little wave. I quickly unpacked all of my clothes and then Ryan and I headed to the living room where everyone was drapped on the large sectional. 

I began to put my clothes into drawers, Ryan sat on the bed and smiled at me. I internally, rolled my eyes and smirked, "What?"

"Nothing."

I groaned loudly and threw a sweatshirt at him, "You're a pain in my ass, you know that?"

Ryan shrugged, stretching out across the bed, "I wouldn't wanna be a pain in anyone else's ass."

I shook my head and took my sweatshirt back to hang it up. I knew there were things I needed to say to Ryan, questions I needed to ask but my nerves were getting the best of me. I silently bit my lip, debating how I would even start this conversation, but Ryan made it to where I didn't have to.

"So, how big is the part of you that wants our relationship to be real?" Turning to face him I could see that his cool and calm demeanor had changed to nervous and anxious. These past few weeks Ryan had made me feel something that I hadn't felt towards anyone besides my son for awhile, since Justin really, and that was brief - love.