To Have, To Hold, and To Leave: A Bryce Hall FanFiction «completed»

25

I watched through the window as Bryce pulled into their driveway. "Alright, he's here. Wish me luck," I sighed, waddling over to the front door. 
Jaden followed me, stopping me in the doorway. "Call if you need anything. Anything at all." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off. "I'm serious. I don't care if it's just that you want to talk to another adult. I am always here for you. You know that, Kate." 
"Okay, Jay. I will. Thank you," I whispered, hugging him. He was younger than me, but he was so wise that he was almost like the older brother that I had never had. 

He and Mads stood in the doorway, watching me get into Bryce's car. "Thank you," Bryce said as I climbed in. 
"Don't thank me just yet," I replied through gritted teeth as I waved goodbye. 
Bryce honked his goodbye, and he reached for my hand as he pulled out of their driveway. 
I yanked my hand out of his. "Not so fast. We're talking about this first."

"I still don't really understand what there is to talk about," he groaned. 
"Besides the fact that you were sleeping with another woman, who just so happened to be the beautiful woman that you dated before me, while we were married?"
Bryce groaned again. "Why are you holding on to that so tightly?" 
"Why am I- God, for such a smart man, you can be a real dumbass sometimes," I spat back. 

He grew quiet, but it wasn't comfortable anymore. I don't think that I had ever been so uncomfortable with Bryce in the entire almost twenty years that I had known him. 
When we pulled into the driveway, Bryce didn't immediately get out of the car like I expected him to. "The kids are over at Josh and Nessa's house," he told me. 
"Yeah, I figured that you didn't just leave them at home all by themselves," I replied snarkily. 
"How are we supposed to have any conversations at all if you are holding on so tightly to the mistakes that I've made?" 
I sighed. "How are we supposed to have any conversations at all if there isn't really anything to talk about?" 
"What the hell do you mean? There's plenty for us to talk about," Bryce yelled, obviously confused. 

"Okay," I said, surprisingly calm. "How long?" 
"How long what?" 
"How long had you been cheating on me with Addison before she broke up with her boyfriend and you grew the balls to tell me that I wasn't enough for you?" I elaborated. 
He avoided eye contact. "I don't understand why you would want to know that."
"I want to know how long you've had to get over me while I didn't even have any idea."

I got out of the car, not really wanting to wait for his answer. If he was reluctant to tell me, it was obviously a long enough amount of time for it to hurt me substantially. 
He followed me, begging me to just listen. "Please, Kate. It wasn't like that." 
"It wasn't like what? It wasn't like you got over me? I just wasn't enough? Is that how it was like, Bryce?" 
"I made a mistake!" he yelled, slamming the front door behind him. 
I turned around to face him. "Yeah! You keep saying that, but I don't really understand how someone can call cheating on their wife a mistake. That wasn't a mistake; that was a choice. You made a conscious decision to go back to her when we were still together. That isn't a mistake, and I won't let you keep pretending that it is," I yelled back.
"You're right," he replied, his voice growing quiet. "I made a choice, but it was the wrong choice. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I'm not sure why I thought that I should just let that go."

I sat down on the couch, and he sat directly next to me. "Prove it to me, then. I'll make a deal with you, Bryce," I said as he rested his head on my shoulder. 
"Please. I'll do anything," he whispered. "I need to get you back into my life. I should never have let you go." 
"I am twenty-two weeks along," I started, rubbing my belly. "That means that you have a little less than five months to make me fall back in love with you. Make me regain your trust. Prove to me that we won't be a mistake. If you can do that before Everleigh is born, then we will trash the entire divorce. You will have wasted a lot of time and money, but that will be a consequence of your own doing," I chuckled. "If you can't, if we can't, then we'll finalize the divorce. You can go back to Addison, and you can play house with her with our kids. You can pretend that we never even happened. It's completely up to you, Bryce."

He pressed his lips to mine, and it was like I was finally home. We moved in sync, and it was almost as if the last five months hadn't happened. Was I ready to wake up and pretend that they hadn't though? This bump in the road was going to shape the future of our relationship together, no matter what that may look like, and we couldn't cast aside the building blocks that had gotten us here.  
I pulled away, breathing a little heavier. "While that was pretty convincing, you're not off the hook just yet, Bryce. You're going to need to try a little harder than that."
"Lucky for you," he replied, never moving away from me, "our dinner should be here shortly, and it's kind of your favorite." 

The doorbell rang, and Bryce stood up. "Speak of the devil, huh?" 
He returned with a familiar bag, and my face lit up. "You didn't," I said. 
"Oh, but I did," he laughed. "I know that Saddle Ranch's mac and cheese is your favorite, and isn't the saying something about the way to someone's heart is through their stomach?" 
What the hell had I just gotten myself back into?