Finding Home #SYTYCW15 #SpecialEdition

Finding Home Part 6

"Yes, and I can only say I'm sorry."

Conner slapped his palm down on the wall next to her, effectively caging her in. "Sorry isn't good enough, Andie. You can't do this to people, shove them around, thinking you can push them into place, like some little scene for your display window! This is real life, and not everything can be perfect. You had no right to manipulate me that way."

Andie sighed. Everything he was saying was true, but still. "I don't want to watch you lose the only family you have." And, unable to stop herself, she reached out, ran a thumb down the smooth, freshly shaven surface of his cheek. "You're so alone, Conner. It makes my heart ache." His eyes filled with a bleak awareness, one that told her that she'd been more than right in her assessment. But then he blinked and the anger was back.

He pulled his head away from her hand. "I'm fine. I've been on my own for years now and I'm fine. I'm always fine."

Andie leaned her head back against the wall behind her, the better to see his face. "Are you? Have you always been alone? You've never had a relationship? A serious girlfriend? Shouldn't that tell you something?"

Conner growled again. "I've had serious girlfriends. I was even engaged for awhile," he said defensively.

Andie ached to wipe away the pain she saw in the tightness around his eyes, the grim set of his mouth. "What happened?"

Conner pulled away, turned his back to her. "She didn't want me. She wanted to be married. To somebody. Anybody. When I broke it off, she emptied our checking account, all of our savings. Because of her, I have nothing now, nothing but this building."

Andie let her hand skim down his back, her fingers buzzing with the contact. "She was a fool, Conner. She didn't realize what she had. She'll regret it."

Conner shrugged her hand away, rejecting her comfort. "What about you? From what I hear you don't even date, let alone have a boyfriend."

The lash of his words left Andie gaping for a split second before the anger rolled in. "It's a little hard to find the time to date when you're raising a kid!"

"Is it? I think it's something else. I think that's an excuse so you don't have to put yourself out there!" Conner whirled back to face her, his cheeks flushed with red.

The anger mixed with something else, something that made Andie feel as hollow and fragile as an antique ornament. "Maybe I am protecting myself. I think I have a right to. Haven't I been through enough?"

Conner sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "I know. I'm sorry."

Andie crossed her arms, shielding herself from the sudden chill in the room. "I'm sorry that I manipulated you. I truly am."

"You can't control people, Andie, or try to force them into some perfect vision that you see for their life. It's my life and I'll live it the way I want. Trying to make me into a different person than I am makes you as bad as my dad."

And that, Andie knew, was the problem; he was viewing everything through the warped lens of his past.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Conner held out his hand like he wished to call back his harsh words. "I didn't mean that, Andie. That wasn't fair."

"It's okay, I get it."

They studied each other, their gazes locked. Andie's fingers trembled and her skin ached with the anger, and sorrow, and pity trickling through her.

Conner looked equally miserable, his whole body slumped forward, his shoulders hunched up around his ears, his eyes dark with hurt.

He turned and walk down the hall.