Page 43 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

“It’s what I said. I believe in second chances. She can take some time to see if she wants to. It has to come from her. Maybe the whole vlog thing was a ruse to get time with me, or it could be a passion she has. I’ll help her with that and she’ll learn, but it’s all it will be.”

“You’re a better person than me,” her sister said. “I would have kicked her to the curb.”

“That’s the thing,” she said. “We never were friends like she thought and we’d never be them. It goes back to what you said about being guarded. Maybe that is why. It can hurt when someone betrays you.”

Erica hugged her. “Like you feel Micah did?”

She nodded. “I’m going to text him now.”

After she texted Micah, she put her phone down, but it went off quickly.

“What does it say?” Erica asked.

“He’s home. He took a personal day off.”

“Are you going to see him now?”

“Yes,” she said. “After I shower. I’m not sure why he’s home, but he is and we need to have this conversation. I have to know where our future can be. If Danielle had the strength to face me this early, then I’m going to do the same.”

“It’s going to work out,” Erica said, hugging her. “I know it.”

“I hope you’re right. No matter how much I love him, I can’t be with someone who doesn’t trust or believe in me. I’ve lived that too much in my life.”

“You deserve the best,” Erica said. “You’ll know in your heart.”

She showered, changed, and drove to Micah’s.

He was opening the door before she even got out of her car.

“Are you sick?” she asked. “You don’t normally take a day off last minute like this.”

“I’m sick to my stomach over the way I treated you,” he said. “I hoped we could talk today and was going to give you time before I reached out. I’m glad you did first.”

He looked like he’d slept as horribly as she had.

“I’d like to speak first,” she said.

“You can after I apologize. I need to say that.”

“I know you’re sorry, Micah. But that doesn’t change the way you acted or how you talked to me or showed me what you really feel.”

“I don’t feel that way,” he argued.

“Prove that to me, but I’m not sure how you can do it.”

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying,” he said. “I mean it. I know what it’s like to feel like a failure. I’ve lived with it since my divorce. I’ve never wanted anyone to feel the same, least of all you.”

“You didn’t fail.”

“I did. To hear you say what you did yesterday brought it all back. You have a right to your life and your career without me interfering with it.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Micah. A relationship is about trust and believing in each other. It’s not about separate lives. Is that how you see it?”

How could she have been so wrong about him? About them? Even with Danielle. Was she so blind to people around her because she didn’t open up enough?

“I didn’t,” he said. “But maybe you do.”

She had to process what he was saying and put her hand up for a minute. “You’re saying that if I think a relationship should be that way, that you’d be okay with it?”

“I don’t want to lose you.” He looked both sad and remorseful. “You’re the best thing that has happened to me. You said I haven’t been open-minded, but I have. I was frightened that you put yourself at risk. I should have realized that you knew what you were doing.”

“You put yourself at risk in your job daily. I’m scared too, but I trust you’ll do the right thing. You’ll be as cautious as you can be.”

He nodded his head. “I’ve seen that you do the same and when I found out what was going on?—”

“You thought I brought it on myself, didn’t you?”

“No,” he said, adamantly shaking his head.

“Never that. Maybe before I met you, I would have thought about it, but after knowing you, it never crossed my mind. When I found out what was going on, I hoped I could protect you. That I could fix it. You’re right.

I looked at you as my child and not my partner. That was wrong.”

“It was. I’m glad you can see it. I don’t want to lose what we have, but we have to understand each other. I don’t want to feel as if what I do isn’t good enough for you. Or it’s always going to be wrong.”’

He pulled her into his arms when her eyes filled with tears.

“I don’t want you to feel that way. You bring too much good into this world.

No one should dim your light. If you want to continue to do it and it’s working for you, I will not tell you it’s wrong.

I’ll help you protect yourself, but you know the right things to do and have been doing well without me so far. ”

“I don’t want to continue without you though,” she said. “I want us to talk things out.”

“That’s all I ever wanted,” he said. “You didn’t do that yesterday.”

She inhaled and let it out. “And that is where I say I’m sorry. I was wrong. I came to you, you helped me, and then I disregarded the fact I brought you into my problem.”

“You did. I don’t have a problem with what you did with that video. I would have held the camera for you rather than Erica. But I would have wanted to make sure you knew and had the facts beforehand, not that I’d have to find out from my daughter, who was terrified you had some stalker.”

Which she hadn’t thought about in that moment.

She should have because she knew everything she did was watched by Scarlet and even admitted it made her think twice now.

She’d only thought of herself yesterday morning and wouldn’t do that again.

“You had to calm her and then find out what I was doing. My actions put a lot on your shoulders by not giving you a warning.”

“It did. It goes back to communicating. Harmony, I love you. I never thought I’d fall in love again and I sure the hell didn’t think it’d be with someone younger. You talked about self-doubt before. I feel it a lot with you. It’s not a pleasant feeling.”

She forced out a laugh. “No, it’s not. I hate that we both are feeling it. I want what we’ve got to work. I want you to know you can trust me to come to you and I want to know you believe in me and trust that I’ll do that.”

“I will,” he said. “I do. I want you to feel the same. Trust that I’ll come to you. I’ve got my pride and it’s hard to admit when I’m not right or need help.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” she said, poking him in the side. “You’re soft and squishy and melt when your daughter tells you to.”

He snorted. “She reached out to you last night, didn’t she?”

“She did, but I didn’t tell her anything. I want you to know that too. I won’t get in the middle of your relationship with her and I don’t want her to get in the middle of us. I know there will be times it happens.”

“We’ll work it out,” he said. “Like mature adults.”

She leaned up and gave him a kiss. “Are we both forgiven?”

“I hope so.”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the couch. “Danielle reached out to me last night. I didn’t read it until this morning.”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it over.

He read it. “She seems sincere, but I don’t know her.”

“She called when Erica and I were talking. I decided to answer it and let her speak to me in person.” She told him the results of that conversation.

“I don’t have a lot of close friends in my life.

Not someone I trust or can say in my heart I know where they stand.

I can’t say when or why I let my life be that way, but I did.

Then it became a habit to not let people in. ”

“Do you feel that way with me?”

“No,” she said. “I’ve never let someone in as much as I have you. It hurt what you said, but life hurts as much as it heals. I know where I stand with you. Or I thought I did. One hiccup will not make me doubt it though.”

“I’m happy to hear you say that,” he said.

“I can be logical about things. I believe in second chances. There was no physical threat from Danielle, but I let it consume me and it shouldn’t have.”

“No threat to her or from her, but to you mentally. That matters, Harmony.”

She was overjoyed he’d said that. “It does matter. I matter.”

“You do. I love you more than I ever thought I could love another person. It’s scary to let someone else in and worry I’ll fail them.”

“It is scary. But we won’t have that worry because we won’t fail the other. Agreed?”

She put her hand out for him to shake it. “Agreed.”

He yanked her close to his chest and plastered his lips to hers. She crawled on his lap and said, “Since we’ve got the house to ourselves....”

“I thought you’d never ask!”