Page 39 of On My Side (Quiblings #3)

Audrey

Playlist: Delicate | Taylor Swift

Ren comes over after the event, and I finally tell him everything about my pregnancy and raising Piper on my own.

I tell him what it was like being the pregnant girl my final semester of high school.

How teachers and students alike suddenly stopped talking whenever I was near.

How I ate lunch alone in the nurse’s office while she ignored me.

How I took my finals in April and finished early, because Piper was due in early May.

How when they sent my diploma, I threw it away.

I tell him about the depression that plagued me after she was born, how I’d cry during the sleepless nights, begging her to latch or to sleep, depending on the situation.

I tell him what it was like working the front desk of the inn with a tiny Piper in a bouncer seat next to me.

How she started showing autistic traits at a pretty young age, and I brought her to a psychologist to be diagnosed.

I admit how ashamed I still feel for wishing she weren’t autistic at first. I tell him how I still struggle with how my body’s changed, and how guilty I feel for struggling.

I tell him about the encompassing grief that overtook when Aunt Liv died.

How I felt numb when I found out she left me not only the cottage as promised, but the inn, too.

How I planned on selling, but couldn’t go through with it.

And Ren… well, he’s Ren. He’s steady and comforting as he listens. He holds me when I sob, rubbing soothing circles on my back. He asks all the right questions about what Piper was like when she was younger, and wipes away tears when I tell the story of her first steps.

He stays until 2 a.m., or maybe even later. All I remember is commenting on the time, and waking up the next morning in bed, my glasses folded neatly on the nightstand with a glass of water and a post-it note next to them.

Thank you for letting me in. I went home so I wouldn’t be here when Piper comes back this morning, but that doesn’t mean I’m not staying. I am. -R

For the first time, the idea of him staying doesn’t seem impossible.