Love on the Lake (Lakeside 2)

I feel like I’m taking steps in the right direction.

But the next one is going to be a lot harder than this.

CHAPTER 29

WAIT FOR ME

Teagan

After thirty days my therapist and my doctor believe I’m ready to start my new life. I’ve been weaned off the Adderall completely. I have a new prescription for the anxiety that is much better for me, and I’ve kicked my energy drink and caffeine pill habit.

I feel like a very different version of myself, but I’m aware that inside the protective walls of a treatment center I’m insulated and secure, outside them not so much. So I decide that I’m going to move back to Chicago for a few months, at the very least.

I’ll still consult on designs for the Stitches and go to Pearl Lake once a week, but I’ll be working remotely otherwise. And I’m still managing the fall farmers’ market, but I have lots of help this time.

There’s one other thing I need to manage, though, and it’s going to be hard.

I know Aaron and I are on a “pause,” but I shouldn’t be in a relationship. Not for the foreseeable future.

While this isn’t a typical “addiction,” what I’m going through still fits under that umbrella. And my therapist suggests I spend the next six months focused on myself. Or maybe even longer, depending on how things go outside the walls of the treatment center.

So when I tell Aaron that I’m going to stay in Chicago for a few months, he asks if he can pick me up and drive me home. Of course I say yes.

This isn’t a conversation I want to have over the phone. He’s far too important to me, and he deserves better.

I haven’t seen him since he dropped me off and I tried to make him give me an ultimatum. Which was so unfair of me. I see that now, but I couldn’t see it then. I was scared of the path I was going down. And scared to lose him. I’m still scared. Because my therapist isn’t wrong. I need to be a better me before we can be an us again. And I don’t know how long that’s going to take.

I don’t have any makeup with me, not even mascara, so all I can do is shower and smell good. They confiscate most personal effects, apart from our own clothes. We’re not even allowed to use our own shampoo, because sometimes people will try to smuggle in pills in Ziploc baggies. I only found that out when I saw it happen the second week I was here.

Aaron and I have talked as much as they’ll allow while I’ve been here, but seeing him is different from a phone call. I don’t know if things are going to be the same or different.

Well, I know they’ll be different, but I don’t know to what extent. Aaron has seen me at rock bottom. He knows what it looks like when I’m falling apart, and part of me understands that with everything he’s already been through, I might be too much for him. That a pause with no real definitive end date might not be something he can manage.

I have to come to terms with the possibility that moving forward, there might not be an us.

It makes sense that I had trouble with breakfast this morning. Normally when I’m this stressed out, I’ll avoid food altogether and go for coffee. I might spend hours on a Pinterest board to escape my own brain.

But this morning I drank a fruit shake and spent two hours on meditative yoga. Caffeine has been limited to one coffee a day. I typically drink it with breakfast but skipped it this morning because I was already jittery enough. I don’t run from my fears today. Instead, I face them down and accept that whatever is going to happen is out of my control, but I decide how I’ll deal with whatever is coming.

I pack my things and thank the staff and my team, and then I wait for him to arrive. I’ll miss the serenity here, but I’m ready to get back to my life and the people I love, no matter what that looks like.

When he pulls up in his truck, my heart skips a few beats. And when he steps out, his smile wide and warm, it kicks into a full gallop.

This is going to be hard. Harder than I thought.

He jogs up the front steps and folds me into his embrace. He buries his face in my hair, and I feel his lips on my neck.

“I missed you so fucking much, babe,” he murmurs against my skin.

I return the embrace, breathing in the scent of his cologne and absorbing the feel of his arms wrapped around me, blanketing me in his strength. “I missed you, too, so much.”