Wylie #4
“You think she’ll leave him this time?” Nancy asked, knowing Hannah’s track record of going back to the man.
“God, I hope so,” Wylie said with a desperation he’d been hiding all day. “But we gotta help her, Nance.”
“This isn’t a reason for you to delay law school,” Nancy warned as if that was where this conversation was headed.
“I know that, but you gotta keep me informed. And she’s going to need help with Kayla.”
“Are you going to let her stay in your trailer?”
“If that’s all right with you.”
“More than all right. We’ll take care of her, Wy. Don’t you worry.”
“Thanks, Nance.”
That was one weight off his chest. Back at his trailer, he insisted the girls take his bedroom. After Hannah had gotten Kayla to bed, she came out to the living room wearing a pair of Wylie’s boxers and an old t-shirt and plopped herself right there beside him.
“What am I gonna do now?” she asked with her head resting on the back of the couch and one arm covering her face like she was trying to block out the world.
“You’re going to stay here,” Wylie said. The timing made sense. Thank God for small blessings. “Because I’m moving out. I’m going to law school.”
She sat up and turned toward him, a tentative smile lighting up her face.
“What? Are you for real?” She cupped her lip where the scab had torn open and started bleeding again.
Wylie handed her a tissue. “Wy, that’s awesome.
Congratulations.” She reached out for a hug and Wylie enveloped her in his arms, mindful of her injuries.
“But maybe it’s not the right time,” he said. After all, who was going to protect Hannah from Brian and offer her the emotional support she needed to get through this? What if she went back to him? What if raising Kayla on her own was too much?
“No, do not do that,” she said with a fierceness in her eyes that he’d thought had been extinguished.
“Do what?” he asked, even though he already knew what she was going to say. You couldn’t be best friends with someone for more than a decade without being able to read their mind sometimes.
“Do not use this as an excuse to back out of law school. You need to go for it, Wy. This is your dream. I’ll be fine here without you.”
“Will you?” he asked, not trusting her at her word because she was always so reluctant to ask for help in the first place.
“Yes, I will, I promise you, I will not go back to him. It’s over,” she said vehemently.
He exhaled a long sigh and prayed that she stuck to her guns this time. Giving her a wan smile, he patted her hand. “Okay.”
“So, when do you leave?”
“Two weeks. I’m going to pack my shit and either take it with me or put it in storage. You can stay here for as long as you like. Rent free, just pay for utilities and cable. I already cleared it with Nancy.”
Hannah blinked. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“The trailer would be sitting here empty. It makes sense. Your mom or Nancy can watch Kayla while you go to work. You don’t need him for anything.”
“He’s going to want to see her.”
“You can set it up through the courts. Supervised visitation only. Get Denise involved.”
Denise was Brian’s mom, and while she wasn’t perfect, she did try to curb the worst of Brian’s bad behavior, and she loved the shit out of Kayla. Hannah nodded like she was piecing it all together, which was encouraging to Wylie.
“I’m sorry,” she said, doing the rapid blinking thing that meant more tears were coming.
“For what? You didn’t do anything wrong here,” Wylie insisted. Whatever garbage Brian had put in her head in making her believe it was her fault, Wylie wanted to shut that shit down.
“I’m sorry for not leaving him sooner. And for letting it get this bad. For dragging you into my mess, again.”
Wylie shook his head, afraid to hope. “You gotta make this one stick, Hannah. It’s not going to get better. It can only get worse. He’s going to try everything he can to get you back, including making promises he won’t keep, and you’ve got to be strong.”
She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know. I won’t make excuses for him anymore. It was really scary, Wy. The way he came at me. His…his rage.” She wrapped her arms around herself, wincing–either from the pain in her ribs or the memory, Wylie didn’t know.
He opened his arms again and she crawled into them, huddled up against him just as they used to as teens, whenever Wylie was missing his mom or when Hannah would get into a fight with her own mother.
When she’d learned she was pregnant, Wylie was the first person she’d told.
And when Wylie knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was gay, Hannah was the first person he’d come out to after his mom.
They’d always been there for each other.
Even with the distance, that fact wouldn’t change.
“Thank you for your help today. For all of this,” she said and glanced around the trailer.
“I just want what’s best for you, babes. I love you, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. I love you too.”
“We’ll get through it,” he said and squeezed her gently, hoping it was true.
She was safe and here with him. For now, that was enough.