Page 3 of Second Chance with Seth
“I didn’t get the chance. He left before I found out.”
“But you could have contacted him, couldn’t you?”
“I could, but the way he left was… unpleasant.” Is that a strong enough word for what happened? It doesn’t feel like it… even now, nearly a year later. “I wasn’t sure where I stood withhim,” I explain. “And I sure as hell didn’t want him to come back just because I was pregnant.”
“I can understand that,” Laurel says. “Although giving birth by yourself must have been horrendous.”
“It wasn’t great, but I’ve got nothing to compare it to. After River was born, I used to wonder what it might have been like if Seth had been there to share it all with me. Not just the birth, but the pregnancy as well. But that was only afterwards. When I was in labor, I was too busy trying to focus on breathing and pushing, and ignoring the pain.”
“Don’t remind me.” Laurel rolls her eyes. “But at least I know Brady will be there for me. He’s there for me now, every step of the way.” She pats her flat stomach and I tilt my head in confusion.
“Surely Mitch was the same, wasn’t he?”
“Not really,” she says, and I struggle to hide my surprise. Her voice is laced with uncharacteristic bitterness and I can’t help frowning.
“Really? He always seemed attentive.” I didn’t see them together that often, but when I did, Mitch usually had his hands all over Laurel, which I guess is one definition of attentiveness.
“Appearances can be deceptive,” she says, letting out a sigh. “He could put on an act, but that’s all it was. The reality was, he was too busy elsewhere to even notice me… or Addy.”
“Elsewhere?”
“Yes. In someone else’s bed.” I gasp, unable to help myself and Laurel shakes her head. “He had affairs. Lots of them. The last one culminated in him getting his girlfriend pregnant, and then crashing his car with both of them inside it, while he was leaving town with her.”
“You mean, when he died, he was…”
“Yeah. It’s not something I talk about very often, but…”
“I don’t blame you.” Shock gets the better of me and I step back just slightly, letting out a long breath. “I thought things were bad with Seth.”
“He didn’t cheat, did he?” she asks, sounding like that would be the most surprising thing in the world. Which I suppose it would.
“No. Seth wasn’t like that… although he flirted. Or, to be more precise, he allowed someone to flirt with him.”
“Who was the someone?” Laurel asks. “Did you know?”
“Yes. It was Helen Rogers.”
It’s Laurel’s turn to gasp and she pulls the peppermint tea a little closer, taking a long sniff. “You mean the teacher at Addy’s school?”
“Yes. She used to take every chance she could to flirt with Seth. I would see them together, her hands all over him, so it wasn’t me being paranoid, or imagining things. It was real… and from what I could tell, he loved it.”
“Is that why you split up?” she asks.
I hesitate for a second. “Yes, and no. Things hadn’t been right between us for a while. For me, that was because of the flirting, but for Seth, there were other problems.”
“Such as?”
“He said he didn’t like the fact that I was working really long hours, and he never got to see me.”
She frowns. “And you couldn’t have worked that out? You guys were so good together. Wasn’t there some way you could have compromised?”
“He didn’t give us the chance. He told me I had to choose between him and coffee shop, and when I said I couldn’t, he packed his bags and left.”
I can feel tears welling in my eyes, the memory of that awful evening flooding through my mind, and I lower my head, desperate that she won’t see me cry. No-one has, althoughI’ve cried a lot since Seth left, in the privacy of my own room. Because Laurel’s right, Seth and I were good together. We were great together… until we weren’t together anymore.
“I didn’t see you at Cooper and Mallory’s wedding,” she says, and I look up, giving her a smile, grateful for the change of subject.
“No, River had a cold last weekend, and as the weather was so bad, I didn’t want to risk making her even more unwell.”
