A/N: The episode with Kyle's return… I know, it's taken me a while, but before I started this I wanted to make sure I had a good idea for what I wanted to do in this chapter. Enjoy' xx Mariah

The day had been long and hard, and by the time Riley finally got home with the kids, it was very late.

After putting Katie and Travis to sleep, Riley went about to clean up the living room and the kitchen of the day's mess. After that was done, Riley opened a bottle of white wine and walked into her bathroom.

Today had been too long and too stressful. She'd nearly lost Katie when she ran away.

Riley set herself up a bubble bath quickly and slipped into the warm water. The bubbles molded around her and she relaxed.

Yes. This was exactly what she'd needed after today.

Her eyes fell closed as she brought the wine glass to her lips. She drank half of the glass before she set it down.

She'd had a day and a half. Her week had felt like a year. And this year? It had felt like ten thousand. Yet she still couldn't get her mind off Evan. Off the kiss, they'd shared tonight.

It had been so long since she'd felt like that. Since she'd been in the moment enough to just kiss someone.

It was usually Kyle when that happened.

She bit her tongue to get him to go away. To clear that man from her mind. She couldn't think about him right now.

Not when she was finally starting to feel good about herself again. He'd destroyed her.

Was it wrong for her to want to love his brother? Kyle was the one who'd left her in the first place!

Sometimes she wished he'd just come home and now it was mostly for the kid's sake, but it had already been a year.

Would he ever come back?

She sank down farther into the bubbles, about to completely zone out the entire world, but the doorbell rang.

Literally the worst possible timing. She had just begun to relax.

She considered just letting it go, because who could it be at this hour? Anyone who mattered had a key so that just left any annoying neighbors…

Or Jehovah's Witnesses, but it was too late for that.

It rang again and she realized she'd have to get it or they'd wake up the kids.

Damn it.

She rolled her eyes and slowly shook the bubbles off her arm and grabbed the towel she'd set down on the toilet seat nearby. She stood and moved out of the tub before she wrapped it around herself quickly as the doorbell rang again.

Dammit to hell.

Who wanted her to answer the door so quickly at eleven o'clock at night?

"I'll be right there," she called out and grabbed a dress shirt that was hanging up on the back of the door. She didn't even care that she was still wet and wasn't wearing a bra. Or that it was Kyle's.

Apparently whoever was at the door needed her attention.

She walked down the hallway quickly as it rang for the fourth time and she groaned.

She really hoped that the kids hadn't woken up.

"I'm coming," she said and yanked the door open. "This better be good… what do you want?" She slowly looked over the man who was at her door at this hour. What did he want?

At first, she didn't realize who he was. He was dressed in jeans and a grey shirt, his hair short and freshly cut. He stood with his back to her and then slowly turned, revealing his face.

It was Kyle.

The man who'd left her. The father who'd left his children. The boy who stole her heart. The man who she still loved.

The was the part that had scared her the most. That when she opened the door and realized it was him that it wasn't anger she felt. It wasn't even fury.

It was a relief. He was here. He was safe and alive. She loved him.

It was an urge the throw herself at him and tell him how much she'd missed having him here with her.

But she wasn't the same woman he'd left anymore. She looked away from Kyle and swallowed.

"Riley," he spoke first and she met his gaze again. She stared him down, her tears threatening, it was all of the emotions crashing together.

She still loved him. After all that. After everything. And to see him standing on her doorstep in front of her,

after he'd been gone for so long.

She fucking hated him.

"I know there is nothing I can say or do to make up for what I've done," Kyle spoke again. "Alright? I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to come back… and dreamed of what I would say and how I would make it up to you."

Her hormones lifted and Riley was angry. She was furious at the man who'd broken her heart and left a hole in her entire life. He didn't get to come back and expect her to welcome him with open arms, no matter how much her heart wanted to.

Because she also kind of wanted to kill him.

Neither of those were a good option.

She didn't have anything to say to him. He stared back at her for a moment.

"And now that I'm standing here… looking at you… I just-" He trailed off and looked down. "Lord knows you have every right to just slam the door in my face."

That sounded like a good idea to her. The first one he'd had in a while since he'd started talking.

She moved her hand toward the door and pushed it closed, but he stopped it before she could and looked up at her. "Riley, please. I know I walked into that one, but- wait."

She slowly opened the door back up and looked over him. It took everything in her not to punch that hopeful look off his face.

Kyle Parks wasn't getting anything from her.

"Can I at least peek in and see the kids?" He asked.

That was laughable, but instead, she just slammed the door in his face. That made her feel a little better, for now.