Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Arizona

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Chapter Twenty-One – Get Through This

"This is nice." Nate said ever so optimistically.

He, Hayley, Shane and Mitchie were sitting inside of the newly built Chick Fil A grabbing some lunch. Nate knew he was just there to help ease the awkwardness between Shane and Mitchie. They had been going through this redundant, uncomfortable routine for a week now. Mitchie would come over before Hayley woke up; they would take Nate and Hayley out for breakfast, go out shopping or something of that nature, go out for lunch, go back out shopping or out to a movie, out for dinner, return home and put Hayley to bed. The little girl thought nothing about this was strange which was exactly what Mitchie and Shane wanted. They didn't want her to think anything was wrong but they didn't want to stay cooped up inside Shane's house together. That would have been just too weird for them. Especially now since it seemed like Mitchie was making the hotel room she had originally rented for just a night home.

"Shut up, Nate." Shane snapped at his younger brother.

"Daddy, can you take me to go play?" Hayley asked her tired looking father. Shane nodded, scooped her up out of her chair and took her inside of the closed off play area inside of the restaurant.

Once they were alone, Nate cleared his throat, getting Mitchie's attention.

"How's the single life treating you?" Nate asked almost sarcastically.

"I'm not single, Nate. You know that." She replied with an eye roll.

"Could've fooled me." He muttered under his breath. "How long exactly do you plan on lying to Hayley? Either you and Shane try to work on your relationship or you guys just need to break up. And, personally, I think you should try the first option."

"Of course you do," Mitchie said with a sigh standing up and walking away from the table and over to the soda fountain to refill her drink. She was really tired of Nate constantly trying to get her and Shane to talk. Sure they had petty little conversations since their huge fight but they hadn't really said anything 'productive' to their relationship. After telling her mom what was going on, though, she planned on talking to Shane soon just as her mom had told her to. She said that she was sure whatever problems Shane and her were having they could get through. And it's always nice to hear something like that coming from your mom.

"Mind filling mine up with Diet Coke?" Shane's voice snapped Mitchie out of her thoughts. She silently took the cup out of his hands and started to fill it with the soda he requested. Securing the lid back on, she shoved the drink back at him and started to walk away when she felt his hand around her wrist, stopping her.

"What, just because Hayley isn't around you can't talk to me?" Shane asked. When she didn't answer, Shane scoffed and released his grip on her. To his surprise, she stayed in place. "Does this mean you'll talk to me?"

"What's there to talk about?" She asked.

"Did you see the Packers take on the Cowboys last night?" He shrugged.

Mitchie could see he was being sincere. He didn't want to fight or make snarky remarks about the way she left or how she returned the engagement ring; he really just wanted to talk.

"You know I don't watch football." She answered, cracking a smile at him.

"Wow, it's been a while since I've seen that smile." He said with a smile of his own. "I've missed it."

"Don't worry, it rarely makes appearances these days." Mitchie took a deep breath preparing to say her next few words. "Do you think you could get Nate to watch Hayley tonight? I want you to come over to my hotel room tonight."

Shane's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah, definitely. Is around 8 okay? Hayley will be in bed by then so Nate shouldn't have to do too much work."

"8 is perfect." Mitchie said with a nod before walking back to their table.

Shane took a second to comprehend what had just happened. He wasn't exactly sure why she wanted him over but just knowing that he would be in a room alone with her made him happy. Maybe then he could tell her how he felt, what's been on his mind since she left. He had told Jason what all had happened between them and Jason's advice to him was to just tell her how he felt. Seeing as how Jason was in a seemingly perfect marriage, Shane was definitely going to take his advice. He just needed to gather some courage to do so because he knew saying all he had to say wasn't going to be easy.

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Shane stood in front of the door marked '284' wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. The feeling he had at the moment was very reminiscent of the way he felt before walking back into that Phoenix bar the night he first saw Mitchie again.

He finally mustered up enough nerve to knock on the door, not caring whatever Mitchie had to say to him.

"Shane," The door swung open and there stood Mitchie. She stepped aside to let him in. He stepped inside and looked around, examining the place. The place was pretty neat and pretty plain. It was by no means a shabby hotel room but it wasn't anything too fancy either. He noticed the suitcase next to the bed and turned to question her about it.

"Did you ever unpack?" He asked.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy but every night I unpack clothes for the next day and every morning I pack everything up like I'm going to leave and go back to your place. I always plan on actually leaving but I always chicken out at the last second." She answered walking over to stand next to him.

"Well at least you wanted to leave. I was at home thinking this is what you wanted; to stay here, away from me." He said taking a seat on the bed.

"Shane, I never wanted to be away from you. I needed to be away from you for at least a couple of days. I had to see if I could live without you." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

"Could you?" He was almost afraid to ask. She shook her head and he breathed a sigh of relief. "I couldn't live without you either. It felt so…lonely without you."

Mitchie threw up her hands by her sides. "What does that mean for us, though?"

Shane shrugged. "Maybe it means we are in love and we shouldn't have taken this stupid break." He said with a laugh. Mitchie shot him an un-amused glance. "All my opinions about this break aside, why'd you invite me over?"

She took a deep breath and sat down next to him, grabbing his hand and intertwining their fingers. "All this time that we've spent apart gave me time to think, reflect over our whole relationship and to be honest, besides the fact you knocked me up and didn't speak to me for two years, our relationship's been pretty good."

"I'm still really sorry about that," Shane said with a small laugh. "But is that all? You just wanted to tell me how awesome we are together and that you want to come back home and that we can forget any of this silly drama ever happened?"

"Not exactly," She said slowly. "I mean, yes, I do want to come back home but I realized we barely knew each other when we got together."

"That's not true." He said matter-of-factly.

"Shane, I kept you a secret from my parents, your parents didn't know about me either. You never told me you had a gorgeous girl friend who you are very close to–"

"Why does everything always have to be about Ashley? I mean you were the one who never told me I had a kid and that you had a psychotic fiancé." Shane said more harshly than he had intended to.

"But at least I'm not still friends with Ken after he screwed me over. Ashley keeps sticking her nose into our relationship yet you just keep accepting her most likely fake apologies."

Shane stood up and tried to compose himself. He didn't come over to fight. He came over to get her back, to get their relationship back to normal yet here they were, on the cusp of another huge argument.

"Look, I don't wanna fight, okay?" He said gently.

"And neither do I." She replied. "Remember that day when you, me and Hayley went out for ice cream? And Hayley fell and you went all 'comforting dad' on her and you nearly tickled me to death?"

Shane nodded and smiled remembering that day. "How could I forget? That was one of the most fun days I've ever had. Well, our little furniture shopping adventure at Ikea was a close second. I really miss that red couch."

"Do you know why those were such fun times?" She asked standing up to face him.

"Because there were no vindictive best friends or crazy fiancés," He said with a shrug.

"And we were total focused on each other, no one else."

Suddenly, Shane's face lite up. "Let's go to Hawaii, just you and I."

Mitchie looked at Shane as if he was crazy. "And leave Hayley with Nate again? You know our parenting is ranking pretty low right about now…"

"We don't have to go forever, just a week or so. I know we tried this before but we were here in LA with all these distractions around us. You know what's going to bother us in Hawaii? Absolutely nothing." Shane said grabbing both of her hands in his.

"Have you forgotten that at some point we're supposed to go to court and fight for custody of our kid?"

"Don't worry about that. I'll handle that, just say you'll go to Hawaii with me, please."

Mitchie couldn't believe Shane was actually suggesting this. He could be so impulsive at times. But if there was a possibility that it could help their relationship, how could she say no?

"Okay fine," Her answer caused Shane to lean in a peck her on the cheek. "But you have to promise me that we'll only go after all this custody stuff is solved. I don't want Ken to use that against us in court."

"Listen, don't worry, alright? Let me work my magic and I promise you everything will work out for the better." Shane assured her.

Just as he had always been about the two of them, Shane was sure they could get through this.

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So I know I haven't updated in forever, sorry. I'll try to update quicker next time. Just leave me some awesome reviews and as always, thanks for reading! :]