David had moved in all the boxes from her car into the apartment by later on that afternoon, leaving her to unpack them as he began to make them dinner at his house. 

It was more than enough space for her, larger than the apartment she'd just moved out of. And it was already more or less furnished. Apparently this is where he had house guests stay rather than in the actual house, despite there being more than enough room.

Hannah placed each box in the area where it would be unpacked and worked on the bedroom first since the kitchen already had everything she needed in it and the bathroom had the basics. Almost every box for the bedroom was unpacked within a couple of hours and Hannah decided to head to the main house for something to drink in the hopes she wasn't intruding on David's personal space. 

As soon as he'd pulled onto the property, Hannah knew there was nowhere else she'd rather be. Though it was only a few miles out of the city, it felt like another world. Only a few houses shared the lake in the backyard and he had a large garden filled with homegrown fruits and vegetables. His windows were so large that she could see straight through the house from the front to the back patio. It felt a little modern for him, but the inside had the rustic, simple touch that reminded her so much of the man she'd met only a few days before.

After tapping lightly on the front door, she saw through the large window him gesture for her to come in. She closed the door behind her and took off her shoes, just in case. Everything about his house seemed perfectly in order and cleaned perfectly and although he hadn't asked either her or Meggie to take off their shoes before, she didn't want to do anything that would make his life messy. 

"Please tell m-me if I'm be—ing a nuis—sance."

He flashed her a gentle smile as he cut vegetables like a pro in the kitchen, his shoulder length hair tied back away from his face. "I think that would be the last word I'd use to describe you."

Curiosity got the best of her and Hannah set herself on a stool across the island from him. "Prom—mise?" She looked into his eyes when he glanced up at the word, but there was no sign of forced politeness, a look Hannah had become an expert at spotting. 

David set down the knife and placed his large palms against the granite countertop, a shorter strand of his hair falling against his gray-blue eyes. "If I thought for a second that I wouldn't enjoy havin' you here, I wouldn't have invited you. Simple as that. And now that we got that out of the way, what can I get ya?"

"Some—thing to drink?"

"Soda, water, juice, coffee, tea, milk- that one's probably expired."

She couldn't picture him much as a milk drinker. "I'd t-take a juice."

David gave her one short nod and turned around, opening a cupboard near the sink and grabbing a glass. "I'll take you grocery shopping tomorrow so you know where it is."

"You've tak-ken enough t-time off, David." She hated that he took today off for her and didn't want him taking off a second. "I c-can fig—ure out where it is."

"That wasn't a question," David told her as he filled her glass with orange juice from a pitcher. "That was me telling you that I'll take you grocery shopping tomorrow. Besides, somethin' tells me everyone's havin' a better time at work without me there."

Hannah took the glass from his grasp and took a small sip, noticing quickly it was fresh squeezed. "Would you mind if I used your p-pool sometimes?" She could absolutely swim in the lake if he said no, but a pool told her how deep she was and she wasn't a very strong swimmer. "I  used to go to the Y.M.C.A where I lived. It helps with my mm-motor skills. My left leg didn't work v-very well after the acc—cid—ent." 

She watched as David went into a drawer in his kitchen, shuffling things around until he pulled out a ring of keys. "This one's for the front door. This one's for the patio door that goes to the pool. This one's for the garage. All yours, baby."

David tossed the keys to her and she caught them with her left hand just as her phone began to ring in her pocket. Since she had trouble reading, everyone had their own ringtone and this one belonged to her mother's cell.

"That's my parents," she told him, then grabbed the phone from her pocket and walked to the other side of the open concept into the living room.

Hannah swiped right to accept the call and sat on David's chocolate brown suede couch. "Hey, m-mom."

"Hey, sweetheart. You're on speakerphone. Your dad and I wanted to give you a few days to settle in. Are you settled in yet?"

She glanced over her shoulder to look toward the garage. So far she'd unpacked four boxes and three trash bags full of clothing. In her defense, this should have been day four of unpacking. She hadn't expected Goldilocks Sydrome, having to try out two other places before finally finding one that fit, nor had she told her parents. "Not yet."

"Don't procrastinate, kiddo,"  her father told her. "You wait too long and a year will go by and you'll still have boxes stacked and not even know what's in them anymore."

"How are you liking Meggie's place so far? Is it a nice house? Good neighborhood?" her mom chimed in. "You know, I went to Portland when I was about your age. Such a lovely city. So many places to go and great restaurants." 

Hannah looked straight in front of her, noticing David staring back at her intently. "I'm n-not st-aying and Meg's any-more, act—u—ally."

"Excuse me?" Her father's voice was so loud that she had to pull the phone from her ear. Even David, who was clear across the room, seemed to hear him. "Just where in the hell is my daughter living then?"

Seeing as the conversation seemed to have caught David's attention, Hannah went ahead and put it on speakerphone. 

"You know what yelling does to her, Bill."

"Yeah, well sometimes children need a stern talking to."

Hannah eyes narrowed at the phone. "I'm t-twen-ty-five, dad. And it's in a much n-nicer neigh—bor—hood and I'll get t-to live by my—self."

"Honey," her mother said, "We know you want your independence and we respect that, but you don't have a support system there. What if you need something or something happens and you can't get to a phone?"

Hannah nearly always had her phone on her and kept it fully charged. She even kept a battery pack charger in her phone just in case. "So I've gone from a ch-child to an eld—er—ly woman?"

Her comment earned a deep, quiet chuckle from David.

"You know we don't mean to imply that, sweetheart," her mother told her calmly. "We're just worried is all. No matter how old you get, we'll always be your parents and we're always going to worry."

The road to hell was paved with good intentions, but Hannah kept that thought to herself. They heard she wanted her independence, but neither parent seemed to fully grasp how important that was to her now. 

She'd gone from a child to a teen to a college student living with her fiancé to an apartment one block away from her parents house. Hannah never had true independence. 

"It's a great guest house with a l-lake nearby and t-the land—lord has a p-pool I can use for my phys—ical ther—apy. It's out in the c-country and there's a re-really small town nearby wh-where I can look for a job."

"How in the hell did you find a place like that in a couple of days?" her father asked skeptically. "It'll cost a fortune. I know you get disability, but you also need money for gas and for food."

Dear God, her father was a stickler for the details. If it wasn't his idea, he'd nitpick every tiny thing about everything. He was a sweet, loving man but using the word 'exhausting' to describe him would be putting it mildly. 

"He's only ch-charg—ing me four hun—dred a month."

"What else is he expecting you to do for him so you can live there? Because I was looking at Portland apartments and a one bedroom costs a minimum of seven hundred and fifty dollars."

Even for her father, that comment was a low blow and judging by the look on David's face, he took offense to it. He walked toward her, doing a gesture with his hands, signaling her to hand the phone over. Hannah's shake of the head seemed to mean nothing to him, because David grabbed the phone from out of her hand.

"You wanna run that comment by me one more time?"

"Who the hell is this?" Her father asked gruffly.

"I'm Meggie's boss and Hannah's new landlord."

Before Hannah could hear either of her parents reply, David took the phone off speaker and walked out over to the patio door to stand out there, closing the door behind him. 

She watched carefully as he walked around the pool twice, running his finger through his shoulder length hair, before finally sitting down at patio table. It wasn't until he appeared calmer that she took in the rest of the area. 

On one side of the long pool was an outdoor fireplace with a couch and a couple of rocking chairs on either side of it. On the far end of the pool by where the patio doors led to the outside was a long eight person dining table. Across from the fireplace was an outdoor kitchen. 

Curious why such a solitary man would invite her to live on his property or have a house this large and extravagant. 

Hannah went back to her juice in the kitchen, keeping her eyes on David. He stood and stepped away from the table, his devilish smile on his face. When he reached the patio door, he hung up the phone before opening it and stepping through. 

"They wanna come for a visit next month," David told her as he set the cell phone down in front of her, next to her glass of juice. "Told 'em I'd run it by you first."

It didn't surprise her in the least, especially now that they knew she wouldn't be living where she intended to when moving here. Maybe Hannah would take them over to Meggie's house so they could compare her living arrangement options. "I guess that would be f-fine."

"Also somethin' 'bout a guy named Shawn having business in Seattle in a couple weeks and wanting to stop by for a visit."

Hannah's eyes moved from David over to her drink. 

While they both let go of the relationship two and a half years ago, Shawn had never been able to really move on, away from her. Yes, he'd met a woman not long after their relationship ended and yes, he was now engaged and in the early stages of planning a wedding, but he'd never cut ties with Hannah during that time. 

Her reason for moving wasn't strictly about independence or about her moving on from her old life, but giving Shawn the space he needed to move on and start his new life. Now here he was, less than a week in, already finding his way back into her life.

"Who's Shawn?"

The two worded question had a much larger answer and like all her stories, no matter how short she tried to make them, they all took more time than they should. "We were go-going to start plan—ning our wed—ding after college. Then it happened and our rel—at—ion—ship ended not l-long after."

"He broke up with you?" 

Hannah didn't need to look up to see his judgement. It was evident in his voice. 

What happened between the two of them hadn't been clear to her until long after the relationship ended. It wasn't that he'd simply broken up with her because her symptoms became too much to deal with, but because she had become too much to deal with. "I p-pushed him away. He was go—ing to join his dad's com—pan—y. Client d-dinners and parties. He n-needed some—one who he could sh-share that life with. 

"Now he's ge-getting mar—ried and looks like he's move on, but he n-never did. I thought m-mov—ing away would help, but I g-guess not."

David let out a long, slow breath before sitting next to her. "Then you call him up and tell him 'no.'"

Was it that simple? Hannah would always love him, but the passion she felt for him was gone. After the accident, the passion she felt for most things had disappeared, but her 'can't imagine her life without him' feeling never did return. 

"Listen," David continued, "I get where he's comin' from. A girl like you would be damn hard to move on from. But if he's given his heart to someone else, he needs to let go of yours. And if he hasn't given his heart to her, he needs to end it, because people don't deserve scraps of someone they love."

Hannah's eyes shot up to his, who met her stare with warm eyes. She had no idea what she was more curious about; his first statement or his second. "A girl like me?" She said the words slowly, each as sort of their own sentence, so she wouldn't stutter. 

He broke their eye contact, stood up and went back around the kitchen island, returning to the task of cooking dinner. "Just sayin' it don't take much effort or time to care 'bout you." 

"Do you care a—bout me?" 

David glanced up, but only for a moment before he continued cutting the vegetables. "I wouldn't have offered up the apartment if I didn't."

It was an offer he'd made on the first night of knowing her after speaking to her for only an hour; an offer she was still confused over given the countless times she'd heard Meggie complain about him and share horror stories about what an asshole of a boss he was. 

Yet no matter how much he confused her, David was right. Shawn's fiancé deserved his whole heart and Shawn needed to understand that the distance she created between them was not just a physical one, but a metaphor that it was time for both to move on and begin their new lives.