**Hayden's POV**

Sean called me back within an hour of the call and confirmed that Dasha knew who Patrick was. He didn't explain what Rose had told him but promised she would be bringing it up. I thanked him for finding that out for me while going back to grading some papers. If I was lucky I wouldn't have to bring my work home with me tonight. Dasha needed my full attention if and when his name was brought up.

After this last assignment I vowed my students there wouldn't be any more work. Just reviewing and allowing the seniors to get all their stuff together for graduation. With three weeks left it was growing closer to finals and I was anxious to get the wedding plans more concrete as well. Dasha's parents told me that they were going to be getting her a new laptop and some house warming items for when we moved. As much as we didn't need any of the house things I figured they were just trying to be helpful. This left me with not knowing what to get my fiancé for her graduation gift, though part of me thought if Jasper really wanted a playmate she wouldn't object to it.

Pulling up my browser, I briefly glanced at some prices for different breeds and thought about what we had agreed on for another dog. The thought of someone walking in and seeing me look at puppies on a screen crossed my mind, but not enough for me to stop searching. Most likely it would be a dog of the same size, if not another bulldog.

Part of me wanted to look up this Patrick guy on social media but I didn't know his last name or anything. It would take me much longer to find out more about him. If I could just wait until tonight to ask Dasha, we would get to the source and find a solution.

"Just don't overthink for now." I murmured and closed out of the browser when someone knocked.

"Come in."

My boss walked in with a smile and handed me a folder. "I've been meaning to call you but I figured handing this in person would be better."

"Sir?" I took the envelope and saw my name was neatly printed on the front.

"This is in response to a recommendation I wrote for you. Now I know you didn't ask me, but word travels," he continued before I could utter a word. "I realize you're looking into other schools which is understandable. For your talent at teaching I don't blame you for wanting to push yourself more. There was talk about California and other states, so I reached out to some of the connections I have out there about offers for a history position."

Part of me wasn't sure whether to open the folder up or not in front of him but he continued to wait for me to do so with the look on his face.

"I don't know which university this is from, but I do know you will be hearing back from a few in California within the weeks to come."

"Berkeley," I whispered and scanned the letter for key words while reading the letter. The person was informing me that I would be receiving a call within the next week about an interview for a position there as a professor. I could only imagine that Chance may have had something to do with this but it was a long shot if he knew my boss and had gotten in touch with him.

"Just keep me informed on whatever you decide to do Hayden." He nodded before leaving me with my thoughts and the papers that confirmed my passage to California basically.

"Dasha is going to be surprised." I put the papers into my briefcase and silently prayed a thank you that some things were at least turning up when everything else seemed to be going crazy.

Now this left me with good news and bad news to bring to the dinner table tonight. Which as great as this was, it wasn't going to trump anything regarding him.

There was no need for me to bring the work home tonight. Most likely nothing was going to get done. I left the papers in the passenger seat while heading home. Dasha had ended up offering to make dinner and I didn't refuse. The sooner I could get home to her and figure this out sooner.

Jasper greeted me when I entered and plopped himself on my feet, demanding he be picked up.

"Hey buddy." I carried him into the kitchen, "is your mom in here?"

"She is." Dasha replied and went to the wine cooler to grab a bottle. "Want a glass?"

"Sure love, I'll go change real quick and take him outside."

"That's fine." She poured two glasses of merlot without paying complete attention to what I was doing.

Keeping Jasper in my arms I headed upstairs and scratched his ears gently. It was hard to tell what she was thinking at the moment. Part of me didn't want to bring up his name but it was inevitable that the conversation needed to be had. The alcohol was definitely needed for tonight.

Throwing on some basketball shorts, I went outside with him in my arms before plopping him onto the grass. Sometimes I got a little too carried away with making sure he was careful not to hurt himself, Dasha teased me that it was a parent trait.

The door opened to the backyard as Dasha hummed something and held her arm out with my glass. "You look happy. Work went well?"

"You can tell?" I smiled and sipped the drink while trying to hide an even bigger smile from appearing.

"Intuition." Was all she said and checked to make sure Jasper hadn't tried to tear up the small flower bed we had in our yard. "What happened?"

"I was going to wait until dinner... unless you really want to know."

"I can wait, but it's been an interesting day to say the least and good news would be appreciated right now."

I feigned innocence and frowned, "do you want to talk about yours first?"

"Not really." She pretended to be looking at Jasper again while answering me.

"Okay." It bothered me that she really didn't want to bring up Patrick and thoughts began running through my head as to how bad this situation could turn out to be. "My boss actually wrote out recommendation letters to various universities on the west coast."

"He did?"

I nodded. "It seems word travels... anyways," I held up a finger and went inside the grab the envelope without my hands shaking too much. When I returned back outside, Dasha had sat down on one of the reclining chairs and stood up immediately when seeing what was in my hands.

"You got a job!"

"Read it first." I teased as she took the letter and scanned it, her smile growing bigger by the second.

"Hayden! This is so exciting love! Berkeley... wow. Can you imagine!"

"I'm not trying to get my hopes up just yet, they just want to talk first and see if I would even be eligible for the position."

"The fact that they even sent you a response is huge. We need to celebrate this."

I took the paper back from her and slid it into the envelope. "We will as soon as I figure out the final details on this okay? There's so much to do in the meantime that we need to get through."

"True, graduation is basically here."

"Are you ready?"

"I think so, at this point I'm just studying. I have that big presentation next week for the marketing class. It's probably the one I'm most nervous for at the moment."

"If anyone can rock a presentation it would be you Dash." I kissed her forehead as she wrapped her arms around me. "Do you want to tell me about your day? Or wait until after dinner?"

"After dinner." Was her reply and part of me wanted to just ask right then and there who Patrick was, but she couldn't know just yet that I already knew a little bit about him. It seemed we both had secrets that needed to be addressed.

To say we could make it through the rest of the time without it being awkward wasn't easy. Neither of us could come up with really anything to discuss because of what was weighing on our minds. Was this something engaged couples struggled with? Or was it just us?

"How are your parents doing?" I finally asked her.

"Good, my grandparents left a few days ago so they seem to be relieved."

"Are they coming back for your graduation?"

"Not sure, but I figured if they wanted too they could." She finished her food and stood up to gather the dishes. "I'll just wash these real quick and then we can talk okay?"

I went in with my plate and the glasses to set down before going into the living room and picking up a book. There had been a new story I had seen about the military in Europe and it had interested me, seeing as there was always new ways for me to incorporate what I learned into lessons for my students.

Dasha pulled the blanket from the recliner and wrapped it around her before sitting down by me. This was already bothering her immensely and part of me wondered if she should even talk about it.

"Sweetheart," I began but she shook her head.

"No it's okay. Well I mean it's not, but I need to talk about this since it's been brought up. There's some ex-boyfriends I never brought up because it just never needed to be addressed in my opinion. I know we had talked about Missy and the last guy I was with, I just never..." she closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. "I'm sorry for not telling you sooner."

"You're telling me now sweetheart it's okay. Just tell me what's going on."

"Sean asked Rose about an old ex of mine I haven't heard from in years... he was bad. Like Missy bad. We had dated my freshman year in high school and he seemed like the perfect guy at the time. Little did I know he was possessive and manipulative."

I pulled her closer to me and held her while she kept talking. The words were just coming out now as she continued. "His name was Patrick Metlock. We only dated a year but that was all it took for me to realize he was never going to leave no matter how much I wanted him too. After a few months of us dating I noticed he only would let me hang out with Rose as long as he knew where I was going. At first it didn't bother me but when he started saying things to make me feel bad when I saw guys at school I knew this wasn't going to end well. When I tried to end things he made it feel like it was all my fault and that I was seeing someone else, which I wasn't... so later on he would start following and tracking my every move. I blocked him on everything but he knew people who could get ahold of me. There were multiple attempts on his part to get me back, and he kidnapped me one time to try and prove why he was worth everything."

"He kidnapped you?" I started seeing red when thinking about the pictures and wondering how many people at school had been watching her every move since she attended this university.

"Mhm, got me into his car and kept me at his friend's house for twenty-four hours."

"Are you kidding me! Did he hurt you?"

"Not much, but that's why the thing with Missy was so bad." She was shaking while I tried to wrap the blanket tighter around her.

"Dash. I received a letter the other day, addressed to you."

"From Patrick?" she began connecting the pieces together.

"From Patrick. He had a note written for you and these," I handed her the note and pictures for her to examine while I tried to look at her face. "Did you get a restraining order?"

"Yes, and I hadn't heard from him in years. He didn't know where I was going for college or anything... I don't, how does he know about you? Hayden..."

I kissed her forehead and made her look at me. "Dasha, no matter what happens you won't leave me okay? I am yours and this is just something we'll have to deal with. There's only three weeks left of school... worse case scenario you stay at your apartment with Rose and make sure Tyson or Sean are there most of the time. We'll make minimal contact at school... I'm not losing you again."

"You can't lose your job, you just got an offer to Berkeley." She wiped her eyes and threw the pictures down on the floor. "We weren't careful enough and this is my fault."

"Sweetheart, you not being careful enough is not your fault. This is my fault as well. Look, we'll figure this out okay? For now we just need to be really careful."

Jasper whined at our feet and Dasha picked him up. "Hey love, daddy is going to have to watch you for awhile on his own okay? Mommy has some stuff to do."

"Dasha, stay the night okay? You can leave in the morning."

"No Hayden, I need to go. He could be watching right now or something. I can't be here."

There was no sense in me arguing with her on this. I knew she was overreacting but I also didn't want to accept the fact that we needed to be separate for a few days.

I kissed her for a brief minute and held her before getting up. "It's just twenty-one days okay? I'll be there for your graduation as promised and everything else."

She nodded and closed her eyes while opening my palm up and sliding something inside my hand. "I think this needs to stay with you until this semester is over. Too many people are going to question it."

"More people will question it if you don't wear it." I closed my fist around the ring that was in my hand and tried not to let my eyes water as much as they were.

"I love you Hayden Blaze." She kissed me one last time before stepping out.

Jasper whined at my feet as I picked him up and held the ring in my other hand. "We'll figure this out Dasha I swear."

**Much overdue update, I apologize for that! Don't hate me too much they're not breaking up I promise. I can guarantee this story is only going to continue having it's ups and downs for the rest of the chapters. There will be another update sooner than this last one!**