3. Maverick Carter
Chapter three
Maverick Carter
“You want me to go back to Georgia?” Evie asks, incredulous.
If Drew would have told me this was his plan, I would have prepared him for this reaction. There’s no way Evie is coming back with us willingly, she has a life here.
“I know you aren’t with him anymore,” Drew says, making another terrible mistake. “Mav noticed you weren’t wearing a ring. And that the doorman didn’t question us when we asked for Evie Wilder instead of whatever that idiot’s last name was.”
Evie’s blue eyes are hard as sapphires when she looks to me.
I groan inwardly. Why did he have to haul me into this? I didn’t want any part in dragging her back home. All I wanted was to make sure she was safe and taken care of. I pointed out the lack of a ring because I’d hoped it would make Drew feel better. It certainly eased my mind. Not that I wanted her to experience the pain of divorce a second time–the first being through her parents–but I know deep down something wasn’t right in their relationship. So she’s got to be better off without him.
“And,” Drew continues, because he has no self-preservation skills. “Beckham’s last name is Wilder.”
“Nice detective work,” Evie says to me in a poisonous tone. “I’m sure your brother is so proud.”
My brother Levi is a homicide detective, hence her mocking reference. I shift in the booth, wishing there was more space. I’m crammed next to Drew and the stroller is slightly blocking my other side. That combined with Evie’s harsh glare makes for an uncomfortable situation.
“We’re trying to help you,” Drew says. I’m close to hitting him. How did he grow up with a sister and marry a woman only to end up knowing exactly zero things about women? If he’d learned anything over the years, he’d be shutting up right now. My experience with my own sister taught me that.
Our waitress starts to walk over and I shake my head, signaling to her to give us a minute. She looks at Evie and Drew, then nods in understanding. I’ll be sure to tip her well later. I don’t even know if we’ll get any food before someone–probably Evie–storms out of here.
“Help me?” Evie scoffs. “No, you’re trying to control me. Like always, you think your way is the only way.”
“You need help, Evie. You can’t raise a baby on your own.”
I scrub a hand over my face. I can’t believe he just said that. I’m best friends with a moron.
“I think what Drew is trying to say–”
Evie cuts me off. “I am a grown woman. Plenty of women raise babies on their own. I’ve been doing it just fine the last two months. I don’t need anyone, least of all you.”
She stands and moves out of the booth. Contempt swirls around her like a tornado of anger.
“Don’t come to my apartment building again.”
She turns the stroller around and starts to walk away.
“Evie, wait.” Drew tries to stand, but I’m on the outside of the booth. I don’t move. “Let me go after her.”
I shake my head. “She needs time to cool off. You’re going to lose her again.”
Evie weaves around the tables, then disappears out the front door.
“What do you mean? I’m losing her right now!” Panic laces his tone.
“You’re not. She’s just upset because she’s related to a dumb man who doesn’t know when to quit.”
Drew flops back down in the booth, shooting me a glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You told her she can’t raise a child on her own.”
“I just meant that she shouldn’t have to,” he says, his tone indignant.
“I know what you meant , but that’s not what you said .”
He crosses his arms, elbowing me in the ribs in the process. I sigh and slide out of the booth to move to the other side.
“She’s being stubborn. She knows she needs help.”
“Evie has always been stubborn and independent, what did you expect?”
“I expected her to be grateful that I came all this way because I was worried about my baby sister. ”
“When you didn’t tell her you were coming then blindsided her with the idea of her moving back to Georgia?” I sigh. “I mean, seriously Drew, was this your plan from the start? Because we could have come up with a better one. Where would she even go? She’d have to quit her job.”
“I…didn’t think about that.” He sinks into the booth, practically deflating.
“I’m not trying to kick you while you’re down, but you have to understand why she’s so upset.”
He rubs his face with both hands. “I do, but I still hate it. I wanted to show up and have her hug me. Tell me she was just scared and is happy I’m here.”
“I know man, I wanted that too. But that’s never been Evie’s style. Remember that time she broke her ankle climbing the tree behind my house?”
He lets out a laugh. “She refused to let anyone carry her until she tried to walk three times in a row and couldn’t.”
“She finally let me carry her to my dad’s truck to go to the hospital,” I say with a smile.
“Did she even cry?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I never saw a tear if she did.”
“She didn’t cry when Mom and Dad told us about the divorce either. At least not in front of me.”
I look down at the table. Evie may not have cried in front of Drew, but she did cry. I found her on my front porch after football practice. Drew had told me the news in the locker room, but he seemed to work out his emotions on the field just fine. Evie on the other hand had ridden her bike to my house to get away. That was typical of her and Drew–escaping to my house. All it took was one glance in the dim porch light to know she’d been crying. I sat beside her on the steps and she collapsed into my arms.
I didn’t say anything. Didn’t tell her it was going to be okay, or that she’d make it through. I just held her while she cried. My mom came outside and found us when she was worried I hadn’t made it home from practice yet. She sat down on the other side of Evie and whispered a few things I couldn’t quite make out. Then she offered to make hot cocoa and for Evie to stay the night.
“She came to you, didn’t she?” he asks, pulling me from the memory.
A dull ache begins to form in my chest. The ache that typically accompanies any thoughts of my mom, even happy ones. It’s been over ten years now, but some days the pain is as fresh as the day she passed.
“I don’t know about to me . She came to my house.”
“She’s always had a soft spot for you.”
My brow furrows. “A soft spot? We were friends, just like you and me.”
He laughs and I feel left out of the joke. “There were plenty of times when Evie was being stubborn or closed off and you showing up turned things around. Like at that party we found her at.”
Anger courses through me at the memory. Evie was drunk at a party Drew happened to be at—a college party. She was fifteen . He couldn’t get her to leave, so he called me. I pulled her down off of the table she was dancing on and almost got into a fight with some frat boy who insisted she should get to do what she wanted. He shut up real quick when he found out her age. I discovered later, when I was holding her hair back in the bathroom of my apartment, that her drink had been spiked. She thought she was drinking fruit punch the whole time.
“You could have gotten her to listen eventually,” I say.
He shrugs. “Maybe so, but it’s obvious she listens to you more than me.”
I don’t like the look on his face. It’s the look that says he’s got another dumb plan, and this time he wants me to have a major role.
“No.”
“Come on, you don’t even know what I was going to say.”
I shake my head. “Don’t care. I’m not getting any more involved in this. I shouldn’t even be here. She’s already mad at me because you threw me under the bus about the whole wedding ring thing.”
Seeing that she wasn’t married like I’d thought had been a shock. I can’t say I wasn’t relieved, though maybe that’s wrong of me. I’m almost certain he was an awful husband, but maybe we don’t know the truth. She could have distanced herself because she wanted to, not because she was forced to. I know Evie, though, and that just doesn’t sound like her. I’m more apt to believe Ezra manipulated her into distancing herself.
“I was just telling the truth. You were the one who noticed.”
Our waitress comes back over, saving Drew from the words I was about to have with him. We place our orders, then Drew turns his smirking face back to me.
“I said no.”
“We’re already here, and you know she needs help. We have to do something.”
“Maybe she’ll call before we leave.”
Drew gives me a flat look. “And maybe I’ll win the lottery the same day I survive a lightning strike to the head. ”
“Your attitude is not going to increase my chances of helping you.”
“Maybe not, but I know you’re going to say yes.”
“What gives you that impression?” I ask him and he sits back, crossing his arms with a knowing look.
“You love Evie. That’s why you got on that plane with no information. And it’s also why you’re not going to leave her here without fighting for her. She’s alone, Mav.” His words are like a rusty blade straight to the heart. “She needs us, whether she likes it or not.”
I run a hand over my short beard. “What did you have in mind?”
He grins like he’s won, because he has. I do love Evie. I’d protect her with my very life. If she’s hurting the way I think, then he’s right. We can’t leave her here.
“We’re going to use that soft spot for you against her. Maybe if you can talk to her alone, she’ll listen to us. But first, we also need to buy our way into her good graces.”
“Buy our way?” I question him.
“It may have been a while since I’ve seen her, but I know my sister. And if there’s one thing I know it’s that she has a weakness for presents. If you show up at her building and ask the doorman to tell her you came bearing gifts, she won’t be able to resist.”
After how heated things got today, I’m not so sure it’ll be that easy.
“I hope you’re right,” I say as he pulls out his phone.
“I know I am. I should have thought of this before we came, but I wasn’t thinking then.”
“That much is clear,” I mutter, earning a glare. “Tell me it isn’t true. ”
He rolls his eyes and looks down at his phone. “Regardless, we’ve got a better plan now. And apparently we’re in the perfect place for shopping.”
He shows me the screen filled with a list of stores. When I imagined what would happen when we got here, I was thinking more of a rescue mission than a shopping trip. But if this is what it takes to ensure Evie is taken care of, then so be it.
“Where’s our first stop?”