32. Evie Wilder
Chapter thirty-two
Evie Wilder
“Show me your cards.” I reach across the table, and Drew holds his hand further away.
“That’s not how poker works. You don’t get to see my hand unless you pay to.”
“You’re about to pay unless you show me your cards.” I stand up and start to walk around the table. “I know you’re cheating.”
“I am not. You can’t blame me for your terrible poker skills.”
He stands up and backs away from the table. Kayla and Maverick watch us, laughing and shaking their heads.
“There’s no way you’re winning. You’re not that smart.”
He places a hand over his chest as he backs away. “Ouch, that really hurts. I’m your brother. We share a bloodline.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Okay, that’s it, you’re in for it now.” He throws his cards to the side, scattering them across the living room before lunging after me. I squeal as he throws me over his shoulder.
“I think it’s time for a dip in the pool,” he says as I beat my fists on his back.
“It’s October. And you don’t even have a pool.”
“I know, but our neighbor has a birdbath filled with cold rainwater. That’ll do just fine.”
I start wiggling more, but my few weeks of training doesn’t beat years of being in the Army.
“Mav!” I yell out as he walks me toward the front door. “Save me!”
“Drew,” he calls out through his laughter. “Don’t dunk her in a bird bath or I’ll have to dunk you.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” he says in an exaggerated somber tone.
He swings open the door, but pauses instead of rushing out like I think he’s going to.
“Is that? It can’t be, right?” Something in his tone makes anxiety spike within me. He quickly lets me down. I turn to face the front yard, still a little disoriented, when I see who he’s talking about.
“Ezra,” I whisper, the pizza we had for dinner curdling in my stomach.
At the end of the drive, standing with his suitcase in hand, is my ex-husband. A sleek black car drives away, likely the one that dropped him off.
“What is he doing here?” Drew asks the question rolling through my head. “How did he know you’d be here?”
“I don’t know,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest as he approaches. “He might have found your address in some old paperwork. I know you were my emergency contact at one point, and I left his apartment in such a rush after he cheated.”
Drew’s jaw ticks. “He’s an idiot for coming here. I’ll kill him.”
“He is an idiot, but not worth going to jail for murder.”
“I knew you’d be here,” Ezra says with a grin. It concerns me more that he’s happy than if he would have showed up fuming.
“Why are you here, Ezra?” I ask him.
Before he can answer, I feel a shift in the air. Ezra glances behind me, his eyes widening just enough to confirm that Maverick has joined us.
“What’s going on out here?” Mav asks, coming to stand behind me. Between Drew’s lean muscles and Maverick’s large frame, Ezra should be feeling fairly intimidated. But perhaps his stupidity outweighs his self-preservation skills, because he continues on unphased.
“Ezra was just about to tell us why he’s shown up on my front porch unannounced,” Drew says in an icy tone.
“I came to find you because you won’t return my texts or calls,” Ezra says, his glassy gaze fixed on me.
“I didn’t answer for a reason. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Come on baby, I want to get back together. Remember how great we were? Let’s be a family again.” His words are coming fast. I can see his pupils are dilated and he’s practically twitching. It looks like he might be on drugs, which wouldn’t surprise me. I found out toward the end of our relationship that he had a history with cocaine. He said he stopped, but he lied about most things, so who’s to say he didn’t lie about that too.
“ Again ?” I spit his word back at him with venom. “We never were a family, Ezra. I don’t want anything to do with you ever again, and you won’t be seeing my son either. The paperwork you signed made sure of that.”
His gaze hardens. “You forced me to sign that. I wanted to stay together!”
He takes a step forward. Maverick steps around me, intercepting him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warns in a deadly calm tone.
“Let me see my wife!” Ezra shouts, trying to sidestep Maverick. It doesn’t work.
“I suggest you leave,” Drew says.
“I’m not leaving until I talk to my wife,” Ezra says, his voice off-kilter. I watch him through the gap between Drew's and Maverick’s arms. His usually styled hair is sticking out in various places, and his nostrils are flaring like a caged animal's.
“She’s not your wife. You two are divorced,” Drew points out, but Ezra is focused on Mav.
“Who do you think you are to keep us apart?” Ezra yells in Maverick’s face. I tilt my head to get a better look at Maverick’s profile. He’s eerily calm.
“You need to leave. Evie doesn’t want to talk to you.”
Ezra steps closer to Maverick, almost bumping chests with him. My heart is pounding in my ears. This is so terrible. I have no idea what to do to stop this from escalating.
“You don’t want to do that,” Drew tells him, anticipating that Ezra is going to do something foolish like try to fight Mav.
“She’s my wife. I’ll talk to her whenever I want!”
He shoves Maverick’s chest. My eyes widen.
“ And now you’ve done it. You really aren’t that bright, are you?” Drew asks.
Maverick rears back, calm as can be, and punches him. Instantly, Ezra’s eyes roll. Maverick grabs the collar of his shirt before he can collapse, and slowly lowers him to the concrete.
“Should probably call the cops,” Maverick says to Drew.
“I’ll go check on Kayla then do that,” he says, patting him on the shoulder. He stops in front of me first though. “Are you okay?”
I look down at the unconscious Ezra, then back at my brother. “I’m not sure.”
“I’ve got her,” Maverick says from beside me. Drew nods and heads inside.
Strong, warm arms wrap around me. I bury my face into his chest, breathing in the smokey sweet scent he always wears. He rubs a hand up and down my back.
“You knocked him out,” I say, my words muffled in the fabric of his hoodie.
“I did.” He kisses the crown of my head. “How are you feeling?”
I let out a laugh. “In shock, I think. A little disappointed I didn’t get to punch him.” I tilt my head back. He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I shouldn’t turn into a puddle over the fact that he just punched a guy and now is being so tender with me, but here I am, melting like sugar in coffee.
“I can’t say next time because there won’t be one.”
The sound of groaning draws our attention to where Ezra is coming to on the ground. His face is scrunched up and he looks as weak and defenseless as he used to make me feel. Drew comes out with two water bottles.
“Time to wake up, idiot,” Drew says and dumps one of them on Ezra’s head. I bite back a laugh as he sputters, trying to dodge the cold water .
“He was already starting to wake up,” Maverick tells Drew, but I can hear the amusement in his voice.
“It’s always good to make sure.” Drew smirks then pulls Ezra up to a seated position. “You’re going to hang out right here until the cops show up. If you try anything, you’ll leave in the back of an ambulance instead of a cop car.”
Ezra merely groans in response, his head hanging between his knees.
A little while later, the cops arrive. After some questioning and taking of information, they leave with Ezra. They also suggest getting a restraining order, which Maverick says he’ll take me to do tomorrow.
My emotions are tangled up like a basket of old charging cords by the time everything is said and done. I curl up against Maverick’s side on the couch, resting in the peace he always emanates. While I’m glad to see Ezra get some of what he deserves for how he treated me, it’s embarrassing to realize that I gave so much of my life–of myself–to him. No matter how happy I am now, it feels like my past is going to haunt me forever.
“Hey, Evie,” Drew says as he comes downstairs from telling Archie good night. “Can I talk to you for a second?” His tone is serious enough to make my nerves spike.
I don’t know if I can take another thing going wrong. What could Drew have to say? Is he mad I brought all my drama to his doorstep–literally? I wouldn’t blame him. He’s got a wife and a kid. He doesn’t need his little sister ruining that.
I nod and get up from my spot next to Maverick, who gives me an encouraging smile as I follow Drew into the kitchen. Beckham is asleep in Archie’s old playpen nearby. I know Mav will watch over him while we’re out of the room. My hands start to shake when Drew looks at me. I cross my arms to hide them, looking down at my feet.
“I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you.” My head snaps up. “I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you to get the courage to leave Ezra and be on your own. Then when you came here, I know you probably thought that you were giving up, but you weren’t. You were doing what you needed in order to take care of yourself and Beckham.”
I blink as tears start to blur my vision. This is not at all how I thought this conversation was going to go.
“I’m aware of how overbearing and overprotective I am–you and Kayla remind me constantly,” he says and I let out a soft laugh. “But I don’t ever want to seem controlling to you. I’m your brother. I want what’s best for you. And it’s made me so proud to watch you figure out what that is for yourself.”
I wipe away my tears with the sleeves of Maverick’s flannel. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything. I just wanted you to know that I love you and I’m proud of you. You’re a great mom and an amazing person.”
He wraps me up in a hug that feels as though he’s squeezing together all my broken pieces.
“I love you too,” I say through my tears. “Even if you tell terrible jokes and cheat at poker.”
Laughter rumbles through his chest. “You know, I had a dream last night that I was a muffler. I woke up exhausted.”
I groan and try to push him away, but he just squeezes me harder. And in spite of everything that happened tonight, I find myself feeling lighter than ever. I have my brother, Kayla, Archie, Mav, and Beckham. Plus all of the Carter family who treat me as one of their own. I don’t need Ezra, or New York, or anything I once chased.
I’m happy . Truly, truly happy.