Chapter 18 #2
“I know how it works,” I say quietly. “The rich get away with everything. Chase took away my chance at a future. Now I’m clawing and fighting to just find another way into the future that had been mine, while he would have gotten a slap on the wrist and a fine.
His dad would have made some donation, and it all would have been swept under the rug. ”
“So what? You punched him to get your revenge?”
“Please.” I laugh. “If I just wanted to punch him, I would have done it before school started. And I would have kicked his ass.” I breathe out and say a little softer, “I really did deck him for leaving Evan out in the woods. It wasn’t planned.
Hawk was already on his way to go get her when Chase walked in like nothing was wrong. ”
Dad releases a breath. “You said it this morning, but I had other things on my mind. He really dumped her in the woods?”
“Outside of town, not knowing whether she had her phone or not. Yeah, he’s a real class act.
Probably wouldn’t have gone back to get her until he fucked someone if he hadn’t gotten arrested.
” I blow out my breath. “We’re not stupid.
We haven’t done anything illegal, but we might have made his life a little extra uncomfortable for a while. ”
“I don’t want to know.” Dad shakes his head. “It’s better if I don’t know the details.”
Probably, but we didn’t do anything that was criminal, so it doesn’t matter really.
“Is that why you’re with EvanAnn?” Fuck, my dad pieced that together a little too easily.
I chuckle and glance in my mirrors. “First off, you moved her into the room next to mine without considering Evan is a gorgeous girl.”
Dad opens his mouth and then closes it. He gives me a slight nod of acknowledgement. After all, Evan does take after her mother, and Dad fell for Heather.
“Second off, he was fucking around on her before we even made a move.”
“We? Hawk and Cam?” Dad rubs his forehead. “EvanAnn said she was dating the three of you, and I really didn’t want to ask how that works in front of her mother.”
“We all love her,” I say it softly, so he knows it’s not me just being defensive.
“Again, I don’t need the details.”
I smirk. He probably doesn’t want to think about what we do together. To the girl he basically gift wrapped and put in the room next to mine.
“And this had nothing to do with Heather moving in?” Dad gives me a skeptical look.
“I wasn’t happy about you moving your gold-digging girlfriend in with us,” I admit. Before he can defend her, I add, “But no, it had very little to do with your girlfriend at the beginning and not at all now.”
He makes a noise that he realizes it had something to do with his girlfriend. He runs a hand through his hair and looks out the window before coming to a decision.
“Heather needed a safe place for her and EvanAnn this year. We started dating this spring, and I really didn’t see a reason for her to move anywhere but with me.
She already spent most of her time at our house.
I didn’t think she should leave Evan alone so much.
I knew moving in wasn’t ideal with two teenagers, but EvanAnn had a boyfriend. ”
“A shit boyfriend who used her as an excuse to continue being a manwhore,” I grumble.
Dad gives me a nod. “Heather and I did talk it over, and it seemed like the best solution for all of us.”
I’m tempted to ask Dad about Heather’s texts, but then I might feel compelled to tell him about Evan’s texts. It wouldn’t hurt to have him know Evan might be in danger. Another set of eyes on her might make me worry less.
Maybe I’m overreacting. No one’s come after her. Not really. The rose was weak and not meant to really take her out. Scare her? Yes. But it didn’t do permanent damage. There hasn’t been any new communication otherwise.
Do I think Jackson might be obsessed with her? But fuck, I’m obsessed with her. Do I only want to see him as dangerous because she’s mine?
“Heather said EvanAnn was crying this morning.” Dad’s voice is soft, like he’s not sure how to approach this. “You came at Heather pretty hard about EvanAnn.”
“You don’t think Heather deserved it?” I can’t help but ask. My dad isn’t blind. He has to know the way Heather treats Evan isn’t right.
Dad sighs. “When her husband died, Heather was left with bills and a ten-year-old child who barely talked. They were both shadows of themselves.”
I was older when Mom died, but I remember feeling unmoored, lost. I know how Evan is now. Focused, driven. Is that how she coped with her loss? Throwing herself into her work?
“EvanAnn is brilliant and talented.” Dad blows out a breath.
“And Heather was buried in grief, debt, and work. It wasn’t right and we’ve talked about it, but EvanAnn was solid.
She did her work and got good grades. She got into Anteros on her own.
Heather did what she could to encourage her.
But at the end of the day, she didn’t have the energy to be there for EvanAnn. ”
“But she was there for her endless stream of boyfriends.” She doesn’t get a pass on this because she was grieving. Fuck that. She left Evan on her own.
“Grief is an ocean. Sometimes it can drag you under and you can’t find the surface.
Other times it gently laps at your ankles.
It’s always there, but sometimes you’re in so deep you can’t see the shoreline.
” Dad looks out the window and sighs. “We met at a grief support group I joined. Neither of us were looking for a partner there, but we got to talking. Every meeting we’d sit together and go out to coffee afterwards, just to talk.
Eventually we realized there was more between us than just grief. ”
I press my lips together, because I know that meant Evan was left alone. It’s possible she was busy with a production or school projects while they got to know each other.
“I know we should have said something earlier. Maybe gotten the family together sooner, so you and EvanAnn wouldn’t have been in the dark, but it was all new, and fuck if I wasn’t terrified, because what I feel with Heather is something I hadn’t felt since your mother.”
I glance at my dad as he stares out the window. Evan thought they might be with each other because they understood the other’s sadness. Maybe that’s why Evan and I are together. The revenge was just the tool to make us collide.
I focus on the road and what lies ahead.