Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CAITLIN
Drew stands with his shoulders squared, his spine snapped straight, and his jaw clenched into a tight line, as if the effort of keeping himself upright instead of crumbling to the ground in front of the man I can only assume is his father is physically painful.
His hands clench into fists at his sides, and I can see them tremble from here.
My heart gives a slow, aching thud, as if it’s trying to jump out of my chest and get to him, my only thought that he looks so painfully alone.
My mind rebels at that—because not on my fucking watch.
Drew Ellicott will never be alone again. Not today and not as long as I’m alive on this earth.
I thunder down the corridor, every step taking me closer to him, and I don’t think he even clocks the noise of my feet hitting the concrete as I run, all his attention focused in front of him.
I can tell he wants to walk away. To run.
His entire body seems primed for movement, but the burden of the past his dad brings to bear is keeping Drew’s feet weighed to the floor.
“Did you forget your words?” Drew’s dad seethes, and I watch as Drew flinches like the question is a physical blow.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You’ve never been that smart.
Only good for catching a football, and you’ve never really been great at that either.
” He laughs, the sound gritty and mean. “The only reason you’ve ever become anything at all is because of me, so just give me what you owe me, and I’ll be on my way. ”
“He’s not giving you anything.” My voice is steel as I come to a stop next to Drew, wrapping my hand around his forearm and then sliding it down until our fingers are linked. The second skin meets skin, I feel Drew exhale like he’s been holding his breath for hours.
“Catie,” he breathes out, his voice both raspy and relieved and startled almost, as if my presence is jolting him out of whatever headspace seeing his dad tossed him into.
And when his exhausted, shattered eyes meet mine, they clear slightly, his body relaxing just enough and his hand gripping mine tightly, like he’s looking for an anchor to a life where fathers don’t hurt their children, and nothing comes for him in the dark.
The life he has with me. The one we have together.
I can feel the rest of our family and friends crowd in behind us, but my eyes don’t leave Drew’s, and I can hear the words in his head.
Stay, Catie.
Please, please stay.
As if there was any other choice for me.
I stopped having a choice in the matter when this man somehow knew I wanted sugar on my margarita rim even though I told him salt.
When he wandered into the lake house kitchen confused about what, exactly, happened on a family vacation because he’d never been on one before.
When he found me on a bathroom floor and took care of me when I was sick and stocked his freezer with pebble ice and ice cream and braided my hair so I didn’t have to do it myself.
When he kissed me in my office and took me on a date to a haunted house and answered my SOS call to pick me up from the hospital and watched a million spy movies with me and made me a thousand dinners and loaves of sourdough while I recovered.
When he loved me in a way no one else ever has and fixed pieces of me he didn’t break.
No, there was never a choice for me but to love this man. To be loved by him and stay with him and hold him up the same way he holds me.
I run my thumb over his, our eyes locked.
Always, Drew.
I’ll always, always stay.
My heart aches at the acute relief that shines in his gaze. Like seeing his dad made him doubt for a second that there’s nowhere I would rather be than wherever he is. That he belongs with me and we belong with each other.
“Who the fuck are you?”
The sharp voice breaks through our bubble and Drew sucks in a breath, something like fear swimming into his golden eyes, but the fear doesn’t belong to the man.
It belongs to the little boy the man once was, and I’m going to handle this for them both.
My mom practically hisses and I can feel my dad and Jack primed for a fight, my friends all ready to jump in to protect and defend, but I turn to them and shake my head because this is for me.
Hand locked tightly around Drew’s, I turn to his father, studying him with a cool-eyed perusal, the hard life he’s lived evident on every square inch of his face, no kindness to be found in the dull brown eyes so different from the ones belonging to the man I love.
Free hand on my hip, I narrow my eyes at him. “I’m his girlfriend. Who the fuck are you?”
He lets out a scoff that ends in a wheezing cough. “Girlfriend. You’re too pretty to be this lazy asshole’s girlfriend.”
If I didn’t hate this man with the fire of a thousand suns for what he did to Drew—if the memory of Drew waking up from that nightmare wasn’t burned into my brain—I would laugh because this guy is like a villain right out of central casting.
“Well, be that as it may, I am, in fact, his girlfriend. I’m also an attorney, and I’m telling you it’s in your best interests to leave this stadium right now before I have to call security to come escort you out. ”
When he rolls his eyes, he looks even more pathetic than he already did. “It’s a public stadium and I have every right to be here. Why don’t you tell your boyfriend to give me what he owes me then I’ll leave, and you’ll never hear from me again.”
Until he needs more, I think.
He gets nothing. Not now. Not ever.
“Actually, while the stadium is technically public and owned by Hillsborough County, it’s only accessible either by having tickets to a game or an event or by booking a tour in advance.
The game is long over, and I’m assuming you don’t have a ticket for a private tour, which means you’ve overstayed your welcome.
I’d use some fancy legal terms, but why bother when get the fuck out does the job just fine? ”
Drew’s dad looks bewildered, like I confused him with all the words, which was exactly the point. “What are you, lawyer bitch Barbie or something? Just give me what—”
“Oh fuck no.” Drew’s hand flexes, and out of the corner of my eye I feel him stand up to his full height, his gaze snapping straight to his dad’s.
Giving my hand a squeeze as if to say I’ve got this, he takes a step forward but keeps his hand securely in mine.
“Her name is Caitlin,” Drew practically growls.
“She’s brilliant and beautiful and the love of my goddamn life, so you’ll speak to her with respect or not at all. ”
“Hot,” Emmy mumbles behind me. “Scorching fucking hot.”
Drew’s dad lets out another one of those angry laughs. “You’re good and whipped, aren’t you? Defending the girl like she walks on fucking water or something when she’s probably just a distraction from the football career that’s got you living the high life. I raised you better than that.”
My entire body is primed to fight. To defend. To step in and show this bag of dicks exactly what happens when you fuck with a member of my family and then concoct a plan to make sure he never bothers Drew ever again. This is a problem to solve, and I am the greatest problem solver of all.
Except I don’t do any of those things because I know in my bones that isn’t what Drew needs.
Drew doesn’t need me to fix this or protect him or make this problem go away.
He needs me to love him and support him and make sure he knows that here is where I’ll always be.
To stand with him while he stands up for himself and for the boy who was too young and too afraid to do that all those years ago.
So this time I give his hand a squeeze and stay exactly where I am.
Drew laughs, but there’s no humor in it.
“You didn’t raise me at all. You could have.
You should have. I was a grieving eight-year-old who needed the only parent I had left, but instead you lost yourself in a bottle and only came to find me when you needed to hit someone to make yourself feel like the bigger man.
I was alone, Dad. I was all alone, and you didn’t fucking care.
I got myself to school and did my homework because, until I found football, I thought being smart would be my only way out.
I learned how to cook and bake because it was my only connection to my mom when you wouldn’t share your memories with me.
And when I started football, I didn’t succeed because of you.
I did it in spite of you. In spite of the way you told me I was a lazy good-for-nothing player who would never amount to anything.
In spite of the way you liked to use your fists to remind me about every pass I dropped in every high school game I ever played.
In spite of the way you told me I should have been glad mom was dead so she didn’t have to witness her son being such an embarrassment of a player and in spite of the way it’s your voice I’ve heard in my head every single fucking time I step onto a football field.
The one telling me I’d never be good enough, smart enough, strong enough.
Because of you, I spent years holding everyone who matters to me at a distance, primed to leave them before they could leave me the way you did when I was far too young to be left alone.
Because of you, I’ve played this game far longer than I wanted to—bled and sweat and ached because I thought leaving it meant I was a failure.
And because of you, I almost didn’t…” Drew trails off and swallows hard, roughing his free hand over his face and tightening his grip on my hand so hard it aches.
“Because of you, I almost missed my chance with Caitlin. She’s the love of my life. My whole damn world, and I almost wasn’t brave enough to try because my own dad made me feel like I wasn’t worth the trouble, so why would anyone else want me when you never did?”
Drew sucks in a breath, stunned look on his face like he can’t believe all those words came out of him.
And this time, when he stands up straight, it’s not to bear a burden, but because of a burden lifted.
“But I am worth the trouble. She helped me see that.” Drew turned to me, eyes intense and full of love, and he’s talking to his dad but he doesn’t move his gaze from me.
“She gave me love and hope and a home and a future I never thought I would get to have. Family and friends and the most beautiful life I ever could have imagined.”
I blink fast, trying to keep it together when Drew turns back to his dad. “A life that you’re not a part of. Not today and not ever. You’ve taken enough from me. You don’t get anything else. So like my girl said, get the fuck out, and don’t ever come back.”
His dad looks surprised, but then surprise turns to anger. “Who’s gonna make me?”
“We are,” Cam, Tyler, Jack, and Oliver all say in unison, crowding in on Drew’s other side. Cam lays a hand on Drew’s shoulder, looking directly at Drew’s dad. “No one fucks with our brother and lives to tell the tale, so I would suggest you do what he said and get the fuck out.”
“And don’t come back. Ever.” I would laugh at the growl that is so unlike Jack if I didn’t see it for exactly what it is.
The Parker men are the most affable, good-natured of men until someone fucks with one of their own.
Drew is theirs now and my love for my sweet, protective brother threatens to take me under.
“He has a family he made all on his own. He doesn’t need you.
” Avery pushes forward and stands right in front of Drew, glaring at his dad in the way only a fearless almost eighteen-year-old can, and Sophie, Maddy, Maya, Emmy, and Sarah crowd in closer behind us.
When I see Drew’s lips curve up into a smile, everything inside of me lights up because Drew should always be smiling.
“Damn right he does.” My dad is next to speak, and I see my parents slide in on my other side, my grandma flanking them.
He gives Drew’s dad the signature Ben Parker I’m disappointed in you look, and it’s more effective than any raised voice or harsh words could ever be.
“I don’t know you, but I know for sure you don’t deserve a son like Drew.
Your loss is our greatest gain, because he’s ours now.
And not just because he loves my daughter, but because he’s a good man with a soft, kind heart.
You tried to break it over and over again, but you never succeeded.
You couldn’t, because of the man he is. But you can go now.
We’ll be the ones to take care of that heart from now on.
To make sure no one can try and break it ever again. ”