44. Two Broken Souls
FORTY-FOUR
TWO brOKEN SOULS
Lach
This is the part of my life I’ve always kept buried deep underground. Never to be dug up. But it’s still part of who I am, regardless. Eve deserves to know. I want to tell her. I grab her hand and lead her into the living room. I take a seat on the couch, and she sits next to me. The gears tattoo is the one most people ask about because it seems so random, but for me, it’s the one that makes the most sense. I always give them some bullshit reason. They don’t need to know that part of my life. But I trust Eve.
“It was after a rough time in my life. I spent my childhood in foster care. For whatever reason, my parents didn’t want to be parents anymore.” Eve gasps but says nothing as she lets me continue. “For many years, I bounced around from house to house. I don’t know if they didn’t want me or couldn’t handle me. As I got older, it got tougher because I understood it wasn’t permanent.” She inches closer to me and rests a hand on mine. I give her a half smile. “All that changed when I turned fifteen. A couple, George and Sue, took me in. I believed it would be like all the others. Within two years, I’d be in another home. But one year passed and then another. I certainly wasn’t the perfect kid. I was shit at school, mostly because I didn’t go. There was even a time or two I found myself in the back of a police car.” A humorless laugh escapes me. “Sue was an artist, and she convinced me to go to an art class with her. That’s when I discovered my outlet for all my rage, hurt, anger, and loneliness.” Eve squeezes my hand before flipping my palm over and linking our fingers together. I lift our intertwined hands and press a kiss to her knuckles. “At the two-year mark, I was preparing to get shipped off, but it never happened. Sue and George were the only people to show me love and acceptance when no one else had. When I turned eighteen and graduated from high school, I was no longer in the system, so I was on my own.”
“Did you stay in contact with them?”
I nod. “I did. It wasn’t a lot, but I would send pictures of my artwork to Sue and tell them how my life was going. But eight months later, they were both gone. A car accident on an icy road.”
“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry, Lach.”
My lips press into a thin line. “The only stability I had in my life was gone. Ripped away from me. For the longest time, I wasn’t living. Only going through the motions. That’s when I got the gears. They were helping me go through the motions of everyday life. Every turn kept me moving.” My gaze drops to the carpet, and I blow out a deep breath. Fuck. I’ve kept the full story secret, but surprisingly, after telling Eve, I feel a thousand pounds lighter. “Then I met your brother. I was working random odd jobs, and he told me to come work for him. I’d make triple in tips alone than what my current paycheck was providing. Once again, I finally found the family I never had.”
“That’s why it was so hard to tell my brother about us,” she whispers.
I press my lips together and nod. “Yeah. I didn’t want to lose what family I had again.”
She leans into me, resting her head on my shoulder. “Thanks for sharing that with me.”
I release our linked hands and wrap my arms around her. “Thanks for letting me get it out.”
“We have similar pasts. Maybe that’s why we’re drawn together. While I technically had parents, they certainly weren’t winning any parents of the year awards. But I had Jake. He did his best to not only be the big brother but also the parent. After the accident, there were a few years where Jake couldn’t look after me anymore because he needed someone to look after him.”
I nod along as she talks. I’m familiar with Jake’s story. While I was going through my hard time, he helped me by telling me his. Trauma bonding. It helped us to know we weren’t alone.
Eve continues, “But when he acquired the bar, things seemed to have turned around for him. I graduated and was determined to leave Harbor Highlands and make something of my life. It went well for a while. Photography has always been a passion of mine, so I started working with local photographers. Eventually, I met this other girl who also loved photography. We both saved up all our money and started our own business. Right before we were going to open the doors, she cleared out what little we had in our bank account and disappeared. The police did nothing because her name was on the account as well. My only option was a lawyer, but she took all my money. I was stuck cleaning up the mess with zero money to my name.”
“Shit. That’s rough,” I murmur.
She nods. “I worked random jobs like taking Santa and Easter Bunny photos at the mall. Eventually, I started working for Pax as his assistant. The pay was great. My plan was to do that for a while, save as much as possible, and then maybe start my own business again, but everything blew up in Florida. Met you. Then this,” she rests a hand on her belly, “happened. That brings us to the present.”
“I think we can both admit we’ve gone through hell and back but came out better on the other side.”
Her hazel eyes meet mine. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Same, Sunflower. Same.” We were two broken souls who found each other to become whole.