Chapter 23
Prove It
Hayvin
“Where are you at, bitch? I brought the alcohol,” Everleigh’s voice yells from the living room.
“Back here,” I call out, closing my notebook.
I hug my guitar close for a moment. No one can see this one yet.
More of my soul bleeds from these lyrics than I’m used to sharing, and the idea of exposing them makes my skin crawl and my chest tight.
Maybe, just maybe, this song will stay buried in my private stash.
Letting it loose into the world feels like standing naked in a storm.
Everleigh appears, holding vodka and gherkins. "Your voice screamed for alcohol, friend."
Laughing, I climb to my feet. “I’ll grab the shot glasses.”
Returning to the den, I find Everleigh barefoot and curled up in a chair, her jaw clenched tight. She’s stabbing at her phone, thumbs moving with a furious rhythm. I can practically hear the sting of her words through the glass.
There’s only one person who, I’m guessing, is on the other end.
She still hasn’t said much about what went down with Grimm. Whatever happened cracked her wide open, and I see the ache leak out with every breath she takes. She tries to mask it, but I’ve known her since we were kids. She can’t hide her pain or her fury from me.
“Everleigh,” I call softly as I walk over, lowering myself to my knees before her and making sure she sees me.
She stares straight through her phone, like she’s willing it to disappear. Her lips tremble and her chin shakes. Then a single tear slips down her cheek, silent and heavy.
I cover her phone's screen and push it down until she has no choice but to look away.
“Talk to me, please. I’m worried about you.”
I flinch at the hollow, almost haunted look in her eyes as she finally meets my gaze.
“I was the other woman. He claimed me as his old lady in his club, but he made me the fucking other woman, Vinnie.”
I cup her cheeks in my palms and rest my forehead against hers. “Oh, Ever.”
Everleigh never lets herself stay vulnerable for long, and I get why.
Her dad drilled it into her that emotions were a weakness.
Loyalty and honesty are her bedrock. Once someone breaks that, she’s done.
After her dad’s secrets blew their family apart, she swore those two things would always come first. That’s why I never lie to her, not even about the tiniest thing, and why she was the first to know when her brother and I started dating.
I’d never risk what we have if I can help it.
It’s also why she has difficulty accepting what Alek did to me. As my friend, she’s trying not to let her views skew my relationship or my decisions.
Grimm broke both boundaries with her, and he’s honestly lucky she’s still talking to him.
But sometimes, life—especially love—refuses to fit into neat lines, no matter how much we want it to.
“And you’re still talking to him?”
Everleigh pulls away with a snort and brushes the tears from her eyes. “Hell no. I blocked his ass.” She sighs. “It doesn’t stop everyone in his damn club from reaching out.”
“Well, they need to learn to respect your boundaries. If they’re your friends or care about you at all, they’ll wait until you’re ready to come to them. If you never are, that’s something they need to accept. They shouldn’t be pushing you for whatever reason.”
She shrugs. “It is what it is. If it gets to be too much, I’ll block the rest of them. I don’t want to because I’d like to keep in touch with many of them.”
"Can I ask something?" She nods. "Why didn't you tell me about Grimm?"
Everleigh leans back with a sigh. “I did. Sort of. I told you I started seeing someone, but it was right after you and Alek split, and you weren’t in a good place.
Plus, Grimm and I had just met. It was just supposed to be something fun, but then we both…
” she pauses, swallowing hard before continuing, “or well, I stupidly caught feelings. It was so fucking fast. You know me. I’m cautious about this kind of shit.
But with him…I don’t know, Vin. It was different. ”
“Love is unpredictable and comes when you least want it to.”
“I’m not trying to keep my breakup from you, either. I’m honestly just struggling pretty bad with it, and when I talk about it, I can’t fucking breathe, you know?” She wipes the tears that fall from her eyes. “I promise I’ll give you more when I’m ready.”
I shrug. “You don’t owe me your feelings, Everleigh. You know that. I just want to make sure you’ll be okay eventually. I need you to eventually be all right.”
“Sure I will. Someday.” She smiles. “Now, enough about me. Let’s pour some damn shots and talk about what’s got your heart and head all twisted.”
“Love you, Everleigh.”
Her eyes soften. “Love you too, Vinnie.”
Grabbing the bottle of vodka, I pour a shot glass full for both of us and pass hers over.
“To karma kissing those assholes with her poisonous lips,” I say, clinking my glass against hers before tossing it down my throat.
I wince at the vodka burn, grab the jar of gherkins, twist it open, and crunch into one.
I remember the first time Everleigh made me chase vodka with a pickle, I nearly gagged at the odd combo.
She picked up this trick from a couple who’d just moved back from overseas after she sold them her biggest property.
“What’s going on, Vin?”
Her question cracks me wide open, and suddenly everything I’ve bottled up since talking to Alek pours out.
Jumping to my feet, I move around the room at a clip.
“Do you know Alek actually knows everything about me? How my favorite color changes, my favorite foods, when I sold my first song, the name of it, and even what it was about. Who does that? Who pretends for three damn years that they don’t care about me when that seems like a lie? That little dick weasel, that’s who!”
Everleigh thrusts another glass at me. “Does he really have a little weeny?”
I pause with the glass in front of my face. “That’s what you latch onto?”
“A girl has to have priorities. Dick size is important.”
The sly curve of her smile tells me she was just trying to derail my rant—and damn it, she succeeded.
“He does tend to carry big dick energy.”
Everleigh crinkles her nose. “Does he really, though? Seems more small pee-pee energy to me.”
I giggle, tension gone as I down the vodka and crunch a pickle, and I drop back into the chair. "It does, doesn’t it?"
“So, the man actually gives a shit after fighting so hard to pretend he didn’t,” she states.
I shrug. “That’s what he’s claiming. After three years of showing me the opposite, I find it hard to believe. How do I make peace with the fact that the man I loved actually loved me but refused to let me know it?”
“Do you want to try again?”
“Of course, you ask the troublesome question,” I mutter. “Yes. No. I don’t fucking know. I think so. Maybe.” I groan and flop back, tossing my arm over my eyes. “Why is this so damn hard? It shouldn’t be. It should be the easiest decision ever after the hell he put me through.”
“Relationships are far from easy,” Everleigh says softly. “Love doesn’t make sense. Love is…problematic and never as black and white as we want it to be.”
“I think that if he’s serious and truly wants me, he has to be sincere and prove it. So far, he’s failed at that. Until then…until he makes me feel safe and secure in him…I think the question is moot.”
“Then you have time to decide. Personally, I’d tell him to choke on a poisonous cactus, but that’s just me.”
Even as she jokes, her shoulders are stiff and her voice too sharp. I sense it—the frustration simmering just beneath her words. Right now, she’s got a vendetta against the world, especially men, and honestly, I can’t blame her.
My doorbell rings, and my brows draw together.
Who the hell?
Everleigh glances at me with a lifted brow. “Expecting company?”
I shake my head, grab my phone, and pull up my security camera app. “What’s your brother doing here?”
“No idea,” she replies as she stands up, coming around the chair to follow me to the door.
“Hey,” I say, opening the door for him. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for my bratty ass sister,” he replies with a laugh, his eyes falling to Everleigh.
"Congrats, you found me, ass muncher," Everleigh says.
I shut the door behind him, leading them back into the den.
“I can’t stay long. I need to head home. There’s some shit I need to take care of.”
Something in his voice makes me look at him harder. I remember little things he’s said during his visit to Granite Bay, and now I’m burning with curiosity about what this ‘shit’ really is.
“What shit?” Everleigh asks, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at her brother.
Titan places his palm in the center of her forehead and pushes her head back gently. “As much as I want to dig into you and your biker fucker, I haven’t, because I know you wouldn’t want me to. So, keep your nosey ass out.”
“Fine,” Everleigh pouts, knowing how much of a softie her brother is for her.
“Stop pouting. It won’t work this time. Unless you’re going to tell me what that cunt ass bitch did to hurt you.”
Everleigh loses the playfulness. “No.”
Titan sighs. “Yeah, didn’t think so. I’m here when you’re ready, Squirt.” He turns towards me. “How are you?”
I shrug. “Good. Trying to figure out what to do about that asshole I’m stupidly in love with.”
He sits in one of the empty chairs. “I got some time before I have to leave. Talk to me.”
So, I do. I tell him everything Alek has said and done since the award show, how it all makes me feel, and where my head is at right now.
I’m wiped out after going over it for the second time.
“Look.” He sighs, snatching his hat off his head and flipping it around so the bill faces backwards.
It’s a familiar move that lets me know he’s about to get serious as fuck.
“Love is fucking scary, obviously. You gave him all of you before, and he ran from it, doing his best to keep a distance between you two. Now, he’s the one that’s all in, and you’re running scared. ”
“No, I’m not,” I snap harshly.
Titan gives me a look that tells me I’m so full of shit he’s surprised I can still breathe.
“You are, Hayvin Marie, and you know it. You’re scared, and it’s understandable, but you can’t run forever, Love Bug.
It isn’t the life you want, believe me.” He reaches over and grabs my hands.
“It’s okay to be scared, but don’t let it control you.
You said you think you want to give him a chance to see the man he’s refused to show you over the last three years.
Take it slow. Let him prove it to you. From what I’ve seen and what you’ve told me, from a male’s perspective, Alek loves you.
I don’t know his history or anything, but I can tell you that sometimes men struggle to show their emotions because the world around us doesn’t make it easy.
They expect us to be tough and stoic and act like shit doesn’t affect us. ”
“You were never afraid to show yours,” I point out.
“Because mom made sure I wasn’t. Our dad wasn’t exactly the best person. He considered emotions a weakness, but Mom always said they were our strengths and she never let us hide from them. It doesn’t mean we never did. It just means it was easier for us to accept them.”
“So, you think I should give him another chance?”
Titan tugs on a lock of my hair. “I think you should do what feels right in your heart, Vin. It’s your life. You’re the one who has to live it. We’re all just bystanders.”
I blow out a huge breath. “Thanks.”
He stands and opens his arms for a hug. I step in, holding him tight, not sure when I’ll see him next. Something tells me the next time, he’ll be changed—like there’s someone waiting for him back home he needs to make things right with.
Titan kisses me on the top of my head before stepping away and turning to tell his sister bye.
We follow him out to my porch, both of us lost in our thoughts as we watch him head towards his car.
“Hey, Tan,” I call out.
He turns around and lifts a brow.
“Maybe it’s time for you to stop running, too.”
His eyes widen, and even from here, I can see his jaw clenching. I lift a brow with a smirk, daring him to spew some bullshit.
Titan shakes his head with a small smile. “Yeah,” he says gruffly. “Suppose it is.”
The rest of the day, Everleigh and I do everything we can to distract ourselves from the mess our hearts are in.
But as I climb into bed, my mind can’t help but drift to Alek and then Titan’s words.
I think you should do what feels right in your heart, Vin.
Before I can talk myself out of it, I grab my phone and pull up the message thread between me and Alek.
Two simple words.
Yet, I have a feeling they’re about to change my life.
Prove it.