Chapter 27
Chapter twenty-seven
Everett
It’s late in the morning when my phone buzzes once, then twice, then begins an insistent, rhythmic pattern of vibration in the pocket of my jeans.
I swipe the back of my hand across my brow, no doubt leaving a streak of dust and dirt in its wake, before pulling my phone out with one hand and grabbing my water bottle with the other.
Ruth’s face lights up the screen, and I answer the call as I pour water from the bottle into my mouth. It’s warm, and I cringe as I swallow it down.
Ruth never calls at this time. She’s almost always busy, usually working, and she knows I’m usually working at this time, too. The only reason I can think of that she’d be calling me at eleven in the morning is because something is wrong.
I’m close enough to The Village to be connected to the Wi-Fi in one of the cabins, and when the video call finally connects, my worst fears are confirmed.
“Baby girl, what happened?” My tongue is thick in my mouth, my throat desert-dry in spite of the water.
I hurriedly pack up my tools one-handed and sling the tool bag over my shoulder.
I haven’t managed to get the irrigation system working properly, but it’s in better shape than it was.
I’ll give Brooks a call later and ask him to take a closer look—he’s better than I am with those systems, anyway.
He can take care of that whilst I work on preparing the land for this new glamping venture.
I glance back over my shoulder as I hurry away, checking the gates and fences are secure.
All I can hear from the other end of the call is quiet sobs.
“He—they—” Ruth tries to speak, but cries harder. I weave my way between cabins, trying to stay connected to a Wi-Fi connection—any connection—so the call doesn’t drop out.
“Who, honey? Who is it? Is everyone okay? Who did this?”
Her image on the screen judders for a moment, pixellating and distorting as the Wi-Fi connection drops.
“Come on, come on, stay with me.” I take a shortcut in the direction of my own cabin, leaping over a narrow stream, dodging some prickly wild fauna, and hopping a low fence that once demarcated the boundary between two larger cottages that used to sit on this plot.
By the time my cabin is in sight, my screen is flashing with the words unstable connection.
I quicken my pace, flinging open the door and praying for a fast hook up to my own Wi-Fi connection before the call drops entirely.
It doesn’t happen.
I call back immediately.
“Ruth, honey, what’s going on?”
“They… my brother. And my best friend.” She all but spits the words, anger cutting through her tears. “Behind my fucking back.”
“Oh, honey.”
I don’t know how to comfort her, and I hate that.
If she were here, I’d sweep her into my arms and kiss away her tears, hold her until the sobs subside.
But she’s hysterical and thousands of miles away.
I drop my tool kit in the mud room, dump the warm water from my bottle, and grab a fresh one from the fridge before heading for my bedroom.
I need to get out of these dusty clothes.
I prop my phone on a shelf in my closet as I strip, methodically swapping out grimy, worked-in clothing for fresh, clean items.
“I’ve got you, baby girl,” I whisper. I wish I could hold her right now.
My beautiful angel is sobbing on the floor of her apartment, eyes swollen from crying.
She dropped her phone a little while ago, a dull thunk echoing through the speakers, and all I’ve been able to see for the last five minutes is her knee, in the corner, and her ceiling light.
A little of her hair dances into the shot as she moves her head every once in a while.
“He just—I—”
“I know, Ruth, I know. Just take a breath for me, honey.”
“They fucking lied to me, Ev.” She picks up the phone and my heart breaks at the sight of her—drowning in a sweater she must have stolen from my dresser, no makeup, face red and blotchy from tears. “They lied to me.”
“You don’t deserve that.”
“How can I trust them again?”
“You will, baby girl. You’ll figure this out. I know you will.”
“I told Katy everything. Everything, Ev. I told her everything, for the last fifteen fucking years of my life, and she fucking did the one thing I asked her not to do. With the one fucking person I asked her not to do it with.”
“It’s pretty shitty of her,” I agree. The lying is shitty, but is a relationship really so bad? I can’t agree with Ruth on that. How can I begrudge anyone feeling the way I feel, like I’m flying, when Ruth is with me? “But maybe she was right, too, honey. Maybe she’s in love with him.”
What she says next almost has me on my knees. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt my heart break so hard.
“I’m just so scared I might lose him.” It comes out in a whisper, followed by a fresh flood of tears, and I pat my pocket for my wallet.
I have a credit card in there, one I’ve never used.
And fuck, it’s so tempting to hand it over right now and buy myself a ticket to London.
Because one more second of seeing Ruth so fucking broken is going to break me too.
“You won’t lose him, baby girl,” I soothe. “You’ll never lose him. He’s your brother, and he loves you.”
“My brother, who lied to me. Who’s had his heart broken before. Who almost got blown up and fucking killed. I can’t do that again, Ev. I can’t do it again.”
Her sobs are breaking my fucking heart. I hold my phone with one hand and drag my duffel bag from my closet with the other, tossing handfuls of underwear, socks and shirts into it.
In goes a pair of jeans and two flannel shirts.
A pair of sweatpants. Two pairs of pyjama pants.
Is it cold enough in London for a sweater?
“And you won’t have to, honey. He’s home. He’s safe. He’s loved and he’s happy—isn’t that what you wanted for him all along?”
“It just feels like everything is falling apart. Everything is slipping out of my control, and…”
I feel helpless. Her cries are breaking me in two.
All I want to do is hold her, but she’s five thousand fucking miles away, and it’s getting really fucking hard to love her over the phone.
I want to love her in person. For real. For my whole damn life.
I blink slow, holding my eyes closed for just a second longer than normal.
“Honey… maybe you don’t have to control everything. Let others worry about themselves for a little while.”
“I just…”
“I know, honey. I know.”
“I miss you so much. And now this, and Mum and Dad want to sell the shops, did I tell you that? And you’re in Texas doing whatever it is you’re doing without me, and Bethany is circling like a fucking vulture, and…”
If hearts could shatter, mine would be in thousands of shards, glittering under the spotlights of my closet right now.
I don’t know how to make Ruth understand that Bethany isn’t a threat.
That she’s barely even a blip on my radar.
That the only woman I ever want for the rest of my life is her.
But before I can say a word, she presses on.
“What are you doing?” She sniffles, squinting at me through the screen. She uses the back of her hand to rub at her puffy eyes.
“Right now? Packing,” I say smoothly. “I can’t watch you cry over FaceTime, Ruth. I’m catching the first flight out of here.”
“Don’t,” she says hurriedly. “Don’t do that. You have the ranch, and all the work for the campsite… you’re breaking ground this week, right? Ev, you need to be there.”
“Ruth…” I sigh. She’s not wrong. We are breaking ground, and I do need to be here.
But I need to be with her more. The more time that passes, the more we talk on the phone for longer each night, the more I just sit and listen to her breathe, the more I whisper filthy words and watch her come undone through the screen, the more I fall for her.
The more I need her. The more I can’t quite get my brain or my body to cooperate, to function fully without her.
Quite frankly, I’ve fallen head over my fucking boots for Ruth Bevan, and there’s not a damn thing in the world that can stop me from loving her until my very last breath.
“Ev. I’ll be okay.” She sniffs, and I see a pair of fresh tears tracking their way down her cheeks. I don’t believe her for a second. “Really.”
“I’ll be there, Ruth. If you need me, there’s nowhere else I’ll be.”
“I always need you,” she whispers quietly. I’m torn between my heart breaking and exploding with joy. “But you need to stay. I promise I’ll see you soon.”
“You’d better, baby girl,” I laugh. “I miss you like crazy, honey.”
“I miss you. So fucking much, Ev. I never thought I’d miss you like this, but—God, it feels like an elephant on my chest all the time, and it only leaves when I’m with you.”
“I know,” I whisper. With a quiet sigh, I stack my folded jeans back on the middle shelf in my closet. “I feel it too.”