Chapter 10 #3
Evie stopped her. She was getting mad. No, she was getting downright pissed off. “It does matter because if word is going around that he and I are sleeping together, he could fucking lose custody of his kids, dammit!”
Joey blankly stared at her.
“Yeah! You didn’t think about that, did you?” She gathered up her purse. “Nor does anyone around here think about anyone else but themselves.”
“Where are you going?” Joey asked as she turned in her chair to watch Evie leave.
Evie stopped at the door. “I’m sorry, but I have some serious damage control to do. Feel free to look at the examples I gave you for all I care right now.” She shook her head furiously. “I can’t believe you won’t tell me who told you.”
Joey protested, “It’s not gonna make a difference if I did! Why do you even care about that guy anyway if you two were never involved?”
“He’s a human being, Joey! He’s got emotions and hardships just like the rest of us.
And he’s done a lot of nice things for me, more than anyone else here!
Out of all the people who gossiped about this, the only one who doesn’t get to know about the gossip is the one everyone’s gossiping about!
Who the hell are you trying to protect?”
Evie flew out the door and immediately dialed Caleb’s number when she was in the car. “Please pick up. Please pick up.” He wasn’t wrong when he told her that the town never shut up. But this time, it now affected her, and it had gone too far.
It went to voicemail, and she left a message telling him it was urgent. She then texted him, “I know you’re not talking to me now, and I can respect that, but this is important. Whatever I did to make you mad, I’m sorry. But this isn’t about that.”
He wrote back, “I have nothing to say to you.”
She nearly broke her phone slamming it on her steering wheel. “Caleb, please, I need to talk to you.”
Finally, she was relieved when he called.
He answered, “I’ve got about five minutes. What do you need?”
She sighed in relief and rubbed her hair out of her face. But all over her body felt like she nearly dodged a head-on collision. She turned her car on to get the heater going. “Did you tell people you and I were sleeping together?”
He paused on the other line.
She waited, drumming her fingers hotly on her lap.
He stammered, “I…thought you did?” At his job site, he told his workers he was stepping outside for a moment.
Evie composed herself calmly. “I just got done at the Songbird Café, and Joey told me someone told her they saw your truck at my place. Which you were, but I explained to her it was simply because of you helping me through a panic attack and mowing my lawn. But someone told her we had a full-blown stint together. You didn’t tell anyone anything? ”
“Evie, why would I do that? I’d risk losing my kids in a custody battle if I did.”
She threw her hand up. “Right? That’s what I keep telling everyone.”
Caleb groaned hard and wiped his mouth. “So, you didn’t tell anyone?”
At first Evie felt like she wanted to scream at him for not reaching out to her sooner. “Is this why you’ve been ignoring me? Who’s been talking to you?”
He sighed and looked at the traffic going by.
“Sandy at the nail salon in town told Ashley you and I were sleeping together. And Ashley blew a gasket with me over nasty texts and went all Danaerys Season 8 on my lawyer.” His voice shook a bit, which was odd for him.
Caleb was always calm and composed. “You visit the salon frequently, so I assumed it was you. You’re always posting up your deep-seeded shit on Facebook, so I assumed you probably got caught up in the moment and told Sandy.
I had to give my phone to my lawyer and let him comb through it for a whole week, as well as show my Facebook and social activity. ”
Evie panicked. “Did they find anything?”
“No, I deleted your contact and all my sexually charged texts with you, as well as messages and all but two phone calls so it wouldn’t look so suspicious.”
“Oh, thank God.”
Caleb sat down on the porch of his worksite and watched the gardeners try to dig up the cold, hard ground. He felt insanely stupid. “I can’t believe you’re not going off on me right now.”
“Why would I? You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m so sorry the divorce has taken a horrible turn.”
Caleb rubbed his face. “Don’t be so nice to me. I essentially blocked you out without consulting you first.”
“You answered my call. That’s all I care about. The rest of that shit doesn’t matter.”
“Evie?” he said slowly.
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry. I appreciate your calling and telling me the truth. But I really can’t associate with you until after the divorce. This has fucked everything up so badly.”
Tingling came into her hands and her chest felt heavy. But not because of what he said, but because her nerves were just worked up, worried that she had caused a lot of unintentional grief for him when she had fought so hard to do the opposite.
He rubbed his face frantically on the other side. “And if you don’t want to wait for me, I won’t blame you. Ashley’s being difficult, and I don’t know how long this will go on for.”
Evie thought. “I have a question though. Wouldn’t you cutting off all ties with me make it look more suspicious?”
“It’s the advice of my lawyer.”
There was nothing she could do. Evie smiled. “It’s okay. You’re the one in the harder predicament, not me.”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Stop making this harder.”
“I’m not trying to.”
“Evie, you hardly know me. I have no idea why you treat me like some savior that came strolling along and solved all your problems.”
Evie sat straight up. “Listen to me. I’m not doing this because of what you’ve done for me.
I’m being this way because it’s the right thing to do, Caleb!
You’ve seen how calm and neutral I am when Richard Bailey flies off the fucking handle at people for no reason on the discussion page.
You’ve seen me try to settle tension down in fights.
There’s nothing I can do. It’s not because you’ve done something so grand for me, even though you have.
It’s because it’s the right damn thing to do! ”
“You’re insane. You’re being way too nice to someone you hardly know.”
“Yeah, and you told me not to let anyone change that. So, I’m not. That’s a mouthful coming from the guy who was going to pay for my house inspection.”
Caleb tried to bridle the anger in his tone. “You need to stop acting like this and get over me. It’s not gonna work.”
Her emotions balled up. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re not gonna wanna wait for me. This divorce got worse than I ever could imagine. Don’t wait around on me, because you’re only getting older, and you could have any guy you want if you—”
She had heard enough. “Shut up! Let me talk now, Mr. Don’t-Presume-To-Know-Me!
I don’t want another man goddammit. I want you!
” She sat upright and shook all over. “I don’t care if your divorce takes a fucking lifetime.
You’re worth the damn wait. I don’t want anyone else.
I don’t care if you call me childish, stupid, immature, dumb, whatever.
Too many people give up on people these days over dumb reasons, and I have gotten too invested in you to walk away.
I don’t give a shit if I have to wait for my whole life for you! ”
He listened and felt his feelings rise.
She went on, rabid in her heartfelt expressions to him, “I don’t care about your PTSD or what you did in Iraq or wherever it was you were stationed. None of that matters to me, because all I know is the man who saved me in so many different ways!”
Evie began to cry. Through heavy sobs, she held her face.
It had hurt her often how many people told her that she was too emotionally charged, but it was how she was wired.
She sniffled and tried to calm down, swallowing hard.
“If you like me at all, I will wait for you. Take all the time you need, but please, please don’t shut me out. ”
They both went quiet.
He said lowly, “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”
Then Evie laid it all out on the table. It was difficult for her to do, but at this point she felt she had nearly lost him already.
It made no difference to tell the entire truth even if it was an embarrassing one.
She steadied herself first. “I know you only have a minute left, so I’m going to make this quick. ”
“Okay, I’m listening. Go ahead.”
“You wanna hear why I put up with your anger issues? You wanna know why I kept checking on you when you ignored me? You wanna know why I wanted you to kiss me so badly that night? It was because I have never had an actual boyfriend in my life, Caleb. You know that. Every damn man has been an absolute fucking pig to me. You know that. They take everything from me. They sexually objectify me, they’ve stalked me, harassed me, and assaulted me.
I mean, you’ve seen my posts. Don’t act like you don’t know.
“I was never given flowers by a guy until you, save for my dad and pawpaw. I’ve never had a date other than you.
When my daddy and momma died, I had only to look to my oldest brother for guidance.
Then he moved over an hour away and got married.
Then I had my pawpaw, who passed away too!
” Her tears came in irate sobs again. Emotional distress was ravaging in her, and it was becoming more difficult to control.
“All I’ve dreamt of since I was a little girl was to be loved, protected, and held.
Maybe this sounds like a stupid, childish fairytale dream.
But you came into my life and helped me when I had no one else. You made those dreams come true.
“You reached out to me and taught me how to fill my coolant when I posted on Facebook needing help and no one helped me. Every time I was in a bind, you always managed to show up. You helped me with my anxiety issues and those methods still help me to this day. You held me and kissed me like I have dreamt of being kissed forever. You reached out to me and actually took the initiative. And like how you told me that you felt happy around me, well, I feel safe around you. So there, you have it now.”
She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “This is why I’m stupidly, hopelessly devoted to you. I tried not to be. But I can’t help it.”
He let her get it all out, but he refused to react emotionally to it. He was practical in that moment; he was trained to be. “Evie, these are all things a basic friend does. They help each other.”
“Friends don’t kiss friends like that. And once again, it’s okay for you to be a great friend and help me, but I can’t do it for you.”
“Because you keep thinking I’ve got some deep-seeded trauma that stems from my job in the Navy. And it comes with the territory. I still love my job and am proud of it, but I can’t go flapping off my personal struggles to someone I hardly know. Maybe you work like that, but I don’t.”
Boy, what a liar he was. If she were to have been there, she would have seen his eyes flinching.
Deputy Hunt would have been able to detect his lies a mile away.
He went on, “Evie, just because you want a fairytale love doesn’t mean you need to have Stockholm syndrome to do it.
Not every romance needs to have the soft and tender woman who lets the man treat her like shit because she wants to change him in order to be a good romance. ”
She listened. His words were hitting hard. They were calm and stable, everything the town said he wasn’t.
“Stop subjecting yourself to me. Stop trying to fix me. Some people can’t be fixed.
Some people are good the way they are. You said it yourself on a Facebook post that we need to look at people’s hearts and not their actions, and that some people just need to be loved the way they are.
” His voice grew in fixed passion, “That’s what made me so attracted to you.
You just love. If love were to be personified, it would be you.
So please, give me that same courtesy and stop thinking I’m this hopeless person of misery and just accept me the way I am. ”
Evie was at the crossroads of truth and realization.
It was as if at that very moment, Caleb had accidentally taught her self-respect.
His firm hand was everything she loved and admired him for.
The way he was able to take control of every single situation possible was remarkable to her. She conceded.
Her voice was soft like snow flurries on eyelashes. “Thank you, Caleb. I really needed to hear that.”
“Yeah, you kinda did. But for what it’s worth, I really needed to hear what you told me. It’s, um, hard for me to listen to that and believe it.”
She sighed heavily once more. “Well, how would you like me to handle this? I want to go to the salon and scream at Sandy, but I don’t want to make things worse for you. I really want to know who told someone.”
“Yeah, please don’t do that. Although I admire your will to do it. Ask Joshua, your neighbor. Maybe he said something.”
Evie agreed. “I don’t think it’s in his nature, but he was my first suspect.”
Caleb added, “My only thing is he doesn’t get into town much.”
Evie realized. “No, but I’ve seen his wife at the salon before.”
Caleb looked about. His workers were calling for him. Evie heard him acknowledge them briefly before returning to the call. “Ask her then. I’m sorry, Evie. I gotta go.”
“I understand. Thank you for answering.”
He paused. “Give me a few more months maybe.”
She smiled. “You told me it could be anytime because Ashley’s being difficult.”
“I know, but I don’t want to upset you.”
“You didn’t. Like I said, if you want me, I’ll be here waiting.”
Caleb was growing more and more irritated with his life situations.
Now the town was talking, his ex was screaming at him, and he was at risk of losing custody of his kids completely.
If people found out too much about the possibility of infidelity, it could also jeopardize his business.
But Evie was the kindest and most beautiful thing that had happened to him in a long time, and he didn’t want to lose her either.
“Caleb?”
“Yes?”
“Friends?”
He cradled his face in suffering. He had to fight his emotions. “Yes, friends.”