Chapter 12 #2
He rubbed her thigh, looking down at it as if it was difficult to look her in the face.
Her skin was dry with smudges of makeup and patchy foundation, and her eyes looked bruised and dull.
Her thigh was so much thinner, and the reality of it was hard to accept.
She had lost almost forty-five pounds in those three months, now weighing 170.
He kept brushing her thigh as he spoke, “Sarah saw the paramedics at your place and called me immediately. She knew you and I were friends and thought I should know. I’m glad she did. ”
“Why do you look so sad?”
The room was quiet and calm save for the random beeping of her monitor and the nurses talking outside. “I um, I don’t know. I guess I just can’t help but feel bad for what I did to you. You never would have done that to me.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. But that’s not the point. You came, and you didn’t have to. I’ve missed you so much.”
Caleb’s hand was dry and cracked from outside work and dusted with a few paint splotches. His palm was rough and raw, most likely from handling some of the horses, so she presumed.
Evie added, “I’m not innocent either. I went to talk to Joshua and Sarah to see if I could see if they were the ones who talked, but they weren’t.
” She thought about the cause of the divorce but kept it a secret.
She didn’t want him to be mad at Joshua.
But it caused her a great deal of sorrow for him.
Caleb was so misunderstood that it made her want to rip her hair out.
He looked at her. She sighed, going on, “And so after seeing who Sandy’s Facebook friends were, I even checked my own family members and coworkers and boss.
I had no idea who would’ve told her. So, I confronted her and tried to clear the air that you and I weren’t together, and that I was seeing someone. ”
He lit up worriedly and asked, “You’re seeing someone? I thought you told me you’d wait for me?”
She softly giggled, “No, I’m not. It was a lie to try to deflect them, you know? But Sandy…” She grew dark in consternation. “She told me that the person who told her saw us kissing and you pinning me to my car at O’Malley’s and even kissing in your truck.”
“And you have no idea who it was? Sandy didn’t tell you?” He wasn’t the least bit angry at her for trying to right a wrong. She had good intentions.
“No. She called me a slew of horrible things and then blocked me.” She looked to Caleb. “Is there anyone you may know?”
He thought. “The only person I could possibly think of is if Ashley had Sandy spy on me to try to gain full custody of our kids.” He shrugged and laughed sarcastically, feeling a bit crazy by the idea of it all.
His thick, Midwest accent came out full throttle with that darling twang she adored.
“As goofy as it sounds, that’s literally the only thing I can think of.
And Sandy is making it up that she heard it from someone. ”
Evie was released, and Caleb walked her out to his truck and opened the door for her. “Can you get in alright, Miss Morgan?”
She smiled at him. The frigid evening breeze blew through her hair and swept it across her face. He gazed into her eyes, realizing it was a very similar look to when he aired up her tires. That was long ago, before the drama. Before people talked. Before things were hard.
“You sure you should give me a ride home? Won’t that look suspicious?”
“Fuck what people think. Get in. I trust my lawyer will handle it. Someone’s obviously following me anyway. May as well treat you good.”
He helped her inside and was taken aback by how thin she had gotten in such a short time.
Not that her weight was unhealthily low at all, but so much in such a short time didn’t look healthy either.
She had lost some muscle mass, and her eyes looked a bit sunken in.
But had been dehydrated. Maybe it was that.
On the ride home, Evie looked out the window to the wild grasses trying to sprout up through the melted snow.
They bled along the interstate into the twilight air that dazzled against the icy plains.
The window was a bit cracked, and her eyes were softly narrowed looking out.
She pulled a stray chunk of blowing hair behind her ear.
Caleb looked at her. He too glanced out and saw the darker skies on his side were already filled with stars that danced like little children at play.
The crescent moon was sharp, jagged, and smiling down upon the starry children. It was about a thirty-minute ride home, and so they had plenty of time to talk together or be quiet. Caleb looked nervously at her again and saw she wasn’t well.
And by not well, she wasn’t looking at him and was quiet. Evie was always smiling, chipper, spunky, lovable. But now she was withdrawn, defeated, and tired.
“Don’t let it get to ya,” he offered. “Remember what I said? Don’t let anyone change that?”
“Do you have horses?” she asked with her eyes still lost in the vast openness of the outside world.
He smiled. “I do. Why do ya ask?”
“I’ve always loved horses.”
“Evie, are you changing the topic on me? I already knew that about you. I know how much you loved the music from Spirit. How you watched Sea Biscuit and Secretariat a hundred times in the theater. How The Black Stallion was where you found your love for them.”
She smiled out the window, leaning her head against it. “I wrote that once a long time ago. That’s sweet you remembered.”
“Why do you ask about horses?”
“Well, if this ever comes to a head and we’re still friends, I would love to ride now that I’m small enough to.”
He shot a look at her. “What? You’ve never ridden before?”
“Not since I was a little girl, like four years old. My daddy promised me a horse when we moved to the country finally, but then we never could afford one, and by then I had gone out to Los Angeles. When I came back, daddy died, and my momma sold the house.”
He hated to ask but had to. “How did your dad pass away?”
She paused and looked out again. “Colon cancer. It came quick, and by the time he was diagnosed, I moved back and only got two months with him.”
“Fuck,” he groaned deeply as he looked out his window. “Evie, I’m sorry. What about your momma? How did she die?”
“She was killed by a drunk driver.”
He thought about Alan Moffet. “I bet that’s why you hate Alan so badly.”
“Yeah, I do.” Even turned and looked to him.
The moon-kissed sky bathed his handsome face.
He was stubbly a bit all over again. He looked at her eyes then back at the road again.
Then back to her, and back to the road. Then as the nerves built up within, he looked out the window.
He knew that face. He could sense the purpose of those sweet eyes.
He sighed. “Ashley and I met in middle school. We shared a class together, and I thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
Of course, being in seventh grade doesn’t really amount to much with all I’d seen.
But she had this charm about her I couldn’t resist. Our dads knew each other through a football gang and so we saw each other a lot. ”
Evie had her hands folded on her lap and listened respectfully.
She was finally getting to hear about him.
Even better, he was opening up without her even asking a single question.
He shook his head. “We dated, and I finally proposed to her after high school. She knew of my military goals and supported them a lot, which was another reason why I loved her so much. But I guess deployment changes people.”
“Did you go to Iraq?”
He hesitated, gripping the wheel harder. He wiped his face before resting that hand on his hip.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, it’s… I haven’t told anyone. Not even my own dad or Ashley. So, it’s really hard. I’m not sure if a car ride is appropriate for it.”
She smiled. “Then don’t tell me. It’s okay.”
He thought and then slowly responded, “Yes. I did go to Iraq, but I’ll stop there.”
The winter fog came in washes on that dark highway.
Regardless of the dark highway and the risk of wildlife crossing and the fog, he maintained a healthy speed and didn’t show an ounce of stress or fear.
Evie laid her head upon the window and closed her eyes.
She adored the rumble of the massive engine below her.
She soaked in the scent of his cologne and the smell of the leather seats.
What a magical night.
“Thank you,” she solemnly said.
“For what?”
“For everything.”
He glanced over to her and saw how peaceful she was, tranquil, at all the perfect moments of the event.
He observed her narrowed left shoulder that was drowning in that baggy old sweater she wore last time he saw her.
Her light-brown hair hung down to her elbow and was in desperate need of a trim again.
Had he broken her?
He wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Apparently, he destroyed every beautiful thing he touched. “Evie, I’m really sorry about all of this. I’m so sorry that I brought you into my life. Maybe I should’ve just,” he shook his head in anger, “stayed out of your life.”
“I’d rather die today than live a millennium without knowing you.”
What a punch to the stomach that gave him. Caleb reminisced about everything in his life. There was no way a woman like her could love a man like him. “Baby, I still don’t understand what you see in me.”
With her head still turned and slumped into the window, she mumbled, “Then someone has torn you down so much that you can’t see the forest for the trees anymore. And remember what you said? Can’t we let people be?”
“No,” he said a little more heated but still smiling. “There’s a vast difference between someone like you, who loves unconditionally and is always happy and loving, and someone like me who has anger issues and throws things.”