Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Evie had kept her concerns to herself, vowing to become stronger.
Every day she went to work, she’d get up a little earlier to force herself to make breakfast instead of lazing off with a bowl of cereal.
They were hard habits she had to relearn all over again.
Life had been a nonstop up and down. One minute she was flying ahead in life with good habits that stuck, and then those manic highs crashed her into a concrete wall with a depressive episode.
Maybe, just maybe, she was in one of those doubtful, depressive plunges.
She perked up. “Get it together!” she said merrily to herself.
She jostled her vegetables in the pan before pouring the mixed eggs in.
A fresh bowl of fruit was on the table nearby.
But her nerves peaked. “It’s okay, Evie.
Take it one day at a time. You’ll get used to it.
It’s the life you always wanted. You can’t get afraid now.
” She looked at a picture on the fridge of her and Caleb at the lake together.
She nodded to affirm herself. “Take the trail one step at a time.”
A knock came at her door and Teddy hurried over to it with a meow.
“Coming!” she called as she turned off the burner.
It was Deputy Hunt. Evie tied her robe together a bit more. Not that she was naked, but she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath her pajamas. She opened the door excitedly. “Good morning, Hunt! What can I do for you?”
“I was in the area and thought I’d stop by and ask you if you’ve seen the Sentra out here recently.”
Evie shuddered from the nasty cold that came swooping in. She asked in confusion, “Sentra? What’s a Sentra?”
“A Nissan Sentra?” he asked.
“Come in.”
Evie backed away to let him come in and she offered him coffee, which he declined politely. “Have you noticed the black Nissan Sentra outside your house recently?”
She sighed looking to the left and shrugged her shoulders, then shook her head with her lips tightened. “I literally don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He lifted his head, adjusted his vest, and shifted his weight. “Caleb told me that this specific car was seen numerous times at your house. And he’s sent me videos of this car being parked out front. You haven’t noticed?”
She shook her head nervously. “N-no. No. I haven’t noticed. Caleb doesn’t let me have access to the Ring camera because he’s worried I’ll become anxious or obsessive with it. Maybe he’s right.”
“And no one’s come to your door or anything?”
“No.” Evie looked down. “So, someone is stalking me?”
“More or less, yes. It seemed so.”
Evie grew alert. “Seemed so?”
“Yep,” he said. “Caleb had a concern that it was Breanne, Ashley’s sister.
We tried to review the dashcam footage, but since there was so much there, it automatically deleted the footage.
Yet after Caleb confronted her, he hasn’t seen it appear on the camera since. So, it seems you were being stalked.”
Evie crossed her arms. “I have no idea why Breanne would want to watch my house. That is some serious crazy-ass shit. Do I have reasons to be concerned?”
“Nah, not now. I noticed you deactivated your Facebook though, and it’s still gone. How are you supposed to get local gigs for your work if you’re not on there anymore?”
“I couldn’t take it any longer. And I don’t miss it. I miss seeing Caleb’s posts and stuff. But it doesn’t matter if I get to see him like I do.”
Hunt smiled. “You really love him, don’t you?”
She grinned and nodded in reflection, pulling her hair behind her ear sheepishly. “Yeah, I do.” They stood in silence with each other. Evie slapped her arms at her sides. “Welp, I gotta get ready for work.”
“Yeah, I better get goin’ to. It was nice seein’ ya again!”
They hugged, and Hunt left.
Evie was on her way to work driving southbound on the interstate.
She passed by that little clunky gas station full of wonderful memories, but having to look out the passenger window to see it made her look in her passenger mirror, and she saw a black sedan moving off a bit to the shoulder behind her.
Her heart rate picked up. As she accelerated to the full speed limit, so did the car.
For a moment, she slowed down, and the car made a motion like it was going to pass her erratically.
It veered off into the left lane without using a signal, gunned up right next to her, and slowed down and got behind her again.
Evie turned on her signal and changed lanes, thinking the driver wanted to pass. They mimicked every move.
As panic rose in her throat, she tried to calm down and picked up the phone to dial the highway patrol. But the moment she did, they backed off, slowed down, and signaled they were getting off an exit. She put her phone back down.
It was apparently a stupid driver. Caleb was right. Knowing that someone was following her made her more nervous and anxious. She took a deep breath and calmed down.
Until a loud roaring engine came flying up on her left, scaring her half to death.
That truck was so fast she didn’t even have time to react.
She was going to let it pass her, until it swerved directly into her lane.
She screamed in fear and moved off the shoulder and felt the bumps rumble loudly under her car.
The white truck swerved far off the left shoulder, and the moment she tried to regain her position on the highway, it crossed over into her lane again.
Evie had no choice but to brake, but the truck sped up in front of her without signaling and brake checked her. She tried to calm down. But then, she got pissed. She observed that should she need to, the shoulder would be safe enough to run off onto.
She slowed down and called the highway patrol to report it.
While on speaker, she slammed on her brakes when the truck almost came to a complete stop.
Evie screamed hard as her stomach went into her throat.
She pulled off to the right, but her car skidded due to the gravel.
She couldn’t stop, and she slid, wavering into the shallow ditch.
Luckily, her just car went off the highway. She didn’t wreck at all.
The truck was gone.
It was a white Chevy Silverado. And she breathed hard while the troopers had been dispatched both to help her and lead the chase. While she waited for the troopers, she went to call for Caleb until she realized something.
She was fine.
Completely fine.
Evie pulled her fingers through her hair and sighed in a smile. “I did it. I really did it! I handled that like a fucking boss!”
She clapped her hands. She knew the asshole, lunatic driver would be caught.
Like Caleb said, everything would be okay.
She screamed happily as if she had won the lottery.
No longer did she feel like a frightened victim.
The relief of playing it cool and keeping her composure was all she had ever needed.
The trooper came to help her within five minutes, and she filed the report on both the black car and the truck.
All signs pointed to Alan Moffet being the culprit, but after the suspect was arrested and the plates were run, she received a call saying that it wasn’t who she thought it was. Just a jerk driver.
So much had happened to her in a few short years. At least they felt like they were short years.
It seemed like only yesterday she was picking those flowers on the side of the highway for Pawpaw.
She had even fallen in love with a man she believed would never take a chance on her.
The long drive to the city left Evie with a lot to ruminate on, and for some strange reason, the situation with the maniac driver left her feeling something strong instead of something frightening.
The lovely Dutch windmill on her right and the rumbling of numerous semis made her think of that cherished day all over again, the day he aired up her tire.
It all started with a flyer. The butterfly effect was downright crazy in her life.
A while ago, she was being scolded by her boss for not having enough projects done on time.
And now she had been a hit with the Laysville residents with all of her local work.
Her work at the café with both advertising and menu designing proved to be excellent when Joey’s numbers doubled in a month.
Not to mention the salon had hired her to redesign their sign as well as their menu, and so many people raved about it on the local discussion page.
That was well before she signed off and things had taken an ugly turn.
But now, with the radio playing and the singing full in her lungs, she thought that maybe she would open her Facebook again. It had been well over a week, and perhaps the mental break was worth it.
Her car stereo buzzed, and her display showed that Caleb texted her a video. There was no way she was going to watch it though. She wasn’t that kind of driver. She’d wait until work, but it made the drive all the more annoying with the anticipation.
Evie arrived at work and inched into a parking spot that was barely big enough for her little sedan. She scoffed, “I hate when people can’t park within their own lines.”
She looked at the time and saw she had fifteen minutes to spare. Glee! She picked up her phone and watched Caleb’s video.
He was sitting in a workshop of some sort, and she could see a truck behind him.
He had his acoustic guitar on his lap and a nice can of Diet Coke on the table.
He was so handsome in his hoodie and sweatpants.
He said, “Good mornin’, baby! I know you have a long week ahead of you with your presentations and stuff. ”
Her eyes twinkled.
“I wanted to wish you luck, and in case if you’re stressed or anxious, I thought I’d play you a little song.”
When he strummed a chord to check the tuning, Evie jumped because a loud howling came from off the camera. She laughed hard!