Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
The town knew. Everyone knew. Instead of hiding away and being fearful of what people would say about her, Evie opened her Facebook page back up and saw hundreds of comments, friend requests, messages, and the like.
These were ones that had been leftover that she never looked at prior to deactivating her page.
Stay away from him. He’s a drunk.
Have fun getting beaten.
I fucked him in high school. He’s good, ain’t he? Too bad he’s washed up.
Watch it. He can’t even take care of his own kids.
He’s Navy. He’ll fuck you up big time.
You’re after his money.
Grow up.
Slut.
Whore.
I hope you get shot.
Wait until he rapes you. He’s military. Never fall for a military guy.
I knew him. You should date me instead. I’ll treat you good.
Valentine’s Day was close, and that meant Caleb’s deployment was drawing closer. It was a miracle how she had grown so much with him at her side, but she began to worry how she was going to manage without him. Once again, she would be alone.
There were numerous times she had visited Pawpaw’s grave, and now with her growth at work and other projects going on locally, perhaps she’d be too preoccupied with things to notice. Yeah right. She couldn’t lie to herself. Caleb was leaving soon.
In six weeks.
It would be a long spring without him, and an even longer six months or heaven knew how long.
The cold rain was nasty outside her bedroom window, and there she sat upright with her knees bent and her arms gently wrapped around them.
That week, she had spent a lot of time at the gym and hiking, trying her hardest to get in better shape to be a better woman for him and for herself. And if she was lucky, for his family.
Caleb didn’t post anything at all. She had missed seeing his posts, but he had only posted a few photos of himself with his kids and his horses just once in that time period.
She couldn’t stop the hands of time if she tried. She was going to be forty-one soon.
In her black leggings and baggy sweater, Evie’s face was pale as she looked out at the cloudy and dreary day. Teddy purred next to her, and all around her house had slowly become a better reflection of her. Luckily, the foundation wasn’t bad. But many things were still in need of repair.
She reached for her guitar and tuned it. Then, she sang deeply with profound emotion, closing her eyes to the rain, Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love.”
What a beautiful trip down memory lane. She kept her eyes closed and sang.
The late winter days grew even wetter, and so many things felt unsolved.
She still didn’t know who was in the black sedan or who had actually told Sandy.
But now, it seemed not to matter at all.
Time flew by faster than she could grab hold of, and each day as the weather got warmer, it felt like some sort of impending doom was lingering in her home’s air, the very air she breathed.
She had to keep on top of her tasks. She couldn’t let herself fall behind.
Hunt still never found out whose black sedan it was because it had stopped coming by altogether.
And as she and Caleb casually dated, she should have been satisfied.
But she wasn’t. She still wanted to know if it was Alan, Kelly, Breanne, anyone.
Caleb had another custody hearing in a few days, and he informed her that he wouldn’t be coming over or really talking to her because he needed to prepare for it mentally.
As hard as it was to respect his boundaries, she had no choice but to let it go.
She didn’t understand. He had already had four since the divorce started.
But this time, this was on Ashley’s request. And it worried her that Ashley was going to fight for full custody, and the divorce probably wouldn’t even be settled until he came back from deployment. It was all such an ugly mess.
Poor Caleb.
A Facebook notification popped up, and it was a message from Sandy above all people. She thought Sandy had blocked her. It read, “How much would you charge to design t-shirts for our girls’ basketball team?”
Flowers could have bloomed, and they would weave their illustrious petals within the vines of her heart. She smiled and wrote back, “I won’t charge anything if you tell me who told you that Caleb and I were seeing each other.”
“Would you trust me that soon the actual person will confront you? I feel like the talkin’ in this town has gone far enough.”
Evie believed her. It could’ve been stupid, but she did. “If I don’t get a sign in two weeks’ time I’m coming after you for $300.” She ended it with a laughing emoji.
Sandy loved the message and replied, “It’s a deal.” There was a smiley emoji at the end.
Evie smiled. Perhaps that was one bag of trash taken out. Maybe Sandy wasn’t so bad after all.
That night as she got ready for bed, she texted Caleb, “I hope you have all the luck in the world with your custody hearing. I’ll be rooting for you.”
On the other end, Caleb was staring out the window of his back porch. There wasn’t a drop of alcohol in him at all, only a long hard stare. His phone was in his jeans’ pocket, and it did buzz, but he didn’t notice it.
“Daddy? Dad?"
He suddenly felt a little hand touch his leg.
He jerked and looked down. He saw his little girl Olivia looking up to him.
He sighed deeply and fast before noticing Zack came in with his mom.
Ashley was there inside his house. She brought them over to stay on a random Saturday because Caleb had plans to take them to the football game the next day.
He pulled his head back. “How did you get in here?”
She tilted her head. “They do have keys, you know.”
She pulled Olivia and asked her, “Can you go play in your room with your big brother?”
The little girl nodded.
The two children were scooted off to Zack’s room, and Ashley and Caleb looked at each other in silence.
Caleb firmly asked with his arms crossed, “What do you want?”
“Don’t get all tough with me. Chill.”
“I’m not getting tough with you, Ashley. This is awkward for me as much as it is for you. First, you accuse me of throwing a chair at you, then people in town think I cheated on you, which was never fucking true, and you know it—”
He had more to say, but Ashley quieted him rudely.
“Look, do you want me to be nice or not? I wanted to discuss our separation agreement. I had my lawyer redraft our documents to state that I was okay with you dating Evie. I have them right here. That way, when the judge hears our case, it won’t matter if you’ve been dating her or doing whatever it is you’re doing with her. ”
Caleb glanced at her with hesitation and disbelief before taking the documents and looking them over.
He skimmed through. She wasn’t lying. For some odd reason, Ashley went through the extra trouble to tell him that things could be okay.
He looked up at her from the papers. But it wasn’t just that.
She had ruined his partial custody arrangements, and he wasn’t getting to see his kids as often.
He wanted to yell at her and throw the papers at the wall.
She had destroyed his life. But now…his heart was steady.
He was trying to see the good things with it.
“Wait, are you saying…”
“I know this shit going on for over a year now has done a great deal to you and that innocent girl. I hated her guts at first, but that’s all behind me now.
” She shook her head hard with her eyes closed, her emotions being wrought out.
“I was angry.” Then she dropped the ball, “And I want you to have your custody arrangements back. I want you to have them back during the week. Every week. They miss you terribly. And it’s about them, not us. ”
Caleb felt his whole heart shatter, and tears welled in his eyes. The love of a good father showed strong. It took all of his efforts not to crumble and hug her. His large and empty house would have that warm laughter and sense of family all over again. He stood upright to gain his composure.
Ashley looked down. “I won’t tell anyone if you cry.”
He was happy inside, because the divorce had been going on for longer than two years, and it was the worst time of his life.
To have some sort of peace of mind, even if it meant for her to treat him better, it would have been the biggest blessing of all.
However, he put himself back in military mode, as Ashley could be cunning and sometimes use his emotions against him.
If he cried, she might yell and call him unstable, and everything would be ruined again.
He lifted his dark eyes to her and held the papers up.
“You think this is gonna erase everything?”
Ashley clenched.
He looked around and spoke curtly, “This whole damn town hates me now. People think I’m taking medication for God’s sake! Do you know what that feels like?”
“Well, you’re supposed to be.”
“I don’t have to! It’s anti-depressants! But they don’t do no good if the whole town won’t shut their mouths!”
She lifted her hands. “Keep your voice down. You know Olivia doesn’t like it when you yell.”
He wasn’t actually yelling at all, but he was about to.
His voice was just more serious in tone.
His body crawled with fury, and confusion.
One minute she was trying to legally encourage him to date, therefore settling partial custody rights of his kids, but then pulling these weird gaslighting moves.
This was the exact thing Ashley always did to him.
The blood within his muscles boiled over, spilling all out into his skin.
And then he breathed.
For some reason, the warmth of Evie’s personality came back, the personality rich with love and peace.
Caleb let it go. Even if he didn’t feel like he was in the wrong, he said, “I’m sorry. I’m just upset. Thank you for doing this. This really means a lot to me.”
She crossed her arms rudely. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for her. You don’t deserve good things.”