Chapter 38
Devyn
T hat’s not possible!” I hear the shouts filtering in from the floor level of Hunter’s farmhouse. It sounds like he’s on the phone, but I can only hear half the conversation from my spot under the blankets of his bed.
Something else is going on.
“I’ll get us some muffins,” Ellie says to someone. My guess is Jonathan. “C’mon.” Footsteps canter away, followed by the swinging screen door from the kitchen.
“I don’t care what that random woman has to say about her maternal rights. She didn’t care about Ellie when she was pregnant with her any more than she does now, or she wouldn’t have been born addicted to that fuckin’ stuff that put her and my brother behind bars in the first place. We had to wean a newborn from drugs, Katie. You were there!” He curses, slamming what I presume is his phone onto the marble countertops… ouch . There’s a big pause before Garrison chimes in.
Wait, Garrison’s here? I sit upright in the bed and scooch my ear closer to the door, looking around for a pair of sweatpants.
“I’ll call my uncle if that will help with Ellie’s placement. What we talked about this morning, about my problem…I want what you said, Hunt. To be free of it. I’ll take Jonathan and be on our way until the, uh…” he clears his throat and lets out a long breath, “…the meeting later. And if it’s okay, I’d like to apologize to—”
“My wife,” Hunter’s voice cuts in, sharper than I think he really needs to when Garrison is clearly offering to help with something that has to do with Ellie and her mother, but then again, drunk or not, Garrison did go too far last night. And it sounded like it’s not the only time he’s had those throes. He needs help.
Which is what Hunter promised to give him. He’s going to be his accountability partner for meetings. Someone who can mentor him when he has an urge and needs help. But only after we help him get his house in order.
Lemon and Shana already agreed after I texted them what happened. We are all going to help our old friend get his life on track. In a way, it’s like what my dad did for Hunter all those years ago. Because people deserve second chances.
Hunter’s phone rings again, and he curses.
I pull a Pine Forest Rodeo hoodie and sweatpants set over my body and tug the strings as tight as they will go because they’re Hunter’s, and I look like I got swallowed by a polar bear no matter what I try. Shrugging at my reflection, I slip into some socks and pad down the hallway, stopping when I hear Hunter groan again.
“It’s not about that. Okay, well, if I’d known it was being moved up sooner, maybe I could have it filed, but—”
“Is it the marriage license?” I ask, running down the stairs in a breathless plunder. “Is it? Do we need to file it?”
“It’s too late,” Hunter says sharply, but it’s not really at me. It’s directed into the phone.
Most likely at Katie, and I feel bad for her too. She’s on our side. I didn’t know how to feel that kind of faith in people before moving back home, but I feel it inherently now. Faith in Katie. In Pine Forest. In us.
“We’ll do it. We’ll look like the better option. Tell Katie I’m on board,” I urge him, wrapping my hand around his arm. He looks down and into my eyes, an apologetic shake of his head spearing me in the heart.
But he doesn’t give up that easily. Neither of us has given up yet. Not when everything we had was ripped from within and between. And not now.
“Don’t shut me out, Hunter. Let me help you. Please, tell me the full details.”
He sighs and shakes his head, running his fingers through his hair like he does when he’s thinking, and he seems to agree with me that he did, in fact, say there’d be no more lies or secrets where our relationship and Ellie are concerned.
“Katie, can you fill her in?”
“Right. Your marriage license, a napkin as it is, well, it isn’t valid until it’s filed.”
We all wait. I mean, I kind of get it, but I also don’t.
“If it needs to be filed, then file it, right?”
“Filed, meaning it needs to be turned into the courthouse and signed by a judge. Depending on the appointments and schedules…it could take you weeks to get in with the local justice. Our courts are still overbooked from closings last fall.” She sighs. “I don’t even understand how her mother managed to get pre-trial waived in a matter of days.”
“Shit,” I whisper. “So, Ellie’s mom could get custody of her because we can’t get this legitimized soon enough? Is that all?”
“Um.” Katie clears her throat. “Well, it’s kind of an all or nothing situation, Devyn.” I roll my eyes. She can’t see me, and that’s probably for the better because Hunter raises his brow at me, and I just shrug. Can’t ask me to stop being bitchy and judgy. Give me something.
“I get that, Katie Kat,” I say into the phone, “but I can take care of it by…noon. Can you buy me until then? When did the thing get moved up to?”
“It’s tomorrow at eleven a.m. in Courtroom B of the Juvenile and Domestic Building. I’ll have a little side room booked for prep. Bring the signed document to me there as soon as you can tomorrow. I’ll be there all morning. It’s our best hope.”
She finally stops talking, and I remember she isn’t an Alexa recording. She sounds so robotic, it’s hard to tell.
“Got it,” I say confidently, because I do.
I know exactly who I need to talk to about this, and it seems like there are many other issues from the last decade concerning this very person. And that same person is going to help me fix them.
After a few minutes of toothbrushing and scrambling for cuter clothes, I throw on my cowgirl boots, smiling when I think about what those boots were a part of last night.
I am in love with Hunter Isaac. And soon I’ll be married to him. But first, I need some help from my big brother.