“I don’t know what else I can do to show you I’m in this. Sure, it will take time for us to build a strong relationship, and maybe we went at it backwards, but we’re here. And this is now. We are married. There is nothing that can be done about that.”
“But do you think you could ever really love me like you did?” she asks.
The question takes me by surprise, and I don’t know how to tell her the truth. I love her more now than I did before, but I take too long to answer.
She gets dressed, grabs her stuff, and on her way out she says, “We’ll do what we need to do for the inheritance, and you can do what you want with us then,” she slams the door of the hotel room, shaking the walls from the force.
“Fuck!” I run my fingers through my hair, hating how much she drives me crazy, but loving every damn minute of it. “No, Everly! Everly!” I shout her name as I run out the door. I look left and right, but there is no sign of her. She’s gone. “Damn, damn, damn.” I blink away the frustration and lace my fingers behind my head.
I have no idea where she went. And I have no idea if she has money. How is she going to get home? When I see her again because I will see her, I’m going to tell her that this thing between us is forever. I don’t care how much work it will take because that is what love is, right? Work. We can’t run anymore.
I had plans before all this. Plans that didn’t involve me being married. Plans change, though. I want Everly to be along for the ride. I know a lot of our arguing is emotions built up from over the years finally just spewing out. Even if sometimes they don’t make sense. If someone bottles it up for so long, it’s only a matter of time before things explode, and I have a feeling we are at the tail end of the fury.
Things have erupted between us, broken, fallen, but we are slowly picking ourselves back up and putting it back together. I’m seeing us a puzzle. We just have to get the pieces right in order to fit.
And she and I fit. It is just about finding the right pieces that we thought were lost and putting them in place. I’ll do it forever if I have to.
Chapter 28 Everly
The crowd of black is blinding as much as it is depressing.
When I got back to Spokane, on a commercial plane, they had transported our parents’ bodies, and the funerals were going to be the next day. Well, it’s the next day, and word got around fast because the entire town is here.
Including Liam and Poppy.
I haven’t seen Liam since high school.
“Everly, I’m so sorry to hear about Barbara. She was a good woman. Do you mind me asking what happened?” He lowers his voice as he wraps an arm around his wife Poppy, settling his hand on the round stomach. She is pregnant. Again. If they keep going, they are going to have a soccer team.
I wipe a stray tear from so many emotions and give him a wobbly smile. “They froze to death. She broke her leg, and then they got caught up in a storm.”
Poppy gasps, and her bottom lip starts to wiggle. Her cries are a lot stronger than mine, and it’s my mom that died. “I’m sorry. That’s so terrible. Don’t mind the tears. This pregnancy has been so emotional. I cry at everything. When I see Liam mow the lawn, I cry at all the insects he has killed. Oh god, I’m thinking about it again. Excuse me.” She holds onto her stomach as she runs out of the funeral home.
I giggle.
And giggle.
I giggle until I’m laughing so hard, I’m crying. How the fuck is this my life? How am I burying my mother? Or married to a man that doesn’t actually want me. I’m broke. My name is getting dragged through the mud, and the only career I have in the future seems to be as a receptionist at a tattoo shop.
“Everly, are you okay?’ Liam grabs my arms and tries to meet my eyes. “Okay, hey, you need to slow your breaths. Follow me,” he instructs as he takes a deep breath in and out, in and out.
I nod, watching his chest rise and fall. I match my breaths. It takes a few times, but I finally have it under control. “Thank you.”
“I can’t imagine what you are going through,” he takes my hand. My ring hand. He glances down, and his eyes widen at the large rock.
If he asks, I don’t know what to say. Rowan and I haven’t spoken in two days, and a part of that is because I’ve lost my damn phone. It’s probably in the sex palace we were at the other night. I jerk my hand away and let it fall to my side. “Thank you, Liam. You’re very thoughtful.”
“If you need anything, let me know. I’m here. If you have any troubles sleeping, call me, I’ll send a prescription for it. You look like you need to sleep.”
For days, Liam. For days.
Liam turns around and walks away, leaving me to shake hands with a few other people after they have delivered casseroles. So many casseroles. I had no idea so many existed. There is tuna, obviously, along with broccoli, macaroni, green-bean, mashed potato, French-fry—I’m not looking forward to that—and sweet potato casserole. There is enough food here to feed an army.
It’s a good thing I won’t be here to eat it. I have to head to the airport and catch a flight back to New
