There’s a moment of stunned silence by all of us.
“Get in your Land Rover right now,” Mrs. Calloway demands to him, pushing him towards it. He stumbles, but she keeps pushing. “And never come near my daughter or Bodhi again. Do you understand me?”
“Audrey!” Mr. Calloway’s face looks stunned.
She puts her hand up to him. “Don’t you even dare.”
Porter looks at everyone staring at him. His cheeks, a bright red handprint appearing on the one, and the other equally red with embarrassment. He turns to Mr. Calloway, who looks down at his feet and shakes his head. Porter says no more and gets in his Land Rover, hightailing it down the street, screeching tires and all.
I can finally breathe, which is becoming extremely painful. Mr. Calloway turns his back to all of us and gets in his Lexus, driving down his driveway as he leaves his wife and daughter standing there. If I could go after him, I absolutely would. His actions don’t seem to faze Mrs. Calloway in the least bit though, as she comes over and examines my face with her trembling hands. Eva is now holding me up with her arms, but I’m becoming dead weight.
“Bodhi,” Mrs. Calloway cries, confusing the hell out of me as her tears run off her face. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry he did this to you. Are you okay?”
I’m bleeding from my forehead, my chest is on fire, and the girl I love is sobbing at my side. “I’ll be okay.”
“Can you get him inside your house?” Mrs. Calloway asks Calvin.
“Yes ma’am,” he replies, putting his arm under my own.
“He might need a hospital,” Mrs. Calloway remarks.
“Nothing a little whiskey won’t fix,” Calvin replies.
“Goddamnit be serious for once, Calvin!” Mrs. Calloway demands. “I’ll take him myself if you don’t!”
“I’ll take care of him, Audrey. Go. Eva needs a mom right now.”
Mrs. Calloway nods and takes Eva’s arm, but Eva won’t let go of me.
“I’m not leaving him!” she cries to her mom. “I’m not leaving him like this!”
I wipe the blood off the side of my cheek with my sleeve and bring my hand up to her face. “Go with your mom.” She shakes her head. “I’ll be okay.” I give her a small kiss on her lips. “I promise. Go talk to your mom. You need to, Eva. You know where to find me. I’ll be right here. I promise.”
She still looks unsure, but gives me a hesitant kiss through her tears and allows her mom to guide her towards their house.
Calvin heaves me up with his arm and helps me walk through his gates. Every step hurts my chest more than the last.
“So, you and Eva Calloway, huh? Like I didn’t see that one coming.”
That’s the last thing I hear, as the pain takes over my entire body and I black out in the arms of the grandpa I never knew existed.
chapter twelve
Eva
M y mom pushes the front door opened and we are immediately met by my dad in the foyer. He’s been pacing. Literally waiting for us to walk in so he could unleash his wrath of fury upon us.
“What have you done?” he points to me. “And you?!” he shouts to my mom. “You’re going to let her ruin her life over some fucking teen romance with that kid?”
I have fully reached my breaking point now. My mom goes to intervene, but I put my hand out to block her. “Fucking teen romance?” I repeat, and then I laugh because I have to or I’m going to start crying again. “Bodhi is not just some kid. I’ve loved Bodhi since I was twelve. Twelve, Dad. And had you not of threatened to rip him away from his mom three years ago, I would have been with him every single day since then!”
My dad is red in the face.
“Brayden?” my mom gasps. She grabs at the wall. “You did what?!”
I turn to her. “You didn’t know?”
It’s obvious from the look on her face she didn’t. She shakes her head. “No,” she mutters. “No, Eva. I didn’t.”
“Of course not,” I reply. She probably doesn’t know anything. “After the accident,” I say to her, “Dad threatened to have Bodhi taken away from his mom. He told me I was to never talk about them or see them again. I spent the last three years not even saying their names, or thinking about them in front of you guys, because I was so scared of what Dad would do.”
“Brayden?” my mom says again. “You wouldn’t! You wouldn’t do that to them! Or to Eva!”
“I had to!” he shouts, spit flying from his mouth as he beats his hand on the foyer table. Picture frames crash to the floor. “Those people. Eva cannot end up with those people—”
“Those people!” my mom cries out. “Were much better at being her family than you will ever be!” she pushes him with her finger. “And you took that away from her! Do you not understand what you did to our daughter?”
“I had to!” he shouts again.
“Why?!” my mom exclaims. “Why, Brayden?! Why did you have to destroy her like that?”
He stares at her, no words leaving his mouth. He looks over at me, waiting to see what I’ll say. I know he’s not going to give her the answer she wants, but I sure as hell can.
“Because of the Channings,” I answer for him.
My mom whips her head in my direction. “The Channings?” She looks back at my dad. “The Channings?”
Dad has a panicked expression on his face now. I’m sure he never thought I would mention any of this, ever.
“I heard your toast,” I tell him. “Your deal that you made using me to ensure your success that night after that mistake with those investors? You honestly think I didn’t know about it before you came into my room and told me I had to continue dating Porter? I broke up with him that day. A month after we started dating. He threw a shoe at my face, and I told you that. You brushed it off like it was nothing.”
My mom starts crying, but I continue.
“I hate Porter Channing. He’s everything I never want in my life. He’s going to end up exactly like his father, and you,” I point to my dad. “I tried to get him out of my life, but you told me I wasn’t allowed to. You traded my happiness, my life, so that you could continue to be Mr. Channing’s puppet with no consequences for your mistakes. Why is being like Henry Channing more important to you, than me?” I bite down on my lip. I refuse to let him see me cry.
My dad, he’s breaking. I can tell. “Eva,” he says my name, putting his head in his hands. “It wasn’t like that. I need to explain everything. Let me explain—”
I don’t care what excuse he’s going to throw at me. I keep going. “Yesterday, before dinner,” I wave my wrists in the air, “Porter held me down in my bed. If Mom hadn’t of knocked on the door, I’m not sure what would have happened. This is the type of guy you’re insisting I stay with. But I’m done now. The Channings are your problem, Dad. And I’m sure as hell not going to stay away from Bodhi anymore. I stayed away from him and Lenora for three years, because of you. Every day, I died a little more, because of you. Do you have any idea what it’s been like to hate waking up every morning?” I ask him.
He stutters and tries to get words out. “I was just trying—”
“No. You don’t,” I interrupt him. “And if for one second, you think there’s something you can say or do to Bodhi, or me, to keep us apart again, just remember, I know way more about your business deals with Henry Channing, than I’m letting on.”
His jaw drops, and he reaches out to grab my hand, but I back away. “Eva,” he says my name, a look of desperation on his face. “Let me explain.”
“Don’t touch me,” I glare at him. “And don’t even bother with your explanations. I’m not listening to you anymore. This twisted game that you’ve been playing with me these last few years, I think we just switched fucking sides.”
He leans up against the wall and slouches down to the ground.
My mom puts herself between the two of us. She reaches behind her and finds my hand, squeezing it. “Eva,” she says, her back to me. “Go pack an overnight bag and sta
y with Bodhi at Calvin’s tonight. I’ll come get you in the morning.”
My dad’s head is up against the wall. He has no color on his face whatsoever. Is it wrong that I enjoy seeing him so broken?
“I’m sorry, Eva,” he says to me. “I’m so sorry. I’ll fix this … I promise. I’m going to fix this.”
I don’t acknowledge him any further. I make my way to the stairs and leave him sitting there, to drown in the realization that his daughter is no longer under his damaging control.
I pull off my clothes the moment I enter my room, only then realizing they’re covered in Bodhi’s blood. I throw them to the ground and slide open my bathroom door. I’m greeted by the full-length mirror on the wall and I freeze at the sight of myself. I don’t recognize the person I see anymore. Standing here, blood all over my arms and legs, naked and so much skinnier than I thought I was. How did I let it get this bad? How did eating and not eating turn into a control game in my mind?
I get in my shower and start scrubbing his blood from my arms, his blood from my hair, and my blood from wounds on my legs I don’t even remember getting. I watch it as it stains the shower a dark pink. I watch it as it swirls in slow motion down the drain and disappears. Bodhi’s blood. My blood. My stomach sways and I throw up, watching as that disappears too, knowing right this moment that as lost as I have been, I have to find my way back now or I never will.
I put on a tank and a hoodie, and throw on a pair of leggings. I grab the bloody clothes from my floor and throw them out my bedroom door. I don’t want them in my room. I don’t want to wear them ever again. I don’t want to see them ever again. I then escape from my balcony.
The sun hasn’t set yet. It’s that perfect time of the early night when the sky is turning pink and orange. The heat from the day has drastically dropped, and you hear the crickets and bullfrogs in the marshy area of the Halifax. I take my dock through the trees, knowing it will bring me out to Calvin’s dock and backyard. And it does, where Calvin is sitting out on his patio by himself with two glasses of lemonade at the table.
“Eva,” he greets. “Your mom said you were on your way over.”
I wasn’t aware that my mom and Calvin had a way of contacting each other, but then again, there are a lot of things I’m not aware of.
“Take a seat,” he invites, pointing to the spot where the second glass of lemonade sits.
I throw myself into the chair. “Is Bodhi okay?”
He nods and rocks back in his seat. “He will be, once the pain pill I gave him kicks in.”
I don’t laugh at his comment. I am not in the mood for jokes.
“I cleaned up his forehead, could use some stitches, but a few firm butterfly band-aids will have to do. Bodhi’s as stubborn as an ass,” he declares. “I think young Porter bruised a rib or two on him though.”
I wince and almost start crying. My stomach starts to sway again. I put my head in my hands and place them down on the table.
“You love my grandson?” he bluntly asks me.
I nod without looking up at him.
“I’ve only known him for a few days,” he makes known. “Bullshit if you ask me. Seventeen years I’ve missed. You’ve obviously known him longer.”
“Since we were twelve,” I tell him, as my stomach settles and I peer up from my hands. “Bodhi said you knew about him though. After you moved back here, you knew about him for the last few years.”
He nods in agreement. “I did. But out of respect for Lenora, I didn’t contact him. I was waiting for him to find out about me, after she passed away.”
That didn’t sound like Lenora to me. Unless she had a reason for not wanting Bodhi to meet his grandpa while she was alive. “And you didn’t know about him at all before then?”
Calvin puts his hands on his head and leans back in his chair. “My wife and I left Flagler in the early seventies to explore the world. We weren’t married yet, got married on a beautiful beach a few years later. It was then we had Bodhi’s dad. When Luke, our son, was old enough to leave home, we came back here. We lost touch with Luke, but I can only assume it was on his own travels he met Lenora.”
I shake my head. “Lenora was a Flagler native. She always told us that. Unless Luke’s travels brought him right here, to Flagler, when you were here …?”
Calvin smirks a little. “Not every story is wrapped up with a perfect little bow, Eva. Some stories have a lot of missing pieces that might never get solved. That part of Luke’s life, I know nothing about.”
I’m so confused. “You didn’t know your son ended up here? In Flagler? At the same time that you were also here, in Flagler?”
“To be quite frank with you Eva, I don’t think my son ended up here,” he makes known. “I think Lenora was here, and Luke might have popped in every now and again, or she went to him. I don’t think Luke ever stuck around in Flagler if he was ever here. Nor do I believe Luke was the type of father Bodhi’s hoping he was.”
I know that would crush Bodhi.
“But you and your wife …?” I wonder out loud. “You both ended up back in Flagler before, or at least right after Bodhi was born, right? When I was little? I remember you. I remember your wife. For years you were here, and then one day you were just gone.”
He nods his head in agreement. “I remember you as well. In fact, I remember more of you than you do of me.”
Creepy, I’m going to admit, but I push it back and keep going. “And all that time, all that time, you never knew you had a grandson less than ten miles from you?”
“I never knew I had a grandson. I never knew Luke had met Lenora. I never knew he had a son living in my hometown.”
“You guys didn’t have a good relationship or something?” I ask, taking a long sip of my lemonade. I can tell that I’ve hit a sensitive subject.
“You can say that.”
We sit there in silence for a few minutes. I finish my lemonade and then I blurt out, “How did you know Owen Edwards?”
Calvin’s cheeks turn red. I’m sure he’s wondering how the hell I figured out they knew each other.
“Owen and I go way back,” is all he will say.
I leave it at that. “Okay. Let me get this all straight. You and Rose come back after your traveling the world adventures, you stay for a while, never knowing that Bodhi lives right on the beach, this is when I remember you being here. Then you leave again when I was like what, five? Six? Why’d you go?”
Calvin doesn’t even look away from me as he rocks in his chair and points across the Halifax. “I’ll give you one guess.”
I glance to where his finger’s pointing. “The Channings? You left because of the Channings?”
“Pretty little bows,” he says again. “Not everything is always as it seems. Lots of missing pieces.”
You’re telling me. “I’m not even going to pretend I understand why the Channings drove you out of Flagler, I believe you, but I don’t understand it. But tell me if I’m wrong here. You leave because of them, and three years ago you come back when Lenora calls you and says she’s sick and that you have a grandson?”
Calvin stops rocking mid rock. He’s looking at me really funny now. Almost like he feels sorry for me. I get uncomfortable and start fidgeting with my empty glass.
“Eva,” he says calmly. “I’m going to tell you two things, both of which I thought you already knew. Once I tell you them, I’m done for the night. I’m sure shit’s not going to make sense to you once you hear what I say, but I’m not going to sit here anymore and discuss this right now. I’m old, and I’m tired, and it’s been one hell of a night. Understand?”
I’m intrigued. I want to keep asking him questions, but he’s made it clear that he’s reached the end of our conversation for tonight. So, I nod my head and agree, and wait to see what he’s going to say.
He holds up one finger. “One, I’ve never spoken to Lenora Bishop in my entire life,” is the first thing he says, and then he holds up his second finger. “And two, three ye
ars ago, it was your mother who called me and told me to come back to Flagler.”
chapter thirteen
Bodhi
M y mouth feels like it’s filled with cotton balls. I remember it feeling this way once, when I woke up after having my wisdom teeth out. That’s only because it was indeed filled with cotton balls. But this morning, I wake up and it’s like someone has drained all the fluid from my body. It takes a minute to remember why this is, but when I move my arm behind me to search for any bottle of water that might be within my reach, my chest burns in protest and I remember why.
Eva. Porter. Yesterday.
My eyes pop open. I’m in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed. Calvin’s house, and someone’s next to me in this bed. This someone, my arm is wrapped protectively around her warm body and my head is buried in her neck. Instantly, I know who it is. Of course I know who it is. Who else would it be? I move slowly as not to disturb the ribs that ache, and see Eva sleeping, her body tangled with mine. Everything feels that much better.
Two thoughts are running through my head right this very second. First, my god, she’s even beautiful when she’s sleeping and I could lie here and stare at her for hours. And second, my first time sleeping with Eva Calloway in my arms and I don’t remember one goddamn minute of it. Son of a bitch. The pain pill Calvin gave me last night to help with my ribs, knocked me out cold and is probably the reason my mouth is salivating for water right now.
My phone suddenly vibrates from somewhere under my pillow. I reach for it and see it’s Coop calling. I also find a lone water bottle I must have stashed there last night. I take a huge swig before answering.
“Hello?” I whisper.
“Hello?!” he shouts on the other end. “Hello? Where the son of a bitch goddamnit to hell are you, Bodhi?”
Shit. “Dude, calm down,” I whisper.
“Calm down?! Are you telling me to calm down? You’ve been missing all night! We’ve called you hundreds of times!”
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