My mom looks startled by his honest words. “I’ll take the boys and we’ll stay at Calvin’s until I get the alarm system fixed.”
“Calvin,” I say, looking past Bodhi to my mom. “What’s our history with Calvin? We obviously have a history with him. Please don’t lie to me and say we don’t.”
“We do,” she confirms. “Let’s discuss that another time?” Before I can respond, she follows with, “Will you join us at Calvin’s tonight, Eva? I don’t want you staying in the house alone.”
“Do I have a choice?” I ask her.
She looks frustrated. “You’re seventeen, Eva. I want you at Calvin’s, but I’m pretty sure you’re capable of making your own choices.”
“She’ll be there,” Bodhi says for me. He looks down at me for a brief second and says, “We’ll both be there.”
“Thank you,” my mom says to Bodhi. “Calvin will have a huge dinner cooking as soon as I tell him we’re staying over. Will you both be joining us for dinner?”
“Yes,” Bodhi responds before I can even say anything. “We’ll be there for dinner too.”
“Good,” she replies. She walks towards me, looking as though she might try to give me a hug, but decides against it and instead points to the stairs. “I’m going to go check on your brothers.”
She starts walking away as Bodhi takes my hand and we head out the door, but suddenly, a thought pops into my head. “Mom?” I question.
“Yeah, Eva?” she says, halfway up the steps now.
“Lenora didn’t know about Calvin at all?”
My mom’s eyes grow large. I can tell I caught her off guard. “No. Not until the month before she passed away, when I told her.”
“Then how did you know?” I ask. “How the hell did you know Calvin was Bodhi’s grandpa?”
She sighs and her hands tighten on the railing of the banister before she stutters, “Someone—someone your dad has worked with—”
“A name, Mom,” I cut her off. “A name would be nice.”
She looks between Bodhi and I before closing her eyes and answering. “Owen Edwards. Owen Edwards told me.” And she quickly disappears up the stairs before I can ask anything else.
chapter seventeen
Bodhi
E va and I leave her house, neither one of us knowing what to do, what to say, or where to go. The guys are waiting for us in the jeep. I forgot they were even out there until I heard the jeep running as we got closer and saw them in the back seat. I shake my head and narrow my eyes at them through the rearview mirror. They understand that now is not the time to start asking questions.
We drive to Coop’s house in complete silence. It’s disturbing to have this much silence while my mind is screaming a million different things at me. I welcome the silence, but at the same time it would be nice to have some noise to block out everything going on in my head right now.
As soon as I pull up to Coop’s, I hop out with him and Beck. “I’ll be right back,” I say to Eva. “Give me a couple minutes, okay?”
She nods her head but doesn’t say anything back.
Beck is the first to speak as soon as we’re out of the view of the jeep. “What in the hell is going on, Bodhi?”
I shake my head and run my fingers through my hair. “No clue. This is all so fucked up. Her dad’s missing and her mom was like, best friends with my mom. She knew all about Eva coming to my house those two years, and she was still friends with her these last three years,” I tell them. “She said Owen Edwards was the one who told her about Calvin being my grandpa, which makes no sense. Someone was definitely in their house earlier today too, searching through her dad’s office for something. Oh!” I exclaim. “And Mrs. Calloway knows shit about my dad. My mom told her shit about my goddamn dad.”
Coop puts his hand on my shoulder. “Everything is fucking crazy, bro. You need a beer or something?”
“No. Getting wasted will not fix any of this. But I do need you to cover for me for one more night.”
“For real, Bodhi?” Coop exclaims, shaking his head.
I give him a frustrated glare. “Eva and her family are staying at Calvin’s tonight,” I tell him. “Her dad’s missing. Someone broke into their house today, and their alarm system isn’t working. I need to be there for her tonight. The last three years have been hell for her … she’s a mess right now. She’s falling apart. You saw her.”
Coop nods his head. “I get it man. I get it. You gotta keep your girl safe. But who’s going to keep you safe when the bad guys come out to play?”
“Bad guys come out to play?” Beck repeats, stifling a laugh.
“You know what the hell I mean!” Coop cries out. “Crazy shit is happening! And the truth is going to come out, and it might not be good. I just don’t want you getting hurt when that happens,” he pushes me in my chest. “Dammit, Bodhi. Haven’t you been through enough already?”
Beck pats Coop on the head. “I think that’s the sincerest thing that’s ever come out of your mouth.”
Coop swats at his hand.
“I appreciate the love, bro,” I say to him. “For real, thank you.”
“Not enough to keep you with us tonight though, and away from the Halifax?” Coop questions.
I shake my head.
“One more night,” Coop declares. “I’ll cover for your ass for one more night. After that, we bring our superhero sleeping bags from when we were ten, and sleep on the floor of whichever bedroom you’re crashing at that night. Understand?”
I laugh at the vision. “Understand.” I turn to go inside the house so I can finally put a shirt on and get out of Beck’s swim trunks.
“And details!” Coop follows in after me. “We want details in the morning with nothing left out! And no magical bullshit either!”
I wave my hand at him and might give him the finger in the process.
A few minutes later, Eva glances up at me as I get back in the jeep with my bookbag. “Everything good?” she asks.
“Yep. Where to?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “Anywhere? Just not my house.”
I start driving. Eva’s pretty quiet, watching the scenery pass as I drive along the beach. I make a quick U-turn, going to the only place I can think of right now. My house. I park in my driveway and walk around to her side, open the door, and reach for her hand. She smiles and takes it, and I lead her exactly where we were a couple hours ago. I climb into the hammock and motion for her to join me. She carefully gets on and her head goes right to my chest.
“Things are pretty crazy right now, aren’t they?” I say to her, running my fingers through her hair.
She nods and says, “Where do I even start? I’m so—pissed off and … just pissed off.”
I laugh a little. “We don’t have to start anywhere. We can just do this. Just you and me, here. Let everyone else deal with all the other shit?”
“No,” she replies. “I mean, that sounds wonderful, but I can’t do that anymore. I can’t pretend everything’s perfect when it’s obviously not.”
I let her words settle for a minute. “What about this?” I question her, pointing between her and I. “Are we okay? Us?”
I can see her smile. She looks up a little and kisses me on the lips. “We’re the only thing that is perfect,” she makes clear. “We’ve always been perfect together.” She puts her head back down on my chest. “Hey, Bodhi?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think Owen Edwards is the missing link?” she questions. “I mean, he knew your grandpa, he knew your dad. He knew your grandpa was your grandpa when no one else did, and he obviously knew something about some sort of letters that freaked Mr. Channing out. What if it’s all connected somehow?”
“Connected …?”
She keeps going. “Connected like he figured something out about your family and made the mistake of telling my dad and Mr. Channing.”
She had a point. “It’s not like we can talk to him though.”
“No,” she agr
ees. “But maybe we can figure out what he knew?”
“How?”
“Calvin?” she answers. “My mom? My dad, whenever he comes back.”
“Where do you think he is?” I ask her. “Your dad?”
She pauses for a moment. “Somewhere trying to figure shit out.”
“And the Channings?” I slowly question. “Do you think Mr. Channing might—"
“I don’t want to think about what Mr. Channing could do to my dad,” she makes clear. “I mean, I’m pissed at him. I’d be fine if I never spoke to him again. I hate what he did to me these last few years, but I would never want anything bad to happen to him …”
“I totally understand,” I say to her. “We won’t think about any of it then and we’ll just stay right here until we’re ready to head to Calvin’s.”
She nods, but turns a little so her mouth is right by my ear. “Confession,” she whispers into it.
She’s never started a confession first, not even once. This must be big.
She lets out a loud sigh. “It kills me that my mom was secretly a part of your life for the three years I wasn’t.”
Her head snuggles deeper into my chest. I lean over her and almost cause us to flip out of the hammock. It steadies, and I look down, kissing her gorgeous face.
“Confession,” I then say to her worried eyes. “You know I never saw her, right? I had no idea she was friends with my mom. Had I of seen her even once, I would have gone straight to your house.”
“I know,” she sighs “And I know you would have. It still hurts though. I don’t think I’m ever going to forgive her for that.”
I agree with her, a little, but not being able to forgive her mom? She needs to. “It sucks,” I tell her. “It definitely sucks. But …”
She raises her eyebrow at me. “But what, Bodhi?”
“But my mom isn’t around anymore. If she was, I’d be pissed at her too. But I can’t tell her I’m mad. I can’t tell her anything, ever again, and that blows.”
Eva sighs and looks away from me.
“Eva …” I drawl her name out. I hate it when she looks away from me disappointed. “Your mom, everything she did was because she thought it was the right choice for you. I think she realizes it ended up being the wrong choice. But are you going to hold that over her head for the rest of your life? Weren’t you just starting to get along? Think about that.”
She turns her head back to mine. “You’re right. I need to figure out a way to forgive her. My mom. To put it all behind me. Right?”
I nod my head. “Forgiving her is better than not being able to do anything.”
A small smirk appears on her face. “I hate that you’re right.”
I laugh at her. “Trust me, this might be a onetime thing.”
She smiles and pulls me down by my shirt so our lips are once again together, exactly how I like them to be. The hammock sways and I grab at it, refusing to move my lips from hers. She laughs under our kiss and gives me a slow push.
“Steady there, Bodhi,” she grins.
I lie back down next to her and she settles onto my chest again. It’s the best feeling in the world to have her lying on me. To have her this close. To have her breathing on my neck. Each breath intoxicates me even more until I’m left feeling almost drunk off of her. I could stay like this forever, not moving from this exact spot for the rest of my entire life.
WE MUST HAVE dozed off. When my eyes open again, the sky isn’t as bright, and Eva’s phone is buzzing wildly in her back pocket. She makes a mad dash to grab it, the hammock dangerously swaying again.
“Dinner,” she groggily says, reading a text. “My mom says dinner is in thirty minutes.”
We make it just in time. Eva’s mom and brothers are out on the patio and Calvin’s inside getting ready to bring out the food.
“Any news on dad?” Eva asks her mom right away.
She nods her head. “A text. Saying he might be gone longer than he thought.” She pours herself some wine from the bottle on the table.
“That’s it?” Eva exclaims. “Did you text him back? Ask him about the boat? Where he is? What he’s doing?”
“I did,” she declares. “All of that. He hasn’t responded yet.”
Eva takes a seat across from her mom. I sit next to her, watching her brothers as they run around with squirt guns. They look a lot like Eva, with the dark hair, but they don’t have her eyes. Their eyes are bright blue, and they have freckles, lots of freckles that aren’t in the same spots. I’m assuming this is how Eva can tell them apart whenever they’re around, because I sure as hell can’t.
“Eva!” Calvin cheerfully smiles, walking out of the house with a massive tray of food, dropping it onto the center of the table. “I made your favorite! Barbecue chicken pizza with extra cilantro. And, of course, we have salad and Rose’s famous garlic bread …”
He trails off when he sees Eva’s confused look. I notice it right away, but I also notice Mrs. Calloway’s anxious one when I glance between the two of them.
“Calvin …” Eva starts, her eyes look curious. “How do you know what my favorite food is?”
He goes to talk, but Mrs. Calloway holds up her hand and stops him. Calvin nods and heads back inside for more food.
“Eva,” Mrs. Calloway sighs after a few moments. She takes a big drink from her wine before continuing. “We lived here before. We lived with Calvin and Rose. Twice actually—”
“What?” she shockingly cries out. “And the secrets just keep on coming,” she mutters. “When? When did we live here?”
“The first time was when you were two,” Mrs. Calloway tells her. “While our house was being built.”
Calvin comes back out now with the rest of the food and starts dishing it out, as if everything is normal. I almost laugh at how normal he’s trying to behave.
Mrs. Calloway continues. “We sold our old house really fast and had nowhere to go while our new house was being built. We were looking at rentals and made a stop to see the progress the builders were making. Rose saw us and introduced herself.”
“Good old Rose,” Calvin smiles. “She was a gem.”
Mrs. Calloway smiles too. “She gave us some cookies and brought us over here for drinks. You followed her all around her yard,” she tells Eva. “We asked her if she knew of any rentals in the area and explained our situation. She told us to come stay with them.”
“Complete strangers?” Eva looks at her mom. “You moved us in with complete strangers?”
“Yes, she did!” Calvin laughs. “I thought she was bat shit crazy. Hell, I thought Rose was bat shit crazy for offering, but once Rose had an idea in her head, there was no stopping her. You and your mom stayed with us for about nine months, and to be honest, it was as if you had been here from day one.”
“Dad?” Eva questions. “Where was Dad during these nine months?”
“Traveling,” Mrs. Calloway answers. “Always away for work. But whenever he was back in Flagler, which wasn’t often, he would stay here too.”
Eva sits back in her chair, looking between her mom and Calvin. “Well, that explains a little. It explains why I’ve always felt like this place was so familiar.”
Mrs. Calloway nods. “Once we moved into our own house, you were around three, you always tried to wander back over here.”
Calvin laughs. “We fished you out of the Halifax a couple times. That last time, I thought you were a goner.”
“Calvin!” Mrs. Calloway exclaims.
“It’s true!” he declares. “Had to beat her on the back to get that water up.”
Eva looks shocked and glances over at me as if asking for help.
“Eva almost drowned?” I ask them both.
“There was an incident,” Mrs. Calloway answers. “We were out at the end of our dock, getting ready to get on our boat,” she says to Eva. “And you saw Rose and Calvin from a distance on their dock. Your father and I were distracted for maybe a second, and you jumped off the edge to
get to Rose and Calvin.”
I about choke on my pizza with what she just said.
“I jumped off our dock?” Eva confirms. “When I was three? Into the Halifax?”
“You sure did,” Calvin answers. “Rose and I saw the whole thing. By the time your dad pulled you out, Rose and I had made it from our dock over to yours. I gave you a couple puffs of air, a couple little pushes on your chest and beat you on your back. You coughed up some pretty murky Halifax water and then you were as good as new.”
“You saved me?” Eva is staring at Calvin. “I drowned? And you saved me?”
He smiles. “Yes, I did.”
Mrs. Calloway is shaking her head at Calvin’s recollection of the event, though she doesn’t disagree with him. “After that day,” she says to Eva, “your dad and Calvin hired someone to build a connection between our two docks. I walked you back and forth a hundred times, all summer long, so you knew how to get over here if you ever got out of our sight again. Which you did, a few times, you were sneaky. I’d run on the dock to find you and you’d already be coming back home holding Rose’s hand and carrying a cookie.”
Eva’s little brothers run by and each grab a slice of pizza, then they’re off again to refill their squirt guns with the hose. Eva’s sitting there silent. I reach out for her hand under the table. I want her to know that she’s not alone. She looks up at me and shakes her head in disbelief.
“This is all so …” she stumbles for her words. “Fucking crazy actually—”
“You said twice,” I say loudly to Mrs. Calloway. “You guys lived here twice? When was the other time?”
Calvin looks up at Mrs. Calloway, and motions with his hand for her to explain.
“When you were almost five,” she says to Eva, a bit more guarded now. “Your dad and I separated for a year. Just a year. We stayed with Calvin and Rose again, while your dad and I worked out a few things.”
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