by Deb Rotuno
His brow furrowed, but he looked to Tyler. “There’s…There are some of Mom’s things in the attic—clothes and her jewelry. Those are for Faith. Remember? We saved them when we cleaned out their bedroom?”
“Oh, yeah. Okay, we’ll get that stuff down.”
Evan grimaced. “I…We…We need to take the photo albums. I doubt he’ll give a shit, since he’s hardly in them.” That came out a little bitter, and when he realized it, he grimaced. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, baby,” I whispered against his cheek.
“Damn, son…You’ve earned the right to be pissed off,” my dad piped up, which made all of us chuckle at Evan’s sweet, crooked grin.
My handsome thing cleared his throat, looking around the table, but focused on Faith. “Faith…” He trailed off, smiling warmly her way when he saw her shifting nervously with watery eyes. “You tell us what you want. We’ll…I mean, whatever you want to do.” I watched Evan struggle with what he was about to say next, but he took a deep breath. “I know you wanted to graduate from the same school as Ty and me…and Mom, but…you can’t. I wish…” He sighed wearily. “We aren’t leaving you here.”
Faith, who had been a pretty strong thing throughout the whole damned ordeal, finally allowed tears to spill, and Evan gently let go of my hand. He and Tyler got up from the table. Tyler pulled her chair out, and to watch the two very tall men kneel in front of her was almost overwhelming with the emotions that were spilling from all three of them.
They looked at her like she hung the damn moon, and I imagined that in their world, she did. More than once, Evan had said that his sister was the one person who was innocent of the whole thing. She hadn’t been involved in the wreck. She’d been their rock after the accident, taking care of them as best as a ten-year-old could.
“Tell us what you want, midget,” Tyler soothed her. “We’ll break our necks to get it done.”
Faith crumbled, nodding as she swiped at her tears. “I know…I love you both…so fucking much.”
Evan smiled, pulling her head down so he could kiss her forehead before making sure she was looking him in the eye. “And we love you, Faith, but it’s your choice. You can finish out school in Missoula and stay with Ty, or you can come with me, but we’ll have to figure out where you’ll stay…”
“She’s more than welcome to stay with us,” my mother said gently, her voice thick with emotions—she and my aunt were teary messes, “if that’s what you guys choose to do…at least until you figure out something different or Faith goes to the dorms next year.”
When Evan looked to her and then my dad, who was nodding, he went back to his sister. “There’s one option, Faith.”
She wrinkled her nose as she thought it over, glancing around the dining room as she gripped Evan’s shirt sleeve. “I…I’m already accepted to Edgewater, big brother. I…I might as well…I want to go with you.”
Evan smiled sadly yet so warmly it was breathtaking. “I figured, but I just wanted to double check. It makes more sense with you starting school with me in the fall.”
She quickly turned to Tyler. “But…but…Will you guys still come this summer?”
Tyler grinned, cupping her small chin in his large hand. “You just try to stop me.”
Faith glanced up at Jasmine, who smiled warmly. “A whole summer in Florida? I’m in!” she teased, but I could see it was her way of lightening things up a bit.
“Okay, so we need to pack everything up for Faith and Evan, and we need to sort out the stuff to take pictures of for Robert,” Tyler said, dropping a kiss to the top of Faith’s head as he stood up. “Sean said he’d help, so I wonder if he’d be willing to ship things down to Florida for us. If not, I suppose I could do it.”
“You’re gonna need some boxes,” Wes pointed out. “Where around here could I find some? I’ll go.”
Evan stood up from in front of his sister. “Um, the market and maybe the diner. And there’s a sporting goods store on the edge of town.”
“On it,” my cousin stated, catching the keys for the rental car from Aunt Tessa. “Oh, and here’s your new phone, Ev. They were able to move everything over, despite the condition your old phone was in. Number’s written on the box.”
Evan’s eyebrows shot up, and before he could thank my cousin, Wes had left the house.
I stood up from the table, walking to Evan. “Put us to work, Evan. That’s what we’re here for, okay?”
Evan nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “We’ll start with the library and then move on to Faith’s and my rooms.”
Tyler clapped his brother on the back. “You heard the man…Let’s get to work. And maybe we can be rid of this place once and for all.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Evan
“EVAN?” Aunt Tessa called from the hallway.
“In here,” I grunted, dropping the last full box from my bed to the floor and gazing around my bedroom for anything else I might want.
Those of us heading back to Florida were catching a very early flight, so we were staying tomorrow night in a hotel in Missoula. They’d asked my siblings and me if we wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve there, but we’d all declined. Tyler and Jasmine had to get back to school, and Faith and I…Well, we just wanted out of Montana.
Every item we’d wanted, we’d taken pictures of, which we sent to Robert. Personal items—like clothes, music, and our own books—were packed up without question. It was the items in my mother’s office and the box in the attic we were waiting for the okay to take. We’d boxed them up, just in case he said yes. However, I honestly expected my father to say no just to be an ass.
I brushed off my hands and smiled when Aunt Tessa leaned in the doorway.
“How’s it goin’ in here, sweet pea?” she asked, glancing around.
“I’m done in here. I’d already taken most of the clothes I needed when I moved into the dorms, so…” I trailed off, shrugging a shoulder. “Really, I just wanted my old journals, some of my books, and a few framed pictures.” I pointed to the two boxes at the foot of my bed.
“Then we’re almost packed up. Sean’s getting us a mover to ship the boxes to our house. They’ll be here in the morning,” she said, pausing for a second. “Well, once we get the all-clear from Robert, that is.”
I snorted humorlessly. “Bet you five bucks he says no. And don’t be shocked when he says to leave Faith’s car behind.”
Aunt Tessa’s nose wrinkled, but she nodded in agreement, or at the very least, she suspected just about the same result. She pushed off the doorway and walked to me, cupping my face.
“Evan, I want you to do me a favor when we get home,” she said softly yet decisively, tilting her head a little. When I nodded, she smiled softly. “I think…and just hear me out, buddy…I think you need someone you can talk to—your sister too. Someone who can listen to what you’ve been through. I have a very good therapist friend, and I can ask if she can see you. Both of you.”
Frowning, I let my gaze drop to the floor, and I felt my face heat up. “You…Y-You…” I was going to ask her if she thought I was crazy, but then I remembered my fear of water, my sometimes-irritating level of OCD, and my fear of loved ones driving in poor weather. But I didn’t voice it.
“Kiddo,” she whispered, lifting my gaze back to hers with her fingers beneath my chin. “I’m going to tell you what I told Wes when I sent him to my friend a few years back after his dad left. Talking things out with someone does not make you crazy. It doesn’t make you wrong or off somehow or even weak. It simply gives you a chance to get some ugly things off your chest that you may or may not feel comfortable telling a friend…or girlfriend.”
My head snapped back up to see her face to see if she wasn’t making fun of me.
“Ev, I know you love my niece. And oh my goodness, does she love you to pieces,” she said through a soft, loving laugh, “but I also think maybe you might want to work out some things you may not want her to hea
r. Fears and anger and disappointment can be debilitating, not to mention grief, Evan.” She brought my head down in order to kiss my cheek. “Just think about it. Okay?”
I nodded, and she started to leave the room. “Aunt Tessa?” I called softly, and when she turned to me again, I asked one question. “D-Did it…Did it…help? Wes, I mean.”
She smiled softly and then nodded. “Oh yeah…most definitely. He went from a kid getting into fist fights on a daily basis, smoking weed, and skipping school, to the man you know now, the one who runs my café and the one who bought tickets for Montana before you’d even gotten on the plane in Florida, Evan. I’d say it damn well helped.”
I opened my mouth but then snapped it shut, which made her chuckle.
“You don’t have to answer me now, son. There’s too much shit goin’ on. But when you are ready, you come to me. I’ll make sure it happens,” she stated, reaching down to take one of the boxes downstairs to the living room.
Picking up the other box, I followed her down to see my brother pacing on his cell phone. His face was fierce and pissed off as he glanced my way and then to Faith, who had seemed a bit lost in all of this since the night before at the table.
“He’s such a fucking prick,” Tyler sighed, rubbing his face roughly, but he looked to me. “Baby bro, you get around okay at school without a car?”
“Let me guess,” I muttered sarcastically, dropping the box I was carrying to the pile that was growing in the foyer and then folding my arms across my chest. “He’s demanding Faith’s car.”
Tyler snorted but nodded. “Right in one, bud.”
“Yeah, I get around fine,” I answered him honestly. “The campus is small, but there are buses that cover just about everywhere. However, I’ve been saving up. I mean…I was saving, but coming here depleted that a little. Faith and I will figure it out.”
“Fine, he can keep the fucking car,” Tyler conceded into the phone, wincing when Faith stalked back upstairs. “But he’d better give us Mom’s things…”
Dani stepped out of the kitchen, her eyes sad. I looked for pity and found none, just love and maybe a bit of anger.
She walked to me and stood up on her toes to kiss my lips. “This may be a bit of a shock for her, baby,” she whispered, her nose wrinkling. “I mean, you and your brother have had a chance to move out, settle into college, and the two of you have lives and friends elsewhere. She’s losing everything, and she’s got two—now one day—to get out of the only home she’s ever known, never mind she’s got to finish school somewhere she won’t know anyone.”
“I know. And I hate it all for her.” I sighed deeply before giving her a soft kiss. “I’ll go check on her.”
I trudged up the stairs to my sister’s bedroom doorway, leaning against the frame as she threw clothes out of her closet.
“Faith,” I called her, ducking when hangers were launched toward my head. “Rylee Faith!”
Her fierce, angry face popped out of the closet. “What?”
“Stop throwing shit at me and sit down,” I requested, pointing to her bed. “Please?”
She did as I asked, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the mattress. I sat directly in front of her, mimicking her posture.
“I hate him,” she whispered, trailing her finger along the seams of the mattress that had been stripped bare. “I hate him so much.” She gazed up at me. “I…I used to dream of killing him in his sleep for the things he’d say and do to us. I used to fantasize about seeing his Mercedes sink to the bottom of that fucking lake.”
Nodding, I gave her a weak smile. “Me too. I wrote stories about it.”
“No shit?” She giggled at my nod.
“Oh yeah, I wrote a whole revenge, bloody massacre thing. I wrote a shark attack, but that wasn’t satisfying enough. And I didn’t use his name of course, but…” I shrugged, letting out a humorless laugh. “Funny, though…it didn’t make me feel any better.”
Her eyes stayed downcast to the trail her fingers were still making on the bed. “I thought I’d…I thought I’d feel different, knowing I was getting out of here…”
Frowning, I lifted her chin to make her meet my gaze. “Faith, I know it’s scary, and I know it’s sudden. I also know that getting out of this house and away from him was the very best decision I’ve ever made. And I owe you a thank-you for making me go, for not letting me give in to Dad’s bullshit.” I tapped her chin with my fingers. “Please trust me when I tell you that the car is one less tether to him. You don’t need it. Glenhaven is small enough to walk or bus somewhere—kinda like Key Lake, only without the assholes.”
I grinned when she laughed a little. “You won’t be alone in this. I promise. I think…Faith, I think you’ll really like it. You…you’re normal. You’ll love the beach and the warm weather and the water. Hell, maybe Dani can take you. I sure as shit can’t go with her, but…”
Faith gaze softened from the angry expression she’d been wearing. “Still?”
“You expect that to change?” I countered with a harsh laugh, sighing as I raked a hand through my hair and adjusted my glasses. “My scars are one thing, but I can’t take my girlfriend to the beach she’s grown up loving…”
“The girlfriend is perfectly okay with that,” Dani said from the doorway, and I grinned her way while Faith laughed softly. “You’re saving me from skin cancer or something, Evan. I’m sure of it.” She stepped into the room, dropping a heavy kiss to the side of my head. “Tyler told me to tell the two of you that…you’re clear to take your mother’s things.”
Faith gasped, gaping up at her, but I knew my girl, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “What aren’t you saying, pretty girl?”
Dani’s nose wrinkled, and she shook her head. “Your father’s exact words were, ‘Tell those ungrateful assholes to take it all. Otherwise I’ll set fire to it.’ He also said that if he sees any of you, it’ll be too fucking soon. Though, he’s kind of stupid because I’m sure there’s court shit in his future.”
Faith chuckled. “Robert said we might not be needed, and he said hopefully there are enough character witnesses to bury him, so…”
“Good. I’d hate to have to tell him what a disgusting slug he is in front of a judge,” Dani stated, wearing an overly exaggerated sweet smile, which made my sister and me really laugh. “So…all that being said…You’re packed, with the exception of whatever you were doing in here. Sean will be here first thing in the morning with the movers. They’ll take all the boxes down to Florida for you. We’ll store them at our house until you have a place to put them.”
“Are you…I mean…” my sister sputtered, and I chuckled and ruffled her hair.
“Get used to it, Faith. When Dani or her family says something, there’s no use in arguing.”
“Damn straight, handsome!” my girl sang, kissing my lips when I stood from the bed. “Now he’s getting it!” She shot my sister a wink. “Soon I’ll have all of you over on the dark side…”
Shaking my head, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, my lips at her ear. “I love you.”
“Love you too, baby.”
I gazed at her, my need to get back to Florida growing by leaps and bounds, which only served to remind me that this was most likely the last time I’d ever be not only in this house but in the town in which I’d grown up. As I gazed at the girl who was my future, I knew I needed to close my past.
“Feel like braving the cold, Dani?” I asked her.
“Sure.” Dani smiled, though her adorable face was filled with curiosity.
“I wanna show you something,” I told her, glancing over to Faith. “We won’t be gone long.”
My sister’s face was sad when she nodded, which meant she most likely knew where I was going, but I didn’t say anything.
I guided Dani to my room, where we put on coats and hats and gloves. We left out the front door, but I shot my brother a wave, telling him we’d be back in a bit. I reached for Dani, and she slipped her gloved hand into mine. T
he snow wasn’t as pristine as it had been. There wasn’t any new snow, so there were tire tracks and shoveled piles and footprints everywhere. I guided her down the street, where the houses became fewer and fewer. The woods were eerily quiet yet heavy with snow on either side of the street. Up ahead, the street narrowed, and my heart constricted at the place I hadn’t set eyes on in seven years. Hell, I refused to look at it anytime I passed by it.
The railing had been repaired, of course, and the snow made it completely different, but as I helped Dani navigate the snow drifts, I could remember everything as plain as yesterday. The small lake the town was named after was partially frozen, but it didn’t matter. And I didn’t take my eyes off it as I started to talk.
“We were coming down this way,” I whispered, my breath pluming out in front of me as I pointed to the street. “The…Th-The dog, it…Right there.”
I frowned at the double yellow lines in the center of the small bridge where everything had been sent into a blurry spin. I swallowed back bile as I took in the lake again. The sounds of my mother’s frantic voice, of rushing water, and of the car crunching were all coming at me. Dani’s gloved hands met either side of my face, making me look at her.
“You’re okay. And I’m right here. Evan, say something.”
“I know, I know, I know,” I chanted, letting my forehead drop to hers. “Her…Sean told me…Her seat belt jammed. That’s why she…That’s why…”
“Shhh,” she breathed, pressing her lips to mine. “Evan…Baby, it wasn’t your fault. Not a bit of any of it. Not the wreck or your mother or anything your dad has told you. Nothing. You and Tyler and Faith were all trapped in shit that wasn’t your fault.”
I nodded vehemently against her.
“Evan? Why come here?” she asked softly, her eyes only on me.
Gazing into the face that made me strong, that made me fight for what was right, I finally said, “Because I never want to come back here, Dani. Ever.”