42. Here For You

42

HERE FOR YOU

“ H ey,” Laurel said. “Come here.”

She was stunned to get the text and call from Easton asking if she could come home.

That had to be huge for him to voice that and she agreed.

They were both off tomorrow for the July Fourth weekend. Leaving a few hours early today wasn’t a big deal. She more than made the time up and Lily would understand.

“Thanks,” he said. “You didn’t have to rush.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “You were there for me and I’m going to be here for you. Tell me more about what happened.”

She listened while he told her about the open door and going into the house. “You’re pissed,” he said.

“You’re damn right I’m pissed. If you called me I would have come home and gotten my gun.”

“You’ve got a gun?” he asked. “Why didn’t I know that?”

She shrugged. She didn’t tell too many of the men she dated. They tended to make comments on it. She got sick of justifying the things she did to people.

“It’s not a big deal. It’s in a safe under the bed.”

“And you think I would have let you go there on your own with a gun?” he asked. “Are you smoking crack? It’s one thing for you to fix a dishwasher but another to put yourself in danger.”

“Do you have a gun permit?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

“No.”

“Then you wouldn’t have gotten my gun to go over. But that’s not the point. You’re the one that put yourself in harm’s way!”

“Damn, we are going to fight, aren’t we?” he asked.

She started to pace around the living room. “I didn’t want to, but I’m getting worked up.” She took a deep breath, put her hand in front of her face and dragged it down the center of the air to do it again. “Okay, I’m better. Keep talking.”

“My parents have always chosen drugs over me. I haven’t given two shits for years. But then I stood there and couldn’t decide what I wanted Abe to do. I almost wished there was a warrant out for his arrest and it’d be taken out of my hand.”

“I can understand that. Sometimes it’s easier to not deal with things.”

“Never for you,” he said. “You tackle things head-on. Just like you did with Philip. I didn’t think you should have called him and yet you handled it well.”

She’d gotten a call yesterday morning from Philip’s father saying the lawsuit was going to be dropped and then he apologized to her. She’d been stunned. Philip’s father said that he was sorry that his son treated her so poorly and that his wife felt the same, then he wished her well and said there would be no more problems from his family and she’d get something official in the mail in a few days.

“But I called you right away. I needed you by my side,” she said.

“You did and I did the same today.”

“Tell me what you’re struggling with,” she said, pulling him to the couch to sit.

“Giving him a chance. He told me my mother died two years ago as a matter of fact as if saying my shirt is blue.”

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“I don’t even know how she died. Not that it matters.”

“Of course it matters,” she said. “It was still your mother.”

“Do you think of yours?”

Her head went back and forth. “Sometimes. When I was planning my wedding I thought of her a few times and then told myself she wasn’t worth it. I had my Aunt Helen. You have your Aunt Carrie.”

“I do,” he said. “I need to remember that.”

“Do you feel guilty that you let him get arrested?”

“Not that long ago I wouldn’t have,” he said.

“Then why now?”

“I didn’t want you to think poorly of me.”

“Never,” she said. “You and me, we had a different upbringing than most. If there is one person who can understand what you’re saying, it’s me. Rachelle had a problem with your parents, didn’t she?”

“She thought my parents died,” he said.

“What?” she asked. “You lied to her?”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t. She assumed it. I said that I was raised by my aunt and uncle and that my parents weren’t around much. That they weren’t parent material and had addiction issues. She never wanted to talk about it. Nicole told me once that she’d overheard Rachelle telling someone my parents had died when I was younger and that my aunt and uncle raised me.”

“That is horrible. Why would she do that?”

“My guess is she was embarrassed over it. I wasn’t, not sure why she was.”

“Come on, Easton. Of course you were embarrassed over it. Every kid would be. I was with my mother not wanting me. But then I learned that it doesn’t matter what people who don’t love me think.”

“You’re right,” he said. “You taught me that. I should only be concerned about what you think.”

“No,” she said. “You shouldn’t.”

He frowned. “That makes no sense.”

“Listen. I love you, but we aren’t going to agree on everything and I don’t expect that. But I respect you enough that you have your reasons for feeling your way about things just like I hope you respect me enough to understand I might feel a certain way that you wouldn’t.”

“I didn’t think of it that way. Philip’s parents didn’t like your background, right?”

“Not even close. I’m not sure what his mother told people. I didn’t care. Philip never seemed to care that my aunt raised me.”

“Geez, he had one good trait,” he said sarcastically.

“I guess,” she said. “But it might be he told me that because I’d commented once when he started to talk about it. He didn’t like conflict all that much.”

Easton laughed. “Not surprising.”

“So what is going to happen next?” she asked. “With your father?”

“He’s in a cell is my guess. He has no money for bail. Being there will sober him up some I think. Or hope. They will get him into rehab in a day or so and he’ll stay in jail until that is arranged. Could be a week.”

“Will you go see him?” she asked.

“No. I’m never going to forgive him for what he did. Or forget. If he wants me to be in his life, he has a long way to go to prove things. It’s not like he even said he wanted to make amends with me. Just that he wanted to clean up.”

“That’s the first step,” she said.

“It is,” he said. “But that means nothing to me. I feel bad for Abe though. It’s his house that was broken into.”

“I’m sure your cousin will be fine. Is he upset about pressing charges?”

“No,” he said. “He texted me a few times and then came over to talk before you got here. He’ll stand by any decision I make, and once I make it, that’s it. I never second-guess anything.”

“Never?” she asked.

He pulled her close. “No. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but once I make that decision, it’s done.”

“Then I’m glad you decided to love me,” she said.

“Me too,” he said. “Let’s go out to dinner. No reason to sit here and you don’t need to cook and I don’t want to. We’ve got the day off tomorrow for the holiday and I want to lie in bed with you all morning.”

“Just lie there?” she asked, standing up and putting her hand out.

“Well, maybe more than that,” he said.

“Let me go change and we can get some dinner by the water and take our time and enjoy the night.”

They went upstairs together and were looking for clothes when his phone rang.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“What?” she asked, coming out of her closet. “Is it work? You can take it.” He turned his phone and showed her it was Rachelle. “Answer it.”

“I’m not sure I want to. I have no idea why she is calling. It’s like all the shit in our lives is happening this week.”

“Seems that way,” she said. “It’s your choice to talk to her or not. I don’t care either way.”

“If I don’t answer she might call again,” he said. Before she could say another thing, he answered but put it on speaker. She hadn’t expected that. “Hello,” he said.

“Easton. I wasn’t sure if you were going to accept my call.”

Laurel kept the cringe from her face over the soft voice on the other end. She wasn’t so sure there was much soft about her.

“I almost didn’t. I can’t imagine why you would be calling me.”

“I heard you were dating someone pretty seriously.”

He frowned. “What business is that of yours? You’re engaged.”

There was a pause. “It was hard to hear about it. I saw the pictures of her on Facebook.”

“What?” he asked. “Where?”

“Livi posted some pictures of your get-together. There were a few of you and this woman. I asked around about her.”

Laurel grinned over that and crossed her eyes, then brushed her knuckles across her chest.

He held back the laugh...barely, she could see.

“Not sure why you care,” he said. “You moved on.”

“You never looked at me like you did her.”

Laurel had to see these pictures, but she wasn’t on any social media. She’d have to check with Nicole and see if she could see them.

“What’s this about, Rachelle? You got what you wanted.”

“I wanted you,” Rachelle said.

Her jaw dropped and she looked at Easton to see that reaction. “You had a good way of showing the opposite.”

“I’m sorry,” Rachelle said. “I made a mistake. I just wanted to feel special with you. I wanted to be your world. You couldn’t give me that. I tried to tell you and you never listened.”

“No,” he said firmly. “You always said you weren’t happy. I’d ask why. You never had an answer as to why.”

“I know now. I wanted that. I loved you and I don’t think you ever looked at me the same as her. We just settled into life. We were too young for that.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “This has to do with moving out of the City?”

“No,” Rachelle said. “I don’t know.”

“I’m not sure what to tell you,” he said. “Other than I’m in love with Laurel and you’ve got Connor.”

“I don’t think he’s the one,” Rachelle said, starting to cry.

Laurel shivered. She hated when women used tears like that. Easton looked uncomfortable and she almost wished he hadn’t put it on speakerphone.

“Not my problem. Not to be a hard ass, but the truth is, we weren’t right for each other. Because if we were, then I would have been able to give you what you were looking for or you would have been more clear. We would have tried to work it out, and instead, you went looking for it from someone else.”

“I’m sorry,” Rachelle said. “I really am. I ruined it, didn’t I?”

“I’m not sure what you want from me, but this conversation is over with. You made your choice and your decisions. If you hadn’t, I think we would have ended up here anyway. It wasn’t meant. Have a good life, Rachelle.” He hung up after that. Her eyes went wide. “Too harsh?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said. “You had more patience than I thought you would.”

“I meant everything I said.”

“Why did you put it on speaker? Did you think I wouldn’t trust you?”

She did. She trusted him. She wasn’t going to fight with him again about this. She just wanted him to let her know about the last conversation with Rachelle, nothing more.

“I know you trust me. I had no idea what she was going to say, but I wanted you to see how I handled it. I wasn’t even worried that you wouldn’t agree with it.”

“Nope,” she said. “I would have hung up after a minute, but you and I are different. You talk more than me. You would have wanted to know if you could get some more information. I still think you worry about what went wrong or what you could have fixed.”

“See,” he said. “That is why I love you. I learned that if I love someone enough then I can give them all of me. That is what I did with you. I didn’t with her.”

She smiled. “You were comfortable with her.”

“That hated word,” he said. “But yes.”

“No comfort level here,” she said. “Not like that. I love you so much and that is why I can be myself too. I’ve let you see all of me so that means I’ve given it to you too.”

He ran his hand down the side of her face. He didn’t often show this soft side. “You look stunned right now. Why?”

“You’re not normally loving.”

“I am with you. Maybe when I do this it just means more. We can have fun and be serious at the same time. The best of both worlds, don’t you think?”

“I do,” she said. “That is what we’ve got.”

“We do,” he said. “And if we continue this way, we can get through anything.”

“Broken appliances and all,” she said.

“Sweaty and stinky bodies too.”

“I didn’t stink two days ago,” she said, laughing.

“You did,” he said, holding up two fingers in a pinch. “Just a little.”

Which might have explained the cringe on Philip’s face. She laughed. “You like me all hot and sweaty.”

“I love you that way,” he said. “As long as I’m the only one that gets to see it in the future.”

“Absolutely!”