Joshua sighed in frustration and slouched back. “Yeah, seems to be that guy’s luck.”
Evie asked, “What do you mean?”
“I probably shouldn’t say this, but I know you’re not the gossiping kind. That’s how the divorce happened. He tried to do something nice for someone, and it got blown way out of proportion.”
“His wife divorced him because of a simple misunderstanding?” Evie asked, her sympathy for Caleb growing.
“No, Caleb was the one who filed for divorce.”
“Can you please tell me what happened?” She couldn’t refrain from it any longer.
Joshua looked at his wife, who warned him with her eyes that it may not be the best idea. But regardless, she assured him, “Go ahead.” A text came through Sarah’s phone again, but she didn’t check it.
Joshua began, “Do you know Ed Wright, Caleb’s dad?”
“I know his name, but I never met him. He was on my daddy’s football gang that used to play for fun every Saturday morning.”
“Yep, that’s him. Ed and Ashley’s dad Tim go way back. That’s kind of how Ashley and Caleb got hooked up. Anyway, a few years ago, Tim and Ed were drinking together at a Chiefs’ party, one of those big cookout kinda things where there were tons of people there. But Tim, being as he gets when he drinks, got a bit too rambunctious and started shit-talking Ed, who didn’t like it at all and tried to ignore Tim for the rest of the night, but Tim followed him everywhere and kept badgering Ed about his health condition and making fun of his wife, Caleb’s mom. Now mind you, Anne is a damn good woman. She didn’t deserve that kind of disrespect.
“Ed had enough of it and told Tim to shut his mouth. Tim didn’t like that at all and pushed Ed to where he almost fell down the stairs. Some people tried to stop the fight, but Tim was a mad bull on his damn beer fix and pushed Ed hard enough to almost knock him down the stairs again. That’s when Caleb heard the scuffle from the kitchen and came out. He yanked Tim back so hard and threw him into the wall. Everyone was screaming and trying to get them to stop, but Tim had his sights on Caleb now, and they started fighting. Mind you, it’s important to note that Ashley wasn’t home when this happened.
“When Tim finally made fun of Ed’s health condition for the last time and joked that he and Anne had an affair right on Anne and Ed’s bed, Caleb lost his composure and did one of those weird military grappling moves and completely broke Tim’s arm and knocked his lights out. Boy, I tell ya. It was a full ground and pound if ever there was one.”
Evie hotly interjected, “He had it coming! What was he supposed to do? And I take it no one vouched for Caleb or defended him?”
Joshua shook his head. “Not when it was all Ashley’s family and family friends. They thought Caleb acted outta line and took it too far.”
“That caused Caleb to sign for divorce? I don’t understand.”
“It caused Tim to lose a lot of feeling and use of his arm. It jeopardized his ability to play on the football gang and do his job, which was in construction.”
“Oh, cry me a fucking river!” Evie snapped.
“You don’t understand,” Joshua said. He fixed his eyes on her. “That put a lot of stress on the family, and eventually got Tim laid off. And because of that, Ashley was pissed at Caleb, and it caused a strain on their relationship. Caleb wouldn’t say sorry and stopped going over to her family’s house for anything.”
Evie threw her hands up. “Good! He shouldn’t. I can’t believe no one defended Caleb. I’d have done the same thing had I been in his shoes, but I still don’t see how that affected Ashley directly.”
“Caleb then went through some times of being physically angry. He composed it well until one day Ashley drove him insane and he got mad, lost his temper, and threw a chair at the wall and scared the hell outta his poor kids.”
Evie remembered what Sandy said at the salon a year ago. She had mentioned the chair incident.
Joshua went on, “So Caleb filed for divorce after Ashley told everyone he hit her. It took that poor guy forever to mend his name. But…”
Evie slowly interjected again, “The scar still remains?”
Joshua signed sadly, staring off. “Yep, but like I said…”
Evie lifted her head to look at him.
“Don’t go messin’ around with that guy. He’s got some serious PTSD issues, Evie. You’re such a sweet, beautiful, loving, and caring girl. He’s not your issue to fix. I don’t want you gettin’ wrapped up in some head case who can’t control his anger.”
Evie thanked them both sincerely for their hospitality and conversation. As she got to her car, it was one of those long Midwest goodbyes as Sarah and Joshua hung out at her car as she kept trying to leave. Sure, the company and idle chatter was nice, but she really needed to get home to think, and the cold wind was getting in her car from thewindow being down. When she was finally able to get home, she collapsed on the bed and gathered herself from all of what happened that day. She had only been up for four hours, but it already felt like twenty-four.
Pawpaw’s warning came back to her like the drifting call of a whippoorwill.He ain’t nothin’ but trouble.
She rubbed the sadness from her face and then looked at the ceiling. That could’ve been what Pawpaw was trying to warn her about, in that Caleb had a temper or could be violent, perhaps? But that seemed to be long ago, way before Ashley and he split. Whatever the case, she needed to figure out who told Sandy, who in turn told Ashley, who in turn confronted Caleb.
But the hardest part was that it wasn’t a lie. She and Calebhadbeen seeing each other. No, they never had sex. But they came close to it often. They had been romantic with each other. Someone could easily see that his truck was there, yes. But that could have been for anything, like the contracting work he had started to do for her. But someone, somewhere, somehowknewthey had been sexual. If they accused him of sleeping with her on the sole notion that his car was there, then they should have done it with Joshua’s car being there when he mowed for her, or Hunt’s cruiser being there when he paid her a visit just for fun.
