He shot a look at her. “What? You’ve never ridden before?”
“Not since I was a little girl, like four years old. My daddy promised me a horse when we moved to the country finally, but then we never could afford one, and by then I had gone out to Los Angeles. When I came back, daddy died, and my momma sold the house.”
He hated to ask but had to. “How did your dad pass away?”
She paused and looked out again. “Colon cancer. It came quick, and by the time he was diagnosed, I moved back and only got two months with him.”
“Fuck,” he groaned deeply as he looked out his window. “Evie, I’m sorry. What about your momma? How did she die?”
“She was killed by a drunk driver.”
He thought about Alan Moffet. “I bet that’s why you hate Alan so badly.”
“Yeah, I do.” Even turned and looked to him. The moon-kissed sky bathed his handsome face. He was stubbly a bit all over again. He looked at her eyes then back at the road again. Then back to her, and back to the road. Then as the nerves built up within, he looked out the window. He knew that face. He could sense the purpose of those sweet eyes.
He sighed. “Ashley and I met in middle school. We shared a class together, and I thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.Of course, being in seventh grade doesn’t really amount to much with all I’d seen. But she had this charm about her I couldn’t resist. Our dads knew each other through a football gang and so we saw each other a lot.”
Evie had her hands folded on her lap and listened respectfully. She was finally getting to hear about him. Even better, he was opening up without her even asking a single question. He shook his head. “We dated, and I finally proposed to her after high school. She knew of my military goals and supported them a lot, which was another reason why I loved her so much. But I guess deployment changes people.”
“Did you go to Iraq?”
He hesitated, gripping the wheel harder. He wiped his face before resting that hand on his hip.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, it’s… I haven’t told anyone. Not even my own dad or Ashley. So, it’s really hard. I’m not sure if a car ride is appropriate for it.”
She smiled. “Then don’t tell me. It’s okay.”
He thought and then slowly responded, “Yes. I did go to Iraq, but I’ll stop there.”
The winter fog came in washes on that dark highway. Regardless of the dark highway and the risk of wildlife crossing and the fog, he maintained a healthy speed and didn’t show an ounce of stress or fear. Evie laid her head upon the window and closed her eyes. She adored the rumble of the massive engine below her. She soaked in the scent of his cologne and the smell of the leather seats.
What a magical night.
“Thank you,” she solemnly said.
“For what?”
“For everything.”
He glanced over to her and saw how peaceful she was, tranquil, at all the perfect moments of the event. He observed her narrowed left shoulder that was drowning in that baggy old sweater she wore last time he saw her. Her light-brown hair hung down to her elbow and was in desperate need of a trim again.
Had he broken her?
He wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Apparently, he destroyed everybeautiful thing he touched. “Evie, I’m really sorry about all of this. I’m so sorry that I brought you into my life. Maybe I should’ve just,” he shook his head in anger, “stayed out of your life.”
“I’d rather die today than live a millennium without knowing you.”
What a punch to the stomach that gave him. Caleb reminisced about everything in his life. There was no way a woman like her could love a man like him. “Baby, I still don’t understand what you see in me.”
With her head still turned and slumped into the window, she mumbled, “Then someone has torn you down so much that you can’t see the forest for the trees anymore. And remember what you said? Can’t we let people be?”
“No,” he said a little more heated but still smiling. “There’s a vast difference between someone like you, who loves unconditionally and is always happy and loving, and someone like me who has anger issues and throws things.”
“You’re pardoned for being human, if that’s what you need. But to let you know, you didn’t solely cause this, Caleb. I was diagnosed with bipolar mania after my momma died. My manic episodes can run boiling hot with love and a euphoric high all the way to needing to recluse and sleeping all the time and not paying bills.”
Evie felt that hand on hers that rested on her lap.Hishand. The warm and calloused touch softened her broken heart. Hiding away, she cried a little, then she embraced that hand in hers. “You came back,” she said through her tears.
