Genuine fear is licking up my spine as I wonder if this is a threat, or is it worse? Would it be pathetic to leave my own home and hide at Savannah’s or Chelsea’s? Would it be even more desperate to depend on one of the brothers I’m fucking to come stay over? Is that even on the table?
Before I second guess myself, concern wins out.
Either of you still up?
Gavin
Ben had to go to the bar to handle a situation, what’s up?
I bite my lip and consider lying and getting over myself. It could just be someone who lives in the neighborhood. I’m just being paranoid, right? No, deep in my gut I know that I’m not being paranoid.
I think my ex is canvassing my house. I’m not sure what I should do.
Gavin
I’ll be right over. Do not leave the house. Wait till I get there.
Okay, thank you.
He doesn’t respond after that, and I just sit at the window, watching this unmoving vehicle, hoping that I made the right call. Each moment that ticks by I feel even more anxious. The second Gavin’s white car pulls into my driveway, a soothing sense of calm fills me.
That’s until I see the baseball bat in his hand and he begins striding toward the vehicle parked on the street. I’m up off the couch in a heartbeat, swinging my front door open.
“What the fuck are you doing? You don’t know who’s in there. They could have a fucking gun,” I yell at him.
He doesn’t turn to face me as he speaks. “Get back in the goddamn house, Katherine.”
“No way. Please come inside. Please,” I beg him.
He takes two more steps forward with the bat and grabs his phone out of his pocket. The SUV speeds off as Gavin holds his phone up, recording the vehicle and hopefully getting their license plate.
“I told you to wait inside,” he says when he turns around. He’s now lazily holding the bat as he approaches my house.
“This is Florida, Gavin, land of the crazy. You can’t just stroll up to anyone holding a baseball bat, you don’t know what level of unhinged you’re possibly dealing with. If you think I’d let you get hurt because you came over here to help me, you’re delusional.”
“I’m delusional?” he asks, pointing to himself like there’s another man in my yard holding a baseball bat.
“What were you going to do? Smash the fucking windshield? I’m not even sure if it’s Will or not,” I blurt it all out.
Gavin takes an exacerbated sigh, his head tilting to the night sky as his nostrils flare and he seems to ask the universe for patience, like I’m the problem here.
“Can we go inside?”
“Do you want something to drink or eat?” I ask as he follows me into the house, and I lock the door behind us.
“Just water,” he says, and I fill us both glasses of water as we sit at my dining room table.
Mikey comes up to him and sniffs him, clearly sensing it’s not his favorite twin, before walking away.
“You’ve got to be shitting me. Even the cat likes Ben more.”
My brows furrow and I tilt my head. “Do you really feel that people like Ben more?”
“No. I know people like Ben more. I’m not insecure about it, it’s just a fact. Ben is gentler, kinder, easier to be around.”
“I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit.”
He waves me off, taking a sip of water, his fingers turning the glass as he looks back up at me.
