“I missed her, you, mama, dad,” I pause. “I even missed the smell of horse shit. You happy now?” I grimace at him, fuck him for making me admit it.
“Anything else?” He asks, the bottle now not leaving his lips as he rocks back and forth on his bar stool.
“You’re fucking annoying, anyone ever told you that?” I say, which causes my brother to throw his head back in laughter.
“You’re one to talk, at least the whole town doesn’t hate my guts,” he shrugs back at me.
Fucker.
He isn’t wrong though.
“I couldn’t give a fuck about everyone else,” I mumble against my hand.
“So, what do you give a fuck about, Maverick? Cause from where I’m sitting, it ain’t a lot.” The southern twang on full alert today from his voice.
I slam my fist on the bar at his audacity, standing up to become face to face with my littlebrother; who right now, is pissing me off.
“I’ve always cared about her. I’ve always loved her.” My nose almost touching his.
Mack stands to attention and the patrons in the bar all turn to watch us. Brother to brother, toe to toe.
“Y’all good boys?” Mack asks as my brother releases a scary smile back towards me.
“All good, Mack. Someone here needs a cold dose of reality.”
And there it is.
“Mav’, sit down.” Jake says, pulling my bar stool back under my ass.
I sit back down onto the stool, repositioning it to face my brother. I don’t want to fight him, I don’t want to fight anyone; I just want my girl back safe in my arms, alongside that little girl who I’ve also fallen in love with.
But when she won’t talk to me or even try and let me explain; I’m lost with what to do.
“Mav, she’s my best friend, and Ellie is so much more to me,” he starts.
“When you left, it hit us all hard, Mabel missed you. I was only fifteen and found myself spending more and more time around her and Colter. They both struggled without you being here those first couple of weeks.” I look straight at my brother, and for once in my stubborn head; I listen.
“Mabel was so confused, why one night you spoke and then she never heard from you again. She was hurt; Colter was just downright angry.” He holds his hand onto the nape of his neck.
“The weeks turned to months, Mabel always clinging onto the hope that you would come home. She’d beg me to try and contact you; she wanted to know if you were alive.” The realisation sinks in for Jake’s constant phone calls and messages; it was Mabel the whole time.
“Then, she found out she was expecting Ellie and everything changed. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, holding onto her childish dream; she had to grow up, become tough, because she was having this beautiful little girl and she was the one who was going to have to protect her.” The tears are form the more my brother speaks at me, telling me the story I’ve needed to hear this whole time.
“She knew you were alive, but the hope for you coming home dwindled as the years went on, the bitterness took fold and she made me promise that you were to know no part of her life,” my eyes widen at the admission.
“So, whenever I asked you or Dad?” I ask, my first question to him about the last thirteen years.
“She made uspromise.” He says, as I nod along to his answer.
And I don’t blame her, not in the slightest.
“But even though she never expected it, she always wanted it. She built your house for fuck sake. She’s always been silently waiting for you to come back to her,” my eyes now once again filled with the bitter sting of tears at the hurt that I’ve caused by staying away.
“She won’t see me, Jake.” Now I’m the one to shake my head, trying to wipe away the evidence that stain my cheeks.
This time, instead of continuing his story that he obviously come down here to share with me, my brother stands from his stool, finishes his beer and places his bottle back down onto the bar.
“Try a bit harder then,” he winks at me, before turning to Mack. “Mack.” He says as he tilts his Stetson towards him.
