Willie
Leave me alone.
She asked me to leave her alone and to be honest, I have no idea how to do that and her words pissed me the fuck off. It took everything in me not to follow her home. All I wanted...all I needed was her.
How the fuck was I ever going to tell her this without sounding like a fucking creep? I understood that she needed her space and that she needed to process what had happened to her papa, but fuck, I hated this desperate and empty feeling.
Talk about fucked up timing!
Watching her papa die was some tough shit and I felt terrible for both her and the situation. But her reaction to the whole ordeal was what through me the most. She seemed almost emotionless...almost as if she were numb, like she knew this was going to happen.
I mean, I could sense that she was on the verge of tears but there was something else there that I just couldn't put my name on. The whole situation made me feel absolutely useless and I hated that.
The pain in her eyes was haunting and all I wanted to do was take it away from her. I wanted—needed—to make her happy. I wish I could take it all away. I wish that I could take her into my arms and hold her tight. But she was distant, and she didn't seem to be all there in the head, and I couldn't blame her for that.
Fuck.
It wasn't that she didn't care, she did I could see that in her eyes, but she played it off like she didn't, like it was just whatever. It was as if she had already accepted that he was dead even before he took his last breath. I couldn't explain it and I didn't understand it, but when she walked out of the hospital room, she seemed to be a different person altogether.
What pisses me off the most was that she wouldn't let me, or my brothers, help. I just don't understand.
It had been 24 hours since Mike died, and Evie hadn't reached out at all. So here I am driving to her parents' house after finding her apartment empty.
Her parents owned three acres of land with a small farmhouse styled house only 10 minutes from the distillery. My brothers and I had taken turns going over to the house to check on Mike over the past two years. After his wife, Laura, died my brothers and I made it our job to ensure Mike had everything he needed. Mike had insisted that he needed more hours, and we all fought him on it, but he said it was the only thing that could keep his mind off losing his wife.
Evie was right, we didn't understand that kind of loss, so we did what Mike had asked and gave him more hours which I we all were against. We often went by his house once a week to make sure that he had food and that the house was still in good shape. From what we had heard, his relationship with Evie had suffered tremendously after Laura's death. The old man hadn't even remembered that it was Evie's birthday yesterday.
It was me. I asked him if he was doing something for Evie's birthday and he scrambled to get her a gift. A bottle of an older batch of whiskey. He even insisted on paying for the damn thing, the stubborn bastard. He was a stubborn old man and there was little to nothing that my brothers and I could do to make him see the error in his ways.
Obviously, my brothers and I had never suffered a loss as deep as Mike and Evie but still, the fact that he didn't even check in with his own daughter pissed me the fuck off. I knew for a fact that it was Evie that made sure he had food in his fridge. Anytime we went over to check on things, the fridge and cabinets were fully stocked. She obviously cared deeply for him, but he did little to nothing to mend their relationship.
Grief was a bitch. That much I knew.
I pulled into the long driveway off the dirt road. Most of Whiskey Hills was consisted of dirt roads. I parked behind Mike's truck and climbed out. Wyatt pulled in behind me and nodded at me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked greeting him.
I had been so caught up in my thoughts I hadn't even noticed that my brother was following me. Though, I was certainly grateful he was here. I had a feeling I would need some back up with Evie.
"Your girl needs some help, came to have your back and hers." He said with a shrug.
One thing for sure about my brothers, they were my biggest supporters, and we all took care of one another. Even when I was wrong, they had my back. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Thanks brother," I smiled before walking towards the porch with him following behind me.
I knocked on the door and waited a few minutes. The sound of something breaking on the other side of the door made me tense. I looked at Wyatt who gave off the same tense energy and then I tried for the doorknob. At no surprise, the door was unlocked.
"Evie?" I called out walking into the house. Wyatt followed me inside and shut the front door behind us. We each paused and surveyed the entrance and the living room with confused and worried expressions.
The place is a mess, worse than I have ever seen it before. I shook my head and turned towards Wyatt who was glancing around the room with the same facial expression.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Evie grunted walking out of the kitchen and into the living room where Wyatt and I were now standing.
"We came to see how you're doing," I spoke softly.
I could see the tension, the pain, and the anger written all over her face. Her body was ridged, and her hair was in a mess on top of her head. Her strawberry hair was a bit darker in the fall than it was in the spring and summer. Her emerald orbs had pinned me in place with rage. She looked like a ticking time bomb about to go off at any given second.
I sighed and shook my head. I was way out of my own comfort zone, but I wasn't backing down. I wasn't turning my back on her. Not now and not ever. I wanted her, pain, grief, and anger too, and it was clear now more than ever before that she needed me too.
"What part of leave me alone do you not understand?" she asked throwing her hands up in frustration. "I don't need your fucking help or pity. I want to be left alone."
This isn't pity. Did she really think that this is pity? The way I saw it is that she needed help and is way too stubborn to ask for it, much like her papa.
"Well, firecracker, that ain't happening. I've waited ten years for you and I'm not backing down because you want to be left alone. You can scream it at me until you're blue in the face, but I know that's not the truth." I said crossing my arms.
I hadn't expected to throw all my cards out on the table like that, but she is in rare form, and I want her to know that I mean business. That I am not backing down or going away because she is grieving. I am going to marry this girl, hopefully in the near future, and that means taking in her good seasons and her bad seasons. I am not backing down or walking away even if she screamed for me to do just that.
Though I may not be absolutely positive about her feelings for me, I know that there is something there and I want to explore it, well, I want to more than explore it, but I am willing to start there for her sanity.
"What?" She asked dropping her jaw in shock.
Fuck, I loved when she did that. Seems I had caught her off guard again and she is cute when she is flustered and shocked. Made me think about what her face would look like when I consumed her body with pleasure.
"What part didn't you get?" I asked calmly. I would repeat myself if that is what she wants.
"Firecracker? Ten years? What the actually fuck!" she shouted throwing her hands up in the air again.
I couldn't help but chuckle some at her expression.
"Firecracker, well, I just kind of came up with that nickname. The hair and the anger...it suits you. Don't you think?" I asked with a shrug. "And, yeah, ten years. Ten years of waiting for the right time. I'm done waiting. The time may not ever be right but that is okay. I'm here now and I'm all in. I don't care what I have to do to make you mine, because I will fucking do anything, but right now you clearly need some help—some support and I am here to give that to you." I said taking a few steps towards her.
She was frozen in place clearly taking in my words. Seems my words were a shock to her system. Fuck, maybe I waited too long. She looked at me in bewilderment and I smiled down at her before pulling her into my arms. I wrapped my arms snuggly around her before picking her up and making her wrap her legs around my waist.
I had waited far too long for this moment and thank God it is finally here. Evie is finally in my arms, and I am never letting go.
She was tense for a few moments before she relaxed, and tears poured from her eyes silently. She nuzzled her head into my chest and wound her arms around my neck as she sobbed. Clearly her emotions were haywire, and I want to kick myself for letting her leave the hospital by herself. I should have inserted myself into her life way sooner.
Aw fuck, just as I predicted, she fits perfectly in my arms, and I fucking adore it. I adore her, more than she knows. But soon, one day soon, she will know. Right now, she doesn't need a boyfriend, she needs a friend, and I would be just that. I'd be anything and everything she needs and wants. She is mine, and I am taking her. I would stand by her side through thick and thin.
"Tell me what do you need? Why is the place a mess?" I asked rubbing her back soothingly.