Elusive Love (25 page)

“Thank you for everything,” I told the officer.

I decided then and there that cops weren’t so bad after all. They’d let Ethan and Joey go when they could have arrested them.

The officer nodded before turning and walking to his patrol car. His partner was already standing next to it, waiting for him to finish up with us. I watched them pull out of the lot before I turned back to Ethan.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. This wasn’t your fault,” Ethan said. “Joey is a dick. I knew something was wrong, so I intervened. You didn’t ask me to, so don’t try to put this on yourself. I knew what I was walking into before I even opened my mouth. I didn’t care.”

“Okay,” I said, not wanting to argue. “Come with me. We need to get you cleaned up.”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

“I’m not letting you leave without me right now. I need you with me, so I can take care of you. At least let me do that much for you.”

He studied me for a moment. “Just follow me home then.”

“I can’t,” I explained. “I have Amelia now, and unless you have diapers and formula at your house, I have to go to my parents’.”

He groaned. “Then, come by after you’ve stopped there.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re staying with me. Come on. We’ll ride together.”

“Then, my car will be left here.”

“We can get it later,” I said stubbornly.

“You’re being a little melodramatic over this, Caley,” he grumbled. “Look, I’ll come with you to your parents’ house, but I’m driving my own car. Fair enough?”

I frowned. “I suppose. But if you try to go home, I will come after you.”

He grinned, but it quickly disappeared when it caused his busted lip to split open further. “Fuck, that hurts.”

“It looks like it does. Now, come on.”

I walked across the lot to my car. My keys were still lying on the ground where I’d first dropped them when I saw Joey. I scooped them up before opening the back door and buckling Amelia into her car seat. I closed her door and glanced over to make sure Ethan wasn’t trying to escape.

He was climbing into his own car, clearly not trying to speed away from me like I’d feared. I sighed in relief before glancing around the lot one final time. I noticed several people watching us. They’d apparently witnessed the less than spectacular show Ethan and Joey had put on. I looked away from them and climbed into my car.

I slowly drove home, my hands shaking on the steering wheel. There were so many things I didn’t understand about Joey, but his display this afternoon had taken the cake. I couldn’t grasp why he had refused to get a divorce if he was cheating on me. It was clear that he was as unhappy as I was, even more so now.

Why would he want us both to suffer? It made no sense.

I asked myself that question over and over again as I drove to my parents’ house, but I still had no answer when I pulled into the parking spot in front of their house. I looked in my rearview mirror to see Ethan parking behind me.

Deciding to worry about Joey later, I shut my car off and stepped out. After freeing Amelia from her seat, I walked up the steps of my parents’ porch with Ethan following behind me.

For once, I wasn’t worried about my mother. She would be sure to have something to say about Ethan’s appearance, but as far as I was concerned, she could kiss my ass. I was tired of fearing her wrath every damn time I stepped into the house.

As soon as I walked inside, I motioned for Ethan to follow me. We walked straight into the living room. My mom was sitting on the couch and my dad was sitting in his chair, watching television together.

“Where have you been?” my mother demanded as soon as she saw me.

Her eyes moved to Ethan as he appeared, and her mouth popped open in shock.

“Ethan?” my dad asked in disbelief.

“Uh, hi,” he said awkwardly.

I almost laughed. He could take on Joey with no problem, but one look from my father had him shifting uneasily. He was clearly uncomfortable.

“Who the hell is this? And what happened to him?” my mother asked.

“This is Ethan. He’s a friend, and we work together,” I told her. “I need you to watch Amelia for a few minutes while I clean him up.”

“What happened?” she demanded. “No offense to you, Ethan, but I don’t know you. You walk into my house, looking like you got into some kind of fight or accident, and I’m supposed to just let that go?”

“He did get into a fight,” I snapped. “He was defending me against my husband. It seems Joey—you know, that man you worship and have been trying to convince me to stay with—has been cheating on me all along. When I caught him, Ethan had to step in because Joey wouldn’t let me leave. I guess he’s not as good of a man as you thought he was, now is he?”

“I…I…” my mother stuttered, too shocked to form a coherent sentence.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go clean Ethan up.” I kissed Amelia on the forehead before placing her on the floor next to her toys. “Come on, Ethan.”

He followed me back out into the entryway and then down the hall to where the bathroom was.

When we walked in, I pointed to the tub. “Sit down there. And take your shirt off, so I can check you over.”

He mock-saluted me before peeling his shirt off and sitting down. I opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out cotton balls and peroxide. I set them on the counter before grabbing a washcloth and a hand towel out from underneath the sink. I ran the washcloth under warm water and wrung it out.

I turned back to Ethan and inspected him. His neck had a few spots with cuts and dried blood, probably from rolling around on the pavement. His chest had red spots on it but no blood. His face had the worst of it. There was a large cut on his forehead. The blood had run down into his eye and dried into a sticky mess. His lip was busted in the center, and it was still bleeding a little bit. His nose was busted as well. I could already see a bruise forming. His left eye was starting to bruise, too.

“You’re a mess,” I said as I knelt in front of him.

“But a sexy mess, right? I’ve always heard girls like the bad boy. I think a public fight ending in police custody puts me into the bad-boy category now.”

I laughed despite myself. “I’d much rather have you the way you always were. If you start acting like a delinquent, I might have to run away, screaming.”

I gently wiped the blood away, starting with his forehead and working my way down. He held perfectly still, not even wincing once, even though I knew it must hurt. Once his face was cleaned off, I grabbed a cotton ball and soaked it in peroxide. I tended to his cuts, wincing, when I made his lip start to bleed more.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, but I really am sorry.” I tossed the cotton ball in the garbage and grabbed another. “What did the officer say to you? I can’t believe that he just let you guys go.”

“They basically warned me that if I got into any more trouble, my happy ass would be spending a night or two in a jail cell. I think the fact that I didn’t act like a dick probably helped. They made sure we were both calm and that we had no intentions of going after each other again. They thought I was there by chance, so I doubt if they think Joey and I will run into each other again. Truthfully, I just think they wanted to avoid all the paperwork.”

“Well, I’m glad they let you go. If you had ended up in jail, I don’t know what I would have done,” I said as I finished cleaning his cuts. “I can’t believe you fought Joey for me.”

“The asshole had it coming. Truth be told, I’ve wanted to beat the shit out of him since you first started telling me how he treated you. It was only a matter of time before I got my chance.”

“I know. I just hoped that you two would never meet, especially like that.”

“So, what happens now?” Ethan asked.

“With Joey?”

He nodded.

“I’m going to give him time to cool down—a day or two tops. I’m done waiting around. Then, he’s going to meet me in a public place, and we’re going to get this shit taken care of. I’m tired of this game he’s playing. He gave me all the power today, and he knows it. If he doesn’t agree to the divorce, I’ll file on my own and hope I can find a cheap attorney, but I don’t think it will come to that. He knows that I’m the one in control of the situation, and if he wants to see Amelia, then he’ll work with me on this.”

Ethan shook his head. “I don’t understand this at all. Why would he fight you on the divorce when he was cheating on you?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure he’ll have some kind of excuse. It doesn’t matter though. This just solidifies my decision in my mind.” I paused. “It’s weird. I’ve spent so much of my adult life with him. You’d think I would be upset that he was disloyal, but I’m not. I couldn’t care less. The only thing I was upset over was the fact that he let that woman around my child. And today, when the cops asked me what had happened, my only concern was making sure you avoided trouble. I didn’t care at all what happened to him.”

Ethan grinned. “Gee, I guess you really do care about me.”

“Shut up, or I’ll make you bleed some more,” I threatened.

A knock sounded on the door a moment before it swung open.

My father stood in the doorway, looking half-pissed and half-uncertain. “Caley, Joey’s here,” he said.

I looked at him in utter disbelief. “I’m sorry. What?”

He glanced over at Ethan before looking at me again. “Joey is here. He’s adamant that he talks to you, but if you want me to, I’ll send him away.”

“He’s got some serious balls,” Ethan muttered.

I had to agree.

“No, I’ll talk to him. We might as well get this over with now,” I said as I stood. “Ethan, why don’t you hang around in here for a little bit? I don’t think seeing you will help Joey’s temperament any.”

“Hell no,” Ethan said as he stood. “I’m coming with you.”

I sighed but didn’t argue. There was no point. By the determined look on Ethan’s face, I knew he would follow me, no matter what I said.

My father led us back down the hallway and into the living room. Amelia was still on the floor, playing, with my mother next to her. Joey was sitting on the edge of my father’s chair, looking more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen him. The look of death my mother directed Joey’s way made me smile. It was nice to see someone else get that look once in a while.

The moment Joey saw me, he stood. His eyes flashed back to where Ethan stood behind me, and a look of rage crossed his face.

“What is he doing here?” Joey demanded.

“Not that it’s any concern of yours, but I’m cleaning up the mess you made.”

I looked Joey over. His face had been cleaned up as well. Maybe his new girlfriend had taken care of him. It gave me a smidge of satisfaction to see that he looked worse than Ethan.

“We need to talk,” Joey said, tearing his eyes away from Ethan to look at me.

“No shit,” I said, keeping my tone cold.

“Can we talk in private?” he asked.

My father took a step closer to me. “After what happened today, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said. “We can go out onto the porch.” I didn’t want Joey to think I was afraid of him. I refused to give him an ounce of power over me.

“Caley—” Ethan started.

But I held up my hand. “I’ll be fine. If I need something, I’ll yell.”

No one seemed happy about letting me walk away with Joey, but they didn’t stop us either. We walked out onto the porch together. I sat down on the porch swing while Joey leaned up against the banister. Neither of us spoke. Joey seemed to be trying to avoid looking at me altogether.

“We’re alone, so talk,” I finally said when the silence became too much.

“Yeah, I guess we are.” Joey sighed. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“How about her name? That’s a good place to start,” I said.

“Amanda,” he replied, sounding embarrassed. “Her name is Amanda.”

“How long have you two been together?”

He shrugged.

“Come on, Joey. All of this shit is out in the open now. You might as well tell me the whole truth. You gain nothing by hiding things.”

“Six months, or close to it,” he finally said after a moment.

“Was there anyone before her?” I asked.

He ran his hands through his hair. “About a year ago. It was the same deal as Amanda. I met her through work. The other one only lasted a week or two.”

I nodded. “Okay, this is good. We need to be honest with each other.”

“What about you and that guy in there? Ethan? Anything going on?”

Now, it was my turn to squirm. “He’s been there for me for the last few months. He’s a good friend.” I paused. “But I think he could be more once you and I are free to move forward. I care about him.”

He frowned. “Wow, we’re a stand-up couple, aren’t we? Both of us have been fucking around on the other.”

I didn’t deny his words, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the truth outright. Instead, I turned the conversation back to him. “We’re both miserable. That much is obvious,” I said, “My question is, do you love her? Or at least care about her?”

“I do,” he said.

“Then, why did you fight me so much about the divorce?” I asked, exasperated by the whole situation.

“Honestly? Because I thought we could still work shit out. We have a life together, and we have Amelia. Walking away with no fight at all felt like I was throwing that away.”

“Joey, you’ve treated me like shit for years now. You’ve been an awful husband. You drove me so far down into a depression that I was sure I’d never be able to claw my way out. To be blunt, you ruined just about every good part of my life. If it wasn’t for Amelia…” I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence. I’d never really dealt with the depth of my depression over the last few years, and I certainly wasn’t going to talk about it with Joey.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply.

“Sorry isn’t good enough. I think we both know that,” I said.

“I know.” He sighed. “So, what happens now?”

“Now, we move on from each other. We file for divorce—together. Amelia needs both of us in her life, and things will be so much simpler if we work together to make that happen.”