Just a Kiss: The Bradfords, Book 5 (36 page)

Abby was right behind him, glaring at Eve.

Eve sighed. “You weren’t there,” she told Wes. “You didn’t hear what a complete bitch she was being.”

“Hey!” Abby exclaimed.

Kevin stepped between them. “It’s over, Wes. Let it go.”

Wes frowned at him. “Let it go? She started it.” He jabbed a finger in Eve’s direction. “And now Tony’s saying Abby has to pay for the stuff that got broken and she can’t come back for a month.”

Kevin and the guys were often the ones called to domestic situations and he knew that his size was on his side, but he also knew that trying to talk the person down and calm the situation was important.

“I was there. Abby was the one who broke the glasses,” he said calmly.

“Of course, you’re going to say that. You’re fucking Eve.”

Kevin winced, but he didn’t—couldn’t—deny it. “That doesn’t have anything to do with it, Wes. Let’s not make this worse.”

Wes started to move forward. “Pay up, Eve.”

Kevin put a hand up. “Stop it, Wes. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Abby was embarrassed in front of everyone,” Wes said. “She got kicked out of Tony’s!”

“Abby embarrassed herself long before I did anything,” Eve said, stepping forward.

Without warning, Abby lunged forward and swiped at Eve. She wasn’t close enough to make good contact with Eve’s cheek but she caught her hair and whipped it across Eve’s eyes.

“Take it easy.” Kevin caught Abby’s wrist and pushed her back as Eve wiped her hair out of her face.

“Don’t touch her!” Wes shoved Kevin’s shoulder.

Kevin dropped his hold on Abby, but turned to Wes with a frown. “I wouldn’t suggest doing that again.”

“This?” Wes shoved him again.

Kevin breathed in through his nose, trying to keep his cool. But this night had been crazy. He’d gone to help Ryan, only to find the kid belligerent and still spoiling for a fight. He’d come home to find Eve gone and then to Tony’s to find her dressed, talking and acting like the polar opposite of the Eve he’d expected. Then he’d been confronted with the truth that he’d screwed up bigger than anyone.

He and Eve needed to work this out, but instead he was facing down a mad big brother who was being an ass. And shoving him.

“Knock it off,” Kevin said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want to have a problem here.” He didn’t want
another
problem. This thing with Eve was a big enough problem.

“No problem, as long as Eve apologizes and pays for half the damages,” Wes said.

“Apologize to Abby?” Eve laughed. “I don’t think so.”

Wes went to grab for Eve and Kevin saw red.

He put his hands on Wes’s chest and pushed. Hard.

Wes went sprawling to the ground.

“Stay there,” Kevin ordered. “Or it’ll hurt a lot more next time.”

Wes, of course, didn’t listen. He scrambled to his feet and charged at Kevin.

Kevin sighed. He ducked as Wes swung, then pulled his fist back and hit Wes in the jaw.

Wes slumped to the ground.

Abby screamed as the door to Tony’s swung open, people stumbling out onto the sidewalk to see what was going on.

When Wes groaned and lifted his hand to his face, Abby whirled on Eve and grabbed for her again, catching her hair. She yanked and Eve yelled as she brought her hands up and dug her fingernails into Abby’s hand to get her to let go.

“You bitch!” Abby cried as Eve spun away.

“You do not want to mess with me tonight,” Eve warned.

Abby came at her again anyway and Eve pulled her arm back and connected with Abby’s cheek in a fairly impressive right hook.

Screaming and crying, her hand against her face, Abby called Eve several more unflattering names as Kevin grabbed Eve around the waist and held her back.

“Let me go!” Eve told him.

“No way in hell.” He started toward his truck, determined to get her away from the scene and calm her down. But as he reached for the door, he heard the sound that ensured he was going to end his night with a blistering headache and in a really horrible mood—police sirens.

Kevin watched Eve pace the tiny holding cell in the Grover police station—and attempt to ignore him—for ten minutes.

She was across the cell, her back to him when he finally couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I didn’t know Mrs. Rosner was coming over tonight.”

He watched her spine straighten and her turn to face him slowly, her eyes wide. “How would it have been different if you’d known?”

That was a very good question.

He sighed and got to his feet. “Eve, I never meant to hurt you.”

“I assume you never meant for me to find out at all.”

“I…” Okay, maybe that was true. “I want to be Drew’s guardian.”

“And yet here you are sitting in a jail cell. And, gee, do I smell beer on your breath? I also recall you dropping a few swear words.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Unfortunately that’s not all that unusual for me either.” He ran a hand through his hair. Hell, he was always on the verge of all of this anyway. It seemed fitting that it would all come boiling over at the worst possible time.

“You know what’s the worst part of all of this?” she asked after a moment of silence. “My dad was disappointed in me and my choices and my mistakes, but he told me that upfront to my face. You lied about being with me because of those mistakes and then had no intention of ever telling
me
that it all bothered you so much.” She crossed her arms. “With my dad I
earned
his rejection. I mean, I really did all of the things he hated, knowing he’d hate them. But with you, you say my past mistakes don’t matter, then it ends up mattering more than anything else—more than what you
do
know about me.”

Kevin just stared at her. He had nothing to say. No idea how to fix this.

He’d screwed things up and hurt her just like her father had.

That was big. Really big.

He felt sick. And desperate. He opened his mouth, but she went on.

“I know you were trying to be supportive, saying my record and past didn’t matter. And I went along because I didn’t want to tell you all the gory details of my screw-ups or that I’ve lost faith in a lot of things. But I should have insisted. Because when my father turned his back, it was real. It hurt, but it was based on real things. You wanting me in your life, without knowing about the mistakes, pretending things are perfect, isn’t real.” She took a deep breath and dropped her hands to her sides. She met his gaze directly. “In high school you were afraid of me finding out who you really were. Well, I’ve been feeling like that since you came back to Grover. And it’s exhausting. It’s time for us both to be real—good, bad and ugly—with each other. So…” She took another deep breath, then said, “I was arrested as an accessory to felony embezzlement, but I was found not guilty. I don’t go to church, I can drink four beers and not feel even a buzz, I cuss, I hate church potlucks and I’ve tried marijuana—and I liked it.” Before he could respond—as if he had any idea whatsoever
how
to respond—the door at the end of the hall opened and Pastor Bryan came through with one of the cops that had brought them in from Tony’s.

Eve moved to the side of the cell. “Bryan?”

“They’re willing to release you since I vouched for you,” Bryan said to them. “Well, that and the bail. But I’m enjoying coming to your rescue more than I should.”

Eve gave him a smile and Kevin had to suck in a quick breath. Would he ever see that smile aimed at him again?

“How’d you know what happened?” Eve asked.

“Monica called me.”

“Ah.”

“You both okay?” he asked, looking from Eve to Kevin.

“You better stand back. There is a definite possibility of smiting around here now,” Eve told him.

Bryan smiled. “I’m willing to take the risk. Again.”

Kevin frowned. Clearly they had a friendship. Which, at the moment, should make him happy he knew, but instead there was a definite surge of jealousy.

“Thought you said you don’t go to church anymore,” he said, the words she’d said to coming back to him. One more thing they needed to talk more about.

Eve looked at him. “And that doesn’t have much chance of changing any time soon.”

Right. Because of him. He reminded her of her father. He and his behavior were not exactly compelling reasons to show up Sunday morning. Perfect.

The officer unlocked their door and Eve stepped through.

“Eve,” Kevin said without any idea what he was going to say next.

“I understand, Kevin,” she said, without looking at him. “You’re right that I could hurt your situation with Drew. But you don’t have to worry about what to tell Mrs. Rosner about me now. I’m done.”

No!
Everything in him protested. He stepped forward. “We can’t be done.”

She did look at him then. And the sadness in her eyes tore him apart. “Really? ’Cause it seems to me that in a lot of ways we never really got started.”

Then she walked away from him with her arm—ironically—linked with the minister’s.

Bryan didn’t say a word until they were a block from her house and Eve finally asked, “No words of wisdom?”

He looked over. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“You wouldn’t have offered any advice if I hadn’t asked?”

“No.”

And she believed him. Bryan didn’t shove his faith, his advice or even his friendship on someone. But it was there, steady and sure, when someone needed it.

“I am pretty good at this stuff, though, if I do say so myself,” he added.

Lord knew,
she
didn’t know what to think or do at the moment. “Okay.” She settled back in her seat. She was exhausted and felt like she’d been used as a punching bag. She hurt all over, deep down. She wasn’t good enough for Kevin and now she thought that maybe he wasn’t good enough for her either. How messed up was that? “Give me what you’ve got. And make it good.”

“Being loved when you’re good, and do the right thing, and deserve it is great. But being loved when you screw up, when you hurt someone, when you make the wrong choice…is divine.”

She rolled her head to look at him. “Kevin said something like that the first day he was back.”

“Yeah?”

“Something about when we forgive people for hurting us it’s as close to divine as we get.”

“Knew I liked that guy.”

She sighed. “And I knew you were going to say that.”

“Did you?”

“Of course. You minsters are all about the forgiveness.” And it was great in theory. Something she’d wanted for herself for a very long time. But when she was the one who had to do the forgiving it felt a lot different. Harder. And a lot less appealing.

“Forgiveness is good,” Bryan agreed.

“Okay, okay, you think I should forgive him. Big surprise.”

Bryan pulled into her driveway, put the car into park and turned to face her. “I wasn’t talking about you forgiving him. Though you should do that too.”

“Then what were you talking about?”

“Giving him the chance to be divine.”

She frowned. “That sounds weird. What do you mean?”

“When we love someone we want them to be the best person they can be. All along you’ve been afraid of telling him who you really are because you didn’t think he could handle it. You thought it would change how he feels about you. You didn’t trust that he could love you anyway.”

“And I was right,” she protested, “he
did
judge me and deny me.”

Bryan tipped his head. “And you judged him and assumed he lacked what it took to stick by you. You didn’t trust his love and you denied him the chance to prove it.”

She thought about that—because that’s what you did after a man of God gave you advice, after all—and said, “So, I don’t have to forgive him but I have to help him be a better man?”

Bryan smiled. “I think he’s already that man. But he needs a chance to prove it.”

“How will he prove it to me?”

“He needs to prove it to
himself
.”

Eve frowned. “I don’t get it.” She really felt like someone should be proving something to her. Like someone who had wronged her. Very recently.

“Kevin thinks of himself as a new Christian,” Bryan said. “He thinks he has to
do
all of these things to be a ‘good’ person, someone worthy.”

“How do you know?” she broke in.

“We’ve talked. He’s come up a couple of times.”

“He has?”

Bryan raised an eyebrow. “I don’t sit in my office and wait for
you
to have a problem, you know.”

“Oh, come on, I know that sometimes you leave your office to do a funeral service,” she said.

“Right. Funerals and counseling you—those are the two things I spend my time on.”

“As it should be,” she said with a nod.

He sighed. “I do talk to other people. Among other things.”