Page 82 of Meant for You

There would be no more hiding. Her aunt had to know we were together by now, and she needed to get used to the fact that I was here for good. Everly said she had everything under control. She’d asked me to stay in Rocktown, and told me she’d be back soon.

No, she didn’t need me to fight her battles. I knew that. And I wouldn’t where her aunt was concerned. But I was done waiting. As soon as I found out Julia had faked an illness just to get Everly home, had manipulated her, I was done.

I wanted my girl with me.

A week was enough.

I knocked and didn’t have to wait long. The door opened, and a small woman with brown hair streaked with gray, a pinched mouth, and eyes that were surprisingly similar to Everly’s, despite the color difference, opened the door.

There was no greeting, but her eyes hardened. “What are you doing here?” she all but hissed.

Okay, so that’s how this was going to be. “I’ve come for Everly,” I said, not even trying to sugarcoat my words. The woman despised me. I already knew this, of course, but I’d hoped we could start to build bridges.

Her eyes actually lit up, confusing me for a spilt second. For a moment, I thought I was looking at something else. Like warmth or happiness, until she spoke again.

“My niece is on a date.”

My instant reaction was disbelief, because there was no way—zero chance that Everly would date some other guy. “You’re lying,” I bit out.

“Martin came and picked her up three hours ago.” Julia crossed her arms. “They’re obviously having a nice time. Such good friends, the two of them. Neighbors while she lived here. Everly had a crush on him, you know, when she moved here. Such a good, upstanding boy. Good family, works hard, goes to church.” She gave me a disgusted look. “Everly couldn’t do better than a man like him, of that I’m sure.”

“Bullshit,” I said, even as my mind whirled. Martin? Then it came to me. The fucker she used to hook up with in her aunt’s barn. Everly was with him? What the actual fuck was going on?

I needed to find her now. I took a step back, but the small woman in front of me grabbed my wrist in a surprisingly strong grip, and it took all my effort not to shake the bitch off.

“I saw her phone, the one you’d sent her. I found it right after what happened, right after you beat our pastor’s son bloody. I read the messages before she left me. I read nearly all of them. You controlled her, even from another town. You inserted yourself in her life and you wouldn’t leave her alone.” Her face flushed with rage. “How dare you?” she said so harshly I flinched. “How dare you play with that girl’s emotions? She was vulnerable, and you took advantage of that, of her.”

That’s how she saw me, as some kind of fucking predator? Some monster who preyed on her niece? “That’s not how—”

“You’re selfish and violent and untrustworthy. You will never be good enough for her.”

The breath I sucked in was so sharp and deep it hurt. There were so many things I wanted to say. But there was no point. None. She’d already made up her mind about me. And in her eyes, I was the lowest piece of shit in existence.

So as carefully as I could, I pulled her hand off my arm and took a step back. I took another of those harsh breaths, because her words had struck. They’d found their mark and they’d buried deep. I already knew deep down what she said was everything I’d tried so hard to ignore, to bury.

But I hadn’t buried shit.

I turned and strode back to my bike.

“Leave Rutherford and leave her alone,” Julia called after me.

I climbed on my bike, started it, and roared down their winding gravel driveway and out onto the road, heading for town to find Everly.

I ignored the pain in my chest. The ache, I realized, had been there for so long I was used to it. It had driven me to walk away from Everly a year and a half ago, an ache that was made of fear, that I was no good for her, that I was hurting her. Would end up hurting her even more.

Christ, I didn’t want to think about that, not now. I had to find Everly.

Not one part of me believed she would cheat on me, not one, but I needed her. To see her, touch her, make sure she was okay.

I spotted her twenty minutes later. She was coming out of a restaurant, a rustic-looking building with flowers planted all around it and a gravel parking lot to the side. Everly was standing by a truck, her auburn hair lit up in the light of the setting sun, and there was a guy standing in front of her.

I watched as he leaned in, going for a kiss, watched as Everly placed her hand on his chest, holding him off, and shook her head.

That was all I needed to see.

Some fucker had tried to move in on what was mine. On my girl. My Everly.

Anger pumped through me, darkness filling my head, red rage clouding my vision. I tore into the lot, shut off my bike, kicked down the stand, and made straight for the asshole with his hand on my woman’s hip. His head was turned, watching me come at him.