Page 125 of All We Carry Home

I stomped out of the cab. “Eddie, won’t you reason with them?”

Eddie held up his hands. “Look, Eva, you’re not going to win. They won’t leave until Warren says so.”

I sighed. “I’m going to the cleaner’s to get my suit.”

“Want me to go with you?” Lucky asked.

“No,” I said over my shoulder. “I’ll be two minutes.” With the ninety-degree evening temperature and the tiresome argument that never died, I wasn’t about to cool off anytime soon. I needed a moment to breathe.

As I reached for the door of the cleaner’s, it swung open and Keith stepped out, his maroon show suit slung over his shoulder. Pain flashed across his face before he sneered, “Didn’t think you went anywhere without your Captain Hayes attached to you.”

The ire in his tone caught me off guard. “Well, I do,” I said.

He looked around as if expecting Warren to come out of the shadows.

“He’s not here, Keith.” I crossed my arms. “He returned to Philly.”

He blinked, shifting his weight uneasily. “Lovers’ spat?”

“We were never involved like that,” I said through clenched teeth.

“I’m not blind,” Keith hissed. “I saw how you both looked at each other.”

“Forget it.” I tried to step around him to enter the cleaner’s.

He blocked me. “I’m sorry, Eva. I just . . .” His words dropped away, and he stared at the ground as if he could find them there.

When the silence stretched into several moments, I shifted the conversation. “I’m sorry about your father, Keith.”

“Why?” His jaw went tense. “You knew what he was like.”

The words cut into my chest. “He was still your father. And I know what it’s like to lose a father.”

He laughed coldly, the contours of his face looking almost exactly like Victor’s. “You certainly do.”

Anger rose in me, along with confusion. This wasn’t the boy who’d run through the fields with me and ridden horses along the fence line. The boy who’d gone from neighbor to friend to suitor despite the bitter history of the Merricks and Birkstroms.

Something sinister had taken hold of him.

“You sound just like your father.” I swallowed back bile as I added, “Are you going to try to steal my land too?”

It earned me the sharp look and boiling rage that I’d expected.

“I don’t want that land.” He softened. “All I ever wanted was you.”

The words hit me hard. The dust and warm air of the sidewalk swirled around us. Perhaps he didn’t comprehend at the time, or now, how deeply his rejection had scarred me.

I hated that I hurt him now, but my heart was fixed on Warren, even though we didn’t have a future together.

“I think you should come pick up Naseem,” I said. “I’ll refund your deposit and training fees, but I don’t think we should be involved any further.”

His face flushed. “The horse isn’t worth much. Keep her.”

“Got a problem here, Merrick?” Lucky’s voice cut in as he and Eddie walked up. Eddie pushed Keith back against the brick wall of the cleaner’s, and the suit in Keith’s hand fell to the ground. He raised a fist to strike Eddie, but even with the recovering bullet wound, Eddie blocked every measure that Keith attempted to get free.

“Stop it,” I said, bending down to pick up Keith’s suit. After a few brushes of my hand, it was as clean as it had been before. “Let him go, Eddie.”

He did. Keith wrenched the suit from my hand, striding away and glaring at Eddie and Lucky. Lucky started to follow him down the street to his parked car.